How I Fed a Family of Four on $75

Planning a menu of three meals a day for a family of four for seven days with a $75 gift card from Walmart was trickier than I expected. Not being able to use any pantry items limited what my menu. I was challenged by three things in particular: not being able to use my pantry items, having to purchase one week of groceries without looking to the future, being limited by a lack of variety of meat portions and the challenge of finding decent produce prices in New England between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Shopping List

I was asked to create 3 meals a day for a week for my family for four. I forgot some items and had a light coupon week ($5 as opposed to my normal $15-$20). Here's how I did it:

1 whole chicken $3.39 (62 cents per pound)
Perdue Perfect Portions -$5.46
3 1-pound packages of beef $2.98 each = $8.94
1 gallon of milk $2.98
GV ricotta cheese $1.83
GV Irish Cream coffee creamer $1.36
1 dozen eggs $1.62
White cake mix .98 (used for three different desserts)
Whipped strawberry frosting $1.50
Cake plus frosting Coupon -$1.00
Kraft Tuscan House Italian Dressing - $2.00
GV Lasagna noodles - 1.58
1 large jar Ragu Spaghetti Sauce $2.98
Progresso Chicken broth, $1.98
1 can corn .60
1 can kidney beans .66
1 can peas .60
1 can green beans .60
Adam & Eve 8-pack juice $2.48 for school
1 canister bread crumbs 1.12
Handful of fresh green beans .32
Peter Pan Peanut Butter $1.58
Success Brown Rice $1.82
Coupon - $1.00
Hamburger Helper $1.50
Simply Go-Gurt $2.43
Trix 6-Pk Yogurt $2.43
Coupon off two yogurts -$1.00
1 pound of GV Whole Wheat spaghetti $1.00
Multigrain Cheerios $2.88
Rice Chex - $2.00
Coupon off two cereals $1.00
GV Unsweetened applesauce $1.38
Sharp Cheese $1.98
Brown Gravy packet .50
Chili Seasoning .68
Romaine Hearts $2.88
Tortilla Shells Soft $1.50
GV Tomato Paste .40
Kraft Mozzarella Shredded $2.00
Coupon - $1.00
Pretzels $1.78
1 loaf Whole Wheat bread - $1.36
1 bag carrots .98
Bananas .46
Banana cream pudding .88
GV Cherry Gelatin .48
Fat-Free Cool Whip .98
GV Coffee $2.98
No taxable items
Total $74.84

$75 Meal Plan

Sunday Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast and peanut butter
Juice
Coffee with creamer

Sunday Lunch:
Romaine and carrot salad with cheese tortillas
Milk
Applesauce (any other time of year it would be fresh apples, melons or berries)

Sunday Dinner:
Roasted chicken with carrots
Brown rice
Mini vanilla cupcakes with strawberry frosting

Monday Breakfast:
Multigrain Cheerios and milk, yogurt
Coffee with flavored creamer

Monday Lunch:
Rice Salad (leftover rice) with chicken, shredded carrots
Simply GoGurt

Monday Dinner:
Meatballs with whole wheat pasta
Salad
Banana pudding with cool whip

Tuesday Breakfast:
Rice Chex cereal with milk, bananas
Scrambled eggs
Yogurt
Coffee with flavored creamer

Tuesday Lunch:
Mini meatball pizzas on bread with melted cheese
Homemade carrots sticks
Applesauce

Tuesday Dinner:
Boneless Broiled Chicken breast marinated with Italian dressing
Brown rice
Green beans
Yogurt

Wednesday Breakfast:
Banana French Toast (with bananas cooked on one side, they are sweet and moist, no butter or syrup required)
Yogurt
Milk
Coffee with flavored creamer

Wednesday Lunch:
Peanut butter sandwiches, milk

Wednesday Dinner:
Lasagna made with leftover meatballs
Salad with Italian dressing

Thursday Breakfast:
Microwaved eggs on toast
Applesauce

Thursday Lunch:
Leftover lasagna
Fesh green beans
Pretzels
Juice

Thursday Dinner:
Chili with beef and kidney beans
Brown rice
Corn
Cherry Jell-O with Cool Whip

Friday Breakfast: Multigrain Cheerios and milk
Coffee with flavored creamer

Friday Lunch: Chicken soup with carrots, corn, pasta
Sharp cheese cubes

Friday Dinner: Mini meatloaves with brown gravy on toast
Green Beans
Jell-O cake with cool whip

Saturday Breakfast:
Multigrain Cheerios with milk, banana
Coffee with flavored creamer

Saturday Lunch:
Chicken and chili burritos with leftover chicken, chili and rice
Milk
Pretzels
GoGurt

Saturday Dinner:
Hamburger Helper (dad's night to cook)
Peas

What I Learned

This was more difficult than I expected. Lunch tends to be some form of leftovers from the night before, and usually one parent is at work and does not even eat lunch. This gave me a break in my menu. However, this meant he needed to have meat at every dinner meal.

No Pantry - Having to do a menu ignoring my well-stocked pantry (from sauces and baking items to spices and condiments) provided the biggest challenge. That aspect of this challenge was not realistic to me, since I would rarely start "from scratch" each week. Having a well-stocked pantry helps with a budget.

One Week at a Time - The other biggest challenge for me was trying to buy one week's of groceries instead of thinking ahead. When you can only buy for one week you end up spending more money. For example, I had to skip the large package of boneless chicken at $1.78 a pound because it was too much money for this week. Normally I would buy it, slice it and have that meat in the freezer. Another example of how buying for only one week at at a time proves more costly is when you buy coffee. A large container of coffee was $6.00 for 33.3 ounces but I only had the money to buy a $2.98 can, which was only 11 ounces.

I did learn that I tend to do more impulse shopping in the Walmart grocery store, partially because their grocery prices are not available in a circular or online before I go to the store. Also, almost all of the produce at this Walmart location was pre-packaged, making it more difficult to buy smaller portions of fresh fruits.