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, so each main dish cooked will be for 4-6 servings, 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!
Catfish Fillets, Home made French Fries, Fried Cheese Sticks, corn
3/4 lb catfish nuggetts @ 1.48
potato for fries @ .25
mozzarella @ .88
breading @ .50
1/2 can corn @ .27
Total Cost: $3.38
Crockpot Salsa Chicken (adapted from here), fresh peaches
1 lb. chicken @ 1.78
1/2 jar of salsa @ .94
1 can corn @ .62
1cup black beans @ .20 (if today’s attempt at cooking dry beans is more successful than the last few)
2 peaches @ .87
Total Cost: $4.41
Corndogs/Hotdogs, Broccoli & Cheese, Apples, Brownies
4 Corndogs @ 1.16
1 Hotdog @ .04
1 large Apple sliced @ .60
Broccoli @ .64
3 slices of velveeta @ .45
3 brownies @ .20
Total Cost: $3.09
Alfredo Chicken Helper, pineapple, sweet peas, cinnamon toast
chicken helper @ .66
3/4 lb. chicken @ 1.34
2 cups milk @ .28
3 tbs margarine @ .18
1 can pineapple @.75
1 can sweet peas @ .54
3 slices of bread with cinnamon sugar @ .24
Total Cost = $4.00
Chick-fil-A on Tuesday night.
Adult Meal @ around $5.50
Spicy Chicken Sandwich @ free with Q
Kids Meal @ free because it’s kids’ night
Total Cost $5.50 on gift card from an online reward program, so not part of our $5.00 dinner budget!
Average Cost of the 4 meals we’re cooking this week $3.72.
If you want to figure in our trip to Chick-fil-A, the average would be $4.08.
If you wonder how I get food items for free or for next to nothing, keep reading my blog. Every week I post the best grocery deals in the East Texas area so you’ll know when and where to buy food products, what coupons to use and where to find them. I’m always looking for new $5 dinners to try. If you have any recipes, please send me an e-mail (link on my sidebar)