Those with 5+ in your family and low grocery bills... what do you buy?

[PurpleSnowflake]

What does a typical month look like for you? What kind of meals do you eat?


Just curious.

[Buc-O-Mama]

We are a family of five - including three teenagers. I shop meat sales and markdowns and stretch those as much as I can. Here's an average weekly menu for my family:

Sunday - Chicken, potatoes,corn and broccoli
Monday -Spagetti (meatless with salad)
Tuesday - Shepherd's Pie and corn
Wednesday - Dinner at Church
Thursday - Tacos with beans and rice
Friday - Homemade Pizza
Saturday - Buffalo grilled chicken.potato wedges and peas

I use an excel spreadsheet to plan the weeks' meals along with scheduled activities. It really helps for me to do it that way so I can be realistic as far as the time available on those nights to cook. With kids going different directions and me working 3 evenings a week, it has really helped us a lot.

[Toonces2]

We have 6 people in the family and 2 dogs I average $500/mo for everything including HBA and pet food.

This weeks menu is:
Breakfast: pancakes or muffins(I made from scratch at the beginning of the week and freeze), banana, eggs and toast on the weekends.

Lunch:turkey and cheese sandwich or PB&J, apple, veggie sticks(carrots or celery) and goldfish crackers, juice boxes. DH and I eat the same except no juice box and crackers

Dinner:
chicken drumsticks, brown rice, mixed veggies
spagetti w/meat sauce garlic bread
fish fillets, french fries, corn
BBQ pork roast, brown rice, peas and carrots
keilbasa, mac and cheese, carrots
stuffed cabbage, mashed potatoes, peas
spanish rice, beef, corn

snacks: air popped popcorn, goldfish crackers, homemade oatmeal raisin cookies, pretzels, oranges, apples, bananas, veggie sticks

Beverages: milk, water, and kool aid for the kids, coffee, tea, diet soda for dh and I.

I find that making a menu, shopping the sales flier, and making a list and sticking to it helps keep my groceries down. I use coupons sometimes but I find the store brand on most things is usually cheaper. Also making food from scratch and buying in bulk helps a lot too.

Hope that helps! I'm interested to see what others do too!

[FrugalMomof3]

We WERE a family of 5 and we just made simple meals or shall I say meals that there were always leftovers.

~ Baked chicken legs (family pack) with white rice and pink beans
~ Spaghetti w/marinara sauce w/homemade garlic bread
~ Mac n' cheese
~ Baked chicken w/mashed potatoes and corn or broccoli
~ Soup and sandwiches
~ Egg noodles w/butter and salt & pepper with chicken patties
~ Chicken patties w/marinara sauce, shredded cheese and a veggie on the side.

[yankeegal]

We used to be a family of five, now four...but I still count my teenage son as 2 people because he never stops eating!
We do a lot of the same mentioned previously...
Try to substitute in some meatless meals-healthier as well!
Breakfast is cheap to make-have that for supper sometimes.
Cook and bake from scratch
Limit juice and soda
Plan, plan, plan, your menus-this has saved me the most cash!

[YankeeMom]

We are a family of six. Our most recent menu looks like this:

fish, rice & veggies x2 (cod once, haddock the other time)

Cheese ravioli, marinara sauce, & breadsticks

Bulgogi (Korean dish w/ marinated beef & tons of veggies) and rice

Pot roast, mashed potatoes, veggies

Crockpot Kielbasa & potatoes, veggies

Spaghetti & meatballs, salad

Chicken Divan (chicken, cheese, broccoli, cream of soup), rice

Taco "stuff" (hot taco 'dip' type casserole), refried beans

Ribeye steak, rice a roni, veggies

BBQ Shepherd's Pie (ground beef, bbq sauce, mexicorn, chilies, mashed potatoes, & corn chips)

Crockpot Cowboy Stew (stew beef, carrots, potatoes, & bbq baked beans), cornbread

Ranch Turkey Pasta (penne, leftover turkey, mixed veggies, butter, & dry ranch mix)

Pizza Chicken Packets (chicken, zucchini, turkey pepperoni, grape tomatoes, onion, mozzarella & spices) & rice

Creamy Italian Chicken, egg noodles, veggies

Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup w/ macaroni

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, veggies

Scrambled eggs w/ zucchini, toast

Leftover Night 2-3x

[yankeegal]

I want to eat at Yankeemom's house!! Sounds yummy!

[Bethany]

We're only a family of four, but I have a few "rules of thumb" that help with groceries:
1) No kids allowed on shopping trips
2) I don't even go down the soda or snack/chips aisle
3) I never ever pay more than 1.99 for a box of cereal (we go through a ton of cereal.) When it's less than 1.50 per box, I buy ten boxes at a time.
4) I don't do coupons, I find store brands much cheaper.
5) Figure on using the crockpot atleast once a week (we only eat dinner together 2-3 times a week because of my work.)

[my4littlebuffaloes]

Here was our menu for last week. We are a family of 6.

-Ham, stuffing balls, salad
-tortillini with spaghetti sauce, salad
-ham, brown rice, glazed carrots, tomatoes
-BBQ chicken in the crock pot with potatoes and carrots
-sausage/apple/sweet potato bake, homemade garlic/herb bread
-baked potatoes and homemade focaccia bread, tomatoes
- turkey/cheese quesadillas and tomatoes

[MOMMYDEAREST]

I have 7 kids plus dh & I. I cook dinner every night. Here are a few meals that I make alot.........

mac & cheese w/ smoked suasage, and applesauce (i buy it in bulk)

egg, potato & sausage casserole (costs about $4.00 for the whole meal)

tacos (lettuce, tomatoes, onions are homegrown)

bbq beef sandwiches with fresh fruit

chili cheese dogs

chef salads with homemade bread

[PurpleSnowflake]

9 posts and 335 views


I guess there are a BUNCH of curious people!

[YankeeMom]

9 posts and 335 views


I guess there are a BUNCH of curious people!

Keep in mind, those 335 views aren't necessarily 335 unique users viewing the post

Every time you check it, it logs another view. Every time each one of us checks the thread, it logs another view. I know I've opened this thread at least 3-4 times today

[justpeachy92]

My family of 6 eats alot of the same type of meals already listed. If I can score a good deal on a ham or turkey, other than during holidays, I will cook a big dinner on sunday so we have the left over meat for lunches and a couple of dinners.

[lisabeans]

We're a family of 5, including three teenage boys, so we go through a lot of groceries. Some days I feel like I should just build a conveyor belt from the grocery store to our house! Some of the ways we save on groceries:

*We buy a side of beef every year with part of our tax refund. It works out to be about $2.00-2.50 per pound for steaks, roasts, stew meat and hamburger.

*We have a small vegtable garden in our backyard that provides quite a bit of produce in the summer.

*I work full time during the week, so I cook lots of extra food on the weekend (doubling up what I cook for meals) and portion out meals in individual containers. These can be used during the week for me to take for lunches at work, or for the kids to have a quick meal before evening activities. This really cuts down on the temptation to grab a meal at a restaurant ($).

*We plan our meals for the week, and shop around what is on sale.

*We use our bread machine to make homemade bread. I can't believe how expensive bread has gotten!

[momofslg]

We are a family of 5. What we did was we came up with about 30 different meal ideas and wrote them down, along with side items. When I look through the grocery ads I find what is on sale and plan our weekly menu.
When I find a good deal at the grocery I always try and buy extra. I don't drink soda but hubby does, we drink tons of milk so lots of our budget goes there.

Some of our meals are

Lasagna
meatloaf
chicken noodle soup
ham and bean soup
chicken pot pies
bbq chichen
hamburgers
nachos
enchillidas
breakfast for dinner
tacos
pot roast
meatball subs
quiche
burritos
spaghetti with or without meatballs
and many more.....

I spend around $400 or less per month