Feed Family of Four for $10

I couldn’t resist making this post. I know that we’re all pinching pennies and one of the ways that I found to save money is on food. So I have to feed a family of four every day and I’ve gotten pretty decent on figuring out how to do that on less than $10 (and I’m talking dinner). I’ve brought my lunch down to about $2 but that’s another post. So my general idea of dinner is a starch, a meat product and a vegetable. Hey, that covers the food groups. Anything more than that and they are on their own. I’ll give you one example today along with prices. So let’s get to it!

Chili
Ingredients:
Kidney or black beans in a bag $0.89
Small can of tomato sauce $1.39
Ground beef or chicken or turkey $4.50
Onions $0.25
Garlic $0.10
Chili powder and spices $0.50
Rice $2.00
Total: $9.63

Cheese optional
Sour cream optional
So you’ll notice that I put cheese and sour cream as optional. That’s up to you. I put my chili on top of brown rice so it’s a pretty heart healthy and filling meal. No veg needed because of the beans and tomato sauce. Okay so I never spend more than $4.50 for a pack of ground meat product. I try to get beef at no less than 85% lean and 15% fat. I get beef and a use black beans because by the time it all cooks down together you can not tell what is meat. Yes, I trick my family into thinking that there’s a ton of meat in the chili. Hey, I never said that I had scruples. Actually, I usually end up splitting up the ground meat and getting at least a hamburger out of it in addition to the chili. The chili usually winds up as the next day’s lunch too so it’s a two-fer (two for one).