Easy Aldi 5 Day Meal Plan for Under $100

This Aldi 5 day meal plan is perfect if you’re looking for some easy weeknight meal inspiration! Also if you’re looking to reduce your grocery bill. I bought all the ingredients I needed at Aldi for only $83.98! In this post, I’ll break down my shopping list and what we ate each day!

After being gifted a $100 Aldi gift card for Christmas, I wanted to see if I could plan a week’s worth of meals for that amount or less. I’ve never been a big Aldi shopper, but I knew they were known for having low prices and some fun finds.

Since I think most of us wouldn’t mind saving on groceries while still eating delicious food, I decided to turn my little quest last week into a blog post and share my meal plan with you! 

I find that meal planning is one of the easiest ways to stick to a food budget and reduce grocery spending. By simply taking a moment to plan out 5 easy recipes that I know we will enjoy and aren’t hard to make, I can make grocery shopping easier and spend way less money.

And another nice side effect of meal planning? I have drastically reduced our food waste. 

I focused on the building block of each meal first, which for me is the protein. Then, I built each meal around that. I did one semi-protein-less meal, as we usually have one veggie pasta night each week anyway.

These meals are simple and easy to make but are full of flavor. They can all be made relatively quickly, and require minimal prep and clean-up; which makes them perfect for busy weeknights. 

And I accomplished my goal! My total cost was $83.98. This grocery list will assume you have some pantry staples, but if there’s anything you don’t have, there’s probably enough left over for you to fill in the gaps.

Four of these recipes are brand new and I will be creating official recipes for each of them soon. The fish recipe already exists on the blog, but I ended up making some updates!

Shopping list for this Aldi 5 Day Meal Plan

Here are the items that I purchased to make easy dinners from Aldi. I will share the staple items that I already had and didn’t need to purchase for my meal plan after this.

Protein

• Ground chicken breast
• Chicken tenderloins
• Ground Beef
• Wild-caught frozen cod

Produce

• mushrooms
• broccoli
• organic spinach & arugula mix
• organic baby carrots
• tomatoes
• onion
• zucchini
• baby golden potatoes
• parsley
• cilantro

*you may notice I also bought avocados, I wanted those for lunch sandwiches so they aren’t part of the dinner meal plan 🙂

Dairy

• aged white cheddar cheese
• asiago cheese wedge
• sour cream

Bread/grains

• sesame brioche buns
• white rice
• package pasta – I bought shells, but you can really use any type of pasta

Pantry items/condiments

• pickles
• manzanilla olives
• pre-made guacamole
• canned diced tomatoes
• pesto

Items I already had on hand

Here are the things I used for this meal plan that I already had on hand at home:

• butter and oil – we typically buy oil and butter in bulk from Costco. 
• spices – garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, chili powder, crushed red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. These are my most heavily used spices (alongside dried basil and oregano) so I always keep them stocked. 
• frozen fries and tater tots – this is one I may or may not have depending on the week but I did already have both of these
• mayo
• honey – I almost always drizzle a touch of honey on roasted veggies and that’s what I used it for this week!
• all-purpose flour – I used this to make the cream sauce for the pasta
• milk – I also used this for the cream sauce and with a two year-old in the house, we always have whole milk on hand. 

The Easy Aldi 5 Day Meal Plan

These are real life meals so to speak, so they are fairly basic as far as ingredients and preparation are concerned. But they are delicious! This is also a great way to stick to a meal plan – plan for realistic recipes you can make without spending much time prepping and standing over the stove.

Day 1: Easy Ground Chicken Burgers

For my first meal, I made chicken burgers. We eat chicken burgers on the reg and I was happy to find a brand of ground chicken I usually buy from Amazon Fresh for only $3.39.

These burgers are seasoned simply with pantry seasonings like: garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. That’s it! They tasted delicious and were moist.

I pickled half of the onion I bought for the burgers and there was some left-over for lunch sandwiches. I planned to use the remaining half onion for the pasta.

Also, I chose to buy a spinach/arugula mix to use on the burgers because this was one of the very few organic greens options. And I actually love the extra flavor that arugula adds to a burger.

Annnd I went and forgot that I had bought pickles and didn’t end up having them on the burgers! But pickles are optional, anyway, of course.

Day 2: Creamy Zucchini Mushroom Pasta

On Tuesday I made this creamy pasta dish with zucchini and mushrooms. I had actually thought I was buying a wedge of parmesan cheese at Aldi, but it was asiago LOL. It turned out to be a happy accident because it was perfect in this.

I sautéed the veggies with onion and garlic and made a simple cream sauce with butter, flour, sour cream, milk, asiago, salt and pepper.

This pasta came together quickly, was super satisfying and checked off our once-weekly vegetarian night! My toddler was also a fan.

Day 3: Cheesy Pesto Chicken Tenders with Roasted Carrots & Broccoli

This was another winner and SO easy! I salted the chicken ahead of time (as always!), then just seasoned it simply with pepper, garlic powder and lemon juice.

Then I seared it in my cast iron pan before transferring to the oven to finish cooking. Once it was basically done, I slathered it with the pesto and some leftover asiago cheese and popped it under the broiler. It was. so. good.

I bought chicken tenders but you can also use chicken breasts or chicken thighs. 

For the veggies I just seasoned the broccoli and carrots with salt, pepper, honey and a little crushed red pepper flakes. They were perfect! 

Day 4: Baked Cod with Tomatoes and Olives over Rice

This one is actually a Fig Jar original! I was planning on making BLTs as one of our meals, but I wasn’t happy with the bacon options at Aldi, so I switched gears and found their wild-caught frozen cod fillets.

This one is almost like a slow cooker meal–you’re kinda just dumping ingredients in, baking it up and then you have dinner!

I made rice in the instant pot but you can also serve this with couscous or even just garlic bread and a salad.

Day 5: Potato Taco Bowls with Guacamole

This was another winner this week! I saved it for Friday because has it take-out vibes and we usually will eat out on Fridays.

I roasted potatoes and sauteed up some ground beef with taco seasoning. Once the potatoes were done, I topped with with the ground beef and shredded cheddar cheese.

Then, I popped the whole thing back in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese and boom. Dinner. We topped it with guacamole, sour cream, chopped tomatoes, cilantro and left over pickled onion.

We all loved it!

In conclusion

I found Aldi to be incredibly affordable and will definitely be checking them out more often. They have pretty much everything you need and if you are on a grocery budget, it can really help you stick to it!

I hope this post helps you see that you can make delicious meals without spending much money. I was able to make pretty healthy recipes using primarily whole foods for a week of cheap meals! Aldi is a great deal and if you plan out your week, you can really maximize the savings. 

Stay tuned for official recipes for each of these dishes coming soon! 

Enjoyed this Aldi 5 Day Meal Plan?

If you tried any of these recipes, please let me know how it went! I’d love to hear from you! You can also find me on Pinterest.