Here’s the Thrifty Menu for this week!!
As a recap of how our menu works:
- 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!
- 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!
- 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!
- 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 “?”
- 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:
- Banana Split Bread (recipe coming soon!)
- Scrambled eggs with homemade bread and honey butter
- Cereals
Here are the ideas for lunches this week:
- Leftovers
- Reuben Sandwiches
- Ham sandwiches
- Soups
Here are the snack ideas for this week:
- Celery and Cream Cheese
- Bananas, strawberries, and grapes
- Carrots and dip
- Cottage Cheese
Here are the dessert ideas this week:
- Organic Suckers
- Strawberry Shortcake with fresh strawberries
- Ice Cream
Dinner Menu:
- Monday: Hashbrown Casserole (our recipe coming soon!) double batch for leftovers, grapes
- Tuesday: Church provided meal for family event
- Wednesday: Homemade Pizza, chips, salad
- Thursday: Crockpot chicken (using a whole chicken) with Dressing marinade (this could be made every week with a different dressing and be unique!), Rhodes rolls, jello-salad, green salad
- Friday: Chicken and Bacon Alfredo Pasta, green salad, fresh fruit
- Saturday: Crock Pot Taco Stack, green salad
- Sunday: Low key soups, sandwiches and leftovers!
Monday: Hashbrown Casserole (our recipe coming soon!) double batch for leftovers, grapes
- 1 lb. hamburger .99
- 1 Simply Potatoes pack .40
- 1/2 bag tater tots .75
- 2 bags cheese $2.00
- bag mixed veggies .50
- 1 can tomatoes .50
- 1 can tomato sauce .12
- Grapes about $1.75 worth
Total Cost: $7.01 for the whole meal for 6 = about $1.17 per serving! PLUS literally half of it left for lunch the next day!
Tuesday: Church provided meal for family event
Wednesday: Homemade Pizza, chips, salad
- Pizza Crust .95
- Homemade sauce .28
- Pizza meats $2.00
- Cheese $1.00
- Misc. toppings. est. around .85
- Green salad and dressings .50
- Chips and dip about $1.25
Total Cost: $6.83 for the whole meal for 6 = about $1.14 per serving!
Thursday: Crockpot chicken (using a whole chicken) with Dressing marinade (this could be made every week with a different dressing and be unique!), Rhodes rolls, jello-salad, green salad
- 1 whole chicken $2.33
- 1 Dressing for marinade FREE (think I will be using Roasted Red Pepper dressing as a marinade!)
- 18 Rhodes rolls $1.46
- Jell-o salad $1.10
- Green salad and dressings about $1.00
Total Cost: $5.89 for the whole meal for 6 = about .98 per serving!
Friday: Chicken and Bacon Alfredo Pasta, green salad, fresh fruit
- 1 lb. organic chicken $2.25
- Pasta .12
- Bacon bits and Alfredo Sauce .55
- Salad and dressing $1.00
- Fresh Fruit about $1.50 worth
Total Cost: $5.42 for the whole meal for 6 = about .90 per serving!
Saturday: Crock Pot Taco Stack, green salad
- 1 lb. ground Turkey $1.25
- Corn tortillas .32
- Tomato sauce .12
- Olives .78
- Spices, onions and misc. needed est. around .40
- Green Salad and dressings $1.00
Total Cost: $3.87 for the whole meal for 6 = about .65 per serving!
Sunday: Low key sandwich, soups or leftovers! Cheap!
COST SUMMARY FOR THIS WEEK’S DINNERS: Cost for the dinners this week $29.08 for the 6 of us. Plus having lots of leftovers to cover lunches this week!
G
Silly question-your crockpot chicken with a whole chicken-Do you just stick the whole chicken in the crockpot and pour the dressing over and cook, or do you do anything to it before hand. I am not the best cook and until recently have never bought anything other than boneless, skinless chicken breast. Trying to get beyond that-whole chickens are on sale at Winco for $0.68/lb and I have a bunch of dressing. 🙂 Thanks! I really love your weekly dinner menus they have given me some great ideas.
thriftycas
Hi Glenda, We just rinse and then stick the whole chicken in the crockpot with a bit of Safflower (or other) oil. We then just dump the bottle of dressing on the chicken – we are using Italian Roasted Red Pepper this time and that is it!! With the whole chicken, you do need to slow cook it all day long. I cook it until is has fallen apart naturally, no need to carve the meat off. Right before I serve, I can litterally just toss all of the bones and am left with the chicken and just pull that out onto a platter for dinner. It is one of the easiest and so yummy! Plus, it is a very affordable dinner as whole chickens do run a lot cheaper than many other cuts of chicken. Hope that helps! Did you enjoy the Winco Grand Opening??