Feed a Large Family $ 10 a Day With a 14-Day Rotating Meal Plan
Food is one of our biggest expenses, but one mom who feeds a family of 7 on just $ 300 a month shows us that you can eat well without cutting back on coupons and relying on ramen noodles every night.
Jen Wallwork Dominguez spends $ 3 on lunch to feed herself, her husband, two teens and three preschoolers. (We’re fans of the $ 4 a day cookbook , but that’s $ 4 per person. Here Jen feeds 7 people at $ 3 for lunch.)
There is no real magic here. This is mainly smart shopping and planning. She exclusively shops at ALDI, arguably the cheapest grocery chain, avoids organic and processed foods, and relies on cheap staples like eggs and beans.
The most important part of her plan, however, is the rotation of cheap ingredients. Ingredients serve a dual purpose, rather than being used only for one meal, to help drive these purchases into the future:
I have found the only and best way to save money on products is to use what is always the least expensive and use a lot. So there is not much variety on my menu, no exotic ingredients that I buy for just one meal. We eat dinner with a two week shift, lunch and breakfast with a weekly shift. Yes, it can get a little boring. When this happens, I look for something else that uses mostly the same cheap ingredients. God bless the Internet.
If you look at her 14-day meal plan, the food is pretty simple but still mouth-watering, with dinners including a tilapia platter, taco lunch salads (made with leftover nightly taco ingredients), and hearty breakfasts.
While using meal planning to save money is not a new idea, and peasant -style cooking is a time-honored way to feed large families cheaply, it’s nice to see a real-world example of how to put this strategy into practice. on a daily and monthly basis.
How I Feed a $ 300 a Month Family of Seven | Circus Life via Forbes