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How To Meal Prep On A Budget: Spend $25 Or Less On Food This Week

August 18, 2020 by Talia Koren Leave a Comment

You can absolutely meal prep on a budget whether you’re trying to cut down expenses or money is just really tight right now.

Saving money is the main reason I started meal prepping in 2014, just after graduating from college and moving to NYC. I didn’t live with my parents after college, as many do these days, so I was in for a rude awakening when I realized how dangerously expensive my eating habits were (lots of takeout meals!).

Enter: meal prep. Since then, I’ve used meal prepping to save money and keep food expenses in check, with the goal of always spending below my means.

Meal prep on a budget was helpful for me while trying to build an emergency fund, but it can be helpful in so many other situations. Whether you’re between jobs, dealing with an emergency situation or cooking when you’ve just moved into a new place when your pantry is empty, this guide will come in handy.

What's In This Post

  • How This $25 Meal Prep Meal Plan Works
  • Budget-Friendly Meal Prep Equipment
  • Tips For Meal Prepping On A Budget
  • 10 Recipes For Meal Prepping On A Budget
  • Two $25 Meal Prep Meal Plans

How This $25 Meal Prep Meal Plan Works

In this post, we’re sharing two $25 meal plans. One plan is omnivore and the other is plant-based (vegan). The plans and recipes are written for one person.

If you’re cooking for two, you’ll have to double each recipe to 2 servings.

This meal plan is not customizable or editable – but if that’s something you want to be able to do in the future, you can in the WWL Meal Prep Program where we provide weekly meal plans, grocery lists and new recipes like the ones below as well as access to a customizable meal planning tool where you can create your own plans.

Just note that the recipes and grocery list include some extras that might bring you over $25, but these are items you may already have (such as spices and other dry goods) and they’re not necessary to make the recipes work.

But if you don have any spices, that’s ok. You can get by with salt, pepper and oil. Will the recipes as tasty? No, but they’ll work!

Cooking tip: I recommend prepping two main meals and one breakfast on Sunday, then do the remaining meals in the middle of the week.

But if you only have time to cook one day, that works too. Since these meals are budget-friendly and don’t have tons of ingredients, they’re all fast to make.

Budget-Friendly Meal Prep Equipment

First off, you’ll need a few key pieces of equipment to make this budget meal prep happen! But the catch 22 of buying equipment on a budget is that it will need to be replaced sooner than later. If you’re just starting out in your cooking journey, these budget-friendly pieces of equipment will be perfect to learn with.

  1. A big non-stick pan – $15

  2. Muffin tin- $8

  3. A big pot (6 qt) – $22

  4. Cooking utensils set – $16

  5. Mixing bowls set – $13

  6. Meal prep containers set – $15

For containers, you may bet better off buying the cheap ones at your grocery store. to make this prep happen, you’ll need nine containers if you prep three recipes (each makes three servings).

See our full list of minimal cooking equipment here.

Tips For Meal Prepping On A Budget

Plan meals, then plug your grocery into Instacart or another online grocery shopping platform that’s local to you.

This will help you better predict the prices of what you’ll need. Even though it’s never exact, it will give you a good idea of whether or not you’ll be over or under budget. You don’t actually have to buy your groceries online (which is generally more expensive), just add your ingredients to the cart to see what the total will be.

Shop generic brands.

As I said before, being on a strict budget means that you have to be more open-minded about which brands make it into your cart. There’s nothing wrong with generic brands! These are the brands that the grocery store chains own, like the 365 brand at Whole Foods or Costco’s Kirkland brand.

Be ready to think on your feet at the grocery store.

Sometimes you’ll get to the store and realize that certain items are more expensive, while others are on sale. So, this requires some quick thinking (unless you want to spend hours in the grocery store) to shop within your budget. When in doubt, always Google substitutes and swaps if your store is out of something on your list or it’s more expensive than anticipated.

Overlap ingredients.

Some ingredients like rice, pasta and oats only come in larger packages. This is your chance to overlap ingredients across meals! The same goes for frozen mixed veggies, big bunches of greens and spices.

Let’s get to the recipes!

10 Recipes For Meal Prepping On A Budget

These recipes are less than $2/serving!

1. Egg & Spinach Cups (vegetarian)

2. Tofu Spinach Scramble (vegan)

3. Overnight oats (vegan/vegetarian)

berry oatmeal

4. Banana Oat Pancakes (vegetarian)

5. Lentil Minestrone (vegan)

6. Lentil Curry & Rice (vegan)

7. Chicken Noodle Soup (omnivore, dairy-free)

8. Chicken Fried Rice (omnivore, dairy-free)

9. Edamame Fried Rice (vegan)

10. Sweet Potato Black Bean Skillet (vegetarian/vegan)

Two $25 Meal Prep Meal Plans

Omnivore Budget Meal Plan

[ultimate-recipe-meal-plan id=”free-budget-meal-plan-omnivore”]

Vegan Budget Meal Plan

[ultimate-recipe-meal-plan id=”free-budget-plan-plant-based”]

A couple of things to note about using these plans:

  • Printing recipes? Don’t try to print the recipes from the meal plan grids above. Instead, print from the recipe links themselves. I know it’s a few more clicks, but it’s the only way it comes out right!
  • These work best when you use imperial measurements (the default, what we use in the US). We are aware that the metric system is a little wonky – this is something we’re fixing, but it won’t be fixed for a few months!
  • Since this is meal prep, the meals repeat! Each recipe makes 2-4 servings and appears as one serving on the grid. to double them, click the recipe and toggle the serving amount to two. I don’t recommend tripling these recipes as they were not written to that scale.
  • These meal plans aren’t editable. If you’d like this feature, join the WWL Program to be able to customize your meal plans and make your own!

I hope you found these tips and meal plans helpful if you’re getting into meal prep on a budget.

Filed Under: Blog, Meal Prep Pro Tips, Recipe Roundups, Save Money Tagged With: budgeting, meal planning

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Workweek Lunch | Talia Koren
Before we dive in here, I just want to say this po Before we dive in here, I just want to say this post is not meant to shame people for resting on the weekend (or their TV choices). 🙏🏼 We all gotta do what we gotta do. But if you’re someone who believes meal prepping means giving up TV time, I’m here to prove otherwise.
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📺 I’m a huge TV fan in general, anyone else? I’m also a huge fan of reducing stress and saving money and time during the workweek, so that’s a big part of why I choose to do some TV watching from the kitchen on weekends - not just the couch. Again, no shame in that!!! You can find me on the couch almost every weeknight (my partner and I are between shows right now (recommendations a welcome)😅
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🤘🏼If you’re someone who knows doing some prepping ahead of time can make your workweek easier, but don’t want to give up binge watching your favorite shows, I hope this post inspires you to switch it up. If not, by all means, couch on.
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😅😅Btw I need new shows! What are you watching these days?
Not sure what to meal prep this weekend? Try findi Not sure what to meal prep this weekend? Try finding a recipe to replicate your fave takeout meal! My favorite takeout inspired meal to cook for weekly lunches is definitely teriyaki chicken.
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🥡Takeout inspired meals work so well for meal prep and they’re easier to make at home than you’d think!
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🌯We have sooo many take out inspired meals (like the ones you see pictured) in the WWL Meal Prep Program for members! Learn more and sign up on a FREE trial in my bio link and jump with with all our recipes, meal plans and grocery lists today!
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🥗Btw when I say “better” than takeout, I don’t mean healthier. I mean it’s often tastier, you have more control over the ingredients (and how they make you feel) and it’s cheaper! Good things all around.
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🍕Don’t forget to save this post for next time you’re not sure what to prep for the week!
Have you tried the Starbucks Spinach Feta Wrap? If Have you tried the Starbucks Spinach Feta Wrap? If yes, have you ever tried to make it at home? 👩🏻‍🍳I did and here are the results! Grab the FREE recipe on stories/story highlights! Btw we have a full how to video for this meal on YouTube - youtube.com/workweeklunch!
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💸So this wrap cost about $5 when I bought it over the weekend. And the groceries for THREE of the wraps cost me $5.56, which comes to $1.85 for each wrap. Note that I calculated this based on what I used up. For example I bought tortillas for about $3.50, but only used 3 out of 8 of them.
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✅ You only need 5 ingredients for this breakfast: egg whites, feta, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes and wraps.
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🤔Since I know you’re going to ask: how do I reheat these?
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👇🏼REHEATING TIPS:
-for microwaving, wrap the wrap in a dry paper towel. It soaks up extra moisture.
-for best results, use a toaster oven or oven.
-I do a microwave/toaster hybrid method.
-these last 4-5 days in the fridge and 6 months frozen.
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✔️The trick to making wraps NOT soggy: let your filling cool 100% before wrapping. Also use good wraps. My favorite wraps are from @missionfoodsus
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🙏🏼Hope you enjoy this recreation! This is a great way to save money too. Happy prepping!
HOLD UP! Don't toss those veggies yet. 🥦You can HOLD UP! Don't toss those veggies yet. 🥦You can transform them into a new meal by rolling them up - even better if it's with lavash bread from @josephspitabread. 🌯What’s lavash? It’s a thin flatbread you can use for pizza, burritos, rollups, cut up and toast for chips - it's really endless!
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😍This lavash is FREEZER FRIENDLY! So you can keep it stashed for months and use it whenever you need to repurpose your leftovers.
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🌯In these roll ups, I used leftover roasted veggies, a random bit of arugula (aka rocket) that I had leftover and the last of my tzatziki from another meal prep. Wrap it all up in delicious lavash bread and call it lunch.
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👉🏽Save this post for next time you have no idea what to do with leftover veggies and need some inspiration! And if you're all about lavash bread like me, you can transform leftover veg into a lavash pizza or lavash quesadilla too!
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🙌🏼Want to try this amazing Lavash bread? Get 20% off your online order with code WWL20 at checkout on the Joseph's Pita Bread site! Linked in stories, or head to https://shop.josephsbakery.com
A whole week of meals: planned! Swipe left to see A whole week of meals: planned! Swipe left to see the five featured meal prep friendly recipes in this week’s new WWL Plan 👈🏼👈🏽
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✅All meals can be made vegan, vegetarian, omnivore and gluten-free! And they’re all tested for meal prep (meaning they taste amazing as leftovers and reheat well).
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🥶Everything except the pasta on this week’s plan is freezer friendly!
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🌯And I’m so excited to finally share our Starbucks copycat wraps in the plan now that we have a good vegan version! Thanks to @lochjessmonster_ our new FT veggie-focused recipe developer!!!
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🥣The black bean soup and  savory waffles are brought to you by @pinkleme aka “The Soup Queen” (all of her soups are a huge hit).
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🙌🏼Can’t wait for you all to try these recipes! To get access, you must be a member of the WWL Program! As a member you get a new plan, new weekly recipes (and all our old ones), access to our planning tools and grocery list generator, private community and more! Sign up on a free trial then it’s just $9.99/mo to keep meal prepping with us. The membership will pay for itself in what you’ll save on groceries every month. Are you on or what?!
And that definition can change throughout your lif And that definition can change throughout your life. 🤸🏽‍♀️🤸🏼‍♀️
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CW: weight gain discussion
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🤔I had a really hard but interesting conversation about this over the weekend with my partner. We both expressed to each other that we want to be more active in our highly sedentary lives (although I’m on my feet a lot in the kitchen). But didn’t see eye to eye completely on what health “looks” like in our bodies and in our lifestyle. That’s ok. No one truly knows what it feels like to be you. I think it’s hard for some to wrap their minds around the idea that you CAN be in a larger body AND feel amazing, eat a varied diet, eat enough, be strong and flexible and have stamina. My partner expressed concern that I’ve gained weight in the last year (hello, we’re in a pandemic) and we talked about how it’s ok. It’s normal. It’s expected. And it’s not something that’s self-contained and needs to be “fixed” or focused on. Aside from being less active than I was pre-pandemic, *I feel good*! Luckily he’s very open to learning about IE and HAES, and we are ok with not being totally on the same page in every aspect of this complex topic. Because he doesn’t get to define health for me. And I don’t get to define health for him. We can still care about and respect each other AND have boundaries.
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🙏🏼I hope this post is a good reminder if you have someone (or something, like social media) in your life trying to control what health should look like for you. Like I said, no one knows exactly how it feels to be in your body except you. Trust your body. Advocate for yourself.
Things I never thought I’d be: an expert on rehe Things I never thought I’d be: an expert on reheating burritos. Yet here we are! 🌯🌮🥙
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👈🏼👈🏽Swipe through for all my tips and tricks for acing meals like wraps, quesadillas, burritos and tacos for meal prep. At the end you’ll see two quick videos of me rolling up burritos and assembling quesadillas.
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🌮We have TONS of meals like this in the WWL Program! Recipes for all the meals pictured can be found in the program for members only - sign up today in my bio link to get recipes + time saving weekly meal plans + grocery lists and so much more.
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👩🏼‍🍳Hope this helps set you up for success in the kitchen! I got so many tortilla questions yesterday during my meal prep. Happy to answer more below!
Reminder: self care and preparation come in a lot Reminder: self care and preparation come in a lot of different forms. ✏️
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🌯Meal prep is one of them, but it’s not realistic or best for every person. If it’s not for you or you don’t have time, here are some other ways to set yourself up for enduring LESS STRESS every week. Don’t try to do them all - just pick one or two.
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❓What did I miss on this list? Share below!
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👉🏼And if you DO want to batch cook, but get overwhelmed with planning and finding good recipes, we got you! Sign up in my bio link to get pre-made meal plans, grocery lists and tons of meal prep tested recipes. You can customize everything (this is not about restriction or weight loss - it’s about being practical and eating yummy food!). We offer a free 7 day trial when you sign up!
Have you ever tried a produce box subscription? Sh Have you ever tried a produce box subscription? Share your experience with us in the comments! Here’s mine 👇🏼
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I started using @pacificcoastharvest a month ago after randomly seeing the boxes sitting in a local coffee shop!
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The cost is $30 per box (I know it doesn’t look like a lot) BUT you can control what’s in your box and how much you want to spend. That’s one thing I really like about this box. I can choose the produce I want every week and I’ve been using this to supplement weekend cooking and some meal prep. I’m able to stretch some of the ingredients for weeks (root veggies, apples).
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If I couldn’t choose what’s in the box, it would be pretty tough for me. But so far I’ve used and loved all the produce (and some other items like coffee, hot sauce and cheese) and am excited to keep branching out!
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Since using this box I’ve had purple Brussels, watermelon radish, gold beets, local apples, satsumas, purple yams, turnips and more. I can’t wait to try lemongrass from this week’s box. For me, someone who cooks a lot and can spend a little extra on this stuff, it’s worth it. With this weekly box, our regular grocery costs have decreased too. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts below!
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This isn’t an ad btw! Just really enjoying Pacific Coast Harvest and happy I stumbled upon their boxes recently.
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