30 Days of Freezer Meal Planning: a Menu on a Budget

Let's be real here for a moment... we all splurge a little here and there on something that we really like. For some of us it's makeup, for others it's clothes, and for those of you like me, your hard earned dolla-dolla bills are going towards either things to make my house smell good or towards food in my belly.

Here's a little breakdown for you... be gentle. This is quite embarrassing. So I just logged into my bank account and added up for the month of November, in 14 transactions I spent $100.05 going out for food (Oh Starbucks... you did me dirty and I didn't even realize it.) That's averaging out to $7.15 per crap-laden meal! This for me is pretty bad, considering
1.) It was all junk. Nothing of healthy substance. and
2.) This wasn't including anything bought at an actual grocery store!

Yikes. It's time to begin a turning page. We're going to go on a little journey together. A journey where we meal prep together, and turn $100 or less into 30 days of freezer dinners. Prepared. Ready. and much better for me than the quick shop stop. Let's do this! The first thing I needed to do was plan out my menu and ingredients listing. (Get your own printable Menu Planner and Grocery List!)





After I figured out what my 30 dinner meals were going to be, it was time to put a checklist in motion to make maneuvering through my local marketplace and grocery store a breeze. I decided to tackle this project Wednesday night, when it was dark and gloomy. Note that the shredded cheese is listed as a number of meals rather than a set amount. This, my friends, is because I believe that not everything in the kitchen needs to be extremely calculated. Some of us prefer a little cheese in our meals, while others like myself like to load a dish up! Use your own judgement - for me, one block of mild cheddar was enough for my 30 days of din-din!

Once I got home, it was time to throw it all together. First thing's first... light up that Christmas tree and put on some holiday music!

I laid out all of my ingredients, gathered my freezer bags, and got to work.

I will say that most of the dishes I made, I didn't get to take a picture of since it started to get tedious washing my hands between each prepared bag of raw chicken and meat, so after a while I just gave up. But here is a glimpse of what I did catch on camera.

Pork Roast

Sweet Tangy Meatballs

Kielbasa and Peppers

Onions, Chicken, and Garlic for Crockpot Chicken Soup

Since I knew I would be having Chicken Soup Thursday night, I prepped and left one of the containers in the fridge to throw in the crockpot the next day. It came out delicious! My "seasoning of choice" for the above recipes is Tony's Creole Season. Mmmmmm!

When everything was said and done, I had 30 delicious and ready to go dinners in my freezer! The sight was magical! Each of these dinners gives me 3 servings - which is great for a new couple if you're looking for something smaller in size. It also allows me to have leftovers for lunch the next day! If you're a larger family, you can easily adjust your portions to accommodate everyone. I spent almost exactly $100 on this prep plan, without bargain shopping and preplanning, which would have made it even cheaper! Between 3 servings, that makes each of them cost $1.11! Ummm helloooo... you can't eat this good for that cheap anywhere on the run. And it only took me one hour to prep everything, from start to finish!

When I was able to finally able to get the smell of onions off of my hands (wear gloves if you have them... seriously... so many onions!) It was time for Jackson and I to lay back and relax while enjoying a little Christmas movie to prepare for the upcoming holidays.