Groceries for $100 for one month

[cicy33]

I want to spend no more than $100 on groceries during the month of August. This does not count if I get it for free. Actual spending of $100. I plan on using as much as possible from what I already have which is a fair amount since I coupon heavily. I would like some suggestions on dinners that are good for you and frugal at the same time.

We do not purchase junk food. Beans are out. HATE beans. Perhaps one meal of ham and beans for hubby but that is IT. YUK! Otherwise pretty open to ideas. Would also love low cal ideas too!

[katwoman]

The dinners are going to be tough. I mean, you can't live off pasta the whole month! Especially not good on your bodys' insulin.

Well, no one said you can't have breakfast for dinner. How about omelettes, crepes, skillets using cut up hot dogs, etc.

Along the lines of egg dishes - how about quiche? Paired up with a nice salad this would make great summer fare.

[cicy33]

The dinners are going to be tough. I mean, you can't live off pasta the whole month! Especially not good on your bodys' insulin.

Well, no one said you can't have breakfast for dinner. How about omelettes, crepes, skillets using cut up hot dogs, etc.

Along the lines of egg dishes - how about quiche? Paired up with a nice salad this would make great summer fare.

Not sure what quiche is much less how to make it? not a big pasta eater. I have hamburger and chicken, some frozen veggies already in the freezer. I am not out of food just want to not purchase any more than I have to and use up what I have. I have a little ham in the freezer. I am planning on buying a bag of white beans and making the ham and beans for my husband. I would love to only have to buy milk and bread but I know that is not logical. Just would love to see some recipes anyone's family has used that is economical. and easy wouldn't hurt!

[Kate Ann]

rice then?

I grew up beyond poor.... we ate lots of sauce over rice kind of meals. Sometimes we'd have a tomato sauce with ground beef and frozen veggies chucked in to the pot and then poured over rice. Or, I remember some kind of white sauce (started with a rue, flour and butter I guess) I suppose using milk? We'd add peas and corn (I imagine canned or frozen would work equally well), and pour that over rice.
I think goulash is pretty inexpensive as well. Thick kind of stewy thing...ground beef again, onions, stewed tomatoes, frozen veggies, and perhaps macaroni noodles thrown in.
Oh, and shepherd's pie is good too. ground beef (again), veggies, potatoes.
Basic meals and not too expensive if you can buy a bulk amount of ground beef at a place like Costco, and freeze meal sized amounts in separate bags to make using it easier. And I think okay as far as health concerns go. Not fast-food greasy kinds of stuff.
Let us know what you do? :-)

[cicy33]

I have made shepherds pie but apparently I am doing it wrong cuz no one likes it. Could I have your recipe? I layer seasoned hamburger, mashed potatoes and cheese.

[cicy33]

Well, I actually started tonight by going through the cupboards and freezer and am going to try to work mostly with what I have and buy minimally. I cooked up some pork chops and made some gravy which will go in the crockpot tomorrow. I boiled some chicken, not sure yet what to do with that. And just to let anyone know that is wondering, no I don't HAVE to do this. I want to. I am really bad at buying easy stuff to make and I need to use up what I have.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Lots of pasta, sauce, and ground beef. Also don't eat meat, grill cheese sandwich, etc.

[flowergirl2671]

since you boiled the chicken...how about chicken and dumplings, or chicken stew

[flowergirl2671]

I also had a recipe AT ONE TIME on chicken pot pie. It called for canned biscuits as the crust. It was actually very tasty.

[Kate Ann]

Cute!

Lots of pasta, sauce, and ground beef. Also don't eat meat, grill cheese sandwich, etc.

hehe, thought this was funny....

For shepherd's pie this is what I do:

I saute some chopped onions -- very lightly-- (I'd say one small to medium size onion depending on how much you like onions) and sometimes I add a few cloves of garlic ... since this gets baked in the oven, I don't like to cook the onions and garlic too much.

Add 2-3 lbs of ground beef to the skillet and lightly brown.

I chuck the beef into a big mixing bowl (you can add it straight to a casserole dish if you want, but I like to stir the ingredients together first)

I add a bag of frozen veggies (usually a pea, corn, baby onion mix--but whatever you like will work)

This is my cheating part here: I get one of those glass jars of brown gravy coz I haven't made real gravy since I was a kid. Just chuck the whole thing in. Yummy!

Then after it's all stirred well, I put it in a casserole dish....spoon the prepared mashed potatoes on top. Make those to your liking...smooth and buttery or chunky....I prefer smooth so if you invite me over for dinner, that's just a little something to keep in mind :-)

Then bake it for about 20 minutes (the last five or so mins put under the broiler to crisp the top) and ta da....yumminess. :-)

Home made chicken noodle soup is the bomb too. Just keep the noodles seperate so they don't get all squidgy. Green beans, chicken stock, boiled chicken and noodles. easy peasy.

if you want more ideas, lemme know.

[plumpossum]

My husband and I challenged ourselves to not buy any groceries this week, and we've been eating like kings since Friday with some inventive meals. I wrote about it on my blog here if you want to check it out. It's looking now like we won't need groceries next week either, except for some milk and maybe fresh fruit.

Here's some of my tips:

-Buy some chicken drumsticks (this is the cheapest cut in my area, and they are usually 50% off on managers special on wednesdays or thursdays because that is when the stock from the weekend starts cutting it close to the sell by date) and make roasted chicken one night, add on veggies, rice, etc.

-use the bones of the chicken to make stock, also any excess meat. use some of your frozen veggies and some pasta, leftover rice, or whatever you have to make soup (in the crockpot even!)

-you can make penne, ziti, orzo, shells- whatever kind of pasta, with a plain spaghetti sauce (no meat), have that for dinner one night. The next night toss in some frozen spinach, a bit of chicken stock (or water & boullion), and whatever your favorite veggies are. You can also add chicken if you have some (canned works fine). Voila! You have soup. I've made this with 1c pasta and 1 1/2c sauce, and by the time I added veggies and broth had a huge stockpot full of soup. Tastes good with stale bread.

-I see you're a midwesterner- hit the farm stands or garden enthusiast neighbors!

-Throw a less-than-desirable cut of pork or beef in your crockpot all day, season with a bit of your favorite barbecue sauce, and bake some corn muffins from the $0.25 mixes. Serve the pulled pork/beef over the muffins, or use buns if you can find them cheap enough.

-Smoked Sausage on the grill with corn on the cob...yum!

-Bell peppers are on sale in my area now (and popping up in the garden) so stuffed peppers (or cabbage if you like that more) is a super cheap meal. You can stretch the beef really far with rice. In my house we usually buy some extra peppers and make a TON of extra filling, and then the second day have rice with beef, tomato sauce, and peppers poured over it

-Egg Rolls. You can buy a package of egg roll wrappers in the produce department of the grocery store, there's about 30-40 for $2. Buy a pound of ground turkey (or pork, chicken, etc. but I like to use turkey and it is usually $2 here), a package of chinese seasoning ($0.50), and a bag of coleslaw mix ($1.50)- mix all of the inside stuff together, stuff the egg rolls (there's instructions on the pack) and make a huge batch of them. You can freeze them and have them for probably the rest of the month- you'll be sick of egg rolls FAST.

[cicy33]

Love the responses, keep em coming! I did plop some pork chops I had in the freezer, made some gravy, (I am not the best at it but it turned out okay!) and we are having that for dinner. I am sooo going to try your shepherds pie, Kate Ann. I just feel that it is important to use up what I already have.

[minnie1928]

I'm hoping to drop my mom's grocery bills substantially too. We are going to try Angel Food Ministries. You get a box of food (first quality stuff), contents vary from month to month for $25. The value of the food is supposedly $55-$70. This will be our first month, so I can't vouch for the quality but supposedly it's popular name brand foods. If you are interested, go to their website to see if there are any participating organizations near you. They provide this as a fund raising opportunity for the organization, it is not need based...anyone can buy the food.

[LuckyRobin]

One thing I like to make is chicken quesadillas. It's just cooked chicken and a handful of cheese between two tortillas, then cut into triangles with a pizza cutter or knife. It is so easy to make. I usually make it in the microwave or in a skillet on the stove if I want to brown the tortillas a bit. It is surprisingly filling.

[newlyfrugal]

One of my favorite frugal meals is sort of like shepherd's pie or tater tot casserole. I call it Comfort Casserole

1 lb gr beef
1 sm onion, chopped
1 can cr of chicken soup
1 can cr of celery soup
frozen green beans
30 oz frozen shredded hash browns

Brown beef with onion and whatever spices you want (I use garlic powder, salt & pepper). Stir in soups. Spoon into 9x13 glass pan. Layer with frozen green beans, then hash browns. Bake for 40 minutes at 350°F then turn to broil for 5 minutes to brown the potatoes.

It is a big hit with my family and very easy to make.

Also, check out www<dot>savingdinner<dot>com. They have some great freezer cooking menus and instructions that you pay for once and can use again and again. We love it since you can make a whole months worth of meals and put them in the freezer.

Sara