April’s No-spend Month Challenge, Day 3: Affordable Menu Options!

Hello again, savvy savers! So, for Day 2 I am challenging you all to come up with a list of a list of meals, with all of the staples being comprised of your freezer, deep freeze, stockpile, and pantry items. You will need to come up with:

  • 13 Breakfasts
  • 13 Lunches
  • 13 Snacks
  • 13 Dinner Options
  • 13 Desserts

Each option will be eaten twice for the remainder of the month, as the entire month will be rotated bi-weekly. Now, this task may seen daunting to you all, but consider the following:

  1. No-spend months are a great time for 5-can soups, dump cakes, casseroles, and pot pies. 
  2. This is also a great time to consider “Food Swapping,” with family, friends, and neighbors, where you will prep meals and then exchange the meals accordingly. 
  3. This is also the time to consider menu streamlining; eating the proper amount of meals, as well as small snacks throughout the day, as well as cutting your dependency on carbonated beverages, and instead eating healthier options all around, will not only fill you up more, stave off food cravings, which will ultimately end up costing you less the month over. 
  4. Consider using “Meatless Monday,”  food options; you can save up to $240.00 annually using this method once a week!
  5. You can also check out sites like SuperCook, where you can add the ingredients you have on hand to their database, to find recipes to suit your stockpile of goods!
  6. My best tip for today’s challenge, “Rollable Meals,” or meals that leftovers can be made into different meals using the same ingredients; for example on day 1 you make double the amount of hamburgers and a pan of brownies for dessert. On day two, you can take one patty, broken up and make breakfast tacos, and as a beef topped salad(s) for lunch, and using your additional reserved patties, make crockpot beef patties and gravy for dinner, and using your leftover brownies you can make two additional desserts to last the remainder of the week, brownie parfait cups, brownie flurries, or brownie and berry trifle!

Also, here are a few of my own recipes that can be made inexpensively:

 

Throwback Thursdays: Homemade Easy Bake Oven Chocolate Cake Mix & Frosting Kits, For Only $0.20!

Completely Couponed Coconut Mango Chicken Crockpot Curry

Blueberry Overnight French Toast Casserole!

1-Hour Freezer Cooking: Chicken and Dumplings!

Throwback Thursdays: Homemade French Dressing!

Making More Out Of Monday Meals: DIY Hot Cocoa Mix!

1-Hour Freezer Cooking: Frittatas!

Couponed Crockpot Chicken Mole!

Making More Out of Monday Meals: Misty’s Merry Maple Bacon Cookies!

Making More Out of Monday Meals: Homemade French Onion Soup Mix!

Easy Moroccan Tagine Chicken Recipe!

Neapolitan Trifle!

Cupboard Clearing Cake!

Couponed Crockpot Chicken Stew!

So, just get out a tablet, make a boxed grid; 11″x 8″, divide into a calendar, with seven boxes across, and four boxes down, and there you go! 

For further ideas, be sure to check out my Weekly Menu Section and Pinterest Menu Idea Boards!

Be sure to check Instagram tonight for today’s review!

misty1

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