ADVICE

Menu plan for families

Author: Rose Carr - MSc (Hons), Senior Nutritionist

Favs List PRINT

It can be difficult trying to cut your food bill spending and getting all the nutrition you need. But it doesn’t have to be! We’ve done the sums and prepared this weekly family menu plan to show how you can save on your food shopping – and keep a healthy diet as well.

Our family menu is based on mum (M), dad (D), a 16-year-old boy (B) and a 14-year-old girl (G).

Nutritionist Rose Carr says: “In this family, our ravenous teenage boy eats bigger serves than all the others and Mum has the smallest serves, even less than the growing teenage daughter. Although it’s not generally stated, our plan includes tea and coffee with trim milk, and, of course, water throughout the day.”

NOTE: If your kids are younger, you won’t need as much food (and you’ll spend less).

How our menus are made

This menu plan covers every meal and snack for the week, and includes all the nutrition every member of the household needs – all the energy, nutrients, vitamins and minerals we need to be healthy (based on guidelines from the Ministry of Health). Using recipes from our archive, we’ve created menus that are also significantly cheaper than the average food costs for different households.

How we shopped

We’ve priced this menu based on an average budget-friendly supermarket. We followed these rules:

we bought things on special whenever possible
we used as much seasonal produce as possible
we chose supermarket ‘own brand’ products when they were the cheapest option available
we bought bulk packs of staple items and allowed for storage in pantry and freezer
we included homemade versions of pre-packaged products such as hummus and pesto.
we made our own yoghurt (using bought mixes – save even more by doing it from scratch).

NOTE: Some ingredients on the shopping lists are things you need for the recipes in the menus, that you won’t need to buy every week. This means your initial shopping trip may cost slightly more, but in future, your shopping will be cheaper.

You can achieve even bigger savings by

checking out the specials at specialty butchers and fruit and vege shops
checking all the bulk bins for dry goods
shopping at Asian supermarkets for specialty Asian ingredients
shopping at roadside stalls and farmers’ markets for fruit and veges
buying items in bulk then freezing them, such as meat and cheese on special
planting your own herbs, salad mix, spinach, silver beet and other veges.

Shopping list: Basics

Buy once a month (or as needed): These pantry basics are things you may not buy every week. We recommend buying in bulk and storing.

canned chickpeas
canned lentils
canned tomatoes
coffee
cooking oil spray
dried chickpeas
dried herbs
dried lentils
flour (white, wholemeal)
garlic
honey
Marmite/Vegemite
Milo
onions (red, brown, as required)

Shopping list: Luxuries

Buy occasionally: These occasional purchases are not included in the main shopping lists. Buy these as budget allows, when on special.

bacon
balsamic vinegar
beer
chocolate
herb paste
nut oils such as walnut and sesame
olive oil
parmesan cheese
wine

Weekly menu plans

Menu plan for families (see DOWNLOAD link at bottom of page)
Menu plan for couples (links to article)
Menu plan for singles (links to article)