It has been a long time since I shared these links and wanted to throw it out there again.

Most of us moms are curious to know what is a reasonable food budget. A good place to start is the USDA Food Costs site. For comparison, the average food stamp budget comes to about $3/day/person. The general conclusion from those participating in Food Stamp Challenges that this is too low. It IS possible for a stay at home mom to feed her family for not too terribly much more than that however. If we follow the guidelines below we can feed ten for about $100/mo/person supplementing with farmstead milk and the occasional wild game. (this includes paper and cleaning products) If you have a garden you can do even better.

Hillbilly Housewife has a ton of resources to help pinch grocery pennies. Especially helpful are the $45 and $70 dollar emergency menus. While you wouldn’t want to eat that way forever they come in handy in when you find yourself in a tight spot.

The Thousand Calorie menu recipes are some of the best imo.

This article claims to feed a family on $30. My guess is most of the “meals” would not satiate and you would need to combine a few to make a whole meal.

This link has a lot of good tips which we tend to employ here as well –

*stock up on inexpensive produce like potatoes, carrots, cabbage. Ditto inexpensive cuts of meat. (the crockpot is a huge help here)

*NEVER eat out. While my husband must eat out while traveling we as a family eat out only as a special treat for birthdays or the like. Even when we don’t go to restaurants a big food budget leak is running into Walmart for snacks or drinks while we are out. Plan ahead – pack snacks and drinks before you leave home.

*Don’t buy beverages. Water is free. Tea is cheaply made at home and provides antioxidants.

*If your budget is tight I would still add a multivitamin, even a generic formulation. Cheap protection.

As promised here is another week of vegetarian meal plans:

Day 1:
Yogurt and blueberries/zucchini bread
black bean soup, tortilla chips, corn
Tuna casserole, green beans, pickles

Day 2:
Corn muffins, oranges, cocoa
bean burritos, veggies and guacamole
Broccoli/cranberry/mayo salad, scalloped potatoes

Day 3:
granola and milk (with nuts and dried fruit)
PB and J, apples
Pilaf with a Purpose (Jane Brody – contains pintos, brown rice, and thin spaghetti) cauliflower

Day 4:
Apple cinnamon oatmeal, yogurt smoothies
leftover pilaf, cauliflower soup
scallops with red pepper and linguini, peas

Day 5:
waffles, strawberries
tuna sandwiches, celery, popcorn
black bean haystacks (beans on rice with taco toppings) baby carrots

Day 6:
Pumpkin muffins, Oranges, eggs
hummus, crackers, cucmbers, V8
chop suey vegs and brown rice, chow mein noodles

Day 7:
Cornmeal mush, bananas, nuts
tomato soup, grilled cheese, peas
quiche, 7 layer veg salad, french bread