Heavenly Homemakers

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Sam’s or Costco: Which is Better??

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If you have a Sam’s or Costco membership – or both like I do – I’m wondering if you have an opinion about which is better. :)

My first membership purchase was Costco because I polled Facebook and the overall consensus was that Costco was better. So I joined in and love it!

A few months later, I came across a pay $45 for a Sam’s membership, get $45 back in gift card. So basically a free Sam’s membership! I took advantage of the deal simply because I live 45-minutes from Grand Island, which only has a Sam’s. And I live about an hour from Lincoln, which has both Sam’s and Costco. So I now have the ability to shop at either warehouse or both as needed!

Sam’s or Costco: Which is Better??

Well now, that’s the question, isn’t it?

I truly like them both for different reasons, and now that I have both memberships, I think I will keep them both for the long term.

My favorite aspects of Sam’s:

  1. Their Scan-and-Go feature. I absolutely love this! As I put items into my cart, I scan the bar code into my phone. It keeps a running tally of my order, then when I finish shopping I simply swipe to pay, then show my phone to the worker as I leave. SO EASY and a huge time saver!!!
  2. They offer a pick-up option. This is super handy if I want to avoid going inside to shop. Just like I do with my frequent Wal-mart pick-up orders, I can order my Sam’s groceries online and select a time to pick them up. Very convenient!
  3. They have a few fun food items that Costco doesn’t have. Now that I’ve shopped both stores for several months, I’ve found items that I prefer from each place so I make sure to grab them while I’m there. (Orange Chicken from Sam’s frozen section – a great convenience food I always pick up at my family’s request! And what is it about the delicious frozen Sam’s beef hotdogs??)
  4. Markdowns. Sometimes I find meat marked down. Sometimes they are clearing out items for huge clearance prices. It’s so fun to come across these steals!

I don’t have a fun money-saving code for Costco. But I do have this one for Sam’s and you’ll get a free $20 eGift card when you join!

My favorite aspects of Costco:

  1. Organic food. There is a much bigger selection of organic food at Costco – from fresh produce to frozen food to meat to cereal and coffee. I love this. So many organic items at such good prices! So overall, if I had to pick, I’d say I like Costco food better than Sam’s.
  2. Their clothes. Sam’s also has great clothes and I’ve found that with so many kids in our home now, I really take advantage of both stores when it comes to jammies, school clothes, and coats. But clothes for me and for my older sons – man Costco is awesome. Such a great high-quality selection (and you never know what you might find!) at such great prices.
  3. Gifts. There is always a really nice selection of items I like to look through to pick up as gifts for birthdays and showers. I have to be careful when shopping, actually, because their stuff is so cool, I find I want one of everything!

Is there a price difference?

The Costco membership costs more, especially since I got my Sam’s membership for free for the first year.

Of the items we can get at both Costco and Sam’s, I’ve found that maybe a few items here and there are a few cents or dollars different in cost. But there hasn’t been anything I’ve found to be drastic enough for me to say, “I’ll wait and get that at Costco (or Sam’s).” Both have great prices on bulk items!!

So in summary, I love both Costco and Sam’s and I’m glad I don’t have to pick one!

What’s your opinion on which is better, Sam’s or Costco?

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How to Save Money on Eating Out

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We save money on eating out simply by not eating out much. Boring, right?? To some, maybe. But we have fun with food in other ways, which gives us treats while saving a lot of money! Here are some fun ideas I wanted to share with you today!

A few weeks ago, I shared about how our family avoids eating out. We do this to save money, to avoid the hassle of taking a bunch of little kids into a restaurant (oy!!), and to keep ourselves from feeling crummy.

The irony

As I’m writing this post, I’m currently sitting just outside of Panera sipping something delicious, for which I paid $4.00. Earlier today, I ate a burger and fries at Culver’s. What do I have to say for myself?? :)

I have to say that I’m not against eating out at all! We just don’t do it very often, and when we do, it’s a big treat! Today – the day I’m writing this post – I am taking a day off, which I do about once every month if I can. I leave the kids behind with Daddy and big brothers and any other helpers we wrangle, and I go out of town to do a big grocery shopping and work day. These days are INCREDIBLE for my mental health as we care for so many high-need children in our home right now.

My day off always includes at least one meal out and usually a coffee treat. It’s a hot one today, so I am really enjoying my Charged Lemonade from Panera (while I write about avoiding Panera, hahaha). Anyway…

Why don’t we eat out much?

We’re the geeky people who can’t handle ordering an $8 plate of pancakes and eggs for breakfast at a restaurant because we are silently (ok, verbally) calculating the $0.90 we would have spent on that same plate of food had we made it at home.

Truly, we are a barrel of fun at a restaurant. :/

Awwww. Here we are back when we only had four kids.
This was our traditional back-to-school restaurant meal.
See? We are so much fun. Sometimes.

Today I will share some ways we eat fun food at home while saving a lot of money on restaurant prices!

How to Save Money on Eating Out

The short answer is this: We make restaurant-type food at home when we need a fast meal or when we want/need a night off from cooking or dishes.

Here’s a price breakdown to show you how much money we save when we buy convenience foods at the store compared to buying them made for us at a restaurant. (Obviously, you’ll save even more if you make these foods from scratch!)

Chicken Nuggets and Fries

I buy big bags of nuggets and fries at Costco. We cook them in our air fryer, slice some apples, and this makes a delicious fast food meal for $10.16 – total! For ten people (four adults, three kids, and three toddlers). This is huge savings and super fun for our family! We had a movie night on this particular “French Fry Friday.”

Burgers and Fries

Burgers cost a bit more to make, but even with high quality, pre-made patties that I pick up at Sam’s or Costco, our family can have a burger and fry night for a total of $15.34.

How much would burgers and fries cost our family at a restaurant? Our littlest kids would eat from our meals, so we’d probably buy four adult meals, and three kid meals. This would cost $47.03 at McDonand’s. And we’d have spilled ketchup everywhere. We’d rather spill our ketchup at home. ;)

Note: We do grab fast food while traveling sometimes! Usually we pick up a few boxes of 20-piece nuggets and a couple large fries for everyone to share. It’s a fun, crazy picnic!

Pizza

The best I can find for a take-out pizza right now is $10.99 for a one-topping.

Meanwhile, I can make a loaded pizza at home for $5.75. Or I can make frozen pizzas from Costco for $3.42 each. We need three large pizzas for our family, so we can either spend $33 total for take-out or $10.26 total for frozen. Take-out is fun, but so is frozen pizza! The kids love pizza nights!

Chicken Sandwiches

I don’t buy these very much, but when I do, we all love this!

I buy a bag of frozen chicken patties at our local grocery store – $4.48 for a bag of ten patties plus a package of buns for $1.29. This makes each sandwich cost $0.58. Currently, McChickens are $1.79. :)

Hotdogs

You know me, I always grab a hotdog while I’m shopping at Costco.

The dog/drink deal there is $1.50 which is awesome and it helps me survive my huge shopping trip, ha! If we ever took the family there (maybe someday when the littles are old enough to help!), I think this will be a perfect “meal out” to treat everyone to the hotdog and drink for just a buck fifty each!

Meanwhile, at home I make the awesome beef hotdogs from Sam’s, which cost $0.56 each.

Ice Cream

We don’t give our little ones much sugar yet, but not to worry, our big kids make up for it. And at the end of a long day after all the littles are finally tucked in, Matt and I sometimes have an ice cream date on the couch. :)

We’ve been getting the 48-ounce Wal-mart brand cartons, which is a Bryer’s knock off. These are made with slightly better ingredients than some brands, and they only cost $2.24/carton! What a fun date for just a few cents!

Those are some of our treats at home. What ways do you have treats at home to save money?

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Our $2.00/Plate Ham and Potato Meal – with Walmart Groceries

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I’ve been sharing fun meals we’ve been making recently with groceries from Costco. (Check them out here and here.) Since not everyone has a Costco membership, I decided to also share the cost breakdown of a meal I made using Wal-Mart groceries!

None of us really has time to break down the cost of our groceries to calculate the cost of each meal. But I have enjoyed doing the math for this series of inexpensive meals I’m sharing so that we can all see that while grocery prices are going up, we can STILL eat great meals at low cost!

This meal broke down to just $0.99/person!! —>

I challenge you to consider doing a little price break-down sometime with some of your family’s favorite meals. I bet you will be surprised at how inexpensive it is to eat great food at home with your family. :)

Our $2.00/Plate Ham and Potato Meal – with Wal-mart Groceries

I chose to do a price breakdown of a meal that doesn’t actually use the least expensive of ingredients: pre-made frozen hashbrowns, a package of diced ham, sour cream, and cheese. While some of the other meals I make costs less than this one, this Ham and Hashbrown Casserole shows a great example of how even a meal like this can still be made for only $2.00/person!

This meal includes:

Total to feed our 10 family members that night: $20.26

This averages $2.03/person with (4) adults eating more and (6) kids ages eight and under eating less. Our eight-year-old eats more than I do though, ha!

Nervous about spending money on fruits and vegetables? Do you skimp on these healthy foods in an effort to save money? Eeeek! Read this surprising post which shares how our family daily eats a lot of fresh, frozen, or canned fruits and veggies for a shockingly low amount per month.

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Our $0.99 Per Plate Costco Meal!

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Check out our $0.99 per plate Costco Meal!

Once again, I’m so happy to share another meal that costs such a small amount to feed an entire family!

The Backstory

Our six-year-old has been trying to lose her two front teeth and she thought eating chicken legs would help!! I wish you could see her beautiful face, but for now, here she is in the yellow dress:

Per her suggestion, the next time we went to Costco, I picked up a package of chicken legs. I have got to remember to buy these more often!! It only cost $8.60 for 30 chicken legs!!!

I marinated and smoked half of the package of chicken for this meal and was amazed that I could make 15 chicken legs for only $4.30. They were incredibly delicious! With baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, and chilled watermelon, we had a feast!

Our $0.99 Per Plate Costco Meal

Total cost for 10 of us (four adults and six littles ages eight and under):

  • Chicken Legs
  • Baked Potatoes
  • Broccoli
  • Watermelon

$9.89

Which breaks down to just $0.99/plate.

Everyone was especially hungry that night so even the littlest babes put away a fairly nice amount of food!

Isn’t it exciting? Even with rising grocery prices, we can still enjoy wonderful, healthy meals for less than $1.00!

More money-saving posts you might like:

Did our girl lose her teeth?

Well yes. But not because of the chicken legs. It was a good try though, huh?!

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Big Family Food: How We Afford Fruits and Vegetables

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Curious how we afford fruits and vegetables?

How We Afford Fruits and Vegetables

People keep telling me that fruits and vegetables are SO EXPENSIVE. That they can’t afford them. That I’m really splurging when I buy so much fresh fruit every month.

I couldn’t figure out if I was in denial about this or if maybe I’m so used to buying so much produce that I don’t “see the expense” anymore. Or, is it possible that fruits and vegetables really are affordable but the first look at their price scares some people? I really wasn’t sure.

So I did some fruit and veggie math.

We’re currently feeding ten people three meals each day. Our three littlest are ages 2, 1, and 1. Our four oldest household members are adults, so it balances out. :)

Our monthly grocery budget is $1,200. Of that amount, I calculated and was shocked to learn that only about $300 is spent on fruits and vegetables. (I looked online at all my Sam’s, Costco, and Walmart receipts, so handy!) I truly thought it would add up to more than that since my produce purchases are so frequent and big.

So I did the math again to double-check.

Sure enough, only about a fourth of our overall monthly grocery budget goes toward these, and I don’t hold back:

  • Frozen green beans
  • Frozen peas
  • Frozen corn
  • Frozen fruit for smoothies
  • Frozen hashbrowns
  • Fresh spinach (we go through at least one pound every week)
  • Fresh spring mix (we go through two pounds every week)
  • Fresh carrots
  • Potatoes
  • Onions
  • Fresh broccoli
  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Clementines
  • Berries ( strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries depending on the season)
  • Melons (cantaloupe, honey dew, and watermelon depending on the season)
  • Grapes
  • Kiwi
  • Pears
  • Canned pumpkin
  • Canned peaches
  • Canned pears
  • Canned mandarins
  • Applesauce (a ridiculous amount of applesauce)

Where I landed after doing the math:

Feeding my family a lot of fruits and veggies is not expensive.

I sort of apologize for my geekiness, but as it turns out, I’m pretty excited that I went back and added it all up! Now I feel like I have an actual answer to the “fruits and veggies so expensive” claim!

If I’m spending $300 of our monthly grocery budget on produce – for 10 people for 30 days? This breaks down to just:

$1/person/day.

Which is $0.33/meal.

This, to fill our bellies with lots of fresh, frozen, or canned fruits and vegetables in a big variety of forms. That’s actually incredible, I think! Especially when our plates look like this:

Steamed broccoli, corn, raspberries, and nectarine on spaghetti night;
and no, I don’t put sauce on our baby’s noodles because I don’t want the mess. :)

This was our 8-year-old’s first serving. He had seconds of all you see here:

Here’s Matt’s plate the evening we celebrated Asa’s birthday with
smoked chicken, alfredo, and steamed broccoli:

One Sunday lunch was spinach on tuna sandwiches, watermelon, and guacamole.
This was our 6-year-old’s plate. She’s a pretty small eater. Unless it’s cake. :)
(But now, of course, I’ve been putting spinach our the cake so…)

Our three year old asked for spinach on the side with ranch and watermelon with his tuna sandwich that day. Not pictures, his tuna sandwich as he gobbled it down already.

This is my plate filled with Overnight Beef Roast, pears, peas, and baked beans. (In case you need to know, I didn’t actually cook it overnight. I cooked it all day and it was perfect for dinnertime!)

Here’s my plate showing our salmon burger meal with steamed green beans, corn, sweet potato fries, and a tiny bit of asparagus from our garden! (We each only got a little bit of asparagus.) ;)

PSA: The Avocado Mash cups at Costco or Sam’s are worth their cost in that they stay fresh in the fridge for a long time and offer an awesome, easy snack or side dish for babies and adults alike. Our littlest girls LOVE these and will each eat an entire cup with their meal. We bigger people like to eat them with chips. So good!

In case you need to see a chubby baby hand a couple more times:

So, can I afford $10/day to feed 10 people fruits and vegetables?

Absolutely. I can spend a dollar a day on each family member to keep us all nourished. I am shocked that it costs so little to buy so many varieties of fruits and vegetables every month. Is it possible that this food category is what actually costs the least instead of the most as we are all led to believe??

One more veggie-kid photo as we wrap up; here’s Keith after finishing his smoothie (filled with frozen fruit, fresh spinach, yogurt, and milk):

You should try doing the math to see how much you spend on fruits and veggies! Challenge yourself to be sure you’re filling everyone up on all the good stuff – it’s much less expensive than we think!

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Big Family Food: Morning Meal Prep

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Want to see what my morning meal prep looks like?

I’ve always been a planner-aheader. This has been mostly good for me except that God has had to teach me to also live in the moment and not always be working on or thinking about whatever needs to be done next. :)

As I’ve learned to chill out and to let go of what can’t get done (and know that what needs to get done will and what doesn’t won’t) – I’ve truly been grateful that being efficient in the kitchen is a strength God gave me. I have found that I have to be very organized and that I have to keep everything as simple as possible so that I can get everyone fed (and clothed, but you don’t want to see what our laundry looks like).

Here’s our current kid breakdown:

  1. Asa, 25, married and living in Lincoln
  2. Justus, 22, getting married in July!
  3. Elias, 20, a college senior living at home and working this summer
  4. Malachi, 17, a high school senior with a growing video production business
  5. Brayden, 8, a 3rd grader
  6. Bonus Girl, 6, a 1st grader
  7. Keith, 3, a preschooler
  8. Bonus Bonus Girl, 2, fit thrower, little mommy, and snuggler
  9. Bonus Bonus Bonus Girl, 1, mess maker, giggle box, and book reader
  10. Bonus Bonus Bonus Bonus Girl, 1, observer, stair climber, and toothy grinner

Well, all that to say: Whenever possible, I spend five minutes or thirty minutes or an hour in the mornings getting food ready for the day in whatever form I can. I do this:

  • After my morning coffee time with my Bible, prayer, and journal
  • If possible, before all the kids are out of bed, or at least when most of them are eating breakfast or happily playing
  • Before Matt leaves for work
  • And/or after my friend Pam arrives to help (she comes every weekday morning for two hours, and she’s a huge reason I am still alive, bless her dear heart)

Morning Meal Prep

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what I might do during my morning meal prep time. Often it’s as simple as using the five minutes I have to unload and reload the dishwasher. Sometimes it involves cutting fruit or doing a quick clean-out of the fridge. Whatever it is, I find that if I have a minute to get something done, I need to take advantage of it!

One morning the three baby girls slept in until 8, which was amazing and unusual and I took advantage of it! I cut a watermelon and put it in the fridge for side dishes. I sliced kiwi for breakfast to have ready for all 6 littles. And I used up the avocados to make Guacomole to go with that night’s dinner.

Then, I put chicken thighs in a bag with dressing to marinade so that we could put it on our smoker that night for dinner.

Another morning I made a double batch of Peanut Butter Honey Rice Krispie Treats, which we enjoyed for breakfast the next two days. I also made a blender full of this smoothie so that Matt and I could just pour and drink as needed at lunchtime.

See the frost-covered ham in the above picture? Someone had given us that and I really needed to use it up! So I set it out to thaw so I could quickly slice and fry it for lunch later. Then I mixed up a crock pot full of Party Potatoes to cook while we were taking a walk and playing all morning.

I don’t usually make “big lunches” like ham and cheesy potatoes. But that day it just made sense and it wasn’t difficult, so I went with it. We were out taking a long walk all morning and got back just in time to be starving, so I was so glad to have this ready to go when we walked in!

We didn’t eat the entire hunk of ham, so while everyone was finishing lunch, I diced what was left and put it in the fridge for our next baked potato meal.

As it turns out, our baked potato meal was the next day.

Keith (3) was so eager to scrub potatoes, so I got a chair and put him to work the next morning. He was so proud!!

I let the potatoes sit, then turned the crockpot on high at lunchtime. They were cooked and ready for our baked potato dinner by 5:15!

I took advantage of a cooler morning and make some muffins and bread so we’d have easy breakfasts and snacks. With so many littles, having these bread items on hand is always very helpful!

I made a triple batch of Pumpkin Muffins (this recipe but without chocolate chips).

Then since I had a few more minutes and the ovens were already hot, I used our ripe bananas to make Banana Bread. See the loaf on the left? That was the pumpkin muffin batter that I had left after filling all my muffin pans!

One morning, we planned on walking and playing at a park all morning, so I planned ahead to have lunch ready to make right when we got home. I am so glad I did, as you’ll see a few pictures below. :)

I cracked a bunch of eggs into a bowl so we could quickly scramble them to go with pancakes at lunchtime.

I set out the pancake mix (a splurge from Sam’s, and it’s really good!), put the prepped eggs in the fridge, and put the skillets on the stove.

Well. It is a very good thing I had everything ready to cook when we got home from playing at the park. The kids were all beyond hungry (as was this mom) and the three baby girls completely melted down screaming at my feet while I scrambled eggs and flipped cakes. Poor dears.

Don’t believe one bit of sweetness you see in this picture. (I mean, they are super, super sweet. But in this picture they were also 100% unhappy.) Blondie Girl was throwing out lids as fast as she could and screaming with every throw. Brunette Girl, well, you can see her whole body was involved in the meltdown. And Baby Girl, oh she was banging that lid with all her might. Elias came home for his lunch break right then, shook his head with a grin, and grabbed the nearest screamer, bless him. We got lunch on the table quickly and then put everyone down for much-needed naps. Oy.

And that, my friends, is why I have to prep ahead in the mornings if at all possible. If I don’t, we still find something to eat, even if it’s stale cereal and mushy apples. Sometimes it’s cheese sticks and slices of turkey lunchmeat. Canned fruit is a lifesaver, so I buy it by the case.

But prepping anything I possibly can in the mornings makes our days a bit less stressful, so I do what I can when I can! :)

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How We Avoid Eating Out (And What We Eat Instead)

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We try to avoid eating out if at all possible. I’ll share why we do it and how we do it!

First, why do we try to avoid eating out?

  1. The cost. For our large family, eating out, even at a fast-food restaurant, can cost $60+. It just doesn’t feel worth it to drop that much money for one meal.
  2. The mess. Maybe it sounds silly, but with six littles, all the wrappers, dips and drippy burgers are a huge hassle. Also, can you imagine what it would look like if we took alllll of our babies to a restaurant? I’m not sure there are enough high chairs in any facility to accommodate us, ha.
  3. The gut. We know occasional eating out won’t hurt us since we try to eat well at home. But eating out frequently makes our bellies bloat. :)
  4. The treat. We like to keep restaurant food as a special treat for our family. So when we do go out or grab fast food on a road trip, it’s super fun for all of us!

When do we eat out?

Here are some examples of times we enjoy restaurant food:

  1. Matt and I occasionally go out for a meal and have adult conversation. Yes, we often talk about the kids when we’re out. There are ten of them; how can we not?
  2. Our teen/adult kids grab food with their friends, of course. Malachi has the McDonald’s app so he finds reasons all the time to “get a good deal on McD’s.” It’s his hard earned money, so… ;)
  3. When we are on a road trip, I usually pack food for our first meal or two (see details below). But after that runs out, we do something like grab a bunch of nuggets and fries for everyone to share in the van or at a park.
  4. Matt’s folks give us a sweet gift at Christmastime to use for a meal out with our family. We save this to use when all of our kids are together, and it is such a fun treat!
  5. Sometimes we order pizza if we find good deals. We do this sometimes when all of us are together so we can enjoy our family time. Or we might do it sometime if Matt is out of town and we want a special pizza/movie night to help us miss Daddy a little less.
  6. We have a traditional “Back to School” meal at our local Runza. We’ve been doing this since our big boys were little – back when they earned free kids meals from the library during the summer reading program! While there are no more free kids meals, we have had fun treating our family to a Runza meal right before we all settle into a new school year. (This year we just did a big to-go order because again, can you imagine taking this crew into find seating? And ketchup? Oy.)

What We Eat Instead

Just because we almost never eat out doesn’t mean we don’t have fun treats at home. Also, as much as I love cooking, I need breaks too! Here are some our tricks. Maybe you can steal some of these ideas for your family!

  1. We kind of like that we can get a couple of cartons of ice cream at the store for $3 each – spending $6 total for our entire family to have ice cream – instead of spending $40 for everyone to get a cup or cone.
  2. When I grocery shop, I intentionally buy convenience foods that I can make on days I don’t have time to cook. I’ll share some ideas below!
  3. We pack food to take to ball games and on road trips. This saves money, but honestly, I most appreciate that it helps us avoid messes and hassles. I have all of our food in a big cooler bag, we spread out on a blanket, and we eat. Yes, I have to do prep-work at home before we leave. But I find that this is SO MUCH EASIER than messing with a drive-thru or trekking back and forth to a concession stand with so many little ones. Here are some great ideas of different foods I’ve packed for us to eat at games and on the road.

Convenience Foods I Buy to Feed Our Family Instead of Eating Out

While shopping, I sometimes hesitate about a boxed/prepared item because it costs more than homemade food. But then I consider the comparison to how much it costs for our family to eat out.

For instance, spending $15 for a package of really tasty frozen tostadas at Costco feels like a big splurge to me. But then I remember that I’ll have them in the freezer to use on an extra busy night. So the $15 convenience food suddenly turns into a money-saver compared to the $40 I’d pay for ordering pizza.

With that in mind, now when I’m at Costco or Sam’s I pick up four or five ready-to-warm up items to keep in our freezer on our “no time to cook” or “don’t feel like cooking” nights. Here are some examples:

Frozen Pizza

Costco frozen pizza for the win. Am I right?

Five Cheese Tortelloni

Our entire family loves these and they cook in just a few minutes. I dump sauce into a pan to warm and eat with them. We eat whatever veggie and fruit we have ready to grab. It’s such a fast meal!

Frozen Meatballs

Our kids love these! I often put them in a crockpot with barbecue sauce to warm all afternoon for a fast meal at night. Or I’ll cook some to eat with spaghetti, which the kids think is fancy. ;)

Orange Chicken

We get this at Sam’s, heat it in our air fryer, and serve it with packages of quinoa/rice we get at Costco. Eat it with salad or leftover veggies, and our meal is fast and fun!

French Fry Friday

Often on Friday nights I make nuggets and fries in our Air Fryer and we put in a movie for the kids. They LOVE this!

I think the main key for me is to always keep our meals simple. If I regularly made complicated meals, I’d burn out quickly and want to resort to take-out. But Simple Meals and easy recipes help keep me sane in the kitchen as I feed our large crew!

When do you like to eat out as a family? What are some of your tricks for eating at home more often?

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One Week of Summer Fun Food Ideas

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After my most recent stock-up day at Sam’s, I made a complete one-week meal plan full of summer fun food!

You can read here to get the specifics of what I bought at Sam’s in May. We ate through much of this pretty quickly as there are a lot of us (currently 10) eating three meals a day at our house.

Then after a week or so, once the kids were out of school, I decided to make a complete list of meal ideas based on what I had on hand. (This proves what I talked about here about how I shop first, then meal plan.)

One Week of Summer Fun Food Ideas

I decided to share my plans with you because you might just find that this list comes in handy for your summer days too. This list includes seven breakfast plans, seven lunch plans, seven evening plans, and seven make-ahead snack ideas. :)

Let us know your email address here so we can send you the list. It includes recipe links too, and almost everything can be made ahead of time so that you can go outside and enjoy your summer with your kids!

 

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Meal Plan First? Or Shop First Then Plan?

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Someone recently asked: Do you make a meal plan first and then shop? Or do you shop for food and plan your meals around what you have? What saves the most time and money?

I certainly can’t speak for everyone as to what saves the most time and money. And you know I highly recommend that you subscribe to receive our Simple Meals plans so that you don’t have to think as hard and work as hard. :)

What I have found to work best for me right now is this:

  1. Shop. Buy all the food. Buy more food. We need so much food.
  2. Try to stay organized. Have an entire grocery store inside my house if possible.
  3. Each morning, consider what the day holds. Meetings, appointments, court for the kids, Matt’s schedule, kids’ events, and so on. Once I think through what the evening will look like, I plan our evening meal accordingly.
  4. Along with that, I work with what we have on hand. I look through our fridge, freezers, and pantry. Then I decide on an evening meal that works!

This shelf sits in my kitchen, so I can look and get ideas with a quick glance. Pizza sauce and olives? I have crusts in the freezer so I could make pizza tonight. However, that is a meal I like to make on a night we have games or other outings. So I nix that idea and decide to make a burrito bar since I have plenty of tortillas and all the fixings on hand.

My meal planning decision is also dependent on how many people we’ll be feeding that night. Will it just be Matt, me, with the six littles? Or will all the bigs be home too? With their gals join us? Any other friends? We feed anywhere from 8 to 18 depending on the night. So I always get a feel for who will be around for dinner as I’m making our nightly plan.

Isn’t it harder this way?

This current method means that I’m coming up with a meal plan every single morning. But because of our very full house and so many coming and going, I am finding that planning day by day works so much better than planning ahead for the week and then reshuffling it because of what each weekday holds.

What saves the most money?

Again, I can’t speak for everyone. But for me, right now, I believe that shopping first and meal planning later is saving me more money.

When I’m shopping, I can pick up meat that has been marked down – then I make meals based on the discounted meat I’ve found. I can take advantage of sale items, then make meals based on the deals I’ve found. I can pick up staples to keep on hand so that I can always make basic, easy meals with no effort.

This works well for me and saves money too!

What is working best for you right now as you plan meals?

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Inexpensive Meals I Made From Costco

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Grocery prices are on the rise. That’s why I am so encouraged to share these delicious, inexpensive meals I made from Costco groceries!

We really can be more cheerful about grocery spending, friends. Yes, some prices have gone up. But we can still make very reasonably priced meals for our families. And we can still even serve them WITH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.

You know I had to say that, right? :)

Sometimes we think that we need to compromise on healthy foods in an effort to save money. Not so, not so. Let’s keep eating good food and know that we can focus on nourishment too!

I have become curious as of late, so I decided to spend some time breaking down the cost of some of the meals I made after a big Costco trip. I was so excited to see that every meal I made was still incredibly reasonable.

I typically feed a minimum of 10 people at each evening meal. Depending on our adult kids’ schedules and the friends they have with them, often we feed 15 or more at dinnertime. This makes my cost breakdown even more exciting. :)

If you’d like to take a look at the list of food I recently bought, you can check that out here.

Inexpensive Meals I Made From Costco

1. Chicken Salad on Croissants

I used canned chicken and croissants that I got at Costco to make a delicious meal of Chicken Salad on croissants with spinach. We had this with fresh strawberries, raspberries, and carrots. The cost for this meal was right around $18 for 10 of us to eat!

2. “Homemade” Pizza

We used the pizza-making-kit from Costco to have a pizza night. Everyone loved this! We made four pizzas and ate them with these nourishing smoothies. Total cost for this meal was only $17. Amazing, right? But wait, it gets better…

Only our six littles were home when we first had this meal, so we ended up having enough leftovers to stretch these pizzas into two meals. So my $6.97 pizza kit lasted us for two meals, which was awesome on the budget, and also because having pizza leftovers is soooo nice to pull out on a busy day!

($17 divided by 2 meals equals $8.50 per meal to fill my family with pizza and a nourishing side. SO AMAZING!)

3. Smoked Chicken

We marinated Costco boneless chicken thighs in barbecue sauce, then threw the chicken on the smoker. We ate this with steamed green beans, buttered corn, baked potatoes, and grapes. The total cost for this meal was $26.

Sound like an expensive meal? Maybe. But it was a full night with many of our bigs and their significant others being home. Plus some family friends and my niece joined us. So we actually fed 16 people that night – 10 adults and 6 kids. $26 for a meal like this!! It breaks down to just $1.62/plate.

4. French Toast

The cinnamon streusel bread from Costco makes the most wonderful French toast!! We use eggs from our neighbor and made this meal with sausage links and sliced pears (or another choice of fruit the kids grabbed). The total cost for this meal was $19 for 12 people, $1.58 each.

I hope this cost breakdown encourages you as it does me!

Want to make these meals cost even less?

All of these meals can cost even less if you make more of the foods from scratch. My current season in life gives way to me purchasing some convenience foods (like croissants and other breads, some boxed foods, and canned items). But to save more money:

1. Make Chicken Salad from a cooked whole chicken. Save the bones to make broth for another meal or two. Instead of buying croissants, make bread like this. Or homemade, easy Pita Bread. So much more money saved!

2. Make homemade pizza crust like this. You can make these ahead of time and freeze the extras for an easy meal later.

3. Watch for meat mark-downs! I recently found chicken thighs marked down for quick sale at Sam’s. I bought all I could!

4. Make homemade bread or simply skip the special cinnamon streusel bread to use a less expensive variety to make French toast. Skip the sausage in the meal and just enjoy eggs as protein. :)

What inexpensive meals have you made lately?

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Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)

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