Thrifty Couple Weekly Menu Week of 5/17!

Here’s the Thrifty Menu for this week!! It is going to be a non-traditional one as we have parties planned for my birthday this week PLUS restaurant FREEBIES! We are also using many of the veggies we just got for temporary price cut at Target this week as well as finishing up the last of our organic produce!

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:

• Hot Cereal
• Homemade Fruit Smoothies
• Cereals

Here are the ideas for lunches this week:

• Leftovers
• Pasta
• Burritos
• Nachos

Here are the snack ideas for this week:

• Celery and Cream Cheese
• Apples and caramel
• Carrots and dip
• Crackers and cheese

Here are the dessert ideas this week:

• Organic suckers
• Ice Cream Sundaes
• Birthday cake

Dinner Menu:

• Monday: French Dip, Steamed Green Beans with garlic butter sauce, baked sweet potatoes
• Tuesday: Family dinner out for birthday celebration at Red Robin(FREE Burger)
• Wednesday: My Grandma and Mom are taking me out to dinner and a night out! Yay! Thrifty Al and the kids will be having spaghetti with steamed veggies and green salad.
• Thursday: Burritos, chips and salsa, green salad and corn
• Friday: Birthday celebration with family – I am not sure what is planned!
• Saturday: Teriyaki Beef Stir-Fry over rice and green salad
• Sunday: Low key soups and/or sandwiches, leftovers

Monday:  French Dip (topped with sauteed onions and Provolone cheese!), Steamed Green Beans with garlic butter sauce, baked sweet potatoes

Since this was one of the most expensive meals we have

had in a long time, I thought it deserved a picture 😉 Those fresh

deli meats can eat up your budget fast, but they sure make for awesome

French Dip paired with sauteed onions and Provolone cheese – it was worth every penny!

• 1-lb fresh Deli Roast Beef $5.00 (and that was on sale – part of the inspiration for why we had this meal!)
• 1 package of Hoagie Rolls $2.00
• 1 package Green Giant Fresh Green beans with garlic butter seasonings $1.37
• 6 slices of Provolone .50
• Baked Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon and Butter $1.00

Total Cost: $9.87 for the whole meal for 6 = about $1.65 per serving!

Tuesday: Family dinner out for birthday celebration at Red Robin(FREE Burger)

This is not part of our grocery budget, but rather our weekly allotted eating out budget!

Wednesday: Spaghetti with steamed veggies and green salad.

• 1 package spaghetti .12
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce .48
• Green Giant fresh steamed veggies $1.37
• Salad and dressings $1.00

Total Cost: $2.97 for the whole meal for 5 = about .59 per serving!

Thursday: Burritos, chips and salsa, green salad and corn

• Homemade bean and cheese burritos about $1.00
• Chips .88
• Salsa .12
• Steamed corn .68
• Salad and dressings $1.00

Total Cost: $3.68 for the whole meal for 6 = about .61 per serving!

Friday: Family Birthday Celebration

Saturday: Teriyaki Beef Stir-Fry over rice and green salad

• 2 -lbs Beef chunks $2.28
• 2 package of Green Giant fresh veggies with Teriyaki sauce packet $2.74
• Rice about .30 worth
• Salad and Dressings $1.00

Total Cost: $6.32 for the whole meal for 6 = about $1.05 per serving!

Sunday: Low key leftovers, soups or sandwiches = CHEAP

COST SUMMARY FOR THIS WEEK’S DINNERS: Cost for the dinners this week $22.84 for the 6 of us!!