Dollar Stretcher

Feed Your Family On a Dollar a Day Per Person

These dollar stretcher ideas will not only save you money, but your family will also have better health.

Are you finding it hard to fit all the pieces of your food budget together? You can feed your family on a Dollar a Day per Person.

I didn’t realize how cheap our family could eat until we stopped going to the store and started eating out of our food storage. It started as an experiment and has turned into a great money saving blessing.

We do replenish our food supply a few times a year when we find great dollar stretcher deals on food storage items.

There are ten frugal living tips that go along with this dollar stretcher page. Make sure to read the Ten Money Saving Ideas.

Make sure you check out our healthy garden and Food Storage Recipes or our Recipe Books.

Here’s what eating on a dollar a day looks like:

Breakfast
School Lunch
Winter Dinners
Summer Dinners
Healthy Treats
Dollar Stretcher Calculations

• Farina (it’s like Cream of Wheat

• Eggs & Toast

• French Toast & Jam

• Pancakes & Jam

• German Puff Pancakes & Applesauce

• Hot Oatmeal

• Crepes & Peaches

• Hash Browns & Eggs

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• Sandwiches – Peanut Butter & Jam, Chicken, or Tuna

• Soup- Taco Soup, Chicken Noodle, Beef Stew

• Leftovers – Pizza, Burritos, Spaghetti

• Fruit – Peaches, Apples, Pears, Applesauce

• Dried Fruit – Raisins, Dried Apples, Dried Bananas, Fruit Leather

• Vegetables – Dill Pickles, Carrot Sticks, Cucumbers, Tomatoes

• Treats – Zucchini Bread, Pumpkin Bread, Popcorn, Muffins

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• Vegetable Soup & Fresh Bread

• Beef Stew & Fresh Bread

• Taco Soup

• Spaghetti, Green Beans, & Fresh Bread

• Shepherd’s Pie & Sprouts

• Rice and Beans

• Chicken Noodle Soup & Fresh Bread

• Bake Potatoes, Squash, & Beets

• Pizza & Sprouts

• Easy Chicken & Rice and Green Beans

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• Summer Squash Casserole

• Bake Potato, Green Salad, & Corn on the Cob

• Hawaiian Haystacks

• Egg Plant Patties

• Zucchini Supreme

• Navajo Taco with Tomatoes and Lettuce

• Fresh Garden Vegetables & Fruit Salad

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• Granola

• Juice Popsicles

• Zucchini Bread

• Pumpkin Bread

• Popcorn

• Muffins

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Dollar Stretcher Calculations

How can you eat all this great food on a Dollar a Day per Person?
Dollar stretcher prices in bold are weekly amounts

Beans –$1 Soak bean in baking soda water to cut down on gas. Add onions and hot chili peppers for taste. You can also add red or green tomatoes to the bean sauce. I use a couple cups of dry beans per meal. 25 lb costs $11.

Oatmeal $5- We actually eat hot oatmeal about 5 days a week and use about 50 pounds of oatmeal a month. The cost is $19 for a 50 lb. bag. Wow! Look at that Dollar Stretcher! You can feed 12 people one meal for only a dollar (add a little extra for honey and milk)

Rice $2 – We use 5 cups of uncooked rice for a family meal. A 50-pound bag of rice cost $20.

Wheat $7.50- We use wheat in bread, farina, noodles, etc. We use about 100 lbs. of wheat a month. Wheat is $15 for a 50 lb bag.

Dairy & Meat

Milk- $2.50 We use a #10 can of powdered milk about every 3 weeks. We put it on cereal and use it for cooking. Milk is $7.60 for a #10 can (4 pounds).

Cheese $2.50- Buy this in bulk when it is on sale and freeze it. I use about a pound a week. I bought it on sale 2 pounds for $4.99.



Chicken is Home Grown- When our chickens slow down in egg production, we use them for their meat.

Eggs are Home Grown $16- We have our own chickens. That is why there are so many recipes that use eggs. The $16 is to buy food to feed the chickens.

Fruit

Canned Fruit- $3 – I use a couple cans of pineapple and mandarin oranges for Hawaiian Haystacks. I buy this canned fruit when I can get a good price.

Bottled Orchard Fruit $1- There is a small amount of sugar added to the bottled peaches and applesauce in the fall. We use about 10-15 quarts of fruit a week including: applesauce, peaches, and grape-juice.

Frozen (free from the neighbors trees) - plums – our neighbors had apples and plums that were falling off the trees and going to waste last year. For the last five years, they have offered them to people and no one has come. When we heard about it we jumped at the chance. We froze the plums and made the apples into applesauce.

Dried Apples from the Orchard– My children love dried apples and eat them like candy.

Vegetables

Bottled from the Garden- Bottled vegetables are inexpensive and it only takes a little salt and work to make them. We bottle green beans, tomatoes, beets, carrots, and pickles.

Canned $2– I bought my Green Giant corn 3/$1.

Dried Vegetables $.50- I use dried celery in my soups. A #10 can costs $8.00

Freezer Garden – I freeze zucchini in quart bags. I use this in rice, spaghetti sauce, soups, and breads. I also freeze tomatoes, peppers, and corn.

Fresh Garden Vegetables – We have a vegetable pit. Potatoes, carrots, and beets stay fresh all winter (they need to stay cool and moist). We keep the squash and onions in the root cellar (they need to stay cool and dry). We eat out of the garden during the summer and fall. The greenhouse extends the growing season. Green tomatoes can be picked green before the first frost and laid on a shelf in a cool dark place. You’ll have tomatoes for the next 6 weeks.

Canned Food

Soups & Sauces $9– These go on sale quite often and you can get some great deals on them.

Oil, Sugar & Spices

Honey $12 – I use a 12 pound bucket of honey about every two weeks. The honey cost me about $24.

Jam $3 – There is no cost for the fruit in the jam but there is for the pectin and sugar. We use about a quart of jam each week.

Peanut Butter $7 – We use a big 4 pound tub of peanut butter each week.

Oil & Butter $6 – I use about a gallon of oil and 6 pounds of butter a month. I bought butter on sale, 3 for $5, and froze 180 pounds of it. When I bought olive oil it was $15 a gallon. Prices are a little higher now.

Spices, bouillon, & Yeast $4 – These last a long time and don’t cost very much. They sure do make food taste good.

So here we have it --- Dollar Stretcher food that's healthy

$84 a week feeds a family of 12

That’s $7 a week per person or

$1 a day per person

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