By now, you have probably heard of the shopping coupon app, Ibotta. If you have not yet heard of it, it is a free downloadable smartphone app. If your goal is to save money grocery shopping, then you need to seriously look into Ibotta. This Ibotta weekly meal planning post will help you maximize savings when grocery shopping.
I have written a post about how to use Ibotta and you can read that post here. Because Ibotta is so easy to use, it is one of my favorite ways to make money online. Why? Because all you do is grocery shop. Also, there are usually fantastic bonuses for using Ibotta. What does that mean for you? If you buy certain items, you receive more money! What is easier than that?!
Rules Around Meal Planning:
Here is just a quick overview of my rules about meal planning:
-I love cooking, but I need options for the nights that I simply do not have time.
-It has to be flexible and freezable. If I make waffles for breakfast and we end up eating out, whatever I have made must freeze and be served later on in the week. Part of our family’s reduction of of personal debt has been that we have to eat smarter. While this does not mean we have cut out restaurants, we have become smarter about how we dine outside our home.
This week, I have a great weekly meal plan, using items that I bought using Ibotta. Using the coupons I downloaded on the app, I have a week of meals. This week I made $19.00 in coupons on Ibotta and another $3.50 in bonuses for a total of $22.50. That brings my total to over $58.00 for this month, by only shopping for groceries!
Breakfasts:
-Fruit Tubes and toast.
-Cafe Breaks pudding and fruit.
–Banana Mango Fruit Smoothie Bowl
-Donuts at our favorite place.
-Eggo Waffles.
-Banana Protein Shakes.
-Cereal with Silk Protein NutMilk
Lunches:
My kids love to take their lunch to school. My daughter hates cafeteria food, but I really believe she just likes picking out her own things to eat. She’s a control freak like her mother!
My rule for lunches is this: the easier it is to fix, the more likely I am to use it again. Here are 8 different lunch choices. Because I work for home, I often eat leftovers, so the kids eat one thing and I usually eat something differently. I love the Smartmade meals or simple salads, healthy frozen meals.
–Bacon Chicken Salad with MorningStar Frozen Chicken.
-Hillshire Farms Small plates, string cheese, Capri Sun Lemonade Packets.
-Spaghetti Elbows with Skinner Noodles, string cheese and fresh fruit
–Spicy Chicken Wraps with Morningstar Frozen Chicken.
-Black bean hamburgers with Morningstar black bean patties.
Dinners:
-Due to my son’s obsession with pizza, it is almost always on our weekly meal plan. While there are always coupons on Ibotta, this week there was a great pizza one. So one night we will have pizza with Sonoma Frozen Pizzas.
-Stouffer’s Family Size Meals. And this week we chose the Fiesta Chicken Bake. While there are many varieties of these meals, I was feeling a Mexican theme this week. I will serve it with grilled green beans and a green salad.
-Voila Family Size Balsamic Glazed Chicken with a side of roasted veggies.
-Taco Night with MorningStar Black Bean Crumbles. Grilling or pan roasting onions and carrots are amazing as a side dish. I also love to add corn on or off the cob when serving tacos, because my little guy loves it.
-And if there are black bean crumbles left, then make rice bowls. Add the crumbles, cheese, salsa and whatever other toppings your crew loves to the Minute rice.
-Eating Out. I always leave this as an open option because we are forever eating out or cleaning out the fridge based upon what our crazy life holds in any specific week.
-Fridge Clean Out. Unless we are traveling, every night of our family’s weekly meal plan includes a night where we clean out the fridge. Not only does this help us save a ton of money, it also reduces food waste in our home. While my kids grouse around some weeks, this has been essential to our ability to gain control over personal finances.
Ready to Join Ibotta?
If you are ready to join Ibotta, you will want to make sure you join a great team. And you get a free $10 just for joining. But you are able to achieve more bonuses each month, the bigger your team. I would love to have you on our team. And all you do is download the Ibotta app and enter the following code.
Do you meal plan and have you used Ibotta weekly meal planning in the past? If you have money saving tips, make sure to leave us a comment. Because we love reader interaction, we would love to share it. Also, we may choose to share your tip (and give you a shoutout) in a future post. And be sure to follow us on Twitter or Facebook for more ways that mama makes money.