Sunday notes

I spent yesterday cleaning house and taking down some Christmas decorations.  I roasted a chicken and we had Chicken  Alfredo for dinner.  I still have a half of a chicken breast and the dark meat for meals.  The bones for soup stock.

That is four meals from a five dollar chicken.  Now, I realize that if you have teenage boys and a large man to feed, that probably won't work.  But, I am also feeding is on HALF of the USDA statistics for thrifty budget.  You, if you are on snap, you have a lot of wiggle room and can still manage to eat well and have some food left over at the end of the month.

The things to remember is  :

A) don't pay what my mom used to call top dollar for anything .  You want to find the food items that you use on a regular basis for 1/2 price.  You can achieve this by buying in quantity    when they are on sale and not purchasing them again until there is another sale.

B) portion controlling your meat.  By cooking a batch of meat and portioning it in freezer bags, you can control the amount of meat eaten.  A four ounce portion of meat is adequate for anyone.  No one needs to eat a whole roast by themselves.  LOL.

 When my children were going through the hollow leg syndrome, I bought inexpensive " snacks" that they liked and they knew they could eat all they wanted of .  I always had beef and bean burritos, peanut butter sandwiches, Top ramen, popcorn and an air popper and oatmeal.

The meal plans were posted on the fridge so they knew what was supposed to be for a meal.  I used to stair step meals so often there would be something in the fridge earmarked for the next meal.  If you have a child that would be a glutton for a particular food, don't buy it or hide it; especially if they are over weight.  Or tell them, this is the months allotment, when it is gone, it's gone.  

Not buying sugar coated cereal is another must.  It's  expensive and not good for the children.  Cornflakes, Cheerios, shredded wheat, puffed wheat are all good and inexpensive especially when you can get a coupon and a sale. No child needs to eat four boxes of cereal in a week.  A bowl in the morning with some fruit and whole wheat toast is ample.  I have seen some young men take everybody's  share of a food because they like it,  and then not be able to eat it all.  That is just plain rude, especially at someone else's house.  Teach children to look at the serving bowl and the amount of other people that haven't been served yet, and take an appropriate portion.  If they are too young to do that, you probably need to be fixing their plate.  I have seen some families that the children were allowed to take a little but of everything.  When they wanted seconds, they could have a little bit of everything again.  It forced them to eat well balanced.  I am not sure that is the best idea because of they hated Brussels sprouts, they might leave the table hungry.  I don't want to see any child be hungry, but I don't think they need to get onto the habit of gorging on a particular food either.  The key to anything in life is balance.


 You can with some planning and some careful shopping feed your family good nutritious food on a budget.  I have averaged less than seventy- five dollars a week for three adults.  I have a pantry and freezer full of food.  I would not need to go to the store for anything but perishables for some time. Periodically, I do that.  There were several weeks last month that I spent about thirty dollars a week.
It's a good feeling to not have to run to the store for something-- especially when it is bad weather.

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Jane