The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook: 200 Recipes for Quick, Delicious, and Nourishing Meals That Are Easy on the Budget and a Snap to Prepare

by Erin Chase

Do you wish you were a savvy supermarket shopper who knows how to cut your weekly food budget, banish fast food from the dinner table and serve your family meals that are delicious and good for them?  Well, Erin Chase, "The $5 Dinner Mom", is here to help. Erin is the founder of www.5dollardinners.com the skyrocketing internet website that's now the go-to source for families who want to eat well and stay within a budget. Erin became a supermarket savvy mom, challenged herself to create dinners for her family of four that cost no more than $5 and is here to share her fool-proof method with you in her first cookbook that contains over 200 recipes that cost $5 or less to make.  First, Erin will show you how to size up the best supermarket deals, clip coupons that will really save you money and create a weekly dinner menu plan. Then, in each recipe she shows you just how much she paid for each item and challenges you to do the same.  Here are a few of her
- North Carolina Pulled Pork Sandwiches - $4.90
- Curried Pumpkin Soup - $4.41
- Apple Dijon Pork Roast - $4.30
- Orange Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry - $4.94
- Creamy Lemon Dill Catfish - $4.95
- Bacon-Wrapped Apple Chicken - $4.96
- Country Ribs with Oven Fries - $4.77 Join the army of devoted followers who have already let Erin Chase show them how to be savvy supermarket shoppers who cook tasty, economical meals.  You'll never spend more than $5 on dinner again. 

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Money, How To, Frugal

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 1 out of 5]

What world is this woman living in where she can find boneless skinless chicken breast for $1.50 a lb and a tub of sour cream for 50 cents? This cookbook is so unrealistic for what it's supposed to be about. I can't really argue about having a lot of recipes but the whole reason I picked up this book was to find recipes on a budget. I would recommend Family Feasts for $75 a Week by Mary Ostyn instead.

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is divided into 2 parts: a guide to conquering the grocery store and finding good deals and the recipe section. I really liked the first section. Erin Chase's advise was pretty spot on (and as I pride myself on my grocery store prowness this is high praise indeed). I even picked up enough courage to attempt some couponing with her sage advice that has saved me over $12 in the last month with very little effort. This section gets 4 1/2 stars from me.

The recipe section isn't as stellar in my opinion. The side dishes are all simple selections (such as bread or carrot sticks or broccoli). I use these of course, but I was hoping to find some side dishes that were a little more adventurous while still being cheap. Also, so many of her recipes call for chicken that I was a little bit bored after a while. This section gets 2 1/2 stars.

Overall, there are some good tips inside for trimming your grocery budget. This would be a great book to browse through and pick up ideas for your individual family.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a fairly low rating for me, but I felt it was justified. While there are a few clever tips, they are mostly pulled from other sources. With the exception of the recipes, almost everything contained can be found somewhere else and isn't exactly news to anyone who has been following this type of planning. The basis of the book is how to shop cheaply, then combine that savings into your meals. This breaks every ingredient down to per use. So that squeeze of mustard is included at five cents, half a bag of noodles at twenty-five and so on. An interesting concept, but I wonder how much more a "regular" meal would cost. Like I said, it's all about the shopping though. Do yourself a favor and google the websites for coupon savings, how to save big at grocery stores and the like. You'll find far more information that way. If you're looking for a recipe book, this is an ok one, nothing I'd write home to mom about.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate affordable (cheap, really) dinner ideas. These recipes easily feed our family of five (kids are 15, 12, and 8-so not babies). I appreciate how she's added a side to most dishes included in the recipe. Nothing fancy, but good food. :)

[Terra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't have much hope for it based on its cover, but it turned out to be a keeper. I'll be buying a copy. The recipes are perfect for a busy mom: short, simple and few ingrdients. Love it.

[Ginnie Grant · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am a busy mom on a budget so you'd think that this book would have been perfect for me. but the overly processed foods in here I didn't find as relevant to me or my family.

[Meg Dean · Rating 1 out of 5]

$5 a meal my foot! Most meals in this book would cost $10+!

[J.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard about Erin Chase on the Bigger Pockets Money podcast and decided to check out the book. I'm not sure I'll ever get into couponing, and I haven't tried any recipes yet, but the advice of actually looking at the sales circulars, comparing it to what you have in your pantry, and then making a plan to buy just the important things that are on sale either for using that week or stockpiling sounds pretty sound to me. Of course it's easier and more important to plan ahead and cook meals during the pandemic if you work from home. I'll see if I still stick to it when I get back home after a long commute. In the meantime, I'll try to cut down on our grocery expenses.

[Nova · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is supposed to be a guide for cooking cheap meals to feed a family. The author claims to be able to feed her family in under $5 for every meal. Ok. I'll bite. The thing is, the way she saves money, while it works for those with enough extra income to stock up when the buying is at its best, those of us who can't afford not to have two incomes and those of us who live paycheck to paycheck (my family currently falls into both categories) can't take advantage of the low prices that she can because we can't afford to spend on a larger package for a cheaper per item price later and we can't afford to buy items in bulk on sale to take advantage of low sale prices during certain times of the year. This is a great strategy for solidly middle class families to save money, but for my working class family, it doesn't work out.

There were a few helpful tips here and there but most of them were either common sense or not practical for my situation. I would be interested in trying many of the recipes and I can see where they could definitely be made cheaply, but the portion sizes are a lot smaller than what my bottomless pit husband and kiddo like to eat per meal. For our family of three, her four portions don't appear to be enough.

[Alisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit I didn't read/try every single recipe in this book. I was curious to read it since on so many frugal blogs I read, she has been mentioned. The first part of the book goes over how to save money in shopping, menu planning, watching sales, using coupons, then most of the book is the recipes. One thing I did like is that a lot of her meals are home cooked (like using sauces from scratch) and her premise is that $2.50 of each meal is a protein source, and she always includes a vegetable with every meal. She has the recipes organized by type like turkey/chicken dinners, meat dinners, seafood dinners, etc.
I did like how at the end of each recipe she has a frugal tip for that meal. I like the story at the beginning how she decided to start shopping smarter as a stay-at-home mom to be able to watch their budget in the eating category. I have marked several recipes to try and am working through those.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I don't generally review cookbooks, this book included lots of good advice for saving money at the supermarket. It covers some of the same ground as The Coupon Mom's book, though this author isn't driving around to as many stores. The recipes were a little bland, though very kid-friendly. I particularly liked that while she's focused on saving money, she's also generally eating healthy - there are lots of fruits and veggies in this book, and she does address the misconception that it's more expensive to eat healthy. While the recipes are not all to my taste, the one I've tried so far (crockpot turkey) was good, and extremely eacy to make. They're also all accompanied by a Frugal Fact, which was great. She writes from the midwest, and some of her prices do reflect that.

[Lee-Ann Sleegers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might seem strange but I have been busy reading cookbooks written by Erin Chase that are part of the $5 Dinner Mom series. I enjoy cooking and these books have really emphasized the back to basics cooking. I’m pretty sure I’m not making meals for $5 , but I am finding that there are less leftovers and less wasted food. These meals seem to be popular with my family to the point that when I gave my husband the choice between going grocery shopping or order a pizza when I wasn’t feeling well he opted to go to the grocery store. If you are looking for inexpensive cooking options I recommend any of the $5 Dinner Mom books.

[Jane H · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like that the basic premise is that these meals are inexpensive. Compared to many magazines that consider "less than $5 per person" this is a FANTASTIC resource! However, I find the portions to be too small for my family, and the prices in my area are definitely higher than the author's. Add to that that we only eat pastured meats, eggs, and milk, and the prices don't work anymore. However, we just tried the chicken potpie recipe (turned into turkey) and loved it. I'd definitely like to keep this on hand.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid budget-friendly cookbook. I wasn't in much of a cooking mood while I had this one checked out, so I didn't prepare that many recipes, but the Mediterranean Pizza we made was delicious. Chase's story of how she started her website (5dollardinners.com) was a good background to understand the layout of the book. She offers several homemade alternatives to commonly store bought (and more expensive) ingredients, but if you're strapped for time, like me, you may still find yourself buying the store-made ingredients. Still these recipes are fast, tasty, and easy on the wallet.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've only used about four recipes in this book, but they were all very popular with my family. I like that the author included bread machine instructions for all of the breads and dough. I made a pizza using the pizza dough and pizza sauce recipes and it turned out great. I can still smell it almost 24 hours later! All of the recipes I tried were very easy and VERY cheap. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is on a budget.

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like all recipe books there are some recipes you like and some you don't, but with this many recipes it's a good book to have- even just for ideas. Although the prices are exact- inflation and area- you know that they aren't going to have anything outrageously priced or hard to find. I of course didn't make all the recipes but all the ones we tried were good and ideas were easy to find (most if not everything for every meal in my house already).

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a good reminder that I can make economically sound and balanced meals if I put in some time and preparation. I didn't try any of her recipes, instead I looked through my own recipes and found those that my family likes that are already "cheap" or that I coud make more economical by shopping store sales, etc.

[Julie Shuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seems very simple and straightforward. Not a coffee table cookbook since there is no beautiful photography that many now have. I have made a couple of recipes and they have been delicious. Not as into couponing or some of her more extreme tactics, but it's helpful for a broke young adult to have some cheap recipes on hand.

[Katie]

I've been checking cookbooks out at my library. I tried some recipes in this one since they seemed pretty basic and easy to make, nothing super fancy. I tried 4 different recipes and none of them were very good. Her cost estimate was probably a little low as well, not that I needed $5 meals, but the prices didn't seem realistic.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

No pictures! I am a BIG fan of pictures in cookbooks so this was a bit of a downer for me. On the plus side, I did find several recipes that I will try as well as some very valuable information about couponing, and menu planning.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this recipe book for Christmas and I love it. I had been using her blog as well to get ideas for food. All of her meals are planned out the the penny on how much she spends on them and they are all under $5. The recipes are simple and very good.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I checked the publication date and since it was only two years old, I was surprised at the difference between current prices and the prices that she quoted. Maybe she lives where food and veggies are cheaper? Anyway, she still had some good recipes and ideas.

[Amy]

This cookbook rocks! So do her shopping techniques - a must have for us 'savvy shoppers.'

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intro. has a good overview how to save 60% or more every time you shop, including meat and produce. Tried a couple of the recipes and they were very basic, but good, and you could jazz them up.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of easy to fix, inexpensive meals prepared with typical on-hand ingredients, plus great suggestions on how to cut costs in your food budget.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up again to find some new recipes to make for my family. I really like this book and it has some great recipes. I really just need to buy these cookbooks so I have them.

[Aftan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and informative. The recipes were not to my liking though.

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice idea and focus. Will have to try some recipes to see how tasty they are.

[Tabby Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

[McArthur Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cooking on a budget? Little short on time? This book is the ultimate for both! Simply written, easy to follow instructions and basic ingredients found in every kitchen--want my own copy of this one!