So, here is week #4 of our Thrifty Menu! It is a day late and several dollars short (which is what we want!!!!), it has been a busy week for us and so here I finally sat down and typed this out for you from my scratch paper hanging on the fridge 😉
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:
- Pancakes and Brown and Serve sausage
- Toast, Eggs, fruit, milk and juice
- Oatmeal, fruit and juice
- Cereal, milk and juice
Here are the ideas for lunches this week:
- Leftovers
- Soups
- Sandwiches (chicken salad, meat and cheese)
- Tomato soup and cheese sandwiches
Here are the snack ideas for this week:
- Veggies and Dip
- Crackers and Cheese
- Apples and Oranges
Here are the dessert ideas this week:
- Frozen yogurt topped with fresh frozen fruit
- Cookies
- Ice Cream Bars
Dinner Menu:
- Monday: Beef Stew, Grands biscuits, salad
- Tuesday: Dinner out as a family at Denny’s Kid Eat Free
- Wednesday: Sloppy Joe Pot Pie with ground Turkey, corn and green salad
- Thursday: Spaghetti with Spicy Sausage, steamed broccoli, garlic bread
- Friday: Sweet and Sour Meatballs over rice, fruit salad
- Saturday: Dinner guests at friends house
- Sunday: Low key sandwich, soups or leftovers!
Cost breakdown of each dinner meal! We also started using our Organic Co-op produce, which should last us about 2 weeks.
Monday: Beef Stew, Grands biscuits, salad (I made a double batch of stew to freeze half for a future meal, cost reflects half of the actual made portion)
- Beef for Stew $1.00
- Vegetables, broth and sauces for Stew approximately $2.25
- Grand Biscuits .50
- Salad and dressings .50
Total Cost: $4.25 for the whole meal for 6 = about .71 per serving!
Tuesday: Denny’s out – usually around $20-$25 (which includes tip on the BEFORE discounted prices). We have a separate eating out budget, so this does not count towards our $60 a week!
Wednesday: Sloppy Joe Pot Pie with ground Turkey, corn and green salad
- 1 lb. ground turkey – $2.29
- 1 can Manwich .50
- 1 onion .20
- 1 package of shredded cheese (we used a mexican blend) .90
- 1 cup Bisquick mix .05 worth
- 1/2 cup milk about .10 worth
- 1 egg .17
- 2 Cans corn (.20 each) .40
- Lettuce from our Sam’s Club organic Mescalin Mix about $1.21 (this meal)
- Salad dressings approximately .20
Total Cost: $6.02 for the whole meal for 6 (PLUS leftovers for lunch the next day) = about $1 per serving!
Thursday: Spaghetti with Spicy Sausage, steamed broccoli, garlic bread, clementines
- 1 Box Spaghetti .68
- Spaghetti sauce .48
- Spicy Sausage $1.29
- Broccoli .50
- Garlic Bread (plain bread broiled in the oven with homemade garlic butter spread) 1/2 loaf .40 plus about .20 for butter sauce
- 1/3 box Clementines $1.33
Total Cost: $4.88 for the whole meal for 6 = .81 per serving!
Friday: Sweet and Sour Meatballs over rice, fruit salad
- Meatballs $1.44
- Kraft Sweet and Sour sauce .90
- 1 Green Pepper .50
- 1 Onion .20
- 1 Can chunk pineapple .50
- Rice (from a huge bag we have had forever and bought for $8.99) probably about .30
- Items for fresh fruit salad (bananas, apples, pears and can of pineapple with juice) $1.10
Total Cost: $4.94 for the whole meal for 6 = .82 per serving!
Sunday: Low key sandwich, soups or leftovers! Cheap!
COST SUMMARY FOR THIS WEEK’S DINNERS: Cost for the dinners this week $20.09 for the 6 of us!
Also, I am a little behind on sharing recipes and have 2 left from last week, so that is what I am going to share with you this week!
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