Each year my family takes a trip to a lake house. This year is no exception and every year I am in charge of feeding 13 people 3 meals a day on a TIGHT budget. And we like to EAT- a LOT! While I’d love to eat out for every meal- that’s just not financially possible- plus it’s a VERY small town we go to and restaurant choices are limited.
Here is our plan to feed everyone for under $200 for the week!
-I start planning EARLY- about February. I come up with a menu and for each meal list each and every ingredient that will be needed to make it.
-I start stockpiling in February. As things come on sale and I have extra coupons (my personal stock pile comes first) I get them.
-As I buy things I write the price next to the item on my list. It helps keep me on budget (I use excel for this process)
Since we have 7 days – there are 6 lunches, 6 dinners and 6 breakfasts. Each major meal has it’s own “bag”. There is a bag for snacks. a bag for condiments, etc.
For example- we are having BBQ pork one night. I plan to cook it in a crock pot (hint: Use a crock pot liner for NO clean up!). Everything for this meal (except the meat) is kept in a grocery bag (or sack). This bag includes the ingredients for Mac & Cheese, the BBQ sauce and spices, the croutons for salad, the mixes for cole slaw & more! When it’s time to make the BBQ- i can grab 1 single bag and voila- everything is there! I bought the boston butt for SUPER cheap several months ago. I seasoned it, wrapped it in plastic wrap REALLY thick and labled it “BBQ- LAKE” so my family wouldn’t accidentally use it!
We also use most disposable baking pans (You can get these really cheap at the Dollar Store- I picked up several Chinet varieties for $1.50 during a sale at Lowe’s Foods!) this eliminates most of the clean up. I know it’s not very environmentally friendly or “green” but honestly none of us wants to stand at the sink scrubbing the dishes for 13 people! We want to have fun.
A few other tips that have worked well for us for years:
-Use an empty beer 6 pk container to hold napkins, plastic ware. We can tote this to the back porch very easily and back inside.
-Plan easy to cook meals, or ones you can prep at home and transport easily. We do a LOT of crock pot meals & grilling out.
-Cook extra for dinner to use for lunches- we always have left over BBQ or tacos or burgers to use for lunches.
Do you have any Vacation Cooking tips?
I love your ideas! I like that you put the meals in separate bags, much less stressful trying to make sure that you have everything! We are traveling for Christmas so I might put some of your tips to use! 🙂
Thanks for all of your tips. My family is going on our week beach trip in September and I really want to stock pile some items for the trip. We have 8 adults and 5 kids so just as much as you so LOTS of food. We won’t be eating out at all so me stockpiling some things would really help. Past trips I KNOW tons of unnecessary spending has been done b/c we want to cook ‘this or that’ or we need to get ‘this’ and don’t worry about saving. Again-Thanks for your hard work & tips.
The only store where we are going is a dollar general grocery store!