Frugal Menus: An Alison Example

There seems to be a significant issue in menu-planning, so to expand on this I'd like to share with you all an example of a one week menu (scroll down). Now, I'm only including three main meals--of course, there are little additions, such as snacks (homemade goodies, fruits, etc.). Please feel free to ask questions, and since this is a work in progress for me, I welcome all constructive criticism!




Sunday

1. Cereal, fruit, and coffee
2. Cheese/onion/lettuce sandwich, chips, and juice
3. Pasta w/tomato sauce, spinach, and milk

Monday

1. Muffin, scrambled tofu, and coffee
2. Pasta salad, yogurt, and juice
3. Hot dogs w/saurkraut on whole wheat bread, baked beans, and milk

Tuesday

1. Muffin, yogurt, and coffee
2. Chips and baby carrots w/hummus, milk and cookies
3. Rice, Chinese veggies, chickenless nuggets, and seltzer

Wednesday

1. Cereal, pineapple, and coffee
2. Hummus sandwiches w/lettuce, onion and tomato and iced tea
3. Ziti and cannolini bean sauce, mixed vegetables, and milk

Thursday

1. Muffin, scrambled tofu, and coffee
2. Cheese/onion/lettuce/tomato toasted sandwich and juice
3. Nachos w/beans, cheese, salsa, guacamole, sour cream and milk

Friday

1. Cereal, fruit, and coffee
2. Tofu salad sandwich and iced tea
3. Spaghetti w/tomato sauce, crumbles, and milk

Saturday

1. Muffin, yogurt, and coffee
2. Hummus sandwich w/lettuce, onion and tomato and juice
3. Burgers, mashed potatoes w/gravy, broccoli, and milk

Happy Frugal-ing!
Alison

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Frugal Food Help: Menus, Katharine-Style!

My menu planning for the week is significantly different than Alison's, and for good reason.

• Alison lives at home with her parents, who have last say.  I live with my roommate, L, and we make our menu together.
• Alison's family is vegetarian, so their options are a bit more limited.  Now, I don't eat fish or shellfish of any kind, so I'm not exactly free as a bird over here, but we are mostly limited by my likes and dislikes... with notable the exception of L's dislike of snow peas... I mean of all things to not like..

Here is how L and I plan our menu for the week.

1. First, we use what we already have. We look in the fridge for things that have to be used in the next week.  We think of meals that incorporate those items.  We try to make a whole week's menu on what we already have in our fridge/freezer.
2. If we can't do that, we try to think of meals that won't require us to buy much.  An example would be...  If we have ground beef that has to be used, are we going to make tacos or hamburgers?  Well, do we have rolls or tortillas in the freezer?  Would we have to buy things for an appropriate side dish?
3. The next thing we do is throw in a meal that is 'vegetarian'.  And by this I don't actually mean, not containing any meat, but more, a meal where the focus of the dish is not meat.  Pasta with sauce is a good example.  Whether the sauce contains meat or not, its significantly cheaper than having steak for dinner.
4. If we have to shop, we make a list.  Now, we don't necessarily stick exactly to the list, but we are close.  Sometimes we pick up fruit juice in addition to the list, or another treat, but we limit is as much as possible.
5. When we go shopping, we go full.  We try to go right after lunch, before normal people are out of work.  Being a student has distinct advantages sometimes.  When we go to the farmer's market, we go right after breakfast.  We walk there, I'd say its about three miles, do our shopping, and treat ourselves to a slice of pizza for $1.25.  Then we take the T (that would be the subway system in Boston) back to our apartment.
6. We make sure to eat things that might spoil first.  Usually, this means things that have been hanging around in our fridge a while.  Heavy cream for making pasta sauces or vegetables that are getting questionable.

We keep our menu plan on our fridge, so that we know what we are supposed to be making for dinners.  We  sometimes switch meals around, but try to do it only for what won't spoil, and usually based on time constraints.

How do you plan your weekly meals?

Katharine

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Frugal Food Help: Menus!

So, from time to time I've chimed in with little ideas or recipes meant to make the worry of providing for yourself and/or your family less stressful on you and your wallet. Lately, a project I've been working on for myself has been menu planning, which I share with my mom, who cooks for herself, my dad, and sister.
Probably my number one reason for having menu plans does not apply to many of you (unless you're a young twenty-something/college student on your own)--if I don't have a plan, I could frugal myself to death. A terrifying thought, but basically what I've been known to do is eat very small portions of food to stretch my budget. Thus, menus!

I'm going to recommend planning your menus on a weekly basis. Having two such menus is optimal. I, personally, do this in order to mix and match daily menus according to what I've bought and what my schedule is like. Lunch also generally derives from dinner of the previous night. Yay for time saving! Let me give an example:
Yesterday for breakfast I had a corn muffin, yogurt, and pineapple. My pineapple was the IGA deal (16oz pineapple for $0.50), the corn muffin was homemade, and I used a coupon on the yogurt ($2.79-0.50=$2.29/2lb Columbo yogurt). Lunch was ziti w/cheese sauce (cheese sauce from the night before, ziti from the day before) and salad. Then, dinner was with my family and my mom served homemade pizza with mushrooms and onions!

As you can see, I try to have protein, starch, and fruit/veg at every meal. It just helps me feel full longer and I think its generally healthier. If anyone would be interested I'd be happy to post full weekly menus and more recipes. I think you'd be surprised with some of the info--I love retro things, so I have recipes and menus from the 1920s-1960s. Lots of fun and new (sort of!) ideas puts a different spin on cooking. Also, I'm currently looking for a lentil soup recipe with a tomato base, so if I find a good one, I'll share it here (free Muir Glen tomato products + lentil--good source of cheap veg. protein = great meal!).

Happy weekend!
Ali

P.S. - Check back on Monday for coupon deals and steals of the weekend!
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