Feeding your family doesn’t have to be expensive. You can feed a family of 4 for $45 per week! In this post, we share details about how to do it with cheap easy meals!
Cheap Easy Meals – Feed A Family Of 4 For $45 Per Week!
Feeding your family doesn’t have to be expensive. You can cut your grocery bill! The trick is to buy foods on sale and use what you have! You would be amazed at how many people write us wanting to save on their grocery bill, but then throw away 50% of the food they have and don’t even use it! If you want to save on your grocery bill you HAVE to use the food you have!
We have made a meal plan with items you can get at any grocery store. We used sale prices that can be found in most stores in the United States. Hopefully this will give a general idea to get you started. The recipes are below.
Meal Plan for 4 for $45
Breakfast
Oatmeal -.$.25
Muffins -$.40
Cereal -$1.19
Total for Breakfasts-$1.84
Lunches
Mac and cheese -$.50
Peanut butter and jelly-$1.00
Ham sandwiches -$1.50
Leftovers- $0.00
Total for Lunches-$3.00
Snacks
Apples -$2.00
Muffins -$.40
Oatmeal cookies-$.60
Total for snacks-$3.00
Dinners
Slow Cooked Roast Beef Dinner
Roast 6 lbs. – $17.94
Potatoes -$.25
Carrots -$.50
Applesauce-$.50
Total for meal-$19.19
Beef and Noodles Dinner
Beef and Noodles -$1.00
Roasted veggies-$1.00
Canned peaches -$.89
Total for meal – $2.89
Lasagna Dinner
Lasagna -$6.67 (leave out cottage cheese or ricotta and just mozzarella to save.)
French Bread -$1.00
Salad -$1.00
Total for meal- $8.67
Stew Dinner
Stew – $.10
Potatoes -S.25
Carrots $.25
Muffins -.40
Total for meal- $1.00
Baked Potato Dinner
Baked Potatoes (Assuming cheese and Sour) $1.00
Total for meal -$1.00
Pan Fried Lemon Chicken
Easy Pan Fried Lemon Chicken Recipe -$3.75
https://www.livingonadime.com/10-easy-pasta-recipes-family/
Cole slaw $1.00
Total for meal- $4.75
Total for all food- $45.24
This slow cooked roast recipe is so delicious and easy that it is one of the most popular recipes in our Dining On A Dime Cookbook! It is versatile and one slow cooked roast can be used to make several different meals to keep pleasing your family day after day!
Delicious Slow Cooked Roast Recipe
1 beef roast, 3-5 lbs.
1 onion, sliced
1 can cream of mushroom soup (omit for GF and sprinkle with seasoned salt)
Place roast in pan. Pour cream of mushroom soup and onion on top. Cover tightly. Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour. Then turn down to 225 degrees and cook for 15 or more hours; 10 hours for roasts smaller than 3 pounds.
*This recipe is an excellent way to prepare inexpensive roasts. This slow cooked roast recipe makes them so tender they fall off the bone and are almost impossible to lift out of the pan. It is an excellent way to make a delicious meal for Sunday after church or for guests, because it can cook for 2 or 3 hours longer than required without overcooking. Since it is so tender that no meat is left on the bone, you get more for your money. Serves 4.
*Use a meat thermometer to make sure internal temperature reaches 145 degrees.
For lots more quick and easy home cooked recipes, check out our Dining On A Dime Cookbook.
This easy beef and noodles recipe makes a tasty main dish that makes an easy 5 dollar meal and that your family will love!
Easy Beef And Noodles Recipe
1 lb. leftover roast
1/4 cup flour
1 cup water
salt and pepper (to taste)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 lb. egg noodles, cooked
Mix water and flour in a jar and shake well. Pour into saucepan and boil until it starts to thicken. Add roast. Cook until roast is heated though. Add garlic powder, salt and pepper. Serve over cooked noodles or on toast. Serves 6.
This easy beef and noodles recipe is from our cookbook on page 179.
This stew recipe is a tasty, tummy warming recipe for cool winter days and you can easily use leftovers in places of some of the ingredients. This is a very low cost recipe and is very tasty as written, but you can feel free to modify it to your liking. If you prefer, you can add or take away veggies and if you don’t mind the extra cost, you can add more meat.
Quick And Easy Beef Stew Recipe – Crockpot Beef Stew
1/2 lb. round steak, cubed
6 cups water
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. garlic salt, (or to taste)
1 tsp. onion salt, (or to taste) or 1 onion, chopped
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
6 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 Tbsp. cornstarch or flour
2 Tbsp. water
Brown the meat in a large saucepan. Add all of the other ingredients except the vegetables, cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water. Simmer for 1-2 hours until the meat is tender. Add the vegetables and cook for 15-20 minutes, until tender.
Mix the cornstarch into 2 Tbsp. water. Add to the boiling stew and simmer for 15 minutes until thickened. Makes 2 quarts.
This homemade stew recipe is great with cornbread or Ninety-Minute Rolls (p.75).
Easy Baked Potatoes
Virtually everyone loves baked potatoes. With a wide variety of possible toppings, baked potatoes can be a meal all by themselves. Prepare your toppings the night or morning before and you can have a quick and easy dinner.
Have you ever wondered how to bake potatoes? Check out these easy ways to bake potatoes:
- When slowly cooked, baked potatoes have a much better flavor than when cooked quickly in the microwave.
- Here’s a tip from one of our readers on perfect baked potatoes: Bake your potatoes in a crockpot. Scrub, pierce with a fork, rub some butter on the potatoes and cook on low all day. You will have perfectly baked potatoes when it’s time for dinner.
- If you like the taste of oven baked potatoes but forgot to put them in the oven in time, nuke them in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. Then finish them in the oven. The centers will be cooked and they won’t take nearly as long to bake in the oven.
- To prevent a dry hard skin, rub your potato in butter or margarine, sprinkle with salt and wrap in foil.
- It is usually best to prick a potato with a fork when cooking it in the microwave because at times potatoes have been known to explode. Big Mess.
How to Bake Potatoes
Potatoes
bacon grease or oil
salt
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Wash potatoes thoroughly. Pierce with fork 3 or 4 times. Rub with bacon grease (tastes best) or oil. Sprinkle with salt. Wrap in foil or put in pan with foil on top. Bake in oven for 45 minutes-1 hour. Serve.
Baked Potato Toppings:
Tomatoes, chopped
Broccoli, chopped
Peppers, chopped
Cheese, grated
Bacon, crumbled
Ham, cubed
Chili
Onion
Olives
Mushrooms
Ranch dressing
Sour cream
Yogurt
Taco themed baked potato: everything you would put on a taco including hamburger with taco seasoning
Pizza themed baked potato: pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sausage
Easy Pan Fried Lemon Chicken Recipe
This easy pan fried lemon chicken recipe is a quick and easy chicken dinner recipe! It serves 2, but you can easily double it and still have dinner for under 5 dollars! You can find this recipe in our Dining On A Dime Cookbook on page 204.
2 bell peppers, chopped
1 whole chicken breast, boneless and skinless
1 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. olive oil
1/3 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. parsley, chopped
2 cups pasta, cooked
In a skillet, sauté bell peppers over medium heat in a small amount of oil. Cut chicken into strips. Mix flour, salt and pepper in a bowl. Coat chicken with flour mixture. Remove peppers. Heat oil in the skillet, still on medium heat. Add chicken and cook 6-8 minutes, until brown. Add peppers and warm. Put pasta on a serving dish. Place chicken and peppers on pasta. Add chicken broth and lemon juice to skillet. Stir over medium heat 2-3 minutes. Scrape brown bits on the bottom of the pan and cook until reduced. Stir in parsley. Pour over chicken. Serves 2.
Save Money On Groceries And Make Meals Easier! (Sale Up To 50% Off!)
Click here to get our Dining On A Dime Cookbooks SALE Up To 50% Off NOW! They’re filled with tasty recipes and tips to make your life easier!
Isn’t this only 6 dinners, 4 lunches and 3 breakfasts? That isn’t 7 days worth of food. What did I miss? I’d love to calculate this in Canadian dollars but I need more details. Quantities would be awesome.
She combined the breakfasts and snacks for some. For example she put $2.00 for apples for a snack – that is equal to a bag of apples with about 10-12 apples in it so that would be 3 different snacks for 4 people.
These are all good ideas and they all have good nutrition as well, so thank you! Just a short tip, my son works outside all day and gets home late. I’ve been getting him the really thick soups and I told him for a really quick meal, cook some rice or noodles and put a can of that heavy, thick soup on top. very quick supper and I only buy the soup when I can get rock bottom prices (sometimes .88 cents a can) trying to teach him frugality, and man it is a hard job! Happy New Year, Tawra and Jill!!
Great idea Donna
One of the ways I have saved money is by not spending more that $1.50/lb. or less for most meats, but we have really been missing beef roast, steaks, etc. I figured out that Tawra spent just under $3.00/lb. but made some really good meals from that one roast. I have always done that with pork roast. I’m going to start trying to do more beef this way even if it does cost more at checkout, per meal it is quite reasonable when you consider that. Thanks for challenging my preconceived notions on frugality.
Yes Linda I learned that sometimes it is better to figure how many meals for the least amount I can get out of a piece of meat than how much it is a pound.
I review a lot of recipes and find them interesting, however, they are not as cheap to prepare in Hawaii. Prices for many staples are not as “affordable” in the islands. The high cost of transportation, labor, insurance, etc. for the stores make prices not as low as on the mainland.
Except to go meatless more days than my family would prefer (which is never)then saving money becomes more difficult here.
Amy I really hate to put prices on things because we tend to get hung up on prices and the main point we try to tell people is in spite of the prices there are so many tips and ways to save no matter where you live. For example don’t waste the food you do buy by allowing cookies and chips to go stale,don’t pour the kids a huge glass of milk and then they only drink 1/2 and you dump the rest out, or make a pot of coffee and dump it to make fresh. Look at everyone’s plates when dinner is over – how much gets scraped into the trash and do you give a 5 yr an apple and he only eats 1/2 and throws the rest away. Most people who think they use their food wisely are shocked when they really start watching.
It really is not about the price at all but how wisely and carefully you do spend and use what you have in your area. Plus be careful because I am not saying you are doing this but some use the place where they live and it being to expensive as an excuse to spend more than they maybe should. Salaries also in more expensive places are usually higher so things tend to balance out. Plus in all the places I have lived they each have higher prices on somethings and lower than others. Utilities are cheaper in CO than KS but houses are higher in CO than Ks.
This is EXACTLY how we ate growing up in the 60s. My parents were very frugal and paid off their house mortgage in 7 years, while still in their twenties. Sometimes I resented it, especially when my classmates had nicer clothes (or didn’t have homemade clothing, even the ones with bigger families) but I learned fabulous lessons and to be creative. Thanks for posting!