Thrifty Couple Weekly Menu Week of 5/10!

Here’s the Thrifty Menu for this week!!

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:

• Leftover Blueberry Oatmeal pancakes
• Scrambled eggs with homemade bread and honey butter
• Cereals
• Oatmeal

Here are the ideas for lunches this week:

• Leftovers
• Soups
• Macaroni and Cheese

Here are the snack ideas for this week:

• Celery and Cream Cheese
• Apples and caramel
• Carrots and dip
• Cottage Cheese

Here are the dessert ideas this week:

• Cherry Cheesecake
• Organic suckers
• Ice Cream

Dinner Menu:

• Monday: Breakfast for dinner – with bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and Blueberry Oatmeal pancakes
• Tuesday: Asian Chicken, steamed broccoli, salad and homemade bread with honey butter
• Wednesday: Steaks and hotdogs on the grill, corn on the cob on the grill, homemade bread and honey butter and secret recipe with fennell
• Thursday: Hawaiian Haystacks
• Friday: Family Dinner Out
• Saturday: Meatloaf (2 lb. for leftovers), homemade bread and butter, steamed veggies, green salad
• Sunday: Dinner guests with chicken casserole, steamed veggies salad and brownies (12 total people eating)

Monday: Breakfast for dinner – with bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and Blueberry Oatmeal pancakes

• 2 packs bacon $3.00
• 10 cage free brown eggs $1.98
• 1 Simply Potatoes pack .40
• Green onions about .15 worth
• Homemade Blueberry Oatmeal pancakes around $1.00 for 14 pancakes
• Butter and syrup around .30 worth

Total Cost: $6.58 for the whole meal for 6 = about $1.10 per serving! PLUS leftover pancakes from breakfast the next day.

Tuesday: Asian Chicken, steamed broccoli, salad and homemade bread with honey butter

• 1 Pack of Tyson All Natural Chicken tenderloins $3.28
• 1 Asian dressing for marinade FREE
• 1 bunch organic broccoli around .70
• Salad and dressings around $1.00
• Homemade bread and butter .69

Total Cost: $5.38 for the whole meal for 6 = about .90 per serving!

Wednesday: Steaks and hotdogs on the grill, corn on the cob on the grill, homemade bread and honey butter and secret recipe with fennell

• Chef Requested bacon wrapped steaks for the two of us .97
• Beef hotdogs (for the kids ;)) .69
• 6 ears of corn $1.50
• Fennell creation est. about $1.00
• homemade bread and honey butter .69

Total Cost: $3.73 for the whole meal for 6 = about .62 per serving!

Thursday: Hawaiian Haystacks

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!

Friday: Family Dinner Out – not part of our grocery budget, but comes from our eating out budget

Saturday: Meatloaf (2 lb. for leftovers), homemade bread and butter, steamed veggies, green salad

• 2 lbs. ground beef $2.00
• Ingredients for meatloaf est. .60
• Salad and Dressings $1.00
• Bread and butter .69
• Steamed veggies around $1.00

Total Cost: $4.40 for the whole meal for 6 = about .73 per serving!

Sunday: Dinner guests with chicken casserole, steamed veggies salad and brownies (12 total people eating)

• Double batch chicken casserole around $4.50
• Steamed veggies $1.36
• Salad and dressings $2.00
• Brownies .30

Total Cost: $8.58 for 12 = about .72 per serving.

COST SUMMARY FOR THIS WEEK’S DINNERS: Cost for the dinners this week $32.44 for the 6 of us, plus one meal with a family of 7!!