Many of us are so financially stressed right now that preparing cheap meals is one important way we can try to cope during this recession. Having access to weekly dinner menus that are cheap and easy to prepare will lighten the burden.
I received more views for that 1 article in one week than my site as a whole in the last month. So of course the only thing to do is create yet another weekly dinner planner consisting of cheap meal ideas under $5 per meal. See what my readers want, my readers get!
Last week I created a weeks worth of recipes for cheap meal ideas with what I had on hand and a limited number of items and money to purchase from the grocery store.
For the weekly dinner menus this week, I am going to pretend that none of the items are on hand, even though most of my $5 dinner meals are created from simple ingredients normally sitting in the pantry. Watch as I create 7 days worth of cheap meal ideas for only $33.06. Yep, that’s cheap and it is easy to do.
Cheap Meal Ideas For A Week Only $33.06
Weekly Dinner Planner
- Monday – Chicken Casserole Recipe – 1 lb of chicken, any type just get whats cheap ($2.50), 1 can of cream of mushroom soup ($0.79), 1 bag frozen broccoli ($.99), 1 can of pears ($.50)
Total Meal Cost – $4.78
- Tuesday – Crockpot Chili – 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef ($3.00), 1 can stewed tomatoes ($.99), 1 can chili beans ($.50) 1 jiffy box of cornbread mix ($.33)
Total Meal Cost – $4.82
- Wednesday – Quick Chicken Recipe With Pasta – 1 pkg fettuccine noodles ($.60), 1 Jar Alfredo Sauce ($1.50), 1 lb chicken ($2.00), 1 can green beans ($.50)
Total Meal Cost – $ 4.60
- Thursday - Breakfast Waffles – 1 box pancake mix ($1.00), 1 lb fresh fruit ($2.00), 2 pkg sausage links ($1.94)
Total Meal Cost – $4.94
- Friday – Soup and Sandwich - 1 loaf bread ($.88), 1 pkg cheese ($1.50), 4 cans of chicken noodle soup or tomato soup ($2.00)
Total Meal Cost – $4.38
- Saturday – Fish Casserole – 1 can tuna fish ($.75), 1 pkg egg noodles ($1.00), 1 can cream mushroom soup ($0.79), 1 can peas ($0.50), 1 bag chips ($1.50)
Total Meal Cost – $4.54
- Sunday – Soy Pork Roast – 1 lb pork roast ($4.00), 1 pkg rice ($1.00)
Total Meal Cost – $5.00
Your total cost for this weekly dinner menu is only $33.06, now that’s not bad at all. Creating a cheap family meal plan isn’t difficult, it’s just a habit you have to learn. All of the cheap menu ideas above are just a starting point, these recipes are so simple you can substitute one item for another, you can purchase a little bit extra and double the batch for a make ahead lunch meal or do an easy freezer dinner next week. The goal here is just do it! Take control of your family food budget now not later.
Here is last weeks cheap quick easy dinner recipes: Cheap Family Menu For Less Than $40.00
Need to feed a “BIG FAMILY”? This will help: Creating Big Family Meals On A Budget
I love your site! you are so inspiring to a frugal mommy of two such as I! I am constantly looking for cheap but healthy ideas to feed our family, and will most definitely be bookmarking this site!
thanks again!
Donna Herrick, CA.
Thanks Donna – please share recipes and healthy meal ideas as we are all frugal mom’s these days!!
I think chicken is always a really cheap option, but you can be creative in different ways. Soups on meat make great casseroles too – and they really stretch out.
I think this site’s pretty good….I’ve almost had all of the meals on here, hope they add some more soon…..
http://deliciouscheapmeals.com
I agree with you miksareli – I need to get my butt in gear and get more cheap recipes posted…I have been working on some other sites – trying to make things more organized for the readers! Thanks for stopping by!!
I wish I knew where you shop – I can’t find the ingredients for any where close to the prices you list. I pay much more!!
Hi Carrie..I shop at Wal-Mart usually but I also live in Utah so I can only base my menu’s off of what I pay. Remember use this as a guide to meal planning. Everyone is going to pay a different price for their groceries. Just a tip: for cheap meat look in the butchers mark down section (if available)!
You have some really great ideas, but as a mom with a child with food allergies its really tough. If anyone has any cheep meal ideas for a child allergic to milk, egg, and nuts it would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Michelle – I can only imagine how difficult it is to prepare meals with your childs allergies. Let me dig around a bit and see what I can find. I know for baking recipes you can substitute applesauce for the milk and eggs – see this article – http://cheapfamilymeals.info/2008/11/24/simple-substitutions-for-a-healthier-recipe/ **** I will try and find some more and email them to you! Good Luck
you do a lot more realistic menu and costs than the yahoo bunch! and real food,to boot!
Thanks Sheryl – I have surfed the yahoo network myself and I agree trying to find realistic menu’s and prices was difficult. I’m glad you found this site useful!
The Lord has blessed me with a sitting service turned in-home daycare and now I service 11 children plus my own=12 kids and two adults. That’s a whopping 14 mouths to feed 12.5 if you add the three babies who eat only half the portions. So coming here is one of the better ideas on the budget. Of course, I love to budget all the things in my life, but don’t want to lose the nutrition either in which most cases people do in fact sacrifice nutrition for frugality and that is something I am NOT willing to compromise. God bless this site.
Hi PrilC, I am so glad I can give resources that help! Thanks for the visit and good luck with that “BIG” family you have been blessed with.
these are great ideas and perfect for the way the economy is right now. we could all save so much money each month with this kind of ingenuity.
.-= Kitchen Plans´s last blog ..How To Create Kitchen Floor Plans =-.
I Love your website and ideas, but notices that alot of the recipes have pasta or noodles, Could you suggest some alternatives as I can’t use these items
This is an amazing way to save money on dinner and the overall grocery bills. Maybe could use some veggies, but otherwise very nice.
.-= How to Cook´s last blog ..Spice Up That Ready Made Marinara Sauce =-.
I am a mom of seven kids and need good/cheap meals to feed a family of 9. Any help is greatly appreciated
Really different ideas…maybe you could come up with a way for us to submit cheap meal ideas to increase recipe options? I feed 7, 3 meals a day (we don’t eat out) for about $120 a week. I feel I have gotten pretty good at a varied menu, but need help from time to time.
Great article. My family has created a weekly menu, it saves us time and money. My only suggestion would be to incorporate something we have. Two vegetarian meals a week. Two fish meals a week. We found that eating red meats can be a cheap option, but veggie and fish nights are much healthier, and certainly add variety. Our sample menu for the week. Sunday – Roast (you choose the meat choice), generally offers sandwich options for lunch for 3 people until Wednesday. Monday – pasta with salad, veggie day 1. Tuesday – fish. Wednesday – Falafel, homemade (easy), veggie day 2. Thursday – Roast (you choose, but must be different than Sundays), offers lunch options until sunday. Friday – fish. Saturday – mystery pick, can be that easy frozen pizza, special meal or order in, whatever you want. All the meals come with a potato or rice side,a veggie side and salad. It’s been a great help doing this, and who knew, my husband (the carnivore) looks forward to falafel wednesdays!
whoops, there should be a happy face up there ^
I want to add my thanks as well for this site. I have been spending hundreds a week to feed 4 picky kids and a hungry all the time husband. Just to watch a good bit go to waste, so I was looking for a frugal way to create a food list and nightly dinners and found this site. Wonderful recipe and so glad to see so many people with great ideas as well. THANK YOU!! :-)
We eat depending on the sales for the week. I have found that sometimes we eat for free because of coupons and b1g1′s. This website may be helpful http://www.twothriftysisters.com
I agree with Brooke, the time of year and what is in season also has a big impact. Planning is a simple but extremely effective cooking tip, buy what you need and stay within your budget – try out this [[www.gourmetmum.tv/cooking-tips-blog/2011/1/20/5-easy-healthy-weekday-family-meals-for-only-20.html 5 weekday menu]]
Umm… While the menu IS a thrifty one and may feed a decent sized brood… you stated in the passage above the menu that for purposes of the article you would assume you didn’t have those items on hand… yet when you click on the recipe it shows a deal more ingredients than the ones you have listed with the pricing… which would in turn increase the cost of the menu. In which case you are spending well over the $5 per meal or even the $34 you listen as the weeks cost.
I love the recipes and i think you are doing a great job with the site… just felt it was a bit misleading. I have a household of 3-4 adults and 5-6 children ( i babysit a child in addition to my 5 so he is here mon-fri for all three meals. Some days I include dinner for his father who is a hard working single dad with little time to make a decent meal.)
correction to previous post line 3 listen should be listed… Oops. :P
I love that these are real ideas that I can afford and that my kids will eat it! I use your recipes, though I make my own pastas and breads which further reduces costs, and my family loves them. It’s great if you can get away with vegetarian and fish nights but my kids (and husband) would gag. It’s just so nice to see recipes that contain “normal” food for everyday people!
Thanks for your ideas! It is really helpful price wise and gives a good idea about the quantity of products to buy for every dish. From my side I would like to suggest for snacks – because the kids love snaking (I have 3 boys) we use peanut butter.
Another addition would be sorta dish from beef ground:
The price for beef ground might vary, you can buy like a pound or 2 ground beef, one onion, one pepper, fry it all up, add ketchup, fry for like 5 minutes more, add salt or pepper to your taste, and mix it with mac and cheese. Very stuffing for a cold winter evening, and kids love it!
So good luck everyone.
Although the recipes are very encouraging, the prices are not in touch with reality. Where do you buy a loaf of bread for 88 cents? Or a pack of american cheese for $1.50? I have not paid these prices in ten years.
I agree with the above response. Here in my area food is nowhere near as cheap as listed. Meats are all so expensive now I don’t think that you an even classify chicken as a “cheap” meat anymore. I love the recipe ideas though, they are very helpful, just not price realistic unfortunately in today’s rising prices.
Thank you so very much for posting your thoughts, ideas, and recipes to share with us. While our children are grown and gone, I am currently unemployed (school teacher–district closed) and the two of us are trying to get by as best we can until I find work again. These recipes cut a substantial amount off of our expenses each week without cutting out variety or taste.
You are appreciated@
THANK YOU!!
I’ve been googling trying to find a quick, simple and CHEAP menu plan I can use!
The prices may not be spot on, but pretty darn close if you stick to store brand and/or use coupons!
Thank you! Seriously! You saved my butt this pay period!!
I was thinking the same thing…1 1/2 lbs ground beef $3.00??? I just bought 2 lbs last night it was $13..i guess i need to move lol
Albertsons bread $.88, dozen eggs$.88, winn Dixie has same prices, if you coupon you can get great deals. Especially if you live in an area with a store who doubles or triples them. Cheese I haven’t seen for the price she listed but I have seen it for 2.00 at almost all the grocery stores here.
You find great prices at the store(s) you shop; some of the prices I can relate to, some not, but I live remotely. One thing I would suggest to anyone trying to cut their food budget is knowing how to use a whole chicken. When I buy a whole roasting chicken,I will get 3-4 meals from it and after I cook it, I make gravy from the drippings (a great stew base) and broth from the carcass. Except for a rare coupon, broth is about $1/can here, so I save a lot that way. A 5lb bag of rice is about $6, so combine free broth and 2c rice with some seasoning and you have a rice-a-roni style dish that you can add a little chicken to and some veggies. Thanks for you site, I just found it and like it a lot!!
[...] the menu at http://cheapfamilymeals.info/2009/01/20/a-budget-family-menu-only-3306-week-2/ and transform it. Using your price book, compare the prices of bad foods to properly-prepared [...]
I would have to agree with another post I read on here and that is where in the world are you buying a loaf of bread for only .88 cents? In my neck of the woods you couldn’t even buy three day old bread for that price … Your meals look lovely but I don’t believe I can feed a family of just three on your prices … nothing you mentioned above with those prices would even come close to what I have here…perhaps maybe if you tripled your 15.00 a week to 45 or 50 then maybe I could use your meal suggestions but not all of us can compare to what you listed…well except maybe the cornbread…just sayin’
i think regardless of the prices these are great meal ideas that families love and come out cheaper!!!
This would be better if you were actually telling us all of the ingredients that we need and not just some of them. What it says on the recipe page, and on your page are two different things….
smh.
Inspiring! Prices may be higher in California, but if you look for deals and shop at a Winco or Food4Less you can keep the cost down. I’m going to give some of these recipes a shot, thank you for sharing!
I liked as much as you will obtain performed proper here. The comic strip is tasteful, your authored subject matter stylish. nevertheless, you command get got an impatience over that you would like be delivering the following. unwell definitely come more beforehand once more as precisely the same nearly a lot steadily inside case you shield this hike.
personal training´s last [type] ..1