How can I feed a family of 5 on $300 budget

I tell people all the time to go to hillbillyhousewife.com.

You can feed your family for way less than $300 a month.

Okay, so break it down to $75 a week.

Go to the store only once a week. Make a menu for 1 week and see if

you can stick to it. Shop only with a list. Allow for snacks, but

make your own cakes and such.

Whole fryers or chicken quarters are wonderful and cheap.

You can take a whole chicken and cook it on the stove.

Debone it, make a pot of chicken and dumplings ( kids love this)

Take the leftovers and serve over mashed potatoes the next day with

vegies and biscuits. You have fed your family of 5 for $8 for 2

days!!

Hot dogs: My kids love these cut in half and fried and served with

scrambled eggs for breakfast and dinner.

Beef roast: Make in crockpot with carrots and potatoes. The next

day make a big pot of beef vegetable soup. Just use generic frozen

vegies ( your favorites ) and some kind of bean.

My kids beg for this.

Chili, very cheap to make, add lots of kidney beans, my kids will

eat this for 2-3 days.

Breakfast for dinner 2 nights a week. Pancakes and french toast are

a big hit here.

Spaghetti, very cheap and filling and good for a couple of days.

Brownie and cake mixes, generic, are cheap and better than store

bought snack cakes anyway.

A bag of generic popcorn is 99 cents and the kids love hot popcorn

for a snack.

After school snacks, jello with fruit, cake, brownies, a 33 cent

box of mac-n-cheese, hot dog, grilled cheese, fried egg

sandwich, fried bologna sandwich ( my son’s favorites)

All of these are good for those summer lunches too.

Oh, and in my area all the elementary schools have free lunches for

kids 18 and under, I have one real close to me and my kids could

have free lunch every day. They may be hungry later, but, hey it

fills them up for a couple of hours and they get a healthy,

balanced meal with milk and get to see their friends.

Dollar tree: Don’t be fooled by their food choices, you can get

cheaper at Wal-mart with generics!!

Wal-mart has a baked goods rack by the milk with their day-old

bakery items all marked down. Good for a treat for summer: Put

cake, cookies, donuts etc in fridge for at least 2-3 hours, Make

instant pudding and chill. Spoon pudding over bakery item. My kids

beg for this 🙂

Beans: Make in the crockpot and serve with cornbread, very

filling, full of protein. Can make into soup or chili, bean dip

or refried beans

Fried Ramen, one of my family’s favorites.

Brown celery and onion in some margerine, make your noodles, drain

and fry in the margerine and celery and onion.

Great side dish and sooo cheap.

My kids love ramen noodle with hot dogs too.

Hope this helped!

Monika

— In Budget101_@yahoogroups.com, “Cindy Sue Cindysioux@…”

wrote:

>

> Another suggestion. Our local food bank allows you to come and

receive donations once a month. There are of course basic income

restrictions but many local food banks have similar a practice. Not

sure per say your particular situation or financial constraints but

this may be an option to consider. Also local food banks in

association with local thrift stores (second hand stores) offers up

day old bread for a meager donation. This is usually done weekly or

bi-weekly. You could mostly likely contact your local “community

action team” or local resource center and I am certain they could

point you in the right direction.

>

> COOLCATPANTHER wrote: Something else you

might want to try. Not sure if you qualify for, or what

> your feelings are on the subject though. Maybe you can see if your

kids

> qualify for free or reduced price lunches at school. Or see if you

can get

> food stamps. Maybe check out to see if there is a S.H.A.R.E. or an

> Angelfood Ministry thing near you to help reduce the cost of food.

>

>

>

> Posted by: “mkroom4trble” mkroom4trble@… mkroom4trble

> Date: Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:51 pm ((PDT))

>

> Can anyone suggest on how I can manage this? I have 300 to spend on

> grocery every month but I can’t seem to make it last. Thanks.