Healthy saving money is a useful skill. In modern conditions, food prices are high and costs often exceed all conceivable standards. Today we have compiled a budget menu for a week for you, following the principles of inexpensive and proper nutrition. It represents a ready-made version, with the number of purchased products and their approximate cost.

Required products

Name	Quantity	price, rub.
Potato	1.5 kg.	37,5
Beet	400 gr.	10
Carrot	600 gr.	15
Onion	650 gr.	18,5
pickled cucumbers	1 can	83
sauerkraut	1 package	41
Beans	400 gr.	34
boiled sausage	200 gr.	35
Chicken egg	5 pieces.	23
Canned green peas	2 banks	48
Mayonnaise	1 package	28
Pork	300 gr.	50
Greenery	70 gr.	52
Butter	1 pack	48
Beef	1 kg.	319
Cabbage	700 gr.	10
Tomatoes	200 gr.	30
Sour cream	100 gr.	25
Garlic	3 pcs.	28
puff pastry	700 gr.	20
Chicken fillet	350 gr.	31,5
Rice	200 gr.	13
Sweet pepper	150 gr.	7,5
Canned corn	1 can	45
Buckwheat	1 glass	11
vegetable marrow	200 gr.	5
sausages	350 gr.	42
Pasta	250 gr.	17
Unaccounted products		~200
Total		1327

Meals for the week

We know firsthand that cooking half a liter of borscht for one person is not an option, therefore, on the menu we will limit ourselves to listing dishes, their composition and the amount that will be enough for you for 1 week when consuming 2000 kcal per day, which is an average for a person.

Main courses

1. Pasta with sausages and seasonings

Sausages 350 g, dried basil 1 g, pasta 250 g, vegetable oil 2 tbsp. l., garlic 1 tooth, onion 1 pc., tomato paste 1.5 tbsp. l. and black pepper

2. Buckwheat with vegetables

buckwheat - 1 cup, granulated sugar - 0.5 tsp, onion - 1 pc., zucchini - 200 gr., vegetable oil - 40 ml, carrots - 1 pc., salt - 3 gr., tomato sauce - 1 tbsp. l.

3. Rice with vegetables

Rice 200 grams, vegetable oil - 10 g, onion - 1 piece, bell pepper - 1 piece, canned peas - 1 can, carrots 1 piece, canned corn - 1 can

4. Vareniki with minced chicken and herbs

Unleavened dough - 700 gr., red pepper - 2 grams, greens - 30 grams, potatoes - 70 gr., flour - 30 grams, onions - 100 grams, salt - 2 grams, black pepper - 2 grams, chicken fillet - 350 grams ,

Soups

1. Borscht with beef

Beef 500 g, sugar - 5 grams, carrots - 1 pc, white cabbage - 200 grams, onion - 1 pc, beets - 2 pcs, tomato paste - 2 tbsp, vinegar - 1 tbsp, greens - 10 gr.

2. Fresh cabbage soup

Meat - 500 g, garlic - 2 pcs, cabbage - 500 g, onion - 1 pc., tomatoes - 2 pcs., vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. spoons, potatoes - 2 pcs., greens - 20 grams, bay leaf - 2 pcs., sour cream - 100 gr., carrots - 1 pc., pepper - 3 grams.

3. Potato soup

Pork - 300 g, black peppercorns - 4 pcs., onion - 100 gr., coriander - 1/4 tsp, allspice - 3 pcs., bay leaf - 3 pcs., potatoes - 550 gr. , paprika - 1/4 tsp, greens - 10 grams, butter - 20 gr., vegetable oil - 1 tbsp.

Salads

1. Olivier classic

Potatoes - 4 pcs, pickled cucumbers - 3 pcs, boiled sausage - 200 g, chicken eggs - 5 pcs, carrots - 2 pcs, canned green peas - 1 can, mayonnaise - 2 tbsp. l;

2. Vinaigrette with beans

Potatoes - 2 pcs., salt - 2 grams, beets - 1 pc., carrots - 2 pcs., onions - 1 pc., pickled cucumbers - 2 pcs., sauerkraut - 100 gr., beans - 400 gr., sunflower oil - 2 tbsp.

Family weekly menu

The menu is designed for a family of 2. If you need to calculate the menu for 3 people - just multiply the number of products by 1.5. It should be understood that it is difficult to include any goodies in the budget menu: fruits, sweets, and so on, so we will form only the body of the diet, with a calorie content of 1900 kcal for men and 1500 for women. The use of all other products will remain at your discretion.

Monday

Breakfast

• pasta with beef stew - 400 grams;

Dinner

• pasta bows - 500 grams;
• fresh cabbage and potato borscht - 500 g;

Dinner

• rice with chicken - 500 grams.

Total: 3356 kcal.

Tuesday

Breakfast

• cottage cheese 1.8% - 200 grams;
• milk rice porridge - 600 gr.

Dinner

• lean cabbage soup - 500 grams;
• Olivier salad with chicken - 500 gr.

Dinner

• Bigus with pork - 600 g.

Total: 3467 kcal.

Wednesday

Breakfast

• fried eggs - 500 gr.

Dinner

• potato soup with mushrooms - 500 grams;
• vegetable salad with mayonnaise - 500 gr.

Dinner

• fried potatoes - 500 grams;
• chicken cutlets with mushrooms - 300 g.

Total: 3460 kcal.

Thursday

Breakfast

• omelette with ham - 500 gr.

Dinner

• ear - 600 grams;
• naval pasta - 300 g.

Dinner

• stewed potatoes with beef - 500 gr.

Total: 3495 kcal.

Friday

Breakfast

• buckwheat with mushrooms and onions - 400 gr.

Dinner

• mushroom soup with noodles - 600 grams;
• pasta with sausages and spices - 400 g.

Dinner

• stewed cabbage with potatoes - 400 gr.

Total: 3366 kcal.

Saturday

Breakfast

As you can see, there are no special things, but some people will ask - where do sour cream sauces come from on the budget menu, and empty pasta will have to be eaten only on one day. The answer is very simple - the cost of such a diet is 2576 rubles! One person has only 1288 rubles a week.

The question is - why so few? The whole catch is that you, most likely, did not come to this page in order to lose weight (which is what our site is about), which means that you really have no idea how you can eat well and, most importantly, inexpensively. Most of the money is spent on "sweets": sweets, alcohol, soft drinks, chocolates and other semi-finished products. Eating natural products is many times cheaper and this diet can be made into a restaurant one by adding a couple of thousand to the costs.

At the same time, we suggest that you go over the rest of the site sections, where good dietary rations are collected, which are even cheaper than those presented.

Huge grocery hypermarkets have firmly entered our lives and have become a pleasant addition to it. Grocery shopping has become a real pleasure, it is pleasant to walk with a comfortable cart between long rows filled with all kinds of delicacies. And making a menu for the week for the whole family with recipes (economy) is pretty simple. However, the abundance of products creates a threat to the family budget. Buying the necessary products, a person usually grabs something extra. How to refrain from rash purchases and create a clear and economical menu for seven days, we'll talk in this article.

Laws of Economy

Foodstuffs have risen in price significantly and have recently made up a significant part of the budget of an average Russian family. Modern housewives have a hard time, because you need to choose quality products, create a balanced menu, take into account the taste preferences of each family member and at the same time save money. The best way to protect yourself from overspending and create a suitable diet is to plan a weekly menu for the family with recipes. Saving time and money with this approach is guaranteed.

Choose a suitable day for your meal plan, such as Saturday. Spend an hour planning your meals in detail, defining recipes, and compiling a grocery list. Going to the store with a list, strictly follow it, and in the first days you will find significant savings in money. During the working week, you do not have to come up with dishes and urgently run to the store for the necessary ingredients. By compiling a balanced and healthy diet, you will also avoid buying products that are harmful to the body, as well as semi-finished products saturated with a large number of chemical additives.

The weekly menu can be presented in any convenient form. A printed list of dishes or a beautifully hand-painted breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can create a single template (provided below) that will allow you to swap dishes and substitute additional products.

When drawing up a meal plan, it should be borne in mind that hot meals are prepared for several days. For example, soup or borsch may well stand in the refrigerator for two or even three days without losing its taste at all. Meat or fish dishes can be served two days in a row with various side dishes.

Side dishes and salads from vegetables are best served fresh, their preparation does not take much time. At least once a week indulge your family with healthy pastries. Sweet desserts prepared on your own are not only healthier, but also much tastier than purchased confectionery.

When developing a weekly menu for the whole family with economy recipes and a list of products, one should take into account not only the taste preferences of family members, but also their age, the presence of chronic diseases and physical activity. Separately, it is worth considering the children's menu, which can differ significantly from the adult. In each individual case, the development of a diet should be approached individually, however, any hostess should be guided by some example. The following is one of the options for a balanced menu for the whole family, which allows you to significantly save money.

Delicious salads for the whole family:

• Crab stick salad: recipe with photo (delicious)

Sample menu for the budget conscious

The proposed menu option is perfect for a family with school-age children, it is better for younger family members to make a separate menu.

Monday

1. Breakfast should be served oatmeal, one hard-boiled egg and any drink of your choice.
2. For the first snack, you should choose natural cottage cheese, supplemented with any fruit of your choice. Bananas go well with dairy products, these fruits are not only nutritious, but also rich in useful trace elements.
3. For lunch, you can cook a light and satisfying meatball soup. A liquid dish must be present on the menu for a week for a family with economy recipes. Second, perfect baked fish and vegetable stew.
4. For a second snack, you can use oatmeal cookies with milk.
5. Dinner may consist of diet meatballs made from chicken meat and coleslaw.

Tuesday

1. Omelette, complemented by a delicious sausage, and tea will be a great combination to start the second working day.
2. For the first snack, you can choose inexpensive and incredibly healthy fruits - apples.
3. Based on the calculation that the first dish is prepared for two days, and the second is done every day. There will still be meatball soup for Tuesday lunch, but you can add it chicken chop and buckwheat cooked to your taste.
4. For an afternoon snack, you can buy natural yogurt.
5. Prepare for dinner fish cakes with vegetable garnish. Vegetables are the most economical, healthy and low-calorie type of dinner, so feel free to experiment with their preparation. In addition to the fish dish, you can do the vinaigrette.

Wednesday

1. Variety is the main criterion that characterizes the weekly menu for a family with economy recipes. For 2 people in the family, you can plan meals according to all your wishes. Prepare for breakfast rice casserole and aromatic coffee.
2. Use a variety of protein-rich nuts for your first snack. They are very nutritious, so for a second breakfast you only need a handful of nuts.
3. Treat yourself and your loved ones for lunch borscht with the addition of beans. For the second, cook meatballs with boiled potatoes and carrot salad and dried fruits.
4. For an afternoon snack you can bake syrniki, this light and healthy dish goes well with a traditional drink, tea or coffee.
5. Perfect for dinner cabbage rolls.

Thursday

1. Oatmeal for breakfast should be present in the diet at least twice a week. This product is perfect for people who take care of their health and save the family budget. You can supplement oatmeal with nuts, fruits or regular jam, as well as a cheese sandwich.
2. When compiling a weekly menu for a family with economy recipes, the food table can be very diverse, but for the first snack it is best to use fruit.
3. For lunch, there is still bean borscht, but the second course may consist of pasta and chops from your favorite type of meat with vegetable salad.
4. For an afternoon snack, you can make tea and sandwiches with liver pate.
5. A simple and nutritious dinner can consist of cabbage, stewed with egg and beetroot salad with green peas.

Friday

1. The last working day can be started with apple fritters with sour cream and strong tea.
2. For the first snack, fruits like apples or bananas are best.
3. Prepare for lunch pickle The whole family will surely enjoy the original taste of this dish. For the second, you can make chicken cutlets with boiled rice and vegetable salad.
4. Natural yogurt with fruits or berries is suitable for an afternoon snack.
5. Dinner may include fish casserole.

Following the same principle, you can make a menu for the weekend, and perhaps on the weekend you will want to deviate from your usual diet.

Recipes for simple and economical meals

The above menu is an exemplary family meal option. Of course, every housewife has her signature dishes and culinary secrets, so weekly dishes will be absolutely special. However, any base requires replenishment, so here are some recipes from the previously discussed economical menu for a week for a family of 2 people. There will be no difficulties with recipes, since they are all simple and affordable.

Vegetable stew

It is known that stewed vegetables retain a lot of useful substances in their composition, but at the same time they have a more delicate effect on the digestive tract than fresh ones.

To prepare a delicious stew, we need products that are in any kitchen, namely:

• 1 head of onion - peel it and cut into medium-sized cubes;
• 1 large carrot - peel it and three on a grater with large teeth;
• 6 medium-sized potatoes - remove the peel from the tubers and cut into medium cubes;
• 1 small zucchini - well washed and chopped;
• 4 cloves of garlic - cut into small pieces or passed through a press;
• 4 tomatoes - cut into cubes without removing the skin.

In a heavy bottomed pan, add the carrots and onions first. These vegetables require special processing, so fry them over high heat, stirring constantly, until soft. Then add potatoes and zucchini, cover the pan with a lid and leave the vegetables to stew for half an hour. Add garlic and tomatoes last, and simmer the stew for another ten minutes. A delicious dish is ready, it is hearty, nutritious and does not require large expenses, so it can be safely included in the economical menu for a week for a family of 3. You can safely experiment with vegetable recipes, so you can add bell peppers, herbs or other ingredients to your liking in the stew.

fish cakes

You can use any fish fillet for this dish. If the minced meat turns out to be dry, you should add a little lard, then the cutlets will turn out tasty and juicy. There are many options for cooking minced fish cutlets, consider one of the simplest and fastest recipes.

We twist one kilogram of the selected fillet through a meat grinder. We remove large bones from the minced meat and pass it through a finer grate again. In the resulting semi-finished product, add one egg, a little salt and black pepper, as well as 200 grams of white bread, previously soaked in milk. We mix everything well, form small cutlets and fry them in a preheated pan with the addition of vegetable oil.

Rice casserole

All kinds of casseroles are an unusual and tasty dish that can be prepared from a variety of products. Therefore, many housewives willingly include this culinary masterpiece in an economical weekly menu for a family of 4. It is not easy to decide on recipes for casseroles, as there are a great many of them.

Sweet rice casseroles are great for breakfast and kids love them. To prepare such a dessert, you will need the following steps:

• first of all, rice must be cooked, pour two hundred grams of washed cereal with one liter of milk, add a little sugar and put on fire. After the porridge boils, reduce the heat and cook the rice for about 20 minutes;
• remove the thickened mixture from the heat and add a piece of butter to it, about 50 grams;
• Beat 2 egg whites in a strong foam, separately with a fork, mix the yolks;
• carefully mix the yolks into the rice porridge, and then the proteins;
• Lubricate the baking dish with oil, sprinkle a little with breadcrumbs and spread the prepared mass.

You need to bake a sweet dessert at a temperature of no more than 180 degrees, about 40 minutes.

Making a list of products

You need to sketch out the proposed list of products immediately after you have decided on the menu for the week for the family and economy recipes. A family of 5 will undoubtedly require more food than a young couple, however the food groups will remain the same. For convenience, you should divide all the necessary products into groups, and in each group indicate the number and name of the necessary products.

So, to prepare almost all healthy and economical dishes, you will need:

• meat products - we fix in this column all types and amounts of meat necessary for the first and second courses, as well as offal;
• fish - fresh-frozen fish can be bought for future use and stored in the freezer until a certain period, seafood should be included in the same group;
• vegetables, fruits, greens - the more of these foods in the diet, the better;
• cereals - we choose the most useful and least high-calorie ones and store them for future use;
• dairy products - let's drink in a limited amount, do not forget about healthy cottage cheese and kefir;
• vegetable and butter;
• bread and pasta;
• eggs;
• flour;
• spices.

From the proposed products, you can easily create a weekly menu for a family with economy recipes. Videos of cooking various culinary masterpieces will help you diversify your diet and save significant amounts of money.

Styreno, more for yourself

Saving 30 days: menu for a month

Food is an important item in the family budget and a kind of test for the hostess how economical and skillful she is. After all, in order to save on food and at the same time feed the family fully, you see, you need skill.

We already know how to eat sparingly. I have blogged about this many times before. You need to make a menu for the week, control the leftover food in the refrigerator, stock up for the winter.

We make the biggest and unnecessary waste during spontaneous visits to shops, markets and supermarkets. To avoid them, you need to follow certain rules.

Two rules of economical housewives

1. The rule of buying food - we buy what we need, and not what they want to sell us.

• We make a list of products and buy strictly according to the list
• We monitor nearby supermarkets on the Internet for ongoing promotions on products of interest to us
• We don’t fall for all sorts of “lure”, such as “buy two for the price of three and get the third for free”
  
• We go for groceries, having thoroughly refreshed ourselves at home
• We choose slowly, compare prices and check the expiration date
• We make basic purchases once a week, according to the menu, and in the middle of the week we buy only bread and dairy products.
• We do not buy semi-finished products.

2. To eat sparingly, you need to cook on your own, making up the menu.

Since spending money on food is directly proportional to the number of visits to supermarkets and markets, we can reduce it to a minimum.

To do this, we will choose the time (preferably right after the salary), draw up a menu for a month and once purchase all the main products.

Menu for the month

This, of course, is not a very easy job. Need to:

1. Consider a variety of dishes and calculate how many products you need.
2. Make a grocery list and make purchases
3. Make your own semi-finished products
4. Divide into portions and freeze, what is to be frozen.

Calculation of the number of dishes per month

Let's count:

One week is 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches and 7 dinners.

So, in a month we get 28 breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

Ideally, breakfast consists of salad, main course and drink, lunch - salad, main course, second course and drink, and dinner - salad, main course and drink.

In addition, we usually prepare desserts or sweet pastries for tea, coffee,

If you prepare a fresh dish every time, then in a month you need to cook - ATTENTION YOU-MEN ... - 84 salads, 84 main courses and 28 first courses !!!

But don't be afraid. Everyone knows that in practice this is not the case, each family has its own preferences. For some, a hearty breakfast is important, and someone has breakfast after drinking coffee with a sandwich. Many families dine together only on weekends. Therefore, one way or another, your own menu for the month should correspond to your habits and preferences.

Besides:

-First course we prepare for two or three days. We get 28:3 = 9-10 (first courses), and if no one dine at home during the week, even less (only four on weekends)

-Second course, if it is “solid”, for example, such as pilaf, stuffed cabbage, roast or dishes that require side dishes (cutlets, chops, meatballs) - we also cook for 2-3 days. Therefore, 84:2 = 42 (second courses). Again, with dinner at home (without dinner less by 5 * 4 = 20 dishes, 42-20 = 22)

- Side dishes: if it is porridge, cook for two days.

-Salads: With them, a slightly different situation - lettuce salad strife. "Olivier", "Tasty", salads with chicken or meat do not lose their taste within 24 hours, that is, if you prepared such a salad in the evening, then the next day in the morning or evening it is still very edible. These are full-fledged "two in one" dishes and a salad and a second.

Salads are simple or seasonal (cucumbers and tomatoes in summer, radishes in spring, radishes, beets, cabbage and sauerkraut all year round), they are prepared quickly and do not require special tricks. They must always be fresh.

-Baking A: If there are children in the family, this is indispensable. Firstly, kids need snacks for school, and it's much better to give your child a yogurt and a muffin or a pie prepared by you personally than to risk his stomach by buying the same thing in the store.

It was a prelude to the main work. Thinking in this way, we take in hand list of cheap meals(if there is none, make up, I insist - it will make your life much easier), select the appropriate ones and write out those that we will prepare.

Before compiling the menu, check all your "bins" in the refrigerator (freezer), lockers, pantry. Control your "strategic reserves" use what you have and do not buy too much.

Prepare semi-finished products

If we buy products for a month, some of them need to be quickly processed into semi-finished products. It is the cooked and frozen semi-finished products that will allow you to no longer spend money on food next month and will reduce the time for cooking.

If you want to save money and eat meat, you need to use it sparingly. From the same piece of meat, you can fry chops and eat at a time, or you can grind it into minced meat, cook cutlets, cabbage rolls or stick dumplings.

Very profitable home liver. It is easy to prepare, inexpensive and, as needed, you can use it for pies, pancakes, dumplings or naval pasta.

Therefore, if you want to save money by listening to my tips and your own “voice of reason”, include dishes using minced meat or liver in the menu for a month.

You can also make preparations of broths for first courses. Boil chicken or meat (we boil meat for broths for two weeks, and freeze fresh for another 2 weeks). Cook rich broths, in a large saucepan 5-6 liters, and ready - divide into 5 servings and freeze. As needed, take one serving, defrost and add the required amount of water. Do the same with the next portion of the blanks for the first courses, when these run out.

Use meat cooked in broth for salads, casseroles or, like liver, for stuffing dumplings, pies, pancakes.

The semi-finished products prepared by you are also good because if they are not used, they will be perfectly preserved until the next month (the main thing is not to forget about them)

We choose, write it down on a tablet, and next we note what will need to be bought.

Dishes for the menu for the month and their composition

If you, following my example, filled out such a table, then it will not be difficult to calculate the number of products and write a list with which you will go for groceries. You can buy everything at once, except for dairy, bread and some vegetables and fruits.

And you can shop once a week or every two weeks.

Be sure to check what you have available at home. For example, you have prepared jam, pickles, greens and stocked up for the winter, and buckwheat semolina and cocoa, bought recently and for the planned number of dishes, there are enough of them. We will not include them in our list. And so on for all positions.

Our task is to optimize the cost of food. Now, thanks to the fact that we have compiled a menu for a month with a complete list of products, it's easy. If the amount received is too big, we change one or more dishes to more economical ones.

Well, then - for shopping and, at our discretion: we buy everything at once, leaving a small amount for the purchase of bread, dairy products and fruits, or we write a menu for a week and buy products for a week plus, in part, for semi-finished products.

In any case, you will win - either money for food is set aside, or groceries are purchased for a month. And there will be no question that some negligent housewives ask, “The money is over, what to cook to eat?”

A compiled menu and grocery shopping for a week or a month will protect you from such problems and help you save on food. Saving is easy

We offer our version of the menu for a week for a family with economy recipes in this article, so that during a crisis and a difficult life situation, you can eat tasty and nutritious. There comes a time in every family when you need to tighten your belts a bit. Don't worry, everything will pass. In the meantime, you need to arm yourself with an economical menu and start implementing it.

sweet leftovers

Before compiling the main menu for the days of the week, I want to pay attention to the leftovers. It happens that kefir or milk sours, for example. In a normal situation, such a product is poured out, but you can cook excellent pancakes or pancakes from sour milk products.

Zucchini is another simple and cheap ingredient that can be stored for a long time. You can also make pancakes from zucchini, and even pies. During the period of savings, you should take a closer look at dough products and rehabilitate them for yourself again. As for vegetables, it is worth buying only the most affordable ones (they are also very healthy): potatoes, cabbage, beets, radishes, onions and garlic.

Economy menu for a week for a family of 3 with recipes

Monday

Lunch: Chicken soup with vermicelli or rice. It is extremely easy to prepare, and at the same time, it turns out a tasty and nutritious product. You can also bake potatoes as a bite to the soup so that satiety is complete.

Lunch: Salad with carrots and raisins, dressed with honey.

Lunch: The same chicken soup. This time you can bake beets to it.
Afternoon snack: Roll with lemon.

Dinner: Fish meatballs, delicious and vitamin salad.

Wednesday

Breakfast: You can cook the usual oatmeal with milk. It activates digestion and energizes for the whole day.

Afternoon snack: The same lemon roll left over from Tuesday.

Dinner: Fish meatballs and vinaigrette. Dinner is also repeated, but, as a rule, these dishes are enough for a family of three for just two days.

Thursday

Breakfast: Eggs must be in the diet, so you can cook an omelette with onions.

Lunch: Continues to eat pea soup with a new batch of garlic croutons.
Afternoon snack: Fritters. You can cook on kefir or yogurt, and serve with jam.

Dinner: Stew cabbage with rice and minced meat. You can also make a salad of carrots with garlic, season with vegetable oil.

Friday

Breakfast: Again, you can serve pancakes with sour cream.

Lunch: It is worth preparing a soup with tomato paste, to which add noodles.

Afternoon snack: You can safely make a cocktail with a banana, to which you add ginger and cinnamon. Such an afternoon snack is not only delicious, it also strengthens the immune system.

Dinner: Cabbage will remain from Thursday.

Saturday

Breakfast: On the day off, breakfast should be more hearty and enjoyable. Therefore, you can cook cheesecakes with apples. Moreover, cook them in such quantity that there is still left for an afternoon snack.

Lunch: Tomato soup from yesterday, which should have enough vermicelli.

Afternoon snack: cheesecakes.

Dinner: Chicken cutlets with potatoes. Make cabbage salad with prunes.

Sunday

Breakfast: Millet porridge with pieces of pumpkin. Excellent nutritious breakfast, which contains a lot of vitamins. And this porridge pleases with its bright appearance.

Lunch: Russian pickle.

Afternoon snack: Any fresh fruit. It can be apples, bananas or oranges.

Dinner: Chicken cutlets with rice, beetroot salad and canned peas.

How to compare costs

By the way, this is such a great economy menu for a week for a family of 2 with recipes. If some recipes are not in the article, then they can be found on the pages of our website. Just use the search form. Especially for you, we have collected economical delicious dishes, for the preparation of which there are step-by-step photos.

Important! The total amount on the check will be more than the amount spent on food for one week. After all, many products on the menu are bought immediately in the package and are simply not eaten for a week. For example, rice, vermicelli.

Nutritionists advise, regardless of the season, be sure to include fresh vegetable salad in your diet. Moreover, you do not need to buy expensive vegetables. It is enough to use seasonal products. In summer and autumn, it’s understandable, but in winter it’s cabbage, radish, beets and carrots. You can’t even imagine how many interesting things you can cook from ordinary, affordable and cheap products!

Creating a menu for the week for the family is a very useful activity that will help you make the most of your time preparing hearty and healthy meals, as well as significantly reduce financial expenses on groceries.

Surely we all know the situation when the refrigerator is empty, and you urgently need to cook something for your household. Very often at this moment we go to the store and buy quite a lot of products that we, in fact, do not really need.

In addition, they often produce dishes that do not carry any value and benefit to the body. If you want to avoid all this, and also start practicing healthy eating for the whole family, you need to make a menu for every day.

It will not take long to work on drawing up a nutrition plan - on average, it takes an hour. At the same time, you will receive a clear “instruction” for the next seven days, which will help you finally free yourself from the endless "kitchen slavery", and will be useful for your spouse and children.

In order for the diet to be balanced and consistent with the basic principles of a healthy diet, you should diversify it with certain recipes. They, in turn, can be found on the Internet or in the relevant literature. So, how to make a menu with good recipes for the week for the family?

Benefits of planning a weekly menu

There are many benefits to putting together a healthy family meal plan for the week. You will spend no more than one hour on the entire development process, and this time will pay off within a week with a vengeance. You will stop asking yourself a stupid question "What would you like to cook quickly?", you will start eating more correctly and balanced, you will spend a minimum amount of time on kitchen work.

Creating a simple weekly menu for the family will give you the following benefits:

• You will save yourself from unnecessary "hassle"because the meals will be pre-planned;
• You will stop wondering what to buy home to eat after work, and how to quickly cope with preparing a family dinner;
• You will be able to eat more varied, and, importantly, tasty;
• From an early age, your children will learn to eat fully and correctly, not to snack on harmful things, not to overeat, not to eat dry food;
• You will be surprised to find that you began to spend less money on buying food, and spend only on really necessary products, and not on quite expensive "garbage", which you can save yourself for lack of a full lunch or dinner at home;
• You will stop eating fast food, canned food and convenience foods, and you will no longer have to eat borscht that was cooked on Monday all week.

So, if all of the listed benefits of pre-planning a meal for a certain time captivate and attract you, it's time to take decisive action and start making a list of products that you should buy. This is no less important step than compiling the menu itself. Since if you paint only dishes, some component may not be enough during their preparation, and you will have to spend time on additional “jogs” towards the market or supermarket.

Meal plan for you and your family: where to start?

Weekly and monthly meal plans usually do not include breakfast, as they are prepared quickly and are very varied for each family.

First of all, it is worth discussing the mistakes that are absolutely impossible to make.

For example, many women like to search for recipes using a tablet or computer. In fact, instead of seeming convenience, you will also have to spend time constantly “looking” on the Internet.

Therefore, you should use the old-fashioned methods - if you have a favorite blogger whose recipes you have long wanted to try, just write them down on paper, or, in extreme cases, print them out. So it will be more convenient for you to look for clues directly during the preparation of the dish. Even better, if you start using a cookbook, where all proportions, quantities and mixing methods are clearly described.

If you have a large enough family, do not forget to take into account and write out on a piece of paper what is temporarily or permanently prohibited for individual members. For example, if your child is allergic to carrots, making carrot patties for dinner might be a good solution for everyone else, but certainly not for him. Therefore, you will either have to replace this ingredient for everyone, or prepare something special for one.

If you are going to make an economical menu for a week for a family that is currently going through hard times financially, we recommend that you go to the store, market or supermarket where you most often buy groceries in advance. Write down the prices for "basic" food. In case of preference for certain firms, write out only the cost of their products. Fix the prices for vegetables in the average order.

What does "basic" food mean?

These are the products that are used almost everywhere, in any full-fledged dish or snack, and which can “rescue” you at any time, being quite satisfying, appetizing and loved by everyone.

Among the "basic" products are usually listed:

• Chicken meat (especially fillet);
• Potato;
• Rice or buckwheat;
• Off-season vegetables (onions, carrots, cabbage, etc.);
• Out-of-season fruits (apples, bananas, kiwi, oranges, etc.);
• Pasta;
• Chicken eggs;
• Butter and vegetable oil;
• Dairy and sour-milk products;
• Flour.

Of course, lists of traditional "basic" products cannot be tailored to each person, and even more so to a certain family. But still, you see, it is the listed food sources that are most in demand at any time of the year. If you have a special family (for example, you practice a raw food or vegetarian diet), write down what you get most often for preparing family lunches and dinners.

Some nutrition planners forget to consider many important things.

For instance:

1. Family dinner in a restaurant or cafe on Fridays;
2. Training in sections for children on Thursdays and Tuesdays;
3. Unloading days.

Yes, fasting days are needed not only for ardent guardians of the female figure, but also for all other family members! We highly recommend that you make at least one vegetarian day a week. During the vegetarian day, your household should eat only dishes from cereals, vegetables, dairy and sour-milk products and eggs. Completely exclude meat and fish from them.

Vegetarian day example:

• Breakfast: oatmeal in milk with nuts, cheesecake with raspberries, green tea;
• Snack (most likely outside the home): banana and whole grain bun;
• Lunch: broccoli vegetable soup (prepared very simply and quickly), vegetable stew (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant), cheese, diet cake (raw food);
• Dinner: cottage cheese, a few fruits and cookies.

Please note that if you return home late (or your children come in the evening after sports clubs), dinner these days should be as light as possible. In no case should you serve it with fried potatoes with meat or something like that.

If you have a family tradition of dining out on certain days of the week, don't include those days in your plan (if you don't eat lunch at home).

Sample Plan

How to make a menu for a week for a family?

First, write down all the recipes you would like to try during this week. Then specify the products that will be required to implement them. Visit a store or market to calculate the approximate cost of the family budget. Make a list of all the food you need, rounding up somewhat. Make a note to yourself about the "forbidden" dishes and foods from your spouse or children. Eliminate the days when you are not likely to eat at home.