Save money on groceries by making these simple budget freezer meal ideas. All of them can be made ahead and stored in the freezer for later.
One of the best ways to save money on food for your family has always been to buy in bulk and make meals ahead of time. That’s the entire idea behind our 5 Dinners in 1 Hour approach. Stock your freezer and pantry with essentials that you can use in a variety of meals. Then, do all your cooking for the week on one day. Store meals in the freezer until you are ready to bake them.
Budget Freezer Meal Ideas
We took our make-ahead meals model one step further. We know money is tight and we want to help you stretch your dollar even further. You’ll already save money by making your dinners ahead of time. But this time, we specifically created meals that use bulk ingredients you can buy for a low price.
How To Save money by making meals ahead
There are quite a few secrets we’ve learned in all our time making meals and freezing them.
First, try to buy in bulk and reuse the same ingredients in new ways throughout the week. You’ll save money on each meal when you split up a bulk package of chicken, for example.
Next, Use low-priced food. That means using beans and chicken instead of the higher-priced steaks and ground beef. Going meatless and bulking up recipes with pasta and bread are other ways to make that food (and your dollars you spend on it) stretch.
Finally, make meals filling and different. When all of your meals taste incredibly different, your family won’t even know that you reused some of the same ingredients in them.
How to come up with budget freezer meal ideas
We did this part for you already. When you purchase our budget freezer meal ideas bundle, you will gain access to 15 different recipes and a printable grocery shopping list. All that you have to do is prepare the meals, freeze them, and then cook them. It’s so much less stressful!
Here’s how we did it. You don’t have to do it in this order – we don’t always. Meal-planning is creative process too.
Start With the Protein
When money is tight, choose protein sources that are low-priced. Chicken, ham, frozen meatballs, and beans are all popular choices. If you are going to buy beef, choose ground beef since it’s cheaper. When you buy large quantities of it, the price-per-pound goes down.
Choose low-priced fillers
Next, build on your protein base with inexpensive fillers. That means avoiding expensive grains like quinoa and choosing rice. Other ingredients that will keep you in your budget include bread, tortillas, and pasta.
Be creative with flavors
Now that you know how to save money on the ingredients, it’s time to have fun with them. This is kind of like an episode of Chopped. How can you use spices and other minor ingredients to create completely unique recipes?
Make a soup one night. Choose something Tex-Mex another night.
If being creative with recipe ideas doesn’t sound fun for you, we have a recipe bundle you’ll appreciate. In it, you’ll find 15 different recipes along with a printable grocery list. All of these recipes can be put in the freezer and used later on as you need. All of them use budget-friendly ingredients too.
How Many Freezer Meals to Make Ahead
How many meals should you make ahead? That’s entirely up to you and how much food you have on hand. There are some people that will create 30 days worth of meals on a weekend and store them all in their freezer. There is some wisdom to this – you don’t have to make as many trips to the store.
Other people prefer to make smaller grocery lists and only make a week’s worth of meals at a time.
There really isn’t a correct answer. That’s why we put 15 meal ideas in our budget freezer meals bundle. With this bundle, you’ll be able to make 3 week’s worth of meals for your family at once.
Budget Freezer Meal Ideas
Here are a few of the different meals you’ll find in the recipe bundle. Don’t they sound incredibly appetizing? And they are affordable too!
- BBQ Chicken Quesadillas
- Slow Cooker Ham and Beans
- Slow Cooked Ravioli
- Mexican Vegetable Soup
- BBQ Chicken Tostadas
Get The Budget Freezer Meal Ideas Bundle
Are you ready to get started? Purchase the budget freezer meals bundle right now. When you purchase it, you’ll also get a free printable grocery list to go with it. Take one less thing off your mind. Feed your family amazing food on a shoestring budget. These are fun recipes that break from the ordinary.
Slow Cooker Burrito Bowls