Delicious foods and frugal recipes from some of our favorites!
Since a few people have asked now, I thought I’d do a post on how we feed our family of six on $450 a month or less. It takes a bit of planning, but all in all, our technique is pretty easy. We rarely use coupons, so most of our savings comes from a well-thought out plan. How do we do it? Read below for the tips. Also, I’ve included a few links to other posts I’ve written to help you save money on feeding your family. Read more
We’ve tried many banana bread recipes, but this simple recipe remains our family’s favorite. My paternal great grandmother, who was a young mom during the Great Depression, had a love for people as big as the world, and loved to feed everyone who walked into her door. The delicious taste of this bread proves it. Read more
Feeding a family of six on less than $450 dollars a month means, at least for us, that we’ve had to get used to the fact that we can’t have anything we want to eat, whenever we want it. In our prior, financially irresponsible life, if we wanted steak for dinner, we’d run up to the store and get some steak. If we wanted chicken breasts, we’d simply go to the store and buy them (could this possibly be part of the reason we exceeded last year’s grocery budget by an easy $300 a month? 🙂 ).
But since we’ve chosen to live a more frugal lifestyle, in order to to get ourselves out of debt, those types of “treats” aren’t an option much anymore. Instead, our meal budget is carefully planned out, 1 month at a time. Also, we often end up eating “simple” meals, like the one pictured below.
This simple meal of rice and beans cost our family of six less than $3:
1 large and 1 regular sized can of generic refriend beans: $2.26
Big box club rice, 6 cups, cooked: 24 cents
Misc spices for the rice (chili powder, salt, pepper, cumin), sour cream, cheese, hot sauce: 35 cents
Total spent: $2.85
It’s meals like this that allow us to feed our family on such a small amount. But the really great thing about living on a small grocery budget is that it’s really caused us to appreciate food, in general.
The sad fact is that not everybody on earth gets to eat 3 meals a day, every day. Although there is enough food on earth for every single person to eat roughly 2700 calories per day, government ransoming of food and a lack of giving on the part of many make food shortages rampant in third world countries. There are also many food shortages right here in the U.S. due to the fact that people often mismanage the funds they are given, or they simply aren’t aware of or able to get to places that offer free food. I’ve seen these scenarios first-hand in my many years of volunteering in different capacities to help feed the hungry, as well as experienced it myself during the years after my parents’ divorce, and let me tell you, it’s not a pretty place to be when you can’t feed your children.
Since we’ve chosen to place ourselves on a strict food budget, obviously we do have the option of spending more (although that wouldn’t be wise given our current situation), but placing ourselves on a limited budget where food is concerned has given us two blessings:
1. We’ve tricked our minds into believing that “this is all there is”, helping us to be able to stay within the limits we’ve set.
2. We’ve become extra grateful for every single meal we eat. We find joy in the simplest of meals.
When you first set out to feed your family on less, it can feel a bit depressing. The though of eating beans and rice or ramen noodles for the next year or more can convince you to throw a pity party real quick. But keep in mind that if you commit to getting your finances in order now, the day will soon come when you’ll be able to go to the grocery store without having to stick to a budget. But by that time, of course, you’ll have fallen in love with frugality and probably will still feed your family rice and beans on occasion. 🙂
Happy Monday to you all! I’m SO excited to share some great news with you: Through the generosity of Mr. CBB over at Canadian Budget Binder, I’ve written and published my first guest post! It’s a story about how parents’ handling of money influences their children, as well as some personal tidbits about our former life as the financial irresponsible. Check it out by clicking here. SO, on with today’s post. Read more
When we lived in the suburbs, we always had a small garden in the backyard. Every year it’d be the same deal: we’d start out all excited-like, till it up, plant our seeds (or plants), and lovingly care for our garden for about the first six weeks, after which we’d get bored silly, stop weeding, blow off watering, and only occasionally take advantage of the non-abundance of veggies that sprung up in spite of our negligence. Sure, we wanted a garden, we just didn’t want to have to work for it. Read more
Welcome to the second post of our new series, Before and After! You can read our first post by going to the Frugal Food page. Today, in honor of my friend Mr. CBB, we’re tackling a vegetarian dish. This dish from Mr. CBB over at Canadian Budget Binder, has fast become a family favorite around here. Never in my life did I think I’d see the day when the kids begged for a dish that included spinach, but thanks to Mr. CBB, they do!
Read more
This meal has long been a family favorite. My mom’s been making it ever since I can remember, and although it’s a simple dish, it’s a frequent request at potluck dinners. Sometimes too, she’ll stuff this into whole green peppers with the tops chopped off and cook it that way (if you do this, cook until the peppers are soft and brownish – about an hour). Read more
You can serve this “dip” with chips, or as a side when serving tacos. Our kids, who normally don’t eat fresh tomatoes, scarf this stuff up big time. Read more
Smooth Mexican Salsa
1 – 28 oz. can whole tomatoes 1/2 med. yellow onion, chopped
1 – 4 oz. can chopped green chilies fresh cilantro to taste
1 T. sugar (we omit this) 1/2 t. salt
juice from 1/2 fresh lime 1 T. white vinegar
jalapenos to taste
Drain juice from tomatoes into a blender. Add sugar, salt, lime juice, vinegar, jalapenos, onion and cilantro. Blend well. Add tomatoes and chilies, and blend until tomatoes are blended in, but don’t over-blend. Enjoy! Total cost: $$2.85
We also use this salsa as a taco sauce or taco salad dressing.
Homemade Guacamole Dip
4 ripe, fairly soft avocados 3 T. fresh lemon juice
1 t. garlic powder 1 t. salt
1 t. ground black pepper 1 T. minced red onion
1 t. chili powder 1/3 c. picante sauce
Cut avocadoes in half and remove skin and pits, placing avocado halves in medium-sized bowl. Mash avocadoes well using potato masher. Mix in all other ingredients. Serve! That’s it! Other optional things we add: a few squirts of Tabasco sauce, finely chopped fresh jalapeno to taste, finely chopped fresh cilantro to taste. Refrigerate leftovers. Total cost: $4.60
