As the kids get older, or even if you want to challenge your partner or roommate, this $20 grocery shop challenge is for you!

The idea is that you are given 20$ to buy ingredients to create a family meal (or meal for 4 if there are only two of you in the house – hey, it’s an easy way to get a third or fourth meal!) Bonus points if you can make a whole second different meal from your leftovers.

You must be able to buy all the parts of the meal that you want to make (other than some staples that you have stocked, like spices, seasonings, baking supplies, condiments, etc). All of the parts of the meals and the tax must be covered by the 20$.

One of my sneaky kids went through the pantry first and picked out a couple of recipes that we can already easily make at home! At first, I wanted to change the rules so that it had to be stuff purchased – but getting creative with what you already have AND saving money is also the point. Meal planning is essentially a game of how far you can make that money stretch if you plan ahead. The combination of looking at flyers ahead of time and using items that you already have can make that “20$” meal cost 5$ instead!

I mean, it’s not really the point of the challenge, but I love how much my meal planning has had an impact on his thinking about grocery shopping.

Whether you are a single person, just two people, or a whole family of how ever many people, use the challenge to test yourself and your family to see what you can come up with.

See who can make the healthiest meal, spending the least of their 20$.

Share the meals you create in the comments below! How many meals can you make out of 20$?

Thanks for coming home!