How I Feed Six of Us on About $150 a Week

The receipt from the checkout line this morning is still folded in my pocket, and it says $151.38. I stood there at the register with Ben on my hip, pulling a cracker out of his fist before the cashier had to scan it, and I did the thing I always do now, which is read the total and then read the top of the receipt backward to see where the money went.

Chicken thighs, six pounds, $1.29 a pound because they were the loss leader this week. Three pounds of ground beef at $4.99, which is more than I paid in the spring and I said so out loud to nobody. Two pounds of dried pinto beans. A ten-pound bag of rice, two dozen eggs, four cans of tomatoes, a bag of frozen broccoli the size of a pillow, onions, carrots, a gallon of milk and the cheapest pasta on the shelf. That part comes to $77.87, and it's been about the same skeleton since Lily was a baby. The other $73.51 is what turns a skeleton into a week: three loaves of bread, two jars of peanut butter, a two-pound block of cheese, tortillas, two boxes of cereal, bananas and apples, a tub of yogurt, butter, oats and two bags of frozen spinach.

I can't tell you whether $151 is a good number. The USDA's thrifty plan for a family our size comes out around $343 a week and I've never come anywhere near it, but I also have a husband with a steady paycheck and a Costco card and a garden that's about to hand me more zucchini than I can give away. What I can tell you is what that $151 turns into, because the plan has held up through a very bad February.

What actually gets cooked on Sunday

Sunday afternoon after church the roast is in the oven anyway, so I use the oven. The thighs go on two sheet pans with salt, pepper and nothing else, at 425 for about 40 minutes. While they roast I brown the beef with a diced onion in the big Dutch oven and set a pot of pinto beans on the back burner, soaked overnight on Saturday if I remembered and cheated with the quick-soak method if I didn't.

That's all of it, two and a half hours give or take a trip to settle an argument about the trampoline, and by supper I've got a pan of shredded chicken, a pot of seasoned beef and a pot of beans, all of it plain on purpose. Plain means Monday's chicken can be tacos and Thursday's can go in rice with soy sauce and frozen broccoli, and nobody notices they met the same bird.

I used to say the Sunday cook was about saving time, and then I started comparing receipts. The week I buy a jar of enchilada sauce and a bag of pre-seasoned something is the week I'm at $175, so the plain part is where the money stays.

The pound of beef that feeds six

A pound of ground beef feeds four in my house if the four are polite. Two pounds with a can of drained black beans folded in goes a lot further, and Caleb, who's eleven and eats like he's being paid by the bite, has never once said anything about it. I asked him this week whether he could tell, and he said "tell what?" and kept eating, which I'm counting as a clean result.

Lily is a different test, since she picks out whatever she's decided to be suspicious of that day, so beans get mashed against the side of the pan with the back of a spoon until they're part of the sauce. Ben, who is two and has opinions, eats the softest version of whatever the rest of us are having. I pull his portion before the chili spice goes in, and I cut the broccoli smaller than seems reasonable, and that's the entire adaptation. I didn't buy a single thing just for him.

Emma's in Provo for summer term and comes up some Sundays. When she does she takes seconds, then asks for a bag of the sauce to carry back to her apartment, and the plan stretches without anybody doing math.

Wednesday is the freezer night

Wednesday afternoons I'm at a friend's kitchen testing recipes with two women from the ward, and I walk back in the door around 5 with Ben asleep in the car seat and nothing started. So Wednesday is the night the freezer does the cooking.

About every other Sunday I make a double batch of the beef-and-bean sauce and flatten it into gallon bags, labeled on masking tape with a Sharpie, because I've learned the hard way that "mystery brown" is not a label. Wednesday I run a bag under warm water for a minute, drop it in a pot, boil the cheap pasta and open a bag of frozen spinach. Supper is done in the time it takes David to find the colander. Some of you will say that's not cooking, and you're welcome to your standards. When Emma was small I thought a freezer meal meant I'd given up, and by the time Lily came I'd have paid a stranger to hand me one. I've written before about what the family table is supposed to be, and a plate of pasta eaten at the counter while I'm still holding my car keys isn't the picture I had in my head back then.

Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.

Proverbs 30:8

The word that gets me is convenient, which in the King James means fitting, the amount that suits you. Not much, not a feast. Most of our weeks sit right there, and I've quit apologizing for the sameness of them.

What I'm still not sure about

Beef is what I can't settle. Retail beef is up something like 9 percent over last year, and at $4.99 I'm paying for the part of supper that gets stretched furthest. I can't decide whether to keep buying it and stretch it harder, or to give it up for a few months and go chicken and beans. David says keep it, because tacos are the one meal where nobody argues. I think he's right about the arguing and I'm not sure he's right about the math.

For now I'm buying two pounds instead of three and adding a second can of beans. We leave for Bear Lake a week from today, so the last two bags of sauce will ride up in the cooler for our first night at the cabin, and the freezer at home can sit empty for two weeks. If you've settled the beef question in your own house, tell me which way you went.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to feed a family of six for a week?

It moves with whatever's on sale, and mine land between $140 and $165. The USDA's moderate plan for six is closer to $465, so you can see I'm shopping the sales and not the guidelines. Chicken thighs, dried beans and rice do most of the work.

What's the cheapest protein to build the week around?

Chicken thighs when they're $1.29 or so, and eggs the week after. Dried beans run about $1.69 a pound and I stretch ground beef with beans because the beef is the price that keeps climbing. Chicken breast at $4.17 a pound never goes in my cart.

Does this work with a toddler and an eleven-year-old at the same table?

Yes, because everything gets cooked plain. I pull the toddler's portion before the spice goes in and cut his vegetables small, and the big kids get the full version with hot sauce. Nobody needs a separate recipe.

What do I need in the pantry to start?

Rice, pasta, dried or canned beans, canned tomatoes, onions, carrots, frozen broccoli and eggs. I'd add masking tape and a marker for the freezer bags. With those and one pan of cooked protein you can get through a Monday and a Wednesday without a recipe.

How long does the bulk cooking take?

About two and a half hours on a Sunday, most of it unattended. The oven does the chicken while the beans simmer, and I only stand at the stove for the beef. I'd start with one protein and add the second when it feels easy.

Thanks for reading on a Saturday. I've got a lawn to mow before Ben wakes up from his nap.

with love, Melissa