Who says making nutritious meals for your family has to be expensive? It's amazing what you can get for under $50 at Aldi. No clipping coupons required! On a recent trip, I got all these goodies for just $44, which was enough food to feed my family of four dinner for a week and have plenty of stuff left over:
Whole chicken
1 lb. ground beef
Garlic
10 lb. potatoes
Cheese slices
Smoked sausage
Three bell peppers
Four-pack tomatoes
Tomato sauce
Tomato paste
Orange juice
Croutons
Fresh green beans
Whole wheat bread
peanut butter
Jelly
Onions
Eggs
rice
Whole wheat pasta
2 gallons milk
Bananas
Celery
Romaine hearts
Cucumber
Canned pears
Garlic bread
Here are the meals I was able to create:
Meal One: Chicken, potatoes and fresh green beans (keep that carcass! Boil it to make chicken stock to use in your chicken and sausage jambalaya. Also, keep 1-2 C. of diced chicken too.) Roast chicken is SO easy (here's my Aldi Roasted French Chicken Recipe).
Meal Two: Whole wheat pasta with marinara meat sauce, garlic bread and green salad w/croutons, fresh cucumber, onions, and tomatoes. Marinara meat sauce is made from:
1/2 lb. ground beef
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
1 C. water
Season to taste. I use fresh basil and parsley from my garden when I have it, otherwise dried spices are fine too. I sometimes add a dash of Worcestershire and Tabasco too. Yum!
Meal Three: Chicken and sausage jambalaya
I used this recipe from Allrecipes and just omitted the shrimp. I had leftover chicken from meal one, and used the carcass to create my chicken stock.
Meal Four: Spanish omelets w/onions, peppers and potatoes. Breakfast for dinner is always frugal, quick, and yummy.
Meal Five: Leftovers.
Meal Six: Grilled cheese sandwiches, canned pears, and fresh green beans
Meal Seven: Well, I didn't quite get this far. We usually go out to eat once a week, so I took night seven “off.” However, we would have had enough food left over to make something. I still had plenty of potatoes, rice, onions, eggs, pepper, and 1/2 lb. ground beef left after making all these meals.
This meal plan didn't really include breakfast and lunch, but note that I was able to eat leftovers for lunch after almost every meal – plus we had enough left over to do a “leftover night” too. Plus, we had PB&J toast and orange juice for breakfasts as well.
Love Aldi! Once I started shopping there I realized how much I was saving! Plus, my 3 boys and husband actually prefer Aldi’s chips, cereals, cookies, etc, over their previous beloved name brand products.
Hey Kimberly. wanted to follow this meal plan but can not find your roasting a chicken post. could you email it to me?
Here you go: http://www.mommysavers.com/2009/09/the-aldi-gourmet-french-chicken-for-5/
So you fed four people 6 meals? For $44.00? Leftovers for breakfast and lunch. Since going on S.S. I have to feed myself for a month on $50.00 total. Maybe I should write a blog cuz I eat a lot better then that with 3 planned meals a day for 30 days for $50.00 for one person but I don’t shop at Aldi, their food is always ready to rot or at the limit of expiration.
I’d love to hear your tips, Jealith! Sounds like you have some great ideas. 🙂 Personally, I’ve never had trouble with expirations dates at ALDI.
Jealith, I think that was kinda harsh. You feed yourself better than that for $50.00 each month and that is really great, but you have to take into account that she’s feeding 4 people almost 3 meals each day for a week on that AND prices radically change from area to area. We have a hard time feeding 4, soon to be 5 on less than $500 each month and that’s shopping sales and couponing at the stores with the best pricing. Where you live has a lot to do with it. Also, food chains can vary quite a bit. Your Aldi may have issues with dates, hers doesn’t. I don’t get the negativity- Kimberly is trying to help those of us who value her tips.
I’m wondering if you use the same recipes every month or do you look at what is on sale and come up with recipes weekly? How do you determine what to buy and cook?
I’m always trying new recipes! Of course we do have family favorites, but what I make depends on what we’re hungry for, what’s on sale, and new things we want to try.
I love ALDI too, and find that I can feed my family of 9 a healthy, whole foods diet doing most of my shopping there. I even wrote an ebook on the topic: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EGMBGQK/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00EGMBGQK&linkCode=as2&tag=mommysavers
I LOVE ALDI’s! We are a family of 4 but we have gluten, corn and dairy allergies so I can’t get away with $50 a week for groceries, but usually $100-$115. Heck, 1 loaf of bread for me is $5.50 at Target (and that’s cheaper than making it myself! That runs $7-$8!! PER LOAF). This past week, I was able to pick up a bunch of organic stuff at Aldi’s and now have over 8 nights of dinners and some breakfasts for $113. Doing groceries on a budget is always fun when you score it big!
I realize this post is from 2009 – but I just wanted to say I LOVE ALDI! We just moved within 25 miles of one and it is $1worth the drive.
I can feed our family of four for 2 weeks for right around $110 – which works out to $55 a week – but that includes homemade breakfast, lunch and dinner.
It takes creativity – but we always have a meat entree [except on Fridays] and we never have to eat leftovers. They go to lunch with my husband and the kids get sandwiches, fruit, cookies and chips.
I especially like their fresh produce and meats. They last so much longer than the other stores. And I prefer to pack my own groceries. Time saver and I am assured nothing gets squashed. 🙂
I just got back from ALDI and use this plan a lot on weeks where the budget is tight. It works! I have a family of 5, teens and adults, and we still have a few leftovers. I even added in extra stuff for afternoon snacks, breakfast smoothies, and the three of us that take our lunch everyday. My total for this list above came to $49 and with the extras everything was $95!
Great, glad you had good luck!
I am going to give Aldi’s another try. I am hoping to spend no more than $275 a month for a family of 3 right now (me and my two teenagers). I think I can do it! I like the meals you came up with, sounds about like what we would have at our house.