The Thrifty Couple Weekly Menu – Week of 3/15

Another week of our Thrifty Menu!

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:

• Eggs, fruit, milk and juice
• Oatmeal, fruit and juice
• Cereal, milk and juice
• Pine-Apple Cinnamon muffins (recipe this week)

Here are the ideas for lunches this week:

• Leftovers
• Soups
• Sandwiches (Meatloaf, lunchmeat and cheese)
• Chef Salads

Here are the snack ideas for this week:

• Celery and Cream Cheese
• Chicken in a biscuit crackers
• Apples and oranges

Here are the dessert ideas this week:

• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Ice Cream Bars
• Hostess Cup Cakes

Dinner Menu:

• Monday: Hawaiian Haystacks
• Tuesday: Chicken with Sesame Asian Marinade (crockpot style this time!), pasta salad, steamed veggies
• Wednesday: Corned Beef, potatoes, cole slaw and roasted beets
• Thursday: Meatloaf (double batch for meatloaf sandwiches next day), salad, bread and butter
• Friday: Homemade Pizza, salad, fruit salad
• Saturday: Dinner out as a family!
• Sunday: Low key sandwich, soups or leftovers!

Cost breakdown of each dinner meal! There are still a few vegetables left from our  Organic Co-op produce that we will use too!

Monday: Hawaiian Hay Stacks

Hawaiian Haystacks (a family favorite!)

• 8 Cups cooked rice about .40
• 2 cans chicken $1.36
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup .46
• green onions .25
• 2 stalks celery .30
• 1 can chunk pineapple .50
• Toppings such as: coconut & chow mein noodles est. .50

Total Cost: $3.77 for the whole meal for 6 = about .63 per serving!

Tuesday: Chicken with Sesame Asian Marinade (crockpot style this time!), pasta salad, green salad

• 2 Packages of Chicken Breast $5 (we use all natural and organic Chicken for this meal)
• Marinade FREE
• Pasta Salad Mix .38
• Steamed Cauliflower .80

Total Cost: $6.18 for the whole meal for 6 = $1.03 per serving! PLUS we had lots of leftovers that became lunch the next day!

Wednesday: Corned Beef, potatoes, cole slaw and roasted beets

• 1 package Corned Beef $4.68
• Potatoes .25
• Beet creation less than .40
• Home made cole slaw .50

Total Cost: $5.83 for the whole meal for 6 = about .97 per serving!

Thursday: Meatloaf (double batch for meatloaf sandwiches next day), salad, bread and butter

• 2 lbs. ground beef $2.00
• Ingredients for meatloaf est. .60
• Salad and Dressings .50
• Bread and butter .60

Total Cost: $3.70 for the whole meal for 6 = .62 per serving!

Friday: Homemade Pizza, salad, fruit salad

• Pizza Crust .95
• Homemade sauce .28
• Pizza meats $2.00
• Cheese $1.00
• Misc. toppings. est. around .85
• Green salad and dressings .50
• Fruit Salad .90

Total Cost: $6.48 for the whole meal for 6 = $1.08 per serving!

Saturday: Family Dinner Out

Sunday: Low key sandwich, soups or leftovers! Cheap!

COST SUMMARY FOR THIS WEEK’S DINNERS: Cost for the dinners this week $25.86 for the 6 of us!