**This post is part of the June Food Stamp Challenge located over HERE.**
I know I haven't done a Meal Plan Monday in awhile but thought I'd get back into this week.
For all you June Food Stamp Challenge readers.....
One way to keep control on your food costs is to plan your meals ahead. Figure out what to serve
before you go to the store and buy food. It can be a rigid per day menu or just a loose list of meals that will appear on your table at some point in the week...whichever works for you.
When you have a list of meals to serve it's easier to just buy what you need, because you now KNOW what you need! How many times have you gone to the store and come home with bags of groceries, spending $100 or more and after emptying your bags find that you don't have the ingredients for what you want to cook?
It's happened to me in the past....but not since I plan ahead!
It's what I call my
BPLS system.....Browse/Plan/List/Shop.
Browse the sale ads for the store,
Plan a menu, Make a
List of what you need for that menu and THEN go food
Shopping.
Last Week's Menu Postmortem...
There was a very loose menu plan last week. We had relatives visiting for the week and I hosted 2 large dinners. We did NOT go out to eat while they were here(except for 1 2-person lunch)for a change, so it was cooking at home for the week. 2 nights we had 'fend for yourself' or leftover nights to use up bits and pieces I didn't incorporate into the dishes I cooked fresh. We also did
brinner....aka breakfast for dinner one evening which was a nice cost-efficient meal.
Here's what I will be serving our family of 5 this Week.....our household presently consists of 2 adults and 3 teens at home. No children under 14.
MONDAY--Beef Stew ala Crockpot,
Whack Biscuits
TUESDAY--Spaghetti with
Meatless Balls, Tossed Salad
WEDNESDAY--Roast Turkey, Stuffing, Sweet Potatoes, Wax Beans
THURSDAY--Sloppy Joes on rolls, Tossed Salad
FRIDAY--BBQ Chicken Thighs, Green Rice Casserole
SATURDAY--Beef Enchiladas, Mixed Greens Salad
SUNDAY--leftovers
Here are the cost breakdowns...
Beef Stew....Meat $2.32, Onion .25, Carrots .50, Potatoes $1.00, Celery .25, Green Beans .30, Stock free, Spices .10, Biscuits .50=$5.22
Spaghetti w/Meatless Balls....Pasta .50, Sauce $1.50, 'Ball' ingredients $2.10, Salad .99, Dressing $1.00=$6.09
Turkey Dinner...Turkey free, Stuffing $2.00, Sweet Potatoes $2.70, Beans free=$4.70
Sloppy Joes....Ground Beef $2.54, Rolls .50, Sauce $1.00, Salad .99, Dressing $1.00=$6.03
BBQ Chicken Dinner...Chicken .13, Sauce .25, Rice $1.00, Spinach $1.00, Other casserole ingredients $2.00=$4.38
Enchiladas...Ground Beef .85, Tortillas $1.00, Refried Beans .50, Enchilada Sauce .79, Cheese $2.00, Onion .25, assorted Spices .30. Sour Cream .50, Salad .99, Dressing $1.00=$8.18
Leftovers.....free
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 to a family of 4 adults/teens for a total of $34.60.
Leftover nights have no cost as they were already figured in when the meal was served the first time. If you divide the meals' cost by 6 nights, you get an average cost per night of $5.77. That's $1.15 per person per night. And this is mostly a cooking from scratch menu. The only 'processed foods' are the
Whack biscuits & jarred Spaghetti Sauce. To be honest, some of my ingredients are free.....the whole turkey from last fall for a "buying XX$ in groceries" promotion and the homemade vegetable stock. Having to pay for these items would raise your costs but even with that, this is a very frugal menu.
How am I being frugal with this menu?
The Beef Stew....I am using leftover London Broil slices and a small package of purchased Stew Cubes bought on Saturday to supplement(you can check out that post for details on how I got the meat for cheap). The stock is in the freezer, made the last time I pan roasted veggies. I added water and pureed them for a thick vegetable stock for free.
The Beef Enchiladas...I'll take the leftover Sloppy Joe beef to put into this dish. I've budgeted a small amount of 'fresh' ground beef to add as well in case the Sloppy Joes are popular.lol The sauce in the Sloppy Joes means I don't need to add tomatoes to season the enchilada filling. It will require a bit of dried mexican type spices(cumin, chili powder)only.
If the Meatless Balls are NOT popular, they can be crumbled up and added to the Enchilada filling as well to extend it.
The Turkey Dinner turkey was free. It needs to be used while everyone is home, so it has to be this week. There will still be leftover meat so it is a prime candidate for Saturday's Leftovers meal. We might get a few sandwiches out of it and then a small pot of turkey chili on next week's menu as well.
The beans with this meal are also free....it's the last bag of beans from our garden last summer.
You'll notice I have us eating salad 3 times this week. There is an excellent deal on salad this week(I can get 3 bags free!) and salad doesn't keep long so we must eat it. Changing other add-in veggies or dressings will keep it from tasting like the same thing each time.
LAST WEEK'S FOOD SPENDING
I spent $87.91 last week on groceries(not including pet food). I have an allotment of $410.72 to spend in June on food due to my participation in the June Food Stamp Challenge located
HERE. I have $322.81 remaining.
The only NEEDS for this week's menu are potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad greens, spinach, milk. This should run me about $15. I do plan on taking advantage of a few sales this week to stock-up on cheese(always needed here), canned chili(for #2 son summer lunches), frozen veggies(to get us through until the local farm stand opens) and ricotta cheese(to use next week).
FOOD WASTE REPORT
Nothing went bad, nothing wasted this week.
Check out
ORGANIZING JUNKIE to see what other Home Cooks are serving this week.
Sluggy
