Being on a limited budget these days we have to get creative with how we spend our money and how we can stretch it as much as we can is becoming easier. With a family of five you can imagine the amount of food that we could go through if finances were not an issue, but it is, so we must skimp.
I only had $25 for food this week and was fearful we would struggle getting food, I decided to go grocery shopping in my own kitchen first and come up with meals that I could make using the food and ingredients that I already had. Much to my surprise, I had enough food to make a whole weeks worth of dinners!
Meal One: Today we had a pot roast made in the crock pot. Found the roast in my basement freezer tucked away, didn’t even know I had it. I bought it right after Thanksgiving so date wise it was perfect! I threw in my half a bag of baby carrots and used up all my potatoes and it was a delish meal!
Meal Two: I found two pounds of ground beef, so I am going to make a meatloaf with one pound and I will use the left over ‘loaf of bread ends’ that I save in my freezer for my meatloaf, serve it with mashed potatoes and corn.
Meal Three: My other pound of ground beef will make the perfect tacos. I had a package of taco shells in my fridge that aren’t even open yet!
Meal Four: Then I have spaghetti, which all I need is pasta sauce and that is only $1.50 for a nice store bought jar. I have frozen slices of french bread in the freezer that will make excellent garlic bread!
Meal Five: I have frozen chicken breasts, so I will make Italian chicken with green beans and box Au gratin potatoes that I had tucked away in a cabinet!
Meal Six: Discovered smoked sausage in the fridge and a box of mac-n-cheese in the cabinet! Whala! 🙂
Meal Seven: Pancakes for Dinner! Nothing better than a breakfast dinner! Found a box of sausage links so we’ll be eating those!
All I really need to buy is a loaf of bread for lunches, banana’s and a can or two of pears and my spaghetti sauce and I am good to go for a whole week! I will probably spend a whopping $5.00 for food for the week! “Wow that’s a low price” *said in my best Staples commercial voice*.
Guess it pays to really shop in your own house before heading to the store!!! 🙂
