Can you really eat well on a $200 grocery budget? Well, actually, yes you can! Here are the cheap meal ideas that our family of 5 enjoys.
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If you are new to these menu plans of mine, it’s probably helpful to know a couple of things first:
- Our family of five consists of two adults with fairly big appetites, a 6 ½ year-old boy, a 3 ½ year-old girl and a 16-month-old girl.
- I buy lots of fruits and veggies in bulk from local farmers/orchards in the summer and then freeze or can them. This is not only much cheaper it is also healthier too. But that is why if you look at my Weekly Spending Summaries you won’t always see lots of produce.
- I have a stockpile. My cupboards are full from previous shopping and here’s why. When I can get pasta for free with coupons, I buy as much as I have coupons for. If I can get flour for $0.50/bag like I did last fall, I’ll buy half a dozen and put them in the freezer to use as needed. I do this as much as my budget allows, on as many items as possible and save lots of money. Then when I go to plan menus, I simply plan our meals around what I already have in my cupboards and freezer, as much as possible. Obviously, I still might have to buy a few things at regular price here and there, but by stocking up when the price is at rock bottom I save a lot.
- I cook almost totally from scratch. That means when I make a cake, I rarely use a cake mix. I make my own bread totally from scratch. I rarely use pre-packaged sauces. I make my own cream soups and pie crusts. Making your own food is typically less expensive and healthier too.
- We rarely snack. By eating “heavy” food like granola at breakfast we don’t get hungry until lunchtime. And the same goes for the afternoon. Our lunches are big enough that we usually are fine until dinner time. When we do need a snack, I try to keep it mostly healthy by offering fruit, nuts or maybe No Bake Energy Bites. We don’t always do it perfectly though, and sometimes end up having chips or cookies instead.
- Our breakfasts consist of Easy Homemade Granola or Baked Oatmeal, the occasional bought cereal that I was able to get for $0.50/box and sometimes some fruit too. I know that might seem awfully boring to some of you, but we actually all really enjoy it and prefer it over other breakfast food. I also have a homemade iced latte, homemade frappe or some other fun beverage every morning. It’s just one of the little things that I do to add a bit of sunshine to my days!
Below you will find our lunches and dinners. (If we ate something other than our usual breakfast, I’ll note that too.) Since it’s summer vacation, all three children are home for lunches right now and since my husband is currently only working 1 to 2 days a week, he joins us most of the time too. The days that he goes to work, he takes a packed lunch with him that typically consists of sandwiches, fruit, homemade yogurt and sometimes random leftovers too.
Cheap Meal Ideas
WEEK 1
Sunday
- At the cabin with family– took Curry Chicken & Rice Soup; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing; French Bread; Best Ever Chocolate Cake with Caramel Icing; Crushed Strawberries (from berries that I had frozen this summer)
Monday
- Meat/Cheese/Lettuce Sandwiches (made with homemade bread); Easy Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Strawberries; Home Canned Peaches
- Kidfresh Chicken Nuggets (got free with couponing a couple of weeks ago); Lettuce Salad with store-bought dressings; Baked Potatoes/Sweet Potatoes; Homemade Applesauce; Leftover Chocolate Cake with Caramel Icing (one piece left that we all had a bite of)
Tuesday
- Egg in a Nest made with homemade bread (basically an egg fried in bread); Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Peaches (I preserved); Frozen Blueberries
- Ate out…..went to a local family owned grocery stores’ Family Farm Days and just grabbed dinner while we were out
Wednesday
- Meat/Cheese/Lettuce Sandwiches (made with homemade bread); Easy Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Cherries
- Leftover Chicken Curry & Rice Soup; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing; Homemade Applesauce
Thursday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Cherries
- Refried Bean Quesadillas (made quesadillas with it instead); Green Beans (I preserved); Homemade Applesauce
Friday
- Meat/Cheese/Lettuce Sandwiches (made with homemade bread); Easy Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Cherries
- Ate at a work picnic that my husband’s employer put on
Saturday
- Hot Dogs; Potato Chips; Potato Salad; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Home Canned Peaches; Frozen Blueberries
– the hot dogs, potato chips and potato salad were all leftover food from the work picnic that they sent home with us - Salsa Chicken Soup; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing; Whoopie Pies
– the Whoopie Pies were leftover food from the work picnic as well
WEEK 2
Sunday
- Herb Roasted Chicken and Potatoes; Green Beans; Homemade Applesauce; Homemade Shoo-fly Pie (using my homemade pie crust); Turkey Hill All Natural Vanilla Ice Cream
- Chicken Salad Sandwiches (made with homemade bread); Potato Chips; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Peaches (I preserved)
Monday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Home Canned Peaches; Frozen Blueberries
- Macaroni and Beef Skillet; Peas; Homemade Applesauce; Favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Tuesday
- Meat/Cheese/Lettuce Sandwiches (made with homemade bread); Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Peaches (I preserved); Frozen Blueberries
- Big Lettuce Salad with Chicken, Black Beans, Hard-boiled Eggs, Carrots, Tortilla Chips and Mexican Dressing; Homemade Bread; Homemade Applesauce; Leftover Shoo-Fly Pie
Wednesday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Peaches and Frozen Blueberries (I preserved)
- Crustless Zucchini Quiche; Lettuce Salad; Homemade Applesauce
Thursday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Peaches (I preserved); Frozen Blueberries
- Leftover Salsa Chicken Soup; Lettuce Salad; Homemade Applesauce
Friday
- Homemade Cream of Tomato Soup; Cheese; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Home Canned Peaches; Frozen Blueberries
- Salmon Patties (use canned salmon) with Creamy Dill Sauce; Roasted Parmesan Sweet Potatoes (used a mix of sweet potatoes and potatoes); Green Beans; Homemade Applesauce; Leftover Favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
– We loved the roasted potatoes! And if your kids are like ours and don’t really like sweet potatoes, just use regular potatoes instead. This recipe works great for them too!
Saturday
- Various Leftovers; Easy Homemade Yogurt; Frozen Peaches (I preserved); Frozen Blueberries
- Eggs; Toast (with Homemade Bread); Sausage; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing; Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake (similar to this) with Crushed Strawberries (I preserved)
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Monica
The fresh fruit is wonderful this time of year! We’ve been enjoying blueberries and sweet cherries, too.
If the cheeseburger macaroni didn’t work out, Ive been making something similar for years called Taco Macaroni. This is the exact recipe: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/taco-macaroni
Instead of the condensed canned tomato soup, I use a can sized amount of homemade or regular and it works fine.
Can you believe I’ve never successfully made salmon patties successfully before? I can’t separate the bone from the fish.
ThriftyFrugalMom
I know, I’m absolutely loving all the fresh fruit too! And thanks for that recipe link. I have a recipe for something very similar but with chili powder instead of taco seasoning and tomato juice instead of tomato soup. And now you have me curious…how do you make your own homemade tomato soup for a recipe like this?
So….you are saying I should do a tutorial on how to separate the salmon fish and bones? 😉 I would have been pretty intimidated by it had I not grown up watching my mom do it semi-frequently.
rebecca
I use a trickle of running water to help separate the salmon from the bone. Split the salmon down the middle where the spine bones are then run water over the salmon and fleck your fingers where the bones are and it will separate easier. Once done with the 1st half repeat on the 2nd half.
We eat egg’s in a hole instead of a nest. It’s always been one of our favorite breakfast recipe’s. My husband had never heard of this until we met. Egg in a hole and Oats for him and he’s good all day!
ThriftyFrugalMom
Thanks for the tip on separating the salmon, Rebecca! Hopefully Monica will see it too.
And eggs in a nest is a favorite of our kid’s. Sounds like your man is easy to please when it comes to food. That’s always a blessing! 😉
Monica
What I meant was, I just use some leftover tomato soup from the freezer, about a can sized amount. In other words, it doesn’t have to be condensed.
I’m going to get brave and try Rebecca’s tip on deboning the salmon. My mom did it too, but I never watched how she did it. You wouldn’t believe what I didn’t bother to hang around to observe at home! Or maybe you would. 😉
ThriftyFrugalMom
Ah, that makes sense! And that’s a great idea…not sure why I never thought of trying it with recipes that call for condensed soup.
And yes, I just might believe because I didn’t hang around to learn too much either. 🙂 The only reason that I knew how my mom deboned salmon was because I remember watching her as a little girl and always being fascinated by the process. But I didn’t learn a lot of other things that I should have learned and ended up needing to do a lot of catching up once I was married and keeping my own home.