Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Ways to Use a Costco Rotisserie Chicken

by 6 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

We’ve been enjoying some creative ways to use a Costco rotisserie chicken. It’s so inexpensive and delicious!

First, let’s talk about the joys of a Costco rotisserie chicken.

They cost five bucks and they taste wonderful. A rotisserie chicken is a fantastic “convenience food” worth taking advantage of when you hit Costco. Enjoy it with a simple salad and container of berries and you have an amazing meal for around $10!

My Costco chicken friend

We have a dear, precious friend who blesses us with a rotisserie chicken almost every time she goes to Costco. Why does she do this? Because she knows we have our hands full of babies and a lot of mouths to feed. This is a way she blesses our family. Not only does she pick up a chicken for us: she takes the meat off the bone and delivers it in a bag, ready for us to eat! It’s such a gift!!!

Here are some ways we enjoy this gift…

Ways to Use a Costco Rotisserie Chicken

1. Serve the chicken with salad and veggie or fruit, and you have yourself a meal.

Like this, except with rotisserie chicken. I didn’t have a current picture. :) :) :)

2. Sprinkle the chicken into a salad to turn a salad into a meal.

3. Get creative with chicken in the lunchbox.

Send the chicken in a lunchbox along with ranch dressing or barbecue sauce for dipping.

4. Make Chicken-Cheese Melts.

Put chicken on open-faced buns, drizzle ranch or another favorite sauce on the chicken, cover with cheese and broil in the oven, or put them into the air fryer to melt the cheese. These are a favorite!!!

The above picture is a look at how I built our lunch sandwiches one morning. Elias and Matt were heading to their weekly prayer lunch with friends so I made theirs to send with them on paper plates. Malachi was finishing a work project with a deadline at his computer one morning so I fixed a special plate for him. The littles and I finished the rest. :)

5. Make Alfredo and stir in some rotisserie chicken. Amazing!

6. Make Chicken Enchiladas. 

This picture isn’t too exciting, but here’s what it looked like one morning when I was building a great big pan of Creamy Enchiladas to share at Malachi’s tennis team potluck. I had rotisserie chicken in the freezer so I pulled it out and used it to put this together quickly. It was a huge hit at the potluck!

The best way to eat a Costco rotisserie chicken is simply to eat it. :) But it’s fun to have these options too when thinking about creative ways to use up chicken that’s been pulled off the bone.

Do you like to buy a rotisserie chicken at Costco or at another grocery store? What do you do with the chicken?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Big Family Food: Using Leftovers Creatively

by 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

One of my favorite things to do is to clean out the fridge and put together a meal by using leftovers creatively!

With so many little ones now, I am finding that it is very easy to use up leftovers (if we have any at all). At lunch or dinner, we often pull out several containers filled with leftover peas, green beans, corn, or pasta from the day before. We warm them up and that’s our meal. Nothing is wasted and I haven’t had to spend extra time cooking.

Using Leftovers Creatively

But often, I find that I can create a brand new meal from leftovers found in the fridge. Here are some examples:

Cheesy Potatoes

One day, I dug two containers of cheese dips (variations of this recipe) from the fridge. Add added it to frozen hashbrowns and slow-cooked it all afternoon. It turned into a super delicious cheesy potato side dish! I served it with Sloppy Joes, green beans, and fruit.

Burritos

This is one of my favorite dishes to make with any Mexican food leftovers we have. No need to measure. No need to proportion. I simply mix together any meat, beans, rice, cheese, corn, guacamole, or sour cream and roll them into tortillas. (This is also a great way to use up small amounts from three open jar of salsa!) Usually, I freeze these to use for fast lunches that we warm up in our air fryer. This makes for super inexpensive burritos!

Apple Bread or Muffins

If I have apples that are starting to shrivel, I grind them up and make Applesauce Bread. Or Applesauce Cake!

Marinated Meat

We almost always have three or four almost-empty bottles of dressings or sauces in our refrigerator door. I love pulling all of these out and dumping them into a bag of chicken to marinate. This always makes for a fun-tasting smoked chicken dinner. And it clears out fridge space!

Soup

If I have any fresh veggies that are starting to get wilted, I’ll make broth or soup with them. Here’s how I add a lot of veggies to make broth.

Fried Potatoes

Any time I have leftover baked potatoes, I cut them and fry them in butter. If I want to make it a meal instead of a side dish, I add any leftover cooked meat we have in the fridge.

taco potato skillet 3

Pizza

Have random odds and ends of meat, cheese, or veggies in the fridge? Throw them on a pizza. Once, I was putting together pizzas for dinner and found two leftover grilled hamburgers from a few days prior. I cut them up and added them to two of our pizzas. See that spinach I “sneak” on there too? My kids eat it without question!

Spaghetti Bake

I had a big bowl of leftover spaghetti, so I stirred in cottage cheese along with shredded mozzarella and Colby jack cheese. It turned spaghetti into a “fancy dinner” that we all loved!

We save so much money this way!

I love how we can prevent waste when we use our leftovers creatively like this. I find it fun to see what meal I can put together with whatever we already have in our fridge!

What’s your favorite meal to make with leftovers?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Does it Save Money to Pack Lunch for School?

by 1 Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

School lunches are very reasonably priced. So does it actually save money to pack lunch for school?

I’ve found that it does! Here’s how.

Our kids’ school lunch costs $3.20. Not bad, except that our picky first grader would only eat a fourth of what was on her tray, mostly the sweet parts and the bread. ;) Meanwhile, our not-so-picky third grader would eat most of his meal and still be hungry. So we decided this year that for the sake of saving money and feeding our kids the nourishment they need, we’d pack and send their lunches to school.

Even when I buy a few pre-packaged convenience food items to save time, I am still saving money every day on their lunches.

How much am I saving?

I calculated that I’m saving an average of $1.40 per lunch, per kid, for much more nourishing meals that I know they like and will eat. I’ll share examples from our not-picky-big-eater kiddo so you can see how packing a very filling lunch still saves money.

Note: I make a big batch of these spinach cupcakes, individually bag them, and freeze them to throw into almost every lunchbox for a treat with added nutrition! I did the math. They cost $0.14 each and they are beautifully full of spinach. :) :) :)

Does it Save Money to Pack Lunch for School?

Here are nine sample lunches I might pack for my kids and their cost breakdown. The most expensive was $2.58. The least expensive is just $1.34. Lots of savings!

1. Meat and cheese sandwich, fruit cup, cheese stick, spinach cupcake (no frosting) = $2.00

2. Cheese and crackers, summer sausage, grapes, spinach cupcake (no frosting), cottage cheese and pineapple = $2.49

3. Pumpkin muffin, cottage cheese and pineapple, clementine, almonds = $1.43

4. Tuna salad with crackers, fruit cup, cheese stick, spinach cupcake (no frosting) = $1.83

5. Chips with cheesy bean dip, grapes, spinach cupcake (no frosting)  = $1.43

6. Leftover pizza slices (with spinach “hidden” on top), clementine, banana = $1.34

7. Bagel with cream cheese “sandwich”, ham, apple = $1.72

8. Bean and cheese quesadillas, carrots, strawberries $1.78

9. On Friday, we do a “Fun Friday” lunchbox which includes a baggie of chips and a yogurt squeezie, plus whatever else I have on hand that I think the kids will enjoy. Cost for the special lunch you see below: $2.58.

What do you pack in your kids’ lunches?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pssst! Heavenly Homemakers Club Members can enjoy this great eBook along with all of our other amazing eBooks, eCourses, printables, packets, and more! Join us here.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

How I Saved $480 on my Grocery Budget in September

by 4 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

You’ve heard this tip before, but I wanted to share it again because practicing it gave us significant savings last month! Here’s how I saved $480 on my grocery budget in September.

I have a very large grocery budget, so saving $480 was pretty significant. We feed 9 people three meals every day, 2 additional people at dinnertime most nights, and regularly have guests and friends eating with us. So we typically spend around $1,200/month on food.

How I Saved $480 on my Grocery Budget in September

Every once a in while, I feel the need to focus on eating what we have instead of continually stocking up. This is a little bit tricky, simply because part of the way we save money is to constantly have a nice variety of food on hand so I can “shop” my freezers and pantry when I make meals and snacks. Running out can potentially mean a super expensive shopping trip to make up for all the food we’ve used up.

On the other hand, I reached that point most of us get to in which I needed to use up the random items lurking in the back of the freezer and pantry. There were plenty of great meals that could be made with what we had on hand; I just had to get creative!

And so, after huge stock-up purchases at Sam’s last month and at Costco early in September, I decided to see how long I could go without grocery shopping.

What I had:

Rest assured, I took the worst pictures ever to show you my freezer and pantry stockpile. I hate being unorganized, and yet, so much of the time I live in a state of disorganization while focusing instead on caring for so many littles.

Cringe with me while you look through my (unorganized) full freezers, fridge, and pantry so you can see that I truly had a lot of food to work with while I challenged myself to avoid grocery shopping!

Ack, here’s what my fridge always looks like right after a Sam’s or Costco trip: we just stuff the food in wherever it fits until we can regroup. :)

The cases of canned and jarred food go on a shelf in the kitchen.

While at Costco early in the month, I’d picked up three boxes of fruit.

As you can see, we had loads of food to work with! But…

What I’d still need

There’s no way for me to buy enough milk, fruits, or vegetables to last an entire month. So I still allowed myself to buy dairy products and produce as needed through the end of the month.

Some disclaimers

  • Three of our foster children qualify for WIC benefits. So each month, we are blessed to pick up around $180 worth of groceries (cheese, milk, produce, cereal, beans, and bread) at no cost to us. This is a huge help!
  • When I refer anyone to Azure Standard, I receive a small credit to my account. I let the credit add up for several months, then I place an order for a few free groceries about three times each year.

With so many mouths to feed, these two perks are a huge help to us and we are thankful for the bonus groceries!

What we ate in September

Now for the fun pictures! Here are many examples of food we made and ate during our weeks of eating from our stockpile.

I’d had a ham roast in the freezer for over two years (see why I needed this challenge?!). I think I had avoided it because I didn’t know what to do with it.

Solution: Cook it. Eat it. Hmmm, why didn’t I think of that sooner?

I simply put it into the crock pot in the morning to cook on low all day. Later in the day I dumped on some barbecue sauce. It was brainless and turned out super tasty!

Here are the plates I fixed for the seven littlest that night: ham roast, green beans, cheesy noodles, and sliced fruit.

I had a bag of fish sticks in the back of a freezer, so I air-fried them along with sweet potato fries one evening. We had corn on the cob, strawberries, and these smoothies to complete the meal. (I got my huge 10-quart air-fryer at Sam’s. It’s perfect for us!

I made these snacks to keep on hand for all the littles – these are a lifesaver! Mudballs, Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Bars, and Snickerdoodle Bites

Here’s a plate I fixed one afternoon for two of our toddlers to eat at our small picnic table while they played outside.

One night before our 6-year-old’s soccer game, we ate an entire double-package of tortelloni with sauce, spinach dipped in ranch, and a bag of clementines. (I forgot to take a picture, so I grabbed this one from my files!)

One Sunday, I’d run out of time before church to prep anything for our lunch so I just dumped some Costco meatballs into the crock pot with barbecue sauce. When we came home, I warmed up corn and got out a big can of peaches and some fresh spinach to eat with ranch dressing. It was simple and all the kids loved it!

I had a 4-pack of beef smoked sausages from Sam’s. So I cooked two (but needed a third one, so cooked that while we were devouring the rest!) along with a bunch of quesadillas, peas, and sliced pears.

I marinated a big 3-pack of chicken legs, then smoked them early one afternoon. I put them into a crock pot to stay warm while we headed to Malachi’s tennis match. When we came home I steamed broccoli, warmed up leftover corn, and opened cans of mandarin oranges for us to eat before we headed to a little league soccer game for our 6-year-old.

I had three small packages of different meat in my freezer that had been sitting in the back simply because not one of the packages was enough to feed my family a full meal. I decided one day to thaw all three of the packages at the same time and smoke them to make a meal. So, one big pork chop, four chicken thighs, and five beef ribs made us a feast that night! I served the meat with smoothies, steamed broccoli, and tortilla chips with this dip.

A dear friend gave us a rotisserie chicken from Costco, so I used some of the meat to create an amazing Chicken Alfredo meal. Matt, Malachi, the littles, and I all ate it. A family friend joined us. Then later that night Elias came home with two college buddies and they finished it off. :) :) :)

On Fridays, we often like to celebrate the end of a school week with “French Fry Fridays” at dinnertime. I didn’t have any frozen fries but had a big bag of potatoes so I experimented by making homemade fries in the air fryer. They weren’t difficult to make but it did take forever to cook them in the fryer compared to cooking store-bought frozen fries. The taste though? INCREDIBLE.

I had a double pack of brats in the freezer so smoked them for dinner one night. Justus and Kelsey joined us, which was a treat! Then Elias showed up – so everyone was here except for Asa and Eva, who live in Lincoln. :)

I served the brats with steamed broccoli and cauliflower, steamed green beans, several boxes of mac and cheese, and a few sliced apples.

We have a lot of company coming mid-October and I wanted to get ahead on meal prep one morning when I had help around to watch the littlest kiddos. I decided that our October guests would get to eat whatever I had to work with on this day, during the last week of September. Lucky for them, I had all the fixings for Lasagna and Chili. So those are ready and in the freezer to thaw and serve to the company (14-22 per meal).

 

I had frozen cooked turkey in the back of the freezer plus two jars of homemade broth. So one morning when I knew I’d be gone all afternoon, I made a big pot of turkey and noodle soup to warm up and enjoy when we got home. (Made like this, except that I’d bought a huge bag of egg noodles at Sam’s and used those.)

Here’s a look at a lunch I served to our four littlest kids, plus Malachi, Matt, and myself. I didn’t think to take a picture until after half of our lunch was gone! But we did go through an entire loaf of bread, lots of meat and cheese, and half a watermelon. And that was without any extra guests or our elementary kids at home. Grilled cheese is a favorite!

I discovered some chicken in the back of the freezer that I didn’t realize was there (woot!) and had all the ingredients needed to make White Chicken Chili, so at the end of the month, I put that into the crockpot to slow cook all day. It was perfect as we headed into fall!

As we reached the end of the month, I was pleasantly surprised to see that we still had about a week’s worth of great meal options left. It did help that I’d allowed myself to continue to buy fruits, veggies, milk, and cheese as needed. Still, we’d saved $480 on our overall monthly budget so I feel that this was a huge win!

Have you ever challenged yourself to avoid the store and eat only what you have on hand for a few weeks? It’s actually pretty fun and a great way to save money!

 

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Food I Often Buy at Costco

by 1 Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Curious about what I usually buy at Costco? Here’s the list!

Perhaps I should start with the hotdog?

There it is, the monthly Costco-trip hotdog. As I’ve shared, shopping at Costco is a big deal for me, simply because I can only get there once each month and we have a lot of mouths to feed! I burn a lot of calories while shopping, and that hotdog keeps me on my feet. True story.

Here’s a refresher on how I shop Costco:

  1. Walk into the store, take a deep breath, and shop for all non-perishables. Clothing, paper products, canned goods, boxed snacks and chips, baking products, applesauce, and whatever else doesn’t require refrigeration or extra care.
  2. Check-out, load the van, then go back in.
  3. Take a bathroom break.
  4. Eat a hotdog and drink a big cup of water. This job makes a person need some major sustenance and $1.50 for the big dog/drink combo is pretty rockin’.
  5. Grab an empty cart again and fill it with all the fresh produce, frozen foods, refrigerated foods, and bread products that we need.
  6. Check out again, load the van again, open the box of Kombucha I just bought, and drink a bottle for refreshment and survival.

Indeed, I’ve found that I have to fill my cart twice when I shop at Costco. I’d take one of my big kids with me so that they could help me get the job done in one trip, but actually? My Costco shopping trips also involves “a day off for Mom.” Once each month, we make arrangements for me to head to Lincoln (about an hour from home) to have a day to myself. I take my laptop and work at Panera for hours. I shop at Sam’s, Costco, and any other place that has items our family needs. I come home refreshed and with a van filled with groceries!

Food I Often Buy at Costco

Beyond the hotdog, here’s a rundown of what I almost always grab when I’m at Costco.

1. Lots of fresh produce

  • apples
  • bananas
  • clementines
  • blueberries
  • strawberries
  • raspberries
  • blackberries
  • carrots
  • mixed greens
  • spinach
  • broccoli
  • potatoes
  • pears
  • grapes
  • melons
  • whatever else is in season

2. Frozen Food

I usually pick up frozen:

  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Hamburger patties
  • Pizza
  • Chicken nuggets
  • Sweet potato fries
  • Bacon
  • Tilapia

3. Refrigerated Food

  • Shredded cheese
  • Turkey and ham for sandwiches
  • Sliced cheese
  • White queso
  • Tortellonni
  • Cream cheese
  • Sour cream
  • Cottage cheese
  • Butter
  • Boneless chicken thighs
  • Kombucha
  • Avocado mash (our little girls love these!)

4. Snack Food

  • Applesauce squeezies
  • Tortilla chips
  • Granola bars
  • Occasional other individually packaged snacks to grab for the kids to eat at soccer games or on walks

5. Breads

6. Baking

  • Peanut butter
  • Almond butter
  • Honey
  • Brown sugar
  • Raw sugar
  • Baking powder
  • Baking soda
  • Pancake mix

7. Other

  • Coffee
  • Canned tuna
  • Canned chicken
  • Pasta
  • Baked beans
  • Refried beans
  • Canned corn
  • Rotel
  • Canned olives
  • Spices
  • Mac and cheese

What do you like to buy at Costco?

P.S. I also shop at Sam’s, and my list there is similar. Which do I like better, Costco or Sam’s?? You can read my answer here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We’d love to connect with you :)
Join our fun community here!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Costco Tortelloni Meal: Only $1.41 Per Person

by 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

We all love this Costco tortelloni meal, and it only costs us $1.41 per person!

I almost always pick up this double pack of Five Cheese Tortelloni when I’m at Costco. It’s great to have on hand for an easy, quick meal and every person in our family loves it.

Side note: It is a very big deal to be able to say “every person in our family loves it.” With this many kids, and several of them picky, it’s so nice to have meals I know that everyone will eat without complaint!

Costco Tortelloni Meal: Only $1.41 Per Person

This particular night, we fed 11 people (5 adults, 3 kids, and 3 toddlers). I boiled both packages of tortelloni, warmed a jar of spaghetti sauce, warmed leftover veggies, and got out spinach with ranch.

Total cost for this meal was only $15.56. For 11 people, that breaks down to just $1.41 per person!

Our six littlest kids eat spinach dipped in ranch like finger food. :)

When we eat this tortelloni meal, we usually skip the sauce for the toddlers to avoid the big mess it would create! Instead, we scoop the cheesy pasta pockets into little bowls for them and cut them up with kitchen shears. They eat it and eat it and eat it!

And there you have it. Costco’s tortelloni, sauce, warmed veggies, and fresh spinach cost $1.41 per person. That’s fast food I can get behind! :)

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

How to Make Ten Meals with One Turkey

by 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Is it possible to make ten meals with one turkey? Indeed. I just made it happen. What a great way to stretch the grocery budget!

In an effort to save grocery money, I’ve been brainstorming ways to use the food I have in my freezer and to make it stretch as far as possible. It turns out that one turkey stretches really, really far! (Unless you host 25 people for Thanksgiving. Then you get one or two meals out of one turkey.)

But say you took advantage of holiday sales on turkeys and got an extra one or two to eat throughout the year after the holidays were over. How far could you stretch that bird?

Ten meals, perhaps? Even five is a great return on your turkey investment.

How to stretch that turkey!

I had a 20-pound turkey taking up room in my freezer. I decided in August to thaw it and smoke it on our Traeger. Delish!

Matt pulled all the meat off the bones for me (one of my least favorite jobs) and it produced two 9×13 inch dishes full of cooked meat.

At the time of this turkey extravaganza, there were eight kids at home (one has since headed back to college). Plus we fed a few extras here and there. Still, we were able to make ten meals with one bird! Because this was such a cost-effective and tasty way to feed so many people, I plan to stock up on turkeys this November when they go on sale!!

NOTE: We didn’t eat these meals one right after another. I froze quite a bit of the turkey in meal-sized portions to pull out and use as needed. So not only did this save money but having the pre-cooked meat saved time. Win-win!

How I made ten meals with one turkey

You’ll notice as you read my meal descriptions below that we were able to make our turkey stretch by eating only small amounts of it with each meal. We’ve found that it’s better to enjoy meat as a secondary dish, filling up instead on plenty of fruit and veggie side dishes to stretch the meat and stretch the budget. Fruits and veggies are actually a super inexpensive way to stretch your grocery budget!

Here’s the turkey meal breakdown:

Meal #1: We ate freshly smoked turkey with a lot of side dishes.

Meal #2: We ate some bites of leftover cold turkey in a chef salad. A little bit of meat is all we needed.

Meal #3: We made lunch plates filled with warm turkey with ranch for dipping, plus fruits and veggies.

Meal #4: We ate turkey sandwiches on rolls. It doesn’t take a lot of turkey to make a sandwich on a roll. We got out lots of different condiment options to make our sandwiches fun. Plus we had chips with guacamole and watermelon.

Meal #5: Right after we smoked and boned the turkey, I used the turkey bones and skin to make a huge batch of broth. I used some of the broth to make a simple noodle soup. I didn’t add any turkey to the soup, but instead boiled noodles in the flavorful, rich broth along with added veggies to make our meal.

Meal #6: I made a big pot of stir-fried veggies and tossed in a few pieces of shredded turkey.

Meal #7: I used some of the turkey broth to make rich potato soup. Incredibly good!

Meal #8: I made gravy with some of the broth (Matt’s request!). We then made mashed potatoes doused and enjoyed them with turkey gravy.

Meal #9: I made quesadillas for lunch with cheese, spinach, and bits of turkey.

Meal #10: We warmed the remaining turkey and served with it barbecue sauce for dipping, plus leftover cheesy potatoes and veggies.

As you can see, not every meal includes actual turkey. But the broth made from the turkey bones and skin is super nourishing and flavorful. That’s why I feel just fine about skipping meat in those meals. We are still completely satisfied. And if you take a look here at how I make broth, you’ll see how veggie-packed it is.

How many meals can you make with one turkey?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Sam’s Smoked Sausage Meal: $1.48/person

by Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

This super tasty Sam’s Smoked Sausage Meal cost just $1.48/person. Here’s how!

Are you finding this as interesting as I am, or am I just a little on the geeky side as I break down the cost of our meals and discover that we really are eating well for quite a low cost!

If nothing else, perhaps you’re getting some good meal ideas. :) I just love that even with the big rise in grocery costs, we are all still able to eat for very little money overall. We can all be so encouraged!

Sam’s Smoked Sausage Meal: $1.48/person

I’d picked up a nice package of beef smoked sausage on a recent Sam’s trip. Cost for a 4-pack of beef smoked sausage was: $11.28. I like having items like this in my freezer because they offer a very quick meal I know my family will like!

One day when I was planning a meal around the leftover mashed potatoes and green beans in my fridge, I spotted the sausages and knew they’d be perfect! We had guests eating with us that night, so we fed six adults, three kids (who’d been swimming and were hungry!!), and three toddlers.

Total cost for this meal with smoked sausage, mashed potatoes, green beans, and watermelon was $17.78. Divided by 12 people, this cost just $1.48 per person!


Let’s keep looking for ways to cut back and save as we buy groceries. But let’s also recognize that eating high-quality, well-balanced meals is very doable on a budget!

 

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Sunday Roast Dinner: $1.62/person!

by Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

I didn’t hold back on buying food to make our high-quality Sunday roast dinner. Still, the total cost per plate was only $1.62!

On a recent trip to Sam’s, I picked up a high-quality beef roast. I hesitated at the $17 price tag, but I knew it would feed a lot of people, so I took a deep breath and grabbed it. I also splurged on a package of Hawaiian rolls, which I don’t do very often. I got two meals out of this roast and the rolls, feeding 13 people (7 adults, 3 kids, 3 toddlers) the first meal and 10 people (4 adults, 3 kids, 3 toddlers) the second meal. (Details below!)

Here’s what I love about doing the price breakdown on meals like this:

If I can splurge on a big roast, mashed potatoes, grapes, green beans, and Hawaiian rolls and still get away with feeding everyone for just $1.62 per plate – how much less will I be spending when I make more frugal-minded meals?? I am so excited to challenge myself with this to see what other great meals we can all make for this much or less per person!

Sunday Roast Dinner: $1.62/person

This meal was super easy to put together before church. (As easy as it is to put a meal together while trying to get six littles dressed and out the door, ha!)

We hollered at a few college students to join us, and three took us up on our offer. We feasted on this:

Want to see what I did with the roast leftovers?

While putting away leftovers of our meal, I cut the remaining 16 Hawaiian rolls in half and spread the saucy roast over the bottom halves of the rolls.

I put cheese slices on top.

Then put the top halves of the rolls on. I covered and refrigerated the “sliders” I’d built and baked them for lunch a few days later!

This was a great way to use leftovers and to have a work-free lunch ready for my family!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Sam’s or Costco: Which is Better??

by 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

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?

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!