Recipe ideas on a low budget?

Check this site. Its written by someone who feeds a family of 4 on $50 per week.
There are planned daily menus and recipes too for every week.
I found it on pinterest and I think its awesome. She does all the hard work of figuring things out for you and all you have to do is follow the plan.
There're about 34 weeks' worth of menus and detailed grocery lists AND recipes for all 3 meals of the day.

http://www.grocerybudget101.com/content.php/8-menus

You're most welcome! :happy: I was amazed when I read through the website!

I think you can still use coupons? And ad prices? I would check out what is on sale and do some meal planning based on that. Usually pasta goes on sale and if not you can get it pretty cheap. Just use a little and stretch with vegies. Find the lowest price on chicken breast for example and stock up! I also like to go to the store, see when everything is set to expire and go back that day when I do I go home and grill it all up and freeze it or slice it in the fridge.

I make chicken breasts (1/2 is a serving) then do chicken fajitas with tons of peppers and onions (works great if you get a lean steak and pound it and grill it too) and chicken on our salad.
Try to find cheap turkey sand meat too. I found it in the deli for under 2$/lb this week! I freeze half then use sandwich thins (wheat) with lots of lettuce.
Oat revolution in strawberry or blueberry is my fave and is only 100-160 calories a container. 5 pouches are 1.25 at my store.
Eggs are cheapest at our gas station, we do lots of egg white omelets with salsa. The kids like egg salad too or I will slice the white on my salad (bring to boil, cover and remove from heat. Let sit 17 minutes for perfect boiled eggs, the older eggs peel nicer than newly bought eggs). Great protein!
I really stretch out hamburger too! I have the shaker for taco seaoning and will make 1/2 pound into taco meat. I use a little on a tortilla with fat free refried beans (I do spend for the good brand about 1$ and it lasts a long time) and vegies. Use leftovers with tortilla chips and salsa! I make soup with the other 1/2 pound. Add some off brand vegetable juice, cheap broth and some beans with it. Add whatever good soup vegies you have or cans of vegies and you can stretch that a long ways, or chili too! Freezes great!

You can do it! And eat healthy! Biggets things to meal plan, write it out! Plan for leftovers too or plan to repurpose your leftovers in a fun way. Check allrecipes.com and enter the ingredients you have? I think they have a cooking for 2 section! I wish I had my list I made for my best friend a while back. She had about 20$ and had to last 5 days for a fam of 4 plus occasional 2 daycare kids. I checked the ads and made a plan. (she blew it by adding frozen pizza). In my mind my plan was way healthier for them too and saved money!

I bought a BIG bag of Coach's Oats from Costco for right around $5. It has 51 servings, but I eat less than 1 serving, so I probably get around 60 servings per bag. That's 60 breakfasts for $5. That's less than a dime per meal!! I add one packet of Splenda (which you can steal... I mean BORROW from Starbucks for free) and I think it tastes pretty good. Maybe have it every other day so you don't get bored. If you run into some extra cash, try with a handfull of blueberries instead of Splenda. YUM!

Brown rice = healthy & cheap
- Add salsa, bell peppers, onions, and chicken for Mexican night
- Serve wtih veggies and meat for asian stir fry

When shopping, meat & protein are usually the most expensive items. If you're going to eat it that day or the next, check the bargain/clearance section in the meat department. A lot of times the meat is still good, it just has to be sold in the next day or two. As long as you cook it and eat it that night, you're fine!

If milk or cheese are ever on Super Sale, stock up! They can both be frozen. Especially if you're going to cook with it later. I've found Costco to be the cheapest place to buy cheese.

Veggies too! You can buy in bulk and freezer for later. Buy a BUNCH of bell peppers, onions, broccoli, and carrots. Take them home, wash them, cut them up, divide into portion packs, place in zip lock baggies, freeze. Voila!

Shop by Price Per Ounce, not total price. Cheese is a good deal when under 20 cents per ounce. The average grocery store price is 30 to 45+ cents per ounce! Costco is around 15 - 17 cents per ounce.

Know where to splurge!! I spend extra money on my favorite salad dressing. When I have it in the house I eat more salads and my veggies don't go bad. If I have crappy salad dressing, I never want to eat salads and waste money throwing away bad veggies.

Love this topic. Always looking for ways to save. thanks to all who supplied links. I love Clara the Depression Ere Cook, made me call my grandma and reminded me how you got to enjoy what you have. Live life to the fullest Like Clara.

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bump for later. great links here, thanks

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Beans are your best friend. Dried beans are less expensive, and you just soak them.

Cuban black beans on the cheap:
Saute 2 cloves of garlic, onion, red pepper (all chopped) in a pot with olive oil and 1/2 tbs. cumin, 1 tsp. salt
Add your canned or black beans and bring to a boil with a 1/2 cup water
Lower the heat and simmer for 35-45 minutes
Serve with rice....yummy, healthy, and only about 120 calories per serving!

Plans to try some of these

When we're having a bad month financially, I make a lot of spaghetti. I get (all Great Value aka Walmart Brand) tomato sauce for about 97 cents, a tiny can of tomato paste for something like 48 cents, a box of pasta for about a dollar, and some ground beef which is probably the most expensive for around $4 (I think--I remember the whole thing being close to $6). The seasonings I have at home. I brown the ground beef with oregano, thyme, basil, real garlic if I have some, garlic salt if I don't, onion salt because I don't like onions. While that's browning I combine the tomato sauce and tomato paste in a medium sauce pan and put in the same seasonings over medium-low heat. If I can afford it, I will also get a can of diced tomatoes or a whole tomato and chop it up and throw that in there too, which is usually also 97 cents. The Italian blend with oregano and basil goes really well. When the meat is browned, I add that to the sauce and cover, then boil the pasta. My son is a spaghetti pig, and even so, the sauce is enough to last us for 4 nights; we just have to boil more pasta because I don't like reheated pasta.

Other inexpensive meals that we live on when the money is tight (it still happens more than I'd care for):
Shake & Bake pork chops with mashed potatoes (not instant--buying a bag of potatoes and boiling them is cheaper and tastes way better, plus you should be able to get several nights worth of sides out of a 5 lb bag) and salad--the great value shake and bake is just as tasty as the real brand
Roast pork or chicken with potatoes or a pasta side and salad (my son really likes salad)--a roast should be able to supply ample leftovers
Turkey dogs with turkey chili--just as good as a regular chili dog, inexpensive, and filling
Worst and I only recommend it if you're absolutely desperate: ramen with stuff. It's not great for you, it doesn't taste that great (but you can add things to it to make it more like a hearty meal), but you can get a box with like 40 packets for something like $12. My cousin makes a salad with left over baked chicken, ramen, wasabi peas, and cabbage that is actually pretty delicious. I'm sure there's other stuff in it, but I've never made it myself so I'm not sure the exact recipe. In any case, there're some things you can do with ramen to make it a little more sophisticated, and then just eat a small portion if you're concerned about carbs/calories/sodium.

Soups! Soups are so easy and you can make all sorts of different kinds of soups on very simple and inexpensive ingredients. Sorry, I don't know very many recipies... I just basically throw whatever I have in the fridge into some chicken/vegetable/beef broth and call it good when our pantry is running low. Also invest in different kinds of noodles and rise and just experiment. You can't really go wrong

Wow! Great ideas and websites!

Thanks for all the info!

:flowerforyou:
Brenda

All of the above tips are great, all things I would suggest, but I will go one step further. Waste nothing! I go shopping on Mondays usually, so on Sunday evening, I make a list of all the food in the fridge/freezer pantry that needs to be eaten. This includes all produce, dairy, condiments, meat, leftovers etc. Some foods are simply eaten as is, others are turned into new dishes. Then after checking to see what is on sale, I make a grocery list and plan a menu. The menu includes what is left to use and what I purchase on Mondays, and I think that greatly reduces bordem. I spend about $300-$350 on food for 4 people, so I think $150 is fine for two people. Here is an example of what this week looks like fore us

To Use:
watermelon
kale
pork (raw boneless chops)
hummus
half and half
pico de gio
tomatoes
potatoes
riccota
greek yogurt
cream cheese.

This weeks menu: Monday- Pork Fried Rice(uses pantry brown rice, pork, whatever veg. i find) Tues-kale salad, baked potato soup (uses kale, potatoes, half and half, cream cheese) Wednesday- Turkey Tacos- Thursday- Lemon Ricotta Pancakes Fri- Whole Chicken with roasted tomatoes, salad, polenta.

Hope this helps. We throw away almost nothing and this makes a big difference. Get creative. Soup will hold nearly any variety of foods. Don't forget to make room for treats. Rice pudding, cookies, etc are all cheap and flexible!

Great tips. Thanks!