Need very tight budget meal ideas

[Deffenm]

Thanks for bumping this post up for the New Year. I got some great ideas from this thread that I am going to use. I am on a mission this year to reduce our grocery budget and stay on budget for everything else in order to pay cash for a new car in 2 years. I love the idea about adding extra rice when I make Zatarrian Jumbalya. I bought one box as my kids love it and was planning to buy another as 1 box is not enough for 5 of us but now I will just throw in an extra cup of white rice (which I already have) and save some money.

 

[SKTiger]

In college, I lived off huevos rancheros. I'd buy a tray of 24 eggs (cheaper in bulk), a few cans of refried beans, and a jar of salsa. Fry an egg, serve it over beans with a spoonful of salsa or wrap it in a tortilla.

Now that I'm an on-call flight attendant attendant and don't know if I'll be around to make dinner for hubs, I'll buy a pack of fresh chicken breasts when they go on sale, make 2 breasts for dinner that night, and boil the rest.

After I shred it, I'll make Chicken Salad with some, Chicken Tacos, Buffalo Chicken (Great as a grilled cheese sammy!) and leave some plain for wraps or to top salads with. It all goes in the freezer and is easy for either of us to pull out and whip up dinner.

 

[valee]

Lunches at work can be a real budget buster in my office, so I like to bring something quick and easy from home. I have two basic categories:
Soup, which I cook up in vast quantities in the weekend and package in individual servings and freeze. I can grab a different type each morning, e.g., chicken and rice, potato corn chowder, beef barley, and tortilla soup, and keep a box of crackers in my desk, so I don't get tired of one type.
Empanadas, which I make using Goya pastry discs that are available in the freezer of the hispanic section of my grocery. The regular "discos" are a plain dough, and then there's a similar package that has a flaky pastry - I think it's called "tapas para empanadas". Since they're frozen, I can keep a package on hand in the freezer, and I find them easier to work with than refrigerated "poppin" biscuit dough. I just put a spoonful of leftovers in the middle, fold it in half, and then bake it until it's browned. I've put all sorts of things inside, like chili, stew, potatoes and cheese, curried chicken, even apple slices with a dash of cinnamon sugar. Last night I splurged by cooking one package of Stouffer's spinach souffle, mixing it with shredded cheese, and baking it in the pastry, and serving them with marina from a jar as a dipping sauce. Two pastries apiece and two small bowls of vegetable soup fed two hungry adults, and I have eight pastries left to bring to work.

 

[Minnesota!]

We eat on a budget, too. But I cannot stand processed food for the most part (do love grilled cheese with the american cheese singles, though! And Kraft M-n-C!).

Anyway, we do a ton of soups. Last night was lentil, ham, and veggie soup. I had a hambone left from Christmas (had been in the freezer), and a bag of lentils. Rinsed off the lentils, threw them in the crockpot. Put the frozen ham bone on top. Chopped up whatever veggies I had - celery, onions, carrots. Threw in a bunch of Organic Non-Salt Seasoning (from Costco), Lemon Pepper, Black Pepper, and a few vegetable boullian cubes. Then poured in enough water to cover by about 1.5 inches. Cooked all day.

When I got home, I took out the hambone, added some V-8 because it wasn't soupy enough for me, and a good couple handfuls of frozen corn.

Served with sandwiches. The soup will last us at least 3 dinners, and probably 2 lunches.

Last week was a very similar soup but with a mix of beans vs, lentils.

We do a lot of egg dinners - omelettes, tortilla wrapped eggs, etc.

Most of our meals are meatless. We all love beans and veggies, so it works out. Bean tacos, beans and cornbread, spaghetti and crockpot, homemade marinara sauce. Etc.

Our monthly budget for groceries is $280. We spend the majority of it at Costco...tortillas, fruits, milk (almond and regular) veggies, meat, cheese, fish, snacks, quinoa, black rice, wild rice, and farro, sour cream, eggs, bread, ham steaks, rotisserie chicken, and peanut butter being our regular list. The stuff we get at the grocery store - yogurts, string cheese, beans (b/c Costco doesn't carry all the varieties we like) and deli meat....adds up to very little overall..