I am so excited to be sharing my journey doing the on a budget. We are determined to get healthier, both physically AND fiscally. So I’m happy to share with you our journey doing this! For the essential information on what the 21 Day Fix Extreme is and about the nutrition plan, .
I have learned from trial and error (and error, and error), that having a plan in hand is key. Sure, you can deviate a little from it (more on THAT in a second!), but it at least gives you a guide.
Read the Manual
So let me walk you through my steps for setting up the meal plan. First thing first, I read the manual from cover to cover. This helped me understand what was expected of me.
List Your Dinners
Second, I listed all dinners that I wanted to prepare. As you do this, look at what you already have. This is key. You’ll look at my plan and go, “There’s no way that’s all under $20/person.” But the thing is, we look at what was unused from the week before and put it to good use!
This week I’m sticking mostly with recipes from the book, just to take out the work of planning meals on my own. So on the menu are foods like Balsamic Steak Salad, Turkey Chili, Turkey Meatballs, etc.
On another week, I’d probably use a recipe from , a cookbook, or something from .
Estimate Prices
I mapped out the price (guesstimating) for each of the items that I would NEED for the recipe (not all the ingredients, just what I knew I didn’t have). This allowed me to make decisions on what to cut–for example, I wanted to do a stew recipe, but purchasing the beef for that would break our budget, so I did a grilled chicken and leftover vegetables recipe instead.
I made sure the total $$$ for the dinners was no more than half our budget.
Heads up, you –an no it’s not couponing and MOST of what we buy is not processed.
Map Out the Meals
I then I pulled out a peace of paper and made columns for each day of the week and rows for each meal. I added those diners in and added little circles based on the food container color that they would fulfill (I used half circles for half container servings).
Fill in Breakfast
So since my body functions best when drinking , I add that in for all of my breakfasts. I personally add a banana to mine, but as far as adding anything else, I wait until the VERY end when I want to fill in food containers.
Fill in Lunches
For lunches, I planned on leftovers. This was just to use up the ingredients (so spend less!). As a backup plan, I’m drinking Shakeology and filling in whatever containers I miss through things like baby carrots, apples, and other snacks. I felt that putting leftovers took out a lot of guesswork. I also tend to freeze leftover dinners, so I have a stash in the freezer that I could always use (and they are labeled according to 21 DF containers). So there’s always something around.
Fill in Toughest Container
So my next step is I fill in my toughest container. This allows me to have a lot of options for what OTHER containers I can put with it to help me choke it down. #kiddingnotkidding
But yeah, the red container (protein) is my dreaded one. I can easily get it in with Shakeology and love it. But for a gal who hates tofu, dairy, and tries to limit her meats…it’s a tough container for me to get in!
So, for example, I have plain greek yogurt (BLECH), but since I haven’t filled in a ton of my meal plan with the other containers, I can easily mix in a purple (fruit) container of thawed berries that I had frozen and suddenly it’s not so blech.
Eggs are a fantastic budget-friendly protein, so I sneak in a few there using my .
Another budget-friendly way of getting in red for me is a tuna packed with sliced carrots, celery, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
Fill in Favorite Container
Now’s my favorite part, deciding how I get to consume my absolute favorite container: the CARBS!!! (yellow). Sweet potatoes, peas, edamame, brown rice, pasta, oh my!!! So now’s the exciting moment where I get to add all of that in (now some of these were already used with my dinners).
Fill in the Rest!
Now I just fill in the rest! Because I’m on a budget, I’m not doing a HUGE variety of snacks–for example this week is a lot of cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, clementines, walnuts, cashews, etc. and they repeat several times. I actually have learned that , mixing it up occasionally of course! But learning that gave me a new sense of freedom with my meal planning.
It’s A-OK if I want a veggie burger with an edamame salad for lunch every day of the week!!! But this week I did a slightly different approach. But the fact is, feel free to have the same snacks repeating!
Double Check It All
Now go back through and double check that each day you are getting in your allotted containers. I personally use the 21 Day Fix app because it helps me count the containers. Now, since I’m on the first plan and the container quantities is the same as the original 21 Day Fix, it works. But, for example, my husband has to add a few containers. So you will have to keep that in mind.
Create Grocery List
Now I create my grocery list. I use the Grocery IQ app because I can estimate a price in there and it adds it up for me. So this tells me where I’m at. I try to keep it $10-$15 under budget, in case we realize we forgot something at the store and to account for any taxes.
Update: I actually now use a slightly different system that saves me even more money. You can check that out in my article on .
Here’s my grocery haul for this week!
Be Prepared to be Flexible
There may be times when you do not follow the meal plan perfectly, don’t freak out! Simply sub out the food groups from that meal with something from those same containers. If I missed my 10 baby carrots, i can have a container of tomatoes. If I didn’t have enough leftovers for lunch, then I know I will have Shakeology foods that fill whatever containers were budgeted for that lunch!
Make it Visible
Pin it to your fridge. Snap a photo of it and keep it on your phone. Whatever you do, make it VISIBLE.
Prep
The day before, see that all items are ready for the next day. Is the meat thawing for next night’s dinner? Are snacks packed in grab and go containers. I do a lot of this on Sunday to avoid grunt work throughout the week, but I like to check in the night before to make sure I’m ready to rock and roll. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail, right?
It’s Easy, I Promise
It may seem complicated, but I promise it is easy. This took no more than an hour (and that was longer than normal because this is a new plan and I wanted to study it thoroughly). And now there is NO GUESSWORK throughout the week. No panicking at 5pm because I still have NO IDEA what to make for dinner. No swinging through the drive through because I forgot to pack snacks and am now ravenously hungry for a super value meal.
So I hope that helps! I hope you will join me in my journey as I complete this program. I’ll keep you posted on things!
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