👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family Planning 7-Day Plan Budget Nutrition

How to Feed a Family of 4 Complete Nutrition for About $145 a Week

Q: What is the cheapest complete family meal plan?

The plan on this page, built around lentils, kangaroo/beef mince, chicken, eggs and canned fish, covers the major nutrient targets for around $145/week.

This is a full week of meals for a household of four that meets every major nutrient target, costed line by line at current grocery prices — not estimated or rounded.

Household: 2 adults + 2 school-age children, costed at 3.5 adult-equivalent portions (children at roughly 0.75× an adult serve). Prices checked August 2026, Coles/Woolworths/Aldi mix. This is a realistic, non-austere target that hits full nutrient coverage rather than the bare minimum.

Seven-Day Meal Plan

Per-serve costs from the app's existing recipe database, ×3.5 for the household (2 adults plus 2 children at roughly 0.75× an adult serve) — reflected in the daily totals below rather than shown as a separate column for readability.

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Daily total
Mon	Power Weet-Bix Bowl ($1.20/serve)	Chicken & Lentil Soup ($1.50/serve)	Kangaroo Mince Bolognese ($3.00/serve)	$19.95
Tue	Egg & Spinach Scramble ($1.80/serve)	3-Bean Salad ($0.75/serve)	Beef Mince Tacos ($3.20/serve)	$20.12
Wed	Overnight Oats ($1.10/serve)	Tuna & Bean Salad ($3.80/serve)	Lentil Potato Curry ($0.75/serve)	$19.78
Thu	Sardine Toast ($3.10/serve)	Bean & Veg Wrap ($1.90/serve)	Chicken Tray Bake ($2.90/serve)	$27.65
Fri	Savoury Weet-Bix + Egg ($1.40/serve)	Hummus & Veg Plate ($2.20/serve)	Kangaroo Mince Tacos ($3.50/serve)	$24.85
Sat	Big Breakfast Scramble ($2.60/serve)	Leftovers (Thu dinner)	Beef Mince & Potato Bake ($2.30/serve)	$17.15
Sun	Baked Oat Bars ($1.30/serve)	Chickpea Cabbage Slaw ($1.60/serve)	Liver Cottage Pie ($1.80/serve — kids get the hidden-liver version)	$16.45
Weekly meals total				~$146

Weekly Grocery List

Category	Items	Est. cost
Produce	Onions, carrots, capsicum, cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, seasonal fruit	$22
Protein	Kangaroo mince, beef mince, chicken thigh/tray pieces, canned tuna/sardines, eggs, chicken liver	$38
Dairy	Milk, Greek yoghurt, cheese	$14
Pantry staples	Lentils, chickpeas/beans (dry + a few tins), rice, pasta, Weet-Bix/oats, bread, tortillas	$16
Extras/buffer	Oils, spices already on hand assumed; small buffer for treats or a missed special	$8
Total		~$98

The grocery list and the meal table are two views of the same spend, not two spends to be added: the ~$98 list is what goes through the checkout, while the ~$146 meal figure is the sum of per-serve recipe costs scaled to the household. The gap is mostly pantry staples already on hand — oils, spices, rice and legumes bought in bulk across several weeks — which the recipe costings apportion but a single week's shop doesn't pay for in full. Budget around $100–120 at the till in a typical week, with a larger shop whenever staples need restocking.

Nutrient Coverage Across the Week

Baseline: adult female 19–50, the most demanding common nutrient target.

Nutrient	Coverage across the week	Status
Protein	Comfortably exceeded most days (lentils, kangaroo, beef, tuna, eggs all featured)	✅
Iron	Strong — kangaroo, beef, lentils and liver all appear	✅
Calcium	Adequate most days via dairy + sardines, lighter on Tue/Wed	⚠️ Flag
Zinc	Strong via red meat-heavy dinners	✅
Vitamin B12	Very strong (liver, sardines, tuna, eggs, meat)	✅
Vitamin D	Covered on sardine/fish days, thinner on plant-heavy days	⚠️ Flag
Iodine	Covered if using iodised salt in cooking (assumed)	✅ (conditional)
Folate	Strong via lentils and leafy veg	✅

🔧 Single-food fixes for the flagged gaps

Add a glass of milk or an extra 100g of yoghurt on Tue/Wed to lift calcium. Add one more sardine or canned salmon meal in the week to shore up vitamin D on the plant-heavier days.

Swap-Ins for Common Household Needs

Fussy eater: swap Kangaroo/Beef Mince Tacos fillings for a milder Chicken Tray Bake portion; keep sauces/spices on the side rather than mixed through.
Vegetarian family member: swap kangaroo/beef mince dinners for the Lentil Potato Curry or Chickpea & Potato Bake (both already in rotation this week) — no extra shopping needed, just rebalance portions.
Avoiding dairy: swap Greek yoghurt breakfasts for a fortified plant milk + oats combination, and swap cheese in the potato bake for a small increase in tahini-based dressing elsewhere to help offset the calcium drop.
Budget got tighter this week: drop the Thursday sardine toast/tray bake day (the most expensive day at $27.65) in favour of a repeat of the Wednesday curry — the biggest single lever for cutting a few dollars without losing nutrient coverage.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to feed a family of 4 for a week in Australia?

On this site's model, a nutritionally complete week costs around $145 for 2 adults and 2 children, cooking from scratch with a mix of fresh, frozen and pantry staples.

Can you feed a family of 4 healthy food on $200 a week?

Yes, comfortably — $200 is well above what's needed for full nutrient coverage on this plan, leaving room for more variety, treats, or higher-priced cuts of meat.

What is the cheapest complete family meal plan?

The plan above, built around lentils, kangaroo/beef mince, chicken, eggs and canned fish, covers the major nutrient targets for around $145/week — see the full day-by-day breakdown above.

How do I feed kids all their nutrients on a tight budget?

Lean on the same core foods as the adult plan at smaller portions (roughly 60–75% of an adult serve depending on age) rather than buying separate "kid food" — hidden-nutrient recipes like the liver cottage pie above are a practical way to get iron and B12 into fussier eaters.

What are the cheapest nutritious meals for a family?

Lentil-based dinners (curry, dal, soup) are consistently the cheapest complete dinners on the site, often under $1/serve, while still delivering strong protein, iron and folate.

Is it cheaper to meal plan or shop as you go?

Meal planning, clearly — buying with a specific week's meals in mind avoids both food waste and the impulse extras that inflate an unplanned shop, and lets pantry staples (dry lentils, rice) be bought in bulk at the lowest per-kilo price.

How do I hit protein and iron targets for kids without spending more?

The same foods that work for adults — lentils, mince, eggs — just at smaller portions; no separate more-expensive "kids' nutrition" products are needed, and hiding liver or extra veg into a familiar dish (bolognese, cottage pie) is more cost-effective than buying fortified kids' snacks.

Build This Exact Week in the Free App

OptimisedEats plans every recipe above against real Coles & Woolworths prices and scales portions automatically for kids vs adults.

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