Some Frugal Meals

$350 a month for all Household and Groceries  (H&G) is quite a challenge, but as readers know, I like my challenges. If I roughly assign $30 of that to the household cleaning supplies and personal as we do not need much this month, that leaves $320 for 31 days of foods, breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. Of course, I came into the month with pretty full cupboards and freezer. I've several go to meals I like to make because not only are they family favorites, they yield enough for leftovers for lunches or another dinner. I pack a lunch but both DH and DD2 eat at home, though DD2 burns through too much getting lunches out with her friends, a habit she will need to break as the realities of her financial needs kick in by fall.

Doing the math, that is mere $2.58 for each breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner, $10.32 per day. Hardly possible if starting from scratch, but by combining what I already have on hand, with lowest prices on additional groceries, I can stretch the menus. Breakfasts and snacks would be lower, and some of the difference would go towards coffee, fruit, milk, and juice, as well as to top off lunch or supper. Granted, cooler weather is easier because I can make lots of soups for super low, but there are summer options as well. Here's a partial list for this month:

• Universal muffins-can be made with frozen fruit and all other ingredients in the pantry, a bit of milk and egg and a  batch of 12 muffins is under $1.00. We'd get two breakfasts from a batch. 
• Pancakes-again, mere pennies per serving as I buy the complete mix from Aldi for under $1.50 and get no less than four big batches. With syrup, easily only $ .75 a breakfast.
• Snacks would be fruit, crackers with a bit of low cost cheese or peanut butter, veggies and hummus, popcorn, chips and salsa, all of which when bought at Aldi, Rice Krispy Treats, easily all come in less than $ .50 a snack.
• Goulash-I'll have Sloppy Joe's, from the freezer, and potato wedges (< $1.00), which will yield leftovers for lunches, plus use part of the Sloppy Joe mix, with canned tomatoes (2 cans at $.69 each, plus a 12 oz box of pasta $.90) with a bag of steamed veg ($1.00) for Goulash, with leftovers, and now I have essentially fed the three of us four meals, for new out of pocket costs of only $3.30. 
• Vegetarian Chili-Mine is basically 1 large can of crushed tomatoes, two cans diced, three cans of beans (1 black, 2 chili) with 1 cup of broth that chopped vegetables-1/2 and onion, a large carrot, and large celery stock, has been cooked, along with heavy doses of chili powder. Served with sour cream, cheddar cheese, and crackers, the entire cost, which will yield a second meal for lunch, comes in under $8. So while higher than the $5.16 for two meal average, it is highly economical, filling, and tasty. 
• Tuna Salad-As sandwiches, two cans, chopped celery, plus bread comes in at about $3.20 for four hefty sandwiches-DH would eat two, or as pasta salad, adding a handful or two of frozen peas, at $3.00. 
• Burritos-Depending on what goes inside, can be low cost. With a bit of shredded chicken, rice, cheese and refried beans, when the chicken in bought in the big multi packs and shredded, I can make four massive chicken burritos for $4.06, or substitute black beans in place of chicken, and bring that cost down by another 30 cents. 
• Staying on the burrito themes, scrambled eggs, cheese, and a bit of thin sliced ham makes a delicious breakfast burrito (which I love for lunch) for about a $1 each. 
• The veggie curry the girls and I like makes two meals for under $4.00, including rice. Even if we spurge and get some naan, We get two full meals for under $8. 
• Homemade Pizza is a no brainer for a frugal meal. Literally the cost is the cheese, but the toppings can be any bits of leftovers you have and the crust is about a quarter's worth of ingredients lie flour, salt, a little oil, and some baking powder to make it light. 

This is just a few examples of the meals I often make, even when I'm not specifically challenging myself to keep my budget super low in a month. Things to consider though, which makes it challenging for low income families often to be able to eat as inexpensively as more affluent families, is the pantry and freezer reserves, assorted spices, and baking basics I always have. While I generally am replacing something from my basic stores each shop, I am not starting from scratch on every item to meal plan. I also have the luxury of shopping  at stores that either always have low process like Aldi, or can shop the regular stores for loss leaders, conveniently, since I have several stores on route hoe form work and require no special trips. On my challenge side, I have DH who likes to rogue shop god deals, that are tough to actually make meals with.He started our month with a $65 shop, leaving me with only $63.75 per week. I spent $39.56 of that on Wednesday, so I'm trying to be very practical with my shopping. 

I commend families that are living on extremely tight budgets that have to basically $0 balance start a shop each pay period. I've never known beyond our very first shop as a college student in my first apartment or when DH and I moved into our first house what starting with virtually no food would mean to meal planning.