I'm still looking for a title for my new blog, so any suggestions would be magnificent. I am going to be posting about feeding my family on a $50 dinner budget each week. This seems like an easy task, but I have a family of 6. Meat isn't cheap, fresh fruits and vegetables aren't cheap, and trying new things can tend to be on the pricey side too (buying ingredients I don't usually keep on hand, for instance). I mean, I could easily feed my family on starchy and processed foods that come straight from a box. I could probably do it for about $25 a week. A giant package of hamburger, a small package of chicken, 5 or 6 varieties of "Helper" meals, and we're golden. But we hate that stuff here. I love to cook from scratch, and it makes me feel like a much better mom (and person in general) to know that I have managed to turn random items into a delicious dinner that will send my kids to bed with something delicious and nutritious in their tummies.
So, the way my blog will work is this. I will come up with a 5 night menu (wait, you say I'm cheating by spending $50 on only 5 meals? No. I'm not. I only have 3 of my 4 kids for 5 nights a week, and on weekends I only have to feed a two year old and two adults. My plan is to incorporate enough food into our weekly meals so that we can make use of leftovers on weekends by either recycling the same menu, or reusing what we made to turn it into something better; for instance, leftover spaghetti and sauce turns into spaghetti pie.) I will estimate the cost of these meals (you won't see the estimate) and then shop for them. I will post my shopping results and give you a breakdown of cost. I will also post all recipes that I use (or a link to them if I have already used them, once the blog gets going.)
I will also be finding a new home for my blog. I've toyed with asking my local paper to host it so that I can get some local advertising and traffic, but in order to do that, I need to make sure this is a solid idea, and I NEED A TITLE!!! This is my only issue right now. I'm not sure what I should call it. Frugal With Fifty? Feed Them With Fifty? I don't want people to think I'm writing a blog for people getting ready to send in their AARP membership, so I'm worried about the title not being plain enough to convey the point of my blog. I want to attract readers who are exactly like me.
I am a mom. A stay at home mom, actually. I love to cook (especially dinner, since it's the only real meal I get to share with my kids all together.) I hate that it's sometimes a struggle to get my 6 year old to eat meat, or that my 11 year old inexplicably hates tacos (WHAT kid hates tacos???), or that my 2 year old just doesn't want to stay seated during dinner. It's also impossible to keep track of what they do and do not like since this can change from one day to the next. My 9 year old will like pepperoni pizza, then he won't, then he will but he has to pick the pepperonis off and eat them after the pizza is gone. It's exasperating sometimes to keep them all happy at once. So feeding them can be a huge expense, and like most people these days, we are struggling a little with the economy being the way it is. Fuel costs are up, meaning transportation is getting more and more expensive, which means the food being delivered to our grocery stores is getting ridiculously pricy. I'm tired of ALWAYS looking for coupons for every single thing that I buy (although I'm an occasional Couponaholic.) Sometimes it's nice to just have a plan that I know will end with me walking out of the store with what I need, not what I want to stock up on now while it's cheap. I don't want my kids to ever have to "eat cheap" because bills are due and fuel needs to go into our tank for heat. I don't want them to look back and remember when we ate hamburger helper for a week straight because that was all we had in the house (never happened, by the way, because as I mentioned, we HATE that stuff!!!) I want them to remember fresh vegetables, meat that isn't always ground up, and most importantly that their mom took the time to prepare something that she could be proud to feed them.
So, the way my blog will work is this. I will come up with a 5 night menu (wait, you say I'm cheating by spending $50 on only 5 meals? No. I'm not. I only have 3 of my 4 kids for 5 nights a week, and on weekends I only have to feed a two year old and two adults. My plan is to incorporate enough food into our weekly meals so that we can make use of leftovers on weekends by either recycling the same menu, or reusing what we made to turn it into something better; for instance, leftover spaghetti and sauce turns into spaghetti pie.) I will estimate the cost of these meals (you won't see the estimate) and then shop for them. I will post my shopping results and give you a breakdown of cost. I will also post all recipes that I use (or a link to them if I have already used them, once the blog gets going.)
I will also be finding a new home for my blog. I've toyed with asking my local paper to host it so that I can get some local advertising and traffic, but in order to do that, I need to make sure this is a solid idea, and I NEED A TITLE!!! This is my only issue right now. I'm not sure what I should call it. Frugal With Fifty? Feed Them With Fifty? I don't want people to think I'm writing a blog for people getting ready to send in their AARP membership, so I'm worried about the title not being plain enough to convey the point of my blog. I want to attract readers who are exactly like me.
I am a mom. A stay at home mom, actually. I love to cook (especially dinner, since it's the only real meal I get to share with my kids all together.) I hate that it's sometimes a struggle to get my 6 year old to eat meat, or that my 11 year old inexplicably hates tacos (WHAT kid hates tacos???), or that my 2 year old just doesn't want to stay seated during dinner. It's also impossible to keep track of what they do and do not like since this can change from one day to the next. My 9 year old will like pepperoni pizza, then he won't, then he will but he has to pick the pepperonis off and eat them after the pizza is gone. It's exasperating sometimes to keep them all happy at once. So feeding them can be a huge expense, and like most people these days, we are struggling a little with the economy being the way it is. Fuel costs are up, meaning transportation is getting more and more expensive, which means the food being delivered to our grocery stores is getting ridiculously pricy. I'm tired of ALWAYS looking for coupons for every single thing that I buy (although I'm an occasional Couponaholic.) Sometimes it's nice to just have a plan that I know will end with me walking out of the store with what I need, not what I want to stock up on now while it's cheap. I don't want my kids to ever have to "eat cheap" because bills are due and fuel needs to go into our tank for heat. I don't want them to look back and remember when we ate hamburger helper for a week straight because that was all we had in the house (never happened, by the way, because as I mentioned, we HATE that stuff!!!) I want them to remember fresh vegetables, meat that isn't always ground up, and most importantly that their mom took the time to prepare something that she could be proud to feed them.
I will try new recipes, post my old favorites, and most definitely share my failures with you. If a recipe was a waste, I'll tell you. If I went grossly over budget, you will be the first to know! So, follow me on my journey to feeding them frugally!
