“5 Meals for $5 by Jaci Rae is a very catchy title for a book on how to save money and still eat plentiful meals. Written by the “Queen of More Green”-the premise is to show all of us how to feed our family and/or friends for a very little amount of cash-the subtitle of the book is “You Don’t Need to be Wealthy to Eat Healthy”.

I love that Rae has included pricing for each ingredient to show how she came up with the total and portions. It’s great that she has classified all the recipes into cuisines. They seem to be plentiful, somewhat balanced and varied for all kinds of diets, allergic restrictions and tastes. None of the recipes are difficult to prepare and are very time conscious-in other words, great for today’s busy, over-worked family-dubbed cooks.

Rae’s book is a terrific book for families who need to keep to a very lean budget. She gives great tips to stretch a dollar-and again, not just on food. Her recipes are kid and picky-eater friendly-which is another way to stretch a budget. After all, if no one wants to eat the food-it doesn’t matter how much you save.”
- Carine Nadel, The Reader’s Advisory Panel of Woman’s Day Magazine

The Queen of More Green – Jaci Rae is an author/musician/business woman I was just introduced to. She sounds like another frugalista & her books are ones I have added to my Amazon.com wishlist.

The first site I visited was Shop for a day and her book Shop for a Day with Jaci Rae – How to Get Almost Anything for Free. This book looks like a great collection of money saving strategies & ideas. I enjoyed listening to the podcasts available on the side bar. It’s always good to hear someone else’s frugal ideas to refuel your motivation!!!

Another of her sites Penny Meals features another book 5 Meals for $5 – How to Feed 5 People 5 Meals for $5.00 – $8.00 or Less! You Don’t Need to Be Wealthy To Eat Healthy This one is huge on my list of must have books. Of course that could be the recipe addict talking…You can read a snippet of this book on the Penny Meals website, including the table of contents, which list the individual recipes available in the book, YUMMY!

You can also visit her blog.

I will be exploring her tips since she seems to take the “CVS extra care buck” theory & applied to lots of the other stuff out there. I am all about the free stuff!!! (At least the free stuff I can use or give away!)”
- Lisa Knight – The Frugal Momma

“An excellent book with tasty recipes that are balanced and very enjoyable.

Jaci Rae has outdone herself in this book, but instead of listing the price for five people per meal, she should have listed it’s a price for 5 – 9 people for each meal, which makes this book even more astonishing!

I found that many of the recipes fed myself and six friends or more with leftovers, though not all of the recipes were built that way.

This is an excellent book for the frugal minded, but also for those who are into the more delicate culinary palate.”
- Lisa Monroe

Bachelor on a Budget – 5 Meals for $5 Bucks

Housing is tanking, gas prices are higher than Cheech and Chong, and people much smarter than me are starting to utter the “R” word. It’s no secret the economy is lamer than HBO since The Wire ended, and guys are looking to trim their spending anywhere they can. Which means cutting back on eating out, rather than give up MLB season pass.

So to save you from endless nights of Ramen noodles and Easy Mac, I turned to Jaci Rae, known as The Queen of More Green. Her book, 5 Meals for $5, is loaded with recipes like B-B-Q Ham Sandwiches w/Homemade B-B-Q Sauce and Mexican Beef Enchilada Lasagna, that cost, on average, under $1.60 per serving. With many costing under $1. Including a salad. (Suck on that, Dollar Menu McNuggets.)

In the coming weeks, Jaci will be developing recipes just for us bachelors who want to make a batch of $5 meals, freeze the leftovers, and eat like a king for a month. (Then, like idiots, go out and blow the savings on 3-for-1 dances at the Pole Palace.)

Here’s the first of her recipes, which will always include the average cost per ingredient, cost per serving, and total cost to feed five people. (Keep in mind prices vary depending on where you live and shop.) So put the Cup O’Noodles down, and eat something just as cheap, that actually requires a knife and fork.