Hello, my fellow frugal millennials! It’s Thursday which means I spent about a half hour yesterday scouring the Sprouts Weekly Ad Deals and planning my weekly meal plan for the week. Here’s a breakdown of my methodology.

Looking at Weekly Ad Deals

Before I even started thinking about what I wanted to eat I looked at Sprouts Weekly Ad Deals. Here’s what I noticed:

• Black grapes are a good deal. I will typically buy grapes if they are less than $1 per pound. They typically range from $1.99-$0.88 per pound. The fact that they are as low as $0.77 per pound is a great deal. I’m going to grab a bag of black grapes to snack on throughout the week.
• Italian squash is a good deal. Italian squash typically cost about $1.50 per pound so the fact that they are on sale for $0.48 per pounds is another good deal. Because this is the best vegetable deal of the week, I’m going to focus one of my meals around Italian squash.
• Artisan lettuce is another fantastic deal! This type of lettuce typically costs $2.99-$3.99 per pack. It’s on sale for $0.98 which is an AWESOME deal. I’m going to figure out how to incorporate this into my meal prep.
• Mild cheddar cheese is a good deal. I try to pick up whatever cheese is on sale that week and use it in scrambled eggs and maybe lunch or dinner.
• There really aren’t very great meat deals this week. Which means I’m going to have a pretty veggie week.

Creating a Meal Plan

After considering the deals, I know an easy meal would be tacos. I can use the lettuce cups as shells, the cheddar cheese that is on sale, and extra lean ground beef is on sale for $4.99 lb. Not the greatest ground beef deal, but it’s the only meat I’m going to eat this week so I’ll splurge.

I’m not too familiar with cooking with Italian squash so I had to head over to Budget Bytes to look at recipes. There’s a recipe for Zucchini Pizza Boats that looks simple enough so I’ll try that.

For breakfast, I’ll alternate between scrambled eggs, pancakes, and protein shakes. These are my typical go-to breakfasts. Plus, I already have all of the ingredients on hand that I need to use up.

You’ll notice that I have a few blank squares on my weekly meal plan. Those are the days I’m planning on eating out. I know that one Wednesday I’m going to grab lunch with a friend. Friday and Saturday I typically eat out. Sunday I’ll probably sleep in and eat a late brunch which means I won’t need to eat lunch.

Creating a Shopping List

After looking through my refrigerator, I have a fair amount of ingredients leftover from previous weeks. Here’s what I’ll need to buy this week:

• 1 Red onion $0.69/lb
• 1lb bulk mushrooms $2.99/lb
• 6 Italian Squash $0.48/lb
• 1 can tomato sauce $0.99
• 1 can black olives (price unknown, probably $1.99)
• 1 artisan lettuce $0.98
• 1 lb ground beef $4.99/lb
• 1 lb mild cheddar cheese $2.99/lb
• 2.5 lb Grapes $0.77/lb
• 1 bag baby carrots $0.98

Total estimated cost: These ingredients will cost around $21.50. I’ll also probably grab a bag of chips and maybe some chocolate because I am human after all! But I would expect my total cost to be less than $30 which is a great start to the month. I always like to start the month under budget. That means I can try out more exciting recipes as the month goes on. Or I can grab a few extra treats later in the month.

If you want to learn more about how I meal prep, check out my post on grocery shopping on a budget.