i just want to thank you, i originally came to your channel for money saving tips on groceries a couple of months ago HOWEVER watching you and your husbands videos and q&as i was struck strongly by the overwhelming urge to get to know the lord, something in my 33 years of life i had never had interest in (my parents were both atheists). i clicked your first video on a whim and admittedly didn't think i would stick around because you were "on of those people" but the calmness of spirit you have even when you're talking about struggles or setbacks etc ...i wanted that, i just hadn't realized it. I'm working my way through the bible for my first time ever, every single night and recently gave my heart to jesus, i honestly believe he put your channel in my line of sight for a reason. Sorry, i know this is bizarre and probably really awkward but just...i wish you guys a blessed week.

If you put random carts away you can get extra quaters!😆

At our ALDI, the hot dogs are 99¢ per package for 8. I’m thinking you would stretch those a little farther than the 6 sausages - use 1/2 a hot dog fried up with breakfast and also use them for lunch as well as in the fried rice.

An idea would be to get a can of tomato paste, that you can reconstitute with water, add spices that you can use for free and make your own sauce for $0.25/can then you can get at least 16oz of actual pasta, if you have soy sauce and garlic with your condiments at home, then you could use some of that peanut butter you have to make a satay sauce for some of your noodles too.

Tuna .68 Mac cheese .33 Egg .77 Veg frozen .79 Hot dog .79 Bananas 1lb .44 Bread .85 Total: 4.65 Breakfast: eggs and toast, or egg and veg omelette with toast, egg and hotdog sandwich Lunch: hot dogs, banana, hard boiled egg Dinner: tuna Mac n cheese, veg

I love that this video is blowing up. Such a cool concept!

You did a great job. On a vegetarian diet I’d do 1 dozen eggs, russet potatoes, rice, dried lentils and a can of petite diced tomatoes w/bananas.

Loved this video! Totally inspired me so here’s my $5 3-day plan too. (Based on Instacart Aldi pricing in my area...no tax on food in Nebraska.) TOTAL $4.78 Jiffy corn muffin mix $0.55 (makes 6) 1 dozen eggs $0.99 1 lb bananas (approx. 3 med.) $0.45 2 yogurt cups $0.70 Hot dogs $0.89 Pork and beans $0.65 (2 servings) Condensed chicken noodle soup $0.55 (2 servings) Breakfasts: 1) Yogurt cup + banana 2) 2 boiled eggs + banana 3) Yogurt cup + a muffin Lunches: 1) 2 scrambled eggs + banana 2) Soup + a muffin 3) 2 deviled eggs + a muffin Suppers: 1) Pork & beans + a hot dog + a muffin 2) soup + a muffin 3) pork & beans + a hot dog + a muffin This leaves a few eggs and several hot dogs leftover in case I’m still hungry or to spend over days 4-5. 😊

Thank you! Just a share...In the South we add tiny potatoes to everything from meat to pasta. I have a picante/salsa food processor (maybe 10.00 at Walmart) that dices carrots, celery, peppers, and potatoes so fine that the nutrients are in the recipe but not really visible. I use it for all my recipes and for soups, beans, spaghetti, hamburgers, etc. It keeps nutrition UP and food cost DOWN! Just another thought for saving on food bills. Thank You for the video!

Back in the day I was so poor I only had $7 a week for food. I made it work.

So I figured it would be a wonderful experience and learning opportunity to let my 3 older girls ages 13, 11 and 8 get on the Walmart grocery app for our Walmart and do this challenge. (we didn't actually buy the food but they added to the cart and such). Granted they are kids so probably not the healthiest options but they did it! 13 year old got 1 box of margarine, 1 loaf of bread, 6 count of eggs, pack of bologna, bag of salad mix. Total was 4.48. She came up with 2 eggs and toast for breakfast each morning. Salad with diced up bologna for lunches and fried bologna sandwiches for dinners. 11 year old. 8 pack of frozen sausage links, 6 count of eggs, 3 packs of Roman noodles, 6 bananas, hot dogs, box of Mac and cheese. Her total was 4.88. Breakfast is 2 eggs and 2 sausage links Lunches are 1 serving of Mac and cheese with 2 hots dogs per lunch. Dinner is Roman noodles. She wanted the bananas so she was have 2 snacks for each day. 8 year old got a Roma tomato, a banana, pack of hot dog buns, hot dogs, 6 count of eggs, can of pork n beans, 1lb roll of frozen ground turkey. Her total was 5 even! Breakfast is 2 scrambled eggs with a little ground turkey. Lunches are hot dogs dinners are the rest of ground turkey in with the pork n beans and if she has it some added brown sugar. Snacks are the tomato and banana.

This is totally doable in Canada. Here is how I would spend it on a standard diet. First...I would have to go to multiple stores... but I can rock it. A local Asian market has chicken legs for $1.09lb Get 1lb Pasta for a 2lb package at walmart is 1.19. Some kind of hot cereal from dollar tree is 6 servings and 1.25. Primo pasta sauce is $1 at superstore but can be price matched at walmart when you get the pasta. That takes you to $4.53. Pasta can be eaten with butter or ketchup or pasta sauce and that is lots of chicken. That is without any allowance for exchange rate and you have enough to get a couple pieces of fruit at the farmers market. WITH exchange rate added on that allows for $6.50 Canadian instead of 2 pieces of fruit you can get much more. A list of fruit that is under $1lb... apples and pears are both .89lb at a store, another store green peppers .88lb, broccoli crowns .98lb, kale .78 a bunch, zucchini .98lb, tomatoes .78lb, oranges .98lb... another store... entire flats of 8lbs of strawberries are $5... go in with friends if you have to so you can get one pack for .75 cents. You are only limited by the boundaries of your imagination. Excuses cost you $ every time. Me walking into a farmers market with $20 = several hours of processing time to put it up. It is a love hate thing... I love to go but pay for it in work later.

Amanda, I absolutely love your videos. I have been watching for a year now, since I started Dave Ramsey and sought out ideas for frugal living. You are so encouraging with your grace and enthusiasm for living a real life. Thank you for being a breath of fresh air in a world that bombards us with the idea that nothing is ever enough. I often cue up one of your videos when I start feeling like I am not thin enough, my house isn't nice enough, etc... Thank you!!!!!

I always love a challenge. Here's the latest combo I've come up with. It could actually feed 2 people modest portions. Total $4.25. Prices are from HEB Burleson, TX Doz eggs. 0.68 Mac & cheese x2. 0.70 Ramen packs x3. 0.63 Bulk oats 1.5 cups. 0.45 Banana x3 0.30 Tuna 1 can. 0.68 Frozen green beans 12 oz. 0.81 Breakfast. Oats, banana Eggs , banana Repeat oats Lunch Ramen to make egg drop soup plus green beans and the noodles Supper for 3 meals Both mac & cheese plus tuna and green beans. Either big meals for 1 or moderate for 2

Perfect video for me right now. I recently lost my job and I needed to figure a way to buy food with as little money as possible. Reading a lot of reviews here gave some great advice. After I pay my rent and buy cat food; I'm going to look at how much money I have left over and I'm going to Aldi. Thanks again for this great video Amanda! 😸

You’re Aldi Prices are better then ours but here is what I came up with. 12 eggs $1.09 1 loaf bread 95¢ Bologna $1.35 1 Box Mac & Cheese 55¢ 1 bag frozen Broccoli $1.05 Total $4.99 Meal Plan Breakfast (choose one daily) Scrambled Eggs and Toast Fried Bologna Omelette and Toast Fried Egg Sandwich Lunch (choose one) Bologna Sandwich and Deviled Eggs Egg Salad Sandwich Dinner (everyday) Mac and Cheese with Broccoli

This was very inspiring. Prices here in Detroit area are different. So these are all under the $5 limit: eggs, bread, mac and cheese, sauce, beans, rice, green beans, tomato and chili. Just a bit different: Same for all three days: Breakfast: Scrambled egg sandwich on untoasted bread or eggs and toast or with coffeecreamer/milk, cinnamon and sugar French Toast. Lunch (can be swapped with dinner): Pasta only, sauce, green beans, "garlic bread" and the .5 serving from the can of beans to provide protein added to the sauce to be divided by three meals. Dinner: Rice with beans, tomato & chilis and the cheese sauce fixed to top the dish. Desserts: Cinnamon toast or Rice with or without milk, sugar and cinnamon.

I could do $5 for 5 days for one person if I went to a grocery store like Sprouts where they have bulk items. I’m vegan and it’s cheap if you do plant based and no processed

I haven't even watched more than 2 minutes, and I'm already so excited for this video and the $5 challenges!! Esp for one person - a lot of channels are feeding households with multiple children, and its not that helpful for my situation, because I can't really buy a ton in bulk (which is cheaper) or it all goes bad.

I love $5.00 challenges. For years periodically I would ask myself what would I get if I only had$20.00 for groceries. Personally I could stretch that for a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I love challenging myself.

I'd go to Aldi too. I'd get a box of pancake mix ($1.00), eggs (.79) and a lb of breakfast sausage (.99) and a loaf of bread (.85) a package of hotdogs (.79) and box of mac and cheese (.33) Or you could get a 5lb bag of potatoes for next to nothing. Eggs and some fresh veggies and make all sorts of stuff out of that. Just start with a cheap starch. Rice, potatoes, etc. Then go to cheap protein eggs, sausage or Turkey burger. Use what's left for vegetables frozen is probably cheapest unless there is a really good sale on fresh.

I got a ten pound bag of potatoes for 75cents at Aldi,two big onions for fifty cents,two dozen eggs for 59 cents each.This is for a family of 11,for at least three to five meals.

This is easy for me. I do it all the time. But I don't have a KZfaq channel. But if I ever do, I will tell what my cheap meals are.

My daughter an I were both diagnosed with a disease called EoE. We are still trying to find all the triggers (EoE is basically an allergy to food in the esophagus). Next month her an I both have to start a top 6 free diet (No dairy, egg, soy, wheat, nuts, fish). Got onto the Walmart grocery app just to see what I could do with this $5. Very, very hard! So this is what I came up with. 1 red potato at .29 cents. 1 can of GV black beans at .48 cents. 1 bag of GV rice .82 cents, 12 pack of oatmeal at 1.53, 1 can tomato paste .40, 1 can diced tomatoes for .46 cents and 2 cans GV mixed vegetables at .48 cents each for a total of 4.94. Meal plan for breakfast all 3 days is oatmeal. Lunch would be rice with some of the mixed vegetables and some of the black beans . Dinner would be vegetable soup. I couldn't find any other way than to have the same thing for all 3 days though.

Great job. Thank you.

You did great! Like you said, In a real situation you would have more of a bulk. My normal shopping day I go to Aldi first and Walmart for the things I can't get at Aldi. So, I know Walmart is more expensive. Our stores are in the same strip mall. I thought I would share a tip that I have been doing for a while. I'm really glad I started doing this. It has saved me money, time, and trips to the store! I buy bulk dehydrated chopped garlic, onion flakes, diced green and red sweet peppers, zahtar seasoning, chipolte morita, cajun seasoning, Italian seasoning and then the usual herbs and spices. I dehydrate my own mushrooms and frozen veg I get on sale. You could share the bulk purchases with someone but still save with the bulk price and cut shipping in 1/2. Here's a recipe you could easily replace your seasonings and dehydrated veg with: Arroz Congri (Cuban Rice and Black Beans) Gina’s Skinny Recipes Servings: 5 • Serving Size: 1 cup • Points +: 6 pts • Smart Points: 6 Calories: 258.2 • Fat: 2.3 g • Carb: 49.4 g • Fiber: 6.6 g • Protein: 9.8 g Ingredients: 2 tsp olive oil 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper, chopped (I buy the red and green mix dehydrated) 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper, chopped small onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 cup uncooked long grain rice 15 oz can black beans, I use Goya (don’t drain) 1 1/2 cups water 1/2 tsp cumin 1 bay leaf pinch oregano salt and pepper to taste Directions: In a heavy medium sized pot, heat oil on medium heat. Add onions, peppers and garlic and saute until soft, about 4-5 minutes. Add rice, beans, water, cumin, bay leaf, oregano and salt and pepper Simmer on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the rice absorbs most of the water and just barely skims the top of the rice. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minute (don’t peek). Make sure you have a good seal on your cover, the steam cooks the rice. After 20 minutes, shut flame off and let it sit, covered another 5 minutes (don’t open the lid) Read more at www.skinnytaste.com (Gina has great recipes) Refried beans, rice and tortillas too with your seasonings and I always have those diced tomatoes from Aldi. I buy steak seasoning at Dollar Tree and use it in cheap, cheap cabbage skillet meal with Aldi ingredients. Oil, Cabbage, onion, carrots, beef sausage and the steak seasoning. It's delicious.

Love this!!! Would LIVE to see more like it!!!

That was great! Thank you for sharing.

Money Mom is adorable! I love her channel. So helpful. Thanks for sharing

Wow! Very impressed.

This is so creative! I don’t think I could pull it off with our stores, but it’s still great for idea purposes.

I did up a plan with not much imagination. But filling for all 3 days. Items are from 3 different stores, not sure if that matters. Total of $4.96 Bar-S franks $0.98 1 pound of rice $0.98 1 pound of pinto beans $0.92 Clearance loaf of bread $0.50 dozen eggs $0.59 3 cans of veggies $0.33 each=$0.99 Breakfast, 3 Eggs with Toast and 1 frank, all three days Lunch, Beans, rice, 1 can of veggies and two franks Supper, Beans, rice, 1 frank, bread and 1 boiled egg. Beans and rice evenly divided between 3 lunches and 3 supper's. No it's probably not a healthy menu, but want to feel we are getting enough to eat. I also don't mind eating the same things several days in a row.

Love this! You did great! Would love to see your discount grocery $5 challenge!

I love this! I probably can't do it this week because we are sheltering hurricane evacuees in our town so I'm staying away from the stores but possibly over the weekend I can see what I can conjour up for this challenge! Fun!!

I would probably get a box of spaghetti noodles, rice, eggs, bananas and oatmeal.

I am so impressed Amanda. I did not think it could be done, but you sure proved me wrong. Off topic, I love your sweet kitty.

We're finally getting an ALDI...this makes me so excited!

As always, I adore you and your videos!!!

This is a great idea!

OMG I love this video. I'm going to test this out.

Wow! Great idea! I definitely don’t think I could do better than you did, but I feel inspired to try the challenge. Thank you for sharing.

how neat,great idea/helpful

I would love to see you do a dollar tree or similar store especially vegan

You did a great job !!!! Menus are challenging on a low food budget.

I would get eggs, rice, bread and frozen broccoli and bologna. Breakfast egg and bologna or egg in a basket. Lunch sandwich, dinner fried rice with and egg and broccoli. I'm shopping at HEB in Texas very similar to Aldi's. Also I would love to plant my own garden of tomatoes, Bell pepper, and onion, and avocado. These are items I love and use often.

FUN !!!! I may need to try this one out

Great vid. Water and pb for pad Thai, bean burger or mashed beans on toast, beans and tomatoes with chillies with chilli powder to do cheap chilli on toast or over rice.

Great ideas!

These videos are so great. I'm a recent college graduate and these are very inspiring for meals when trying to save money

Gluten free would be like eggs, potatoes, sausage, some vegetables. Eggs for breakfast, sausage-vegetable-potato-soup, potatoes and sausage in the owen, eggs with baked potatoes.

Thanks , gives me ideas .

You are amazing! Great job.

Such a fun challenge. You did great. 🤗

You did awesome with only working with a $5 dollar budget, kudos to you and I am looking forward to what you picked out at Walmart.

I love creative cooking using items on hand. My new " Up List" plan is really helping me to be a creative cook, save $, and toss out fewer items - Great video and Challenge idea

Awesome ideas! I’d probably switch out the sausage for a bag of dry pinto beans. (For the regular diet version.)

I like that you did a plant based vegan challenge option. Maybe I will do a vegetarian version video. I'll see what I can come up with.

Wow great video!!

Now, I'm picky and wouldn't eat it but a soup with beans and rice, eggs, and some ramen, bag of mixed veggies probably would get me close. Eggs and rice for breakfast, ramen and veg for lunch and soup for dinner (add rice if you want to).

I think you did an amazing job on it

I highly doubt I could do the $5 challenge in Alaska unless I could count food from the garden and eggs from the chickens. I miss shopping at Aldi so much. Great job getting semi-healthy meals.

You did a great job 💗

This is fun!!! We’re on a tight budget because we’re trying to get the house in order to sell it. I did a small for us grocery trip this evening, but I’m hoping not to have to go back for 2 weeks 🤞🏼 Have to clean the freezer and pantry out! Once it’s done I want to try doing the $5 challenge!

You could have had French toast and used ramen for Spaghetti noodles

I think you did great. I gotta be honest.... meals are not where I mess up cause I live alone and I could fix a pot of anything to nourish myself three days, but SNACKS..... I am such a pig. That is where I really like my variety. However...... if I ever wanna tighten up and save some $$$$....these are some great tips.

What a great challenge! 🙌🏼

Awesome❤️

love it

❤️ this!

I think I can do a keto version of this challenge, based on what I found at my local grocery store this past weekend. I'm certainly going to try! Hugs, Kim

I LOVE your ENERGY! I LOVE your MEAL PLANS! Thanks for shouting and linking my channel. I am honored and blessed. A humble thanks! Your channel is awesome!

I would have gone to dollar tree and got a pound of pasta rather than Mac and cheese because Mac n cheese is only 7.25 oz and you can get a pound for a few cents more also peanut butter and jelly at dollar store

Love this! Thank you for sharing 💕 And yes, eating the same food is sometimes what you have to do, and I too think it is okay. I am single, and vegan, so eating the same is pretty normal and I actually love it 😍 If it is good, at a good price and nutritious then it is fine for me 😊 Love from Johanne, Norway

The challenge is interesting and boy do i know what its like to eat the same thing for days on end. Been there done that in the past . using your prices i would of done peanut butter 1.15 broth 1.19 bread.67 4 cans of veggies for 1.52 peanut butter toast every day and a pot of veggie soup for lunches and suppers using my seasonings or eggs .80 .67 bread 2 boxes mac and cheese .50 sausage .99 3 cans diced tomatoes egg every morning and throw cheese mix in cupboard take pasta slice sausage into small pieces add diced tomatoes and eat that 3 days lunch and supper if ya get sick of it fry an egg and have a egg sandwich may not be healthy but it will fill the belly or eggs bread pot of bean soup with one of those small cans of ham or small can of chicken and noodles and have pot of chicken and noodles. soup is cheap and if desperate dont have to use meat

Good job!! Great idea! Your cat has the most beautiful eyes!!!

Good video! There are a lot of people living on minimum wage or less and after paying rent, bills, council tax etc they don't have a lot left over for meals

Great video! I'm looking forward to the Walmart video. I'd love to see you try a dollar store, either Dollar Tree or Dollar General.

If I could get some inexpensive flour tortillas, instead of bread, I’d get that to make burritos for dinner and I know I could make a PB Tortilla for breakfast. To go flour free, if rice and corn tortillas are gluten free you might be able to do it although I don’t know much about gluten

Here in Canada that is almost impossible for $5 for 3 days. A loaf of bread is a minimum a $1-2, eggs are $2.25, canned veggies or beans are $0.80-1.00. tortillas (8-10 would be $1-2) cheap kraft dinner is about $0.65-$0.75. 2lb pasta I can get for $1-1.25, and sauce $1, small bag shredded cheese $2.50, I could make 1 meal for $5 and make like 6-7 servings but that's about it. Or make pasta and sauce for lunch and supper and make oatmeal for breakfast as plain oatmeal or even the instant ones (8 -10in a pack is $2 eat 2 of them each morning and pasta and sauce each day for lunch and supper lol

What about your discount grocery that would be cool to see what all you could get. TFS

Our family is big but if it was just for me I could do it! I looked at my discount frocery ad this morning and came up with a plan for non vegan option. I would buy two tuna kits for 50 cents a piece. A jar of sliced peaches for 1.50, bread for 1 dollar (some days they have buns for 50 cents) and eggs for around 1 dollar. Out of that for breakfast I would do toads in a hole, scrambled eggs, and fried eggs. For lunch I would have peaches and toast all three days for dinner I would stretch the tuna. This was just rrom looking at the ad. I could do so much better if I was in the store. If we can count our pantry items I could do lots of ideas.🍜

What about dollar tree or dollar general

If you have a dollar tree can you do dollar tree?

Amazing! I try very hard to keep our grocery budget low in order to save money but you had a lot of ideas that will help!

Take the rice and make cinnamon and sugar rice for breakfast then you could have peanut butter sandwich for a lunch. The beans, rice, and tomatoes could be a filling in grilled bread sandwich?- I have a snack maker so that is what I was thinking. I can eat the same things if I mix it up a bit. I think it is fun to challenge yourself but I am glad I can choose from my stocked pantries.

It would have to be a $7 challenge in Canada. I’m curious to see if I could even make that work!

We do it on 4.00 a day with food to spare BUT it is not per day purchasing. It’s bulk food.

Love how your cat pops up mid-video...

Wow that Aldi store has some unheard of low prices!!

I would add the cost of living as well.

You rich on knoledge thanks for given us options.

I would so love to try this challenge but our store is not cheap.

Thank you for doing a Vegan plan.🙃

I think a 5 dollar meal for me would be two boxes of pasta (store always has BOGO deals) few cans of tomatoe sauce, and maybe bread.

Your regular meal plan was nearly gluten free, I would just sub corn tortillas for the bread and maybe omit the sausage if it has gluten and add another can of beans.

I tried to pay attention to the actual video but the kitty isn’t helping😻😻 Small sidenote, I can’t actually see the size of the rice bag but to save money wasn’t it possible to share one bag between vegan and non vegan? About how to combine the vegan food I would’ve gone for refried beans on toast (i personally don’t like beans and rice together), probably get a bag of frozen asian style veggies and fry them with the rice. Idk the exact prices in your store but for me the easiest solution when i don’t have money is a 4 pack of ramen and a bunch of spring onion and/or frozen asian style veg...and then I customize the ramen (either the vegan spicy ramen or just don’t use the sauce packet and use some soy sauce that ppl normally have in their pantry). Other version - rice with curry (paste + 1 can of coconut cooking milk = about 85 cents).

Ok one more meal plan they had a 5lb bag of potatoes for 2 dollars eggs for a dollar a loaf of bread a dollar and a bag of veg for around 50 cents. Out of that breakfadt would be scrambled eggs times three, lunch pb sammies times three with frozen veg, dinner baked potatoes times three adding eggs on the side uf I wanted. I did peanut butter sammies because it is a usual pantry item. If I didn't have any I would do oven fries.

I would do some dirty rice with the rice, tomatoes and chilies, and some browned sausage (it’s even better if you have some taco or chili seasoning to toss in.

I think i would have looked at a possible buy one get one special. Just an idea.

Wow I have done £5 for a week many times for months 5 for a meal would be a luxury for me