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 already have 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!
Last week I did manage to stay within my $25 for 5 dinners allotment. I ended up cooking one night unexpectedly and most of the other take out meals were less expensive than I expected. Since I stayed in the budget I’d do a week of eating out again if I was in the same situation again!
This week we’ll be cooking (in no particular order):
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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