Homemade Spaghetti Sauce and Meatballs

My motto for meal planning is "When in doubt, make spaghetti."  So it's no surprise that for our first meal of my 4 Week Meal Plan we had the house favorite, Spaghetti and Meatballs.  I used to buy the super cheap $0.99 can of Hunt's sauce and the bag of frozen meatballs and nobody complained.  When I started making the sauce and the meatballs not only did my family notice but they raved.  Switching from pre-made to homemade saved us money and also took a classic go-to meal to a whole new level.

Here's the tally:

-Sauce (makes 4 portions)- $3.80 (had most of the ingredients on hand)
4 cans crushed tomatoes - $3.80 ($0.95 each)

-Meatballs (makes 3 portions)- $5.50
2 pounds ground beef - $5.33
2 eggs - $0.17

1 portion of sauce (1/4 of batch) - $0.95
1 portion of meatballs (1/3 of batch) - $1.83
Spaghetti noodles - $0.75
Salad - $1.24

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Total: $4.77 for 5 servings (that's $0.95/serving)

Homemade Italian Spaghetti Sauce (iamthatlady.com)

Homemade Turkey Meatballs (iamthatlady.com)

There are two lessons behind how this meal is so affordable and that is this; keep a well stocked pantry and don't waste food.  I kept the cost of both the sauce and meatballs low because I had almost all the ingredients on hand and they are items that get restocked frequently.  The garlic bread doesn't appear on the tally because it was a half loaf leftover from a previous meal.  Rather than nibble away at the leftover bread I had the foresight to freeze it knowing we'd be having spaghetti again in the near future.

I guess there is really only one lesson when you think about it; plan ahead.  That's all, just plan ahead a little.  No matter what your method is, whether it's extensive meal planning or stocking up when food is on special, a little forethought will make your money go a long way.

Happy Holidays!