A Week of Meal Ideas Using Only Markdown Items
I decided to do a challenge this week: starting from nothing, what could I find in the stores for under AUD50 (USD33.40) that can feed my family for a week?
I am going to be looking for markdowns so I don’t have to compromise the nutritional value of the meals I make. So this is my week of meal ideas, everything coming up to just a little bit over AUD50 (USD33.40).
Monday
Monday night, I popped into Cole’s for my groceries. We had chicken schnitzels, and I broke them all down into meal sizes. We also got a can of pineapple, pizza sauce, and some cheese.
This is what the result looked like.
Cole’s toffee and pecan roulade was on a huge sale, so that became our dessert for the week. I am super happy with that price because previously I had passed on it, and it was delicious, so we will be on the lookout for this again in the future.
Tuesday
On day two of my week of cheap meals, I went shopping at Woolworths. I really wanted to find some red meat, and I did find a few things marked down, but nothing really that I was super happy with.
There was salmon on clearance that looked pretty good, but not everyone at my house would eat it. We ended up going to a different Woolworths and getting lamb sticks. I went to Coles on the way home as well and got pesto arancini balls.
Tuesday night is pretty much always chicken and rice in our house. It is just a quick and easy meal to put together. We got the rice and this jar of pineapple sweet and sour sauce. Only paid AUD1.89 (USD1.26) when I first got it, and I have not seen any that great on special for ages.
Wednesday
On Wednesday night my husband and I finally got around to having those lamb kebabs. The children had the pesto arancini balls as well as some mashed potatoes and some veggies.
Here is our dinner.
Thursday
On Thursday night we got chicken kievs and some more fries. I had to get a new pack but we did not finish it. I served it with some cut-up carrots.
Friday
Friday night is here and we are having a quiche with a whole collection of markdowns. We have got eggs, zucchini, cream, and chicken. This all was turned into a quiche with some extra flour from my pantry.
Hubby is not a fan of zucchini, so I just put some on one side and just pressed it down, and made sure I remembered which side it was.
My son is not into quiche, so he just had chicken nuggets and fries. He actually ate some frozen corn and some of the raw carrots that I was prepping. So he still got his veggies in, they just were not cooked.
I found a little lettuce in the fridge, so I served it on the side to use that up.
Saturday
The next night we had a stir-fry for dinner so we just put everything together and everybody ate this meal, so that was good.
Sunday
On Sunday night I got this rump steak. We have got the three steaks there for tonight's meal, and I have chopped the rest up for stews next week.
Here are our meals. My son just had chicken nuggets with mash and veg.
Week of meal ideas using markdowns
Our total for a week's worth of meals on a budget came to AUD50.89 (USD34). This is just a tiny bit over the budget, but definitely still very impressive.
What would you get if you went shopping for an entire week with just AUD50 (USD 33.40)? Do not hesitate to leave a comment!
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She's in Australia.
Some great insight. Also helps when to know ur families likes & dislikes for meals. Check periodically in the fridge & see what can be used for meal preps & etc. Thanks!