A Weekly Meal Plan (1885)

Wondering what to make for dinner? Here’s a frugal weekly meal plan from 1885, full of inexpensive, hearty ideas.

Dear friends,

My yeast starter isn’t quite where I want it yet. So today I thought instead of talking about yeast, we might enjoy seeing a sample weekly meal plan from 1885. 

Don’t you just love it when old cookbooks offer us this glimpse into how all the recipes between those pages might have come together, on a daily basis? Needless to say, the sample “bills of fare” are much more extravagant in some cookbooks than others, depending on the target audience.

I’ll share these from time to time, and thought we’d start with this one from the 1880’s, which was geared toward families of very modest means. It’s from one of my favorite little cookbooks of the era, Twenty-Five Cent Dinners for Families of Six. Hope you enjoy!

~ Anna

How much was $5.25 cents worth in 1885?

Most of the online calculators I’ve tried put the value of that weekly food budget at about the equivalent of about $180 US dollars in 2023.

Of course, depending on what you’re buying (food? lumber? coal?) the buying power of that amount can vary widely, and I’m anything but an expert in this area. I did think it was interesting though, to see what the conversion came out to, and thought you might as well.

See any recipes we should try?

If something jumps out at you, Send me an email and let me know!

One of my own favorite frugal dinner recipes comes from this same book, it’s stuffed baked heart. That one didn’t make it onto this weekly meal plan, but it’s delicious and worth trying!

Tomorrow we’ll get back to that yeast starter. In the meantime, I wish you a wonderful day. Here in Maine, the sun is shining and it’s looking to be a lovely one!

Until next time, ~ Anna

This post was originally published in the 1800s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive 1800s recipes and cooking notes straight to your email!

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