1) Start with what you got - My husband works at a surplus-type store so he got a great deal on pasta and cereal. I also had rice, potatoes, onions and most baking needs.
Cereal - takes care of most breakfasts and since I have baking ingredients, I can make muffins, pastries, pancakes and such.
Potatoes - I will use them as sides for barbecue chicken and ham meals
Onions and rice - Go with lots of bean dishes
Pasta - Mac & Cheese, Chicken Alfredo and Spaghetti
2) It's ok to repeat a meal - We love pizza so that is a weekly meal. I had all the ingredients for the crust. I also had the pepperoni. All I needed was the sauce (spaghetti sauce), olives and mozzarella cheese.
Pancakes is also a weekly meal. When my husband works late nights and I have plenty of leftovers in the fridge, I make pancakes for me and the kids.
Most of the other meals repeat twice throughout the month.
3) Plan out ways to stretch your meat - I would like to be a vegetarian, but others in my household would not hear of it. The bad thing about not wanting to eat meat is that I really don't care to cook it either. But I've figured out how to add a little bit of meat to dishes so that I don't have to cook it as often. My meat purchases this month was a large ham (man, I miss holiday ham prices), two family packs of chicken breast and 4 packs of smoked sausage.
This Sunday, I will cook the ham. That makes one meal. Leftovers make two. It will probably do for leftovers for 2-3 days. Then I will cut up all the remaining meat and divide into freezer containers. Then a little bit of ham will go in to flavor at least two Country Creole Peas and Corn dishes and 2 Quiche Lorraine dishes. If there is enough, it will also go into the Cuban Black Beans and Rice.
There are about 8 big chicken breasts. I will take two and divide up into strips, cover with BBQ sauce and cook in the oven. My husband and second son are the main ones who eat the chicken so that will be plenty for them. The other six will be grilled on the George Foreman grill. I will divide that meat into 3-4 containers to go with the Chicken alfredo.
I use sauce, olives and parmesan cheese to jazz up spaghetti noodles and do without the meat.
4) Think about different meals that use similar ingredients - I love Broccoli Rice Casserole that uses half a box of Velveeta cheese. So I bought a can of rotel and bag of chips to use the other half.
5) Use as many beans as possible. - Ten out of 33 meals use some sort of legume as the main ingredient. I vary it up by using different kinds. I have kidney beans, black beans, black eyed peas, lentils, and pinto beans in the menu plan. If you go with less meat, you have to add another protein source.
6) Shop sales or private label - You can use the sale items to make your list. My van is in the shop so I had a friend take me to the Save-a-lot. I've also heard Aldi's is good. I really love the one-stop shopping for most of what I need. They didn't have lentils so I have to go to Walmart whenever we need a milk run.
7) Drink lots of water - We got a few bottles of juice for the kids and tea bags to make sweet tea for us. But the majority of our fluid comes in the form of just plain water. Much better for you. We will have to get milk for the little ones but even the toddler drinks some water.
8) Look at Amazon Mom - I signed up for the free trial for 3 months and got some super deals on diapers and dog food.
My totals
Save-a-lot $215
Amazon $70
Future milk runs budget (and the lentils that Save-a-lot doesn't carry and the tea that is better and cheaper at Walmart [National Cup brand 100 ct for $1]) $30
Feeding a family of six + a dog + diapers = $315 for the month.
Not too shabby!
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