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 we’ll be cooking (in no particular order):
Pasta with Italian Sausage, Green Beans, Pineapple, Mashed Potatoes and Texas Cheese Toast
Chicken Quesadillas, Chips and Cheese Dip, Fresh Peaches and Brownies
Twice Baked Potatoes, Chicken Nuggets and Grapes
Rainbow Pasta and Garlic Chicken, Pineapple and Sweet Peas
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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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