The other night, we thawed out a whole chicken from the freezer (the whole bird cost under $4). My husband injected it with a bottle of Lawry's Lemon-Pepper Marinade (I don't remember exact price but I know it wasn't over $1). With that meal we had a box of Suddenly Salad ($0.49) and a pack of frozen corn ($0.88). That's an entire meal to feed a family of 4 for just $6.37.
But, we didn't even finish all of that chicken. There was a lot of meat left over. I pulled the rest of the meat from the bones, and I boiled the bones down to make a stock. I froze two butter dishes full of that, to be used in later recipes/soups.
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| Chicken Bones About To Be Boiled |
Then I had the chicken meat...I really didn't know what to do with it, and I really was not feeling like eating anything that I already had recipes for, so I began digging around in my pantry (
yes, I did organize it!--will share that soon.) and my fridge and I grabbed a box of Skinner Quick Cook Pasta (FREE), a bag of frozen mixed vegetables ($0.88), and a Philadelphia Cooking cream ($1.49 after coupons?), and also about half a cup of that chicken stock.
I boiled the noodles, microwaved the veggies, and heated up the chicken in the broth and cooking cream. Then I mixed it all together in the pasta pot.
It came out to be a pretty tasty lunch, and there is plenty left over for dinner as well.
For an extra $2.37, I was able to stretch the leftovers from the first meal into 2 more (plus savings on future meals when I use the homemade stock--which tastes much better than store bought!).
For a grand total of $8.74 my family ate/will eat three separate meals. That is an average of $2.91/meal, or just $0.73 per person.
I *really* need to keep this in mind! We've had FAR too much fast food this month...and yes I realize the month just started. We even went out to Cici's the other night after a long, long day when my husband was working. Of course, I used a BOGO coupon and we ordered water, but that still cost nearly $7 just for three of us for one meal!
I did all these calculations mostly for my own benefit, but I wanted to share them just to put things in perspective. My husband is always floored when I add up how much full meals for the whole family actually cost us because he often just spent more than that on just him at the Taco Bell drive thru!
I'm not saying that grabbing food out is a bad thing. Sometimes we all need a break, and sometimes it is completely necessary. In fact, we will have to grab lunch out again tomorrow after church because we will be heading to visit some family instead of going home.
I just know for us, it can be a money draining habit when things get hectic, so I have to try extra hard to keep that from happening. I am working very hard to get back into the habit of menu planning and being organized before school begins and my daughter starts Kindergarten. My husband will be back to teaching as well, on top of his second part time job he just started, so I will need to be better prepared!
I would love to know your tips for staying on top of things when time is short!
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