Frugal Menu Ideas

Last week I think I set a record on how much I spent on groceries, so this week I went searching for some menu ideas that will save some money. I Googled "frugal menus" and was surprised when I saw my own old blog post from 2007 come up on the first page of results. I thought I would repost it here for my own easy access and maybe to help others too. I don't know how accurate these prices will be in 2011. These are simple menus, but simply having a plan for every meal, including snacks, and cooking from scratch as much as possible saves a lot of money. My life has been crazy busy the past couple years and I've really gotten away from a lot of time in the kitchen. I hope to get back to that very soon. Maybe I can teach some little ones some cooking in the process.

Meals for Hard Times

How to Feed a Family of Four for less than $30 a week...with No Coupons!

$31 a Week Menu

$30 Weekly Grocery List and Menu Ideas

Five Week Menu and Shopping List

$45 Emergency Menu for 4-6

$70 Low Cost Menu

My own cheap and easy menu inspired by Created to be His Helpmeet

Current Meal Plan

Remember my simplified meal plan? We used it for quite a while and it really made that area of my life so much easier. I never had to think about what was for supper or what I needed to buy at the store. It worked really well. I had to stop making smoked sausages because they gave me headaches so we changed that night to breakfast.

After a while of that I felt ready to broaden it a bit, so I have revised that meal plan and it is still pretty simple but also gives us more variation.

Monday--Bean night. When I first started making beans a few years back, my kids would groan. Now they LOVE beans and we usually don't even have any leftovers for me to work with anymore.
Most of the time I make pinto beans, but sometimes we have black beans. We have "soup beans", sometimes just with cornbread, other times with fried potatoes, or macaroni and cheese. Sometimes we load them with toppings: cheese, onions, salsa, sour cream. Sometimes we have beans and rice and cheese. Sometimes we even make bean tacos.

Tuesday--Spaghetti Night. This could be regular spaghetti with meat sauce or meatballs, it could be made with spaghetti noodles or ziti or rotini or any kind of pasta. If I really feel like cooking, I might make lasagna. If I really need a break, I might make frozen ravioli (which is really good!) Sometimes I make it with chicken or meatless. (If we're really tired of spaghetti sauce, I might make some sort of casserole.)

Wednesday--breakfast for supper.

Thursday--pizza night. Since we do our grocery shopping on Thursdays I have moved pizza night from Friday to Thursday. Yes, sometimes I still order pizza, sometimes I even get frozen pizza. Lately I've been really adventurous and have started making my own pizza again. It has been fun.

Friday--"Cookout" night. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken. Whatever you might have at a cookout. I bought a cast iron grill pan and I love it! I also make my cornbread in it. It works!

Saturday--taco night. Tacos, burritos, taco salad, etc. If we have leftover beans, I use them.

Sunday--on weeks we go to church we eat out. During this season of life, I stay home every other week for a day of rest. Then we have sandwiches or something easy that will allow me to kind of "take off" that day.


I don't stick with this 100%. There might be a new recipe I want to try or something else we might be wanting to have. But during this season of life, this menu plan is working for me.

Easy Freezer Cooking

I was first introduced to the internet world shortly after I was married and was delighted to find all the information available to stay-at-home moms/wives/homemakers. One thing I kept seeing popping up on such sites was "Once-a-month cooking". The concept sounded great but who wanted to spend ALL day in the kitchen cooking? Now, I love to cook, but not that much. So I never really pursued that venue of homemaking but continued to spend at least an hour in the kitchen cooking a full meal every night. I still don't spend a full day cooking once a month in order to stock up my freezer, but I definitely don't have the time or energy to spend even an hour cooking every day, so over time I've developed my own method of freezer cooking that works great for me and it saves TONS of time and even more money. The first simple thing I do is double or triple each dish that I make. This is just as easy as making one batch except now you have 3 sometimes even 4 or 5 meals to use over time. When making things such as spaghetti sauce, taco meat, chili, or soups double or triple your recipe in a large pot. Separate what you didn't use that night into freezer bags. Label the bag with the contents and date and keep in the freezer for next time. When making meatloaf, make 3 or 4 loaves instead of just one. This takes almost the same amount of time. Form into loaves, wrap in foil, place loaf in freezer bags, label, and freeze. When making a casserole, make more and freeze in foil pans. This can be done with almost any recipe. If you're not sure if a food will freeze, a quick Google search can tell you. Some foods such as potatoes do not freeze well. The second thing I do is buying meat in bulk or stocking up when it's on sale, then cooking and freezing. This is a big money and time saver. I usually do this the day after I do my grocery shopping. Week 1--Buy the largest package of chicken breasts (or even two). The next morning put all the chicken into the crockpot and sprinkle with a litte garlic salt. Cook all day until done. After it has cooled, store in freezer bags, either whole or chopped. The next time you need chicken breasts for a recipe it is already cooked and ready to go. Week 2--Buy the huge package or ground beef. Put the whole thing in a crockpot with some salt, pepper, and garlic. Cook all day until all the meat is brown. Cooking it in the crockpot even makes it a better consistency that browning it. When it's done, put two cup portions of it into freezer bags. Two cups equals one pound. Week 3--Buy another large ground beef. This one is a bit more time consuming but worth it in the end. Mix in a large bowl the ground beef, one egg per pound, some bread or cracker crumbs and whatever seasoning you like--I use garlic salt and onion flakes. Form half into patties and the other half into meatballs. Place the patties and meatballs on baking sheets and put into the freezer until frozen. This is called flash freezing. After they have frozen put into freezer bags--one for the patties and one for the meatballs. Now they are already formed for hamburgers, hamburger steaks, spaghetti and meatballs, or any other recipe. After this cycle you will probably be set in the meat department. You can do this for almost any kind of meat--pork, beef, etc. but our family mostly eats ground beef and chicken breasts. As each kind of meat runs out, buy another package and do it all over again. Here are a couple more. Buy large bags of onions and green peppers. Chop and saute and freeze in bags for later use. When using whole chickens save the bones and skin and make chicken broth to freeze. When you have just a little meat, vegetables, or pasta left over from a meal put into a jar in the freezer and keep adding to it. This eventually makes a surprisingly good soup. All this may be old news or common sense to most people, but it's something I've just figured out within the last few years and has saved us so much money and time.

Meal Planning

I'm still slowly giving my planner an update and thought I would share my weekly menus and my dinner menu planning system. I used this several years ago and am not sure why I stopped, but am now using it again. It takes the headache out of making my grocery list every week.

I admit that I'm not a morning person and that most mornings cold cereal or toast made by 6yo is all that's on the menu. But I am doing better and actually make breakfast a few days a week--a very simple breakfast, but I'm proud even of that! All these breakfasts include fruit if we have it and milk.

M--Eggs and toast
T--Oatmeal
W--Waffles, pancakes, or french toast
Th-Cereal
F--Toast, cinnamon toast, or cheese toast
S--Muffins, biscuits and chocolate gravy (my husband's favorite), or sausage biscuits
Su-Cereal

I enjoy big breakfasts, but when we do have them, they're for supper ;-)

For lunch we eat leftovers if we have them, however, leftovers are becoming more and more rare around here! If we don't have any, we follow this menu which includes veggies if we have them and juice.

M--PB&J (this one is with milk of course!)
T--Mac and cheese or Mac and Mae (macaroni and tomato sauce--shredded cheese optional. My kids LOVE this!)
W--Sandwiches or wraps (tuna, chicken or egg salad, deli meat, cheese)
Th-Baked potato or salad
F--Mexican--quesadillas, burritos, nachos, etc (our favorite lunch day!)
Sa-Whatever we can find!
Su-eat out


For making my dinner menu for the week, I start by looking at the week's menu at www.menus4moms.com to see if there are any new recipes I want to try. I also like to try a new recipe from my Food and Family magazine, or just any new recipe I came across. Then I fill in the blanks with my meal list.

I made a list of 31 meals our family likes, which gives us a different meal for each day of the month. For instance, this week I had to plan meals for the 17-19 of March, so I looked at the list of meals and chose meals 17, 18, and 19. I didn't have to think about it or search the internet for half an hour for meal ideas. They were there and I already knew we liked them and they would fit into our budget.

On this same note, I read a really good ebook about meal planning the other night and it was free. If you sign up for the A Minute With Molly email newsletter, you can download her Menu Planning ebook for free. Sign up at Econobusters. In is she shares a similar menu planning systers, free forms to help you, tips for saving money, and some really awesome recipes!