Would your family eat 50 pounds of potatoes for 4 weeks worth of meals? When I decided to buy a 50-pound bag of potatoes, I knew I was going to need to be creative.
For my family, I knew the biggest complaint would be eating potatoes every night for dinner. For some reason my family likes variety in their meals; well, everyone but my youngest.
Here is a simple formula to follow for variety with potato meals:
Choice 1: Breakfast meals
Choice 2: Crockpot meals
Choice 3: Soup meals
Choice 4: Casserole meals
Choice 5: Side Dish meals
I should note that my kids eat tacos every Tuesday, and Sundays are for leftovers. That leaves me with planning 5 dinner meals each week.
I started a Pinterest board and began looking for recipes that would fall under one of my choices. Then I created 4 weeks worth of meals following the formula.
I was excited to find a 50-pound bag of potatoes for $10.00; that put my per-pound cost at 20 cents. I tried to average 2 pounds of potatoes per meal.
I try to only buy meat that averages $2.50 per pound or less. Most of the meals call for 2 pounds or less of meat.
I have a personal aversion to canned vegetables, so I buy frozen. I generally get them on sale for 88 cents a bag.
Since my family is gluten and dairy-free I do not have to budget for dairy items or breads.
I was able to average $5.00 or less for each dinner meal. Which calculated to spending an average of $25 a week to feed my family of 6. Multiply that by 4 weeks for a total of $100 spent on groceries.
Yes, $100 to feed my family of 6 for a whole month.
Our favorite thing we learned was that baked potatoes in the crock pot are amazing and a great time saver. My kids found some new favorites and meals like Greek Chicken, will be added to our regular meal planning.
If you would like to read a detailed account of what each week looked like, a cost analysis of each meal and a free printable of my menu visit my personal blog and read Living Off a 50 Pound Bag of Potatoes.
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