You have an empty fridge and pantry. How do you proceed.
Start my taking your total monthly amount you have for food and divide it by 4.2 ( the number of weeks in a month) .
Now, you are going to divide that figure up by food groups. Protein is going to take more, followed by dairy and vegetables, staples.
Week 1
Staying in budget, find two loss leader proteins. Buy enough for eight meals each. - two per week. Obviously you aren't going to buy the most expensive meats in the store, and portion control for use in a stirfry or a casserole, tacos, or something you can stretch meat with.
Fill in with dairy and veggies, maybe a pasta package.
Plan really inexpensive meals to fill out. A vegetable bean soup. Mac and cheese, eggs. Use two meals of each protein, and fill in.
Week 2
Next week, add a loss leader and buy the dairy and vegetables you need to complete meals add a
stock staple in modera
Week 3 concentrate on the perishables you you need to fill out our meals and stick what you can stock on.
While you are building a stock, pick vegetables that are plentiful and cheap. Add frozen peas and
carrots , or just peas. Buy just what you need in dairy, provided you are not paying a premium for a small container.
This is the hardest stretch month you will have. You are building a protein rotation. Decide your protein rotation ahead of time and watch for really good loss leaders. They won't happen all in the same week. Occasionally, I find two in a week.
Sausage, cheese, and tilapia are pretty stable prices at Costco and Winco. Costco is the cheapest for the best quality in sausage in a three pound tube. You should be able to get six meals for a proverbial family of four out of a tube. Cook crumbles and use in pizza, in eggs , in soup.......
Cheese is a staple around our house. We go through five pounds of white and 5 pounds of yellow in a month to six weeks. Cheapest at Costco...about twenty dollars for both. Cheese can make a cheap dinner.
Good hamburger 7 percent, is hard to find on a loss leader. It happens, but they don't always advertise it. You have to have an eagle eye.
Whole chickens are pretty easy to find ( Foster farms ) for a buck or less. So,etimes there are chicken thighs at Winco for .68.
Pick three loss leaders, enough for 8 meals each. Portion control. You are based on six ounces of protein a day. Use cuts while you set yourself up that can be put in pizza, soups, casseroles, tacos with some beans...etc. in other words s t r e t c h.
Rotate 2 a week of 3 proteins and add a vegetarian. Make sure you get a lot of cheese in case you
misjudge the protein. You can always fill in with Mac and cheese and pizza or soup and toasted cheese sandwiches.
Examples :
First week. Buy two chickens. Cook. Divide into 2 half breasts, the dark meat, amd soup bones and stock. Buy 5 pounds of cheese. About 20.00 worth of meats/ protein. Bisquick, eggs, carrots, celery, potatoes 2 cans of tomatoes and 2 cans of beans. Dairy
- Chicken soup, cheesy biscuits
- Roast chicken dinner with root vegetables
- Pizza
- Mac and cheese
- Vegetable bean soup
- Eggs, pancakes, fruit
- Potato soup.
Second week. Loss leader pork loin. @ 1.69. Buy about five or six pounds. Or pork sirloin for about the same price. Cut 1/2 inch slices off for a pork chop Dinner. Roast a small 2 pound section, and then cut the rest into cubes. Portion for 8 dinners. You can make tacos, roast pork. Thinly slice the left over roast for BBQ pork sandwiches. Pork pie, or stew.
You still have chicken and cheese. So. Prolly 2 pork meals, 2 chicken meals, 2 vegetarian with
cheese and a breakfast for dinner.
Third week: let's say you got 7 percent hamburger. Buy six pounds. two pound meat loaf, 2 pounds of golf ball or smaller sized Meat balls, and the rest of cumbles or taco meat. Portion onto 8 meals.
Now, you will have 2 beef, 2 chicken, 2 pork, amd a vegetarian or a fish.
Fourth week, add another opposit. Color of grated cheese/ and or a bag of fish. This s a wk to try and replenish dairy and stock for the next month.
Of course, you need to adjust your sources of protein to suit the needs and tastes of your family. There are a lot of recipes out there for very good meals that use smaller amounts of protein. We have a fee meals with a "Slab" of meat. For the ,oat part, using smaller pieces and adding them to other ingredients uses less meat. Sloppy joes use less than a hamburger would. You can add beans to taco meat. Or use refried beans on the bottom of the taco shell and add meat amd cheese. Remember. Cheese is a protein too, So you can use less meat and still get six ounces of protein a day.
Chicken thighs at .68 a pound can be cooked and shredded for pulled chicken sandwiches or tacos.
Or cook, add BBQ sauce homemade at the last minute and serve with home style fries or French fries (3.00 and change at Winco for five pounds.
Our matrix for meals is 2 beef, 2 pork or chicken, 2 vegetarian, and a fish or shellfish. By rotating a loss leader a week, and identifying what kinds of protein you are going to buy, you can eat well. On a 75.00 a week budget, I would plan twenty dollars for a protein.
That buys:
4 chickens
10 pounds of pork sirloin.
6 pounds of ground beef (7 percent) .
6 pounds of pork sausage at Costco (Jimmy Dean )
10 pounds of cheese ( Costco)
That is less than four dollars a day. The best way to assure that you have good food all. Moth is to buy loss leader protein. Buy vegetables and fruit in season, the dairy you need, and stock items you find at RBP. By making meal plans and portion control, you can have food on the pantry at the end of the month. With some families, if you put a whole chicken on front of them, they will eat a whole chicken. Dietary guidelines say six ounces of protein a day. No one needs a whole chicken.
After you get to the point where you are stocked, it's easy just to go to the store and buy your staples to fill in and a loss leader. Some weeks, you won't have to go at all. Your pantry will
have the ingredients for a. A fiery of ,eat you amd you can meal plan from the from the freezer and pantry.
