How to Feed a Family of Four on $75/Week

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With runaway inflation and interest rates through the roof, everyone is feeling the squeeze right now. Cutting your grocery bill is one of the easiest and fastest ways to save money. In this post, I will show you how to feed a family of four on $75/week.

Get your Free printable menu and shopping list here.

Why $75/week is realistic, but tight

With $75/week to spend on groceries, you can get a range of foods; proteins, starches, veggies and some fruit and dairy. While not extravagant, you can cover the basics and have some variety-no need to eat only bland beans and rice!

Who this plan works for

This plan is doable for four adults, two adults and two children, or one adult with three children, etc. Families come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and this plan can work for a variety of family compositions.

Who this plan would not work for

This meal plan and grocery budget is designed for the “average” person. It doesn’t consider food allergies or special dietary requirements. That being said, this plan can be used as a guideline and inspiration to save you money and you can tailor it to your own family’s needs. This meal plan does not include beverages such as coffee, tea, soda, juice, alcohol or “drinking” milk. If you or a family member are pregnant or nursing, or you have small children that would need to drink milk, or a few more calories in their diet, you may want to pinch the budget more in other areas to allow a little more spending on groceries.

Math Breakdown

$75/week / 7 days = $10.70 a day. That’s $2.67per person per day, three meals a day, or .89 a meal. Breakfast, lunch and supper. That’s 84 meals for $75!

Core Staples

I created this meal plan assuming you had oil, salt and pepper in the cupboards at home. The vast majority of us are blessed to have much more than that on hand, however, I created this plan so that if you had nothing except oil, salt and pepper you could feed your family on $75/week.

The core staples of this week of $75 groceries is pasta, flour, rice, beans, potatoes and chicken.

How to make it work

In order to feed a family of four on $75/week, you will need to be strategic and you will need to cook from scratch. Convenience comes at a premium price, and on a tight budget, you can’t afford to be frivolous. You can save money by doing the prep work and cooking yourself.

Mind portion sizes. 74% of Americans are overweight. We eat too much. If you take the time to look up proper serving sizes and compare your findings with your own serving sizes, odds are you are putting too much on your plate. In a society where we have outsourced much of our work to computers and machines, I think we have become lazy and eat as a form of entertainment rather than to fuel our bodies with nourishing foods.

At the end of this post I will have a few tips on how to make wiggle room in the budget for some treats.

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The Meals

Breakfasts

Oatmeal (3x)

Pancakes (with homemade simple syrup) (3x)

Eggs and toast (2 eggs per person) (1x)

Lunches

Tuna salad sandwiches (2x)

Peanut butter toast with fruit

Peanut butter and jelly

Supper leftovers

Suppers

Whole roasted Chicken

Chicken soup (2 nights)

Spaghetti with ground turkey sauce

Turkey chili on rice

Veggie and egg stir fry

Leftovers

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Menu Notes

With this plan, you will bake 3 loaves of homemade bread. It is not very difficult to do and you will save money (plus make the house smell great!) You will be utilizing leftovers, especially towards the end of the week, the last supper of the week will more or less be “leftover night”. I know some folks strongly dislike leftovers. Growing up in a household with 10 people, we ate leftovers. If disliking leftovers is something you struggle with, maybe this is your chance to learn to enjoy them, or at least tolerate them for a season while you are saving money.

You will also have enough flour and baking powder, butter and milk that you could make homemade biscuits if you choose. Biscuit dough can also be used to make dumplings for your chicken soup.

Where to shop

This menu price list is based on Hannaford. You can stretch your dollar further by shopping at Walmart, Aldi, etc. In my area, I do not have an Aldi and the Walmart does not have fresh produce and meats. You can absolutely replicate this menu in your area shopping sales and cheaper priced stores for less than I have done here. If you do shop at Hannaford’s, don’t forget to take advantage of their rewards program, check the sales flyer and look over the coupons to see if there are any you could use on this meal plan.

Grocery list/Prices

Produce

Bananas (8) 0.19/ea

Garlic (1 head) 0.99/ea

Celery (1 sm bunch) 2.99

Red potatoes (4lb bag) 2.50

Carrots (1lb) 1.29

Macintosh apples (3) 0.86/ea

Yellow onion (1) 0.62/ea

Meat

Ground turkey (1lb) 4.99

Whole chicken (1) approx. 4.5lb 8.06

Tuna (2) 5oz cans 1.29

Dairy and Eggs

Eggs (18ct) 2.97

Cheddar cheese (1) 8oz block 2.25

Whipped butter (1) 8oz 1.99

Whole milk (1) 1/2 gal 2.29

Frozen

Stir fry mixed vegetables (2) 12oz 1.59/ea

Baking

All purpose flour(1) 10lb 4.82

Active dry yeast (3ct pkt) 1.49

Granulated sugar(1) 2lb 2.89

Baking powder(1) 2.59

Pasta/grains

Old fashioned oats(1) 18oz canister 2.69

Small white beans 1lb 1.99

White rice(1) 2lb bag 1.94

Spaghetti (1) 2lb

Other

Canned Diced tomatoes (seasoned is good if you don’t have much seasoning at home) (1) 14.5oz can 0.89

Tomato paste (1) 6oz 0.89

Canned Tomato sauce(1) 15oz 0.89

Canned Tomato sauce (1) 29 oz can 1.49

Peanut butter (1) 16oz 2.00

Grape jelly (1) 18oz 1.99

Mayonnaise (1) 15oz 2.99

Soy sauce(1) 5oz bottle 1.89

Chili seasoning pkt (1) 0.79

Grand Total: $74.99

What to do

Food Prep

When you get back from the store cook your rice and beans. The rice will be used in chicken soup, for the turkey chilli over rice and the veggie stir fry with eggs. The beans will be used for the chili and could also be added to the soup for more protein if you wish.

Portion out the ground turkey, half for spaghetti sauce and half for the chili.

Bake 3 loaves of bread.

To make simple syrup for the pancakes (if you don’t have money for maple syrup) simmer equal parts sugar and water until it thickens. A little splash of vanilla is a nice touch if you have any.

Breakfasts

Oatmeal can be served with some peanut butter, banana slices, and cinnamon if you have any a sprinkle of sugar, and a slice of toast.

If you have pancakes and oatmeal three times each, you can serve two eggs and toast per person one morning. That will leave you 3 eggs for pancake mix (one egg per batch) and eggs to scramble for the stir fry. If you use 4 eggs for the stir fry, that leaves you with 3 eggs. You can either boil them for egg salad sandwiches or serve boiled egg halves along side the tuna sandwiches and fruit. Or, you can make more pancakes.

Pancakes can be served with peanut butter and sliced bananas.

Suppers

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Make the roasted chicken the first night with some mashed potatoes and one bag of the frozen veggies on the side. I have a recipe for that here. Be mindful of how much butter and milk you use, you want enough to last the week. You may want to opt out of smothering your potatoes with milk and butter and just stick with gravy made from the drippings from the chicken. Pick the leftover meat from the bones, save the meat and bones for soup.

Simmer the chicken carcass with half the onion, salt and pepper and a few minced cloves of garlic to make the base for your soup. Remove all the bones from the pot. Dice up some of the carrots, some potatoes and some of the celery. Put them into the broth with the leftover meat and simmer. If you want to add dumplings, mix up a batch of biscuit dough and drop by the spoonful all around the top of the simmering soup. Cover and let simmer about 10 minutes. dumplings should look sticky on the outside and be fluffy on the inside. Serve with some of the cooked rice for a more filling bowl.

To make the spaghetti sauce, brown 1/2 lb of the ground turkey in some oil. You saved 1/2 your onion when you made chicken soup. Cut the remaining half in two and dice one portion (1/4 onion) and add to the turkey. Mince a few cloves of the garlic and add that to the pot. If you have any italian seasoning and or bay leaves on hand, they would be a great addition to your sauce. But if not, it’s ok, it will still be good with salt, pepper, the onion and garlic. You will use the 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, the 15 oz can of tomato sauce and the 6oz can of tomato paste for the spaghetti sauce. Add to the ground turkey and simmer a few minutes. One pound of spaghetti is about four servings. Cook 1/2 of your 2 lb box of spaghetti.

Breadstick tip

You can use the heels of your homemade bread for breadsticks to go with your pasta. If you cut the heels off all the loaves that’s 6 slices. You can lightly butter them and toast them at 350 degrees on a cookie sheet in the oven. If you have any italian seasoning sprinkle some on top before toasting. You can also grate some of your block of cheddar cheese and sprinkle on the toast and on your pasta. When the bread is toasted, cut in halves or strips to make “breadsticks”.

To make your turkey chili, brown up the remaining 1/2 of the ground turkey in a bit of oil. Add the chili seasoning and the 29oz can of tomato sauce. Add some of the cooked beans and simmer for a few minutes. Serve over rice with shredded cheddar from your block of cheddar cheese.

For the stir fry, sauté the last bag of frozen stir fry veggies in a bit of oil. Scramble and cook four eggs. Add some of your beans for more protein/more filling meal. Season with soy sauce, salt and pepper. Serve over rice.

Lunches

Lunches are pretty straight forward. You can stretch one can of tuna for 4 sandwiches if you add diced celery and mince the last 1/4 of your onion (if you like onion) with the mayo. Two cans of tuna, stretched with the celery and onion can make 8 sandwiches (two lunches). The extra boiled egg halves, apple slices, bananas and carrot sticks make good lunch sides to go with your sandwiches.

Peanut butter toast topped with banana slices makes another good lunch option, as well as the good ol’ PB&J standby.

Utilizing leftovers

Warming up any leftover soup or chili is another easy lunch option. You also will have another pound of spaghetti, you can cook it up and top with a little minced garlic toasted in a bit of butter or oil in a pan, and shred some of your cheddar on top for protein and flavor.

If you have potatoes left, you can boil them and make a hash out of potato and any leftover side veggies, rice, beans, etc.

If you run out of homemade bread

Slicing the bread more on the thicker side will yield fewer slices for sandwiches. If you run out and have no yeast left, (you’ll use one yeast pkt per loaf, so you probably won’t) you can make biscuits and use those for sandwiches. My great-grandmother Eunice made fresh biscuits in her wood cookstove every morning for the kids’ school lunch sandwiches and her husband’s lunch. Biscuits are much faster to make because you don’t have to knead them or wait for them to rise.

If you are under budget and want a few “extras”

As I said before, you could very well get these ingredients cheaper where you live. If you stayed under budget after getting all your ingredients, or you have a few extra dollars to spare you might want to consider adding one or a few of these:

A little sour cream and/or corn chips for your chili

Another dozen eggs for breakfasts, snacks or egg salad sandwhiches

Milk, juice, coffee or tea to drink

A larger container of oats

Another package of yeast

A bigger bag of flour

Another bag of potatoes/carrots

More onions/celery/garlic

Another chicken or another pkg of turkey burger

The Treat Jar

If things are really tight and you are trying to save but still want some treats here and there, here are some ideas that can add up. Grab a jar to use as the “treat jar”. Put any extra little treat money in this jar and you can spend it on treats without feeling guilty or blowing your budget.

Collect and turn in your bottles and cans. As a freshman in high school, I collected bottles and cans for 6 months to buy a guitar for school.

Clean out the car. Look in the cup holders, door pockets, etc. for loose change.

Clean under the couch and in the couch cushions. There usually is some change under there. And your missing sock. And the clicker for the TV, LOL.

Check the laundry room. I keep a jar by my washer and dryer for change I find in the wash. This can go in your treat jar.

Sell stuff you no longer want or need. The Instant Pot you vowed would revolutionize your cooking routine but you only used 3 times? That could be another $5-$10 in your treat jar.

Did you dog/cat sit for the neighbor? Maybe that’s another $20 for your treat jar.

Birthday card cash? In the treat jar.

I think you get the point. Won’t be long and you will have enough in your treat jar for all 4 of you to get a kiddie cone down the street. Or you could save it up and maybe go out for appetizers/lunch one day a month. Or buy soda/alcohol once in a while or go to Dunkin/Starbucks without busting the budget.

I hope you have found this helpful. Cooking from scratch, thinking “outside the box” and developing a frugal mindset can take time, but it is totally doable. I have provided a free printable menu and grocery list for your convenience. Also linked here is my video on How to make Easter dinner for 6+ people for $40. Take care all!

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