In this week’s review, I thought I would try and break down the meal costs to be more accurate. I did not include the cost of oil or seasonings, since the cost is usually quite small per meal and hard to determine. If I grill in butter, I include the butter cost (and we use butter than comes from grass fed cows, so it’s about $7-8 a box).

Here was this week’s plan and cost:

The Meal Plan

• Saturday: Chicken and broccoli in creamy pesto sauce
• Sunday: Family get together
• Monday: Beef stew
• Tuesday: Pork chops with asparagus
• Wednesday: Steak with brussel sprouts and baked sweet potato
• Thursday: Stuffed chicken breasts served with asparagus
• Friday: Crab cakes and red pepper sauce with broccoli and mixed greens with avocado dressing

The Final Cost

Meal ingredients: $42.61
Other items: $15.53
Total: $58.14

What we actually ate and price details:

Chicken and broccoli in creamy pesto sauce Total meal cost for 4 people: about $10.74-$17.32,  $2.68-$4.33 a serving -(click link to view details)

Beef stew -
This week I made it a little differently, with the following ingredients, serves 3:

• 1 pack stew meat: $4.99
• 1 yellow onion, diced $.70
• 3 cloves garlic, diced $.20
• 1/2 bag baby carrots $1.00
• 2 medium potatoes $1.00
• 1 bottle of beer or 2 cups broth (This price will vary, I had leftover beer in the fridge that I used, that cost about $1.00 a bottle)

Total: about $7.89 (plus beer or broth), about $2.63 per serving

Pork chops with asparagus (3 servings)

• Pork chops: $4.00
• Asparagus: $1.20
• Butter: $.50

Total : $5.70, $1.90 per serving

Steak with broccoli and small baked potatoes (about 3 servings, more if your husband eats less than a 10 ounce steak…)

• New York and Sirloin steaks: $9.00
• Broccoli: $1.50
• Butter: $1.00
• Potatoes: $1.00

Total: $12.50, $4.16 a serving

Stuffed chicken breasts served with asparagus about 4 servings

• Chicken (boneless and skinless breasts) $3.25
• A couple handfuls of spinach: $.50
• 1 jar roasted red peppers: $1.75
• Parmesan Cheese: $1.00
• Mozzarella: $1.00
• Asparagus $1.20

Total: $8.70, $2.17 Per servings

Crab cakes with greens and avocado dressing, serves 2 (I haven’t made them yet, and will post the recipe later, but for now, here are the estimated figures)

• 8 ounces crab leg meat (the grocery store was out of fresh) $7.99
• 1 jar roasted peppers: $1.75
• Lemons $.50
• 1 egg $.12
• Plus seasonings, a little bit of rice flour, and some mayo
• Avocado $1.00
• Greens: $.75

Total: $12.11, $6.05 a serving (sea food is not a budget item!)

Total costs of dinners (and lunches) = $57.64 (using low estimate from creamy chicken recipe)
19 Servings total
Which averages out to about $3.03 a serving for me and my husband.

This price differs from my grocery list of meal ingredients because I already had some of the items on hand, from previous shopping trips.

Other items that were bought and eaten includes: Produce, yogurt, eggs, and nuts