Not Made Of Money

I am so excited to announce another new feature here on Not Made of Money. In conjunction with $5 Dinners, every Thursday afternoon I will be posting a budget meal idea using the latest Publix sale ad. I hope this will help you in your meal planning and in saving money on your food expenses. Beginning next week you can head on over to $5 Dinners where you’ll find a whole list of bloggers who will be blogging about bargain meals from other grocery stores. It will be a great place to find inexpensive meal ideas. So if Publix isn’t “your” store, don’t worry. I am sure there will be a blogger sharing budget meal ideas for your neck of the woods over at $5 Dinners.

So I’ve browsed the current Publix sale ad for the week of February 5, 2009 thru February 11, 2009. These prices are from the Central Florida sales flyer. Here are 2 bargain meals you can make from “on sale” ingredients:

Meal #1:
Pork loin with Idahoan mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus.
Whole boneless pork loin is $1.99 per pound (one pound would feed about 4 people so you’ll need to adjust the amount according to your needs). Idahoan mashed potatoes are 50 cents per pouch (each pouch makes 4 servings), and the fresh asparagus is $2.69 per pound. The total for the meal would be around $5.18 which would serve 4 people. Here is a really basic pork loin recipe that doesn’t require a lot of other ingredients: Garlic Pepper Pork Tenderloin. Publix also has their french bread on sale for $1.29 so you might want to pick up a loaf of that to go with the above dinner.

Meal #2:
Chili And Cheese topped baked potatoes
A 5 lb bag of idaho potatoes is $1.99, Bush’s best homestyle chili is $3.00 for two 15 ounce cans, and Publix shredded cheese (8 ounce package) is $2 per pack.

This would be a really easy meal to fix. Bake the desired number of potatoes (see here if you need directions) and then top with the canned chili (heated up first!) and then sprinkle cheese on top. Total meal cost $7 but you will probably have enough leftovers for another meal. Otherwise, you could just purchase one can of the chili at $1.50 per can. Adjust quantities to meet your family needs.

Stockpile idea for a future meal: Purchase an additional whole boneless pork loin and freeze it. Buy the Toufayan Pita Bread since it is buy one, get one free and freeze one of the packs. Wait for BBQ sauce to go on sale (or use up some you already have). Make crockpot BBQ pork loin sandwichs on the pita bread. See here for an easy recipe.

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