HealthFreePrintable

Budget Meal Planning

A free health worksheet ready for your classroom. Open in Kuraplan to grab the print-ready PDF, customize it for your students, or generate a fresh version in seconds.

Download now

Name:Date:

Budget Meal Planning

Plan a nutritious dinner for four teenagers with a maximum spend of $24. Use the NZ price guide below. Prices are for whole packs, so include the full pack cost in your budget even if some food is left over. Assume you have basic cooking equipment, oil, and tap water. Write all costs in NZ dollars.

Ingredient

Pack size

Price

Brown rice

1 kg

$3.50

Red kidney beans

400 g can

$1.50

Frozen mixed vegetables

1 kg

$4.00

Carrots

1 kg

$2.50

Onions

1 kg

$3.00

Eggs

6 eggs

$4.50

Plain yoghurt

500 g tub

$3.00

Apples

1 kg bag

$4.00

Plan, calculate, decide

Use the price guide and your knowledge of healthy eating to make a practical plan.

1.Choose at least three ingredients from the price guide and name a dinner you could make for four people. Include the main ingredients in your answer.

2.For your meal idea, identify one ingredient that mainly provides vegetables or fruit, one that provides protein, and one that provides a starchy grain. Use the guide to support your choices.

3.Asha buys rice, kidney beans, frozen mixed vegetables, carrots and onions. Calculate the total pack cost and how much of the $24 budget remains.

4.Asha wants to add eggs and apples to the basket in Question 3. Can she afford both without exceeding $24? Show the new total and explain.

5.The basket in Question 4 includes a 1 kg bag of rice and a 1 kg bag of frozen vegetables, but the group will use only some of each. Explain why the full pack prices still belong in the shopping budget, and give one way to use the leftovers.

6.“A meal is automatically nutritious because it is cheap.” Choose true or false, then give one reason.

TrueFalse

7.Choose one item in the price guide that could be served after dinner as a snack. Explain what it adds to the meal plan.

8.One person eating the dinner cannot eat eggs. If you planned to serve eggs and already have kidney beans in your shopping basket, what is a sensible change using the price guide? Explain how your change affects the budget.

9.A family has $4 to spend on either apples or plain yoghurt from the guide. Which option is the better fit if they want to add fruit to their meal plan? Give one reason, and name a different benefit the other option could offer.

10.Write a final shopping list from the guide for your dinner for four. Give the total pack cost, show how far it is under or over $24, and state one reason your plan is both practical and nutritious.