Here are some cheap healthy family meal ideas and recipes you can use to feed a family of 4 for just $26 per week! These are quick and easy basic meals for 2 adults and 2 kids that you can easily modify to meet your needs!
You can find some of these recipes and other cheap family meals in Volume 1 of our Dining On A Dime Cookbook.
Cheap Healthy Family Meal Ideas And Recipes – Feed A Family Of 4 For $26 Per Week!
With the family meal ideas in this 7 day budget meal plan, a family of 4 can eat quite well for under $30! We are assuming that you have a few basic ingredients on hand already, like salt, sugar and seasonings. If not, we’ve added them at the end for an additional $7.50.
This family meal plan includes 21 basic meals that are easy to make even if you aren’t especially good at baking or cooking. We did add a basic muffin recipe for snacks and that you can use as a different breakfast.
This meal plan is designed for a family with 2 adults and 2 typical kids. These meals aren’t going to feed a 350 lb. lumberman or a family of teenage boys at this price, but if you have large guys in your family, you can just double the recipes and the total for these meals still won’t go over $60. This might be a good time to get some of that extra weight off! :-)
If you live in a very expensive place to live like Southern California or New York, it may cost more than $26 for these meals because everything costs more, but the point is it will still cost a lot less than a typical week of meals.
If you’re not concerned if the price is a little higher, you can adapt and substitute items you prefer in place of others you don’t like as much. For example, if you aren’t that fond of chicken, you can use meat from a beef roast for many of these recipes, but it will add some extra cost.
Are these meal plans and recipes organic? No, but if you want to use organic ingredients it is easy to do. It will increase the cost, but it will still cost less than other organic meals.
Is it gluten free? No but you could easily makes these recipes gluten free by just using rice and other gluten free ingredients.
What stores did you shop to purchase these foods? I bought the food for these recipes and menus at my local Walmart. I don’t have an Aldi food store in Colorado, but I would buy there if I had one. If you shop at Aldi, you could trim off at least $5 and maybe $7-$8 from the $26 total.
I’ve included the recipes for these easy family meals below.
Meal Plan Shopping List:
- bread (2 loaves – 44 slices) – $2
- ham – $2
- lettuce – $1
- rice – $1
- oatmeal – $1
- potatoes – $2
- bananas – $1
- apples – $2
- 2 packages frozen veggies (1 pkg. onions and 1 pkg. peppers) – $2
- 1 bag baby carrots – $1
- 4-5 lbs. Chicken thighs – $3 (thighs at $.69/lb. – about 12 thighs)
- 2 dozen eggs – $3
- spaghetti – $1
- spaghetti sauce – $1
- cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup – $1
- peanut butter – $2
Optional additional ingredients (if you don’t already have them in you pantry) – $8.50
- flour – $1.50
- sugar – $2
- baking powder – $1
- oil – $2
- margarine – $1
- 1/2 gallon milk – $1
Family Meal Ideas:
Breakfast
- oatmeal with chopped apple
- scrambled eggs, toast and margarine – 3 days (4 eggs cooked each day – I included 2 dozen eggs, so if you need to make one or 2 more, go ahead.)
- Mom’s Best Homemade Sweet Muffins
Lunch
- ham sandwiches with banana (2 slices of bread for mom and dad, 1 slice for kids under 10)
- peanut butter sandwiches
- leftovers with apple slices
Snacks
- Homemade Muffins
- Toast
- Apple with peanut butter
Dinner Meals
Dinner #1 – Roast chicken, rice, baby carrots
- Cook 2 extra thighs and double the rice for tomorrow night’s meal
- Save bones from the chicken in the freezer for soup later in the week.
Dinner #2 – Stir fry with rice – 2 thighs worth of meat with 1/4 pkg. onions and 1/4 pkg. peppers
Dinner #3 – Spaghetti with salad (lettuce and carrots)
Dinner #4 – Roast Chicken with fried potatoes and baby carrots, 1/2 package each onions and peppers
Dinner #5 – Chicken soup with 2 thighs worth of meat – Save bones from the other nights, simmer to make broth and soup add 1/2 spaghetti noodles (or rice) and carrots.
Dinner #6 – Baked potatoes with ham with 1/4 pkg. onions and 1/4 pkg. peppers, sauteed in margarine or oil. Serve with margarine.
Dinner 7 – Chicken casserole – leftover veggies with leftover chicken baked with cream of chicken soup
Family Dinner Recipes To Go With The Family Meal Ideas Above:
The BEST 3 Ingredient Roast Chicken Recipe
4 chicken thighs
1-2 cloves garlic or sprinkle of garlic powder
olive oil
salt and pepper
Optional Ingredients
1 tsp. thyme (to taste)
1 tsp. rosemary (to taste)
1 tsp. oregano (to taste)
Rub the chicken skin with olive oil, garlic cloves or sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper. If you’re using the optional items, put the thyme, rosemary and oregano to taste under the skin. R
Bake at 400° for 35-45 minutes or until the temperature of the thigh reaches 180°. You can also let it cook all day in the crockpot on low. Allow to rest 10 minutes before serving.
Easy Homemade Stir Fry Recipe
1/2 cup leftover chicken
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. cornstarch or 2 Tbsp. flour
1 cup water
1 Tbsp. oil
1 tsp ginger powder (optional)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1-2 cups vegetables (carrots, onions, green peppers)
2 Tbsp. water
2 cups cooked rice
Stir the cornstarch into 1 cup of water in a bowl. Add the soy sauce.
In a deep skillet, cook the vegetables in the oil, starting with the firmest as you dice the others. Stir after each addition and sprinkle on water as needed. Make sure you do not overcook the vegetables.
Add the cooked meat last. Push the vegetables to the side and add the sauce to the pot while stirring. Add additional water if needed. As the sauce clears, mix in the vegetables. Serve over rice. Serves 4.
Easy Fried Potatoes Recipe
2-3 Tbsp. bacon grease or margarine
6 potatoes, sliced or cubed
salt and pepper
1/2 cup green onions, green peppers chopped (to taste, optional)
Melt bacon grease or margarine in a frying pan. Add the potatoes in the pan and cook over medium heat. Flip potatoes and cook until golden brown. Remove from pan. Salt and pepper to taste. Serves 4-6.
Chicken Soup Recipe
Bones from chicken
1/2-1 cup leftover cooked chicken
about 4 quarts of water
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 or 2 carrots (optional)
1/2 box spaghetti (optional)
I sprinkle with all of the following (to taste):
salt and pepper
onion powder (about 1 tsp.)
garlic powder (about 1 tsp.)
1-2 chicken bouillon cubes (optional)
Simmer the chicken bones in water for 8-10 hours to make the broth. Take out the bones. Strain and skim the fat off the top. Add the meat from the chicken and the spaghetti. Bring to a boil for 8 minutes until spaghetti is cooked.
When I get ready to use this soup or reheat it, I taste it to see if it needs more salt, onion powder, etc.
How to Make Baked Potatoes
Have you ever wondered how to bake potatoes? Check out these easy ways to bake potatoes:
Potatoes
bacon grease or margarine or butter
salt
Wash potatoes and pierce each potato with fork a couple of times. Rub bacon grease, butter or margarine on the outside of each potato and sprinkle with salt. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake at 300° for 1 1/2 hours.
- When slowly cooked, baked potatoes have a much better flavor than when cooked quickly in the microwave.
- Here’s a tip from one of our readers on perfect baked potatoes: Bake your potatoes in a crockpot. Scrub, pierce with a fork, rub some butter on the potatoes and cook on low all day. You will have perfectly baked potatoes when it’s time for dinner.
- If you like the taste of oven baked potatoes but forgot to put them in the oven in time, nuke them in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. Then finish them in the oven. The centers will be cooked and they won’t take nearly as long to bake in the oven.
- To prevent a dry hard skin, rub your potato in butter or margarine, sprinkle with salt and wrap in foil.
- It is usually best to prick a potato with a fork when cooking it in the microwave because at times potatoes have been known to explode. Big Mess.
- Add Toppings as desired.
Easy Chicken Casserole
1 cup chicken
1/2-1 cup leftover vegetables
2 cups cooked rice (leftover works great)
1 can cream of chicken OR cream of mushroom soup
1 Tbsp. margarine
Mix everything in a baking dish and bake at 350° for 20-30 minutes until warmed through.
Mom’s Best Homemade Sweet Muffins Recipe
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. soda
1 1/2 cups flour
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. The batter will be slightly lumpy. Place 2/3 full in greased muffin tins or muffin tins lined with papers. Bake at 400° for 15-20 minutes. Makes 1 dozen
For more easy cheap family meals and recipes like these, check out our cookbook:
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Excuse me if I sound silly, but are we talking a ham or packaged lunch meat?
You could use either but I was talking about lunchmeat.
Tawra this is a great idea for people that have no idea where to start. It’s hard for people who’ve never had to economise. I am blessed that I was raised by tightwad parents that had tightwad parents…There Great Depression experience was planted in their stories and recipes, many I still use and teach my children.
Yeah me too. My mother lived through the war in Germany and there were many times that she was hungry and there was never any food. Her mother walked to a family farm at night to get food at times then got home in the morning and had to make it last. Lots of dandelion salad and other things that were available in the city park. She has always to this day says we don’t have any food when the fridge or freezer is half full. LOL
She cooked everything in a pressure cooker for quick and delicious meals from cheap tough meat.
Thanks for putting this together! I am so excited to use this menu!
Do you wrap the potatoes in foil if you cook them in the crockpot?
No you can just put them in the crock pot.
Where/when do you shop? These are 1960’s prices.
No Alice they aren’t. As a matter of fact some of the things on the list I can get for even cheaper by watching the sales ads and checking out different stores. Many people all over the country are getting these same prices. Trust me, I lived in the 1960’s and these are not the same prices. I can tell you the stores we shop at (Kroger, Aldi etc) but I don’t know if that would help you much because there are different stores in different areas. Besides that even if these were 1960’s prices (which they aren’t) you are missing the main point of everything we teach and write and that is to find the best savings that you can in your area, don’t buy the most expensive things (if you can’t afford organic you can’t afford to buy it or a certain type of meat etc.), use all of your food and don’t waste it – those things help you save no matter your prices or where you live.
Be careful. Often when people get hung up on numbers they are looking for excuses not to save.
Hi Jill! Happy New Year to you and your family! Hope you are all well. I find, when I stock up at the rock bottom sale prices, I do pretty well. Plus, I’m alone, so I don’t need to buy a lot anymore. For example, I get 3 meals out of 1 chicken breast. 1 boneless pork chop is 2 meals. (I’m small, so I don’t need big quantities of food anymore). when I had teenagers, yes I spent more. I’ve had a bout with cancer this year, so my oncologist wants lots of fresh fruit and veggies. I’m careful, but not rabid about it. I find that common sense is my best friend, lol!. My very best to you Tawra, and your whole family. Donna B.
Oh thanks Donna for giving us your tips. You sound about like me. I don’t need much any more and it is surprising what you can save. I loved it when you said you “aren’t rabid about it” had to chuckle. A woman after my own heart.
Most of the prices are no where near what we pay in New Jersey even on sale; however, it gives a good foundation for thinking about ways to use what you do have. I very rarely buy chicken thighs because most times they cost as much as buying boneless breasts. Thinking of ways to stretch what you do have is the way to go. For example I splurged this week and bought a bottom round roast on sale for $2.99/lb. We had it for dinner one night and my daughter will take for lunch one day. It will be put into leftovers another night for dinner and those leftovers will create another lunch for my daughter. So while the roast cost me $11.57 we will have it for 2 dinners and it will be for 2 lunches. Even thinking in terms of just dinner, the roast cost me apx $6.00/dinner feeding 3 adults. You can’t go out for that amount of money even adding in the costs of the sides; however my daughter will also get 2 lunches out of it.
So are the prices quoted in the article anywhere near what I pay in New Jersey, no; but it gives me ideas as to how to increase ways to use what I do buy.
I live in NJ and most of the prices are comparable to what I see. We’re near PHL so we are very close to a large metropolitan city. Whatever you do, do not live here. We pay $16,000 a year in property taxes.
On another note, for those of you reading this, please pray for our family. My husband has been out of work since Nov 2018. My husband is 53; has an MBA from University of Chicago and is a CFA. He has over 20 years experience. We’re still waiting for God’s “suddenly.” The year has been difficult.
Christine will be praying for you. Have been there and done that so know what a strain it can put on a family but one thing for sure just when I thought we could not last one minute longer God always came through. Please pop in once in awhile and let us know how you are doing. Jill
Hi Christine! How are you all doing now?
I agree. I stock up using coupons and apps on the cheap. Kroger is my favorite as I get free food all the time. If we won’t use it I will get it and donate it. I only paid the tax for it. LOL A lot of the free food is that new fangled healthy food that we don’t eat but the food banks find somebody that needs it. I transfer my savings to my bank account so I can use it to buy food all over again. Love Fetch and ibotta the most. KrogerKrazy does the sales for Kroger. Awesome learning tool for sales.
Bless your heart for sharing these gems on a dime!💛 I look forward to giving it all a try this week!! Big Thank you from a military mom on- a-budget:)
Have to agree even watching sale ads and shopping ugo, aldi, kroger, save-a-lot you still cant get those prices now days!
Thank you for providing an excellent starting point for simple, affordable meal planning. I found your prices to be pretty spot on for our area, and while I may have to pay 99 cents per pound for the chicken, I would hit up a 99 Cent Only store for the produce and save the difference. Our stores have bags of potatoes and apples for…99 cents. The bread, rice, pasta, spaghetti sauce, frozen veggies, oatmeal and even peanut butter could be purchased there, too. I do my initial shopping at the 99 and then hit up the grocery store for meats, cheeses, specialized and economy sized items that are a better deal. Every little bit helps!
Yes to the prices. Sure, most of the “best” bread is $3-5 loaf, but if I look for the sales or shop the day-old bread store, I can usually find plain white or wheat at $1 loaf. And I can frequently find $1.50/jar peanut butter, $1/box pasta, $1/can soup, spaghetti sauce, etc., especially using store brands. Fruit prices are seasonal, of course, but like you said, the main point is to buy whatever’s cheapest, and use it without waste.
Thanks so much!
I love Meal Plans! Thank you so much :)
Blessings,
Patty from the Pacific NW
Happy New Year! I want to try to do this $26/ week for my family but need more details on the shopping list such as ham- how much/ what kind- cold cut- ham to cook- ham steak….potatoes….need to know what kind/type & how much. I live in Longmont but usually shop at King Soopers Sprouts & Luckys market – with Wednesday sale ads. Thanks for sharing & keep up the good work on the website.
Irene it is usually the cheapest that you can find on all of these things.
I feed my family of 12 similarly. I was told by a doctor years ago that a person only needs to eat the equivalent of the palm of their hand of meat to get the the animal protein/iron nutrition they need and they don’t need to eat meat every day.
I also think people have become too obsessive with food nutrition and fads. My parents came from a poor country, my grandparents and all my elderly relations spent most of their childhood eating polenta, pork, lard, white bread, any vegetables they could grow and tons of white rice. Breakfast was always warm milk and white bread
They all died in their 90’s. Just eat less processed junk and keep it simple. Read Little House on the Prairie, they lived on cornmeal and pig products most of the year.
Great articles on here, will be coming back!
I can not wait to make the muffins
I noticed that a lot of meals featured bread. I was reading one of the question answers mentioned, brain fog. I too had brain fog for most of my life. Until I quit eating all things made with wheat flour…Bread,Pasta etc……I feel better now at 77 than I did at 40.Who knows?
Different things work for different people. My daughter went off of all of those things but she still has brain fog. I worry too a little that people who are getting rid of major food groups out of their diets after awhile are often lacking in major vitamins that they need then. For example people going on vegan diets often have a bad iron deficiency, people who have cut out salt (except for major medical problems) are having thyroid problems, many have gone on gluten free diets they are having to take mega amounts of vitamin B and now people are starting to drink “special” organic nut milks which makes me wonder if it is really just a coincidence that so many are lacking in Vitamin D. I am just saying this to be careful going on some of these extreme diets. Sometimes people feel better too going on these diets because they are just “watching” their diets.Often people eat what ever they want, when ever they want and huge amounts of what they want. When they go on special diets they are watching very carefully what the are eating so they are eating less and watching their intake on everything. If you keep the normal foods in your diet and watch your intake of them as much as you do when you are on a special diet chances are you will start feeling better doing that too.
By day 6, that chicken is not good. I’m surprised that you would even suggest that.
We give our readers more credit than you do I guess Giuli. We assume most people would know to put it in the freezer until they needed to use it. Plus you don’t need to use for every meal that same week. We are just saying you can get several meals out of it. You might on day 3 do a roast and freeze the rest of the roast to give some variety.
I forwarded this to my son and daughter n law. They spend so much.
Nice pairings. I have used ham corn bread muffins with chili as a quick meal. I always save little bits of things in the freezer to add to other dishes. I make a gallon of vegetable soup every week for lunch, it saves a ton.
Could you share package sizes? We have many different package sizes in Canada. I’d like to be able to compare apples to apples 😊
You did an amazing job with the meals for that price! I am impressed. I have done good also, yet you are an absolute inspiration!
I just ordered Dining on a dime. I love you all. You are such an inspiration on how to live a rich Christian life. Thank you so much. I’m looking forward to cooking some of your recipes.. god bless!!!
Those prices are awesome! 2 loaves of bread for $2? That’s only possible for us if I make my own, which I do!😊 apples for $2? Apples I saw at the grocery were $2.99 Per pound!!! I am on a mission/ challenge to get our groceries down to $150 a month for 2 adults, a 4.5 year old and 6 month old baby! I know meal planning is the key but we have allergies! It makes it harder but I know doable! Wish us luck!!!
You are on a roll it sounds like momcee. I think you will do fine. Here are a couple of things to think about. First Tawra and I neither one do meal planning and for about 90% of people meal planning doesn’t work. That is why people sometimes have trouble saving because they are trying to do things like meal planning that “they” say you need to do. So if that doesn’t work for you you don’t need to do it. Here are some ways that we find help people way more. Portion control (most are eating and buying way more food than they really need), stop wasting food ( they have proven the average family throws away 50% of the groceries they buy – watch your family for a couple of days – do you toss a 1/2 cup of coffee away, half a bowl of cereal etc.)and use leftovers. You might check out other places to buy food too other than the stores you are using now. I have been to 2 states and can get bread for $.89 at walmart, this time of year I see apples for $1.69 in several stores so if you stick with the same 1-2 stores you might check out some different places – be sure to check your sell ads because if I do any meal planning at all it would be just around what I bought on sell for that week. Hope this helps a little and be sure to check out our youtube channel and website because we go into a bunch of different ideas on this. I think you are off to a great start though and just keep at it!!!