Eating well on a tight budget

tekkiechikk

piyapontruski wrote: »

Lentils and other dried goods are useful for keeping costs down. Spicy curry sauces can liven them up. Eggs are still one of the cheapest sources of protein out there. Look into slow cooker recipes, as these can also be a good way to rehydrate dried foods and get them flavorful.

Totally agree. Not only are these cheap, but dried beans and lentils are excellent sources of protein and fiber. Become friends with your spice rack, it will make all the difference in the world to your recipes.

lastspen

Budgetbytes is a great website. I generally shop the sales. If chicken is on sale then that's what I eat for the week. Also shop at local Asian/Indian markets or flea markets. You can generally get fruit and veggies cheaper and fresher than the grocery store.

Saltfae

Frozen vegetables, eggs, and bulk chicken. Thats what i live off off. When i can afford more i stock up on canned and frozen beans, frozen fruit, canned tomatoes, and spices.

MKEgal

Here's a cookbook put together to help SNAP (food stamp) recipients make the most of the small amount they're given.
Yummy healthy recipes, great photography, a nice departure from the usual bland government output.

https://8e81c55f4ebf03323905b57bf395473796067508.googledrive.com/host/0B2A2SnkA9YgxaHdzbEhGSmJOZDg/good-and-cheap.pdf

MKEgal

Also, what other people have said so far is basically "eat lower on the food chain & less processed food".
Good advice for health, and it turns out to be less expensive too.
Use meat for a flavoring, not a main course.

And here's where you can get help buying food:
http://dhs.iowa.gov/food-assistance
Take the help if you need it. If not for yourself, for the kids.

lichic25

NekoneMeowMixx wrote: »

www.budgetbytes.com is probably one of my all-time favorite recipe sites. Absolutely delicious food (I've tried a number of her recipes, and have yet to be disappointed) and she's a number cruncher, so each recipe is made with a tight budget in mind. It also shows the price of the overall meal, and price per serving (it will obviously fluctuate, depending where you shop, but she posts the prices she got everything at, so you can compare!) Best of luck!

Glad I read this before posting the same site. Ditto to what she said!

JasonH_DFW

depends on the diet you want to do but eggs, tuna, oats, rice, quinioa, frozen veggies, milk, cottage cheese all very cheap. If you want to do low carb its even cheaper cause the fatty cuts of meat are offset pricewise but the low fat crowd. For example not unusual for leg quarters to sell for 69 cents a pound.

Lezavargas

Cooking from scratch is almost always less expensive. Soups, stews, spaghetti sauces...there are so many options! Work with what is in season and what you find on sale. When cooking on a budget, a crock pot will be one of your best friends!

rachellynn89

MKEgal wrote: »

Also, what other people have said so far is basically "eat lower on the food chain & less processed food".
Good advice for health, and it turns out to be less expensive too.
Use meat for a flavoring, not a main course.

And here's where you can get help buying food:
http://dhs.iowa.gov/food-assistance
Take the help if you need it. If not for yourself, for the kids.

The big cut in budget for food came from getting a new job which puts me right on the borderline of almost not qualifying. Food assistance got cut down to $88. Trying to make my money stretch after that is gone to be able to cover the bills too. >.<



Loving all of these suggestions from everyone. It is very appreciated!

katarina005

MamaJ1974 wrote: »

I second the vote for Aldi. Very inexpensive.

A lot of what I do has been said here already but I'll reiterate. Dry beans. Rice. Potatoes. Eggs. Tuna. Frozen veg. Fresh fruit and veg in season, and then you have bananas which are almost always cheap.

ALDI recently had a bunch of meat recalled because it was from China or something. I read it online. they said it was horse. sometimes you get what you pay for. ALDI sucks!

beachhouse758

MKEgal wrote: »

Here's a cookbook put together to help SNAP (food stamp) recipients make the most of the small amount they're given.
Yummy healthy recipes, great photography, a nice departure from the usual bland government output.

https://8e81c55f4ebf03323905b57bf395473796067508.googledrive.com/host/0B2A2SnkA9YgxaHdzbEhGSmJOZDg/good-and-cheap.pdf

Thank you so much for the link to the cookbook. What a great find!

savemama

Google $5 dinners! They will give you a pre-planned meal and shopping list for a week. You use each ingredient multiple times so there is no waste. An awesome time and money saver! And almost every meal is healthy and can be tweaked with extra veggies or substitutions. But it gets the ball rolling.

lindsayh87

We are a family of 4 on a tight budget but we eat mostly organic - always non GMO and very little processed food affordably. My #1 tip is to meal plan. I shop bi-weekly so before I shop lay out at look up 11 dinner recipes. (That leaves 3 nights for left overs or "whatever" meals) I try to find some that include similar ingredients so nothing goes to waste. Like if one calls for half a bag of spinach, I look for another recipe that would use the other half so it doesn't go to waste. Not all our meals are fancy, but I do get on Pinterest for some fun ideas. You can coupon, if you're into that, but it's really hard to find coupons for fresh food. We have an aldi by us and I do a lot of shopping there. Seriously, a gallon of hormone free milk was $1.39 there to day and $3.69 at Meijer! After my trip to aldi, I get what I couldn't there at meijer. When fresh veggies aren't on sale I buy frozen, it's cheap, has the same nutrients and tastes fine! (I don't like canned personally) I'm not great at stocking up when things are on sale but if you have the freezer space it's a great idea.

It isn't as expensive as it seems. Think of it this way - a bag of lays potato chips costs about $3.50-4 at regular price. You are getting 10oz for that price. You could buy a 3lb bag of apples for that same price or less. I paid $2.99 for them today. It's just a choice. That you don't need to spend money on food like that. Just cut it out all together and your grocery bill will go down so much. Our kids (ages 2 & 4) snack on fruit (grapes, pears, oranges, apples, bananas) and horizon or Annie's organic crackers. They don't complain! We make taco seasoning from scratch - money saver, tastier and minus all the sodium and other yucky ingredients - we also don't but boxed flavored rices. I've found easy recipes to make them from scratch. It really doesn't take much time!

Good luck!

alfiedn

It's possible this has been said already, but you can also save your vegetable scraps and make your own vegetable stock. Save all of that stuff: onion and garlic peels, the insides and stems of veggies, etc. you can either roast it in the oven for a bit or not. Then stick it in a crockpot and let it go all night or do it in a stock pot all day. You can control the sodium, etc.

I save my scraps in a gallon bag in the freezer and when it's full. I make stock!

Sandcastles61

My food budget is around$130 a month for 2 of is, with a third person frequently. I buy spices, rices and grains in the bulk food section and it's incredibly cheaper than the packaged goods. The dollar store is good for spice too. There is also usually one day a week your supermarket puts protein on special because it's nearing their sell by date. The rule is to cook or freeze it. Monday morning I picked up 10 ground turkey for $1.49 a package (usually $3.59) and popped them in the freezer. I also discovered chicken leg quarters are cheaper than thighs and legs (my fella hates chicken breast LOL) and I split it myself. Pork loin roasts are also great and inexpensive and can be baked, sliced, shredded, crockpotted (haha, it's a new word LOL) and I get several meals from one. I get two in a package for$6-7 dollars.

In the summer I hit the farmers market for fruits/veggies and grow kale, lettuce, grape tomatoes, sugar snap peas and 3 types of squash in a very small garden area in a back corner and pots on the patio... I also slowly incorporated a couple blueberry bushes, strawberries and artichokes into my landscaping. I love shopping in my own backyard all summer<3.

My Italian grandma always taught me to stretch the pot by using lots of veggies with smaller amounts of the protein and she always had a pot of soup on the stove. She raised10 kids and fed masses at our family holidays by gardening and cooking from scratch. You can easily do it with just a little planning

sclause

Discount grocery stores are my best friend, we have a place called grocery outlet here in Oregon and I buy healthy organic food for dirt cheap

jbgibso3

NekoneMeowMixx wrote: »

www.budgetbytes.com is probably one of my all-time favorite recipe sites. Absolutely delicious food (I've tried a number of her recipes, and have yet to be disappointed) and she's a number cruncher, so each recipe is made with a tight budget in mind. It also shows the price of the overall meal, and price per serving (it will obviously fluctuate, depending where you shop, but she posts the prices she got everything at, so you can compare!) Best of luck!

This website is amazing! Thank you

lozzyhunxx

I'd definitely recommend frozen veg - it tastes just as good as fresh produce! You can buy big bags that last a while and they are a lot cheaper than buying fresh

HeidiCooksSupper

For "free" chicken broth, keep a couple of bags in your freezer -- one for chicken scraps, the other for veggie scraps.

Save chicken skin, bones, etc., raw or cooked, in a bag in the freezer. Even bones your family has chewed on are worth saving for this. Also, when you have used a bunch of parsley, save the stems in the freezer. When you have enough to half-fill a big soup pot, put the frozen chicken scraps and parsley stems in the pot and 1/2 cover with water. Add some bay leaves and pepper corns if you have them. The brown, papery skin of an onion can go in as well as other veggie scraps like celery leaves or bottoms. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer for several hours or until it tastes more of chicken than of tap water. Strain and throw away the solids. To remove excess fat, refrigerate it and lift the solid fat off the top.

The broth will not taste as strong as boxed broth because it is nowhere near as salty. You can add salt as you need it.

I keep chicken broth in the freezer in 1-cup and 2-cup containers to grab as I need it. It adds great flavor to rice, noodles, etc. For a very inexpensive but filling soup, make Chinese egg drop soup or its Italian equivalent, stracciatella.

cwolfman13

Eating healthfully can actually be a lot cheaper than not. For one thing, I eat out way less which has saved a ton of money. Secondly, preparing meals from scratch, whole ingredients is actually pretty cheap...but you have to leave behind the notion of convenience, etc.

Some staples in my house:
- eggs
- potatoes
- cabbage
- broccoli
- onions
- carrots
- frozen peas
- corn (in season)
- rice
- pasta
- dried legumes (usually pinto beans...I make a big batch every Sunday night...they are a major staple and I can feed an army for practically nothing)
- in season fruit (apples are usually pretty cheap)
- fattier or tougher cuts of meat and pork
- whole chickens and/or chicken parts (also, look for meat/poultry sales...there's always a sale)

etc, etc, etc...

Eating healthfully isn't expensive at all when you learn how to shop and cook.

Bridge_912

Take tinfoil and form fist size balls and place in bottom of crock pot. Roast a whole thawed chicken in crockpot.
I usually do 4-6 hours depending on how big. I use the chicken breast for dinner that night then shred the rest: chicken salad, fajitas, chicken chili.

Easy Chicken Chili
2 Chicken breast in crock pot until you can take two forks and easily shred
then add for an hour or two:
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 can chili tomatoes
chili seasoning

**sometimes I add pineapple, too