This meal plan is me, being me. I love a good deal! If I can spend $10 on something that others would spend $50 on I get all giddy. I am sure that this frugal mindset was passed down to me by my mother, who I talked a little about in a previous post. Thank you mom. About nine years ago I decided to take my frugality to a whole new level when I learned the trick to using coupons. Thank you Crystal!

My “coupon lady” days.

There was a time after quitting my job and having kids that I learned how to be a “coupon lady”. It used to be my hobby. Like, how other people like fishing, hiking, sewing, and scrap-booking, I liked “couponing”. (This was before “Extreme Couponing” was a thing, and I never got to that point.) One day when my oldest child was two years old I came home with some bags from the store and he said, “Mommy, Did you get your deals?” and it occurred to me that I even had a language for what I was doing. If I bought something it was because it was a “deal”. Why else would a person buy 6 shampoos and four toothpastes at one time? Because they were deals that were too good to pass up, of course! I would spend an hour planning for a trip to the pharmacy, lining up all my coupons so I could do the perfect transaction that would total less than $5 and then if the sweet high school girl working the register told me my total was $7 I would look at her like, “Oh no, that can’t be right. It should have  been $5. I must have forgotten a coupon or something.” So I went from being “coupon lady” to “crazy coupon lady”. I just have to give a shot out to the Valparaiso CVS Pharmacy workers, though, because they were/are so, so, SO nice to me through all my craziness. I will forever be a fan of CVS.

My “budgeting” days.

I still love a good deal, and I still like to use coupons when it works out, but I have gotten to a place where a coupon is a thing I “use” and not a thing I “do”. My husband keeps up with our bills and pays close attention to where our money is going so we can adjust our budget if we need to. We both want to manage our money well and enjoy finding creative ways to save money. None of this has changed. However, we are not as tight with our budget now that I have a job.

How closely do you stick to your budget?

I’m not very good at it actually. What I have found is that sometimes a budget can be flexible. When necessary, you can creatively take money from one bucket and put it into another one. For instance, if you have a “clothes” budget of $100 a month and you spend $200 in a month to get the kids school clothes you can make up for it by spending $25 less on groceries each week for the month.

So why am I telling you all of this?

The motivation for this meal plan. . . are you ready for this?

. . . So I can buy more clothes.

You see, if you have a week where you spend $50-75 on groceries and your weekly grocery budget is $150 then that means you have $75-100 to spend on clothes, right? But if I am really honest, there are times I buy the clothes first and then ask myself, “Now, how can I work this out so that it is okay that I just bought these clothes”.

Here is a perfect example of what I am talking about. A couple of days ago I went to JCPenney to get some new shoes and I ended up coming out of the store with this rockin’ dress instead . . . what? Mistakes happen. 😉

I love this dress, and I got a great “deal”, but it wasn’t something I was planning on buying. So this is my “week after the dress” meal plan.

What it comes down to it this… whether you are on a tight budget or if you are just wanting to buy yourself a dress this week (or have a date night, or take the family out for ice cream, or whatever floats your boat) this meal plan is for you! I hope you enjoy these six frugal recipes that are all Weight Watcher friendly. Have a great week!!

Here is what we have on this week’s
Weight Watcher friendly (On a Budget) meal plan:

CHEESY ITALIAN CAULIFLOWER BAKE
MAKES 7 SERVINGS
7 SMART POINTS

TURKEY TACO SALAD
MAKES 5 SERVINGS
3 SMART POINTS

GRILLED CHICKEN W/
FIRE ROASTED VEGGIES
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
6 SMART POINTS

SPINACH AND FETA
STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
5 SMART POINTS

EASY BAKED TILAPIA
MAKES 4 SERVINGS
3 SMART POINTS

PIZZA BURGERS
MAKES 5 SERVINGS
8 SMART POINTS

PRINTABLE MEAL PLAN

Click on the picture below for a printable PDF of this week’s meal plan with each recipe’s ingredients. . .

PRINTABLE GROCERY LIST

Click on the picture below for a FREE printable grocery list you can take to your store.

Thanks! I love the meal plan. . .

. . . But what if I don’t want to use one of the recipes on the meal plan? 

As always, each recipe is numbered and the ingredients that go with that recipe have that number next to them on the grocery list. That way if you do not want to use a particular recipe you can just cross off the ingredients with that number next to the ingredient. For instance, with this meal plan, if you did not want to make the Cheesy Italian Cauliflower Bake you would cross off anything with a (1) next to it.