Counting the Cost

When we decided to celebrate the Sabbath with a feast every week we had to see how this fit in our budget.My husband is a Christian school teacher and we have four wonderful children. We knew something had to give to enable us to do this. The first thing was to revamp our weekly menus. I love to cook, therefore it has never been a chore to provide a home-cooked meal for my family. We decided to scale back a little. Instead of having a meat, a starch and two vegetables every night,we went to having a couple of vegetarian nights. We do beans and rice, mac-n-cheese,pasta, and anything else that is cheap and filling. Pots of soup are also great. A big pot can get us through 2 dinners and a lunch. I try to keep our week-night meals to about $7.00 a night. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. The vegetarian meals are usually $5 and under.When we have planned on entertaining and the budget will not allow we will do brunch after church. Brunch foods are less expensive. I have also become a whiz at shopping sales. When hams were $1.99 a pound at Christmas I bought 2. Turkeys are always cheap at Thanksgiving. There is always something like a Manager's Special. This week it was Chuck Roast for 1.99 a pound. I found a great recipe in gourmet magazine for an Italian Roast. I will add maybe garlic mashed potatoes and a salad. Possibly homemade bread. This will be an inexpensive feast. I do not do this to be cheap. The reality is, is that the average family cannot feast weekly without finding ways to sacrifice and cut corners. These are just a few things we have done.