Tell me about your cheap budget friendly meals Please..

[dyna]

I'm only feeding 2 people here we are retired. With food prices soaring higher an higher like everyone else our food budget keeps going higher an higher.

We are already only buying what is on sale using coupons etc usually we spend less than we save at the grocery store.

I have cut down our meat in casseroles from a pound to 3/4ths a pound to save a little bit an stretch or meat a little further we never miss the 1/4th of pound.

Only time DH will go meatless is Fridays during lent. We eat simple tacos is about as fancy as we get DH is not eating anything he can't pronounce very basic meat an taters man with a dinner salad an he is good to go.

I do have to watch my carb intake due to diabetis.

Tell me about you cheapest meals give me some new recipes an ideas.

TIA

 

[Minnesota!]

I do a lot of carryover meals. get a big roast, cook all day. use some for dinner that night with potatoes/veg.

Next day, take some of the leftovers and have bbq beef sandwiches with it.

Last day, take remaining meat/veg and turn it into soup.

I do the same with chicken, pork, and turkey.

We eat a lot of beans and lentils in my house. Lentils are a great meat substitute. Cut your meat for tacos and such down to 1/2# and throw a cup of cooked lentils in with it...stretches it like crazy, taste and texture remain.

We turn a lot of leftovers into omlettes and pizzas.

Leftover chicken, veggies and beans from tacos? Works great in an omlette.

Breakfast for dinner is always cheap. Pancakes, eggs, some fruit.

Make a big pot of soup and eat from that for a week...

We eat very healthy in my house, for very cheap (I budget $400 a month for a family of 4..). That is breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all 4 of us, 7 days a week.

 

[AquaDame]

Do you happen to have a pressure cooker..? We've been doing this a lot lately and there isn't much to it but it is delicious when it comes out of there! I am sure you could do it in a dutch oven as well if you prefer.

2 bone in chops
2 tablespoon olive oil
4 potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
3 carrots, scraped and cut into small cubes
1 clove crushed garlic
Herbs to taste as you have on hand: thyme, rosemary, basil, marjoram, celery seed, nutmeg, parsley
½ cup chicken broth

Seat cooker to "brown" & heat oil in the cooker. Add cut up potatoes and carrots & cook long enough to get a browning effect on the vegetables. Remove and set aside.
Place the pork in the pressure cooker and sear. Add garlic and continue cooking for one minute.
Add broth and fresh herbs in the cooker. Seal your electric or stove-top pressure cooker and cook high for 14 minutes or low for 28 minutes.
Wait for pressure to release and then add carrots and potatoes and reseal and cook an extra 5 minutes on high or 10 minutes on low. Wait for pressure to release.

Thats all there is to it. With all the veggie bits its enough food for both dinner and lunch the next day for us but YMMV. I *think* he used 1/2 tsp of the herbs last time... the fat cooks down into the broth so the broth ends up really delicious.

Last night we grilled two chops with thick red onion slices and some halved peaches too and they were surprisingly tasty! We did have rolls with that one to round it out though, lol!

All my other budget friendly meals are pasta based or include added sugar.

 

[dfchelbay]

If you like chicken, that's always an inexpensive meal and gives you a meal or two leftovers. Roast a whole chicken & fill your roasting pan with lots of veggies or rice. You'll get that first meal & another leftover meal. Then take the remaining meat off the bones & make something with it like chicken tacos, chicken soup, chicken stir fry, etc. One whole chicken for about $5 can give you 3-4 dinners.

When I make a whole roaster, this is how I use it: Whole roaster, 2 cups rice, carrots, celery all roasted at 375 for 1 1/2 hours. Next day we have same meal leftovers with a veggie or salad. Strip the remaining meat and do one of the following:

1 - Mix with General Tso season packet, celery & carrots, broc, etc in stir fry pan. I add soy sauce, worstershire sauce & put it over noodles.

2 - Use chicken to make homemade chicken noodle soup, with carrots & celery. Use soup base and simmer. Add egg noodles.

3 - Use chicken & mix with taco, burrito, etc..season packet & make chicken tacos.

4 - Use chicken and mix with cream of chicken soup, make egg noodles & mix all together put in baking dish, sprinkle shredded cheese over top & bake until cheese melted & soup cooked thoroughly. Usually 30-45 minutes.

5 - Big Salad - make whatever kind of salad you like but make it the main dish as big as a dinner plate, add tomatoes, olives, cheese, veggies, etc. add the chicken on top.

6 - We also have Romaine strips. Arrange whole leafs of romaine out flat & instead of tacos or tortillas, you put chicken taco mix over top of romaine with olives, sauce, etc. and you pick them up and eat them like a slice of pizza. They're like hot lettuce wrap, but flat.

 

[LJSquishy]

I think the cheapest meals I make are probably ones starting with a whole chicken since you can then use the bones & any veggie scraps (I save the ends from carrots, celery, garlic, onions, etc and freeze in a Ziploc) to make chicken stock that you can use for future meals. After making the stock, I freeze it in wide mouth mason jars.

So, I'll roast a whole chicken (or do it in the crockpot occasionally) and may just have chicken as the main course for the first night. I then pick the chicken clean and either freeze the leftover meat for future meals, or I'll keep it in the refrigerator to make chicken enchiladas, chicken salad sandwiches (or chicken salad on romaine leaves), add to stir fry or chicken fried rice, etc. You should be able to get 3-4 different meals out of one chicken, and also have leftovers from the meals you assemble.

My favorite cheap meal is sweet potato chili from Skinnytaste.com ...there are no beans in this chili so the recipe does call for a full pound of ground turkey, but it's amazing with the sweet potatoes! You can certainly use less meat in it and add more sweet potatoes or even add beans to it.

My husband loves quiches which are inexpensive to make. I make healthier ones, so no heavy cream or anything. I just add whatever veggies I have on hand that day such as asparagus or broccoli.

We eat very, very clean...meaning no processed foods really. We've chosen to spend essentially an unlimited amount of money on groceries (within reason, of course!) and make cutbacks elsewhere in our lives. I do try to be smart with what I buy, but if we need more groceries we just go out and get them and don't worry about how much we've spent that week. We do not do a lot of "extras" day to day...no eating out, no birthday presents, just the occasional movie, etc. I'd rather live a simpler life in terms of entertainment and have lots of nourishing food every day.

 

[dfchelbay]

Maybe you could go to the grocery store and look at some of the frozen meals there, the all in one meals, boxed meals etc. to get ideas of what you like & can make yourself. You know what you like to eat, what your health concerns are, & what your budget is. In other words steal the ideas for meals. Go up & down food aisles & see what pops out at you & if it's something you can re-create or tweek to your liking & budget. That should give you some meal ideas.

 

[StitchBuddy]

In the winter we like to split a can of tomato soup and each have a grilled cheese sandwich. Yumy on a cold winter nightor for lunch.

 

[Monykalyn]

Ditto on the whole chicken-roast yourself and use bones to make stock. Make seasoning mixes yourself (and pancake mixes too). If you can-go in with someone on a wholesale club membership (costco, sams club) and split the larger sizes of meats, veg, staples (cheaper per serving). The key to keeping food costs under control for us is having space to freeze or store larger quantities.

 

[smokeyblue]

I recently took an honest look at how much I've been spending on groceries, eating out, and cafeteria lunches and I could probably feed a family of 4 with what I've been spending on just myself. I'm about 10 days into my food budget plan, and I've been doing okay. I've been helped along a little bit by some frozen meals and frozen pizza, but otherwise, I've been making everything from my pantry, the freezer or the reasonable amount of produce I bought last week. I haven't ate out once and I only went to the cafeteria once in the last 8 days of work, and that was for my favorite shrimp wrap they only have once a month. This is big for me because I usually eat both breakfast and lunch at the cafeteria.

I started by stocking my fridge and freezer with stuff from GFS. I bought large bags of frozen chicken breasts, frozen cubed cooked chicken, a large bag of broccolli and a big bag of string cheese for snacks. These items will probably carry me through the month. I supplemented with a trip to the grocery store and bought some fresh produce (sale items only), eggs, milk, deli meat, cheese and a loaf of bread.

I've made sandwiches, lettuce wraps, variations of chicken and broccoli and made omlets. I plan to make fajitas once I get cheese again. I've heated up soup that has been sitting in the cupboard to supplement my sandwiches. I slice up apples to eat with my lunch, they seem so much more appetizing to me sliced.

My two go-to meals are a crustless quiche and burrito bowls.

The quiche is one large onion cut up and browned, put that at the bottom of a pie tin or round cake pan, top with 3-4 cups of cut up veggies (broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes) basically what you like or have on hand. You will want to pre-cook any veggies that are not quick cooking, like steam the broccoli for a bit or saute the peppers. Then take 8 eggs, 1 cup of milk and whisk together. Add 1 cup of cheese and salt and pepper. pour mixture over veggies and allow eggs to fill all the nooks and crannies in the veggies. Put the pan into a preheated 400 degree oven. The recipe I uses says to cook for an hour, but mine is done in 40 minutes. The quiche is done when the top is browned and the eggs are set. I made mine with just mushrooms and grape tomatoes and it was soo good. I packed for breakfast this week and had a slice for dinner the other night.

For the burrito bowls you can use whatever rice you like and season it up. I took regular white rice from the pantry and doctored it up with cilantro, lime and garlic salt. Then I season canned black beans with a little taco mix and olive oil and layer that over the rice. Then I season the pre-cooked cubed chicken with a little garlic salt. I top with cheese and pop in the microwave for 2 minutes or until heated through and top with sour cream and salsa.

 

[crazelion]

The kids is my version of red beans and rice with hot peppers with leftover chicken. My kids begging for this.

Breakfast for dinner eggs and pancakes

Pasta and jar sauce

We have leftovers for dinner a lot too.

I am feeding 4 kids and 2 Adults now.

 

[dyna]

Yeah lots of leftovers here too most of our leftovers taste better than the 1st go round.

DH will not eat whole chicken no matter how it is cooked he hates the bones an even if I debone it for him still not eating it esp if veggies has been cooked with it. I used to be able to get by with this once in awhile when he worked but now that he home all the time NO WAY his nose in kitchen to much.

To me chicken is expensive now but then I can remember my daddy bring home 50 lbs of whole chickens at 29 cents a lb he worked in chicken factory at the time could really get good deals.

Only dry beans DH will touch is great northern an only 3 or 4 times a year. Those beans are high anymore to us an at least 3.00 for a bit of ham to season with , altho I did find salt pork at the dollar tree for a buck used that last time an didn't salt beans they was fabulous.

 

[SplashMo]

For breakfast eggs are inexpensive. You can even make egg frittata the night before and be ready to go. Oatmeal is also inexpensive.

For dinners the pressure cooker is great. We use Costco pork which is low cost. heat for 4 hours and then pull / serve with BBQ sauce.

We also make a chicken recipe. We use 4 chicken breasts but you can half it and/or use boneless thigh meat. We then add a brick of cream cheese (we actually use a scoop of cream cheese from a large cream cheese from Costco. We add Italian seasoning mix packet. Cook for four hours and pull the chicken and serve with the sauce over rice.

 

[SplashMo]

You may have a gleaners group near you. In exchange for helping out the gleaner group you get free food.

The group approaches the stores and asks for the food that has expired. This food is still good to eat but the stores have strict rules about expiration dates. Lots of free bread and sometimes soup. Items are often the premium brands...

 

[tina.tina]

When I worked, we ate out a lot because I didn't feel like cooking. Now, we rarely eat out and spend much less money. I think one key to saving money is having a menu. I do a monthly menu. We have chicken once a week, hamburger once a week, and pork once a week. We have spaghetti & salad a few times a month and homemade pizza few times a month. We have soup & sandwiches twice a week. This amounts to about 26 days. Then, I fill in with other things like breakfast foods, fish, or shrimp the other days. I may switch days around but we pretty much stick to our menu. I try to make sure it doesn't match up with the kids school menus, too.

Soup and sandwich nights aren't just soup & sandwiches. DH and I often eat leftovers those nights. We have things like pot pies and chicken nuggets, too. The kids can choose what they want and don't get bored.

I think another key is staying out of the stores and resisting impulse buys. I spend about $400 a month for a family of 4. We go to Sam's about once a month. I only buy produce, bread, and milk on a weekly basis at my local grocery store. I've actually been getting bread at the Dollar Tree (but only if it's in date). I get better quality hamburger buns there for less than the Walmart brand.

 

[pjlla]

I think in order to create budget friendly meals, you need to know what kinds of ingredients are cheap in your area. I don't think there are really any universally cheap meals that apply to every family. My first suggestion when I saw your request was to start suggesting some meatless meals.... but alas, your DH isn't on board with this. My next suggestion was to offer some recipes for some carb-heavy (but budget) meals like rice and beans or pasta.... but with your diabetes that isn't a good idea. One poster suggests quiche..... but if eggs are expensive in your area or you are only willing to buy organic (which are about double the price of conventional) or if your DH doesn't consider eggs "meat", this wouldn't work for you.

I think what might work best would be to do some shopping around, discover some inexpensive ingredients in your area (perhaps by finding a new source like a shopping club such as Costco), or a less expensive grocery store (Market Basket tends to be much cheaper than other stores here in the NE area). Once you find a source of inexpensive ingredients, then you can do some searching online for some recipes to make using those ingredients. You could even take the extra step of keeping a price book so that you are SURE that the prices you are buying at are, in fact, the cheapest around.

Some other generic suggestions that is probably a duplicate of what other suggested.....

stretch your meat with things like lentils, tofu, beans, and/or TVP. I use all of those in things like chili, casseroles, stews to stretch my ground meat to go much further.

Use produce that is IN SEASON. Strawberries in January are crazy expensive, but oranges and grapefruit are very affordable. Carrots and potatoes are almost always inexpensive (compared to other veggies).

Don't waste ANYTHING! Wasted food is a HUGE waste of your grocery dollars. Don't let things sit in a tupperware in the back of the fridge and get moldy. Find a way to use it! Have just a small amount of leftovers one evening.... pack it up with some crackers or a piece of fruit for tomorrow's lunch. Or save up a bunch of "little of this and little of that" leftovers in the freezer and have a buffet night! Or throw everything together in a garbage soup or stew..... sounds icky but is often very delicious! That only thing with that is I don't tend to mix proteins (no beef with chicken) and I don't mix strong flavor profiles (no curry with chili and cilantro). Other than that.... everything goes! I start with a base of stock (usually homemade, chicken, beef or vegetable), throw in whatever FRESH veggies I'm using (often onions and celery).... once they are softened a bit I throw in the leftover veggies and meat (so as not to waaaay overcook them). Then I can add any extras.... cooked pasta or rice, beans or even quinoa and additional spices and/or salt Ready to go! I made an excellent chicken taco soup the other night using mostly leftovers..... the remainder of a rotisserie chicken, some vegetable stock, a big dollop of salsa, some carrots, celery, and onions, and then at the end I added a can of fat-free refried beans to thicken it up. It was a bit spicier than I expected, but a blob of fat-free greek yogurt added to each serving made it perfectly delicious and creamy. Overall the soup was light on the chicken because it was just whatever I could pick off the carcass after we had our meal(s) from it, but it was enough.... especially with the beans added. I would estimate that the pot of soup cost me about $5 total and I got 6 VERY hearty servings from it!

Make your own...... beans, bread, yogurt (although I admit I haven't been brave enough to try that yet), granola (and granola bars), snacks, soups, stews, applesauce, etc.

Anyhow....I'm rambling here. Good luck reducing your grocery budget........P

 

[Sadie22]

I trained my picky, meat-and-potatoes husband to eat more and different vegetables and to eat what I eat but in greater quantities. He is now consuming more fiber, less salt and of course fewer empty carbs through my diabetes-friendly diet.

 

[MOpGrad2013]

Tonight we are having a variation of Bisquick Egg Casserole. Used the pancake mix we have on hand...added leftover meat w beans. DS3 tossed in a handful of cherry tomatoes. "Tomatoes are good!" Topped with cheese.

About to do some frozen veggies...It's dinner time!

 

[MomToOne]

My first suggestion is to check out all the grocery stores in your area to find the cheapest one, and make that your main place to shop. I was surprised to find a store that runs a good 20-30% on items compared to the big chains in our area. I have to drive 8 miles to get to it, but the savings is more than worth the drive! Now, it's not as "nice" looking as those other stores - but it's clean, and pretty well stocked, so I don't care.

I've also found that the cost of beef is getting outrageous, so we are eating less of that and more of other meats. We always ate a lot of chicken, and now we are eating even more of it! I swear I nearly get a heart attack when I have to buy ground beef these days - I mean, ground beef started out as a CHEAP meat. Now I'd swear I was buying gold when I grab a pack

Like you, I cook for only 2 people too, so I found we wasted a lot of food. So I really try to focus on minimizing waste. If I am going to use half a can or package of something with one meal, I'll try and plan another meal later in the week that uses it up. OH - that brings me to something else - meal planning. That's a must do to save money.

Finally, when I first started cutting my grocery budget, I found it was better to make one change at a time, figure out if it worked or not for me, and only then would I'go onto pick another target only. Trying to take on everything at once, and go from a huge budget to a small one, just wasn't realistic. So pick one thing to try - say, trying a new store, or making something you bought premade before from scratch now - and once you have that mastered, THEN move onto another thing. It's a process, not an instant thing.

(Full disclosure: My grocery budget is $55/wk for DD14 and I. That is breakfast, lunch and dinner for her everyday; breakfast and dinner for me, with a few lunches thrown in here and there. I don't do much couponing - I use one here and there, but nothing significant. I pay attention to sales, mostly on the meat loss leaders, and keep my freezer stocked in that regard. We generally eat only in-season fruit and vegetables - DD hates this time of year because that means a lot of squash It took me several years to get my grocery budget down to where it is.)

Now, as far as "budget" recipes go? Well, I don't really have any. I don't cook what's "budget", I cook what we like. I just focus on paying as little as possible for those dishes.

 

[dyna]

Quiche DH won't even eat an omelet or scrambled eggs with cheese or anything on them but salt an pepper. Eggs are 3.00 a dozen here anyway.

Believe me nothing goes to waste here. Costco an Sams is a good 30 miles away. Publix is our closest, sometimes Winn Dixie has some decent sales it's 3 miles away.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Some ideas to please a meat-and-potatoes guy that is still budget friendly and diabetic friendly...

Bacon - yes, I said Bacon for an idea b/c chicken can get very old (and isn't as satisfying to a former beef eater. It has dropped to $4/lb on sale most places recently (I've even seen $3.33/lb). For 2 people, you could make 2+ meals out of one pack. A nice BLT with some homemade kale chips (so cheap and easy to make yourself vs the exponential sums most places want for a premade bag) and fresh fruit (whatever is the sale fruit of the week) would be a very cheap, but very satisfying meal. You could then make a healthy pasta carbonera with the rest of the bacon and serve with a lettuce/tomato/kale based salad (from the BLT leftovers and any kale you don't make into a chip). If you save the drippings, you can use that as a base for a potato chowder for the 3rd day (use the bacon dripping for the oil - you won't need all the drippings for this - just a 1-to-1 replacement for the oil) - the mouth feel of the bacon grease can keep you from needing to add bacon or cheese - add in any veggies going bad in your fridge or that don't make a meal on their own and you now have 3 uses out of 1 lb of bacon and one set of inexpensive fruit and veggies...