Review: Hillbilly Housewife's $70 Everyday Menu

After trying the Hillbilly Housewife's $45 emergency menu with mixed results, I decided to give her $70 everyday menu a try. It is in the same format as the emergency menu but includes a wider variety of foods. You are provided with simple, daily, step by step instructions, as well as the actual menus, any necessary recipes, and a detailed grocery list.

I was prepared for the actual food to cost a bit more that the $70 predicted. Prices on some staples like milk and eggs have risen a lot just recently, and I assumed that the web page was probably not that up to date. We headed to Aldi's for their discount prices and were able to pick up most of the required items there. The only things we needed to seek elsewhere were dried beans and cornmeal. Our total price came to $79. This was not much more than we had paid for the emergency menu! Of course, the Hillbilly Housewife's list was all inclusive, and we already had all of the spices needed on hand as well as a few other staples that we were able to leave off the list, and we added a couple of gallons of 2% milk in place of the dry milk listed because my kids have not had good experiences with dry milk in the past.

This meal plan starts on a Sunday. On Saturday night, I started getting ready. I made orange juice, mixed up some meatloaf, and headed to bed. The next day, I followed the step by step plans to prepare the meals for my family. The everyday meal plan was a bit easier than the emergency plan, partly because I had some experience with some of the recipes like the overnight bread, and partly because there was just a little bit of reliance on convenience food. Not everything was made from scratch.

The highlights of the week for my family were the meatloaf, the tacos, and the hamburger pinwheels. We don't usually use much ground beef because we try to limit our saturated fat intake, and these foods are seen as treats. The kids also really enjoyed the novelty of pancakes and French toast for breakfast instead of our usual oatmeal. Once again though, the main drawback was the amount of time I had to spend in the kitchen. Although not as labor intensive as the emergency meals, there was still a lot of prep and cooking involved.

The site lists the nutritional quality of the meal plan, and for the most part, it is nutritionally sound. Because our family includes a diabetic, the over reliance of this plan on high carbohydrate foods is a drawback. This problem can be partly eliminated by using whole grain products that are low on the hypoglycemic index in the recipes when possible. This might increase the price a bit, but it is worth it to us. You might want to make modifications for any special dietary needs in your own family.

Overall this was a reasonable, low cost meal plan for any family that includes a homemaker willing to dedicate a large chunk of time each day to meal planning. It works best used as a guide. Feel free to read it through and make substitutions so that it will work best for you.