Meal Plan Monday.....March 8th....Spending Breakdown & 2 Recipes

Last Week's Menu Postmortem...
Everything was served as planned except the Crockpot Chicken. Weis had a special on fish fillets($3.99lb!) and I went and bought some flounder and we had a fried fish dinner last night instead of the chicken.  I just had a hankerin'!lol  Since I'm not in the mood for Crockpot Chicken this week, the chicken that's moving to this week will be a casserole dish instead.

Hubby won't be here for dinner 2 nights this week so the teens have convinced me to do Take-Out those evenings, which comes out of the Entertainment money.  It shouldn't be too much of a hit on the budget in this way....
1.We'll do chinese take-out but order it before 3pm so we get the lunch prices.
2. At Taco Bell they'll order off of the $1 menu and I'll just have something from home or a leftover.
These 2 things should keep the total under $20 for both nights for 3 people.


Here's what I will be serving our family of 4 this Week.....our household presently consists of 2 adults and 2 teens at home.  No children under 14.

This week is all about using what I have and incorporating leftovers as well. Since alot of what I am serving is stockpiled, I'm putting what  I paid for the ingredients that are on hand so you can see what I spend w/stockpiling & sales versus buying it weekly when it might not be on sale. If I use a leftover ingredient I won't add that cost as it was already figured into the previous meal's cost.

MONDAY--Taco Bell .89¢ Burritos for the teens($4), leftover Baked Ziti for me
TUESDAY--Chinese Take-Out($15 ordered at lunch prices)
WEDNESDAY--Crockpot Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole($4.50)-makes leftover for 1 additional meal
THURSDAY--Ham Slices($4), Green Beans(.50¢), Potato Skins($2)
FRIDAY--Corned Beef(need to buy), Cabbage(need to buy), Biscuits(.50¢)
SATURDAY--Leftovers
SUNDAY--Dutch Oven Pot Roast with Carrots, Mushrooms & Onions($5), Mashed Potatoes(free)
SNACKS/DESSERTS--Cantaloupe(leftover),cookies(.49¢), apples(.15¢)

I need to buy $10 worth of items for this menu. I'll pick up a small corned beef on sale for $1.29lb. this week plus cheap cabbage & a gallon of milk for drinking.

Adding up what has already been spent and what I need to spend for this week's menu, I can serve this menu of 5 meals(not including the take-out nights as that is on the entertainment dime) to a family of 4 adults/teens for a total of $30.14.

Leftover nights have no cost as they were already figured in when the meal was served the first time.  If you divide the meals and snacks cost by 5 nights, you get an average cost per night of $6.03.  That's $1.51 per person per night.  And this is mostly a cooking from scratch menu.  The only 'processed foods' are the can of soup and the roll of biscuits.  Who says you can't cook healthy on the cheap?

LAST WEEK'S FOOD SPENDING
$59.05 was spent on food/toiletries last week. $38.17 at Weis(and I received a $7 Catalina to roll this week), $.01 at CVS, $9.87 at Boyer's(on cheap tp and BOGO eggs), $9.00 at the Entenmann's Bread Outlet($3 bread and Hubby went and asked for donuts $6) and $2.00 at Rite-Aid on bunches of stuff.
$48.71 of the $59.05 of the spending was strictly on food.


FOOD WASTE REPORT
We still have Baked Ziti leftover but it will be eaten this week. The only food that was wasted was the slice of cheese I had to cut off block of cheddar that molded.
Cantaloupe rinds, potato peels and other clippings were composted.

Check out ORGANIZING JUNKIE to see what other Home Cooks are serving this week.

Sluggy