2 Week Meal Plan for Late February

by Jamie Jeffers | Feb 15, 2016 | Meal Plans

Meal planning is not my favorite thing to do.

There, I said it.  haha!

After years of trying to set a weekly meal plan…then a monthly meal plan…I finally settled on a good compromise.

Nowadays I plan for 2 weeks at a time.  It’s great, because I don’t have to do it every stinking week.

But I also don’t have to manage the sometimes overwhelming task of an entire month at a time, either.

The plan looks like this: meals that fit our busy lives, that are frugal, and that are simple.

I don’t feel like I need to reinvent the wheel each week, or scour Pinterest for 14 brand new meals we’ve never tried before.

So we use a lot of our tried and true favorites over and over.

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2 Week Meal Plan for Early February

by Jamie Jeffers | Feb 1, 2016 | Meal Plans

I have been creating a complete 2 week meal plan that is frugal and includes recipes and suggestions for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks.

Between our BHAG of paying off debt and my hatred of making decisions, meal planning is something I feel is a must do.

Yes, I still have to make decisions.  But I’d far rather make them all at once than 3 times a day every day.

One thing I don’t do is assign foods to a certain day ahead of time.  I like to choose from the list based on the chaos of a given day and what I’m feeling up to making at that time.

That means I’m still making decisions daily, but it’s simple enough to choose from an already created list.

After a brief stint of winter, we had a wonderful weekend of warm (for January) weather.  But I hear the snow is planning to return.  So I’m trying to create a nice mix of foods.

Our 2 Week Meal Plan

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I know exactly how it feels to not just want, but need, to slash your grocery bills.

It’s that one part of the budget that takes up so much money, but you have immediate control over that spending.

(Not like a mortgage…I mean, you can refinance but that takes for-e-ver.)

If you need to slash that grocery budget yesterday, I have to recommend you check out this resource from Crystal Paine. She is known as the Money Saving Mom for a reason! 

Her ideas are completely doable…even for people who are new to living frugally.

Breakfast:  Simple and frugal when I can, cereal when I can’t.

• cereal
• homemade granola (Might try this recipe.)
• banana bread
• pancakes
• pumpkin french toast bake

Lunch

• sandwiches  (PB&J, Nutella, PB&honey, lunchmeat)
• chips & salsa
• leftovers
• muffins
• soup

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Supper  (with sides of potatoes, rice, noodles, and fresh cut veggies)

• steak  (Here’s the story about why you keep seeing steak on a frugal menu.)
• lighter orange chicken
• baked spicy tilapia
• Taco Dump Soup
• grilled chicken
• chicken and bean burritos
• pork roast in the Crock Pot with Dr. Pepper
• baked or grilled chicken
• spaghetti and meatballs
• breakfast for dinner (brinner!)  Usually ends up being sausage gravy, sometimes pancakes.
• leftovers
• big salads with leftover meats for toppings
• homemade pizza
• lasagna

Snacks and Extras include

• fresh fruit
• crackers
• cookies
• popcorn
• We will be attending our annual “Big Game” football party.  This year the theme is Mexican food, so I’ll need a great recipe so I can bring home the coveted trophy once again!  I’m not above cheating by asking you 😉 so if you have a winning, delicious Mexican type of recipe that will be a hit with the guys, leave it in the comment section.

Those are the meals we love and the new ones we can’t wait to try this week!

Be sure to follow my Pinterest board where I share tons of easy, frugal, delicious pins!

Follow Medium Sized Family’s board Food on Pinterest.

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Don’t forget to leave me a tip about your favorite Mexican recipe!