One Week $50 ALDI Meal Plan

This one-week $50 ALDI meal plan lets you get everything you need at one store! Use this Aldi budget meal planner to enjoy yummy family-friendly recipes like the Best Burgers Ever and Baked Potato Nachos, plus plenty of fresh veggies, so you can feel good about feeding your family on a budget.

Here at Crumbs, we’re all about eating real food on a budget. I encourage you to do things like shop in bulk, consider NOT using coupons, and use tricks to save on meat at the store.

But sometimes it’s not HOW you shop, but WHERE you shop that makes the biggest difference. Shopping at the wrong store might be a reason you’re NOT saving money on food!

Case in point – check out my side-by-side comparisons of ALDI vs. Costco, and ALDI vs. Walmart!

Knowing how to shop strategically to slash your grocery budget comes with years of experience (or you can get there faster by taking my course!).

But as you build your shopping experience, you can “hack” your strategy by creating a meal plan that lets you buy everything you need from one store. Not just any store though – a store that is known for their low prices…like ALDI.

Psst! If you think shopping for deals means spending all day driving all over town, you’re wrong! Let me teach you how to shop quickly, and still get everything you need. Enrollment for my course Grocery Budget Bootcamp opens just a few times each year, and graduates save anywhere from $200 – $300 in the first month alone! Enrollment is currently closed, but you can join my FREE 5-day Crush Inflation Challenge and start saving money on groceries tomorrow!

BUDGET MEAL PLANNER ALDI

It’s also no secret that I’m a big advocate of meal planning. I have TONS of free meal plans on the blog. But would you believe that I’ve never specifically made a budget meal planner Aldi style?

Let’s change that. Today, our focus is on a week of Aldi dinner ideas.

ONE WEEK ALDI BUDGET MEAL PLAN

WHAT’S INCLUDED:

• 100% real food recipes that are simple, straightforward, and family-friendly.
• Easy family recipes that are quick to make and all of them can be made in under an hour.
• A few store-bought items for things I typically make from scratch (like hamburger buns and spaghetti sauce). Feel free to make these things from scratch if you prefer.
• One week of Aldi dinner ideas that comes in right at $50 for a family of four!

WHAT’S NOT INCLUDED:

• Spices, salt and pepper, olive oil, and vinegar. None of these Aldi recipes call for enormous amounts of these things, and you probably already have these pantry staples.
• Flour. Ordinarily, I’d include this, especially if we were doing a lot of baking. But this week, we’re skipping the baking, and you only need a couple of tablespoons for the meatballs. Most pantries have some sort of flour, but if you don’t, I’d ask a neighbor, or use a substitute like oats or breadcrumbs!
• Precautions for food allergies. My family is blessed to not have food allergies, so I don’t plan for them in my meal plans. However, ALDI has a fantastic gluten-free line of foods (and this ALDI meal plan is mostly gluten-free already), and if you’re dairy-free you’re used to subbing anyway. With a few tweaks, I think this ALDI meal plan would work in most food allergy families too.

NO BREAKFAST OR LUNCHES?

This meal plan doesn’t include breakfast or lunches because, in my experience, most families have personal preferences on what they eat for breakfast and lunch.

Have no fear though – I have NO DOUBT the ingredients you buy for this meal plan will provide extras you can use to cover breakfasts and/or lunches. Here’s why:

• Every main dish in this Aldi budget meal planner is something I make frequently with my family. Every single one of them covers dinner for the four of us AND enough for at least one leftover lunch (usually two).
• Use the “Bonus Meal Ideas” section at the bottom to create your own breakfast and lunch menu. Those are just some ideas to get started, but they’re there to help you use the ingredients you’re already buying!
• If you still don’t think this is enough food to cover breakfast AND lunches, buy a bag of apples and a container of oatmeal. Make apple cinnamon oatmeal or granola for breakfast and you’ll still keep your total bill under $55.

ALDI MEAL PLAN PRICES

Prices for this Aldi meal plan have been updated as of March 2024. They were taken from an Aldi location outside of Atlanta just before publishing. The total cost in your area may be different!! I highly suggest…

• Shopping from your pantry first and substituting with as many things as possible where necessary to keep your Aldi shopping list as short as possible.
• Use your price book to find the rock-bottom prices in your area.
• Look at other stores like Walmart and Costco! I did side-by-side cost comparisons of ALDI vs. Walmart and ALDI vs. Costco and you might be surprised at what I found out!
• Remember, you’ll likely have extras of some ingredients! Use the Bonus Aldi Meal Ideas section below for ideas on additional recipes to make.

ONE WEEK ALDI MEAL PLAN: WHAT TO BUY

The goal with any of my meal plans is to buy as little food as possible, use everything you buy, and do both without sacrificing taste or quality.

Without further ado, then, here’s what you’re buying for this free Aldi meal plan:

MEAT

• Ground Beef 80/20, $3.99/lb: You’ll need two pounds of this to cover hamburgers and meatballs. My recipe for meatballs makes A LOT of meatballs, and we always have leftovers. Save the extras for a lunch or freeze them for a future dinner.
• Bacon, $3.79/lb: One pound of bacon is getting split between the Baked Potato Nachos and BLT’s. Be sure to save the bacon grease for cooking – it’s great for adding bacon flavor to just about anything (try it in my Caramelized Onions and Swiss Chard recipe)!
• Chicken Leg Quarters, $0.89/lb: You need about 1 ¼ pounds of chicken leg quarters to equal 4 cups of shredded chicken. You’ll use this chicken in the Southwestern Chicken Chopped Salad and Chicken Fried Rice. Depending on your package, you might have extra chicken for lunches, or to freeze for a future dinner!

MEAT TOTAL: $12.66

COLD CASE

• Cheddar Cheese, $1.79/8 oz: You need 12 ounces for this meal plan, so you’ll end up with an extra 4 ounces of cheddar cheese by the end of the week. Personally, I’d shred it and freeze it in 2-ounce portions – that’s the perfect amount to use in a taco bar!
• Eggs, $1.29/dozen: This meal plan only calls for 2 eggs, so you’ll have several left over. Save them for the following week, use them for breakfast, or use the “Bonus Meal Ideas” below for more ideas!
• Sour Cream, $1.69/16 oz: Sour cream is a topping for Tortilla Soup and Baked Potato Nachos, but you can also add it to your Southwestern Chicken Chopped Salad too. If you serve spaghetti and meatballs at the end of the week, add leftover sour cream to the sauce for a fun twist on pasta night!
• Frozen Veggies, $1.19/16 oz: You’ll need one bag of mixed vegetables for Chicken Fried Rice, and one bag of corn for Southwestern Chicken Chopped Salad and Tortilla Soup. You could use fresh for the fried rice, but this is a shortcut to help you save time without sacrificing quality!

COLD CASE TOTAL: $8.94

PANTRY

• Black Beans, 59¢/15 oz: You need one can of black beans for this Aldi menu, which will get split between Tortilla Soup and Southwestern Chopped Salad. Be sure to drain them well and rinse them twice to avoid gas!
• Garbanzo Beans, 59¢/15 oz: Just like the black beans, you need one can to split for two meals this week.

Note: If you decide to cook dry beans instead, you can shave off a few cents per “can.” See the math when I compared dry vs canned beans! Plus, it’s SUPER easy to make beans in the Instant Pot, portion them out, and stick the extras in the freezer for future meals.

• Chicken Broth, $1.89/32 oz: I normally make a big batch of chicken broth using leftover chicken bones, but since not everyone does that, I put chicken broth on the shopping list. You need the entire quart for Tortilla Soup. If you prefer your soup to have more liquid, add some water without sacrificing the flavor.
• Ranch Dressing, $.89/16 oz: This is something else I personally typically make from scratch (here’s the recipe), but this might not be the case for everyone. We’re having salad 4 nights this week AND we’re using the dressing for dipping one night. If you have family members who are liberal with dressing, make sure they don’t go overboard too early in the week!
• Rice, $1.29/2 lbs: You only need 2 cups of cooked rice for one meal this week, so you’re definitely going to have leftovers with this purchase. That’s fine though, because rice stores well AND is a perfect side dish to almost any meal!
• Soy Sauce, $1.49/10 oz: Soy sauce is a staple in Chicken Fried Rice, and while you won’t use the entire jar, fried rice isn’t the same without it! Lucky for us, soy sauce won’t go bad sitting on the pantry shelf.
• Spaghetti Pasta, $1.45/2 lbs: You really only need 8 ounces for the Spaghetti and Meatballs this week, but you could bump it up to a full pound and still have enough spaghetti leftover for another meal!
• Spaghetti Sauce, $.99/24 oz: I normally make my own spaghetti sauce. Whether I go all out for Hearty Spaghetti Sauce or keep it minimal with a 15-Minute Sauce, it’s just something I prefer to make myself. In case you don’t, it’s something to buy on this week’s Aldi run for Spaghetti and Meatballs. Fortunately, it’s very affordable!
• Sunflower Seeds, $1.99/10.5 oz: Sunflower seeds might not seem that important, but I like the crunch they add to salads. And since we’re having several salads this week, this isn’t something to skip!
• Canned Diced Tomatoes, 87¢/15 oz: We need one can of diced tomatoes for Tortilla Soup. If you find a variety that’s fire-roasted or has added chiles, pick it up for a fun twist on this delicious recipe!

PANTRY TOTAL: $12.04

PRODUCE

• Avocado, $1.59/each: This isn’t cheap for one avocado, but I’m including it because it’s a healthy fat for us. It also helps to make Southwestern Chicken Chopped Salad feel more like a meal, than “just” a salad.
• Carrots, $.99/lb: You need carrots throughout the meal plan this week, including the Spinach Salad, Green Salad, and Tortilla Soup. Figure out how many carrots are going in each dish, and you won’t have any leftover!
• Cucumber, 49¢/each: We’re splurging on a cucumber to help bulk up the green salads this week. While this is a great deal right now, I’d pay up to $1 for one cucumber if necessary.
• Garlic, 5 cloves: 79¢/6 oz: Not every ALDI has fresh garlic, so I went with the jarred minced garlic this time around. You’ll use it in the Tortilla Soup and Chicken Fried Rice. Feel free to use extra if you like a lot of garlic!
• Grape Tomatoes, $2.49/pint: These are the highlights of the salads this week, and cutting the tomatoes in half stretches them out a bit further than if you used them whole.
• Green Onions, $.79/bunch: The green part of the onion is great in Tortilla Soup and Baked Potato Nachos, but don’t let the white part go to waste! I suggest adding any extra to the hamburgers. You can also chop and freeze extra green onions and add them to soup or stir fry in the future for extra flavor.
• Iceberg Lettuce, $1.19/head: Any variety of lettuce will work in the meal plan, but I chose iceberg because it was on sale this week. If you find another variety or a pre-packaged mix that gives you just as much and costs less, feel free to go that route instead! You’ll want two heads of lettuce or two bags of salad mix.
• Onions, $1.79/2 lbs: You only need one yellow onion this week for Tortilla Soup and the Green Salads, but you can also slice one up for Hamburgers and BLTs too.
• Potatoes, $1.99/5 lbs: Russet potatoes are inexpensive year-round, so we’re using them in Baked Potato Nachos and as a side dish for the burgers. If you have extras, feel free to make Crispy Potato Wedges with the BLTs too!
• Spinach, $2.49/5 oz: Spinach is not cheap, but it’s very nutritious and a nice alternative to a typical Green Salad. My ALDI only had pre-packaged organic spinach, so your cost might be less depending on what your store offers.
• Tomato, $1.49/16 oz: You need one tomato in this meal plan, for Baked Potato Nachos and BLTs. My ALDI doesn’t sell large slicing tomatoes individually, so you might have extras. Use the Bonus Meal Ideas section below for ways to use them up!

PRODUCE TOTAL: $17.28

TOTAL FOR ONE WEEK ALDI MEAL PLAN: $50.92

Not too shabby, eh? We’re coming in right at our target $50 budget with these Aldi recipes!

ONE WEEK ALDI MEAL PLAN: DINNERS

• Hamburgers // Potato Wedges // Green Salad
• Spaghetti and Meatballs // Green Salad
• Southwestern Chicken Chopped Salad
• Tortilla Soup
• Chicken Fried Rice
• Baked Potato Nachos // Spinach Salad
• BLTs // Veggie Sticks // Ranch Dip

Get these meal plan exclusive Aldi recipes, along with a printable grocery list (so you can head right to the store), right here!

ADDITIONAL CHEAP ALDI MEALS

As you can see from the items above, you’ll have a few leftover ingredients from your shopping trip. Here are some bonus cheap Aldi meals to use it all up, so nothing goes to waste!

• Beef & Cheddar Omelets (using leftover meatballs, cheddar cheese and eggs)
• Rice Pudding (using rice)
• Veggie Fried Rice (uses extra rice, eggs, soy sauce, and any leftover vegetables)
• Savory Pasta with Onions, Bacon, and Greens (uses extra spaghetti and onions)
• Caramelized Onions and Swiss Chard (uses extra onion and leftover bacon grease)
• Mashed Potatoes (uses extra potatoes)
• Oven-Roasted Hashbrowns and Scrambled Eggs (uses extra potatoes, onions, and eggs)
• 15-Minute Tomato Soup (uses extra tomatoes)
• Cheddar Garlic Toast (uses extra cheese and bread)

For more tips for shopping at Aldi, check out my Ultimate Guide to Shopping at Aldi here. And if you’re looking for more Aldi meal plans, check out our NEW Aldi Meal Plan #2 here!

Do you have any inexpensive meal ideas you can shop for at ALDI? Or ideas for using up the leftover ingredients? Share your ideas in the comments below!