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! I shop the grocery sales each week. Then I plan my menu based on the foods I have already at home (at a great price). I balance more expensive meals with less expensive ones. 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 at us
lots of time!
This week my husband it out of town and I’m watching a friend’s 2 kids for 2 days. I think I’ve bitten off more than I can handle so cooking is not part of my plan this week!
This week we’ll be cooking (in no particular order):
Rotisserie Chicken, Fried Okra and Fresh Peaches
Dairy Queen Chicken Strip Kids Meals
Sub Sandwiches and Bananas
Little Caesar’s Pizza and Fresh Peaches
I’m estimating that the 4 eating out/ store bough meals will cost around $27 and the Freezer Hodge Podge should be $3-$4. I’m ok with being $6-$7 over budget for the week if it helps me to survive!
For 2012, I will no longer be showing
the cost breakdown for our meals. This is very time consuming
and for little purpose since I’ve spent the past 18 months
showing that a family of 4 could eat for an average of $5 per
dinner. If you’d like to see some $5 menu ideas with cost
breakdowns, please browse my pages for $5 Dinner Plans.
This post is being linked up to Menu Plan Monday over at OrgJunkie.
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