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Here’s how to create the worksheet (we use a spiel notebook).

First draw out seven days horizontally and label each line with the day. We start with Saturday.

Vertically divide the page into 4 columns for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner.

Now begin to fill in meals.

We look forward to pita pizza for every Friday night dinner. We fill that in first and then work backwards from Friday to Saturday.

We find it easiest to fill in the dinners first, using as many ingredients as we have on hand.

You could think of your first week as an almost no spend week and plan the food you have into your meals until your fridge is empty. For us, we always keep an eye on the special promotions: If we can combine them with a coupon we will purchase them. For example, this week we purchased a $16 ham for $7.97. It  was on sale for $6 at Walmart and we had a $2 coupon for it.

We also purchased two 400 gram cheese bars for $4.97 each.

Total spent for the week $17.93

• $9.96 for two 400 gram cheese bars
• $7.97 for the ham

Now comes the creative genius.

What can we make with the ham? Ham salad for sandwiches and grilled ham and eggs for breakfast are good. Ham and cheese flavours combine very well.

The week’s plan

Dinner

Friday dinner: Pita Pizza

Thursday dinner: Cheesy chili burrito

Wednesday: Grilled pineapple sweet and sour ham steak with rice and peas

Tuesday: Meal salad with bacon, five-bean and onion salad.

Monday: Baked potatoes with ham and vegetables.

Sunday: Grilled vegetables and bacon casserole with rice.

Saturday: Salmon patties on a bun, with green peas and carrot sticks.

The ham meals are alternated every other day. In between we serve a dish with a completely different flavour. This keeps the menu fresh and interesting.

Breakfast and lunch

These meals are simple and casual.

Set up seven easy meals that use food you have on hand.

If any food is missing I can purchase it and add the cost to my weekly total.

The important part is to have all the ingredients on hand so breakfast and lunch can come together easily.

Breakfast

Popular breakfast ideas at our house:

• Oatmeal with apples
• Eggs with cheese
• Yogurt smoothies
• Cold cereal with milk and berries
• If you bake think muffins

Lunch

Choose foods that offer a nutritional boost for the middle of the day.

• Soup; this can be homemade or canned
• Grilled cheese sandwiches with pickles
• A bowl of chili on a cool day can be very satisfying.
• Alternately a cold crisp meal salad really hits the spot on a hot day.
• Cheese and crackers with apple slices.
• Ham or egg western sandwiches.

Have coffee, tea and cold drinks available.

The trick is to have everything on hand so meals can appear quickly with minimal work. Good planning makes money wasting fast trips to the store unnecessary.

A few minutes with pencil and paper makes for more leisure time for you.

Recipes

Grilled sweet and sour pineapple ham steak.

Slice the ham half inch thick steaks

How to make the glaze:

Stir 1/2 a tablespoon of corn starch into the juice from one can of pineapple chunks or slices. You need 1 cup of juice. If you don’t have that much add water or apple juice.

Add:

2 teaspoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil and thickens.

Scoop half the glaze into the bottom of a baking pan

Set ham slices on top of the glaze.

Set one pineapple slice on top of each ham steak

Pour the remaining glaze over the top of the ham steaks.

Broil until sauce is bubbly and the pineapple slices start to brown.

Serve with rice and green peas.

Burrito with chili and cheese filling

Heat one can of chili

Add 1/2 cup of corn

1 tablespoon of green pepper.

Cook only until hot

Make burrito

Lay a flour tortilla in a hot frying pan

Sprinkle grated cheese over the tortilla

Scoop in hot chili and corn mixture

Fold tortilla up from the bottom then

Roll from the sides into a burrito shape.

Serve with salad and a side of taco chips.

Add a bowl of salsa for dipping.

Money saver

Coupons can be printed from . Want online support?

Join our group . There you’ll find more recipes, weekly menus, food sales and matching coupons.