Shepherd's Pie - Yummy and Affordable

I made this for tonight's dinner and put it in the fridge so tonight when it gets close to dinner time, all I have to do is put it in the oven and... ta da! We like to have this with corn bread. Yummy!

1 can green beans
1 can tomato soup
4 cups potatoes
1 lb ground beef
1-2 cups shredded cheese

Brown hamburger and put in casserole dish, then put green beans, and tomato soup in casserole dish and mix together. Add potatoes and top with cheese. Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes or until cooked through.

* I use Idahoan potato packages for the potatoes, Great Value green beans, tomato soup, shredded cheese, and ground beef from Walmart.

The approximate cost to make shepherd's pie, based on the brands I buy, is $8.66. Plus the Jiffy corn muffin mix is 50 cents. We get approximately 5-6 servings out of this recipe, therefore this meal is $1.44 a serving besides the cost of the corn bread. This also reheats well and makes good leftovers.

Food Budget

How much do you spend on groceries per week? Our budget is $100 per week for three of us. My goal when I grocery shop is around $75. By groceries, I'm not only talking about food. I also include hygiene products, cleaner, paper towels, toilet paper, etc. Things that you need that you regularly have to buy. This last grocery trip was $93.26. 75% of it was hygiene items, pull-ups, dishwasher soap, clorox wipes, etc. I only needed a few things that were actually food.

I plan out our meals for the week, and buy groceries accordingly. I recently was trying to figure out how to work occasional dining out or take-out to our budget without changing what we're allowed to spend in the given month. I decided that if I don't spend the allotted $100 on groceries for the week and only spend....$75? That gives me $25 to spend on dining out or take-out. That way we have it included in our budget already and don't have to "work it in." But.... no cheating! Don't spend less on groceries in order to allow more eating out.. no, no, no! The point is to make your budget work and buy responsibly when it comes to food.


How do you budget when it comes to groceries and/or eating out?

Weekly Meal Planning

I plan our meals for the week every Monday. I don't always make the meal on the day that I planned. When I write out my grocery list, I figure out what meals I want to make that week and list all the ingredients I don't have on hand and the amount I need for the recipe if its produce. We've had no problem being within our budget ever since I started planning our meals out and buying groceries according to it. We used to go grocery shopping, come home and then couldn't figure out what we could make with what we had. Sound familiar?


*This also helps us know how old leftovers are, if we had a meal on a different day than I had originally planned, then I cross out the meal and write out the one we had and write the one we should have had on the day that other meal was listed.No more guessing if it's too old to eat!

Active Grocery List

Active Grocery List

Always have a grocery list on your fridge, even if its blank and doesn't have anything on it yet. When you notice you're running low on something, simply write it on the list. Therefore, you won't forget to put it on the grocery list later when you're preparing to go grocery shopping.

Our Recipe Book

This is our recipe book. Its just a three ring binder. It holds all of our favorite recipes. All the recipes are typed up and printed out with a picture. You are more likely to want to cook something if you have a picture of it!

There's four categories dividing the recipes into sections. They include: appetizers, main dish, sides, and desserts. 

Each page consists of only one recipe for simplicity. How many times have you been reading a recipe accidentally kept looking at the wrong recipe? I also write whether or not this makes good leftovers and if its a good meal for when we have family over.