Cheap meal ideas

[Anna_Marie]

We are a family of 6. We are spending more and more on groceries and getting very little. I'm going to try to cut down some more on the grocery bill - DH does the grocery shopping and he told me the Field lunchmeat I like (the kind with ham and cheese together) is around $4 at Walmart !

The only grocery stores near us are WalMart, Kroger, and IGA.

Meal ideas we have thought of are: Ramen noodles, meatless spaghetti, pancakes and eggs. I was wondering if anyone else had some good ideas that are cheap. We are on a super tight budget and I've got to cut down some more.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

While I don't have any cheap recipe ideas, I just wanted to mention that I really learned a lot from a website called Coupon Divas. They have videos and lots of information about how using easy coupon techniques can save you money. I have cut my grocery bill in half every month as a result of it.

 

[NVDisMom]

I would attempt to go more vegetarian. This time of year veggies are less per pound than meat. Utilize dried beans, rice, pasta, and homemade breads to fill out the menu. There is a great vegetarian meal thread floating around here. My family has loved a number of those recipes and most are dirt cheap to make. The biggest money saver is being willing to cook from scratch. Take the processed foods out of your diet and you'll save a ton of money.

 

[momplus3]

A couple things that we do to try and save:

- Buy in bulk. At the local butcher that we go to, if you buy over 10 pounds of hamburger or 10 pounds of boneless chicken breasts, you save 10 cents a pound.
- Try and limit your grocery trips. We try and stock up on canned, jar and frozen items 1 time a month and then supplement with bread, milk and fresh items weekly.

Some budget meals: Grilled cheese and tomato soup, homemade mac and cheese, tacos, quesidillas (either with chicken or cheese), rigatoni (we use tri colored noodles, mozzerella cheese and mushrooms - makes enough 4 2 dinners and lunch leftovers), sloppy joes, chicken stir fry (usually makes enough for dinner and lunch leftovers for me!), homemade pizza, homemade calzones.

 

[spacecanada]

Buy in bulk as much as possible and form your meals around those items.
- Rolled Oats = hot oatmeal in the mornings, oatmeal cookies, fruit crumbles
- Died Beans = super cheap protein = chili, stir fries, minestrone soup, hummus
- Dried Pasta = spaghetti, macaroni, pasta salads
- Red lentils = more cheap protein = soups, curries
- Rice = stir fries, fried rice, curries

Make your own bread - that stuff isn't cheap... but making your own is, especially if you buy the flour in bulk.

Homemade soups are usually cheap, especially if you make your own noodles. Mmmm... Red lentil soup, broccoli potato soup, vegetable noodle soup, borcht, chickpea noodle soup...

Buy fruits and vegetables that are in season. Think twice about berries in January and opt for apples instead.

Shop more on discount days. Around here, the first Tuesday of the month = 15% off! Definitely worth it!

 

[Toystoryfan32]

We started trying the 1 bag 5 dinners recipes on Krafts website and it has helped us save quite a bit. We have really loved the recipies. They are easy and quick and they give you the grocery list for the week and everything! Its really only 4 meals, the Friday meal is always just Kraft Mac and Cheese or something. However we usually have leftovers so it easily covers us for 5-6 nights a week. Love it!

 

[mousiemom]

on the budget board go to eat at home thread and everyone talks about their menus for the week and cheap dinner meals, it's awesome. hey, we are all in the same boat here, i've learned a lot of great ideas. my cheap ones are:
grilled hamburgers/home fries, chilli dogs, chicken/steak quesidillas, limas/sausage, chicken and rice aroni w/cheese, pepper steak, doing the breakfast for dinner.
good luck!

 

[semo233]

Hillbillyhousewife.com has a lot of ideas!

 

[ilovepete]

I would focus more on saving money on the food than making the cheaper meals, it may be easier! You could try iheartkroger.com

 

[mjantz]

I use Angel Food. I know some don't like it but I've been happy (except with the steaks but I found a crockpot recipe to make them yummy & tender). They're meat heavy so I can use those proteins to structure the rest of my meals.

 

[ellone]

Use beans as a protein 1 or times a week.

Last night I made a pasta salad for dinner with:
Penne pasta
Garbanzo beans
Eggs
celery
onion
Mayo

It came out very good and was very filling.

 

[worm761]

We are a family of five. Three adults, one teen boy, and a 19 mo old girl. I spend around $150 -180 every two weeks for meals. I feed all of us three meals a day plus snacks year round since we homeschool. I am horrible at updating my blog but my recipes are there. Feel free to have a look around.

http://disneytravelingfamily.blogspot.com/

 

[Poohforyou]

Build your meals around legumes and rice. Both are cheap and filling. I love black beans, corn, chopped peppers and some salsa mixed together and served over brown rice with a sprinkle of shredded cheese on top.

DH likes this although he still wants some additional protein with it so I'll add a piece chicken or fish with it. What makes it great is I can alter it for DD. She'll eat everything except the salsa but doesn't want it all mixed up.

You could even keep everything seperate and offer taco shells instead of rice for a change.

Fried rice is another great budget friendly meal and a way to use up leftover rice and vegetables. Use eggs as a protein source.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

If you use dried beans and lentils, you'll get healthy protein, fibre, and no cholesterol or fat at a much cheaper cost than buying meat or cheese. Do you have any farmer's markets near you? You can often get produce more cheaply at these markets, especially if you go close to the time when they are going to close - the farmers don't want to lug everything back home, so they'll sell it off at a discount.

In your grocery store, look for a section of marked-down produce. Often you can cut off any over-ripe or brown bits and still get a good deal.

Soup can be a good inexpensive (and healthy) meal, and a good way to use up any leftover veggies and cooked beans. Or have soup as a starter so that you can serve smaller portions of the rest of the meal.

Make homemade, whole grain muffins and biscuits to serve with your meals as a way of stretching the other foods and adding more nutrients. Making your own bread helps, too.

Teresa

 

[Dizneydaz]

Personally I think breakfast for dinner is a pretty inexpensive meal. And kids love it. Eggs, waffles (or pancakes), potatoes, and something like applesauce would be pretty cheap to prepare. We used to use Bisquick for all our pancake, waffle, biscuit needs, but we recently switched to Jiffy and can't tell the difference. My DD11 has never had a frozen waffle or pancake (at least at our home). And you can't get much cheaper than eggs for a meal. Skip the bacon and that really reduces your per person cost.

HTH.

 

[swilshire]

Meal ideas we have thought of are: Ramen noodles.

I hope you read the nutrition information on these before you buy any. Even my college student son throws away the flavor pack and just uses the noodles.

I don't know where you live, but it's probably too late for you to start growing any vegetables this year. A few tomato or other plants can go a long way to adding healthy things to your meals. At a minimum, you should be able to find a local farmers market with decent prices this time of year. I just saw a television piece on a local church that is growing veggies and giving them away to all comers. The lines were long, but they offered a very nice selection between their own garden and donated surplus from the community.

My 12yo's favorite food is chili, so every Monday we make a big pot of pinto beans and have fried cornbread with it. Then it gets turned into chili. We use ground beef, but it's equally yummy vegetarian style. Beans, tomatoes canned from our garden or bought on sale, a can of corn and a few spices are cheap.

We also make homemade pizzas. The vegetarian version with tomatoes and peppers from the garden are pretty cheap, even though we splurge and buy premade crusts.

Sheila

 

[wide awake]

I agree w/ the previous posters about adding dried beans and rice to your menus, and starting a garden if possible. Depending on your climate you might be able to grow winter vegetables. For meat...try turkey drumsticks or thighs. The drumsticks can be stewed for soup or turkey and dumplings, or just roasted...thighs the same. Both make great sandwiches. Pork shoulder roasts are great and can be bought for 99 cents a pound when on sale. You can make cuban pork, pulled pork, chile verde, roast pork, carnitas, etc... I would stay away from the lunchmeat. It is expensive, processed, and unhealthy. If you want sandwich meat plan for it, for example serve a ham for dinner, than slice or grind the leftovers for sandwiches.

 

[Dizneydaz]

A garden is a great idea. Here is So. Cal it's not too late to start things. Right now our 1 tomato plant is producing more tomatoes than we can eat. We had so many plums this year that I made plum jam and plum fruit leather. We have 2 cucumbers that are producing tons right now and in a week or so we well be overloaded. Our strawberries continue to produce and have for about 4 years now.

Not for eating but we recently planted seeds from a green pumpkin from last fall and it's already sprouting.

Even if you aren't growing anything right now maybe you can find some neighbors who have excess. We are always passing out plums, tomatoes, strawberries, and cucumbers to about 4 in our neighborhood.

 

[johde]

You might also want to see if it might be worth traveling a little bit to get different stores. For example, our town doesn't have a Giant Eagle but if I drive an extra 10 miles on my way home from work I can stop at one. I try to look at the add to see if it's worth while to go that way home.

I've also switched out ground turkey for ground beef in most highly spiced dishes. Our local Aldi's has frozen ground turkey 1.39 a lb. By the time it get's made into sloppy joes or chilli for example, I can't tell the difference.

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

Personally I think breakfast for dinner is a pretty inexpensive meal. And kids love it. Eggs, waffles (or pancakes), potatoes, and something like applesauce would be pretty cheap to prepare. We used to use Bisquick for all our pancake, waffle, biscuit needs, but we recently switched to Jiffy and can't tell the difference. My DD11 has never had a frozen waffle or pancake (at least at our home). And you can't get much cheaper than eggs for a meal. Skip the bacon and that really reduces your per person cost.

HTH.

Pancake mix:

1 egg
1 cup-all purpose flour
3/4 cup of milk
2Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt.

This costs pennies to put together. I normally use powdered milk.