How much $$ do we spend on dinner?

I've never actually calculated it per meal, seems complicated!

I spend around 100$/week on grocery (just food, no toilet paper, garbage bags, ...) for 2 adults. This yields about 6.5 dinners, 3.5 lunches, 4 breakfast for me (DH doesn't eat much for breakfast) + snacks, sodas, ...! It probably averages around4$/portion on dinner & lunches. We eat tons of fruit & vegetables, meat in small portions, and I do buy pricey foods often (like fancy cheese, duck, smoked salmon ...)

Today's dinner was quite cheap& nice: asian-style sauteed rice, red pepper, & steak with cut-up cucumbers & tomatoes.
3/4c rice: 0.50$??
4 celery stalks: 0.30$
2 onions: 0.20$
2 red peppers: 1.50$
400g steak: 3.50$
1 cucumber: 0.77$
1 tomato: 0.75$
Yield: almost 4 portions (tomato&cucumber are gone, will have to cut more for tomorrow lunches.
dinner price: 2.25$/portion, very good actually!

Meals like this make up for that veal osso bucco with risotto that cost me about 35$ for 4!
I think everyone budget varies depending on what they eat, and their portion size. 100g of meat per portion seems too small for many.

I really am enjoying reading this thread everyday and seeing how people do breakdown their dinner budgets. Right now we are able to stick to under $5.00 as both of our girls are under the age of 3 (although sometimes it seems like they eat more than we do!)
Tonight we are having chicken burgers and french fries (a little crappy for us but I did tons of housework today and don't feel like making a big meal
janes chicken burgers (4 of them which is 1/2 the box and bought w coupon) $2.20
D'Italino Hamburger buns (4 of them, bought w coupon) $.70
Bag of French Fries (No Frills) $1.00

For a total of $3.90

This is a little off topic but this week for fruit I plan on buying
Apples (we always have apples in the house)
Cantaloupe (which is .97 at No Frills)
Grapes (which are .97 at No Frills)
Pears (which are .77 at Walmart, I think)

Since grapes are so cheap this week I will buy a whole bunch, cut them up and freeze them for weeks where there isn't a lot of good fruit deals (plus they are great as Lacie is teething)

never thought to freeze grapes. my dd1 could eat a lb of them at one sitting. another tip i guess i could say for me, is sometimes at WM or other grocery stores if you go early enough in the morning you can get meat marked down. i do this a fair bit and toss it in the freezer. ground beef and pork chops and ssgs.

Another cheap dinner idea is chicken and rice

boneless skinless chicken breasts $3.26 for 3 of them
3/4 cups of rice/2 cups ofmixed veggies .80
can of mushroom soup .25
Shredded cheese .50

Total of $4.61
The chicken and rice receipe can from the Campbells website and is one of our favorites.

Wow I can't believe how cheap you can make your meals. My children are grown up 3 still live at home24, 20, 18. Through the week there are 5 of us and Friday to Sunday night 8. I pay at least 10 a meal just in meat. You don't want to know my grocery bill. lol I do have a few tricks that I have done for years. For steaks I only by whole eye of rounds and only pay 1.77 -1.99 a lb. I slice them up for steaks and bag and freeze them. it is a tuff cut of meat but great if marinated, then they fall apart. Every now and then I will get some ribeye or striploin for a treat hen on sale and they don't like it. The prefer the cheap stuff. For pork chops I only buy the whole pork loins and they cost 1.47- 1.97 per pound. I cut half up into pork chops and use the other half for roasts and pulled pork and soulvaki. I will by 10 or more when they are on sale to make sure I have enough till the next sale. (major savings) I am so glad I found this thread I have a feeling it is going to help me a great deal. Thank you all so much for sharing.

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Originally Posted by Tabby40

Wow I can't believe how cheap you can make your meals. My children are grown up 3 still live at home24, 20, 18. Through the week there are 5 of us and Friday to Sunday night 8. I pay at least 10 a meal just in meat. You don't want to know my grocery bill. lol I do have a few tricks that I have done for years. For steaks I only by whole eye of rounds and only pay 1.77 -1.99 a lb. I slice them up for steaks and bag and freeze them. it is a tuff cut of meat but great if marinated, then they fall apart. Every now and then I will get some ribeye or striploin for a treat hen on sale and they don't like it. The prefer the cheap stuff. For pork chops I only buy the whole pork loins and they cost 1.47- 1.97 per pound. I cut half up into pork chops and use the other half for roasts and pulled pork and soulvaki. I will by 10 or more when they are on sale to make sure I have enough till the next sale. (major savings) I am so glad I found this thread I have a feeling it is going to help me a great deal. Thank you all so much for sharing.

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I still live at home but have been buying my own food since I was 18, unless my mom offers to make me something it's generally all my own (well sometimes we we share things we won't go through before it expires, like bread)...

Tonight we are having meatloaf, mashed potatoes and carrots.
The hamburg was $3.35
The mashed potatoes are approx .50 (1/4 of a 10 lb bag)
The carrots were .50 (1/2 a 3 lb bag)

Since it's just my Mom and I, a couple days a week we just don't feel like big meal, so we snack on hummus and pita, or whatever.. so if we averaged ALL our meals for the week, it'd be around 5$ a dinner..
If that makes sense lol

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Originally Posted by CanadianBella

Since it's just my Mom and I, a couple days a week we just don't feel like big meal, so we snack on hummus and pita, or whatever.. so if we averaged ALL our meals for the week, it'd be around 5$ a dinner..
If that makes sense lol

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Those are the best dinners! Along with some cut of veggies or fruit. YUM.

I made spaghetti yesterday for my lunches this week at work. I can't remember how much the sauce and noodles cost, but maybe 2$ all told, if I hadn't picked up delicious buns to go with it it'd be cheaper...

I have to be in a mood for vegi's, yeah.. bad I know :lol:

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Originally Posted by lekate

Those are the best dinners! Along with some cut of veggies or fruit. YUM.

I made spaghetti yesterday for my lunches this week at work. I can't remember how much the sauce and noodles cost, but maybe 2$ all told, if I hadn't picked up delicious buns to go with it it'd be cheaper...

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I'm really enjoying this post. This is a cheap dinner idea

Ground beef (2lb rolls fron nf. i think they were 2 or 3$)
1 can of campbells veggy soup and 1 of tomato soup(22cent each with coupons)
potatoes(lets say about 1$)

You fry up the ground beef. add the soups and season the way you like(salt, pepper, onion pwder.....)

make the potatoes the way you want and voila!

totals up to 4.44$ aproximately. this can feed 4 to 5 people.

This is a great thread with tons of super ideas!!!

Hubby and I are empty nesters now and I have a budget of $100 a week....that covers everything. I am allergic to wheat and we tend to not eat potatoes, rice, bread......we do eat a lot of veggies and lean meat, very little beef unless I can get some hormone free stuff, grass fed stuff.

Last night was super easy. A huge salad (half a bag of coleslaw with chopped green onions, broccollli, and red peppers) topped with BBQ chicken that was 7.27 at Superstore. We only ate about 1/3 of the meat. I made a stock with the bones and tonight will be homemade soup (lots of broccolli, onions, turnip, carrots, garlic, and peppers--all put in the blender after cooking for a great creamy soup without the cream)and a tuna salad with gluten free crackers...super inexpensive meal and there will be soup for at least two meals. The remaining chicken is used for sandwiches (i will never buy processed meats....) and maybe a pizza. So last night's supper would have cost no more than $5 including the salad dressing. We have a great veggie store that has red peppers on this week for 99cents a pound...broc crowns too!!

something else i do to get more veggies...instead of rice I put cauliflower in the food processor and grate it....added to a stir fry it makes a great fake rice!!! I will often combine it with onions, peppers, broc...what i have with a pile of this fake rice and some curry powder or paste ...with chicken or whatever...a great curry dish whose leftovers are coveted.

As a rule we eat lots of salads and lean meat. Homemade pizzas on torillas (rice for me) are a treat and made with chicken and veggies--and cheese of course, in moderation.

I buy all my meat at a butcher and its a lot cheaper and better quality then store! I also grow a garden and freeze and can some of my veg and fruits from the harvest.

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Originally Posted by C.RoyCanada

I'm really enjoying this post. This is a cheap dinner idea

Ground beef (2lb rolls fron nf. i think they were 2 or 3$)
1 can of campbells veggy soup and 1 of tomato soup(22cent each with coupons)
potatoes(lets say about 1$)

You fry up the ground beef. add the soups and season the way you like(salt, pepper, onion pwder.....)

make the potatoes the way you want and voila!

totals up to 4.44$ aproximately. this can feed 4 to 5 people.

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This sounds really good, do you put the sauce on the mashed potatoes or serve them separate?

You could either serve it on the side or on top of the potatoes. On the side is how i usualy serve it. That way everyone can mix if they want or not mix.