Eating well on a tight budget

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  • bunnywestley81
    bunnywestley81 Posts: 178 Member
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    I buy a lot of my meat and fresh fruit and veg reduced as the display by date is almost up.

    I'm not dead yet!

    Also look out for deals...its Easter so I just got me a whole leg of lamb for under £10.
  • MamaJ1974
    MamaJ1974 Posts: 443 Member
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    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.
  • pcrucifer
    pcrucifer Posts: 71 Member
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    We try to eat frugally and to eat well. The hard part is changing cooking habits. Now that we made the switch it seems easy. We cook a frozen chicken (w 1c water) in a crock pot for 8-10 hours. After dinner we strip the chicken and freeze the leftovers. Then we boil what is left in a stock pot with an onion (not chopped) for a couple hours after dinner, then strain out and refrigerate the liquid. The next day we make a big pot bean and rice soup with the liquid. We eat the soup and refrigerate the leftovers. A frozen chicken and a couple dollars worth of beans and rice feeds us 2 days, plus leftovers for several more days.
  • Sebismom
    Sebismom Posts: 44 Member
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    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    determined_14 wrote: »
    ... chicken breasts ($1.99/lb at my Sam's/Walmart, and I'm not paying for bones/skins).

    Lol. I love the skin and bones. I use a gallon of stock every week. Soaking the bones with lemon juice (roasted chicken) or cider vinegar (smoked) to dissolve/render nutrients before boiling makes a rich gelatinous stock. Mmmm... I do buy breasts when they're on sale, but I'm lost without good stock. :)

    Agreed on the skin and bones here! We buy organic, so that $17 chicken has to do double or triple duty. Also, the roasted bones make for the tastiest stock (made with veggie scraps saved in the freezer). I will admit to buying a Costco rotisserie chicken every once in a while (a few times per year isn't too often). They are cheap ($5), plump, and the stock is just as good. Later in the week the stock is great for chicken pot pie, soups, or to flavor sautéed dishes.

    Ahoy_m8: I am so jealous of the food prices in your hometown. We live in Boston, and everything here is sooo expensive, even in the discount and ethnic grocers (those tend to have lower prices, but just slightly lower). We definitely eat a legume-heavy and veggie-heavy diet, everything made from scratch.
  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
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    Aldi. Seroiusly. I feed my family of 5 for @ $70 a week. We are vegan, and eat copious amounts of fruit and veggies along with beans, rice, and pastas. They even have organic soy milk and I just discovered veggie burgers in their freezer section. Its a win. I agree with the person above who said it's about cooking habits too. I save all my veggie scraps in the freezer until I have enough, and dump them in a pot full of water to boil for veggie broth. I buy mostly dry beans, and seasonal produce, oh and bananas are always .44/lb at Aldi. :) It can be done.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
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    Sebismom: Totally in on the roasted bones, too. You live in one great town, but expensive, I give you that. Real estate is insanely cheap here, too. But our summers are triple-digit and our politicians are flat out insane. Texas.
  • Nix143
    Nix143 Posts: 522 Member
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    Meal planning will be your biggest money saver. I don't know if there is a US equivalent (I'm sure there will be) - in the UK this forum http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33 is an AMAZING resource.

    As others have said you sacrifice convenience for whole foods cooked properly with very little waste. You have to think a little harder and put a little more effort in but it can be done. Good luck :)
  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
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    I gained back all the weight I lost when I was unemployed due to having to eat what I could afford, so I understand the sentiment. For low carb options there are some good "budget paleo" recipes you can google (though some of them I wonder what their version of budget is).
  • Seraphin954
    Seraphin954 Posts: 5 Member
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    Oats, rice, beans, potatoes, tuna, canned salmon, frozen vegetables. These are some inexpensive ideas of things you can fill your household with. I'm sure You've gotten a good sense through the rest of the responses here.
  • kristydi
    kristydi Posts: 781 Member
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    Terpnista84 wrote: »
    Thighs and drumsticks.
    Yup. And if you don't mind learning to separate them yourself, the 10lbs bag of leg quarters (the thigh and leg sometimes with some back) is less than $7 here. I've nearly stopped using breasts and switched to thighs. Its pretty easy to take off the skin and debone them and after that they work fine in any recipe you'd use breasts in.


    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! :)

    Yup love budget bytes.
  • tekkiechikk
    tekkiechikk Posts: 375 Member
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    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
    lastspen Posts: 106 Member
    edited April 2015
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    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
    Saltfae Posts: 82 Member
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    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
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
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    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
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
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    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. :smiley:
    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
    lichic25 Posts: 161 Member
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    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
    JasonH_DFW Posts: 63 Member
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    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
    Lezavargas Posts: 223 Member
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    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
    rachellynn89 Posts: 13 Member
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    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. :smiley:
    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
    katarina005 Posts: 259 Member
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    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!

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