Do you break your meals down my cost?

[worm761]

I recently joined a group on facebook called $7.00 and Under Dinner Ideas. It made me start thinking about the cost of individual meals. I have a family of four plus my father. DS is 15 years old and DD is 22 months. DS schools at home (virtual academy) and DH takes lunch to work. I spend around $100 a week for groceries feeding all of us three meals a day plus snacks. My father does purchase small amounts of food, just things that he likes for his lunches and such and the occasional gallon of milk. We eat fairly healthy with the occasional crap meal thrown in. I have high blood pressure so I have no choice but to eat healthy. LOL
Today is the first day that I posted in this new group. We are having sun dried tomato Alfredo pasta with asparagus in it. The pasta was BOGO so the box only cost .75, the Alfredo was also BOGO @ 2.50 for two jars, and the asparagus was bought a while back at Sam's for some other meals. The leftover asparagus was frozen and is what I am using in this meal. I figure about .10 worth is what will be used. $3.35 for the whole meal! It will feed all of us dinner tonight and provide leftovers to use for lunches for at least two of us. It isn't terribly healthy but isn't really all that bad for you. Healthy can be cheap too! Oh, and that cost is without coupons since I rarely use them.

 

[Pigeon]

No, my life is too short to do that.

I'll make multiple meals using the same ingredients and couldn't be bothered to figure all that out. I just try to keep the cost of groceries under control.

 

[albertamommyof4]

it is very interesting once you break it down. i can't find the group on facebook do you have a link or pm me. thanks

 

[worm761]

it is very interesting once you break it down. i can't find the group on facebook do you have a link or pm me. thanks

Hopefully this works: https://www.facebook.com/groups/116211811816528/

I guess I just never really thought about how much a single meal cost. I know how much we spend in groceries though. That is new for me since I stopped working. We used to just shop and pay but a new baby and a third of our income gone tends to make you more aware. I was actually just looking for some new dinner ideas. I am also on the group What's for Supper.

 

[albertamommyof4]

thanks. Ya it is neat and i try to see how cheap i can make my meal or how far i can have it last. it makes you think twice before you pick up that phone to order take out lol( even though take out still wins(sometimes) with my kids lol) i am also on whats for dinner. although living in canada some of our prices are crazy and it is harder to keep under the dollar amounts. I also look at erin chases $5 dinners she is good too.

 

[scrapquitler]

I recently joined a group on facebook called $7.00 and Under Dinner Ideas. It made me start thinking about the cost of individual meals. I have a family of four plus my father. DS is 15 years old and DD is 22 months. DS schools at home (virtual academy) and DH takes lunch to work. I spend around $100 a week for groceries feeding all of us three meals a day plus snacks. My father does purchase small amounts of food, just things that he likes for his lunches and such and the occasional gallon of milk. We eat fairly healthy with the occasional crap meal thrown in. I have high blood pressure so I have no choice but to eat healthy. LOL
Today is the first day that I posted in this new group. We are having sun dried tomato Alfredo pasta with asparagus in it. The pasta was BOGO so the box only cost .75, the Alfredo was also BOGO @ 2.50 for two jars, and the asparagus was bought a while back at Sam's for some other meals. The leftover asparagus was frozen and is what I am using in this meal. I figure about .10 worth is what will be used. $3.35 for the whole meal! It will feed all of us dinner tonight and provide leftovers to use for lunches for at least two of us. It isn't terribly healthy but isn't really all that bad for you. Healthy can be cheap too! Oh, and that cost is without coupons since I rarely use them.

I don't do that. I don't have the time or the energy to figure out that I'm using 6 cents worth of flour per muffin or whatever. I buy food to equal whatever $$ is in my budget that week, and we eat whatever is in the fridge or pantry without regard to how much each individual meal costs. I'm just not that detail oriented.

If it works for you, great I'd drive myself crazy.

 

[worm761]

I don't do that. I don't have the time or the energy to figure out that I'm using 6 cents worth of flour per muffin or whatever. I buy food to equal whatever $$ is in my budget that week, and we eat whatever is in the fridge or pantry without regard to how much each individual meal costs. I'm just not that detail oriented.

If it works for you, great I'd drive myself crazy.

This was my first time figuring out how much something cost. We shop at Sam's for items I use in bulk and make just about everything from scratch. If I know how much a dinner cost it is usually because we ate dinner out. I was just a little shocked at how little that meal cost.

 

[okeydokey]

As long as my overall budget works, I don't think about each meal. However, the pasta meal you cooked would not suffice for my family for dinner at all. I would add salad, or fruit, milk etc and the cost would rise. I would also make my own sauce so it would be healthier, and that would cost more.

 

[worm761]

Okeydoky, I usually make my own using cauliflower as the base. It isn't too expensive and easy on the diet. This week was bad. We just got back from Disney and don't have much in the pantry. I cleaned out most of the groceries before leaving on purpose. We go to the grocery store tomorrow though so back to healthy eating again!

 

[Marionnette]

I will make a mental tally of the costs for a dinner sometimes. But it's usually when I can remember approximately what I spent and I know that it was a good deal. We had a meal "from the pantry" last week and I did just that. Ham steaks that were free after coupon from the freezer, the rest of a bunch of asparagus that was $1.99/lb (wanted to use it before I left on a trip, knowing that my husband would never cook it) and pasta with creamy garlic sauce that I made from scratch. Dinner cost under $5 for two people.

But then there are other times that the calculator goes out the window and I just prepare whatever I feel like having without regard to cost.

 

[My2CrazyGirls]

No, my life is too short to do that.

I'll make multiple meals using the same ingredients and couldn't be bothered to figure all that out. I just try to keep the cost of groceries under control.

 

[SandrA9810]

I do this in the grocery store to justify the cost of expensive meats, especially at $9 a lb of alaskan salmon. I love it, but it's hard justifying $20 purchase at once. A full filet is around 1.5-2lbs. But when I portion it out to 4oz filets and make 3 dinners for 2 people. $4-5 per person full meal isn't bad. Plus there would be a premium at a restaurant for it.