Cheap Thrills: The Meal Planning Edition

My new favorite grocery store!

I have always placed a premium on having amazing experiences over amazing stuff. That paradigm of thinking pretty much permeates every facet of my life. Honestly, it was one of the biggest initial draws to sailing. If one has to rely on an engine to get to the places they hope to go, then one can be easily constrained by the cost and availability of fuel for their engine. Wind, however, is free to anyone willing to learn how to harness and use it, making the possibilities for travel considerably more varied and attainable.

All of that is a very nicely worded way of saying that I'm a self-proclaimed cheapskate. I love having big adventures and spending as little money to achieve them as possible. But there is definitely some logic behind my frugal thinking. The truth is that everything costs something, and a good many of the experiences I want for us to have on our 6-month journey downriver and out into the Caribbean will in fact cost us cash. So, being as frugal as possible in the places that I am able will afford us those opportunities for adventure in the future. One area that any of us, (whether on land or at sea), can control our spending in, is on the matter of groceries.

To tell the truth, food is generally something I care very little about. Left unto myself, I would likely survive on Debbie Snacks, Mello Yello, and whatever else I could grab and eat as I move onto my next task. I rarely find myself hungry, and pretty much eat because I know I'm supposed to and have to cook for my family anyway. So, I might as well enjoy socializing and eating with them as they sit and chow down. Most of my family, my husband included, happen to be foodies. Even our kids have very developed palettes and enjoy cooking and eating good food. Unfortunately, no matter which end of that spectrum you trend towards, (and you may trend towards one or the other based on this very fact), we are all kingly aware that eating well tends to result in spending more.

With the goal of saving as much money as possible on our trip, while simultaneously feeding my family well, I decided to do a little prep work on what our grocery situation might look like going forward. First, when making our budget for our trip, we determined that we really wanted to eat aboard as much as possible, but to allow ourselves at least one meal out a week. With a budget of $100 for our weekly meal out, and an allotted budget of $250 for groceries, we determined that $1400 should be a fair amount to feed a family of 4 for a month. It seemed like a reasonable place to start, but I began to get a bit nervous when I looked at the rest of the numbers. Let me explain. With 4 people, and 3 meals each day, that meant that I needed enough food for 12 meals a day. 12 meals a day comes to 84 meals a week, minus our one weekly meal out. Do you see why I got a bit nervous? This means that I needed to provide 83 meals a week at just about $3.00 per meal.

So $3.00 a meal is what began my hunt for some cheap good groceries, and while I've generally had very good luck at Aldi, I must say, grocery shopping at Dollar Tree never really occurred to me. I was fortunate enough to have stopped by Dollar Tree about a week prior to my little experiment to pick up batteries, and I noticed that they had a pretty extensive selection of food that I had mostly overlooked on previous visits. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I went down those aisles on my frugal excursion to find not only plenty of foods I was familiar with, (I suppose I was expecting pickled cod liver or something), but even name brand foods!

After ringing up a grand total of $97 and some change at Dollar Tree, I stopped by Aldi to pick up our fresh produce and whatever meats I didn't find at Dollar Tree. (Yes! We actually bought some frozen meat at Dollar Tree!) I spent $94 and some change at Aldi. That means I was able to get groceries at a total of $193 for the week. What was even more surprising is that I got more than enough for the week! With my haul, (visit this post to see what we got), I was able to make MORE than enough meals! I came up with 7 breakfasts, 8 lunches, 12 daily snacks, and 11 dinners! And we're not talking just PopTarts and Spam, (although I did buy PopTarts and Spam). Our breakfasts include pancakes, hashbrowns, sausage, and biscuits and gravy as well as PopTarts. And our dinners are everything from steak and chicken fajitas, to cheese tortellini, to orange chicken and rice, (with one experimental pasta and spam trial meal). Not only did I manage to get enough meals for the week, but I was able to get plenty of snacks like cookies, mandarin oranges, and granola bars to keep as well. This means that instead of 83 meals, I was able to get 100 meals for only $1.93 per meal!

You had better believe that my little cheapskate heart skipped beat when I discovered that I was not only able to meet but exceed our financial goal! Of course, now, I also had to make sure that the foodies in our household were pleased. Also, I didn't want my $193 to go to waste which means phase two of the experiment: EAT THE STUFF!

I am happy to report that though we have yet to make the rounds on all of the food, most of what we've had so far has been a success. Our 9-year-old was not a huge fan of the Campbell's Ham and Bean Soup, which simply means we'll stick with more of the loaded potato, tomato, and beef and barley varieties, all Campbell's and all $1.25 per can at Dollar Tree. The Hungry Jack hashbrowns ($1.25 for five servings) and Jimmy Dean sausage links ($2.00 for 6), both from Dollar Tree were given a 10/10 by the family. Our Suddenly Pasta Salad (2 boxes at $1.25 each from Dollar Tree) with Salami slices ($1.25 at Dollar Tree) and cherry tomatoes (half of the $1.79 from Aldi) made a fantastic lunch, and our Brownie King Brownie Bites ($1.25 for 8 from Dollar Tree) also got a big thumbs up.

I'm looking forward to continuing to create our delicious and inexpensive meals knowing that we are holding on to money that will allow us to spend extra nights in marinas, or have extra meals out, or spend a little more on an excursion during our 6-month voyage. Additionally, I'm excited about the money we'll save while we're still here on land for the next few months! Maybe now I can buy that rice cooker sitting on my Amazon Wish List and not feel bad about spending the extra cash!

For anyone interested, I have put together my meal menu from this initial haul on our members page! Please join our page and feel free to reach out if you have any questions or suggestions for other cheap but yummy meals we might try!

Peace and Blessings,

Mindi