I absolutely love fall flavors. This extreme budget meal plan can feed my family of 5 for $35 and gives me all those fall feels on cooler days and nights. Dive into biscuits, pumpkin soup, roast chicken, and much more! You’ll never feel like a penny pincher when serving these meals.
How to Do an Extreme Grocery Budget Challenge
There are a few ways to approach a challenge like this:
#1 – Use only what you buy in the challenge: I understand that sometimes the cabinets might be completely empty. In this case I recommend a different meal plan such as this one here where I fed my family for just $60 for an entire week with snacks and no pantry food.
#2 – Still follow my “Stick To Your Budget Checklist” with a few tweaks: This checklist recommends you plan 3 meals based on what you already have and use what you have for snacks and other items. This is more of what I did for this week. The grocery list below provides breakfast, 5 solid dinners, and enough leftovers to roll over for 3 additional dinners or lunches. If you can use what you have for the rest of the week, this plan will provide really delicious and robust dinners, breakfasts and leftovers. If you don’t have a stocked pantry and additional meals on hand, try this meal plan instead or spend a little more and buy a few more meals, some lunches, and snacks to get you through the week.
Pantry Items You Will Need:
I try my best to use what I purchase so that the meal plan can be replicated, however there are a few basic pantry items that you will need to accomplish this extreme budget meal plan.
- Oil (olive or vegetable is fine)
- Butter
- Salt
- Pepper
- Onion Powder
- Garlic Powder
- Dried Thyme
- Dried Sage
- Dried Parsley
- Nutmeg
- Cinnamon
- Pumpkin Pie Spice or use this recipe
- Brown sugar
- Pancake syrup (optional)
Walmart Grocery List For This Extreme Budget Meal Plan
- 2 sweet onions $2.52
- 1 lb sweet potato $.99
- Celery $1.82
- 29oz great value canned pumpkin $2.58
- half gallon great value whole milk $1.63
- 16oz festive taco flavored ground turkey $2.54
- 12oz great value streamable mixed vegetables $.98
- 10lb perdue fresh chicken leg quarters $7.72
- 1lb Fresh whole carrots $.98
- 10oz great value frozen butternut squash $1.92
- 18 great value eggs $2.52
- 15oz great value tomato sauce $.96
- 14.5oz great value sliced stewed tomatoes $.96
- 8oz great value block sharp cheddar $2
- 15.5oz great value kidney beans $.78
- 16oz great value elbows $.98
- 40oz Jiffy all purpose baking mix $3.78
- Total = $35.66
The Meal Plan:
Breakfast: Pumpkin pancakes and scrambled eggs
Get the pumpkin pancake recipe here!
Dinner 1: Pumpkin Soup with baking mix biscuits (make 2x the biscuit recipe according to package instructions)
This pumpkin soup is the perfect weeknight meal, it doesn’t take long or require a lot of prep. The flavors are so deep and taste just like fall. Dip in one of the delicious and easy to make biscuits and it’s a hearty dinner. Get the full recipe here!
Dinner 2: Roasted Chicken Leg Quarters With Butternut Squash and Carrots
I love a sheet pan dinner and this one screams fall. Once you roast up the chicken leg quarters like this, you have a gourmet feeling meal at on a tiny budget. Get the full recipe here!
Dinner 3: Chicken Noodle Soup with baking mix biscuits (use the remaining biscuits you made day 1)
To make this and the chicken pot pie casserole (dinner on night 4) you will need to make this chicken broth with the remaining chicken leg quarters. Get the recipe for the broth here!
The chicken noodle soup is a fall classic. The homemade chicken broth adds so much flavor and you’ll get at least two meals out of this recipe!
Dinner 4: Chicken Pot Pie Casserole
This casserole uses the leftover diced chicken and broth from yesterdays cooking. Use the baking mix to whip up up a topping instead of traditional pie crust. This one will also feed your family for at least two meals. Get the full recipe here!
Dinner 5: Kidney Bean and Turkey Chili and Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese
Each year I have to enjoy this meal. I don’t mix the two together but rather have a bite of each and just enjoy the flavors it creates. If you feed this to your family, you’re bound to have smiling faces and will get at least 2 meals out of it! Get the mac recipe here and the chili recipe here!
I hope you love this meal plan as much as we did! Make sure to share your favorite recipe you tried in the comments!
For more extreme grocery budget meals plans check out these videos:
MORE BUDGET FRIENDLY RECIPES TO TRY
- 15 Cheap and Easy Meals Under $5
- $80 Grocery Budget Meal Plan
- Under $15 and Under 45 Minute Weeknight Meals
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