Do you ever sit and figure out how much your meal cost you? I don't do it by person since it is just the two of us, but I often estimate how much we spent on what we consumed as we sit down to eat.
Last night, for example, was fairly reasonable. It was the leftover pork loin roast, leftover green beans, and I had two sweet potatoes I baked, and then cottage cheese, sliced cherry tomatoes, and fruit salad. I always try to divide stuff by the meals, not taking the whole initial cost of the pork loin roast for the first meal. I think it cost us around $7, and that is counting the fact I brewed ice tea too. That is for the two of us. Not $7 each.
Of course some meals are more expensive. I fixed wings the other night and I think the package of wings was a little under $7 and that was before I made a coating for them or added other things to go with. But still, eating at home is far cheaper than eating out, at least I think it is.
I have a friend who brags about finding cheap meals and when he talks about them, he's going to fast food. I guess if you eat off the dollar menu or whatever they have, it might be cheaper, but I can't imagine it being cheaper since most of the stuff is pretty small. Not to mention, there's a reason these items are cheaper, many are made with flavorings and preservatives. He's always talking about all his health issues and as much as I would like to say perhaps a better diet would help, I don't. I guess I'm a chicken.
He made some comments about all my canning. Granted, I could probably find canned green beans cheaper than buying fresh green beans and canning them myself, but I hope to keep canning them to get away from the salt and preservatives. DH had a good tomato crop this year and I made a lot of spaghetti sauce as well as canning some of the tomatoes. I have used quite a bit of the stuff I've canned already. This friend said he couldn't believe we would use even half of it before the next summer. There's something pretty exciting to opening the cabinet and see the jars lined up, ready to be used.
Tonight we are having pork chops. Our Kroger has a little deli counter like where you can choose the meat you want. I buy one thick boneless pork chop and then slice it in half and that makes enough of a meal for both of us. I find it more reasonable than buying the package of pork chops. Plus, it is probably healthier for us to eat less meat. I think our meal tonight will run around $7 again. I don't think that is too bad. Lunch was around $10 today. I buy a special tea to make that although it has a good, sweet flavor, it doesn't have any sugar or sweetener in it. Still far cheaper than eating out and we had plenty to eat -- soup, sandwich, applesauce, and tea.
So, what do you think -- do you do the cheap eats at home or find cheap eats elsewhere?
Cheap Eats
January 22nd, 2020 at 09:11 pm
January 22nd, 2020 at 10:37 pm 1579732642
January 22nd, 2020 at 11:39 pm 1579736382
I like to grocery shop, and I watch for sales and will buy meat to freeze when I like the price.
In the fall, eye of the round roast, which is my favorite, was $2.99 per pound. I bought enough for six meals, cut them into 1.5 pound roasts and that is dinner for two of us plus a sandwich for lunch. I buy chicken breasts for 1.99 per pound, and I usually get a package of 6 for @$7.00. I make a lot of casseroles, use chicken in pasta and soup, and make chicken salad and sliced chicken sandwiches.
Cold cuts seem to run around $8.00 per pound, so using meat I cook really lowers the cost of a nice sandwich - plus no additives.
We have a vegetable market - not a farmer’s market, but a market with stalls that sell excess produce. Most stands are run by immigrants and it is quite lively. It is only open Friday and Saturday, but the prices are crazy low - packages of berries for $1. In fact, most things are $1 or 2 for $1. I get two big bags of produce each week for @ $17. The person I share food with has a very active life and needs 5000 calories per day to maintain his weight...and he eats very healthy, so not chips and candy! He gets two or three servings of fruit and two or three servings of veggies per day, so this is a big savings.
I make granola and granola bars so buy a lot of oatmeal, plus cereal bars with raisins, nuts, coconut, peanut butter...I buy all those on sale. I also make egg and sausage biscuits with either fruit or veggies. I think it costs @$3 for the ingredient for six jumbo muffins, which is two or three days worth. . Stopping for a breakfast sandwich is twice that for one day!
I bake every day - I start a lot with cookie, bar, or cake mix, but I buy those on sale for @$1-2, then add fruit,
nuts, spices. I know this is way cheaper than buying snacks, plus I can control adding protein and vitamins via fruit and nuts.
I often can’t think of anything I want to go out to eat that I can’t make better at home!
We eat like royalty for a very reasonable cost!
January 23rd, 2020 at 01:12 am 1579741948
The past 2 days, I spent $20 on an 8 slice pizza w/ham & mushrooms and 16 pieces of garlic bread like "sticks" and an order of Chinese food that came with Fried Shrimp, Pork Fried Rice, an egg roll and a dinner roll. I expect to get 3 dinners and a lunch out of this. For 2 people. $5 a meal for two is not a bad thing.
January 23rd, 2020 at 01:51 am 1579744277
January 23rd, 2020 at 07:11 am 1579763506
You should plant a packet of pole green beans this year with the tomatoes. That should be enough to can for a year for the two of you. One packet of seeds is cheaper than 50 cents a can at Winco, and beans are pretty care free, other than keeping the weeds down until they are tall enough to outgrow them.
January 23rd, 2020 at 04:47 pm 1579798043
January 24th, 2020 at 03:32 pm 1579879957