Every Friday, I share what we ate for the week on our budget. Currently our monthly budget is $500 for my family of 4.
This Week’s Dinners:
Saturday: Red Pepper & Feta Turkey Burgers, leftover chicken chili (that was in the freezer), homemade sugar-free applesauce
Sunday: Easter dinner at my parents’ house. I was in charge of bringing a cheese and cracker tray.
Monday: I took advantage of the low ham prices last week and bought a spiral ham for $1.49/pound last week. I baked the ham on Monday night and served it with Hasselback potatoes and summer corn (from the freezer). We also ate ham sandwiches for lunch. I chopped up what’s left (a lot) and stored in the freezer in 1 and 2 cup portions.
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Chicken, Black Bean & Corn Tacos topped with avocado, salsa, and cheese.
Wednesday: My girls sold subs as a Girl Scout fundraiser, so that’s what we ate for dinner.
Thursday: We had a crazy night. My girls got off the bus and we had very little time before we needed to be back at the school for the talent show. So we made ham sandwiches with leftovers from Monday and fruit.
Friday: Leftover chicken tacos from Tuesday night and cantaloupe.
This Week’s Breakfasts, Lunches & Snacks:
Breakfast included hard-boiled eggs, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes (my mom bought the box for a recipe and then gave to us what was left) with bananas, green smoothies. Lunch and snacks included ham & cheese sandwiches, pb & j sandwiches, apples, oranges, tortilla chips and salsa, cheese & crackers, store-bought granola bars.
Would you like to lower your grocery bill? These posts will help:
- 11 Simple Meal Planning Tips
- How I Use Pinterest for Meal Planning
- 8 Freezer Meal Recipes
- 10 Paper Products to Avoid
We had a tasty week! Did you try a new dish this week that your family enjoyed? Please share it in the comments.
You write a good article. I’ve sent some of my clients here to read this as it shows the steps that need to be taken to address getting a budget into shape. $500 for a family of 4 is a good round number for a budget. Too often lack of having a budget contributes to damage of credit rating by careless spending as we point out on our 11 Ways raise your credit score fast post. Carefully planning, even as a family can certainly result in a more sound financial state and that’s a goal every consumer should aim for . Very nice blog!
I always think that hams are expensive even when they are on sale, but once you get it home and start cutting it up, there is a LOT of meat there. It also freezes very well. One thing I like to make from ham rescued from the freezer is scalloped potatoes with bits of ham in it. YUM!
I came up with a peanut butter cup brownie this week that was out of this world. Not only was it delish, but had a few healthy ingredients in it so that was a plus. I asked my oldest how he liked it and he said, “Out of a 10, it’s an 11 or a 12!”. (I’ll share it on the blog soon).
I still haven’t made your hasselback potatoes again! Thanks for the reminder (again). Enjoy your weekend, Kristia.
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup recently posted…Simple Skillet Pizza Crust
Oh, now you are making me wish that i had gotten a ham too! I decided to pass it up for now because sometimes Aldi will mark them down later on once their “leftover” hams get close to their sell buy date. But I do love ham and am kind of wishing I would have just bought one. Maybe you already knew this, but ham broth works well in place of chicken broth in things like soup. I often don’t do full strength ham broth because it tends to be pretty strong in flavor and saltier. But even just half ham broth, half chicken broth works great!
Lydia @ Thrifty Frugal Mom recently posted…Our $200/mo. Grocery Budget: What I Spent & Saved this Week (4/5-4/11)
Lydia, my mom told me the same thing about ham stock. I put the ham bone in the freezer and this week I am going to use it to make a ham and bean soup.
I love that you do this! We do our lunches in a similar way where we don;t plan each one individually (since we often eat leftovers from last nights dinner). It saves so much money since you aren’t buying a ton of ingredients to make lunches when you likely already have stuff.
Rosemarie Groner recently posted…10 Fun Things to Buy That Pay for Themselves (Plus Some!)