Thrifty Couple Weekly Menu Week of 6/7!

Whew! It has been a couple of weeks since we posted our menu! Between being at a conference, the Memorial weekend holiday, graduations, and family in town that we haven’t seen for 2.5 years – our lives were a little chaotic food wise! Well, life is settling down now and we can get back to our “regularly scheduled meal programming.”

Also, Thrifty Al cut up a bunch of fresh organic fruits that we had and we have been eating off of this fruit tray for a few days now – fresh organic mangoes, fresh organic pineapple, fresh kiwi, fresh raspberries and tons of strawberries! This was our first time really diving into fresh organic mango and it is a favorite now!! Remember how we cleaned out and organized our freezers and determined that we have a ton of red meat to eat!! This is from when we bought a 1/4 cow a while back and we still have a ton left!

Also, Wednesday I will be having a good friend who is a new mom over for lunch as we discuss the joys of motherhood and homemaking – I will be making Pita Sandwiches stuffed with Chicken Salad with a new twist! It is a guest post recipe coming up this week – so stay tuned!

As a recap of how our menu works:

1. We don’t necessarily have a day-by-day plan for our lunches and breakfasts or snacks, just our dinners.  We have a list of ideas for those meals that week, and so we wake up eating selections from the list. For lunches, we also have a list of possible lunch ideas for that week, but most lunches end up being leftovers, which is why we have a loose plan!
2. Although we have stayed within our $240 per month budget (covers groceries, toiletries, household, and diapers), we haven’t necessarily tracked how much each meal costs us and thought it would be fun to figure it out and share it with you as well.  We will be laying out the cost of our dinners!
3. Desserts are planned last minute as well! We usually crack open a box of cookies, however, we lay out ideas and then sometimes make something special!
4. Our Sunday dinner plans are varied, we try to have guests from church over every other week, if we know in advance, we usually put a roast in the crockpot, or prepare a casserole. If it is planned last minute (as many are) we have homemade chilis and stews in the freezer to heat up, frozen entrees and sides to heat up,  or lots of pastas to quickly feed a crowd! Thank goodness for a full pantry! Anyway, if it is just us, we usually have leftovers, lunch or snack items, or simple prepared meals! So on our menu, you will find Sunday’s marked with a “?”
5. Our goal for this site is to share the deals, freebies, hot finds; but we also want to share how we live as a larger family on a tight budget everyday and ways that we try to live thriftily in every area of life….. so this would be one of them!

Here are the ideas for breakfasts this week:

• Apple Cinnamon Bread
• Fresh Fruit Tray
• Scrambled Eggs
• Cereals

Here are the ideas for lunches this week:

• Leftovers
• Pita Pocket Sandwiches with Chicken Salad
• Meatloaf Sandwiches
• Pasta Salad
• Soups

Here are the snack ideas for this week:

• Oranges
• Carrots and dip
• Fresh Fruit Tray
• Gogurts

Here are the dessert ideas this week:

• Organic suckers
• Lemon Bars
• Chocolate Cake

Dinner Menu:

• Monday: It’s A Guy Stir Fry, rice, fresh salad and fruit tray
• Tuesday: 2- lb. meatloaf (double size for meatloaf sandwiches this week), homemade bread, salad and Creamy Roasted Asparagus
• Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken Drumsticks, homemade bread, salad, sliced oranges and steamed broccoli/baby carrots
• Thursday: Crock Pot Ribs (must share this recipe sometime – our kids DEVOUR this dish!), salad, baked potatoes, homemade bread
• Friday: Guests over Spaghetti and Meatballs, garlic bread, salad
• Saturday: Kids get Mac and Cheese with fresh fruit and veggies – Al and Cas get a date night with our FREE movie tickets and BOGO FREE Burgers at Iggy’s!!!!
• Sunday: Guests over – Chicken Casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls and salad

Monday:  It’s A Guy Stir Fry, rice, fresh salad and fruit tray

• Beef for Stir-Fry $1.00
• Vegetables and sauce for Stir fry $2.10
• Rice about .30 worth
• Salad and dressings $1.00
• Fresh Fruit about $2.50

Total Cost: $6.90 for the whole meal for 6 = about $1.32 per serving!

Tuesday: 2- lb. meatloaf (double size for meatloaf sandwiches this week), homemade bread, salad and Creamy Roasted Asparagus

• 2 lbs. ground beef $2.00
• Ingredients for meatloaf est. .60
• Salad and Dressings $1.00
• Homemade Bread and butter .69
• 1 lb. asaparagus $1.99
• Homemade Hollandaise sauce .40

Total Cost: $6.68 for the whole meal for 6 = $1.11 per serving!

Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken Drumsticks (making 2 different sets – kids version no spices and adult version with Franks Red Hot Sauce), homemade bread, salad, sliced oranges and steamed broccoli/baby carrots

• 1 family pack of Gold N Plump chicken drumsticks $2.25
• Frank’s Red Hot Sauce .12
• Homemade bread and butter .69
• Salad and dressings $1.00
• Sliced oranges .66
• Steamed broccoli/baby carrots $1.37

Total Cost: $6.09 for the whole meal for 6 = about $1.01 per serving!

Thursday: Crock Pot Ribs, salad, baked potatoes, homemade bread

• 4 lb.s beef short ribs $4.50
• Salad and dressings $1.00
• Baked Potatoes with toppings est. around $.60 (potatoes were .89 for a 10 lb. bag = about 10 sets of this!!)
• Homemade bread and butter .69

Total Cost: $6.79 for the whole meal for 6 = about $1.13 per serving!

Friday: Guests over Spaghetti and Meatballs, garlic bread, salad (double batch for family for 6 joining us for 12 total people!)

• 2 boxes of spaghetti .24
• 2 cans of spaghetti sauce $1.50
• 2 packs of meatballs $2.88
• Garlic bread $1.99
• Salad $2.00

Total Cost: $8.61 for the whole meal for 12 = .72 per serving!

Saturday: Kids get Mac and Cheese with fresh fruit and veggies – Al and Cas get a date night with our FREE movie tickets and BOGO FREE Burgers at Iggy’s!!!!

• 2 Boxes of mac and cheese .40
• Milk and butter for mac and cheese est. around .60
• Fresh fruit and Veggies around $2.00 worth

Total Cost: $3.00 for the whole meal for 4 =  .75 per serving!

Sunday: Guests over Family of 7 joining us – Chicken Casserole, mashed potatoes, and salad

• 1 3-lb pack of fresh chicken breast $5
• Casserole items est around $1.85
• Mashed potatoes around .40
• Salad and dressings $2.20

Total Cost: $9.45 for the whole meal for 13 = .73 per serving!

COST SUMMARY FOR THIS WEEK’S DINNERS: Cost for the dinners this week $47.52 for 7 meals for the 6 of us and two of the meals with extra dinner guests of 6-7!!