Q&A with the $5 Dinner Mom

Her budgetary goal is pretty simple to follow: The ingredients for each evening meal for her family of four must cost five bucks or less. Her strategies for reaching that goal: Among other things, clipping coupons (big-time), using cash only instead of plastic, and never, ever paying full for anything. Her as-yet unreached goal, which is becoming her personal white whale: figuring out a way to make a full pan of lasagna for $5.