Mum meal preps 156 serves for under $100! Here’s how she saves $7,800 a year
Gemma Corey is a 41-year-old mum-of-three based in Brisbane and has been following The Healthy Mummy for the last two and a half years.
“In total I have now lost just over 27kg. I have also managed to have my healthiest and lowest risk pregnancy at 41 by following the Healthy Mummy Pregnancy Meal Plans and workouts in The Healthy Mummy app,” she says.
In fact, by following the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge, Gemma has been able to make a heap of healthy meals from the app – 156 serves for under $100 – that works out to be just over 60 cents per serve!
What Gemma made:
8 Healthy Mummy mains:
- Devilled sausages (8 serves)
- Stovetop Lasagne (6 serves)
- Potato Topped Savoury Mince Pie (4 serves)
- Butter Chicken (4 serves)
- Country Chicken Pie (6 serves)
- Sweet and Sour Chicken (4 serves)
- Curry Flavoured Noodles (4 serves)
- Slow Cooker Mac n Cheese (4 serves)
8 Healthy Mummy snacks:
- Caramilk Weetbix Slice (24 serves)
- Healthy Mummy Vanilla Slice (16 serves)
- Choc Chip Cookie Tart (16 serves)
- Choc Chip Banana Bread (16 serves)
- Flourless Chocolate Cake (12 serves)
- Triple Chocolate Cheesecake made on a Caramilk (12 serves)
- Choc Toffee Bark (12 serves)
- Healthy Sausage Rolls (8 serves)
40 serves of mains and 116 serves of snacks
You can find all of these recipes on The Healthy Mummy app.
“I made a total of 156 serves for under $100! $99.91 to be exact. This prep took me approximately 4.5 hours while I was still caring for my nine month old,” she says.
“Luckily I had picked recipes which I had made before. So for the most part I did not need to read the ingredients or recipe method and could just get cooking! Because I was doing this prep all on one day, it required significant planning!
“I had to carefully plan which meals and snacks I would make. I had to plan which dishes I would cook/bake my meals in (eg slow cooker, stovetop, oven and air fryer). This saved me a lot of time because I wasn’t waiting for one dish to finish baking in the oven before my next dish could be prepped.”
Gemma used as many kitchen appliances as she could
In fact, Gemma made full use of all of her kitchen appliances, she used her stovetop, oven, air fryer and microwave.
“Before starting I organised all of my prepping containers on table so that I could quickly plate up my dishes and then move onto the next recipe, saving time,” she says.
“While shopping for ingredients, I was surprised at how much cheaper I could get tinned and frozen vegetables than fresh right now. This was a huge saving. Plus it didn’t make a difference to my end dish because I am freezing them anyway.”
“Because I was prepping multiple meals and snacks at the same time I created a production line with all of my ingredients for each dish. This kept me focused so I didn’t forget any key ingredients or steps in the recipe method.
“I had a terrible habit of buying way more groceries than we needed. This meant that there was always a lot of waste with fruits and veggies ending up in the bin.
“Now I carefully plan out our dinners for the week and I purchase only the ingredients that we need and substitute proteins, veggies and fruits across dishes so that there is minimal waste. I rarely throw anything out!”
Gemma’s top tips for other mums meal prepping
1. Clean up as you go along
2. Aim to use everything you buy. I made a real effort for this meal prep to be zero waste. I made sure that if I bought an item (eg puff pastry, pasta or a dozen eggs) I picked recipes that would use up the entire amount.
3. Repeat meals and snacks as much as you can. The new 3 Pot Meal Plans really inspire me to find new ways to repurpose my leftovers into brand new meals.
4. Try to minimise the amount of different ingredients you are buying each week by picking meals that use the same base ingredients or can have the same ingredients substituted in.
5. Don’t forget to check out the veggies in the frozen and tinned sections! These can save you a lot of money if you are using them in your cooking. Frozen chopped spinach is waaayyyy cheaper than a bag of fresh baby spinach.
How The Healthy Mummy app helped Gemma budget
“I relied heavily on the filters in the Healthy Mummy app. I searched for recipes using the ‘budget friendly’ and ‘5 & under’ filters for inspiration when putting together my planned mains and snacks,” Gemma says.
“I had a terrible habit of coming home from work tired and buying takeaway because I couldn’t be bothered cooking.
“This would happen two, sometimes three times per week. This habit would cost us up to $150 extra each week.
“Thanks to my meal prep, I can have a healthy, family-friendly meal on the table much faster than getting takeaway. While we definitely haven’t given up getting takeaway – I can now enjoy it as a treat (once a fortnight) rather than feel guilty about it!”
Amazingly, Gemma estimates that she has also managed to save an additional $50 per week from our grocery shop by sticking to a meal plan and not overbuying ingredients to limit waste.
Gemma has saved herself $7,800 a year
“I estimate these changes have saved us $150 per week $650 per month and $7,800 per year,” she says.
“Because our family income has reduced while I am on maternity leave, we haven’t been able to increase our weekly grocery budget.
“So we have had to make our existing budget stretch to afford all of those new bub necessities (formula, nappies, wipes etc). This has meant that I have had to save $50 per week to cover these costs.”
Gemma Corey’s weight loss success
Gemma Corey says, “My biggest weight loss mistake was wasting too much time and money on diets which were not sustainable for my lifestyle.
“I have lost 27kg following the Healthy Mummy 28 Day Weight Loss Challenges and incorporating their smoothies and supplements into my lifestyle. It took me just over 12 months to lose this amount of weight.
“Having access to heaps of budget and family-friendly meals and the ability to do effective workouts at home has made my weight loss journey such a success! Thanks to Healthy Mummy, I have finally learnt how to live a healthier and more active lifestyle!”
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