Hi, all. The money has been feeling tight, although we don't have any debt other than mortgage, and we don't splurge on anything. We can't quite figure out where the money goes. The only thing that's stretching our finances that I can think of is our food. Since our son was born, we've been feeling so busy, we hardly ever cook anymore. We don't eat out or get take outs either. Instead, we tend to stock up on frozen meals (e.g., skillet meals, chicken nuggets, Green Giant frozen steam veggies) etc., that we use. We'll add bagged salad on the side etc. Probably we spend about 6-7 dollars per dinner for two of us. We tend to make something separately for our 16 month old. We both work, and for lunch, we pack frozen meals (e.g., Lean Cuisine, Amy's) too - so probably 2-3 dollars for each of us (4-6 for two of us) for lunch. So there's 10-12+ dollars per day just with lunch/dinner for two of us right there. Then there's breakfast and snack, drinks, etc. So maybe 15 dollars per day? That would be 450 per month for food for two.
The question is, is this more expensive than if we cook from scratch? I tended to think with the price of meat, veggies, all other ingredients, and utilities (stove) for cooking at home, buying mass-produced prepared food is not much more, but maybe it is. If you can give me some idea of what you think it's costing you to cook at home (for 2-3 people) that would be great. Thank you!
I've never actually sat down and broken it down by the meal or person, but I spend way less than that monthly. My monthly grocery bill is about $300 for six of us. Now we do order an occasional pizza or hit a drive through, but even adding that in, it doesn't equal even another $100 for the month.
To save money I make homemade. For example I'll roast a whole chicken. The first night we'll have chicken, rice, veggies, the second night we'll have chicken enchilladas, and the third night we will have chicken soup (boil the carcass). It's hard --- food is very expensive. I understand where you are coming from!
Well I don't lie in saying it is regional. Saying that I feed a family of 5 on 600 a month in Hawaii. That also includes all personal care items though. My suggestion on cutting food costs is cash. Now hide 20 dollars. You need it somewhere you can get it just in case. Now shop knowing that within the month you need to cut 20 dollars. Do this for several months and then up the hidden money to 40. Repeat. When we lived in Florida we fed 4 on 250 a month. Hawaii is expensive.
If you would cook in larger quantities and freeze seperate meal portions to be used as lunch or dinner on another day...I would think you could cook from scratch and save money. It is ALWAYS cheaper to cook from scratch than to use the pre-packaged, prepared foods because you are paying for the convenience of it.
Don't make meat the centerpiece of each meal if you are cooking from scratch...let it be the compliment to the salad and vegetable and occassionally a starch. You could also be feeding your toddler the same food that you are eating, instead of cooking separately for him.
How about making oatmeal or some other hot cereal from scratch for breakfast...or home made pancakes? There are lots of ways to save money but it takes a bit of time and effort to do it. I have heard of families who prepare all of the food for the week on the weekend and then just re-heat from the freezer all week long. I have never personally done this...I guess I am just not organized enough...lol.
Don't forget to make use of coupons when you are shopping...I would say that I save at LEAST $100 a month by using coupons anytime that I go to the store. Several of us at work bring in our coupons from the Sunday paper after we have taken what we want and we swap them around so that everyone gets to take advantage of as many coupons as possible. There are also several good coupon sites online...as well as the fact that a lot of grocery stores ( I Know that Dillons, part of the Kroger family does this, I work for them)...have loadable coupons that you can got to their site, or several other coupons sites and load coupons directly on to your store rewards card that will be redeemed automatically when you purchase the product AND you can use a paper coupon on the same item...so you can double up your savings!!
Packaged foods are very expensive, and your probably spending only a few cents less in utilites by heating up all that frozen food compared to cooking it.
Frozen veggies are a good value, but not Green Giant steamed ones. Compare the price per lb compared to fresh veggies. Buy the store brand, or buy the name brand but just the regular. You can add your own seasoning.
Bagged salad, I think that's like $7 per lb. (if you just use the iceburg lettuce ones with the few shreaded carrots, the cost is reasonable) For $7 I can buy greens, carrots, cucumber, tomatoe, etc and have enough for 8 servings, compare to your 2.
In addition, the packaged foods aren't as healthy.
Some meals only cost me $1 or $2 per person, others cost $5 per person, it depends on what were eating.
Great advice already....
It is always healthier, and most the time cheaper to cook basic foods from scratch. Others are right on, the nutritional value of those frozen meals has been cooked out. Not to mention the huge carbon footprint they leave in our world.
What is most economical is to plan your family meals based on what is on sale and what is in season.
Perhaps you can start cooking just two meals a week. Simple menus like baked chicken and baked potatoes with a fresh head of romaine lettuce. I bought chicken on sale last week and ended up having neighbors over for an impromptu dinner. I made two huge pans of baked herb chicken for $10.24, a red cabbage salad tossed with a raspberry vinagrette, frozen peas, and basmati rice. That entire dinner for 8 was less than $20 and we had chicken leftovers for two more meals.
I would recommend you make the switch one step at a time, not all at once or you'll be overwhelmed with buying a lot of groceries, no experience to cook it all and you still need lunches, so you might end up wasting both food and money.
I always purchase large bags of rice at Costco and potatoes, especially when those are on sale at the super market. You can make a big pot of mashed potatoes to last for several meals. Leftover potatoes can be frozen and reheated in the oven with cheese on top, or make a Shepherd's Pie. Or you can shred potatoes, freeze, and pull out for hashbrowns. I have never bought frozen hashbrowns or tater tot items. Nothing beats the fresh taste of a real potato.
Tonight was another impromptu dinner with neighbors...I made porkchops with a Fig Bourgou sauce from Williams-Sonoma ($8/bottle, used 1/3 of it), cardamon rice, frozen buttered corn, steamed spinach...popcorn for the movie...Dinner was less than $15 and there are leftovers again for lunch tomorrow.
Hope this helps your grocery bill and your health.
Any prepared foods (frozen foods, cut veggies, etc) are more expensive than cooking from scratch.
Cooking from scratch is the cheapest way actually, from scratch and from bulk supplies. Ive never figured out how much our food costs, and it would do you specifically no good to compare because we dont eat eat meat BUT i can say that food is where you want to spend your money.
Healthy food is more expensive, and is ironic because there is less done to it, and less added so it really should be cheaper. The companys making the healthy food are smaller ones who dont mass produce like some others and must charge more to stay afloat in our economy that bases its value on the cheap.
IMO food is not where to get frugal
i like costco for that reason because you can save and have better options
I agree it's hard to shop and cook in a household where both adults work. You can still get ahead of the game and keep the costs very low.
All the food you are buying except Amy's is just junk food devoid of any nutritional value. I cook from scratch everything. Red lentils cost very little and they cook in 20 minutes.
Brown Rice. Cook 3 cups of Brown Rice with 8 cups of water. Put seaweed in instead of salt. Bring the water to a boil add a teaspoon of olive oil. Put the rice which you have rinsed in a colander with small holes in the pot. Cook on low for 45 minutes. Stir from time to time. Keep covered. Now you have very good food to eat for several meals.
Fresh fish is expensive and very healthy. It takes about 20 minutes to cook it in a pan with water and butter or oil. Place thyme, rosemary or other herbs you like in with it while you cook. Hamburger even organic can be found on sale for about 2-3 dollars a pound. I make the patties and freeze them for later use. It'll drop your cost to get it on sale and in big amounts to be eaten over time.
Salads are very healthy. Organic washed salads in a bag are good for you. You can make two meals from one bag.
Make your own granola. It isn't hard. There are an endless number of cookbooks on the market and women on this site have written about the recipes they find online.
It does not cost me all that much to eat healthy food. Watch for sales and buy pears when the price is low. They keep for weeks in the refrigerator. Same for apples.
Tonights meal cost less than $2.00 per person.
I can fix a meal for 4-5 people with leftovers if i am creative for about $5 chicken and dumplings $4 for a whole chicken $2.50 for a box of jiffy mix. and i use about half or a third of a box depending on how many i am cookng for. we do chili dogs $1 chili use bread its cheaper .88 loaf and hot dogs .88 and add bag of fritoes or generic fritoes $2. ramen noodles and meat balls $2.50 meatballs frozen .10 bag for ramen noodles 2-3 bags depending on how many i am feeding and a veggie .50 for generic
burritoes $1 bag of rice $1 bag of beans .33 burritoeseasoning and about 2.00 for hamburger plenty of left overs.
mac and cheese and tuna 3 boxes mac and cheese $1 2 cans of tuna generic about $1 add a veggies .50 generic.
spagetti about $3 and $2 for hamburger or leftover chicken if i have it. chicken salad about $3 to make and better than bought. gouloash about$6 to make burritoes frozen $3 for a 8pack bacon and eggs about $5 and the bread for toast.but i am feeding 4-5 daily. this is about my budget. i do other things than this but this is a good idea of what i make cheap
OMG! You just said the story of my life! We were in debt and lived paycheck to paycheck! We eventually gave up and now we have my mom helping us with our money and bills. (She manages it for us) You are making a ton of mistakes that we did! BTW, we are a fam of 6! 1) make a BUDGET FOR WEEKLY groceries and stick with it! 2) make your own lunches 3) STOP buying frozen foods that was our mistake! 4) Make a daily menu for meals and do shopping on Sundays 5) Make coffee at home and don't buy it out. 6) Its much cheaper to cook from scratch! 7) Get a BJ's or Costco membership 8) Buy your babies clothes at consignment shops, You get the idea! Well anyway, for the 1st time in the 10 yrs I have been with my hubby, we now have more money in our account then we have ever dreamed of!! Its amazing!! Good luck and stick with it:) Keep us posted!!
Well I typically spend $150 per week and that includes all the cleaning supplies, toiletries etc. So I would say about $80 is for food for a family of four. I do have a grocery chain here where I can just clean up on fruit for like $5, so that majorly helps. I make whole chickens in the crock pot, casseroles of different varieties, spaghetti, tacos, fish, just regular stuff. When I am feeling fancy I will bust out the shrimp ;) I do think that cooking my food saves a ton and another thing that majorly helps is being willing to go to different stores. I go to good old Wal-mart for all my packaged stuff like granola bars, cereal, diapers etc... Then I go to Food Town which is a discount chain, for all my fruit, meat and most of my canned goods. It helps trememdously. I have two children and I do have to cart them with me, but hey, it definitely cuts my cost. When I my first was your son's age, I would cook and we would eat it that night, and I would imediately make a dinner in a tupper for my husband. His lunch everyday was what we had the night before. At that time our budget was $125 for food etc so we had more like $65 weekly for food. Anyway I got one of those insulated lunch bags in the camping section and then a refreezable ice block and I would pack him the leftovers, fruit, granola bar, yogurt and usually some carrots. He had a tough job, so he needed plenty to fuel him. Anyway, using the leftovers saved so much money and he loved having a hot meal at lunch. With the cost of groceries escalating, maybe shoot for like $80 weekly for your food, that would bring you down to $320 monthly and that is a significant savings. Also, not that I am a big health nut, but those meals, with the exception of anything Amy's, are usually loaded up with salt, even the lean cuisines. So that is not good in the long run and in my experience after a while they start to taste about as good as the packaging they come in. I try to have about two weeks worth of easy and tasty recipes that I can just bust out without much thought and just throw something new in once and awhile. I don't know if you have a dirt cheap chain where you are, but if you use the sale papers and are willing to go to a couple stores you can save some good $$. Good luck!!
We typically spend about $3-$5 a day for the three of us. (Myself, my husband, my 21 month old) We get our produce from a co-op (www.bountifulbaskets.org) and it costs us $60 per month. We spend anywhere from $10-20 extra per month on produce from the store. We eat dinner leftovers for lunch. When we don't have leftovers...which almost never happens...it's a sandwich with a little meat and lots of veggies, and a piece of fruit. For breakfast, we eat oatmeal and eggs. (both of those are very cheap :) We always have more veggies on our plate then meat. We have a small portion of meat and a large portion of veggies and a piece of fruit. I only buy meat that is on sale. I generally buy a few packages of meats and keep some in the freezer, so we aren't eating the same meat all the time. We also have meatless dinners, which save a lot of money. Quiche, breakfast tacos, that kind of thing. My son has eaten what eat since he was 10 months. That saves us a lot of money and time, I think.
I am part of a freezer meal exchange group and it is great! The idea is that we make enough meals for each member in our group and then once a month get together to swap the meals. Between finding things on sale or shopping from wholesale clubs, I spend about $5-$10/entree and usually have enough leftovers for lunch for at least a couple more servings. Sometimes we do "extras" exchanges like side dishes or breakfast items like muffins. My grocery bill is generally $50 or less and I buy a fair amount of organic foods too (mainly produce and dairy). Do an online search for "freezer exchange group" and you will find some other sites with ideas of how to start a group.
Cooking from scratch is generally less expensive IMO and usually a whole lot heathier for you which helps you save $$ in the long run.
I would be far more concerned about all of the chemicals, perservatives and high sodium content of those prepared meals.
Plus it is cheaper to make your own. I am spending close to that on a family of 4, days 6 days a month it is six.
I bake all the time and make fresh bread 2-3 at least per week.
Everyone has given you great answers - scratch is substantially cheaper and healthier. But I want to ask why you're cooking something different for your kid? I have two boys and once they started solids, they got what we got, but maybe more cut up or mushed. If you're not preparing something separate, then you'll have more time for other stuff. Plus, you'll be teaching your son that you're not a short order cook. He may balk at first, esp. since he's used to his own way, but if you give him at least one thing he'll like, he can eat that and will learn the ropes. You don't want to create a fussy eater.
Bagged lettuce is crazy expensive and precut carrots cost three times as much per oz. and non-precut carrots. Anything designed to make your life easier will cost more! :-)
Definitely cheaper to make your own meals. I feed a family of 5 on $450/month.
Try to stock up on things you buy regularly when they are on sale. Alot of times I will catch a deal for Buy one get one Free for Perdue chicken or pork loin.
Also, it takes a little more effort, but use coupons. It's free money! It's amazing how much you can save when you combine the manufacturers coupon with the store promotional price. I've actually gotten some items free because of that and have seen a savings in my shopping by 41%.
Every little bit helps.
I know you said you were busy, but at 16 months, things should start settling down.
So if you were to take a whole chicken and cut it up yourself, you would get 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 whole wings and 2 breasts. That is enough to feed the two of you at least 3 times. You could either bag a meal individually, or freeze the pieces and then toss them in one bag after they were completely frozen. Add a cup of rice and a side of fresh broccoli and lets throw in the fresh carrots (steaming takes about 5 minutes longer than the microwave.
1 whole chicken $6.00/3 $2.00 per meal $1.00 per person
1 small bag of white rice $2.00/6 $0.33 per meal $0.17 per person
1 bunch of broccoli $2.00/3 $0.66 per meal $0.33 per person
1 bag of carrots $.099/4 $0.24 per meal $0.12 per person
Grocery bill: $10.99
Cost per person per meal: $1.62
Add .06 for the two ziplock bags used to freeze the unused chicken.
Add some more change for seasoning and butter.
You can see how the prepared foods can add up.
I would say that is high as for the two of us I've spent less than $350 a month (for the last 2 months anyway), and I am not trying to budget at all and I frequently pick up convenience items like shampoo and razor blades at the grocery store (worse place) and I shop frequently at a specialty market for meats, fruits and veggies. I do all cooking from scratch, though. I think there is an initial outlay to stock your pantry but it's well worth it to avoid the pre-made lunches and dinners. I have cook fest days where I cook and freeze meals, particularly entrees, so that I'm not really cooking every night except for the vegetable. I know thats kind of backwards but I found I really increased my veggie intake by eating fresh veggies and pork chops, chicken breasts, left over roast for b-cue beef or french dip, sloppy joes, spagetti sauce all freeze so well. It gives you the convenience you need, especially when you are working and have a young child, plus fresh veggies and fruits are also cheaper. Good for you, though, to have no debt other than your mortgage. You are in a good place with that!
I agree that it is cheaper to cook meals from scratch and cut out the premade lunch meals. Also, all of those premade meals are full of sodium! I make 80% of our dinners from scratch and I send my husband to work with leftovers or a sandwich/chips/yogurt. We have 2 adults and 2 young children and I spend about $320 per month. I have a deep freeze, so I stock up on the Kroger brand frozen veggies when they're on sale for $.88. I buy the rice sides when they are on sale for $1.00 at Kroger. I also go to Sam's Club for bread, frozen chicken breasts, and frozen fish. So, if we have baked chicken breasts, a rice side, a frozen veggie, and sliced oranges, it costs about $5 for a dinner for 4.
Do you have a crock pot? They are so easy to use. I Agee with everyone else that cooking from scratch is much healthier and cheaper. With our crockpot I can make a huge pot of stew for about $10, and it will feed our family of 4 (with a 3 year old and a 18 month old) for at least two meals and sometimes three. What I love about the crockpot is that I can even prepare a lot the night before (cut veggies, cut meat, etc) and then all I have to do in the morning is dump it in. We come home to a hot meal ready to eat. Be sure to get a crockpot that allows you to remove the cooking pot. They are much easier to clean. I also use the crockpot liners to make clean up even easier. My favorite crockpot cookbooks are the Fix It and Forget It books. They have everything in them including breads and desserts.
I have switched to cash for food, gas, pet supplies, household supplies. I take out $300 every 2 weeks and that has to pay for all of those items above. Family of 3. I don't separate out food from the other items because it is too hard to keep track. But having a preset amount of cash in my pocket has forced me to shop more carefully and consciously. Makes me more conscious about gas usage too...combining errands, using the bus, shopping closer to home, etc.
We menu plan and have a set menu for most weekdays. My son does not eat school lunch, we rarely fast food or eat out. We limit the number of processed foods but my son loves fish sticks so we have those 1 time per week. I do buy a few convenience foods like frozen chicken breasts, fruit cups for DS's lunch. They are definitely more expensive than buying a whole chicken or cutting up our own fruit, but it is a compromise.
I love the crockpot for quick easy meals. And we have planned our menu around meals that are easy to make from scratch (i.e. few ingredients): tacos, salad/sandwich night, spaghetti, stir fry...as a few ideas besides crockpot meals.
IMO...eating frozen stuff is more expensive. For example I just made spigetti for dinner tonight with bread and a salad for 5 adults and 1 child (had friends over for dinner) and the total was under $15. I also have enough left overs for my husband and I to eat tomorrow night. If you went tot the store and bought 5 frozen dinners (Marie Calender) thats at least $18 if they were on sale. Plus you would still need to buy the bread and salad.
Also cooking from scratch is also much healthier. When I was working I would always cook enough so that I could take the left overs for work the next day. Or if you are making something that can be frozen make twice as much and freeze it for another day. I will also make something for dinner one night then use the left overs and turn it into a different meal. Pot roast with carrots and potatoes one night. The next day you can throw the left overs in the crockpot and make beef stew.
I would try it for a month and see how much you save. As long as you are buying veggies that are in season and meat that is on sale. I don't know how you could not save money. Plus it cheaper to get your veggies from a produce/health store then the regular grocery store. At least it is for me and I am in Ca.
Good Luck
Something I've started to do that has been surprisingly helpful with our budget: I go grocery shopping once a month. For our family of four, we save $150-200 a month over what we used to spend ($500-600.) We don't have a Costco near us, so we don't even do the warehouse club thing, just the regular grocery store. We make 75% of our meals from scratch, the remainder comes from Trader Joe's (no preservatives, less salt, made from whole ingredients rather than chemical concoctions, surprisingly inexpensive.) I don't particular do meal planning, I just buy the ingredients we usually use to make the meals we usually make. It did take me a month or two to really get the hang of which ingredients to buy and how much, but it's gotten really easy now. We also have a deep freeze, which is essential for this to work - but even that is surprisingly inexpensive, if we'd bought that in order to accommodate shopping once a month, it would have paid for itself in two or three months.
Near the beginning of the month, some evening, I go shopping by myself. Between Target and Cub, it takes about 2-1/2 hours. (TJs is a separate trip, about an hour.) Mid-month, we usually need to make a quick trip for milk, yogurt, and fresh fruit and veggies - usually no more than $50.
I think part of the reason this works is because you all but eliminate the "impulse buy" factor - when I go once a month, there's not enough room in my cart or my car for anything but what is on my list. When I go mid-month, I usually have the kids, and I'm in a hurry, so again, only get what's on my list. I didn't particularly consider myself much of an impulse buyer, but I guess I was (and, well, frankly, my husband is.) It also means that when you run out of something mid-month, instead of running out to get it, you just make something else with what you have. I never have to worry about cans expiring in my pantry because they've gotten lost in the back - at the end of the month, my pantry is pretty bare. I guess it sort of enforces creativity and flexibility.
And yes, cooking from scratch is actually cheaper in the long run. Spices and other long-term buys get amortized over lots of meals, and you always have leftovers - instant lunch! The deep freeze makes a big difference, too. Stock up when the chicken breasts are buy one, get one free or when other freezable ingredients are on sale.
Consider the crock pot, too. There are surprisingly great things you can do with it - we crock pot at least once a week. Try crockpot365.blogspot.com (she's also written a couple of cookbooks) and "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker" (they even have a "cooking for two" version: http://www.amazon.com/Your-Mothers-Slow-Cooker-Recipes/dp....
Good luck!
My husband and I both work full-time, and we have a four-year-old, two-year-old, and five-month-old. I hear you about being busy, but we cook almost everything from scratch and it works for us. I think the key is to have some quick go-to recipes so you don't get overwhelmed with the idea of cooking.
That being said, and without me knowing what you prefer to eat, here are some quick meals that we eat regularly:
Pasta with jarred sauce and cheese, often with broccoli mixed in; sometimes hot dog, chicken breast (one breast shared between all of us), or other meat on the side
"Breakfast for supper": scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, toast, fruit
Meat of choice (chicken cheese sausage, kielbasa, chicken breast, etc), rice made in the rice cooker (very simple and fool-proof), carrots
Roasted chicken (crockpot), mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts
Indian or Thai curry
Fried mashed potatoes, egg over easy, fruit
Cereal and yogurt
Homemade chicken Cesar salad
Chicken salad, tuna melt, grilled cheese, etc
Homemade pizza (my husband makes the crust... much less expensive)
Homemade chicken tenders (MUCH less expensive!!!)
French toast with applesauce instead of syrup
For snacks, we eat muffins, yogurt (from a tub of yogurt), fruit, veggies and dip, homemade popcorn (made on the stovetop... cheaper than microwave), cottage cheese, homemade scones, etc.
It does take a while to get to that mindset. But just start working on a few go-to suppers/meals for you and your family, and it will get easier.
Here is my suggestion. Go to angelfoodministries.com
For $31 a week you get enough food to feed a family of 4 for a week. It is high quality food and a nice variety. It comes with shelf stable milk and eggs and many other things. There are no income minimums...it is for everyone. We use it and love it. It keeps our grocery bill way down. There will be some things in the order you may not like, but for the price, it's not a big deal.
Just remember that all frozen meals are full of sodium too.
I always bring this up in my food answers but just because it's such a great option. Legumes, which are packed with protein and fiber and, in some cases, iron, are a lot cheaper, bought in bulk, than meat is. Maybe once or twice a week add those into the mix? Or use those for your lunch meals--make a big lentil soup or chick pea stew or veg chili on the weekend and then pack it up for lunch. Good luck.
wow, that's a lot of processed foods. while it's more convenient, that's not healthy. Buy a vaccuum sealer, like a Food Saver. We stock up on things, and i'll make all the meals for a week or two, at one time, and vaccuum seal them and freeze them. they can last up to a month in the freezer, and are much healthier, as I can control how much salt/sodium goes into them, and a lot less preservatives and things like that. The food saver is worth the money, and you can create your own custom sizes of bags with it. much cheaper than the frozen meals usually, and definitely healthier.
i just wanted to say, start slow, add pasta and a jarred sauce to one meal and make enough for left overs. don't try to do a whole weeks worth right now. I can just imagine how much pressure it would be to try to get the groceries and cook a homemade meal on top of all the stress you probaby already have. If you are soda drinkers try cutting back on that too.
it's always cheaper to prepare your own meals! & much healthier to boot.
I always try to get two meals out of one round of meat. That 2nd meal may just be a lunch for some of us, but it still helps!
As for lunches, we have found it's much cheaper (<$2/lb) to buy 1/2 a Kretschmar ham for lunches.....than to buy deli meats - which run $3-$7/lb. I round this out by baking a turkey once a month. That means that I'm buying deli meat for only 1/2 of each month....& sometimes not even that often. A lot of our dinner leftovers take up the slack.
When I bake/smoke chicken, I always do 2. The leftovers then provide another night's casserole/stew/soup.
The same goes for ground beef - I always cook a double batch.....& either store it in the frig or freeze it for the following week.
Instead of frying/grilling hamburgers, I always use crumbled .....I find that my family eats less ground beef that way! + it's quicker to prepare.
All pasta/soup/stew dishes are doubled. The 2nd night is not always the next night....to avoid monotony.
We try to have a salad & a vegie with each meal. No desserts. & it's very seldom that anyone eats again, except for my teenage son....who always has a snack before bed.
By buying store-label, using coupons, & shopping the sales.....I spend about $150-$200/week........BUT that feeds our family of four (myself & 2 1/2 men).....& provides for my in-home daycare.......& includes dog food & all cleaning supplies. At first glance, it seems like a whole lot of $$$, but when it breaks down into groceries/daycare/& everything else.....it's quite a deal!
