The Bare Bones Grocery Challenge Meal Plan

 The thought of having only $30 to feed a family of four twenty-one meals is a little intimidating, but only until you starting thinking of meal ideas.  Break the meals down into breakfast, lunch and dinner and straight away it's easier.  Take each meal and think of seven meals, one for each day. 

If you get stuck with breakfasts and lunches, repeat a couple. After all very few families actually eat a different breakfast everyday. In fact I'd go so far as to say most families have cold cereal and toast every day of the week and think nothing of it.  Lunches are the same - often repeated day after day. 

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Breakfast Menu

1. Damper, Egg, Fruit 
2. Scrambled Eggs over Damper
3. Fruit Smoothie, Potato Cakes 
4. Cheesy Muffins 
5. Pancakes, Fruit 
6. Potato Pancakes 
7. Creamy Rice Pudding

Lunch/Dinner Menu

1. Savoury Mince over mashed potatoes or toasted damper
2. Vegetable Pasta Bake 
3. Baked Potato and Vegetables 
4. Scalloped Potatoes and Vegetables 
5. Mexican Meatballs and Rice 
6. Vegetable Soup 
7. Potato Pie
8. Fried Rice
9. Rice rissoles

This meal plan is very limited, but this is a grocery list with a purpose! It's an example of a very basic grocery budget and how well you can live on it for a week. Using your imagination you could create some gourmet delights that may become family favourites. Get ideas on mixing and matching ingredients from Substitute Cooking to see how easy creativity in the kitchen on a very limited budget can be.