Budget recipe ideas

[dfchelbay]

Hey all! So, the next couple of months I am on a super duper strict budget. I've already done all the math and I can make it just fine, but it's tight. If I want to put ANYTHING away (which I need to do as I have a cat with health issues so I need that emergency money), I have to count every single penny. This has already included changing my health insurance (which I did before), dropping my cable, and watching my grocery budget.

So, this is where I come to you all for help. I need some ideas of budget recipes and meal planning. I am used to be able to get just about whatever I want so this is a change for me. For the time being, my budget is $100 for 2 weeks for one person, but that also included OTC meds, personal items, pet needs (like litter, their food is a different budget since they eat prescription food), and household goods. I did great this week by shopping sales and using what I have, but it's going to be hard to keep a stocked pantry and freezer since I can't buy "just because" it's on sale for later.

Thanks in advance for any help you all can give. I really appreciate it!

Here are a few really cheap meals:

Cabbage is under 50 cents a pound and one head can give you four or more meals. I make buttered cabbage with turkey bacon & you can add pasta to it. Great for a dinner & a leftover lunch the next day. If you have a dollar Tree, they have a frozen food section & they sell Jenno-O turkey bacon for $1, Walmart pasta is 78 cents lb. Another meal for $1 is frozen potstickers from Dollar Tree, for another $1 you can get a dozen springrolls. Chicken thighs & legs are always cheapest at the grocery store if you like dark meat. If you like soups, you can always bulk them up with beans, rice, pasta & cabbage. Jiffy makes muffin mixes for around 50 cents a box. I make the Boston Market corn muffins using Jiffy's corn muffin mix & yellow cake mix. Mix together & pour in bread loaf pan. For $2 you get a loaf of sweet corn bread. If you have flour & sugar on hand & 3 bananas you can make a loaf of banana bread. Potatoes & onions are inexpensive. You can make baked potatoes, fried potatoes with onions & bacon, potato soup, etc. Head of lettuce is $1, carrots are inexpensive as is celery, so make sure to get your daily veggies. Buy what's on sale. If you don't mind leftovers, it's always cheapest to make a large batch of something, like soups/stews/casseroles and eat it until it's gone...pick something you like though lol

 

[Minnesota!]

I also love picking up naan when it's on sale and tossing it into the freezer. I keep pizza sauce and mozza cheese on hand regularly and I pull out a naan at breakfast and it's defrosted by lunchtime, as which point I make a cheese or veggie pizza out of it. Easy, fast and oh so tasty and it's never more than a dollar to make. I add fruit and/or veggies and it's a complete meal!

!

We do a lot with naan, too. Very versatile. Costco has the big freezer packs of the big ones and of the mini ones. I keep them in the freezer (thaw so quickly!) and use them as sides for soups/stews, as pizza, as taco shells, as grilled cheeses, to hold eggs/meat. Such a good deal...and filling, too.

 

[MeganMango]

I bought fresh chicken wings (which are extremely cheap, probably the cheapest meat you'll find that's "edible"). Even at Trader Joe's they are cheap.

Anways, I cooked/seasoned them, put them in the fridge to use for another meal because they turned out way too spicy for me! So today I shredded the meat/cut it off the bone, and made my own meal similar to Chipotle's chicken burrito bowl. Boiled rice, grabbed a can of black beans, and a can of corn. Mixed the chicken in and it was a cheap, easy, mexican meal! I also diced up some avocado (which are only 2.69 at Trader Joe's for 4!) I ate that with some tortilla chips for lunch.


Then for dinner, I used the mixture to put inside of a tortilla and made burritos. The pot of rice/chicken/beans/corn made a huge pot, and I live alone, so i'll probably freeze half of it so it doesn't go bad and heat it up another time. I even made pasta one time and froze half of it. Reheats perfectly!

On a similar note, Trader Joe's is very inexpensive for some things. The produce for the most part. Aldi's is owned by their company but I find Trader Joe's to have better prices on fresh foods, not so much frozen meals. But Aldi's has pretty inexpensive frozen meals. I find cooking from scratch is ultimately the cheapest, since a box of rice is under $2, pasta is $1 a box, canned veggies are also very cheap for meals like I mentioned above.