Eating Well On $450 a month

I think we’ve been eating pretty well so far this year, spending a little less than $450 each month. With careful planning and using items and ingredients we already have on hand, we’ve been able to enjoy some very tasty and satisfying dinners.

Does it make a difference that I get a discount at Trader Joe’s? Definitely! Not only does the discount provide savings, but also a larger variety of meals to enjoy these days. I’d still buy a few of these items if I didn’t have the discount, but otherwise would substitute other low cost meals. For example, instead of the Caprese salad we had this past month I might have instead made spaghetti with marinara.

Below are most of the dinners we enjoyed at home in April. Ingredients for some of them were things we already had on hand, like the puff pastry for the chicken pot pie or the Polish sausages, sauerkraut, and hot dog rolls. There are less than 30 meals pictured though because we ate out on the first evening of the month for our anniversary, our DIL took us out to dinner on Brett’s birthday, and she brought over the Japanese hiyashi beef stew one evening (a delicious surprise). Other missing days are when we ate leftovers, and a couple of days when I was too tired to take a photo (we had mini pepperoni pizzas and roasted red pepper soup with toasted cheese sandwiches on those nights).

Lunches are always leftovers, and breakfasts are cereal (for me) or oatmeal (for Brett), English muffins with peanut butter and/or jam, or occasionally pancakes.

(Apologies in advance for the poor quality of the photos.)

Clockwise from the top left: Italian wedding soup & beer bread; chicken Waldorf salad with grapes & beer bread; deconstructed Frito pie; chili-pork burritos; chicken pot pie

Clockwise from top left: katsudon; Polish sausage with sauerkraut, three-bean salad; fried rice; Caprese salad, salami, Dutch oven bread; Cuban sandwiches on Dutch oven bread, sweet potato fries

Clockwise from top left: Mississippi pot roast, mashed potatoes, green beans; lemon-ricotta pasta with peas and Dutch oven bread; Cuban bowl, gorgonzola gnocchi and sautéed green beans; French dip sandwich and coleslaw

Clockwise from top left: Korean-style short ribs, bulgogi fried rice, and green beans; loco moco, apples, and carrots; “Chinese takeout” (*beef & broccoli, honey walnut shrimp, and mandarin orange chicken); hiyashi beef stew with rice (from our DIL); cacio e pepe, sautéed zucchini, and garlic toast; tuna melts and apple slices; spanakopita pie and pita bread

Our menu and spending work for us right now because there’s just the two of us. However, if we were still feeding the girls, I think another $200 – $250 per month would be enough to still provide variety and eat well. There would definitely be a few changes in the menu however.

* both the beef & broccoli and honey walnut shrimp were just OK; I will probably not buy them again.