When I tell people I only spend one hundred dollars a month on groceries for my family, they instantly assume we live off Top Ramen and cereal. But the truth is, we eat the same foods as everyone else. We just pay less for it.
During the summer months when we have baskets of homegrown vegetables available, we tend to make stir fry about twice a week. Not only is it easy to prepare, but it’s cheap. Rice and homegrown vegetables are cheap.
Then there are times when I will splurge and cook up a bunch of chicken in the crock pot and make chicken curry. I found Jane’s & JJ’s chicken curry recipe about a year ago and this chicken curry recipe is THE BOMB! Sure my picture looks like it came out of Amy Sedaris’ cookbook, but I’m here to tell you… YOU.NEED.TO.MAKE.THIS.
Pasta is a no brainer. We will typically eat pasta once a week. Not so much because we love it, but because pasta is quick and easy to make.
Another dinner time favorite is crock pot meals. I pretty much love any meal that can be cooked in a crock pot. Maybe I’m getting lazy in my old age, but the idea of tossing a bunch of ingredients into a crock pot, turning a knob on high and leaving it alone for 6 hours is appealing to me more and more over time.
So there you have it. Nothing too terribly fancy or difficult to make and no top ramen.
What do you feed your family on a regular basis? Do you go out to eat a lot? If so, how often?
Katie W. says
We rarely eat out. We like eating at home, not only because it is cheaper, but we feel we get better family time. 🙂
Heather says
We eat the same menu you do as well, except we seem to do a soup one night in the week and eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. In addition, we sometimes also make up a pizza crust and add whatever is kicking around in the frig/freezer too. We also opt for breakfast for dinner which is always a fun night here at our household. When we eat out…we try and use those restaurant.com deals or gift cards from gifts, Swagbucks etc. or are invited out to a family or friends home; which is wonderful. Our latest splurge was the $2 per 6″ specials at Subway…it was a date night with movie tickets we won at a party 🙂
Also…can I tell you I am sooo tickled…we did our first barter yesterday and I thought of you! We wanted crab for New Years Eve dinner, but not at eating out prices, so we offered up some tuna to our neighbor from my husbands fishing trip this last summer for a few crabs that they caught and froze last month! Woot Woot! And our nice neighbor is going to go elk hunting in a week and offered to trade more tuna (which we have a freezer full of…and we are getting sick of it for now…!) for said elk…never ate elk, but willing to give it a try. I swear free tastes better anyway 🙂
Mavis says
Anyone who can barter for crab is a Rock Star in my book. 🙂 Good job!
desi says
We eat a lot of rice and spagetti as well, one of the few foods all 3 kiddos will eat (picky eaters). We also don’t go out very often. We used to before we had kids and realized how much we were spending on everything. Now it’s a few times a year. It just costs too much and is to hard to find a babysitter.
Mavis says
I agree. I would rather have a new lamp than waste money going out to eat.
Marla says
We do a lot of Mexican variations, soups, casseroles, and crockpots. The rule to make into my recipe book is that it must be quick and relatively easy. This past year, I started stocking my shelves with extra burrito makings and canned corn; extra pasta and sauce; and (shame) hot dog fixings…so that if I forget to start dinner or thaw meat or am just too beat to cook up Teryaki Chicken Bowls, we do NOT resort to fast food; I have a quick and easy on hand. BTW, I have LOVED your journey this year! MAJOR KUDOS!! 🙂
Qathy says
Stir-fry. Soup. Salad– anything simple and easy!. I try for organic as much as possible, stock up on organic tomato paste and chicken and/or veggie broth from Costco–(for soup base). We eat eggs from our chickens year round (except when the girls get stingy) I also like to roast vegetables. And my favorite all-time chicken recipe: Oven @ 350. Put 3 lbs. of chicken pieces in shallow baking dish. Combine and pour over: 1/3 C. butter OR oil & 1/3 C. honey & 2 Tbs. mustard & 1 tsp. salt & 1 tsp. curry. Bake 1 & 1/4 hours until chicken is tender. (baste occasionally). I’m enjoying your story of thriftiness!
Mavis says
Thanks Qathy
nancy says
we eat at home with maybe once meal out/month. we also feed 6 or 7 college girls on a monthly basis that come home with our oldest for a home cooked meal. funniest thing on their first trip to our home was eating homemade cookies out of the cookie jar…one girl said, “you really have a cookie jar? i thought that was only in movies!”
anyway…we eat stir-fry, soups, crock-pot meals, breakfast for dinner, mexican food and pasta. simple and good works for me.
been thinking about a rice steamer; glad you shared yours here.
Mavis says
You must get a rice cooker. Seriously, it’s pretty amazing.
nancy says
Could you elaborate on your rice cooker/steamer? I’d love to know about entire meals you cook in it. You can respond here if you’d like or send an email: 3blondesandthelaw at live dot com.
Thanks!
Mavis says
Oh my. I cannot imagine a child growing up without a cookie jar. There is something about feeding teenagers (or having them in your kitchen) that is so awesome it is too hard to describe. 🙂
Jules says
One more thing we do besides what you mentioned is a meatless night. Usually a cheesy potato dish since most of the family likes either the cheese or the potatoes.