Monday Meal Planning

What is you family going to eat this week? You’ll notice that there are fresh veggies in every meal I make. This produce is purchased through yourneighborhoodproduce.com, a local co-op in the Charlotte area. A large basket of produce is $17.50, and it easily lasts me 2 weeks!

Monday: Pasta Primavera

Why: We have some pork sausage to use up, and some zucchini and other fresh vegetables. Not to mention ALLLL the pasta in the pantry!

Cost: $1.12, or $.56 per person.

I believe I was able to get the sausage free from couponing, and the whole wheat pasta as well. The veggies and oil are the only cost, so I’d say right around $1.00 for the main dish. I will also serve bread along side, about a $.12 value for the amount.

Tuesday: Tacos

Why: We still have lots of taco shells

Cost: $4.60, or $2.30 per person. The leftover taco meat will be used for Thursday’s dinner.

Shells: $.25

Beef: $3.75

Refried beans: Free from couponing

lettuce/tomato: $.10

hot sauce: Free from couponing

Side salad: $.50

Wednesday: Pad Thai

Why: We LOVE Pad Thai! As an added bonus, a few months ago I found $1/1 Thai Kitchen coupons on their packages during a Super Doubles event- So I bought Pad Thai sauce for $2.29 and noodles for $.50. Also, we still have a quite a few eggs from The Incredible Egg on Facebook- They offered a BOGO coupon for eggs last month.

Cost: $2.07, or $1.04 per person

Noodles: $.50 for the box, but will only use 1/3 of the box, so $.17.

Sauce: Paid about $2.29 for the sauce, will use 1/4 of the container: $.57

Egg: Paid $.94 for the dozen, will use one: $.08

Veggies: From the co-op, about $.50

Serve with a Salad: Lettuce, yellow bell peppers and tomato from the co-op $.75

Thursday: Leftovers

Why: The same reason we always have leftovers…to make my life easier! Will probably make Taco Salad. We have free tortillas from couponing, and I have taco salad shell forms, so I can serve in a tortilla bowl!

Cost: If we make the salad, the only new cost is the salad. $.50, or $.25 per person.

Friday: Pizza Night!

Saturday: Pot Roast

Why: We just bought 1/8th of a grass fed cow, and I still have a roast left from the last order. So time to cook it up! We also received celery and sweet potatoes in the produce basket this week, and I have onion left over from the last one. This will be a great way to use some of it up…and have leftovers for lunch on Sunday (So I don’t have to cook!)

Cost: $13.35. But we’ll be eating this for probably 4 meals (Saturday dinner, Sunday lunch and then freeze the rest) so it will break down to about $1.69 per person per meal.

Roast: I paid roughly $3.75 per pound for that beef, and this roast is probably 3 pounds. Look at me making an “expensive” meal! $11.25

Veggies: $2.00, from the co-op. Also, I acquired free peas couponing, so I’ll toss some of those in.

Crusty homemade bread: $.10. I get all of my ingredients either from couponing or food co-ops, so it’s pretty dirt cheap. Plus the Artisan bread recipe I use doesn’t call for anything other than flour, water, salt and yeast. So no eggs or oil making it more expensive. I have  been getting yeast and salt free from couponing.

Sunday: Small Group

We have small group with the peeps from church. We’ll probably bring dessert, a side or bread, which will range in cost from $.10 (artisan bread) to $1.50 (cheesecake). Who knows!

Well that’s all!

Here’s to living- Happier, healthier more FRUGAL lives!

~~FrugalMegan~~