dinners on a budget?

michaelafoor916

anyone have any recipes for dinner that are inexpensive? It's so hard to come up with what to make for dinner every night and keep my grocery bill under budget.

Garlic_Geek

Budgetbytes.com is a great website for healthy eating on a budget. The girl that runs it breaks every ingredient down to its costs and even has multiple recipes to make your own commonly used items for cheaper (things like broth and such).

allaboutthefood

We tend to buy a lot of ground extra lean turkey or chicken we get two packs for $10 at Walmart and make turkey burgers 12 4oz burgers , meatloaf (1 package is more than enough), baked zucchini ziti, meatballs, etc, I have a family of five to feed and we are on a very tight budget. I also make alot of frittatas and quiches, stirfrys are another way to go, we also pick up bags of frozen fish at Walmart one bag will give us 2 to 3 meals. Hope this helps.

lisajane4271

Yes! Lots of ground turkey and fish!! And lots of salad mix. Another good place to go is your local food bank. I pay $8 and get all kinds of produce (onions, bananas, cabbage, oranges, eggplant, squash). Its an awesome deal for what you pay!!

mebelfanti

Frozen vegetables! I stock up whenever the ones I like are on sale, which is almost always once a month. Sometimes I'll find them 10 for $10 and I go nuts. I'll usually make two with a simple meat (grilled chicken, baked pork chops, etc) for dinner and have leftovers most of the time. Last night we had frozen spinach, frozen lima beans, and grilled sausage and I have a serving of both vegetables left for today's lunch. You can't beat it!

LunaInverse

Cooking every night is nuts. I couldn't do it. Back to the point - I find that eating the same thing for 2 weeks at a time helps me save money. And buying stuff when it's on sale too. Once a month Giant Eagle in my area has a BOGO on chicken and sasuage, and I can end up getting 100$ of meat for 50$. It lasts me almost a month and a half. Buying at a butcher helps too.

mpat81

My favorite budget meals are anything with eggs, pasta with lots of veggies and soups! Use all your leftovers! Wasting food is one reason lots of us go over budget. If you have a small amount of meat or veggie left use it in an omelet or in wrap grilled with a little cheese, or on top of a salad. Even a half a cup of something can become a whole new meal for lunch or breakfast. This gives you more room in your budget for dinner ingredients. I plan to have a little left at lots of my meals for just this reason.

kangaspratt

If you have freezer space, I find doing a really big cook up works for me. I plan out some meals, shop for bargains then cook several dishes in bulk and freeze them. I don't waste anything fresh and I save on energy by having the cooker on less.

amelialoveshersnacks

I live in Australia, and I go to a local fruit n vege shop and hit the clearance bin. I have gotten beetroot for 9cents/kilo to brocolli for 50cents/kilo. Obviously they're not first grade quality. I then spend the day making soup and vege loafs. If I spend around $10, I will get 28 x500ml containers of soup, 2 vege loafs which I freeze and sometimes I will still have a couple of left over veges... mostly because by then I'm sick of looking at veges, that I refuse to cook anymore of them. It does take a lot of effort, we are on a tight budget, but I do like the thrill of how far my dollar will go....well, sometimes lol

NicoleK31

For me, breakfast for dinner is super easy and cheap. You can do healthy banana pancakes or a quick omelet with whatever random veggies you have laying around.

phxteach

I follow a local coupon blog and she puts on sale items from all the major grocers in a list. Then you can price match at Walmart. Usually works, but sometimes it is tricky matching. If grocer has it .25 per each, and Walmart has it per pound, they won't match. But, I have saved substantially doing that. Also, if there is a dollar store, if you sort thru all the junk, a great deal of the time you will find high quality, even organic items. If you live in an area where they have a program like Market on the Move, (google it), it is overwhemingly inexpensive. You can always find items on sale in weekly flyer and find recipes with those main ingredients on major recipe sites.