[PrincessPerky]

We used to eat on 400 a month (or less) with the same 5 kids (though one was nursing at the time)

We ate a lot of beans, and white pasta...plus cheap whole wheat bread (had high fructose corn syrup in it) Not to mention hardly any real meat....

A sample week menu would be...
-Quesadillas..cheap cheese, and cheap salsa, on white tortillas (now we use whole wheat no meat)
-chili (with any cheap beans, and cheap tomatoes, and chili powder, not mix, no meat, maybe homemade corn bread)
-Rice (white, prolly fried, cheap frozen veggies, and cheap teriyaki sauce)
-pasta (I'd say beef, but it was beef bullion...some additional spices..on white pasta, plus a veggie) Or could be Mac n Cheese w/veggie
-potatoes (soup or parsley...no meat, but maybe chicken bullion, with a veggie of course)
-Spaghetti (cheap tomatoes, cheap sauce, spices, white pasta, maybe homemade biscuits)
-PB no J at the park or out somewhere else (with fruit)

repeat ad nasuem...till you find meat WAY cheap on sale. (or carnivorous husband has a fit and buys hot dogs around once a month he did that, eww) Also about once a month we had tuna with veggie and bread for dinner. That is NOT cheap! (4 cans of Tuna to share, at 1$ each! plus the cost for bread and veggie!)

Lunch was leftovers, breakfast is whole wheat English muffins or whole wheat toast, or oatmeal, with fruit. (breakfast was the first to go healthy...)

Snacks were/are apples, cheese, and plain yogurt mixed with frozen blueberries or strawberries (for the longest time that was cheap yogurt, but now due to ped recommendation it is Sonyfield farms -that switch alone made the grocery bill jump!) Or homemade muffins (made only when sharing necessary) We also had trailmix, made from mixing our own dried fruit and nuts, used to be a lot, but the nuts are not cheap, so I cut it down.

I couldn't go back down to that 400 a month without giving up all the whole wheat flour, pasta, bread (no high fructose corn syrup) tortilla shells, brown rice, and such, not to mention the splurges on fresher fruit and carrot sticks...course it is only 500. (that doesn't include the once or twice we eat out, nor the Weekends where we may or may not get a free meal once. It does include 'non food stuff' like detergents and toilet paper. (though no other paper products are bought anymore, also only bleach for cleaning)