What’s For Dinner: 30 Easy & Affordable Family Meals You’ll Actually Want to Eat
Get inspired with 30 easy, budget-friendly dinners—wholesome, delicious meals your family will actually look forward to eating.
“What’s for dinner?” the dreaded question asked to all mothers daily.
Every Dinner We Ate in June — On a $600 Grocery Budget
Here’s a complete list of every dinner our family ate throughout the month of June, along with the grocery purchases I made to stay on track with our budget. I’ve also included details about our meat savings for a fuller picture of what we had on hand in our pantry and freezer.
This list doesn’t include breakfast or lunch, though those meals were covered within the same $600 monthly grocery budget. I haven’t included many recipes but some are linked for easy reference — this is simply a list of easy dinner meal ideas to help spark inspiration when you’re planning for your own family.
My hope is that this brings encouragement and shows that it is possible to feed your family well on a budget.
Over the years, I’ve been building a pantry we can consistently rely on for our monthly staples. Many of our bulk purchases come from Azure Standard, and those are included within our monthly grocery budget — not added as extra expenses. I also preserve produce and meat throughout the year to help keep this pantry well-stocked and cost-effective. Some of the sides and easy meals in this month’s dinner plan were made using ingredients from our pantry, and we also harvested fresh herbs and produce from our garden. All of these elements work together to stretch our grocery budget, allowing us to eat nourishing, home-cooked family meals.
All meat unless specified as a purchase on the below grocery lists came from our freezers.
June’s Daily Easy Family Dinners
- Mustard Chicken with Rice and Spinach Strawberry Feta Salad
- Deer Fajita Bowls (rice, black beans, garden cilantro, onions, corn, sour cream)
- Brauts and baked onions
- Fried fish (husband caught) with tallow sweet potatoes and homemade tartar.
- Leftovers
- Shredded roast chicken gyro bowls.
- Shredded roast chicken in a cream sauce with bacon, spinach and green onions over mashed potatoes.
- Fried Chicken (purchased that night from a local store)
- Deer Meat tacos with homemade refried beans.
- Beef stir fry – broccoli, carrots, onions, garden green onions
- Homemade pizzas
- Leftovers
- Extended Family Dinner – I brought potato salad
- Street Tacos – ground beef, salsa and sour cream with garden cilantro.
- Dinner with friends – we brought a watermelon
- Ground beef chili – camping with friends
- Camping
- Leftover chili and popcorn – movie night
- Salmon with baked onions and rice.
- Pork loin schnitzel with chicken broth potatoes.
- Wild duck (hunted) with sweet potatoes
- Canned beef tacos
- Meatballs (ground pork and beef mix) with potatoes, onions and garden zucchini medley.
- Dinner with friends
- Dinner with friends – I brought a pie.
- Chicken pasta salad – feta cheese, homemade mayo lemon dressing, fresh dill, tomatoes, red onion.
- Burgers
- Fish (husband caught) with garden zucchini and onions
- Burgers
- Tacos
June Grocery Haul
Here is everything I purchased from the store and what it cost to make these easy family dinners in June. I do a main grocery run on the first of the month. I do not meal plan but I buy according to what I know my family will eat and what may be missing from my pantry inventory. My TOP TIP for you is BUY INGREDIENTS! (O. is for Organic)
Costco
- 2 Sour Creams
- Kirkland Butter
- 3 (2 Pack) Bellwether Yogurt
- 2 O. Medjool Dates
- 2 Bags O. Carrots
- O. Spinach
- O. Frozen Broccoli
- Pesto
- Sliced Salami
- Dubliner Cheese
- O. Strawberries
- 2 Bags O. Gala Apples (buy the smaller ones, more apples per bag per pound costs almost the same as one bag of o. fuji – kid snacks)
- O. Sweet Potatoes
- Gold Potatoes
- O. Yellow Onions
- O. Red Onions
- 2 O. Whole Chickens
- O. Chicken Thighs
- O. Olive Oil
- Helado Popsicles
Super 1
- 2 lbs. Bacon
- 5 lbs Cottage Cheese
- Foil
- Seran Wrap
Trader Joes
- O. Avocados
- O. Bananas (freezing for breakfast smoothies)
- Pound Plus Chocolate Bar
Winco
- Paper Towels
- Ice Cream
- Parchment Paper
Total Spent: $412 + $108 for Raw Milk and $80 leftover for random purchases.
Random Purchases: Hamburger buns, sliced cheddar cheese, brats, rice flour, lemons, camping snacks and supplies.
Saved $200 for bulk meat purchases.
We did not eat out once in the month of June. We did however, eat at a friend’s home several times and go camping one weekend.
June Gardening and Preservation
This month, I harvested zucchini, green onions, a variety of herbs, and a few early cherry tomatoes, which we used as garnishes for several dishes. We also foraged from a local giant cherry tree, which gave us enough fruit to make a year’s supply of Cherry Vanilla Jam. I froze extra cherries for smoothies and breakfasts, and the rest were enjoyed fresh or baked into a pie. We also went fishing as a family twice, bringing home fresh fish that became part of our family dinners. These seasonal and local additions added variety, nutrition, and a lot of joy to our meals — without increasing our grocery budget.
You Can Do This
You don’t need to have a perfectly mapped-out monthly meal plan or stick to a strict list of ingredients every week. What you do need is a little creativity and a willingness to make the most of what you have. Sometimes that means substituting ingredients, repurposing leftovers, or getting inspired by what’s growing in your garden. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming — in fact, IT CAN BE FUN! You’ll grow in confidence and skill as a home cook, and you’ll discover that feeding your family well on a budget is absolutely possible.
Love the variety in this! Also gives ideas on what to take when you join someone else for dinner.
Always looking for budget-friendly meals for our family of five. Thank you so much for sharing!