$5 Dinners Week of 5/1 $4.99 Average Cost

My goal is to provide dinner for my
family for an average of $5 except on special
occasions. We don’t have to eat beans and rice to
accomplish this goal!  We typically only cook a main dish 4 or 5 times a week. Each
main dish cooked will serve 4-6, and the
leftovers will be for easy dinners on the weekend, or to freeze
for another week. This cuts down on cleaning,
cooking, and meal planning- saving us lots of time!

With the beautiful weather we’ve had, there’s been a lot of grilling going on (thanks for the grill Nana!).  You know how we cook in this family-we like to make a mess once and benefit for several meals.  Hence, my usually somewhat sparce fridge and freezer look like this:

This week we’ll be eating lots of leftovers and food from the freezer.  I could hardly make room up there for my $.88 Jose Ole boxes! I’m reposting the meals as they were planned and cooked over the past couple weeks even though our cost this week will be negligible.  


Grilled Chicken, Pineapple, Sweet Peas, Cinnamon Sugar Toast, Mashed Potatoes
1 lb. chicken breasts @ 1.78
misc. seasonings for chicken
1 can pineapple @ .83
1 can sweet peas @ .45
3 slices of bread for toast @ .12
butter, cinnamon and sugar for toast
2 potatoes @ .40
butter, milk, garlic salt for mashed potatoes @ .10

Total Cost: $3.68


Macaroni and Cheese, Ham, Deviled Eggs, Green Beans
macaroni @ .50
cheese @ 1.00
butter and milk for mac @ .10
1 lb. ham @ 1.47
1 can green beans @ .25
6 eggs @ .45
mustard and pickle relish @ .05
Total Cost: $3.82

Shrimp Shish kabobs, Grilled Corn, Pineapple, Toast
1 lb. shrimp @ 7.99
4 ears of corn @1.60
1 can pineapple @ .83
4 slices of bread for toast @ .16
Baked Potatoes @ .40
sour cream and shredded cheese @ .10
Total Cost: 11.08


Yakisoba Smorgasbord with leftover veggies and sides, and grapefruit
4 Yakisoba single serve dishes @ .32
leftovers @ FREE
2 oranges @ .80
*Even if you didn’t get the Yakisoba for .08 using the $.50 coupon, the
meal would still only cost $3 or less if you’re clearing leftovers too.
Total Cost: $1.12

Eeeny Meeny Miney Mo, pick a little casserole    with corn and candied sweet potatoes
cost for my casserole for the swap 4.50, but we get to eat someone else’s tonight
This one is spanish rice with sausage
leftover corn @ free
sweet potatoes @ .55
brown sugar @ .14
half a stick of butter @ .06
Total Cost = $5.25


Average cost of these 5 meals (if we were actually cooking them this week and not eating them all as leftovers)  $4.99

This is part of Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday.