Planning a Menu on a Budget

This year my family is focused on clean eating and incorporating more whole grains and vegetables into our diet. When deciding to change our lifestyle we realized that the majority of our problems came from not knowing what to fix for dinner and not having that items on hand in the house to cook. As a result we would fix pre-made junk food or go out to eat. In order to fix this problem we decided to create a dinner menu for the week and plan a weekly grocery shop.

When planing a menu we are going to stick to this proportions of food

• 1/4 Plate of Protein
• 1/4 Plate of Starch
• 1/2 Plate of Vegetable (made up of two vegetables)
• Fruit (we use it as our dessert)   

When writing this plan out it seemed easy, but when it came to planing a menu on a budget it was hard to fill the requirement that I just listed. When I plan the menu for the week, I look at my local adds to see what was on sale. For example this week chicken, carrots, celery and onions were on sale. So I planed two soups and a chicken dish for the week. This easily made 3 meals for the week plus leftovers. I then substitute either no salt added caned beans and vegetables throughout the week to fill out my menu. Also when making my menu out and I look at manufactures websites to see if they have a coupons for the product that I need. For example I found a coupon on the Swansons Broth Website for one dollar off 2 broths. This made my 2 soup dishes for the week even cheaper to make.