2015 $50 Budget Menu Plan Week #19Tired of spending a huge amount on groceries each month? Check out how we feed our family of 4 for on a $50 budget each week. View this weeks current Menu plan, complete with recipes or check out the last 3 years worth of weekly menu plans as well! Read More
thanks for acknowledging that not everyone uses handfuls of coupons. there are never coupons for produce and meat, and i despise coupons that make you buy 3 or 4 of something to get 25 cents off. Also, we buy store brand of all kinds of items – no coupons – and look for the store’s 2 for 1 deals for other items. As another conundrum, coupons are frequently for pre-prepared dinners and snack foods, which we buy precious few of.
looks good. we’re trying to cut back too as we are recently retired – due to a family emergency, so we didn’t plan it out entirely. my problem is that my husband is a really picky eater and does not always eat healthy – he wants what he wants and it’s also hard for him to limit portions.
we’re new to the nw and are just now starting a garden – have tomatoes coming. he loves ribs – i got some, but am trying to save part of my share to put into the tomato sauce for spaghetti tomorrow so that we can save on ground beef. any suggestions on how to cope with picky eaters?
i sneak in a lot of things my family doesn’t like. i use tofu and my father in law insists he won’t eat it, but doesn’t have a clue that i put it in stuffed shells or other pasta dishes. i also add veggies to spaghetti sauce, which is more odvious but doesn’t change the flavor.
you can aslo add cheese to mask flavors. i also add onions, peppers, and celery to anything made with ground meat. it adds bulk, and when cooked doesn’t have a lot of flavor.
i added a comment, but didn’t see it. forgive me, but i’m new to this site. i enjoyed the article, but am having trouble with my husband, who is a picky eater.
he’s not always willing to try new foods that are cheaper and healthier. any suggestions on this? we are newly retired and are having to cut back on all our expenses.
dot, you have my sympathies on the picky eating. We are staying with my parents while my husband has been going through chemo/radiation to cut down on our home expenses(electric, gas etc.). During this time i have took over my mom’s kitchen because i tend to cook healthier and desire a balanced meal.
Parents are junk food junkies. Both have health problems and don’t eat “food” very well unless it’s swimming in extra fat, calories and meals tend to lean toward high starches and fats. I think my mother is the only person i have ever seen add butter to fry hamburgers.
Remarkable, i haven’t had much of a problem preparing foods for hubby due to the treatments. I wish i had some answers for you and wish you all the luck.
on the monday 9th menu you have Lunch: Egg salad Wraps where is the recipe? I can’t find it.:dontknow:
Egg salad recipes are here:
GroceryBudget101.com- – 18 Simple Egg Salad Variations | Egg Salad Recipes | Dirt Cheap Lunches
for a family of 6 that includes 4 teens ages 12 to 23 i have not been able to get below 100.00 a month. this also includes petfood and household items. maybe the area people live in also plays a part in food budgets…..i plan weekly meals around sales fliers and everything else i can think of to help but just cant seem to lower it any more…..i use a few coupons but not many i think the craze is dying down on that
Did you really mean that you haven’t been able to get below $100 a month?
I could see the difficulty in getting it that low for a week with that number of people but to me, it would be impossible for a month. If that’s your goal, then you are way gutsier than I am. :worthy:
i ment 100 a week…..sorry
To make the veggies less obvious in the spaghetti sauce, blitz them in a food processor either before adding to sauce (ie raw) or once you’ve cooked them in the sauce – the family will never notice – this is great if you have folks who say they don’t like veggies and usually pick obvious pieces out. I did this for years as a Nanny…the only veg the kids seemed to enjoy being in their sauce (besides the tomatoes) was carrots, anything else had to be whizzed down so it couldn’t be seen/identified as vegetable matter lol. The carrots I’d slice into very thin ‘coins’ and then either spray the pan with some low fat veg oil or would use some olive oil and would fry the carrots before adding to the sauce…if I wanted to add a bit more flavor to it, I’d add some fresh thyme leaves to the carrots while they were cooking.
But all the other vegetables (broccoli, turnip, mushrooms, parsnips, cabbage, etc all got blitzed down to fine pieces that would cook really quickly, would really bulk out the sauce, and would add the extra nutrients to the meal with the usual complaints that many kids have about eating their veg.
That’s not too bad for six. I had a big family too at one point. (my oldest son is living on his own, and my stepson is not with us right now either) so I am down to four.
2 adults, 1 senior and our youngest. when I took a leave of absence to take care of a family member, we only had about $25.00 a week for food. We were very careful, only planning for essential meals. Our son ate breakfast and lunch at school so we cut those out for him.
I planned dinners around what was on sale and used tofu and pasta to substitute meat. We ate a meat dish every other day and a pasta or bean or tofu dish on the rest, that way it wasn’t too boring. Everything got portioned and used.
If I bought 2 lbs of chicken, we got two meals out of it. During that time I bought a lot of bulk meat. I got a whole chicken for 99 cents a pound, and got several meals out of that by using every last edible bit.
if a fruit or vegetable was on sale by the pound, I only got one pound. I also edited and re edited my grocery list before going to the store and I shopped around. I am lucky that most of my stores are in really close proximity to each other so I got milk at costco religiously, and most of my groceries at stop and shop.
I also stopped by a produce market for most of my produce. When I had my 25 dollar plan I stuck to it, even if it meant leaving something at the store that I needed but didnt write down. I learned to substitute that way.
It would still be there next week. We got day old bread free from a local church and got very creative with it. We cleaned with white vinegar and water and gave up the papertowels and used some old towels as rags.
I have to say that it was really extreme, and only lived when I was out of work. that is also when I found this site by the way, but some of it sticks even now. I am religious about planning meals and grocery lists, and grimace if I have to pay full price for anything.
I swear by coupons, and rarely shop without them, but only use the ones that have products I will use. If its a prepackaged food or as I call it crap in a box, we use it as a treat, not a staple and it had better be pretty close to free. I guess what I am really trying to say is that if you really want to spend less, you have to figure out what you can live without and experiment with what you have.
what day of the week do you post new menus?
i am having trouble this week (january 28) with the PDF/print file. Is it just me or is it blank for others as well?
i finally got it to print. thanks.
i’m so glad i found this there are five of us in our home my husband and son lift weights together my son is 16:weight: and he is huge and they eat none stop and my daughter and her soon to be hubby and me, we spend $950.00 month and i use coupons!!!!! i’m doing something so wrong!!!!!
why is it that the breakfast choices do not show up in the print version, nor in the pdf file? they have not been printable since they were listed separately.
was a menu for week 14 posted? If it was where is it? I have been looking all week.
Last weeks menu was not posted, this will be explained later this week! Todays menu is out and ready though 🙂
my daughter is on a gluten free diet, and won’t eat pork, so meal planning is very challenging!
i love your menu plans! thank you for sharing them every week!
i love the weekly menus. trying to reduce our grocery budget and this has been a great starting point for me. i have a hard time making my own menus, mostly cause i seem to only plan for dinners!
your menus have all the meals, and snacks. for a family of 6 (3 of those teens) it really helps keep the cost down.
I’m trying to figure out how to start my own little vegetable garden, or rather, I’m thinking of a way to start something small so that I don’t get overwhelmed. Maybe next spring I can write in and let you know how that goes.
:springsmile:
Start with something small that you use a lot of of, for us it was tomatoes and cucumbers. We had just a couple patio style containers. Then we gradually added more and more. Our garden is till fairly modest, but it certainly serves the whole family.
i am really excited to have found this! i plan on using it and hopefully i will be as successful as everyone else has been! thank you again:worthy:
tried to post on the weekly grocery budget101, but somehow I wasn’t registered (still trying to figure this all out). ANYWAY, I had a question about their big butter purchase. She mentioned buying the year’s worth butter now while prices were low ($1.69/lb) and freezing it.
I wondered if their was a secret to keeping the butter fresh tasting. I usually freeze around 4-5 pounds but we end up using it within a month or so. I’d like to freeze more, but concerned about fresh taste.
My mother-in-law’s gets a strange taste to it–not exactly freezer burn, but not a good taste. When my husband won’t eat butter, it clearly has a bad taste. Any suggestions for retaining flavor would be appreciated!
You probably weren’t able to post at GroceryBudget101.com because you can’t use your Budget101.com Membership there, it’s a different site altogether. You have to register there to post there, like you did here. 🙂 On the butter freshness, if your freezer tends to leave an undesirable flavor, Vacuum seal them. The bags are washable and reusable.
thanks, freebie queen! two questions answered!!
did someone post the recipe for country herb chicken & dumplings (over veggies)? i’m new so forgive me if it’s here somewhere. i can’t find it.
:o)
GroceryBudget101.com- – Country Herb Chicken-n-Dumplings | Dirt Cheap Recipes Found it!
thank you for the great info!
i look forward to these fresh ideas on how to save money on food.
Thank you for sharing
when ppl talk about $100 week are you including bathroom stuff/cleaning items which can add tremendously to the bill? I find that I usually have $25 or more in my cart before even leaving the bathroom essentials aisles some weeks. We have 2 adults, 1 teenager and a 4yr old (with occasional 22 yr old son eating) and I can’t keep it all below $175 or more per week.
I feel like I am drowning at the store!! I hope this site helps me as I just signed up. Thanks everybody!
i adore your menu plans. thank you!
more great recipes for me to try! thank you for what you do – it helps so many and keeps me from getting in a rut with my own menu plans!
i think an important part of your menu/ shopping list is what we don’t see purchased. no soft drinks, no remade snack items no frozen dinners no bottled water, few cleaning supplies, few personal care items. it’s all real food and cleaning and personal care items that are good for us and our planet. that saves $$$ and our health now and for the future!
just joined today and i gotta say so far i am loving this site!! we just recently went down to one income and so i am trying to do my part to help make ends meet. i have never been one to plan meals ahead of time but i tried it this week…did pretty good sticking with it.
i did miss 2 days one because we had leftovers and the other was due to ball practice running late. I spent about $45 on the missing parts of what I needed to make the meals. I too am shopping and preparing meals for a large family…4 adults and 3-4 children.
its a challenge
there is so much help. i really need it.
seriously?? on a budget, single, unemployed, and disability issues the food saver has been a great investment for me! i purchased via ebay for $30 Kroger now has them on clearance for $50.
My freezer is full of single meals I can throw in the crockpot. I go to the managers special on meats and break down large packages for meals. I have done items with the food saver for fall (soups etc.) The food saver also comes with a chart telling you how long you can keep certain items in food saver bags for certain length of times (which I keep on the front of my refrig.).
I have no regrets here investing in one–much better than freezer burn and throwing items out!:piggy:
Hello. Im new. This is my family of four first week.
Spent $100 trying catch up a little and I spend a little more cause my oldest can’t have Some dairy and I’m handicap so somethings I gotta by pre cut. But loving the menus cause I run out of ideas on what to cook. When do yall update?
I’m currently going on the last week of March menu for this week?.