I forgot to include a daily budget for snacks in the original budget yesterday. So here is the updated budget with a budget for snacks and desserts in place daily:
The budget for a breakfast is: 1.01
The budget for a lunch is: 2.61
The budget for a dinner is: 4.32
The budget for snacks is 0.39
The total daily budget is $8.33 a day for three meals a day and snacks, all eaten at home. Subtract from this if you regularly eat away from home.
Original Budget
The budget for two for 18 days is $299.88 for 18 days of cooking for two, eating all meals at home. I aim to keep 18 day menu plans under a budget of $300.00.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Welcome and First Blog Entry of Thrifty Cooking and Meal Planning at Blogger
Welcome to the Blogger blog: Thrifty Cooking and Meal Planning. Julie Nield of central Ohio, USA, blogs about her menu planning ideas and sets up meal plans following the thrifty level of food costs. My target for one person a day is 8.32 a day and for two adults for three 6 day weeks or 18 days of menu planning is 300.00 for 18 days for 2.
The budget for a breakfast is: 1.04
The budget for a lunch is: 2.91
The budget for a dinner is: 4.37 per person per individual meal.
I will be setting up several meal plans for 18 days in a row, usually with 17 days of menus planned, allowing one day for eating all leftovers and pantry meals.
One menu plan will be chained and include daily shopping for six new items a day, feeding just two for three meals a day. The start of the chained food plan is a three day menu and shopping trip, and each day following you buy about six new food items which includes your food for the day, stocking your freezer and pantry progressively as you go along.
My initial menu plan goal is to set up 15 18 day menu plans, and a sixteenth menu plan is the chained menu plan which highlights daily shopping trips and daily menu planning.
If one member of the household of 2 eats away from home for breakfast and lunch for 5 days a week, the weekly amount for the menu plan is just 96.73, assuming you actually ate all you bought that week. If both adult members of the household eat from home for 21 meals a week each the weekly amount for the menu plan is 116.48.
I will be blogging a new recipe every 3 days on average.
All my menu plans will include meat, with a vegetarian menu plan after I have blogged 5 meal plans for meat eaters. To me, eating meat is the most nutritious way to add protein and subtract carbohydrates from your diet.
My shopping is done locally at Meijer and Aldi, which are located right next to each other. Recipes will be costed out using Meijer's regular posted prices or the price I purchased the groceries for. By shopping at both supermarkets and buying at Meijer if it is not available at Aldi or was on sale for cheaper than Aldi at Meijer that week only, and otherwise for regular items at Aldi, the price per item on a grocery list is about $2.80. So my daily food budget for 2 is 8.32*2 or 16.64 and allows for the purchase of 6 grocery items a day, for all meals that day in total.
Breakfasts are commonly breakfast cereal and milk, or oatmeal or occasionally on weekends, pancakes, waffles or egg and sausage and toast.
Lunches are based on sandwiches and feature bread and leftovers from dinners. A side of a prepared stew/soup or a crudite of raw cut up vegetables is on the side with a small sweet afterwards.
Dinners are varied, from steak and mashed potatoes, to pasta/rice based dishes to prepared box instant dinners. The highlight of the menu planning for the day is usually the planned dinner of the day. If your main meal of the day is a lunch, feel free to switch the dinner and lunch menus around.
Plenty of menu planners eat for cheaper than I am planning to eat, however they grow their own produce and bulk buy and often plan from their freezer and larder and only buy produce for the week. It is difficult to copy such bloggers menu plans. However you can easily see how cheaply they live.
I will be blogging weekly on which grocery items I actually bought that week, with a description of the menus that can be made from those menu plans. This will take up one blog entry a week. Three blog entries a week will be on recipes, and three more about the progress on a certain menu plan being developed. I plan on making an average of 7 blog entries a week on average.
An extra blog entry every two weeks will record helpful links to other web sites I visited that week which you might want to visit.
This blog is based on Thrifty Lesley, a blog from England who blogs on how to eat per person for one pound a day or $2.25 a day with an average meal around 51p. I enjoyed reading her meal plans and was inspired to pen some menu plans of my own, that I have decided to publish in blog format daily.
Tomorrow I will blog my first recipe, and then blog recipes every 3 days on average. Tomorrow I will start preparing menu plan number one, for meat eaters and blog about progress on that meal plan daily, until the whole meal plan is published in one blog entry at the end, with links to all recipes in the blog.
Watch me learn how to menu plan like a real chef!
The budget for a breakfast is: 1.04
The budget for a lunch is: 2.91
The budget for a dinner is: 4.37 per person per individual meal.
I will be setting up several meal plans for 18 days in a row, usually with 17 days of menus planned, allowing one day for eating all leftovers and pantry meals.
One menu plan will be chained and include daily shopping for six new items a day, feeding just two for three meals a day. The start of the chained food plan is a three day menu and shopping trip, and each day following you buy about six new food items which includes your food for the day, stocking your freezer and pantry progressively as you go along.
My initial menu plan goal is to set up 15 18 day menu plans, and a sixteenth menu plan is the chained menu plan which highlights daily shopping trips and daily menu planning.
If one member of the household of 2 eats away from home for breakfast and lunch for 5 days a week, the weekly amount for the menu plan is just 96.73, assuming you actually ate all you bought that week. If both adult members of the household eat from home for 21 meals a week each the weekly amount for the menu plan is 116.48.
I will be blogging a new recipe every 3 days on average.
All my menu plans will include meat, with a vegetarian menu plan after I have blogged 5 meal plans for meat eaters. To me, eating meat is the most nutritious way to add protein and subtract carbohydrates from your diet.
My shopping is done locally at Meijer and Aldi, which are located right next to each other. Recipes will be costed out using Meijer's regular posted prices or the price I purchased the groceries for. By shopping at both supermarkets and buying at Meijer if it is not available at Aldi or was on sale for cheaper than Aldi at Meijer that week only, and otherwise for regular items at Aldi, the price per item on a grocery list is about $2.80. So my daily food budget for 2 is 8.32*2 or 16.64 and allows for the purchase of 6 grocery items a day, for all meals that day in total.
Breakfasts are commonly breakfast cereal and milk, or oatmeal or occasionally on weekends, pancakes, waffles or egg and sausage and toast.
Lunches are based on sandwiches and feature bread and leftovers from dinners. A side of a prepared stew/soup or a crudite of raw cut up vegetables is on the side with a small sweet afterwards.
Dinners are varied, from steak and mashed potatoes, to pasta/rice based dishes to prepared box instant dinners. The highlight of the menu planning for the day is usually the planned dinner of the day. If your main meal of the day is a lunch, feel free to switch the dinner and lunch menus around.
Plenty of menu planners eat for cheaper than I am planning to eat, however they grow their own produce and bulk buy and often plan from their freezer and larder and only buy produce for the week. It is difficult to copy such bloggers menu plans. However you can easily see how cheaply they live.
I will be blogging weekly on which grocery items I actually bought that week, with a description of the menus that can be made from those menu plans. This will take up one blog entry a week. Three blog entries a week will be on recipes, and three more about the progress on a certain menu plan being developed. I plan on making an average of 7 blog entries a week on average.
An extra blog entry every two weeks will record helpful links to other web sites I visited that week which you might want to visit.
This blog is based on Thrifty Lesley, a blog from England who blogs on how to eat per person for one pound a day or $2.25 a day with an average meal around 51p. I enjoyed reading her meal plans and was inspired to pen some menu plans of my own, that I have decided to publish in blog format daily.
Tomorrow I will blog my first recipe, and then blog recipes every 3 days on average. Tomorrow I will start preparing menu plan number one, for meat eaters and blog about progress on that meal plan daily, until the whole meal plan is published in one blog entry at the end, with links to all recipes in the blog.
Watch me learn how to menu plan like a real chef!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)