CHEAP MEALS

xSelfBeliefx

Hi

Right I have gone from a 40 k a year job to living off savings
boo hoo me - I know all self inflicted
But on a serious note I have gone from picking up whatever I want to budgeting (welcome to reality I hear you all scream :noway: )
So anyone have any tastey cheal meals - snacks
PLEASE :flowerforyou:

Thank you x

missmadelinex0

I'm also interested in hearing ideas.

As a college student living with a very hungry man, I like to make breakfast casserole for dinner a lot. I buy turkey sausage when it's on sale, then I mix it with some potato chunks, eggs, a little cheese, and pop it in the oven. This may not be the healthiest meal to some but it passes for good food in our house!

MaitreyeeMAYHEM

Graze snacks! You get four snacks in each box to eat like seeds, dried fruit, pretzel sticks, etc. They have over 90 options to choose from and they ship it to your house or work. They also have a calorie counter box if you're picky and that box has 50-150 calories in it per snack. Its only $6 a box and that includes shipping.

ChrisJMellor

Eggs for a start. Great protein and not expensive.

Brush up on your use of garlic and spices etc.

Plan your meals and learn to use your freezer.

Take advantage of meat deals on the supermarkets.

Don't peal veg unless you have to, do wash it thigh. All nutrients are in surface.

Plan

Learn that things like broccoli stalks make great crunchy bits in stir fries. Basically you can eat nearly all of the veg (OK there are some bus you can't but in general it's not a bad idea)

Go to a bargain book store and look for something like Ching's Chinese cook book etc. Chinese and far East food tends to be healthy, quick and cost effective.

Learn to preserve and pickle. You would be amazed at some of the amazing flavours you can get from a little bit of work.

Plan.

Consume less

Get packet teas, good teas do cost a little more but you can tend to get 2l out of a spoon of tea. Tea bags are evil:)

And did I say plan?

Do any of these help?

amblight

Graze snacks! You get four snacks in each box to eat like seeds, dried fruit, pretzel sticks, etc. They have over 90 options to choose from and they ship it to your house or work. They also have a calorie counter box if you're picky and that box has 50-150 calories in it per snack. Its only $6 a box and that includes shipping.

Buying fancy boxes of expensified foods when asking for cheap meals? As far as I can tell, those are tiny servings of snacks, only some of the dried fruit ones are big enough to even be counted as a whole serving of fruit. Pretty sure OP can get 4 servings of fruit for a lot less than $6.49

missiontofitness

Buying meat in bulk will help you; it's cheaper per pound that way. Same with staples like rice, and bagged beans. You're better off getting huge portions, and storing the rest until you use it. I also extreme coupon, and I've gotten a lot of my staple items for free, or close to it. Learning to coupon can help you save money at the store, and redirect your savings into fresh produce.

Cheap wise, you can never go wrong with pasta in a tomato sauce with a protein of your choosing.

missiontofitness

Graze snacks! You get four snacks in each box to eat like seeds, dried fruit, pretzel sticks, etc. They have over 90 options to choose from and they ship it to your house or work. They also have a calorie counter box if you're picky and that box has 50-150 calories in it per snack. Its only $6 a box and that includes shipping.

That code looks eerily like your username. I have a feeling you financially benefit from people using that code to buy a box. Especially when going to that link:
"isn't Maitreyee great?
their code means you start with your first and fifth boxes free"

Advertising is not allowed on the forums. Especially when you are financially benefitting from it.

HeidiCooksSupper

The magic word to google is "frugal." You'll find lots of money saving recipes and meal ideas by searching "frugal meals," "frugal recipes," "frugal menu," etc.

Even though we are only two, I wait and buy meats on sale in "family sized" packages then freeze in meal-sized packages.

Whenever we eat chicken, I save the bones and skin for later use in making broth. For example, last night we had a bone-in chicken breast for supper. That chicken breast had been wrapped separately and frozen when cut up chickens were BOGO (buy-one-get-one-free) a few weeks ago. After I cut off the meat for last night's supper, the cooked bones and skin joined other chicken leavings in a bag in the freezer. As the weather cools off and we are eating more soup, it will be turned into chicken stock. That chicken stock, a meal-sized package of the chicken thigh meat I cooked in bulk when 10 pounds of thighs were less than $1 a pound, some veggies and some rice will make a great soup!

A bag of beans is incredibly cheap per serving. But who wants to eat that many beans, you say? Well, cooked beans can also be frozen in meal-sized portions for later use. So can brown rice.

Pre-package snacks as some are suggesting are about the LEAST frugal solution. Instead, buy things you like to snack on in bulk and divide them into reusable containers -- or even cheap sandwich or snack bags.

xenu01

I feel like I tell everyone about budgetbytes, but I'm going to share again because that site is amazing! She is really good at creating recipes that cost not lots.

legless11

The "live below the line" recipes here are good

http://agirlcalledjack.com/2013/03/06/carrot-coriander-falafels-23p/

NH_1970

Plain brown rice, hard legumes that you have to cook -chickpeas, lentils etc you get more and they're less than buying one can full (you can even get creative and make yummy sprouted hummus) find the spices you like (I prefer basil, garlic and ginger) Learn to love water so you can avoid buying anything to add to it or flavored waters/juices etc. Oats. For fruits and veg consider frozen. Also convenience food like already chopped mushrooms/lettuce etc. buy a whole mushroom and chop it up, buy a bag of carrots instead of baby carrots and chop them up, buy a whole head of lettuce instead of the ones in a bag etc.

Learn how to read price labels at stores on food. http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsavings/page/compare-unit-prices-best-buy

For food you may use a lot of consider a bulk shopping/freezing when there are sales or check out different papers you get for sales prices. Also consider using coupons.

Snacks - Air popped popcorn with 2T of shakey cheese. Grapes/Celery/carrots/oranges with inexpensive nuts.

squishycatmew

Do you have a slow cooker? That is by far the easiest way to cook dried beans and lentils, which you can usually buy in bulk for quite cheap. They make a great base for meals, are full of fiber, protein, and iron, and can be made well in advance. Add in whatever vegetables are in season and on promotion and you're good for a lot of lunches and dinners. Stew meat is also often less expensive than other cuts, and does great in a slow cooker. Oats can also be bought in bulk. If you have space in your freezer you can do what others have recommended and buy a lot of what's cheap and cook and freeze meals ahead of time. When they aren't in season, frozen veggies are usually pretty inexpensive, and certainly less expensive than the fresh version that's been transported halfway around the world, and are just as healthful - frozen fruit, too. Half-thawed frozen fruit is one of my favorite snacks, actually, especially peaches.

susannamarie

Fattier cuts of chicken (leg quarters are cheapest), beans, and whatever vegetables are 99c/lb or less. In this area it's usually peas, broccoli, carrots, and corn, sometimes spinach and celery.

The cool thing about leg quarters is that then you can boil up the bones to make the broth to cook your beans in to make them tasty.

2Fat4Health4Now

Browse the weekly grocery store ads, which come out on Wednesdays here - I get them in the mail. Walmart does price matching, if you bring the ad with you. I get great deals on produce, without having to go to several stores.

365andstillalive

Pasta, rice, lentils, eggs, sale items and bulk meat; that's how the rest of the world has been getting by.

Honestly, the quickest way to cut your grocery budget in half is to eat leftovers and not be too worried about repetition. I probably eat the same breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks at least 3-5 times a week. The trick is to find meals you love.

Also, learn about cuts of meat; for example, chicken breasts are almost always twice as expensive as thighs.

seltzermint555

Graze snacks! You get four snacks in each box to eat like seeds, dried fruit, pretzel sticks, etc. They have over 90 options to choose from and they ship it to your house or work. They also have a calorie counter box if you're picky and that box has 50-150 calories in it per snack. Its only $6 a box and that includes shipping.

I did not find that to be a good value when I tried it. The portions are TINY. I can go to my local Aldi, Big Lots, or ethnic supermarket and load up on the exact same types of snacks for about $20 and it would easily make like 10-12 graze boxes.

OP, I would suggest on sale produce and frozen produce paired with lots of beans, rice, eggs, and other cheap yet nutritious staples :-)

PrizePopple

Dried beans, chickpeas, and lentils are staples around here. As are rice and oats. I get most of them in bulk and put them in airtight 5 gallon buckets. We make things like chili, lentil and veggie stew, and hummus.

We typically only buy chicken breasts, but 2 breasts feed my family of 4 without a problem. I put 2 chicken breasts into the crockpot with a jar of salsa, a bag of frozen corn, and some pre-cooked black beans (from the dried beans we have). It cooks about 6 hours on low. When it's done I remove the chicken and shred it then put it back and mix it up. it goes good on rice or in a tortilla. We always have leftovers for DH to take to work, and the kids to take to school.

DH likes to take good salads with him, and we get a big container of mixed greens at Costco for under $4. Toss in carrots, cucumber, green onions, a handful of nuts (pistachio is a favorite), some sliced strawberries and a little crumbled feta... It's yummy.

When DH left his decent paying job so he could go back to school we took a solid 50% pay cut so watching sales, buying clearance meat for the deep freeze, and slowly stocking up on dried goods has been key in keeping our grocery bill in check.

alfiedn

Lots of great ideas. I want to read more later!

I second making your own stock, but I use my veggie scraps to make vegetable broth, I do it in the slow cooker, but it could easily be done on the stove top. Save your veggie scraps and skins of onions, etc. I put them in a gallon bag in the freezer. When my gallon bag is full, I make broth!

Beans are great and keep in the freezer once cooked really well, too. I also love the cheapness of eggs, I ate eggs every day in grad school. I also used onion and garlic to cook a lot because they aren't expensive and are delicious.

Spices are an investment, but they last for a long time and make your easy meals more fun to eat.

Lately, I've been making lots of rice and beans dishes with some frozen corn, canned tomatoes, and lots of spices.

loupammac

Saving money on food is not my strong point but I've noticed I save plenty when I meal plan. Right now I'm having porridge for breakfast whereas before I would just graze and complain about being hungry then buy something at uni... (Don't do this). I'm slowly getting used to planning other parts of my meals.

Stocking up and shopping around is excellent advice too. Currently I go between two grocery stores - the local big chain and Aldi on different weeks depending on items. I know that paper goods like toilet paper and paper towel are cheaper at Aldi and I can buy meat in bulk there but fruits and vegetables are MUCH nicer at the local big chain.

The most important thing IMHO is to track your spending. Right off the batt sticking to a grocery budget probably isn't going to be a success every time especially if you're experimenting with foods like beans or soups that you might not normally eat and if you're not used to having one. Get yourself a spending tracker app (I like Wally) and a spreadsheet and track all your outgoings. I like Wally because it lets you view the totals for categories so I can see how much money my online clothes shopping and stationery habits cost me :-)

Mr_Knight

Rice + lentils.

Mix in whatever spices/vegetables/salsa is in-season or on sale.

You're not going to find better nutritional bang for the buck than that.

StrawberryJam40

I'm a single mom and I'm all about the cheap but good for me.

I always check out coupon.com but don't print any coupons unless you would be buying that item anyway. They usually have great coupons on yogurt.

I shop our weekly ads. When split chicken breast go on sale for 99/lb I'll buy 4 or 5 packages (usually 2 in package for $2.50) and freeze them. And I meal plan around sale items. There is always meat, veggie, fruit on sale that I can work into my calorie plan. I live in a small community so it depends on where you live how many options you'll have to choose from. I have very few choices...2 small grocery stores and a Wal-Mart.

I like simple recipes that are only 3-4 items. But, never underestimate a good seasoning. One of my favorites is McCormick BBQ.

Also find out how to properly store and keep items to last the longest. I find my bigger expense is waste if I don't take care of my fruits and veggies properly. I thinking over buying is a huge factor to sticking to budget thinking I'll eat it (or my daughter will) before it goes bad. And, it sometimes works out better for me to instead plan 2 or 3 trips a week to scatter out the fruit/veggies for the week.

And, figure out how many servings you can get from what you are buying. Turkey slices from the deli might be 4.99/lb or 5.99/lb, but if I get 1/2 pound and use 2 ounces in a tortilla I can still get my 4 snacks out of it.

Many people do it and you can to.

xenu01

bump

itsbasschick

quaker 1 minute oats boiled in milk (i use nonfat, lactose free with calcium) with cinnamon, sweetened with stevia or whatever sweetener you use. it's super yummy, healthy and way cheap.