How We Feed 5 People for $300

So I’ve gotten a few questions on how we feed a family of 5 for $300 a month based on my last post.  I have to emphasize that this is also in addition to WIC which we receive for Jordan and Elijah and we have 3 kids ages, 5, 3, and 1. We typically get milk, eggs, cheese, cereal, juice, bread, and peanut butter with WIC so that we only end up buying 2-3 gallons of milk and 2-3 gallons of juice each month.  I wanted to offer some of our other tips for those interested:

Note: Eating as cheap as we do is not the healthiest option out there and may not be a good idea for everybody.

1. Buy on Sale and buy a lot: We only buy meat when it’s on sale and then buy a lot of it.  Typically Hamburger meat for $2.50/lb or less, Hot Dogs (making an appearance most every day) for $1/package or less, Chicken for $0.99/lb, and anything else for $2.00/lb or less (includes pork or steaks).  We do the same thing with cereal $2.00/box less and Hamburger/Tuna Helper $1.00/box or less. This is also a great way to buy miscellaneous items that can be really expensive but you’d hate to run out of like BBQ or Teriyaki sauce (important items in our house especially for chicken).

2. Buy in Bulk: This works great for us with $5 people.  If you’re looking at this one for a smaller family you may want to adjust my suggestion a bit.  We buy our “fruits” and “veggies” in bulk at Costco.  Costco has HUGE cans of things like Corn or Peaches/Pears for around $5 a can.  We separate these into smaller containers and they last about a week (or more) eating them for 1-2 meals a day (depending on what else we are having).  You can also buy bulk of smaller cans too.  For example: You can pay $8 for 12 cans of corn – but this option is slightly more expensive.  We also buy bulk of chicken nuggets, fish sticks, top ramen, Oatmeal, and Mac N Cheese.  We also buy our Ketchup in bulk since we got through an insane amount of ketchup.

3. Take advantage of the $0.99 store: At least around our area the $0.99 only store has some good produce and other items we use frequently.  I can find (most weeks) things like: Baby carrots, tortillas, blueberries, apples, peppers, bananas, onions, celery, lettuce, bread (sliced bread, bagels, English muffins, hotdog buns), cans of raviolis or spagettios, soup, cans of beans, Top Ramen, and Hamburger/Tuna Helper.  This is also good for sometimes buys like spices and seasonings.

4. Ralphs and Manager Specials: All Ralphs have “manager specials” this is almost expired items they have to get rid of for super cheap.  For example a bag of baby spinach or lettuce usually $3-$4 for $1 or bread usually $2-$3 for $1.  I also use this to get “treats” for the family like a dozen donuts usually $5 for $1.  They can even have things like diapers and cereal.

5. Don’t eat out: You would really be surprised about how much money this can save you.  We limit eating out to 1 night a week most of the time unless there is something “special” going on.

Here is an example of what a week meal plan may look like for us.  Note I will include what the entire family eats for that meal even if we are not eating together and some of the items used for meals may be WIC items (noted in red) and Ralphs Clearance items (noted in blue). 

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	3 packets of oatmeal, bagel with cream cheese, 2 bowls of cereal, juice/milk	1 Meat/Cheese Sandwich, crackers, 20 chicken nuggets, corn, juice.	1 box macaroni and cheese, corn, pears, milk.
Tuesday	3 packets of oatmeal, bagel with cream cheese, 2 bowls of cereal, juice/milk	1 can Raviolis, Slice of bread, 20 fish sticks, pears, corn, milk.	1 pack hotdogs, hot dog buns, pears, corn, milk.
Wednesday	3 packets of oatmeal, bagel with cream cheese, 2 bowls of cereal, juice/milk	3 Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwichs, corn, 2 frozen burritos, milk.	Eat Out: Typically spend $12 and use drinks from home (we eat in the car on the way to church)
Thursday	3 packets of oatmeal, bagel with cream cheese, 2 bowls of cereal, juice/milk	1 Meat/Cheese Sandwich, crackers, 2 top ramen, 10 chicken nuggets, corn, pears, milk.	English muffin pizzas (topped with cheese and veggies), fruit, milk.
Friday	3 packets of oatmeal, bagel with cream cheese, 2 bowls of cereal, juice/milk	1 can raviolis, 3 Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwichs, corn, and milk.	2 boxes of hamburger helper (but only use half amount of required meat), corn, pears, milk.
Saturday	3 packets of oatmeal, bagel with cream cheese, 2 bowls of cereal, juice/milk	5 meat/cheese sandwiches, crackers, pears, milk	2 boxes tuna helper (but only use have amount of required cans of tuna), 1 bag of frozen broccoli (mixed into the tuna helper), pears, milk
Sunday	1 dozen donut (mini donuts), milk/juice	Leftovers	Leftovers

I do have a ton of “cheap” dinner ideas of you want some ideas let me know.  We usually eat hotdogs a few more meals then listed above and I have a few Hotdog recipes, but I wanted to mix things up for you a bit here.  Snacks are usually milk/juice and crackers or fruit in our house.

Actually – maybe I can blog a few ideas to help.  So apparently this is no longer going into my existing blog, but a new blog – which you are now reading.