This meal planning on a budget post contains affiliate links at no additional cost to you. Thank you so much for supporting Pennies Into Pearls by using my links!March 2019 Meal Plan
March seems to be that time of year where you start to crave some more springy, yes springy, type meals but it’s still a bit cold outside. Talk about confusion for our taste buds!
Well that is the confusion in my brain but I feel very confident that I will set all our confused minds at ease with this months meal plan on a budget!
Not only does it have an array of lighter dishes, I also left some hearty comfort meals in there to keep us warm!
Not Sure How to Meal Plan?
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!
Related Articles:
- Free Printable Meal Planner
- Easy Cesar Salad Pasta
- Weekly Grocery Shopping Tips to Save You Time & Money
- My Favorite and ONLY Grocery Rebate App
- 13 Easy On the Go Recipes
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!
Our Family’s Monthly Grocery Budget
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 and you will automatically get $10 after you claim your first rebate! So easy!
March 2019 Meal Plan on a Budget
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 month’s budget friendly meal plan here.
March 2019 Grocery Haul
My goal is to work back towards to our OG grocery budget of $300 for food and $25 per week for groceries. Think we did it?
Take a look…
I’d love to hear any questions you have! Leave them down in the comments below!
