Zip Ties. You see, my three older children arrive home before I do. And this is the real world and in the real world, I come home from work, cook dinner, go to pack lunches and what do I find? That’s right! A box of animal crackers with 1.5 crackers left or an empty box of muffins. So, since I am all about solutions, I use zip ties. They go on when I finish packing lunches and I hide the rest and take them with me to work in the morning. (This way they cannot cut them off and then replace it so I would never know.) If I find the zip ties were cut without my permission, their phones and devices mysteriously disappear for a week.
OK, I do have some other pointers because trying to feed four growing boys and a teenage girl on a private school teacher’s salary, WIC and a very small food stamp allowance calls for a strict budget, a lot of discipline and a weekly routine.
First, I need to set the record straight. I do not meal prep very well. Meaning that when it comes to dinners, I am not the one measuring spices into Ziploc bags and cutting veggies and meats into more Ziploc bags to keep in the freezer/cabinets with neatly written labels including when it was made and what day of the week it is supposed to be used. My family has one of those people already and I figured I should let her claim her niche all to herself. (Sorry, Sis.) However, I excel at being crafty and resourceful…
What they eat – All five children eat breakfast when they wake up at approximately 5:30 AM. Cereal and milk. Period. Okay, sometimes the heavens grace them with left over pancakes from the weekend. Around 6:45 AM, my three older children (ages 15, 12, and 11) head to the bus stop with breakfast snack in hand and my two toddlers and I head off to our school. By now, my two toddlers are fully awake and hungry…again. Instant oatmeal – maple and brown sugar, aka “the regular oatmeal” – is the perfect fix for the car ride (since it I make it sticky and not runny). When I bring my toddlers to their classroom, they go straight to the table to sit and have a breakfast “snack” – Entenmann’s Little Bites. Yes, I know. It seems like overkill. Some days they eat every bite and sometimes they don’t. Regardless, I am always prepared.
All five children bring a packed lunch and a snack to school with water in their own personalized Tervis water bottles. Obviously, everyone is absolutely famished when they get home from school and in need of an after school snack. Then of course, there’s dinner.
Where I shop – Aldi’s aka The “quarter” store – The kids and I, especially my toddlers, absolutely love Aldi’s, better known as “the quarter store” in my house. It is special mommy and toddler bonding time when we go grocery shopping. Since my children have grown up with the fact that name brands do not matter, I can afford to bring the them with me.
For those of you that have never been there, my four-year-old calls it the “quarter” store because the carts are all linked together and in order to unlock it, you have to put in a quarter. The quarter is returned to you when you return the cart and chain it back to the others. I have trained him that if he walks beside me the whole time and helps me find the items I need while we are in the store, he can be in charge of the quarter, and of course, keep it as payment for his help.
For someone trying to feed a large family on a fixed budget, Aldi’s is definitely the place to go. Off-brands, bringing your own shopping bags, and the “quarter in, quarter out” system keep the prices so low they even beat Wal-Mart. Added bonus – the lines at Aldi’s are super quick so you don’t end up spending more time in line than actually shopping.
I know what your thinking…how, or better yet why, does she take her toddlers with her to the grocery store? Since there are so many children at home, it’s not fair to have my older children babysit every time I need to go somewhere. So, I simply feed them before we go. What holds true for adults, is also true for kids. If they are hungry, they will want everything, and I mean everything, on the shelf. Feeding them before we go eliminates this and put focus on helping mommy look for items we need instead of items we want. Treat it like a treasure hunt and I’m golden.
Menu – I usually buy enough for two weeks. This includes all snacks, frozen food, canned food and meats. Since I do not have time for the Ziploc stuff I mentioned earlier, I typically buy the regular sized packs of meats, enough for one dinner.
Weekday breakfast – Cereal and milk, courtesy of WIC. No questions asked, this is what you get. Besides, they still have breakfast #2 and a breakfast snack to look forward to. WIC tip – shop at Publix when cereal is BOGO. Let’s use the Cheerios, for example. First box is regular Cheerios, BOGO box is flavored Cheerios. When I get home, I mix the regular with the flavored in a plastic cereal container and my kids still think they are getting a treat.
Snacks aka “the zip tie cabinet” = approximately $56/month – Every week, the cabinet has at least three items from the following list for their lunch boxes: saltine crackers (to be sandwiched with peanut butter), animal crackers, jello cups, vanilla pudding cups, and pretzels. The variety may change but my rule always stays the same – $2 per box/bag or less. Entenmann’s Little Bites at Aldi’s are $2.49/box compared to other stores who sometimes charge $3.50/box. Five cans of fruit ($5) or 2 bags of halos/cuties when they are on sale ($5).
The kids are always famished when they get home from school. Therefore, bananas and PB&J are always made available. When the kids come home from school, one snack and a glass of milk before they start their chores and homework.
Lunches = approximately $32/month – Leftovers. The dollar store sells some awesome lunch containers with all their fave cartoon characters and some pretty nifty ones for myself and my older kids, as well. Since Cam is the foodie, left overs are never a problem. Blake is a little more picky so mommy had to get a little more crafty. Blake gets two lunch boxes. One with lunch only and one with snacks. This forces him to eat his lunch during lunch and eliminates the choice to eat all of his snacks. When leftovers have been eliminated, turkey ($6) and cheese sandwiches and sometimes we fancy a simple salad mix ($2).
Dinner = approximately $278/month– My grocery cart for two weeks of dinners typically looks something like this: eight packs of assorted meat ($50), eight frozen or canned veggies ($8), eight starches for sides ($16), eight assorted sauces ($16), four frozen pizzas for the “Oops, I forgot to prep dinner” nights ($20), pasta and meatballs ($14), hot dogs and homemade mac n cheese ($6), frozen chicken nuggets and french fries just because ($9).
The crock pot is my saving grace in trying to create the illusion of home cooked meals. I pull the meat the night before, put it in the crock pot in the morning, add a jar of gravy/marinade/whatever, maybe a few spices and we are out the door. I even cook hot wings in the crock pot. (A bag of wings, a bottle of hot sauce, and a stick of butter, set on low. Cook in the oven on a baking sheet for 30 minutes when you get home to make them crispy and the meat falls off the bones.) If the recipe has more than 5 ingredients, I don’t make it. The veggies and side take 10 minutes and dinner is served.
Saturday morning breakfast – Now here’s my specialty. I started this tradition to make up for the fact the weekdays are always rushed. To make up for it, we take our time on the weekends. Most Saturdays, my father stops by and by 9:00 am, we all have full bellies and the kids are usually off to play outside.
I get up, make my coffee in my over-sized mug filled to the brim, turn up some music, open the windows and cook pancakes or waffles, eggs, bacon or sausage, and a fresh fruit salad. Now that I have my waffle maker from Mother’s Day, I’ve been getting creative with some pretty yummy confectionery concoctions.
We rarely eat out, and by rarely, I mean maybe twice a year to celebrate report cards or the beginning/end of summer. This includes fast food. Not only is it unhealthy, but eating out is just not in the budget. However, because of my own self-discipline, more often than not I have a surplus in the food category, which is saved for bigger feasts like birthday parties, special occasions, holidays, or just because.
Sitting at the kitchen table every Saturday morning, drinking my coffee, watching them all play in the front yard, seeing my grandson come out and join them – PRICELESS.
