Menu for a week less than $50

[cicy33]

I have ready many posts on this forum over the course of a few years that state the people can feed a family of four for $50. I would seriously like to see some of those menus.
My only restrictions are this:
NO BEANS we don't like them and cooking them would be a waste not a savings.
MUST have fresh fruit. Doesn't have to be a lot. Last week I bought a few oranges, stuff like that.
Ground Turkey - no beef

Thats about it for restrictions. We eat fish, chicken, potatoes, veggies, etc. I save where I can but I just can't do it for $50 a week. Generally our cost is around 100 - 125 a week. We have three people actually but I consider the 15 year old 2! I welcome any menus. Not just one or two recipes (though those are always welcome!)

[irmanator]

well if you like ground turkey and own a food processor, you could by a turkey and grind it yourself. Around here you could save $2 lb doing that and more if you stock up at thanks giving time

[whitestripe]

i have no idea how people do it either. i guess it can only be done if there are no restrictions, which is ridiculous because at the end of the day you'll probably be eating cheap processed crap, and your health will most likely suffer as a result.

[PrincessPerky]

I think it can be done, but you would need to learn the sales/be very flexible.

For example if someone gives you a recipe with prices from their store this week you may find the meat in question is not cheap at yours, trade for another.

Generally I aim for meals to cost less than a dollar per person with the occasional peanut butter/apple lunch being less and the steak being more.

My friend can get cans of sauce/veggies cheap or even free, but not consistently, so if I plan on chili, no guarantee she gets then this week. But in all likely hood she has them from months past. With her deals she can eat her family of 4 for less than 40 a week, just who knows what she has.
creativity is good. I did notice she tends to buy and freeze anything that isn't a can/box. So found out she has bags of bananas in the freezer, only for baking now, but still she is creative about how to store what she finds cheap.

But she is very good at it, and she doesn't mind white pasta/rice/bread/ect.

I personally aim for closer to 100 a week with a family of 6, usually make it at 125 or 150 (when fruit is expensive). No prepackaged cookies, chips, or convenient dinners. Not that we don't eat cookies, I make plenty. And the better we watch when staples are on sale the better we do (buy tons of rice/flour/popcorn when cheap).

Maybe a better goal for you would be 75-100 each week, somewhat closer to your current spending, so doesn't seem to be such a stretch.

[mom-from-missouri]

Well, you lost me with no beans...We usually have at least 1 bean based meal, such as this weeks ham and beans soup, a week. The ham has been in the freezer since Christmas, (part of DH's work Christmas gift) so our only cost is the beans and cornbread for the meal. Usually when we have them, the crockpot is on all day and it provides both lunch and dinner. So, about $2 for 2 meals.
Also, I shop by the month, so hard to break it down by the week--most months we spend between $200 and $250, but I have never broken it down by week, as some items get used over and over, such as a bag of potatoes or rice or beans....

[PetMom]

I think it takes a combination of strategies and sometimes sacrifices to attain rock bottom prices.

You hear about the coupon people and think that is great. You look at the high prices (and soaring) for produce and think about gardening. You get out cookbooks and make everything from scratch (even whole wheat pasta). You look into vegan recipes to find ways to cut back on eggs in cooking/baking.

We have just stockpiled lots of meat (seems only meat goes on good sales -and I am mainly a vegetarian). I am also considering getting whole wheat in bulk deliveries. And am really going to get more into gardening from seed which would save a fortune.

Be wary of books that claim in the title to feed your family for x amount of dollars. There is one written by a wonderful woman (Mary Ostyn) that has a book "Family Feasts for $75.00 a Week". She has a large family. She readily admits the publisher choose this as the title even though she does spend more on food per week (obviously the title does not claim this as the weekly amount for all food). Google Mary Ostyn and on vimeo you will find her technique of making grape jelly and canned tomatoes - she takes the mystery out of this and this would save a lot of money - even Wal Mart generic grape jelly is going up in price.

There is also the $5.00 Dinner Mom. She has lots of different techniques to a lower food bill - but this just covers dinner for a family and that would be $35.00 for 7 days of the dinner cost. Great if you can talk everyone into plain oatmeal for breakfast and p & b sandwiches for lunch and no snacking.

Hillbilly Houswife has an emergency menu of $45.00 for a family of 4 to 6 people on her blog.

Each of these ladies have blogs that give tips and recipes. Reflecting the signs of the times these books tend to be always be checked out at the library.

Then, my favorite, you can always find some obscure article or blog post of someone who ate for a dollar a day. It turns out to be quite bleak - one man accomplished this on pancakes and bulk bought pinto beans and cornbread.

Food is getting to be expensive.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Actually I don't have much to add. But I wanted to say that right now I am not finding food getting expensive. Prices seemed to have held steady since the beginning of fall. Some vegetables are costing less than they did in summer, or the same. I'm consistently finding cucumbers, bell peppers and broccoli for less than summer prices. Most other veggies are the same as in summer. All the green leafy veggies continue to be $0.99/bunch and I don't think the bunches have shrunken. I've been able to buy one or another hard tree fruit for $0.99 cents every week, whereas last winter, it seems like I was often paying $2.00/lb. Butter, eggs, meat, and dairy all seem to cost less than they did last summer.

[cicy33]

The veggie thing I am finding is while the prices are lower the veggies seriously suck! super small, skinny cucumbers. so not really cheaper to me. I prefer to grow those anyway. We don't buy preprocessed because of SO health issues. Very few snacks at all. He actually likes beans and I do cook them for him sometimes but it is not what I consider part of the menu cuz I won't eat them. YUK! I coupon my butt off as much as possible. I frequently get Birds Eye veggies for free or very cheap. We do like rice so no problem there. I use cereal coupons a lot and recently came across $2 off milk with purchase of cereal. that is a good one! I have noticed an increase in grocery cost. not recently however, mostly noticed it over the past year. hopefully things will calm down a little. I never thought about the turkey thing but am not sure I will do it. It would mean purchasing a machine that I am sure is not cheap. I don't have a food processor or any way to grind food. and honestly if I did buy one I would spend the extra so that it would useful for more than just one thing. I do love that 8 minute meal thing by bullet but have heard some negative reports on it so holding off. It costs 130. way expensive for me!