How we ate for a week for only $32

With the baby going to be here soon (and all of our student loans) we have been trying to save money wherever we can. Lately we have been trying to eat for as cheap as possible. Last week we spent about $32 on food for at least 5 days. Here's how we did it.

What we bought at the Commissary:
1 pound ground pork- $1.40
1 pound pork sausage - $1.40
1 pound (frozen) breakfast sausage- $2.50
1 bag (2lbs) frozen boneless skinless chicken tenders- $4.99
1 dozen eggs- $1.60
Heavy cream- $2.00
1 8oz shredded cheddar cheese - $2.59
1 can of corn- $ .89
1/2 pound of ham lunch meat- $2.70
1/4 pound turkey lunch meat - $2.62
1/2 pound jalepeno cheese slices - $1.50
1 package of 3 bell peppers $1.50
Flour tortillas- $1.46
Linguini pasta- $.89
Total: approx.- $28.04
(a couple of these prices are best estimates because I lost the receipt, but most of them are exact)

What we bought at a local German store:
1 bag of onions - .79 euro
1 bag of potatoes- .89 euro
1 loaf of bread- 1 euro
1 loaf of french bread- .50 euro
Total: 3.18 euro or approx. 4 dollars

Grand Total: approx. $32.04

Breakfasts: 

Toast with peanut butter or jelly every day

Lunches: 

lunch meat sandwiches 2 days
left overs 3 days

Dinners:

Monday:
"Poormans meal"
Potatoes, onion, and hot dogs fried in pan with pepper/salt
- we had 4 hot dogs left in the freezer so I chopped those up for this meal

Tuesday:
Chicken tacos
-made with chicken, onion, and peppers in pan with cumin and pepper/salt
served with tortillas and sour cream/hot sauce (already had sour cream and hot sauce in fridge)
-side of corn which we just used on our tacos

Wednesday:
Linguini Alfredo with pork sausage
-Alfredo sauce homemade with butter, heavy cream, and Parmesan cheese (butter and cheese was already in our fridge)

Thursday: 
Chili
- made with ground pork, onions, kidney beans, and canned tomatoes (beans and tomatoes already in pantry) and spices
- served with brown rice (already in pantry)

Friday:
Breakfast casserole
-made with 6 eggs, potatoes, breakfast sausage, onions, and cheddar cheese


Now I realize that there are a few things that we already had available in our pantry or freezer. I think most people have at least a couple canned items, some different sauces, and hopefully spices and such readily available.

There was leftover pasta, chili, and breakfast casserole which we ate for lunch the next day. We had left over potatoes and onions that we can use for next week. We also didn't use all the eggs or all of the bag of frozen chicken which are both good for awhile.

This wasn't that big of a stretch for us because we have been meal planning our weeks for months now. We also typically eat this style of food, especially tacos and pasta which we eat regularly. The one big thing that saved us money was what meats we bought. We would normally buy ground beef rather than ground pork but found that ground pork and pork sausage are a lot cheaper than ground beef and just as tasty. We have been buying bags of frozen chicken for awhile because it is so much cheaper than it's fresh/ not frozen counterparts. It also is cheaper most of the time to buy bags of produce than to buy individual.

So that was our week of cheap eating. We are going to try to do this for awhile so I will post another meal plan soon. Let me know what you think! :)