Do you have a good recipe for a family of 5? I have a freind in serious DEBT, they are working very hard at getting out of debt. The spend almost $1000.00 a month on food! We are trying to develop a good recipe selection of affordable meals, making leftovers, variety, healthy etc.
BTW its 2 adults and 3 kids 12, 9, 7
Thanks

By Yjja123 on Saturday, February 10, 2007 - 03:43 pm:

Think of things with little or no meat. Spaghetti, Lasagna, casseroles. Meals that generally have leftovers so they are 2-3 meals. I have a family of 4 and we average $500 a month in food. I cannot imagine over $1000 in food! We have 4 cats+ 3 strays & 2 huge dogs we also feed every month. I DO shop a lot at Sam's club. That cuts some of my costs (particulary on meat & pet food). They really need to go over their receipts. Is it a ton of convienence foods? What is causing it to be so high. By knowing exactly where/what they are spending it on they can figure out where to cut the costs.

By Breann on Saturday, February 10, 2007 - 08:43 pm:

All of our meals are less than $15. We basically eat whatever we want. We don't have steak every night, but we don't want it every night either. We usually do have some sort of meat for dinner.

I'll post some things we eat a bit later.

By Luvn29 on Sunday, February 11, 2007 - 08:36 pm:

Just got home from a weekend out of town, so pretty tired right now. But I have some good recipes for my family of four that are inexpensive. I'll post some ideas tomorrow if I can. I have to go out of town for a brain MRI tomorrow, so if you don't hear from me, I didn't forget! LOL!

By Breann on Monday, February 12, 2007 - 10:27 am:

Stouffers frozen lasagne, party size (this is more than enough for dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day): $9.99
Frozen Texas Toast x 2: $3.00

_________________

Crock Pot Roast: $10.00
Mashed potatoes: $3.00
Canned Veggies x 2: $1.00

_________________

Frozen Pizza on sale. You can get a nice brand for about 3 for $9.00 if you watch the sales.

_________________

Spaghetti - super cheap! I use 1/2 pound of ground beef. We don't like a lot of meat in our spaghetti sauce. We buy the frozen garlic toast to go with it. Add some veggies on the side and we are under $10 for the entire meal.

_________________

Also, it is cheaper to buy the ground beef that isn't "extra lean". And, if you use the wash and drain method, the regular ground beef ends up having less fat than the extra lean ground beef once it's all said and done. The cost savings here is pretty high!

_________________

If there is an Albertsons near by, they run sales on their chicken now and then. A lot of times it's about 1/2 the regular price. A lot of times they do buy one get one free. Great time to stock up. The only reason we ever go to Albertsons is for the chicken sale, lol.

_________________

There is a great forum on ivillage called shoestring budgeting, or something like that. There are tons of tips on there for saving money. Some may not appeal, but I've picked up a couple there that I really enjoy.

By Jjb on Monday, February 12, 2007 - 11:32 am:

What is the wash and drain method for ground beef? I always buy the leanest possible because heart problems run in our family...but I'm always up for saving money.

By Tarable on Monday, February 12, 2007 - 12:40 pm:

The wash and drain method I know if is that when you would normally just drain the grease out of the ground beef before you put the sauce in it you run hot water through it while in a collendar (sp?) and it rinses all of the fat (grease) away so it is as lean as the lean ground beef you buy in the store.

If that makes any sense.

By Breann on Monday, February 12, 2007 - 02:31 pm:

http://healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com/groundbeef.htm

By Reds9298 on Monday, February 12, 2007 - 05:49 pm:

It's also a great idea to make one night a week a soup/salad or baked potato/soup night, etc. Some combination of those things. That's very cheap and healthy.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 - 12:29 am:

The baked potato night sounds really good. I think we need to plan one, soon!

By Jjb on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 - 02:29 pm:

Breann- thanks for the link on washing and draining ground beef. What a great idea- it will save us a ton of money! I can't wait to try it.

By Reds9298 on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 - 07:43 pm:

I read that in a book once for making it work on one income. Okay, so maybe sometimes the soup isn't so healthy , but it's good anyway and really cheap! LOL

By Breann on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 - 07:53 pm:

Yes, I think it would save a lot of money to buy the regular ground beef. Usually at the store, if you buy it in bulk, you save an extra 20 cents per pound, or something like that. You could seperate it into freezer bags and have ground beef to last a loooong time, lol. The regular ground beef is usually at least over a dollar less, per pound at our supermarket.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 - 10:45 pm:

We got pork chops on sale the other day. They're huge! The girls and I only ate 2 of them today. Along with breaded pork chops, we had fresh, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, which we had already used in another dish on Sunday and still had plenty left over. We also had baked potatoes with sour cream and cheese. (10-lb bag for $3)

Here's what I did with the pork chops. I had all these ingredients in the house and you don't get the preservatives that you would get in a box of Shake and Bake, but that's basically what this is.


Breaded Pork Chops

Prepare Pork Coating Mix (below). Dip 4 pork rib or loin chops, (1/2 to 3/4 inch thick), into 3/4 cup milk. Shake each in Pork Coating Mix, coating both sides. Cook on rack in shallow pan in 425 degree oven until done and brown, 30-35 minutes.
4 servings

Pork Coating Mix

2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon paprika

Shake ingredients in medium plastic or paper bag.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 - 11:32 pm:

Okay, I looked at the package now. The pork chops, on sale, were still $11.89, but they were huge and there were 8 of them. My girls and I only ate 2 of them, since DH didn't come home for supper. (He works second shift and sometimes he can make it home and sometimes he can't.) They would definitely make more than one meal. I'm cooking the rest of them now, so the kids just have to warm them up for supper tomorrow, since I have to work tomorrow, too.