First time meal prepping on a tight budget, how do you keep it interesting without spending more?
So I finally decided to stop buying lunch every day and start prepping my own meals for the week. I work pretty long hours and by the time I get home the last thing I want to do is cook from scratch, so meal prep just makes sense.
My problem is I'm trying to keep costs down but I also don't want to eat the same boring chicken and rice combo five days in a row and lose motivation. I did my first prep this past weekend and it went okay, but by Wednesday I was already dreading opening the container.
I know a lot of people here have been doing this for a while, so I wanted to ask: what are your goto strategies for keeping meals interesting while sticking to a budget? Do you rotate proteins, change up the sauces, mix different veggies each week?
I spent around $30 total this week which felt good, but I'm open to hearing what other people are spending and how they make it work. Also curious if anyone has a solid system for planning the week out before they even go shopping, because I feel like I'm just winging it right now and that's probably part of the problem.