7 Day Budget Meal Plan for a Family of Four

This easy budget meal plan for a family of four is cheap and picky eater approved!

Cutting our grocery budget has been a main point of focus for me in 2024.  I have been trying to be more intentional in our grocery spending and trying to use what we already have at home.  I know in this economy there are a lot of us trying to be more frugal when it comes to our grocery spending.  I want to share a budget meal plan that will feed a family of four for a week (with leftovers).

I will preface this post to say that we do buy a fourth of a cow each year from a local farmer, so I never have to buy beef at the store unless we run out of hamburger meat towards the end of the year.  This is such a great cost savings and something you should check into if you have any local farmers in your area.  The cost of our beef comes out to $2.25 per pound and that includes steak!

*For the purpose of this post, I did include the price of the beef from our local Walmart.

Also, I try to do a Sam’s Club grocery pickup once every quarter and stock up on chicken and porkchops because the prices are definitely better at Sam’s.

The remainder of my grocery shopping is done at Walmart.  This is the only local grocery store to us, except for our locally owned grocery store.  I try not to shop there too often because the prices are higher for most items.

I shop once a week and typically have my husband do a grocery pickup on Monday.  I plan supper for Monday – Saturday and then we eat out after church on Sunday afternoon.

I will also include a grocery list with prices below the meal plan.  I will list the items in order by the meal plan and I will only include the items I had to actually purchase.  Besides the beef, I already had a few of the seasonings I needed in my pantry.

You can also find another budget friendly meal plan here.

Meal Plan:

Monday:  Tacos

Tuesday:  Crockpot Chicken Alfredo

Wednesday:  No Peek Chicken and green beans

Thursday:  Leftovers

Friday:  Frozen Pizza and side salad

Saturday:  Steak bites, mashed potatoes, side salad and crescent rolls

Sunday:  Eat out for lunch / Whatever you can find for supper

*Quick note, I typically make my meals that will have leftovers at the beginning of the week so we can have leftovers for lunches and then sometimes we will have enough where we will do leftovers for supper one night.  I have found that cooking this way helps us cut back on food waste.

Grocery Breakdown for these meals:

Taco Kit – $3.24

1lb Hamburger – $5.37

Alfredo Sauce – $2.98

Chicken Tenderloins (frozen) – $10.64 (3 lbs)

Rotini – $0.98

Onion Soup Mix – $1.82

White Rice – $2.46 (14 oz box)

Green Beans – $0.64 X 2

Frozen Pizza – $4.97

Salad Mix – $4.98

Sirloin Steak – $10.39

Instant Mashed Potatoes – $1.44

Crescent Rolls – $1.98

Montreal Steak Seasoning – $1.97

Total $54.50

Keep in mind that these are recipes for dinner, so I have not included breakfast, lunch and snack items.  I give myself a $115 weekly grocery budget and this also includes all household items.  Some weeks I am way under and some weeks I am over depending on if we needed several restock items for the house.

Another tip is to keep breakfast and lunch simple.  We only do a couple of options for breakfast and lunch is usually leftovers.  For snacks, we do not buy soda or a ton of junk food.  We will let the kids pick out one or two options for the week and that is their snack.  I hope these tips help!

I hope this meal plan gives you some ideas for your family!  Also, if you want to know more about meal planning and grocery shopping on a budget, let me know in the comments below!