You guys! My local IGA had cans of Campbell's Chunky Soup on sale 2 for $3 and I bought several to turn into easy emergency meals! A can of this soup, heated up, thinned a little and served over rice with some bread and butter or canned vegetables actually can feed three people! So two cans could feed my family for $3 of soup, 50 cents of rice 79 cents can of vegetables and bread and butter, that’s like $5 for us to eat. And it’s super easy? Yes please!
Another way to stretch the super convenient but more expensive canned soups would be to choose a flavor, like chili or broccoli cheddar, that works well to top baked potatoes or something that works well with pasta. Canned soups save so much time and effort, so using them wisely makes them worth paying for and a valuable addition to your pantry.
I also wanted to include some tips I saw in an article this week. Not any new information for me personally as I spend a lot of time researching ways to save money, but nice to have them all together in one place as a reminder.
Menu Planning Tips:
- Go through or keep track of our inventory. Make use of anything that didn't get used last week into something new.
- Look for recipes online, or borrow a recipe book from the library. Finding something new to me always cheers me up when I miss eating out.
- Plan ahead for snacks. Someone is going to need a snack at some point surely, so having something we can pull out that's economical saves me from someone snacking all my cheese. I usually have carrot sticks and saltines with peanut butter.
- Go meatless for some meals.
- Treat meat as an addition to a meal, not the star. Stir fries, soups and casseroles are great at this.
- Always make sure to take our schedule into account. It won't do any good to plan a nice, homemade meal from scratch on a night when you don't get home til 7:00
- Create our menu plan and shopping list. This is so important. It keeps us from impulse buying or buying something we don't end up using.
- When it is less expensive to buy the bigger packs of meat, plan a couple of different meals using the same protein in different ways.
- Eat Before You Go Shopping!
Feel free to share any tips you have! I am always looking for new ideas.
Here is our menu plan for this week, it is supposed to be very cold this week so lots of warm meals, hope it is helpful!
Monday-
- Breakfast- Leftover pancakes, banana
- Lunch- PB&J sandwiches, crackers, carrots and celery
- Dinner- Chili topped baked potatoes, salad
Tuesday-
- Breakfast- Cinnamon raisin oatmeal, canned peaches
- Lunch- Homemade lunchables, apple with peanut butter
- Dinner- Ham and Potato soup, grilled cheese
Wednesday-
- Breakfast- Peanut butter toast, banana
- Lunch- PB&J sandwiches, carrots and celery, crackers
- Dinner- Frozen Vegetable Stir Fry and rice, garlic bread (make extra rice for Friday)
Thursday-
- Breakfast- Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal, canned peaches
- Lunch- Homemade lunchable, apple with peanut butter
- Dinner- Cheesy White Bean and Tomato Bake, corn, bread and butter
Friday-
- Breakfast- Cereal, banana
- Lunch- Homemade lunchables, apple with peanut butter
- Dinner- Pork Fried Rice (I'm skipping the broccoli, make sure you scale the recipe up, its set for 2 servings) canned pineapple, garlic toast
Saturday-
- Breakfast- Fried bologna sandwich, fried potatoes and onions, orange slices
- Lunch- Vegetable soup, crackers
- Dinner- Bean and Cheese quesadillas, Mexican Street Corn Bake, salsa
Sunday-
- Breakfast- Oatmeal Pancakes , homemade pancake syrup, orange slices
- Lunch- Chicken, bacon, ranch sandwiches (using the cheap chicken patties), Chips, Vegetables and dip, cupcakes for a birthday lunch
- Dinner- Corn Dog Casserole, green beans
Have a good week!
~ Sarah
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