Money Saver Menu #6: Rice

The feature of today's menu is rice! It is so cheap, especially when purchased in bulk, and very filling. We often eat it just cooked, with a little Smart Balance and Honey.


Breakfast:
.10 = 2 pieces whole wheat bread, toasted with
.29 = 1/2 cup cheese (1/4 cup on each piece of bread)
.60 = 1/4 cantaloupe (at .79 a pound)
===
.99 for breakfast


Lunch:
.34 = 3 ribs of celery, smeared with
.48 = 2 tablespoons peanut butter per rib = 3x.16=.48
.43 = 2 gala apples bought on sale at 1.49/lb
.20 = 1/5 bag of generic corn chips at 1.00 per bag
===
1.45


Dinner:
.56 = Rice FryCakes/Recipe, doubled .28/serving x 2 servings = .56
.44 = 1/2 can baked beans
.20 = 1/4 broccoli crown at .79 a crown on sale, raw or steamed w/butter
.28 = 1/4 chocolate cake from on-sale cake mix
===
1.48 total for dinner


Total expense per person for this day is: $3.92, leaving $1.08 for snacks, drinks, more fruits and veggies, or the savings jar.


Note that there's no meat in this day, but you don't really need it. There's beans with rice, cheese with whole wheat bread, and peanut butter. Plenty of protein! You're also getting 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, but you can easily up that by adding a couple of carrots and a peach or pear.

Money Saver Menu #5: Chicken

Here's another money-saver-menu! I got a good deal on the chicken thighs, so that whole dinner, in the foil-pocket, was really cheap!


Breakfast:
.26 = yogurt, bought on sale
.08 = 2 tablespoons grape nuts in yogurt
.50 = fresh pear (.99/lb)
===
.84 total for breakfast

Lunch:
.10 = 2 slices whole wheat bread, with
.25 = 1/4 of cream cheese ($1.00 each) spread on one slice, and
.25 = 1/2 cucumber (2 cukes for $1.00) sliced on the cream cheese, and
.01 = dash of onion powder sprinkled over
.44 = 1/2 can sliced peaches
.32 = 2 servings plain potato chips from big bag
===
1.37 total for lunch

Dinner (See recipe at Chicken and Veggies in Foil Pockets):
2.78 = pkg 4 chicken thighs
1.00 = can of pineapple
.28 = chili sauce
.10 = honey
2.00 = dried vegetables/onions
===
6.16 total, but serves 4 people so... $1.54 per person for dinner

These three meals are very filling, and cost a total of $3.75. This doesn't include any desserts, drinks or snacks, but with $1.25 leftover, you could afford a couple more pieces of fruit!

Money Saver Menu #4: Potatoes and Pasta

When trying to figure out the next money saver menu, I was noticing how cheap potatoes can be, when bought in bulk. Sometimes you can find a bag with 10-12 potatoes for around a dollar. That prompted today's dinner menu: stuffed potatoes!

Breakfast:
.25 = 1 serving rolled oats cooked with...
.20 = 1 serving raisins then added to it...
.05 = 1 tablespoon honey
.08 = 1 cutie orange to the side
===
.58

Lunch:
.20 = 1 serving pasta (spaghetti is usually cheapest), dressed with...
.13 = 2 tablespoons olive oil... and
.19 = 1 tablespoon green can parmesan cheese... and
.20 = 2 tablespoons pine nuts... and
.37 = 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
.23 = 1 pear, bought on sale
===
1.32

Dinner:
.20 = 2 baked potatoes (1 @ .10 ea), topped with...
.20 = 2 servings butter (1 @ .10 ea)... and
.10 = 2 tablespoons chopped onion (1 @ .05 ea)... and
.60 = 4 tablespoons hormel bacon (1 @ .15 ea tablespoon)... and
.04 = 2 tablespoons dried spinach (1 @ .02 ea)
.25 = 1/2 can peas and carrots
===
1.39

These three meals total $3.29, way under our $5.00 goal. Does not include snacks, drinks or leftovers. The stuffed potatoes for dinner is very filling... add 1/2 a can of garbanzo beans/chickpeas for $.50 if you need more protein.

If you need more protein for dinner, add a boiled egg for about $.25 each. You could spend the remaining $1.71 for snacks like more fruit and veggies, popcorn, or drinks. Or place it in a jar to save for something special.

Those $1 a day experiments...

I was watching the news yesterday morning when I saw a story about a woman eating for 30 days on $1 a day ... that's a DAY! Her rules included "nothing that she had in her pantry or that she'd bought previously". She had a rough first week because she was basically stocking her pantry, but by the end of the experiment, she felt like she'd done ok. One of her last meals was a Japanese cabbage stir fry. The problem was... she didn't eat very well, and didn't get enough to eat or good nutrition or balanced meals.

From time to time I post articles here about how to eat for $5 a day per person. It's hard but I do my best. This is, obviously, for people who have stored food, a garden, or the actual means to spend money for food. This doesn't address the homeless problem, begging for food, dumpster diving, or getting the uneaten food that restaurants throw out (like Einstein bagels).

Setting a goal for $1.00 a day just isn't healthy, unless you raise almost all of your food yourself. I think I'll stick with providing you, our readers, money-saving-menus at $5.00 per person per day. We'll post another in a couple of hours - still working on it!

Money Saver Menu #3: Corndog, Pizza, Cake

This menu took some work, but still came in under $5.00 per person per meal. Even includes dessert!

Breakfast:
.18 = 1/2 cup 9-grain cracked cereal (Prov Pantry)
.26 = 1 cup milk
----
.44 cost for breakfast

Lunch:
.30 = 1/3 cup dried banana chips (Prov Pantry)
.37 = 2 oranges
.46 = 1/4 Jiffy Cornbread mix (.13) + 2 hotdogs (.33) = 2 corndogs!
-----
1.13 cost for lunch

Dinner:
.87 = 1/4 pizza kit (incl crust, sauce, cheese)
.50 = pepperoni or sausage for pizza
.50 = 1/4 bag salad on sale
.35 = 6 baby carrots or 2 stalks celery (for salad)
.66 = salad dressing
.35 = 1/4 cake made from $1.00 mix + 2 eggs (.10), no frosting
-----
3.23 cost for dinner

These three meals total to $4.80. Does not include snacks, drinks or leftovers. Still, you're eating pretty good for less than $5.00 per person per day. You could spend the remaining $.77 for snacks like more fruit and veggies, popcorn, or drinks. Or place it in a jar to save for something special.

Tips:

• Be sure to scour the almost-expired produce section for good prices on the carrots, oranges, celery and bag salad. Or get whatever fruit and veggies are on sale or almost-expired. It's okay to change your menu to accommodate what you can get at terrific prices!
• Do you have bread about to expire, and spaghetti sauce and cheese? Make a "bread pizza" for even cheaper!
• We save cooked bacon or sausage in the freezer for when it's pizza night! That helps bring our costs down too.
• When boxes of cake mix go on sale for a dollar or less, we buy several boxes of a variety of kinds. The tubs of frosting, though, are ridiculously overpriced and completely artificial. Now.. the boxes of cake mix is an easy and cheap way to get a filling dessert. If you must have frosting or icing, how about spreading some homemade preserves on each piece, then sprinkle on powdered sugar? Very yummy.

Enjoy!

Money-Saving Menu #2: tuna, spaghetti

We've put together another money saving menu! It comes just under $5.00 per person per day:

Breakfast:

.46 = 6 ounce yoplait yogurt

.46 = 1/2 cup cinnamon almond granola

---

.92 plus tea or water to drink

Lunch:

.43 = 1/2 can fruit cocktail

.30 = 1/2 can water-packed chunk tuna

.10 = mayo and pickle relish

.15 = 2 slices bread from day-old rack

---

.98 plus tea or water to drink

Dinner:

.35 = 1/3 large can Hunts spaghetti sauce at 1.05/can

.15 = pureed vegetables to add to spaghetti sauce (zucchini, eggplant, etc.)

.46 = 1/2 cup dry elbow macaroni (but cook it!)

1.45 = 1/2 dry cooked italian meatballs (from provident pantry)

----

2.41

Snack:

.25 = 1 large stick celery

.15 = 1 tablespoon peanut butter on celery

---

.40

Total for day: $4.71

Use the balance to put into a savings jar or eat more vegetables today. I don't usually calculate tea bags in cost analysis because it's so nominal.

Money-Saver-Menu #1: Chicken, Rice, Salad

As you may have read, we're working to bring down our food costs. So, while at Sam's today, we bought:

- 25 pound bag of long grain rice for $11.88
- 2 whole chickens for $7.70
- lettuce for $2.47

The chickens are simmering in the crockpot with dried garlic and dried onions. We figure those will provide three meals for each of the three of us so 9 total meals. We calculate the rice to be $.12 per serving x 2 servings per person per meal (because we like rice) so $.24 per person per meal. The lettuce will last us 3 meals x 3 people too.

Adding in salad dressing and carrots from the store, here's our cost breakdown per person per meal:

$.80 = Crockpot chicken
$.24 = Rice
$.28 = Lettuce
$.66 = Salad dressing
$.04 = Carrots (5 baby)
====
$2.10 per person per meal

This doesn't include the honey on our rice or the dried garlic/onion in the crockpot for the chicken. So... to keep with our budget of $5.00 per day per person, this leaves $2.90 for the rest of our meals for those days. Easy to do with oatmeal for breakfast, egg salad and a can of fruit cocktail for lunch.


We'll be eating the above meal for dinner for Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If there's any chicken leftover, we'll make soup with it and the broth on Sunday. That will bring our costs down even further!


p.s. Do you like the picture? We'll be using that same graphic every time we post a "Money-Saver-Menu".

Meals for $5.00 a Day (Per Person)

Prices of food continue to rise. Meanwhile, we are struggling to keep our heads above water. Some people talk about eating for only a dollar day, and some blog about $5.00 a meal. We're trying to do $5.00 a day (per person) so for our family, it would be $15 total a day. Here's the info we've researched:

Here's a list of what NOT to do if you're watching your pennies, like we are:

• DON'T buy frozen dinners - they are full of salt and chemicals and not good for you anyway
• DON'T buy the pre-packaged cereals
• DON'T buy hot dogs or lunch meat
• DON'T eat out or bring home fast or restaurant food
• DON'T use refined flour or buy bread
• DON'T buy pre-made cookies, puddings and other desserts
• DON'T even look at the junk food, chips, crackers and soda pop - empty calories

Here's a few suggestions:

• Buy rice, flour, salt, oil, popcorn, honey, pasta, nuts, sugar and beans in bulk from a bulk food club.
• Make your own bread and other baked goodies.
• Watch your portions. Americans eat way too much. Use smaller plates and follow the "per portion" suggestions on packages. You'll get used to it.
• Stock up on dented but still good canned goods, and other canned goods when they go on sale. That means watching circulars and unadvertised sales.
• Clip coupons. But if you're going to pay more for the item even with the coupon versus store brand, buy the store brand.
• See if your grocery store has a discounted meat or discounted dairy section. If they do, ask when is the best time to find the best deals. Go then.
• Don't buy deboned and deskinned meats because you're paying for that extra service. Buy whole meats on sale, cook, and freeze in meal portions. Use the bones to make broth.
• Rely on soups, stews and stewps (thicker than a soup, thinner than a stew).
• Grow as many fresh fruits and vegetables at home as you can. Make every bit of your landscaping edible - fruit trees, berry bushes, asparagas, rhubarb, and annual vegetables.
• Learn to raise animals (like fish, chickens or rabbits) for meat, or hunt. Keep chickens for eggs - more bang for your buck!
• Sprout your own seeds to eat the sprouts - a little goes a long way for nutrition.
• Use your slow cooker (crockpot) regularly to make your dinner meal easy. If it's ready when you get home from work, you won't feel as tempted to order in.
• Use aromatics (strong-smelling herbs, onions and garlic) to make the food more pleasing to your sense of smell and taste.
• Be sure to have 2-3 different colors on your plate to make the food more pleasing to your sense of sight.

Here's a suggestion for one day:

• Breakfast ($.69) - 2 eggs (.22), cheese (.1o), grits (.34), tea (.03)
• Lunch ($1.22) - chicken salad (.67), 7 yellow pear tomatoes from garden (0), sliced apple (.55)
• Dinner ($1.12) - black beans (.22), double serving rice (.12x2), vegetable salad from garden (0), salad dressing (.66)

Wow! The above total is $3.03 per person! We even have money leftover for snacks like dried fruit, nuts, or homemade flatbread. And VHTS could have a big glass of soy milk with his breakfast!

Most of the above is good info for people who are working to exist on their stored foods. Hopefully, our blog will help you find a way to eat your stored foods, like that big bag of rice or making your own bread.

So... who has tried to eat on $5.00 a day? Or less. We are trying, but with a Very Hungry Tween Son (VHTS) who is always hungry but can't eat wheat, we are averaging about $8.00 (gluten-free bread is expensive). However, we've discovered we can grind our bulk rice and bulk almonds to make an unbelievably delicious cookie-thing. We'll keep trying to reduce our costs.