MEAL PREP FRENZY: Mum makes 370 meals for less than 90 cents per serve

Okay. I am officially all meal prepped out.

I am a mum-of-four from New Zealand and I have lost over 40kg following The Healthy Mummy’s 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge. 

As a family, we spend a MAXIMUM of $200 (New Zealand dollars – which is about $185 Aussie dollars) a week on grocery shopping. The 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge has helped our family eat well while sticking to a budget.

However last week, I was motivated and prepared to take on a new meal prep mission and see HOW MUCH FURTHER I could go.

I set myself a challenge to prep 30 days of healthy snacks and dinners for our family of 6.

There are lots of New Zealand Healthy Mummies who see all the amazing meal prep blogs, stories and posts within The Healthy Mummy community – however – often feel a little discouraged to take on similar tasks as prices (in grocery stories) in NZ can be more expensive than in Aus!

So, I wanted to show all the NZ Healthy Mummies you really can meal prep on a budget no matter what – especially when you have support and guidance from the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge.

MEAL PREP FRENZY: Mum makes 370 meals for less than 90 cents per serve

Before we began our meal prep frenzy, my 13 year old daughter entered all the recipes we were going to make into the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge App.

This provided us with a shopping list to go off.

Then we decided to double everything.

While we had a few things in the pantry (think spices, salt and pepper and meal prep containers) we essentially had to buy EVERYTHING for this meal prep challenge.

In the end we spent a total of $325 for 370 serves. That’s the same as saying 370 meals for 87 cents per serve.

Made meals we made

Tandoori Chicken – 12 serves

Nacho mince – 6 serves

Devilled sausages – 6 serves

Meatball soup – 12 serves

Sausage pasta bake – 12 serves

Spanish rice – 12 serves

Stovetop lasange – 18 serves

One pot spag bol – 12 serves

Chicken drumsticks serves – 12 serves

Slow cooked asian chicken serves – 12 serves

Cheesy chicken meatloaf serves – 6 serves

Easy beef stew serves – 18 serves

Snacks we made

Choc chip banana bread – 36 serves

Hidden vege sausage rolls serves – 24 serves

Brocolli bites – 24 serves

Orange poppy seed muffins – 12 serves

Choc brownies x 4 – 36 serves

Pumpkin and sweet potato soup – 24 serves

Asian pork and vege balls – 20 serves

Weetbix slice x 2 – 36 serves

Peanut crumble balls – 20 serves

Spinach balls – 20 serves

In the end this meal prep took most of THURSDAY and a few hours on SUNDAY!

In the end, I was able to make enough main meals for the fam for 24 days. However, I was able to make enough snacks for 30 days. Thank goodness for our deep freezer.