Looking for frugal recipes for family of 3

srianenelson

Hey guys, I'm struggling a bit to try and keep a cheap, but very healthy diet for my family. Mom and dad and a three year old. I usually get the big bags of frozen chicken and tilapia at Walmart, and use frozen vegetables like broccoli or fresh vegetables like yellow squash and zucchini. Fruit most the time is apples, oranges and bananas and I cook with either 100% virgin olive oil or real butter. We make a lot of deli sandwiches (chicken, colby cheese slices and loose leaf lettuce with whole wheat). Snacks are typically string cheese, yogurt, apple sauce or pickles, and tuna sandwiches (Avocado mayo is amazing) . Breakfast is eggs on toast or generic brown sugar oatmeal (my son loves it).

I think we do well and I can feed them all on less than $300 a month, typically. The hard part is that it's literally the same stuff every day and anytime I try to change it up, the healthy recipes I find are either expensive or not something they want to eat. Last attempt was cauliflower pizza and neither of them could eat it. Can anyone suggest some changes that are still within a $300 per month budget? I'm especially struggling with getting in the recommended iron and protein.

tenacious_dea

This is a great website which might help! https://cookingonabootstrap.com/

BarbaraHelen2013

One tip that might save you a little - extra virgin olive oil is way too expensive to cook with and is generally not recommended as a cooking oil. Try a cheaper vegetable based or sunflower seed oil.

Other than that, I’m not sure I can help, I’m not in the States so my views on relative food prices, availability and budgets won’t be super useful!

acpgee

tenacious_dea wrote: »

This is a great website which might help! https://cookingonabootstrap.com/

Jack Monroe's website is good. Before she became a food writer and cookbook author she was a single mom on benefits (=welfare in the UK).

This blog hasn't been updated for a while. Focus is a little different. It's more about how to eat well as a foodie while living on benefits.

https://www.theskintfoodie.com/

gallicinvasion

Budgetbytes.com is amazing for this! She often stretches dishes with more affordable grains, pastas, or beans, while cutting back a bit on meat. But she doesn’t skimp on flavor at all! And she always gives ingredient cost estimates and recipe total estimates.

vivo1972

I save loads by eating pulses instead of animal proteins. Lentils make awesome curries/ lasagnes / burgers etc and are mega cheap

I'm not veggie btw, just rarely eat meat

BailTuck

There are some websites like Southernsavers.com that will help you reduce your grocery prices by helping find deals in the stores. I'm not sure where you are located. She's in the southeast. But I'm sure there are others. I just used to use her.

kamilpcook

Homemade plant-based soups are inexpensive, filling and healthy and a great time saver for busy parents. Black bean soup, split red lentil and minestrone soup from scratch tastes much better than anything you can get from a can or the market. You just have to soak certain types of beans in advance.

Good luck!

carablades

One of the cheapest dinners you can make... blackened Mahi ( or chicken if you don’t like fish)
Garlic or curry risotto,( Italian rice) and steam in bag vegetables.
Under 400 cal a serving but looks like a feast.
Want my recipe? I’m new here! Say hi and I’ll post it!

bookgrlph

I know the feeling. We have a tight budget, and my husband and I have very different metabolisms. There are also some specific foods he doesn't go for.
My biggest budget trick is taking advantage of the meat sales our grocery store runs periodically. I stock our freezer when the prices are lowest so I don't need to buy it at normal price. It saves quite a bit of money. Our meat is mostly chicken thighs, pork loin, and hamburger (doesn't go on sale as often, so less of it).
Without knowing what specific ingredients your family objects to, I can't share much on actual recipes.

CupcakeCrusoe

I'm sure you already know this trick, but be sure you're looking at cost per oz or other unit on the labels, not on the overall price, to compare between two similar things so you know you're getting the best deal.

Cheapest animal products: eggs, skin-on bone-in chicken thighs, whole chickens.

How to cook those:
eggs, duh, every way.
Whole chickens I like to do in the crock pot, but when I have time, I roast them in the oven. Dinner first night on that whole chicken: chicken. Dinner second night: quesadillas or chicken casserole with rice. Dinner third night: chicken soup (I like the chicken lemon egg soup) with broth from the bones and bits I can't get meat from.
Skin on bone in chicken thighs: roast skin side down in an oven safe pan to get the skin crispy, then move to the oven skin side up at 400 degrees until chicken is safe temp. The best.

Cheapest veg: whatever's in season, and I do frozen instead of canned just for taste purposes. Also my personal pro tip: if you can stand it, cabbage is your friend. It makes so much volume, and it's delicious in stir frys. I buy a cabbage legitimately almost every week and 1 goes for two or three meals with leftovers for lunches.

Cheapest beans/pulses: dried, not canned. You pay for convenience, and doing dried beans is not so bad. I do splurge on nut butters (snerk) made without palm oil, since that's bad for the environment. But so is most everything.

Cheapest bread: the bread you make yourself with water, flour, and yeast. It's a worthwhile thing to learn, and less preservatives.

Cheapest grains: buy in bulk as much as possible and store in pest-proof containers. Sales are your friend. I only buy oatmeal when it's on sale, and it lasts between sales.

Cheapest fruit: in season. Or frozen, for the fancy kinds. Just as with veg, if you're buying fresh, try to buy local, but I know not everyone has that luxury.

Cheapest dairy: honestly, I think cheap dairy is bad dairy. I also don't buy a lot of it, but if you do, try buying for example the big tubs of plain yogurt and adding flavor, if your child will eat that.

As someone already said, buy in bulk when there's a sale. Invest in a chest freezer if you can. Also, get familiar with different grocery stores in your area to see who has the best prices on what. As you experiment with just buying things on sale and getting creative with what you make, you'll get better both at cooking and at eyeballing prices. A lot of the time, more than 90% of what I buy is on sale.

Oh, one more thing: creative use of leftovers will serve you well. Quiches for odd bits of protein and veg. Just toss em in some eggs and milk in a pie crust and boom, you're fancy. And stir frys. Use up odds and ends in the fridge by dousing everything in a combination of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil, and fry it up. You can't go wrong. (Well I mean you can, but you've got this.)

amtyrell

How about some bean based meals? Black bean or pinto bean tacos for example. Cheap tasty filling
Things like rice , quinoa, or other grains mix things up
Pork instead of chicken
Soups and stews are super filling while also being easy and inexpensive

amtyrell

Also do you have an Aldi near you? I find the quality better and prices lower then Walmart

acpgee

There is a BBC show called "Eat Well for Less". Lots of episodes available on YouTube if in are not in a country supported by BBC iPlayer. Their main themes are:

1. Eat as a family all having the same thing.
2. Ditch big brands for supermarket brands.
3. Eat vegetarian at least once a week.
4. Avoid buying any product that charges you for processes you can do yourself. This includes ready washed salads, ready grated cheese.

patols1

We are a family of four and on a tight budget as well. I use boneless skinless chicken to make a variety of dishes, like pot pies, fajitas, white chili, etc. I also buy a boneless pork loin and cut into 4oz servings. I also like to mix it up with burger also. We also make tortilla pizzas with lavash bread from Walmart, we do BBQ chicken, buffalo chicken,cand also ham(I use the buddig ham packets), pepperoni and mushroom. Instead of oil I use the pan spray(Walmart brand is cheapest) .

patols1

Also we make sugar free Jello and pudding for snacks/dessert along with buying fruits(this week cantaloupeand blueberries were on sale at meijer). You could also make french toast(I use the Walmart brand fake eggs as I call them) as for bread I use the 35 calorie potato bread for me and my husband(it's low cal and still tastes good), but buy white bread for my son and his daughter.

acpgee

In the UK the price difference for skinned de-boned chicken thighs and regular bone in thighs with skin is quite large. Compare prices and if you can save money use youTube tutorials to learn how to de-bone different cuts of meat, and fillet fish yourself.

I also notice in my neck of the woods anything you can buy at the Asian supermarket is cheaper than the regular supermarket. That's where I get frozen fish, pepper, vegetable oil, peanuts. This might be true for other ethnic grocers.

KevinWH87

Look into crock-pot recipes. Crock-pot meals tick off all the check-boxes - affordable, easy, healthy, delicious, large variety. They just require a little planning beforehand.

AmatullahMuwahidah

1large onion grated or puréed. 1tspn garlic purée, 1tspn ginger purée. 1tspn coriander powder, 1tspn cumin powder, 1/4tspn Ground Turmeric, pinch of chilli powder, salt.
500g lentils, 1ltr boiling water, 50g butter, 3tomatoes.

Melt the butter, gently fry the grated onion in the butter, add the spices, ginger & garlic and fry on low heat for two min. Wash the lentils until the water is clear & not cloudy. Add the washed lentils and boiling water, to the spice mix. Chop tomatoes and add to the lentils. Simmer on a medium heat for about 1.5hrs (if you like lentils whole), cook for a bit longer if you want lentils mushy. Add chopped peppers for the last 15min cooking time.

Peppers and chilli have a LOT of VitC, you just need 1/4bell pepper per portion and you’ll get a lot of vitC (cheap way to get nutrients!). Lentils are a cheap protein and their fibre content make them filling. Garlic onion & ginger & tomatoes are great for fighting illnesses and have antibacterial properties. It’s cheap & very nutritious.

-

AmatullahMuwahidah

I make my own probiotic yoghurt, it’s MUCH cheaper than store brought and you get much more volume for your money.

I personally use this brand: https://www.npselection.com/products/yogurt-starter-cultures-pack-of-3-freeze-dried-culture-sachets-for-acidophilus-yogurt

You boil 1ltr milk, then let it cool to Luke warm. (40-45degreed), then add the yoghurt culture into it and stir. Then there are various methods for the next part, if you don’t have a yoghurt maker or yoghurt thermos, just wrap your pan in a thick towel, preheat your oven to 180, once oven has heated up, turn it OFF, place the towel covered pot in the oven and leave overnight about 12hrs. Watch YouTube tutorials for yoghurt making.

To make a new batch of yoghurt you don’t need to use another sachet of cultures, just boil 1lt of milk, let it cool to like warm, then stir in about 4tbspn of yoghurt from the previous batch you made. Then keep it warm in the oven or yoghurt maker for 8-10hrs.

You can also just buy a pot of organic natural yoghurt such as Yeo Valley and use that to add to 1ltr of milk.

Once you have your big tub of natural yoghurt, you can add sweetener or honey or fruits, oats etc. I add 1tspn chia seeds because it’s cheaper than buying fish and they have a LOT of omegas to keep brain and nervous system healthy. You can get a pack for about £2 and only need 15g per portion, so the pack will last almost a month for one person. Seeds can sometimes be cheaper than fish, as a way to get your Omega and vitE and magnesium.

AmatullahMuwahidah

Eat nutritious but smart... eg you can eat 1/4 bell pepper and get a LOT of vit C, or eat a few apples to have the same amount of vitC as the pepper. You won’t need to eat so many fruits and veg if you’re smart and research which ones contain the most vitC, vitA etc. Fruit and veg can be expensive if you buy a lot, so eat less of them buy eating the variety that packs the most amount of vitamins in it, that way you won’t need to eat a lot to reach your daily vitamin needs.

AmatullahMuwahidah

https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLAB854AFF16A1DB45

I find East African and Middle Eastern and Asian food is flavoursome, but not expensive. There’s a lot of lentils, couscous, rice, home made breads etc these ingredients are affordable. The spices they use make it tasty.

This potato dish is nice:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sPrAr-bvyMo

A nice egg dish:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff8jgnUH3hw

Use chicken thighs to make these:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qla05UP2TY&list=PLZpEix2HAZecELYfHDwRh3GBSk0Nqy7i9&index=46&t=0s

And put the chicken kebabs with home-made flat bread (so much cheaper than store bought!):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR0cvRv-Rks

You can eat breads, rice, potatoes etc if you’re not doing Keto. Just portion control sensibly and don’t eat too much, stick within your calories allowance.

ssooooz

I do a lot of my grocery shopping online (Coles Supermarket, Australia). I start by looking through the half price specials, the general specials, then go through my list and sort the results by unit price. You can easily track how much you are spending when you add things to your cart. My savings always easily exceed the delivery costs, which is sometimes free if I need to do a big shop - otherwise I can 'Click'n'Collect' if I want too.

weatherking2019

25 Simple 5-Ingredient Meals for Under $5 to Feed a Whole Family
https://merryformoney.com/5-ingredient-meals/
51 Healthy Frugal Dinner Recipes You Can Make for Under $2
https://merryformoney.com/frugal-dinner-recipes/
21 Cheap Pantry Staples List on a Limited Budget
https://www.thefrugalgene.com/pantry-list/

deannalfisher

i use a lot of the sales flyers and buy stuff in bulk when possible - i.e. pasta this week was 87c a book for the 16oz boxes - so i bought a bunch for down the road; many grocery stores do 50% off protein that needs to be used that day (chicken etc)

i think your biggest win would be meal planning and figuring out over a week how to maximize use of different things - i.e one week heavy rice dishes with protein that you can make different ways; maybe week after its another grain...grains and straches are often cheap to buy (i.e. a bag of barley which would feed 4 for a couple of days is like $1.50 for me)

happysquidmuffin

Eat less of the chicken, and stretch meals further with lots of rice, beans, lentils. Buy whole heads of cabbage and lettuce vs. packaged precut mixes. Make broth based veggie soups. Experiment with flavored vinegars. Make your own bread and pizza crusts. You can eat the same things over and over if you learn how to mix up the flavors.

Katmary71

I second beans, legumes, and grains from bulk, dried is cheaper and tastes a lot better. You can get onions, celery, carrots, potatoes, and garlic in big bags to add to soups. I save veggie scraps and make broth. I also get a lot of store brand items like diced tomatoes. Signing up for grocery store programs is a good idea, I recently stopped at Raley's for a sale item and got 8 coupons for discount or free produce. If you buy packaged products there's refund sites like Ibotta.

jesuslovesme196

srianenelson wrote: »

Hey guys, I'm struggling a bit to try and keep a cheap, but very healthy diet for my family. Mom and dad and a three year old. I usually get the big bags of frozen chicken and tilapia at Walmart, and use frozen vegetables like broccoli or fresh vegetables like yellow squash and zucchini. Fruit most the time is apples, oranges and bananas and I cook with either 100% virgin olive oil or real butter. We make a lot of deli sandwiches (chicken, colby cheese slices and loose leaf lettuce with whole wheat). Snacks are typically string cheese, yogurt, apple sauce or pickles, and tuna sandwiches (Avocado mayo is amazing) . Breakfast is eggs on toast or generic brown sugar oatmeal (my son loves it).

I think we do well and I can feed them all on less than $300 a month, typically. The hard part is that it's literally the same stuff every day and anytime I try to change it up, the healthy recipes I find are either expensive or not something they want to eat. Last attempt was cauliflower pizza and neither of them could eat it. Can anyone suggest some changes that are still within a $300 per month budget? I'm especially struggling with getting in the recommended iron and protein.

Breakfast for dinner
Spaghetti
Chili/Soup

dnunny70

I shop Aldi and do use Walmart Grocery Pick Up. I also try not to bring my 13 yo son with me. He adds a lot of food to the cart! LOL

I have started looking at the meat that is on sale/and discounted due to expiring soon. I freeze it or use it before the expiration date. I have gotten grass feed meat that way.

Meal prepping is key (and the area that I struggle the most with).