Smart shopping, meal planning, and creative strategies to keep teenage appetites satisfied without breaking the bank
I am a stay-at-home mom by choice and with that title comes great responsibility. As a mom of two teenage boys, my main job these days seems to be to keep them fed.
We are a homeschooling family, so we don’t get free breakfasts or lunches at school and that usually means we are out and about more often throughout the day. To avoid the drive-thru when we are hungry takes a lot of planning ahead on my part.
My 17-year old often says, “Its only $15 dollars, Mom.” My retort is “Yes, $15 is for your meal, but I also must buy a meal for myself and your brother.” That’s a lot of money just for lunch.
That got me thinking. If I spend $15 a day on lunch, that’s $5400 a year, just because I didn’t make him a sandwich!
To keep my boys full, I meal-plan our breakfasts, lunches and dinners. I tend to buy in bulk and keep easy to make options readily available. Currently, they will make eggs, quesadillas, grilled cheese and pasta for themselves. My youngest seeks out our leftovers while my eldest just wants meat.
The Costco $4.99 Rotisserie chicken is money well spent in my opinion. I am able to make chicken salad for 4 sandwiches and 2 quarts of chicken noodle soup for lunches, a pot pie, white chicken chili or chicken enchiladas for dinner, and the boys like the legs and wings for a snack.
We also recently scored a pork loin for $9. That pork loin was cut into 5 meals for our family of 4. So for the $15 that my son would have eaten in the five minutes as we were driving out of the drive-thru parking lot I fed our family meat for a week. I’d say that money is well spent!
Let’s not forget about breakfast. It is often touted as the most important meal of the day so I buy 5 dozen eggs for $7.09 and the $5.99 package of 12 croissants from Costco, and as an added treat the Tuesday Baker’s Dozen bagel special from Panera Bread for $9.99.
My 13-year old is always hungry and my 17-year old often looks in the refrigerator and gripes that there is nothing to eat. But rest assured there is plenty of food. It may not jump out into their stomachs premade, or it may not be chips and cookies but there is always fruit, yogurt and vegetables at the ready.
Feeding teenage boys is not for the faint of heart but with careful meal planning and avoiding eating out, I can attest you can keep them fed and your budget in check when your money is well spent.
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