November 2018 Meal Plan & Grocery Haul

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November is the start of the holiday season! It’s the time when things can get out of control with your meal plan and food budget if you’re not careful. Family gatherings, treats at the kids school, or parties with friends, it can all add up!

This month, I am committed to sharing with you how my family deals with all of these “unforeseen” events and plans for them as much as possible.

Pearl! I got you! Make sure you read this article on how to meal plan for beginners. In there you will find all the tips you need to make sure that you plan to the best of your ability and stay on budget!

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I’m also always sharing our daily frugal living tips for summer survival over on my Instagram stories! It’s super fun over there so don’t forget to follow along!

4 Tips for Meal Planning on a Budget during the Holidays

Plan ahead of the month for any family gathering that may come up. Leave a little space in your budget each week to prepare for unexpected gatherings. Have a little flexibility on which night you’re cooking.
Keep breakfasts and lunches simple and affordable, especially when dinners tend to be the event people gather around. Or, opt for brunches with your family this season over pricey dinner parties.
Plan meals that can feed a crowd. At least once a week I like to have one meal option that can easily feed a crowd. This time of year, you never know who may pop by for a visit or deliver Christmas presents early for the kids.
Bake from scratch your Christmas goodies. It will be so much more affordable to bake cookies or cakes from scratch versus the pre packaged sweets.

Our Family Budget Meal Plan Printable

If you are new here, hi! You are probably interested to know what we set for our monthly grocery budget. This is how we work it.

$380 for consumable goods for our giant monthly grocery haul. $160 for non consumable goods. In addition to that, using our cash envelope budget we use $35 each week for fresh produce and milk.

In order to be able to take advantage of sales throughout the month, we budget $40 each month to use when I see a super great deal. We will then freeze or store that food and use it in planning the following month’s meal plan.

The key to sticking to monthly meal plan on a budget is to make sure that when you are making your grocery list, you put for every single item an estimated cost and then total what you expect to pay at the register.

It’s a super simple step that you can do to make sure you stick to your grocery budget. I make it even easier for you with this free meal planning printable.

My Favorite App for Grocery Shopping on a Budget

No mom has the time to spend continuously scanning apps over the holidays looking for the best rebate offers and sales. Which is why I have minimized my rebate strategy to help maximize my savings in the smallest amount of time.

My very favorite app to us is Ibotta! I have done an entire tutorial on how to use the app to maximize your savings. But in a nutshell this is how I do it, I do my normal grocery shopping first.

Then once I get all my groceries home, I will quickly open the app and search the two stores that I just went shopping at to see if there are any rebates that apply to my groceries. There are usually 3-4 that I can claim. This saves me around $5 each time I use the app.

If that doesn’t sound like much, trust me! The three minutes that it takes me to save $5 is 100% worth it! These small savings add up quick and once you hit $20 you can cash out in PayPal or Venmo, or choose from a bunch of really awesome gift cards! I usually choose Target and treat myself to a well deserved “mom’s only” snack!

If you are new to Ibotta, sign up using this link or the code: qybjrj and you will automatically get $10 after you claim your first rebate! So easy!

November 2018 Family Budget Meal Plan & Grocery Haul

Do you want to get my monthly meal plan printables earlier? If you sign up for my weekly newsletter, you will get them the week before the new month starts! Pretty handy right?

You can download this months FREE meal plan by clicking the image below.

November 2018 Grocery Haul

Take a peek at what it looks like to buy all non-perishable or freezable groceries for this exact meal plan.

I’d love to hear any questions you have! Leave them down in the comments below!

Thanks for stopping in and I will talk to you soon! xoxo

By Brittany Cooper

About Brittany Cooper

My name is Brittany and I am devoted to saving our family money in everything we do. Yes I do coupon but that is not the only frugal thing I do. I'm a bargain hunter, tester of all things DIY, trip planner, our family’s chef, and lover of all things chic. I may be obsessed with being frugal but I still love to add bits of beauty to our home. Decorating on pennies works, it just takes a little patience. I am a firm believer that with a bit of planning you can save your family a lot of money.