What is the best way to plan a months worth of menus for a Family of 6 with only a $400 grocery budget?

Answer 1

Will take some doing on your part. You didn't note the ages of the folks in the home.
As a starter, there is a government booklet for just this type of thing--including dietary needs for each age group-- search with google on their websites.
There is also information to be had from Extension services connected to a state university in most western states.
You need a tablet or stack of paper, a good cookbook, an idea of likes and dislikes of your family. You also will need to re-evaluate what you think is good-- if your family will object to water for drinking instead of soda-- you have a problem.
First make out menus as you would usually do. Next to the menu write out ALL the ingredients you will need for that menu. Which includes drinks, seasonings and so forth.
Go to the next menu and do the same thing. After a weeks worth of menus have been written out-- make a shopping list for those menus-- and then go to the store and make a COST list for those items. You aren't buying yet!
Now you are beginning to understand what you are doing.
A next step-- learn how to stretch the protein you buy. You can add soy, buy hamburger with soy added, learn receipes with little or no meat-- and remember that most of the world doesn't have protein/meat three times a day or even once a day. And they do fine!
Learn that beans and rice make a complete protein for a meal-- with seasonings it is darned good... with small amounts of meat kielbasa for instance ( a piece, not the whole thing)- onions, other seasonings-- it's a creole dish......
With time, you'll learn to cook for two meals-- a cheaper pot roast for Sunday, fill them up with what is cheap like potatoes or rice--smack their hands and use the left overs for a really good stew or vegetable beef soup.
You'll learn to buy in bulk-- when the vegetables are coming in to the canners, the groceries sell last year's canned goods cheaper-- 3-4 for a dollar..... you buy as many as you can store. Your pantry is your saving grace-- you will learn how to use what you have when you have it.
Learn from other people you know-- good folks to ask are those that had 10 or more kids in the family-- those Mommas knew how to stretch those food dollars. Go with a friend and buy 50# of potatoes-- and split the cost and potatoes-- and come out ahead.... same with onions.....
Check out the cheaper grocery stores-- they aren't all the same but the nutrition is the same--
I'm sure you're tired of all this information-- but these are part of what you need to learn.
As an aside, I will e-mail directly if you want to keep up the contact. .
I wish you good luck

Answer 2

That's not very much and I admire your bravery in attempting this. I think it would help you a little to break down how much you have to spend per day, to start with. That's $13.00 a day so @ 2.00 and change per person.
Plan your menu's around inexpensive staples, such as rice and Beans (avoid the instant and prepackaged items.), If you can afford to buy a few items in bulk that would help you.
Eat homemade soups, and go to your local library and check out books about menu and grocery shopping on a shoe-string, There is a site www.mommysavers.com/frugal which looked like it had some good ideas.
This can be done... I fed a family of 4 on 175.00 a month for a little over a year.
Always check in the grocer's sales bin for food that is just past it's best "sale by" date. Certain fruits and veggies will be luxury items, but keep in mind it is better to buy as many vegies, rice, beans and grains as you can for the health of your family.
Those prepackaged foods will fill their stomachs, but are not nutritionally sound.
Really I think the best way is to figure you are going to be repeating a lot of meals, make meals so that you have leftovers, which can be reheated or "re-invented" and make good use of your local library which should have a lot of material on menu planning for a limited amount of money.
I'll be praying that you'll be blessed by this adventure in money management.

Answer 3

I wish $100.00 would get me through two weeks. Anyway, definitely plan your meals ahead of time. Check the papers to see what is on sale and where. Check to see if your store matches competitors prices. Stay away from junk like pop tarts. They are expensive and do not have much in the way of nutritional value. I do not know how many kids you have and wether or not you need to send them to school with lunches etc. But for main meals pick two or three on sale meat items, buy in family packs and divide them up for several meals. You should always have potatoes and brown rice available for side dishes. Definitely vegetables. Frozen are better, they are higher in nutrition than canned yet still keep longer than fresh. Should have several different types for fruit, especially fresh. Canned is not nearly as healthy. Apples last a long time and bananas are high in vitamins and minerals. You should keep in mind what everyone is going to eat each day and make sure you have available food from all of the food groups. Your kids should be eating 3-5 servings of whole grains, 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables, a day ( please don't make them all french fries) and at least a small amount of protien at each meal. Protien sources can be from meat, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds and legumes. I hope this helps.

Answer 4

I have a family of six and a tight budget as well. I know it is expensive but if you do have that large of a family one thing that we always do is wait until tax return time and buy a beef or at least half of one from the sale barn. Sometimes you can talk to your local meat locker and they know of people who are trying to sell them by the halves and that helps a lot just to have some idea that you always have meat in the freezer then you only have to buy things like pork and chicken. There are a lot of things you can do for instance, make cookies instead of buying them and let your kids help, make cakes when the mixes are 88 cents and the frostings are just around $1.00 this makes for a dessert that lasts more than one day. Ration your kids snacks and buy things like cheap potato chips, cheap mac and cheese, and canned veggies. We have stores all around us where you can buy things like boxed augratin potatoes for 88 cents a box so if you make two boxes like I have to then that is less than $2.00. Plus a couple of cans of green beans puts you up to $3.00 and then a meatloaf or meatballs which are pretty cheap too makes the whole meal cost less than $10.00! I am sure that you can come up with several ideas and make several things without feeling like you are trapped in the kitchen all day long. My family also loves hot beef sandwiches which takes about 5 lbs. of potatoes and a large roast. Just cook the roast in the oven or a crock pot until it is falling apart and then use the juice and a little corn starch to make the gravy for it or even buy brown gravy packets they are wonderful and healthy and with a can or two of veggies you can usually get out of there for about $15.00 which may be a little high for your budget but consider re-using the roast for a beef pot pie with cheap biscuits or a beef stew with jiffy cornbread the next night! You will get the hang of it soon just be patient....oh yeah and of course you can always do the wal-mart version of hamburger helper, cottage cheese and bread and butter everyone loves that!

Answer 5

hopefully you will get invited out a lot ! god bless ya!