What are your go-to meal-planning grocery items?

When you are meal planning for the week, what is your grocery list like? What meals and snacks do you plan to stay budget friendly but also healthy?

I want to make sure I’m getting good protein in my diet since I workout and want to eat nutritious or “healthier option” food items, however I’ve come to realize I’m wayyy over spending at the grocery the past few months. It’s hard because things keep getting more and more expensive, for example, meat, and I feel like companies are taking advantage of us as well knowing we will spend more for “healthy” options and convenience in our busy lives. I usually plan to buy about 3-4 lbs of meat (anything from ground beef, ground turkey or chicken, chicken breast, I try to get the lean stuff) for the week and I’ll cook up a large batch of a meal and eat the same thing for lunch and dinner Monday-Sunday usually.

But I also like to get individual yogurt and cottage cheese cups for breakfast at work, and on days I work from home I do like eggs and maybe chicken sausages something.

Then I’m noticing I buy Yasso ice cream bars and Halo Top ice cream for sweet treats, string cheese, yogurt drinks, sometimes protein shakes, stuff like that for high protein snacks, and then other snack items or sometimes replacing household or hygiene items as necessary that make my bill go up a lot.

Sometimes I’ll buy premade stuff, like this week I was sick so I bought containers of soup which is annoying because they’re like $5-11 for each container depending on size. Sometimes I’ll get a rotisserie chicken, because as much as I try to cook at home (I rarely go out to eat or get fast food), sometimes I just need and want convenience.

I’m seriously spending so much though every week. So I want to know, what meals and snacks are you planning on a regular basis that are both healthy/good quality food but also budget conscious?

One somewhat cheaper option I do is canned tuna and pasta with a bit of butter. Maybe that sounds gross but I like it and it’s cheap, I just don’t wanna eat it every day twice a day.