Cheap Meals!!!!

[Liberty Belle]

$0.34 for the whole family. I make a brown rice porridge using our rice cooker using 2/3 cup of brown rice, last bought high at something like $0.80/lb. or $0.21 for that 2/3 cup (that was a pretty bad buy on the rice, I can usually get it at $0.72/lb at a non-sale price without coupons, I buy it in 20 or 25 lb. bags at the Asian grocery), and 2 T of coconut milk, a can of which was last bought at $0.99/13.5 fl oz can which is the regular non-sale price at the Asian grocery as well, so about $0.13 of coconut milk per morning. I've been paying $1.60 per can at regular grocery prices. It's very tasty. Some days my husband wants almonds and my daughter wants frozen blueberries on theirs, adding about $0.10 to the total family meal, since we buy those at good price in bulk.



Well, we work from homemade broth, so I start with about a pound of meaty pork bones (Asian grocery again, only place I regularly see things like bones and chicken feet for making broth). First, I brown the bones quickly under the broiler, then I fill whatever crockpot is convenient with the bones and water and let it simmer until the meat has come loose from the bones and the liquor is dark. Then I strain with a loose cheese cloth, so I lose the bones, but keep the bits of meat. The resulting broth is actually concentrated, which is why I don't pay much attention to quantities. It will also form a firm gel as it cools, which is a good sign.

Next step is to slice potatoes thin and saute them with a little yellow onion in the bottom of your soup pot. You can use butter, I like to use some of the pork fat skimmed from the top of the broth because otherwise that fat will probably get wasted. When the potatoes and onions are cooked, throw in the broth gel and let it melt, add water to taste (how often do you hear that instruction?) along with salt and pepper. There's no salt in the broth itself, so it will be pretty bland, be fearless. You can serve it as soon as it's hot, that's your basic chowder. You can add milk or cream to make it rich, like a restaurant chowder. We almost always add corn.

Another tip for cheap meals: besides Asian groceries, I've found great deals at grocers that specialize in Eastern European food (I cannot believe the variety of jellies, jams and pickles they had!), Hispanic (some of the most unusual and cheap sodas I've ever seen, plus some really good cheese), Greek (actually, the one I'm familiar with is pricey compared to the others, except on feta of which they had about a dozen varieties), Italian (well, good prices on olive oil, vinegar, and semolina flours, other things aren't cheap, but you can't them as good elsewhere) and so on.

Wow. You're an inspiration. You should write a blog.

 

[dyna]

Last week I bought a picnic ham for .69lb had sunday dinner off it. Supper 1 night froze some for later meals. Cooked the bone an ham fat made fat free ham broth now I got the broth an dry beans cooking an will add a couple cups of ham later. Will bake a cornbread to go with the beans on Sunday.

 

[PiperPizzaz]

I love Ramen noodles too but, I only have them like every 3 or 4 years.


Pancakes and eggs or sausage.

Grilled cheese sandwiches (you can add lunchmeat in it) and soup. The Meijer brand chicken corn chowder is a favorite around here.

 

[Mysteria]

Pigs in a blanket are cheap, not necessarily healthy, but cheap and fast.

can of biscuits .99
pack of hot dogs .75

.75 cent pack of hot dogs?! What brand and where?

eta: I love ramen noodles too. I rarely eat them but every now and then I can't resist.

 

[shortbun]

I have to say that I wouldn't consider most of those things a meal. To me, a meal needs to include more nutritious foods, especially vegetables. I think the cheapest meals I make are things like bean and vegetable soup (starting with dried beans), meatless chili with beans and plenty of vegetables, etc.

Teresa

Thank you! I agree that most things mentioned here are not 'meals' but poor snacks and certainly not healthy. Ramen, hot dogs, spam, boxed mac and cheese, high fat soups(the cheapest always) and most other things mentioned on this thread are banned from our home - seriously banned. Oh, velveeta was banned too - can you still buy it? I buy Giant Eagle soda once in a while because it's pretty cheap and does not have High Fructose Corn Syrup.

BTW, another poster said they feed their family on 2/3 cup of brown rice. The way I cook rice, that only makes 1 and a third cups of rice for a whole family to share - less than 1/2 cup per person which is less than even Weight Watchers allots for one serving of carbohydrate. Sorry, I can not consider this a meal even IF it has a little coconut milk in it. I think we need to have a clear definition of 'meal' here if we're to compare costs. I could consider a piece of dry toast a meal I guess but I really don't think it is. Seriously. A half cup of Ramen is not a meal either. Gross.

 

[AntePrincess]

Wow. You're an inspiration. You should write a blog.

LOL, Liberty Belle, thanks. I'm afraid it would be the dullest blog ever. I never really enjoyed math in high school or college, but somehow I get the biggest kick out of keeping spreadsheets about certain things and calculating how much things really cost. Could you imagine pages on pages of me trilling about how I chose the items for my commodity basket in my price book, what parameters I set (milk, whole, organic or sufficiently organic, store brands and sale prices count for survey price book, but not coupons...), and my cackles of delight when I conclusively prove that the "discounters" aren't actually cheaper? Or how about the post where I determine that it's significantly cheaper to work out a way to make my broth in a straw lined "pioneer crockpot?" (Not kidding, that was what Mother Earth News called this old insulated wood trunk thing people used to use to keep their dutch ovens hot and their food cooking when they went to church back in the day.)

 

[mom2threecuties]

$0.34 for the whole family. I make a brown rice porridge using our rice cooker using 2/3 cup of brown rice, last bought high at something like $0.80/lb. or $0.21 for that 2/3 cup (that was a pretty bad buy on the rice, I can usually get it at $0.72/lb at a non-sale price without coupons, I buy it in 20 or 25 lb. bags at the Asian grocery), and 2 T of coconut milk, a can of which was last bought at $0.99/13.5 fl oz can which is the regular non-sale price at the Asian grocery as well, so about $0.13 of coconut milk per morning. I've been paying $1.60 per can at regular grocery prices. It's very tasty. Some days my husband wants almonds and my daughter wants frozen blueberries on theirs, adding about $0.10 to the total family meal, since we buy those at good price in bulk.



Well, we work from homemade broth, so I start with about a pound of meaty pork bones (Asian grocery again, only place I regularly see things like bones and chicken feet for making broth). First, I brown the bones quickly under the broiler, then I fill whatever crockpot is convenient with the bones and water and let it simmer until the meat has come loose from the bones and the liquor is dark. Then I strain with a loose cheese cloth, so I lose the bones, but keep the bits of meat. The resulting broth is actually concentrated, which is why I don't pay much attention to quantities. It will also form a firm gel as it cools, which is a good sign.

Next step is to slice potatoes thin and saute them with a little yellow onion in the bottom of your soup pot. You can use butter, I like to use some of the pork fat skimmed from the top of the broth because otherwise that fat will probably get wasted. When the potatoes and onions are cooked, throw in the broth gel and let it melt, add water to taste (how often do you hear that instruction?) along with salt and pepper. There's no salt in the broth itself, so it will be pretty bland, be fearless. You can serve it as soon as it's hot, that's your basic chowder. You can add milk or cream to make it rich, like a restaurant chowder. We almost always add corn.

Another tip for cheap meals: besides Asian groceries, I've found great deals at grocers that specialize in Eastern European food (I cannot believe the variety of jellies, jams and pickles they had!), Hispanic (some of the most unusual and cheap sodas I've ever seen, plus some really good cheese), Greek (actually, the one I'm familiar with is pricey compared to the others, except on feta of which they had about a dozen varieties), Italian (well, good prices on olive oil, vinegar, and semolina flours, other things aren't cheap, but you can't them as good elsewhere) and so on.

Yum - That chowder sounds great!

 

[AntePrincess]

BTW, another poster said they feed their family on 2/3 cup of brown rice. The way I cook rice, that only makes 1 and a third cups of rice for a whole family to share - less than 1/2 cup per person which is less than even Weight Watchers allots for one serving of carbohydrate. Sorry, I can not consider this a meal even IF it has a little coconut milk in it. I think we need to have a clear definition of 'meal' here if we're to compare costs. I could consider a piece of dry toast a meal I guess but I really don't think it is. Seriously. A half cup of Ramen is not a meal either. Gross.

shortbun, I'm not sure how you make your brown rice, we make ours in a rice cooker and 2/3 of a cup cooks up a great deal. I wouldn't say we have leftovers, but there's often some left in the bowl. The rice itself certainly isn't anything special, it's Nishiriki medium grain brown rice bought in the 20 or 25 lb. sack. I can't speak to Weight Watchers notion of a portion, naturally, because I don't calorie count or otherwise measure my portions: we all eat until we are satiated at every meal.

What would you consider a meal, particularly for breakfast? Lots of the world eats rice or oatmeal or grits for their whole morning meal, and that's not a deprivation thing. It's dense, filling food, and certainly it seems like everyone swears by their particular chosen grain porridge for health, vitality, and strength. I recently read a veritable ode to oatmeal by a centenarian on BBC health! But how much of it can you eat at a sitting? The little packs of instant make up a watery little cup (if that), and those used to stuff me.

Agreed about wanting meals with high nutritional content.

 

[AntePrincess]

Three sources of great frugal meal ideas: the Mennonite Peace Council (they publish some good cookbooks, often vegetarian), monks/nuns, and Hare Krishnas (but just try to keep the topic on food with the latter ). I've noticed that all three love their lentils and work treats with them.

So, a frugal and balanced meal that also happens to use up leftovers: lentil curry over brown rice. The whole grain and the legume together give you a complete protein, so you don't need to add dairy or meat for protein's sake (though nothing is stopping you, I LOVE curried eggs). The simplest and cheapest route is to just cook up the lentils to doneness in just plain water and simmer with curry powder. It's pretty tasty like that, but I've never felt the need to leave it at that because there's always odds and ends of veggies on hand to use up. If you want to cut the cost of your curry while simultaneously improving it: skip the pastes and either buy a powder or buy the whole spices in bulk to concoct your own mix. With whole spices, toast them in the pan while the lentils are simmering, transfer them to a mortar and pestle or food processor, and grind/blend into powder. The difference is amazing! Also, try incorporating kale and cauliflower into your curry, even if your household doesn't usually eat them, they taste wonderful that way and are available pretty cheaply here. Tasty alternatives to lentils as the base include mashed or pureed winter squash, or any form of yam or sweet potato. For an added treat, try throwing in a bit of apple sauce, juice, or cider if you have some to use up, it makes a sweet curry like the ones you can get at Japanese curry houses.

Another frugal tip: save the bits and peelings from all your vegetables and herbs, keep them fresh and clean in a ziploc bag in your freezer. Then, when you have enough, dump a promising combination into a bit of cheese cloth and simmer to make a vegetable broth that is absolutely phenomenal. It never seems to fail, it always turns out great and flavorful. My chef friend made a special point of telling me to save the onion skins for making broths, they're useless for eating, but they impart a terrific, strong flavor in a broth. I have a few small containers in my freezer, since I sometimes like a strong onion broth on its own or a strong mushroom broth. Although I make sure to use up all my leftovers first, we consume enough broth that I will also buy the old half price produce at the grocery store, so long as it's just a little shriveled or bruised (there's no way something moldy or gross is coming in my front door!).

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I took refridgerated pie dough shells, an 8X8 dish, two cans of Dinty Moore stew and made a meal my DH just loved!

Put the pie shell in the dish filled the shell with the stew and placed the other pie crust on the top. It feed the two of us for 3 nights!
It was my first time doing this and DH just fell in love with it.
Next time I am going to try using chile or can of Sue Bee chicken and dumplings.

 

[nelson84]

These are not as inexpensive as previous posts, but easy & cheap-ish.
The first is crab chowder...perfect for rainy, cold nights! I use chicken broth (boulion if the ready made stuff was not on sale), imitation crab meat (4 pkgs at B1G1), a can of corn, onion & garlic (already in the fridge), and cream. You can also throw in other leftovers or veggies to thicken it up. This week garlic bread was on sale for 1.50, so we had that with it. Cost me about 15, feeds 5 with enough for a second meal, so actual cost per meal for 5 was about 7.50.
Even cheaper is butter chicken curry. I buy the curry paste off Amazon when its on sale (which is often). I pay about 8 for a six pack, but only use 2to make a big pot. I add butter, water, 2 lbs of raw chicken, a can or 2 of peas, and 2 cans of potatoes. I make pasta on the side, and we have enough for dinner and leftovers. Costs about 12 total, so about 6/meal.

I never thought about buying food off of amazon!!!! Is it still worth it after paying for shipping?

 

[nelson84]

One of my cheap go to meals is egg salad sandwiches. The kids love them and they get alot of protein. I buy eggs when I can get them 99cents a dozen. So dinner usually works out to about 1.25 for 5 of us. I usually dont serve anything else as the sandwiches are filling.

99 cents a dozen???????? Where do you get them that cheap? Which store?

 

[Minnesota!]

Some of this stuff is just making me shake my head. I hate canned food, and buy it only so my sitter has something easy to cook for the kids at lunch (I would rather her spend more time with them then in the kitchen)..

Cheap/easy meals around here:

throw some boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the crockpot with 1 cup of salsa, and 1 cup of frozen corn. Cook all day on low. Shred, mix in some fat free cream cheese and get it all incorporated. Serve over brown rice, or on tortillas with taco fixings.

I do lots of "leftover" soups - take whatever meats/veggies/starches are leftover from the week, throw it in a pot with some broth that I have thawed out (I do the same as a pp - use all veggie scraps for broth and freeze the batches), add in whatever spices you like, and voila. Serve with grilled cheese (a weakness of mine).

I got this one off some site - might have been this one?


Lentil Brown Rice Casserole

Just over 3 cups broth, just use whatever you have on hand.
3/4 cup lentils
1/2 cup brown rice
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup of chopped green pepper
1/2 grated carrot
1 teaspoon italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Dash pepper
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Mix everything together in 9x13 dish except for cheese. Cover in aluminum foil and bake at 300 degrees for about 1 hour. Remove foil and add cheese. Throw back in oven until cheese is melted.

Total cost of this dish to $1.25.

ORIENTAL CHICKEN
chicken breasts (I'd say 4-6) plus 1/2 cup light soy sauce, 1/2 cup of honey, and 2 TBS sesame seeds. Put the chicken in the crock pot, stir the honey, soy, and seeds together and pour over chicken breasts. Cook on low 4-6 hours. I recommend doing some brocolli and rice along with it )


I stock up on meat for the family (I am a vegetarian). We bought 1/4 a buffalo this year and had 75# made into ground, some steaks, some roasts, etc. So that really comes in handy. It was about $300 for that meat.

I do a lot of eggs - Costco has it 36/$2. Can't go wrong with scrambled eggs, fruit, and a piece of toast. Mmmm.


My kids do love hotdogs. I buy the turkey ones. Still overly processed and disgusting, but I don't feel as guilty. They love fish, love shellfish, and the buffalo is very lean, so they eat very healthy most of the time.

 

[nelson84]

Some of these foods are probably not that healthy, Will I get fat eating al these carbs? Rice is cheap, I should probably eat a little more rice and less pasta. I'm not a hog, and I don't want to be one either. Are we risking our health for savings?

 

[jmb120]

I try to stock up on thinks like ground beef, and boneless skinless chicken breasts when they are on sale. I picked up a 4 pound package of 80% lean ground beef the other day for a little less than $8. This morning I made a bunch of meatballs and froze them. I figure I can get a least 4 meals out the the meatballs I made (spaghetti and meatballs or meatball subs) both will be quick, easy and relatively inexpensive dinners.

I also never pay more than $1.99 a pound for boneless skinless chicken breasts. I stock up when they are on sale.

Deli sliced roast beef was on sale at Wal-Mart yeaterday for $5.50 a pound. Tonight we are having hot roast beef sandwiches. With some mashed potatoes and a veggie. It will feed my family of 4 for about $8.

Also I tend to buy all my staple items like broths, canned gravies, and baking supplies at Aldi's.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Why not eat brown/long grain rice or wheat pasta both are a good carbs. Eat them in moderation.

Some of these foods are probably not that healthy, Will I get fat eating al these carbs? Rice is cheap, I should probably eat a little more rice and less pasta. I'm not a hog, and I don't want to be one either. Are we risking our health for savings?

 

[neatokimmo]

I think I've posted this before on DIS but I bake the largest chicken I can find. I like to call them mini turkeys They are normally marked down half price to $.69 a pound. I don't do the regular Tyson type birds if I can help it, they wither down to nothing.

Brush it with oil, sprinkle it with salt and bake it. Debone it, I use one breast for chicken salad, one for stir fry, we eat the legs just baked and I reserve the rest of the dark meat for chicken and dumplings.

All the stuff leftover from the deboning goes back into my roaster (I have an oven to cooktop type one) with an onion, garlic and a couple of carrots. Cover it with water - it makes a ton of broth and that is what I use for chicken and dumplings.

So for 1 chicken (5.50ish), rice, a little mayo, a little bread, a few grapes, 1 bag of stir fry veggies, a bag of peas, a pack of ramen, a couple of cups of self rising flour, oil, onion, garlic and a couple of carrots makes 4 dinners and 3 lunches for 2 people.

 

[Lisa_M]

I think I've posted this before on DIS but I bake the largest chicken I can find. I like to call them mini turkeys They are normally marked down half price to $.69 a pound. I don't do the regular Tyson type birds if I can help it, they wither down to nothing.

Brush it with oil, sprinkle it with salt and bake it. Debone it, I use one breast for chicken salad, one for stir fry, we eat the legs just baked and I reserve the rest of the dark meat for chicken and dumplings.

All the stuff leftover from the deboning goes back into my roaster (I have an oven to cooktop type one) with an onion, garlic and a couple of carrots. Cover it with water - it makes a ton of broth and that is what I use for chicken and dumplings.

So for 1 chicken (5.50ish), rice, a little mayo, a little bread, a few grapes, 1 bag of stir fry veggies, a bag of peas, a pack of ramen, a couple of cups of self rising flour, oil, onion, garlic and a couple of carrots makes 4 dinners and 3 lunches for 2 people.

That sounds like an excellent idea. I've never seen big whole chickens at the store.

Our meals at home are very cheap, although it would be a lot more if we had a larger family.

Some of our cheap tasty meals in a crockpot:
3 pieces of cubesteak, a little worcheshire sauce, a can of cream of mushroom soup, throw cut up carrots and celery. Served with rice. Tasty and cheap.

I also buy some cheap steak and cut it up into pieces for the crockpot and it's as tender as can be.

DH made a pan of lasagna the other day and that was so good. Pretty cheap about $6.00 for the ingredients and we've had dinner, lunch and there is still about 2-3 servings left.

 

[AntePrincess]

99 cents a dozen???????? Where do you get them that cheap? Which store?

Seriously, have you never so much as bothered to look at your grocery store's weekly circular?

Some of these foods are probably not that healthy, Will I get fat eating al these carbs? Rice is cheap, I should probably eat a little more rice and less pasta. I'm not a hog, and I don't want to be one either. Are we risking our health for savings?

Exactly. That's why the Chinese and Japanese, the bulk of whose diet is a "bad carb" known as white rice, are so fat and unhealthy, while Atkins was skinny and not suspected of actually dying of cardiac disease. Oh, wait a second...

White rice and standard pasta are equivalently processed. Durum wheat pasta is a bit better than white rice because of the protein content. Once we start talking unpolished (brown) rice and whole grain pasta, it gets into the calculus of the individual glycemix index ranking of the exact type. Either way, eating rice, even the instant white variety, is a leap up from eating spam or Kraft Mac and Cheese health wise (for the average American, healthy is worked out differently if your primary health problem is starvation or salt imbalance or something like that). It's nice that it's also cheaper.

But I'm sure the suggestions of eating home cooked vegetable and meat broths, whole grains prepared slow at home, a nice roast chicken, lentils, kale, yam, and so on are just going to kill you for the sake of saving some money. Considering what most people eat most of the time, I haven't seen a suggestion yet that was worse than the average, but here we go, two cheap "diets:"

1. The rum and ramen diet. Use the good rum, it's for vitamin C.
2. Ramen, velveeta, spam, and canned mushroom casserole. The mushrooms are a veggie, right?

 

[gillenkl]

One of my cheap go to meals is egg salad sandwiches. The kids love them and they get alot of protein. I buy eggs when I can get them 99cents a dozen. So dinner usually works out to about 1.25 for 5 of us. I usually dont serve anything else as the sandwiches are filling.

Along the same lines, scrambled eggs and toast or french toast.