The Frugal Feeding

A few weeks ago, I decided to feed Adam and myself for $25 a week. This does not come without its unique challenges, since almost anything takes a good chunk out of the budget. Want that jar of peanut butter for $2.50? Congratulations, you have just spent 10% of your budget! So anyways, here is the week's menu plan:

Dinners
Lentil soup (no sense letting that Christmas ham bone go to waste!)
My special Southwestern Bean Dish
Beef Carrot Casserole
Baked Potatoes
Stir Fry
Spaghetti
(Friday nights, we eat out)

Lunch
I am experimenting with making bread because store-bought bread is so darn expensive. We have tons of leftover ham, and we also have cheese and any condiments you could wish for. We are set for sandwiches!

Breakfast
This family loves oatmeal. We have tons of it lying around. I also do pancakes, and this week, Apple Walnut Muffins will pop up somewhere.

A lot of this stuff is already in the house. I like to make gargantuan amounts of a single dish and freeze the leftovers. Here is what $25 bought me this week:



Cottage Cheese: $2.88
Sour Cream: $1.50
Chili powder: $2.99
Flour: $2.29 (I caved in and got the bleached because it came with coupons for other baking goodies. How do I live with myself?)
Lentils: 2 bags for $.99 each
Tomato Sauce: 2 cans for $1
Turkey bacon: $2.75
Bananas: $1.98
Carrots: $1.89
Potatoes: $1.54
Apples: $1.40
Onion: $1.04

I got to the end of the shopping excursion and realized I did not have enough money in the budget for coffee!!! I had an extra dollar left in the budget, so I bought one of those little Millstone 99-cent bags. It's good for a few cups. This is going to be a very. long. week.

Millstone coffee: $.99

Grocery Total before tax: $24.23

Hooray!