I dunno, I keep reading all these blogs about eating well for cheap. Most of them seem to make meals that use a lot of processed crappy stuff like canned soups and things from a box. I’m just not down with that and don’t consider it “eating well”. But I do like the idea of saving money. Several of these blogs talk about cooking a chicken at the beginning of the week and using it all week long for dinners. That sounds halfway reasonable. Especially just for two people. So I thought I’d try it.
I spent about $60 in groceries, which included not only a whole chicken but also a bag of frozen chicken tenderloins just to be on the safe side. Also a bunch of other stuff. Plus I already had a few things in the house. I’m going to make everything with this budget: breakfast and dinner plus snacks (we don’t usually have lunch cuz of our weird schedule). It won’t all add up perfectly but once I do this this week, I’ll see if it’s worth doing again and get a system going.
I guess I’ll write here every day about what I’ve made and how much, approximately, it cost. Then maybe at the end of the week, a recap. We’ll see how it plays out.
Wednesday night I made quesadillas and salad. I had some lettuce, tomato, and blue cheese dressing in the house. I also had some leftover mashed potatoes and some black beans, along with some tortillas, and I used four of the chicken tenderloins I bought, plus some cheese.
Chicken, mashed potato, black bean, and cheese quesadilla.
Dinner on the cheap
So, total cost was probably a little over $5 for two people.
2 tortillas: .75
1/4 can of black beans: .25
leftover mashed potatoes: .50
4 chicken tenders: $2.00
1/4 bag of shredded cheese: .40
1/4 head of lettuce: .50
1 tomato: .50
salad dressing: .25
Is that good?
Then last night I just made a roasted chicken and some gravy which cost about $8 total. We had a huge junky lunch so we weren’t that hungry for dinner. We didn’t eat it all so we’ll use it again. We probably had about $2 worth.
So far so good on that one.
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