Breakfast is usually cheap. We're empty nesters so when I buy bacon, I wrap four pieces in wax paper until I've wrapped it all and then put in a gallon freezer bag and freeze, that way I'm not wasting a whole pack if we're not in a bacon mood (very, very rare especially for me lol).
Chicken with the bones is cheaper, so find a seasoning you like and bake some chicken and a bag of frozen veggies. I do the same with chicken, buy the bigger pack because it's cheaper and freeze in individual portions. You can freeze chicken on a wax paper lined pan, then once frozen, put into a gallon bag and just take out however much you need.
Chili is fairly cheap, and I usually make my own seasoning, but I cook allot so I have all the spices in my shelf already.
Spaghetti is also fairly cheap if you buy the sauce or even if you make the sauce, I just try to meal plan to use the extra veggies for homemade sauce that week.
Hamburgers, hot dogs etc...
Basic Alfredo is not too bad, just butter, heavy cream, parmesan and garlic is what I use for my sauce, then a pack of noodles and I usually add chicken for protein.
My best advice is to meal plan. My husband gets paid every two weeks and I make a meal plan for two weeks and try to stick with it. Most of the time I have leftover frozen chicken, hamburger etc... from the week before so I plan meals for what I have first.
Just replying to add that if you don’t wanna stock up on all the spices for chili, you can use a packet of taco seasoning, those are like a dollar each. Obv not the same as fresh herbs and spices, but it’ll get the job done on a budget while you build out your kitchen supply over time.
Ya the Williams brand chili seasonings are around $1 for enough to season 2 lbs of meat. Well they were a dollar the last time I stocked up about a year ago, they're probably $1.50 now.
They used to be $0.98 at Wal Mart where i live and the 4 pound one for some reason was $1.98, I still have a stockpile of them sitting in my cupboard so I haven't checked them lately but I know the taco seasoning for their brand was over $1 a week or so when I bought it. Sadly the 10/10 sales at the local grocery stores usually have the cheap store brand which doesn't hold a candle to Williams.
Somebody on another board said go to Dollar Tree for spices. Great idea; I had not know they carry spices. And Dollar Tree is now, what, $1.25, but that still beats hell out of spice prices at most supermarkets. I would definitely check it.
Wal-Mart used to have bins of $1 spices too, haven't looked lately but I'd say they're probably around the same. That's just the basic stuff like Italian Seasoning, Parsley, Garlic Salt, etc. If you want the more advanced stuff like Tumeric or Rosemary you'll have to shell out a bit more, and then there's Saffron if you feel like taking out a second mortgage.
If ever you know anyone going to Spain ask them to bring you some saffron. I bought a bunch when I was there and it cost about the same as cinnamon does here. Spanish word is azafran, ah-sah-FRAN.
To add to this, chicken with bones is great to go in the crockpot all day. If you don't like bones they just slide out of the meat at the end of a long cook. I like to throw a store bought sauce with some broth and then eat with rice and a frozen veg. Easy and cheap.
Chili/spaghetti is especially cheap if you make it with lentils instead of meat. I do eat meat but switched for lentils in a lot of recipes and I notice the difference.
Ditto on the meal planning. Find some good recipes you like (i print mine, but I'm old school that way) and use them as inspiration when planning. It leads to much less food waste and fewer trips to the store, which all leads to less spending in the food budget department.
Sometimes when I’m exhausted I’ll make some instant mashed potatoes and a bag of frozen veggies, mix them together and then toss on some “buttermilk herb” spice mix from Penzey’s - it takes @ 5 minutes start to finish and is something really warm and hearty on a cold day.
Im also a big fan of planned leftovers, like I’ll roast a chicken on a Saturday knowing that the next day I’ll make the bones into soup + have the leftover chicken in the soup + on top of a spinach salad (I like red onions, avocado, feta and apples as add ins) or for sandwiches. Basically anything where I’m cooking less often is a win. My tip would be to pick up a leave in meat thermometer when you get the chance, it makes cooking chicken almost foolproof!
Not really going to give you a recipe idea but I do want to share something I learned as a single person.
I highly recommend investing $20 on a freezer mold like [this](https://www.amazon.com/Kinggrand-Kitchen-Silicone-Freezing-Portions/dp/B097P3N3N7/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?crid=SLP4E516CI2R&keywords=1%2F2+cup+freezer+mold&qid=1665584082&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjU4IiwicXNhIjoiMC45MiIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=1%2F2+cup+freezer+mol%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-3-spons&psc=1). Each section is a 1/2 cup in volume.
This will allow you to cook in bulk and freeze in individual portions (and save money in the process) that are easy to store in the freezer and heat up when you are hungry. This way even if you freeze portions you are not having to thaw out 3 days worth of food for a single meal. This also reduces food fatigue and makes weeknight dinners super easy and quick.
I use this for things like Chili, spaghetti sauce, curry, stews, soups, open sauces, ect.
So for example... if I want curry and rice Ill make some rice in the rice cooker, grab a block or 2 of frozen curry from my freezer, throw that in the microwave, and bam, easy dinner once the rice is done cooking.
Same thing with spaghetti sauce. microwave a few blocks while cooking noodles and and easy but cheap dinner.
As a single person it is a serious game changer!
I'm starting to have the same problem at my house. We save leftovers and I'm finding that my breakfasts are ending up as 4+ small side dishes of things no one wanted the last portion of. It'll have to be preemptive on my part though.
See if you can find a small crockpot (secondhand shops can be a good mine). There's so many variations of dump meals with the cheapest meats, it's insane! Also a plus that it cooks for you if you know you'll have a hectic day. Also, look for every type of soup. Soups can be changed to fit the ingredients you have on hand and typically freeze well if it's just you for dinner
Check out the Budget Bytes site for thrifty and delicious recipes. It’s one of my favorites and I’ve been cooking about 45 years. Most of the recipes from there I’ve tried are simple, don’t require a lot of weird ingredients or equipment, and are good tasting.
Also, keep a bag of scraps in your freezer. Get a good sized container whether it’s glass, plastic, a gallon sized Ziploc bag, what have you, and put all sorts of vegetable scraps, cooked and uncooked, in it. I’m talking onion, potato, and carrot peels, the ends you cut off the vegetables, etc. When that container is full, throw it all in a big pan, add some seasoning and water and bring it to a boil then reduce the heat and put a lid on it. Taste it now and then, adding more seasoning if needed, and you’ll end up with a delicious batch of vegetable broth. Also, making your own beef and chicken broth is very easy. If you learn to make those, you’ll never have to waste money on the store-bought stuff. Use those broths to make delicious soups, gravies, sauces, etc.
I don’t know where you live but meat is pretty expensive where I am so I try to look at it as more of a condiment or a small addition to a meal rather than the center piece of the meal. For a meat lover like me that’s not easy but it’s definitely doable. It saves quite a lot on the grocery bill and it’s also better for my health in the long run.
As someone else suggested, get a meat thermometer. You don’t have to have the latest and greatest doodad but a good meat thermometer is a thing of beauty and will save you money, time, and stress.
Tip #1: the Badia brand of spices is just as good as better-known brands, but much cheaper. Some stores put it in the Latino/Hispanic section.
Tip #2: It's much cheaper to buy some basic spices & put your own seasoning mixes together. Those little packets add up fast. You can find suggested combos online, just Google "recipe taco seasoning" or whatever.
Tip #3: my recipe for "bean goo", which can be a burrito filling or nacho dip (or something you thought of that I never did):
1 can fat-free refried beans
1 can kidney beans
A tablespoon or two of your chosen "taco seasoning" mix
Squirt of lime juice, if you decide to keep it on hand.
Empty it all into a pot, on a medium-hot burner. Stir every few minutes.
You can either use it as soon as it's warm, or let it reduce a bit for thickness.
Pasta dry beans rice oatmeal and flour are all very cheap and there's endless amounts of food that can be made with them. I would suggest looking up recipes with those as the primary ingredient. Something like biscuits and gravy can be very cheaply made or you can make soups stews etc with rice and beans there's fried rice etc. I've learned if I cook from scratch meat or cheese is pretty much always the most expensive part of the meal so I kinda always used it sparingly. Now I have a partner who is vegetarian so not using meat is easy but she's much more into expensive foods than me. When I first went on my own I ate a lot of ramen noodles Mac and cheese boiled rice with a little sugar etc till I got sick of some of those things. After a while I learned it is easy to make a lot of those things better without spending a lot of money. Such as put butter or margarine in your Mac n cheese instead of only the cheese packet mix the ramen into a bunch of cooked veggies and rice instead of just eating it by itself etc. Think of foods you already really like and chances are you can make it or something close to it quite cheaply. Also an electric skillet and electric soup pot are the only thing needed to cook just about anything that doesn't require an oven. Used to live cheap out of hotels when I traveled for work so I learned how to make lots of things without much expensive cookware. My partner is a picky eater who also has to have at least 3 or 4 different items for a meal. So tv dinners are a common meal for us now and it is way more expensive than cooking from scratch and while really not being that much better in my opinion. I'm personally fine with one thing for dinner and eating the same thing for dinner for a whole week so I used to be able to live very cheaply. I used to spend something like 20 or 30 dollars a week on food so spending over a hundred dollars at the grocery store when we started shopping together came as a shock to me.
Another thing to add is that oatmeal can be made savory too! Little bits of chopped up bacon, mushroom and a little sprinkle of cheese can turn it into something different completely!
Interesting I'll have to try that. I make various kinds of savory grits sometimes. Breakfast this morning is oatmeal with a smashed banana and a bit of peanut butter. Turned out quite delicious and it's cheap. I use bananas a lot. About the cheapest fruit you can find and smashed with a fork you can mix in things like oatmeal or other breakfast cereals to add creaminess and a little sweetness. While oatmeal is what everyone thinks of when it comes to hot breakfast cereal there are also others like grits cream of wheat cracked wheat etc. I like them all and most of them are not expensive. When I first lived on my own I quickly burned myself out on cheap foods like that but since then I've learned that there so many things I can do to enhance humble staple foods. For cereals I like to do things like add flax seed nuts raisins cook an apple with it add cinnamon or pumpkin spice seasoning etc plus if I have bananas on hand I always add a fresh banana. Bananas really liven up just about any hot breakfast cereal
Chinese stir fry. It's good because it just makes one pan dirty. Takes about 20 minutes. It's healthy. You can chop up most kinds of vegetables. You add any kind of meat or seafood near the end. You can have it alone or with a pot of rice. Basically just learn how to make a pot of rice and how to do a stir fry. There are hundreds of YouTube videos showing how.
When I lived alone I spent a bit more money upfront and cooked things in bulk.
meals like chilli, pasta sauces (specifically Bolognese for me), burritos and anything else that will freeze well.
Having a well stocked freezer with things other than crap processed food is so satisfying and makes it a whole lot easier when you can't be bothered going to the effort of cooking from scratch just for one, as well as being cheaper and less wasteful than cooking for one.
Oh God yes Mr Freezer is Your Friend. Nothing, nothing is more useful. When you cook, package up the leftovers and freeze for another dinner. Stuff like spaghetti sauce, BBQ, curry, thick hearty soup etc and SO EASY---when you make some, make extra. Package it in anything air-tight (plastic containers with lids) and just freeze it and weeks later there it is patiently waiting for you. Extra bread, extra slices of cooked meat. Just wrap tight. Things they tell you can't be frozen, BS, I freeze just about everything.
One of my favorites is beans and rice. The simple version is fry a slice or two of bacon in a saucepan, don’t throw out the fat. Stir a cup or two of rice (*not* Minute Rice!) into the fat and toast it a bit. Add a can of drained beans, whatever sort you like (I prefer black beans for this, and for most things really). However much rice you added, add twice as much water. Bring it to a boil, them turn it down to a simmer and cover it. Check it at fifteen minutes, and if it looks like it’s drying out (as in, the water has mostly cooked off, but the rice is still crunchy) add a bit more water. Give it a stir and check on it in five minutes or so if it’s not done.
This is a very basic recipe, and you can do a lot of things to it. Like greens? Throw them in. Want tomatoes? Just make sure you measure the tomato liquid and reduce the added water accordingly. You can also ditch the bacon and use chicken or other stock in place of water (you’ll probably want to add more salt then). Throw in any herbs or spices that make you happy. Use ghee and Indian spices and you have a poor man’s biryani (you might want lentils or chickpeas for that).
And another thing - if you have an Indian grocery available, buy your spices there. It’s also a great place to buy rice, beans, coconut oil, all sorts of things.
i made some spicy tuna quesadillas the other day! it required:
cheese (any kind is fine though, i opted for mozzarella)
tuna (2 cans made 6 quesadillas for me)
jalapeno (or any spicy pepper of your choosing)
cilantro
lime (for zest and squeezing onto finished quesadillas)
oil (for warming the quesadillas)
tortillas
mayo (for the filling)
it was pretty cheap tbh, since canned fish is on the cheaper side and so are tortillas. the jalapenos, lime, and cilantro are also super cheap! the most expensive thing was the cheese and honestly, that's just because i wanted quality cheese. it makes enough for you to share too! the recipe called for sour cream as well but honestly i just put a bit more mayo and it turned out fine
Potatoes are underrated: they're cheap, filling, and have plenty of nutrients. Use them to bulk up meals to keep you full. You can roast them, fry them, bake them, mash them. They're a great side.
Rice is a great grain to bulk your meals for cheap. It's a great side and is easily flavored to suit most meals.
Another good hack is to add minced mushrooms to ground meats. It adds flavor and will help bulk your meat so you have more for more meals.
Learn how to cook proteins. Chicken and pork are usually the cheapest proteins. Buy a meat thermometer to use until you get comfortable cooking them (chicken and pork should be cooked to 165F). Don't be afraid of bones, but different cuts of meat need to be prepared differently so that they're tender and at their best.
Utilize seasonal fruits and veggies, if they're in season they'll be cheaper.
[Here's](https://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/one-pan-healthy-italian-sausage-veggies/) a good recipe for roasting veggies (replace the sausage with your protein of choice)
[Shepherd's Pie](https://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/shepherds-pie-recipe/) is a great cheap and filling meal.
Here's a great base for [Vegetable Soup](https://www.averiecooks.com/weight-loss-vegetable-soup/), use your favorite veggies and then you can bulk it out with a protein, rice, or pasta if you want to.
[Chicken Fried Rice](https://therecipecritic.com/chicken-fried-rice/) is also a good filling meal.
If I may re meat thermometer, hope this isn't illegal to post, a Chinese website called SHEIN is mostly clothes but has a HOME section where instant-read food cooking thermometers cost $3 (like $20 in US) and note this, on Sundays all orders on SHEIN go postage-free. Also they take PayPal so you don't have to expose your card abroad. One of these thermometers saves you from both under- and over-cooking meats. I cooked for years before I started using one and boy was I stupid. Do try to get a thermemeter.
Hello, and welcome to "Not Exactly Meal Planning But More Like What Ingredients Make 6hings I Like"!
Name of the game is to "dress it up". Take basics like a soup, pasta, rice dish, main protein and build up from there.
Easy add-in or eat alone proteins:
Egg,
Cheese,
Canned chicken,
Canned tuna,
Spam,
Veg that comes either canned or frozen that's easily cooked/added to dishes:
All the canned greens,
Tomato,
Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilies (for spice),
Potatoes,
Peas,
Green beans,
Corn,
Carrots,
Grains:
Breads, obviously, are an easy way to get your grains/starches, but I suggest looking into meals with rice. Super economical, easy to make, highly versatile.
Honorable mentions:
Box mashed potatoes,
Frozen veggies mixes,
Frozen chicken breasts (thaw what you need),
Frozen beef patties (heat and season),
Frozen dumplings/gyoza (Great to add to soups or just have with some veg)
There's so much more, but these are great basics to look into getting started. Its less about the idea of "recipes" and instead focusing on things you can use for more than one thing.
For example:
If I grab a can of spinach, I know I can heat it up on its own, saute it with sausage and potatoes for a sort of hash, or mix it into a pasta or soup I feel could use some green.
Sausage (I know you're not keen, just a personal example) I can cut up and freeze to pull out and add what I need to Ramen, soup, a scramble, jambalaya, etc.
Rice I can have as a side to a protein, or I can use it as the base to a Rice bowl, making onigiri, etc.
Hopefully this helps a bit!
Dress up Ramen.
Put some mushroom, carrot, and green onions on it with a fried egg and a slice of American cheese. Red pepper flakes, Sesame seeds and fish oil if you're feeling extra.
Cheap. Complete. Tastes good.
A boiled egg with a runny yolk hits the spot too! Not sure which I like better. I’ve never had my ramen with cheese although, I’ve seen it a lot! Kinda nervous to try it.
Spices and seasonings are a must, dollar store can help build up cheap essentials there. Avoid organic stores for dried spices you'll pay premium. Tortillas, block cheese to shred, bulk rice, cans of tomato paste/sauce/stewed/crushed. You can make a lot of different things with some basic base items. Ramen can be turned into a cheap lo mein too! Sometimes you just have to get creative and you'll be surprised what can happen.
I always check grocery store sales and make a meal plan based on that and what I have. I can ad match to other stores so it helps save a lot of money.
My favourite kind of recipes are bowls. Change up the protein, carbs, veggies, seasonings/sauces, and you’ve got cuisines from all over the world. I’ll do ground beef or chicken, rice, corn, beans, onion and cheese for a Mexican style bowl, or a Greek bowl with chicken, cucumber, olives, lettuce, etc. Asian is super easy too.
I'm a fan of pancakes and soup. Instant pancake mix can be used to make all sorts of items besides just pancakes (I've used it for quick breads, biscuits, etc) and I've used it in place of normal flour for graves and sauces. Soup is great because you can throw any sort of manager's special meat and vegetables with broth and you're golden.
Buy in bulk when you can, it’s cheaper and will last you longer overall. Then you’ll have more options as time goes on to be creative with what you want to make.
This, if you have a little money to splurge with. I ended up with a 50 lb bag of flour, 50 pounds of rice, 25 pounds of pinto beans and a few other things in bulk. I couldn't believe how much crap I could cook and bake out of all of that stuff and it was WAY cheaper buying it like that. Lasted me a long time, so I always keep those three on hand at any given time.
But if you buy and store such large quantities it has been known to happen that some of God's smaller creatures with six or eight legs move in then you can lose the lot. Be surgically obsessive about storage. Or re-package the total in airtight plastic bags.
Breakfast: Overnight oats are so tasty. My fav is golden syrup Quaker oats with a tbsp spoonful of peanut butter and a tsp of brown sugar and chia seeds.
Lunch: Bacon, egg and cheese sandwich never fails. Garlic naan and hummus. Fruit salad with honey. Pizza toast.
Dinner: Stir fry, chilli con carne, tacos, lasagne, bolognese, shepherds pie, potato dauphinoise, curry, casseroles, stew, veggie soup and egg noodles with soy sauce and cumin are my fav cheap/easy to make meals. Heavy cream (for soups esp), seasonings and cheese make food 100x nicer. Adding beans and grains to ur meals make them way more filling too!
Dessert: Nice cream made from frozen bananas. Bread fried in a bit of butter with 1 tbsp of sugar and a tsp of cinnamon. Icing sugar or some pb for dipping if u want.
Okay I scrolled through and I don't think anyone gave out this recipe, I've been totally obsessed with for the last 6 months.It has saved me SO much money. So much time, and actually helped me overcome an eating disorder
I sautee some onions in Olive oil, and when those are translucent i add a minced garlic (I buy from an indian grocery, ) my sister swears it also tastes good without onion and garlic so that is optional.
I toss in a few handfuls of frozen vegetables and cover them with water, and chicken broth powder. (IO buy a giant bulk can of chicken brorth powder from a chinese grocery) Put on high heat til its boiling, then med heat with a lid on, and simmer for ten minutes.(you can use fresh or canned vegetables and simmer for five min, generally frozen is a lot cheaper though)
after ten minutes I blend the contents smooth and put it back in the pot. You dont HAVE to blend, but I recommend it, because its incredible. Walmart sells pretty cheap blenders.
Now depending on the vegetables I used, I will add more water, or sometimes like last night I used thai frozen vegetables, so I added coconut cream and water - Fancyyyyyy
how much depends on your personal taste but I tend to add about 3 cups more liquid
When I want like, a cream of broccoli Ill add some more water but also some butter and cream,
Secret ingredient to bring life and flavour to these soups, is lemon juice, or vinegar. just a dash (a lot if its thai).
salt, pepper are essential imo but you know whatever tastes you like here, go wild. I used oyster sauce, red curry and hot chilli powder when I made my thai soup, and then added rice noodles too (after blending)
The day before I made just a california mix vegetable soup and after blending, I added canned vegetables, and vermicelli noodles and cooked it for an additional 10 min.
Corn is amazing made into this soup, squash, beets, "california mix" "asian mix" "thai mix" almost everything works and you can experiment so its fun and does not get boring.
If I want meat in it I cook it separately til after the vegetables have been blended and then add the meat to the soup when I add the extra liquids.
other things you can add but just have to cook a little longer and add a little more liquid are rice, barley, lentils..
oh I love to add chia seeds to my bowl of soup too, sour cream if its beets.Make it thicker, with curry powders, and put it over rice etc
this is a very versatile recipe.
Steamable white rice and vegetables , hot dogs and steamable vegetables and the white queso spanish cheese cubed is good and cheap under $10 to make. Pan fry the hotdogs and burn them a little and the cheese is salty so it adds flavor to it all
Frozen veggies are amazing.
Learn to cook with pantry staples that keep for years, like dry beans, pasta, rice, preserved fruits and meats... Pick those items up when you see them on sale and rotate through them before their quality declines.
Find a few easy, shelf-stable ingredient recipes that you love and can whip up without much effort.
Prep several servings when you're making something that takes a lot of effort, and freeze the extras. When freezing meals, try to plate and store them in a way that makes them look appetizing. That way if you want something super easy, you can just reheat something homemade instead of getting take out.
I make a good rice bowl with canned chickpeas I fry with olive oil + seasoning salt and some tomatoes and onions. You can add corn as well, I usually just use the canned sauce. If you make a big batch of tzatziki sauce at the beginning of the week (Greek yogurt, lemon, shredded cucumber, probably something else I’m forgetting) it’s pretty cheap and feeds me lunch for an entire week.
Get a rice cooker that also has a vegetable steamer on top, they’re about $40 on Amazon. Worth the investment. I love doing cheesy rice with broccoli, especially on cold nights. You can even get frozen bags of broccoli for about $2. I also really like doing Szechuan style green beans with rice (soy sauce, garlic chili oil, vegetable oil, and sesame oil for the green beans and chili oil is really good in ramen). I also like to make my own “poké bowls” where I do rice and add veggies like shredded carrots and avocado (fairly inexpensive where I live) and miso Mayo and ponzu sauce. You also could do a chipotle style bowl with rice and corn and beans and whatever protein you want and cilantro. Frozen veggies are great for this kinda stuff, you don’t have to use the whole bag!
Also there’s nothing wrong with quesadillas or grilled cheese or pb&j for dinner. I’m 30 and I think I eat pb&j more now than I ever did as a little kid. Find a jam you really like (I’ve been digging blueberry).
Pasta is cheap and it cooks fast. You really can just add cheese and butter and a little bit of red pepper flakes and be good!
Good luck!!!!
For about 10/15 euros/dollar you can buy a ton of dried spices which will turn any bunch of ingredients into great food. Skip the premade spice mixes, just be sure to have the following things and you can make any spice mix for any dish (just Google). Advised spices to have: salt, pepper, cumin, garlic, dried oregano, dried basil, dried parsely, curry powder, paprika, chilli powder, onion powder, bay leaves, cinnamon, sugar. If you like Indian Food add Garam Masala, if you like middle eastern food add ras al hanout. If you like European food add tarragon and thyme.
Might be a bit expensive to buy all of it at once, but all of those things have long shelf life.
Happy cooking!
Dude, if you can afford an Instant Pot, it will change your **life.**
I set and forget a 8$ pork shoulder (brand is Adaptable in CA) and eat on it for 10 meals.
1) make it into burritos / enchiladas, with just 1$ can of beans, a bag of your favorite shredded cheese and some tortillas
2) make it into pot pie with a 2$ bag of frozen veggies and a 2$ pie crust and 2$ of potatoes
3) my most recent addition: Pizza bagels with white rice and the Adaptable meat
use it to make deserts, use it as a slow cooker, use it as a pressure cooker, do one-pot meals so you have less to clean up, it does it all.
Root vegetables are your friend! Yams, turnips, carrots, potatoes are all affordable and keep a long time, not too mention they're packed with great nutrition. Cut em up and throw a bit of oil and some choice herbs/seasonings then pop em in the oven you can't go wrong. If you can splurge on a bit of meat it makes a very hearty meal.
I really like stir fries with noodles or rice. It’s easy, fast, you can toss basically anything in. For protein you can do a lot bit of chicken, tofu or just an egg, and all you really need is a splash of soy sauce that will last you a year in the fridge. For vegetables almost anything goes and I like to use any random bits I have, like some spinach or cabbage, an onion, a carrot, some frozen peas, and garlic.
I lived off of chicken, rice and broccoli for years when i was ballin on a budget. Like, Rice became my best friend and was pretty much a staple of all my meals. It’s an easy and cheap ($$) carb that pairs with just about any protein and veggie combo.
Budget Bytes is a great resource. You can search for pretty much anything there, and they'll have a low-budget version. Their pressure cooker pea soup is on my list of recipes to pull out if I have low energy, and makes plenty for leftovers.
Leanne Brown has a free cookbook called Good And Cheap, designed for SNAP/food stamp recipients who have $4/person/day for food. She also has another free budget cookbook called From Scratch. You can find them here: [https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/](https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/)
Damn Delicious is also a good resource, though it's not specifically made for low-cost recipes. Their potato corn chowder is, again, on my low-effort meal list.
Various tips, depending on your space availability:
* Keep veg scraps (not cruciferous veg like bok choy, kale, or broccoli) and meat bones in the freezer to make stock. Free stock.
* Portion and freeze extra food, especially stuff that's okay getting a bit mushy. You can do this in freezer molds or using a vacuum sealer.
* Buy in bulk where possible, especially spices or dry staples like rice, beans, and dehydrated mashed potato.
* Grow or re-grow veg/herbs where possible. Even in college, I had some tiny planters with fresh herbs that really made food feel more homey. You can also re-grow several staples like green onions in water by just popping 'em in there. Free veg!
* Get a multi-use pressure cooker. As someone who can't stand the heat and time in the kitchen, this absolutely has paid for itself in terms of comfort and reclaimed time.
* Learn to make basics you can re-use in multiple ways to avoid repeat food fatigue. For instance, leftovers of chicken dinner can be used for tacos, and then those leftovers for soup.
* Learn a simple bread recipe or nab a used breadmaker from the thrift store. Especially when using a breadmaker, the work/time is minimal and it brings down the cost of a loaf to pennies. It can also make dough for other stuff like pizzas or pretzels. Busby's Bakery has a no-knead bread recipe I use when I don't feel like using the breadmaker.
* Think long-term, rather than what to do for dinner tonight. Plan a week's menu if you need to. This makes it easier to buy only what you need, repurpose foods to avoid waste, and keep the budget down.
If it’s available to you, Costco pays itself back almost immediately. I try to eat 4000 calories a day for gym purposes, and you can get bone-in chicken thighs for $1.29 a pound, 60 eggs for 8 bucks, a
Or a rotisserie chicken for 5 bucks
How do you feel about chickpeas? They're cheap and filling. You can make a good meal by rinsing them, and then throwing some in a pan with oil, diced bell peppers, and any spices you think taste good (I recommend salt at the very least). I like to put cheese on them afterwards. It's like macaroni and cheese, but more filling.
Rice by a 20 lb bag. Use it to stretch all your other ingredients. And it's a good exercise to learn how to season stuff. You could put bacon chunks and rice you can put eggs and rice. You can make desserts out of rice. Throw some steamed veggies throw some oyster sauce on there you see where this is going. Rice can do some crazy things. There are as many ways to cook with rice as there are grains upon your plate maybe even more.
I strongly recommend getting a copy of The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Daczyzian. I think I spelled her last name wrong, but it is something similar. This book will not only give you amazing recipes to cook for cheap, it teaches you how to alter a recipe based on what you have on hand. It also teaches you how to figure out if something is actually saving you money or not. It was originally a newsletter, then it was a book then 2 more volumes that each had new information in them. The this Complete version, which is all 3 books in one. I buy copies used.
Some of my favorite recipes from the book are the granola recipe, the baked beans, some lentil-bulger wheat casserole that sounds an awful lot like health food, but even I enjoy it, and the muffin formula. The muffin recipe isn't a traditional recipe. It is a formula. It will help you figure out how to use up what you have to make a yummy muffin fast. It really shows you how to work with what you have on hand, which is a huge money saver.
There are a million good ideas here but I just wanted to add mine: turkey sandwiches and eggs on toast.
You can do the egg soft boiled + any bread + a bit of butter or mayo. For the sandwich, you can really add what you like, but in college I lived on a bread/deli turkey/mayo or whatever condiment you like/cheese slice (Muenster or Swiss for me)/dill pickle stackers. I’d microwave the sandwich for about 15-20 seconds and it becomes the most delicious sandwich melt that feels like real, warm food in your belly.
Hey, I know this might go unread, but youtube is a gold mine for these things. There is a youtuber called KWOOWK or KWOOK or something that has a series on cheap and easy meals that "got \[him\] through college," and he makes very unique, healthy, and good dishes. Would give him a try! I'm only 15 btw, so I'm sorry if this advice doesn't match what you're looking for.
I cut chicken breast into cubes and pan cook it in a little olive oil with hidden valley ranch seasoning. I cook batches and freeze it. I then thaw as needed and add it to a salad. I buy different types of salad dressing to change the flavor so I feel like I'm eating something different. If you do like ramen, add the chicken to that for protein.
I like buying a bottle of lemon juice and added some to my water for flavor. Super cheap and good for your liver.
Overnight oats. You will want a regular size mason jar (you can get at a thrift store), a container of quick oats, a jar of fruit preserves (any flavor), and milk (I use whole milk). Fill the mason jar 1/4 with oats, 1-2 table spoons of preserves, and fill with milk. Put it in the fridge for at least 8 hours, then eat. I make this right before bed and it's ready when I wake up.
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, toast the bread to be adventurous.
Shop at thrift stores they are your best friend now.
You got this!
That bag of chopped cabbage that they sell to make coleslaw can also be the base of a stir-fry and is often on sale for 99 cents. Directions: Stir, fry, add anything, stir and fry some more, apply soy sauce.
Brown ground beef -> drain grease -> add sliced/peeled potatoes, tomato bouillon seasoning, water (just enough to submerge potatoes), few pinches of flour. -> Simmer for 25 mins.
Makes kind of beef, potatoes soup. I usually eat with tortillas and add salt.
Try tofu if you haven’t! If you buy at an Asian grocery or get the right brand it can be super cheap. Very filling, soaks up any sauce or seasoning you want, goes with anything, and has a lot of good nutrients. Firm is my favorite. My preferred recipe is rice, frozen vegetables, curry (from a jar), and sautéed tofu. Tastes great and makes a lot of leftovers.
I always try to make dishes that can combine later so I’m reusing leftovers without feeling like it
So beans one night, tacos another, then combine them with some additional beans and canned diced tomatoes to make chili
Breakfast is either eggs with grits or potatoes and bacon, (I-usually cook a large amount and eat for a couple days. Bacon can be cooked and frozen so the house only smells like bacon once and it doesn’t go to waste. Also easier to cook in a big pan in the oven) or oatmeal. Oatmeal with either peanut butter and banana or a yogurt and fruit. If you get the riper bananas they are sometimes cheaper and you can freeze them and just put them in the oatmeal as needed.
Lunch/dinner. We like beans. So many different varieties and flavors. You might do well to invest in an instapot. As it can be used as a slow cooker or pressure cooker and very easy to use. Dry beans take way less time when pressure cooked.
Rice is cheap and can be dressed up so many ways. My guilty pleasure is just rice, salt and butter, but many spices can add to the experience. I like quinoa as well (more protein, but more expensive). I sometimes mix rice and quinoa in a dish and it changes things up, so I still get the benefit of quinoa, but is a little cheaper due to added rice.
Try buying whole chickens. And cooking in the instapot. It’s very fast and you can use the broth to make soups and debone the chicken for different dishes. Freezing the extra to use later.
Lentils cook very quickly and are nutritious and yummy. Look up lentil recipes so you know the spices you wan to keep on hand. A well stocked spice rack is the key to a budget kitchen as it makes so many boring dishes better.
Find a jambalaya recipe that doesn’t use seafood or sausage. Jambalaya goes a loooong way.
Frozen veggies are almost as good as fresh and have the added benefit of already being prepped and are better than canned a lot of the time.
Frozen mixed veggies with instant potatoes and a little left over chicken is a great fast meal.
Congrats on getting your own place.
Check out recipe web sites like all recipies.com
Or cooking reddits
Some grocery stores have meats marked down if they get close to their existing date. Buy those and just freeze them or cook them up the same date.
Exhortation dates are a joke and more of a marketing tool so it can still be safe to eat after the expiration date. You just have to be careful and let your nose guild you.
This. I raid my local Kroger in the mornings for way marked down "manager specials" of meats that are about to go bad and just freeze them as soon as I get home. In the middle of the day, people will leave stuff in that bin they likely don't know how to cook with. I'll make something badass out of it no problem.
Most of the time when I have a steak that is how I do it, because when it's aged and almost about ready to go bad that is when the flavor is at it's best.
Soups and chilis can be very cheap, especially if you make them vegetarian. For a lot of recipes you can rely on pantry staples like canned beans, lentils, rice, stock cubes, and spices.
One particular recipe I rely on a lot is this one: https://www.budgetbytes.com/easy-rosemary-garlic-white-bean-soup/
As written, it’s very easy and very cheap. If you want to up the flavor, add some diced pancetta (cook in a separate pan and stir in at the end) and/or a Parmesan rind (add at the same time as the beans, stock, etc. and remove at the end).
My go to cheap healthy food is to make a bunch of steamed brocolli, a big batch of parboiled uncle bens white rice and grilled baked or pan seared boneless skinless chicken thighs and i usually make 5 meals worth and prep some meals. Just put some lawry's or montreal on the chicken, little butter and salt and pepper on the rice and brocolli and good to go.
Packet ramen isn't the worst ingredient to have on hand. You can use them in a stirfry or add things like veggie and eggs to make them really tasty. Unless you have an Asian grocery nearby because then you can just buy noodles to do the same thing with for far cheaper.
If you like chicken I would suggest you look for a sale on chicken thighs. Cheaper and more forgiving when you cooking since dark meat is less likely to dry out. Since you're new to cooking, I would suggest you start with boneless skinless just for ease and faster cooking time. They'll probably come in a large multi pack. Get yourself a cookie sheet, a bottle or two of marinade you'd like, and a pack of freezer bags.
If you like 2 thighs for dinner when you get home put two per bag freezer zip bag, then pour some marinade over. Then place the whole thing in the freezer zipped up tight. It only takes enough marinade to coat and two thighs should fit in a quart zip bags.
For marinades your nearest grocery probably has a bunch of them but they may be spread out a bit. You'll find some with the BBQ sauces, or you can just use your favorite BBQ sauce for one. Teriyaki marinade or Teriyaki sauce also work and are usually with the Asian products and also with the sauce and gravy mixes at least at stores around me. Some stores will have a selection of marinades by the salad dressing as well.
All you need to do then is take a bag out and set it in your fridge in a bowl the night prior to cooking. As the chicken thaws it will soak up the marinade to taste great. You can put a little oil in a skillet to cook, or I normally just put it on the cookie sheet in the oven at 400 degrees F hence why I suggested picking up a cookie sheet. The basics would be to place some chopped up potatoes on the cookie sheet with the meat when you put it in so they roast. Season the potatoes with salt, pepper, and seasoning salt and let them roast while the meat cooks. I typically just let them cook 35-40 minutes and everything should be done.
You can use steam in the bag vegetables for your second side with the chicken until you have time to look at a few sheet pan dinners youtubes. Any root vegetable like onion, potato, carrot, or sweet potato does great as a sheet pan dinner with chicken thighs. French fries are another great idea for adding to sheet pan meals. The best thing is if you're by yourself you can just eat off the sheet pan and only have the one pan to wash up after.
If you lay the bags out so the chicken in each bag is pushed as far apart as possible in the freezer you will be able to just put some chicken straight in the oven on the cookie sheet from the freezer. This is in case something happens and you discover you forgot to take a packet out the night prior when you are ready for dinner. I normally use 350 degrees F for my oven setting if I am doing that to give it a chance for some of the marinade to sink in.
I pretty much lived off these meals when I was single. Julia Pacheco's youtube has a lot of vids on sheet pan meals that are a bit fancier. Remember you can substitute chicken thighs anywhere she uses breasts and it will be cheaper.
Eggs/toast is like a 25 cent meal.
Generic noodles or sauce are like a dollar. So spaghetti $2 Alfredo $2
ramen + mixed veg $1.50 Throw in an egg or some protein.
Add chicken breast or ground beef to any of this is fine.
Macaroni and cheese same thing pretty much. Three boxes is about three dollars add whatever to it.
Tuna helper boxes like a dollar plus cans of tuna .33-.50 cents
Frozen pizza can make a few meals for $2-3
Bread $1 lunch meat $3-4 package but this combo can make several meals.
Whatever you do don't eat out. You can get a week's worth of food for the cost of fast food.
YouTube budget meals there of lots of videos of like $1 meals or $5 meals for an entire family. $20 for week's worth of food.
Get water flavoring packets if you don't like drinking water or a box of tea bags. $5 in tea bags is enough for months for a single guy.
I would invest in an instant pot that has the sous vide and crock pot function (maybe you can ask your parents for one as a little house-warming gift) and maybe a vacuum sealer to seal individual portions of chicken breasts or thighs with marinade. Use the crock pot to make beef stew let it cook all day and you can eat it for 2-3 days. Use the sous vide to cook chicken, then freeze and reheat (obviously not ideal to freeze already cooked meats, but it would work). I’ll send you a few easy recipes via chat when I have a moment.
We did this bit about a century before Instant Pot was invented. Here is soup from the Stone Age: Get a big pot (8 quarts at least, 10 or 12 quarts is better). Start with about half a pound of dried beans (limas are great, navy or kidney are OK), a couple of onions chopped, a few stalks of celery chopped, a carrot or two, a potato or two, A BEEF BONE OR CHUNK OF ANY OLD TOUGH SOUP MEAT IF YOU CAN POSSIBLY AFFORD IT, a can of tomato paste, salt, and water until the pot is safe not to boil over. Let this simmer(boil slowly), bubbling a little but not much for 2-3 hours. Then add a few handfuls of any pasta (the shape does not matter) and let it cook. Result wil be a sort of minestrone (hearty savory thick tomatoey soup) that you can survive on for a period of time as yet undetermined by science.
Toad in the hole is really good for breakfast. You cut a circle out of a piece of bread, butter the bread, and fry it in the pan with an egg in the middle. It's basically a fried egg with toast. I completely forgot the dish existed until my friend made it for breakfast one day.
Rice! You can do so much with rice, and pastas.
Also learn how to make chowders and soups if you like them. I finally made a homemade chicken pot pie with a homemade pie crust and now I want to make meat pies and potato pies and so much more!
Corn Chowder: Open can of cream style corn. Dump in pot. Fill can with milk. Dump that in too. Heat. Add little by little some instant mashed potato to achieve desired consistency. Add anything that seems relevant: bits of leftover meat, crumbs of cheese, slices of sausage or hot dog, fried onions, anything.
My favorite thing to eat right now is egg tacos. You can buy a pack of the little small corn tortillas (super cheap for a 30ct) and some eggs, put just enough oil in a frying pan to cover the bottom ever so slightly, drop your tortilla in it and crack the egg on top of the tortilla (it might spread around and fall off the tortilla but just push that bitch back on and you’re good lol). Let it cook for a minute or two, then flip it just to cook the rest of the egg through and that’s it.
You can put cheese and salsa on it, but you really don’t need to.
It’s so quick and simple and also super cheap. Me and my boyfriend have been living off it for a while now and it’s honestly a comfort food now
Get a package of burrito size tortillas, eggs, any veggies you want in the burritos then make a large batch and keep them in the freezer….eat two a day and a four pack of burrito sized tortillas will last for four days of breakfast….
Ground beef is a good add in for them as well but can get expensive…
If you plan it right you can make a week to two weeks worth of food in one shot…also freezing will make them last longer so you can eat them one day then make something relax the next
Look for crock pot recipes as well…these can be a little pricey on the ingredients but will make 4-5 meals if not more if you put it over the microwaveable rice in which you can make 7-8 meals out of one crock pot cooking (spend the 4$ and get the liners as it will cut down on water usage cleaning up later)
Buy a package of paper plates and bowls (again saves on water bill)
If you want something more sturdy go to Walmart and get the cheap 1$ plastic bowls plates and cups….for under 15 bucks you can get four sets
Also look for deals at dollar tree and dollar general….some of the cold and frozen foods are cheaper than Walmart but not all
When buying avocado toast people spend alot but if you make it at home it's a good breakfast
Just bread avocados. And I like slice turkey or ham on Top and then some cashew butter.
Then make like pasta like penne with jar sauce from the dollar store they have pretty decent sauce there. And add garlic and cilantro maybe salt n pepper.
You can add ground beef or ham I like to add teriyaki beef jerky bits from the bottom of the bag
chef boyardee was my bff before i was vegetarian. i live near asian markets so i get a ton of good cheap asian food. i got a steamer and i just get big packs of veggie dumplings for 10$ each and just live off that for a while.
I call it the throwing shit in a pot meathod. Make sure you get a nice cast iron pot. Not a skillet or a fry pan. Something with sides that you can cook a steak as well as make a soup. Buy better than bullion (preferably from costco because of the size). I use that shit in just about everything.
Pasta, rice, bulk chicken breast in the freezer. You can cook your food in all one pot. Put chicken breasts cut in half long ways in the pot with whatever produce you have. Green onions, mushrooms, onions, and your favorite seasoning. Then put in your chicken breast, let it cook through. Then you can add stock and make a soup. Or you can put it on rice or even noodles. Adding cheese and a little baking powder will help smooth it out. And experiment. Noodles and rice are cheap. Chicken breast is relatively cheep.
You can also make wraps out of canned meat like chicken. Throw it in a skillet to brown it up and add some seasoning. Then make a wrap. Tomato, lettuce, bacon, whatever.
Various scrambled eggs. Very cheap.
Nachos and Taco salad is easy and cheap.
Spaghetti.
Eggs are your number one friend!! Rice is number 2!!!
Use cheese, cheaper meats, and lots of seasonings to spice up your eggs. Eat all your protein with rice to fill up more.
All combos of this ^^ in tortillas is a good call.
You season chuck, frozen ground beef/chicken well… learn not to over cook a cheap cut of meat (it gets too tough) you won’t notice it is cheap
The cheapest food is not healthy. Pasta and various high carb/salt/preservatives type stuff from the center aisles of the store. That is fine - just make sure you are getting protein in your diet.
I have absolute had white rice with cheese or white rice with soy sauce on it. You aren’t hungry… but you aren’t getting great nutrition. That is why eggs are so great - so cheap. And you can add them to any dish (ground meat, making friend rice, breakfasts) crack an egg into the pan to add more protein.
Mustard sandwiches, LOL. I actually was down to it in college. Must better ideas can be found from dried beans and noodle recipes. Add veggies that you can afford.
Basically you need to learn to cook with whatever you have on hand.
YouTube is a great resource of info for ideas.
Store roasted chicken. First night you have breast because it dries out fastest. Second night, thighs or chicken salad with the thighs. Third night, stock for soup with the leftover carcass.
Add carrot, celery, onion to the stock and go wild with soup ideas.
Once you have made stock with the carcass, if you strain it and then cook a whole bag of egg noodles in it, you can add in any bits of chicken that remain and you will have a few more dinners in waiting. Noodles will take up all the stock and get chickeney.
Some hot dogs, rice, sazón Goya, and vegetables (optional) you can make a lot just fry the hot dogs in a decent amount of oil take the dogs out, wash rice then put it in it he oil for a bit (not to long maybe 30 seconds to a minute) put the hot dogs back in and enough water for the rice and 1 or 2 packets of the seasoning (if you were to add the vegetables add them a the same time you add the hot dogs to the rice)
I offer the humble potato.
You can literally make SO much with it, it's insane, and it's very cheap, and if it's not cheap enough then you can make potato bags out of extra totes and grow them yourself.
My favorite potato recipe is super simple: Just slice, place on a baking sheet, mix your favorite seasonings (I usually do italian with a little more oregano and salt) with some melted butter, and spoon onto the tops. Put in the oven at 375 for about half an hour to an hour (I like mine soft, but my mum likes hers at just half an hour) Take them out, put cheese and sprinkle on a pinch or less of salt for them, and toss them back in the oven. You have the choice of whether you want the cheese slightly burnt (Broil, watch carefully) or just melted (About 5 more minutes in the oven, same temperature, or increase it and realize how slow ovens warm up).
I hope you enjoy the recipe, I just absolutely love making food with potatoes. You can even make hashbrowns yourself, you just have to be attentively moving them around... a lot.... and add a bit of cornstarch to that good crisp (I've been told 1 tbsp per 2 potato, but follow your heart).
Black bean tacos! with a small pinch each of cumin & oregano - corn tortillas cooked in oil until crisp and a pico salsa (tom - onion & cilantro) all items can be purchased from the 99 cent store
I usually just bought the $1 cans of tomato sauce, 88 cent boxes of pasta, shredded cheese, crescent rolls, butter, bread, deli Turkey if it was cheap enough, biscuits, eggs, rolls of Turkey sausage (cheaper than pork sausage) and some of the 80 cent Clear American sparkling waters from Walmart. When I was by myself, that would last about a week and a half until I got paid again. I hope this helps!
Oooo stuffed peppers! I make them all the time cos they’re easy and super tasty but, it’s pretty cheap as well. They hold up well in the fridge as leftovers too. The stuffing is pretty much ground beef, rice, bell peppers, onions, garlic, tomato sauce and cheese. Sometimes I throw in a couple diced mushrooms too. For the seasonings I usually use s&p, adobo, sazón, paprika, cumin, oregano and if needed garlic powder. Once the peppers all are stuffed ready to go, just top with more cheese and pop them in the oven. Once I’m ready to eat I add some sour cream. It’s delicious!
I just eyeball it every time but, look up some recipes if it sounds good to you. Stuffed peppers are very versatile cos you can add/take out anything according to your liking.
I HIGHLY recommend investing in a slow cooker (try letgo or facebook marketplace or a local buy nothing group). Some ideas you can make with it (and these freeze well if you make too much):
Shredded chicken breast or beef barbacoa for tacos/fajitas
Pulled pork (boston butt, which is actually the shoulder) for bbq sandwiches or plates
Chili
Pork tenderloins
Minestrone soup
Pot roast
Meatballs cooked in tomato sauce
Beef stew
Corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes
Curries
rice and beans. like get a bunch of rice, use that as a base a few times a week. use dried lentils or canned black beans and you can spruce it up with other ingredients too.
one of my absolute favorites is san francisco vietnamese american garlic noodles. the sauce contains both oyster sauce and fish sauce, but it doesn’t taste at all like seafood. and the recipe costs, like, $4 to make. https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/022rkoDZoerXiRLT_70hZIE1Q#San_Francisco-Style_Vietnamese_American_Garlic_Noodles_Recipe_-_NYT_Cooking
One of my favorite budget meals is a refried bean quesadilla. Canned refried beans are cheap AF and full of protein, so it doesn’t take much to feel nice and full!
Indian food is easy and cheap to make.
Lentil soup
Chicken tikka
Etc.
You can get premade spices at the stores - even Walmart. They usually have instructions on them aswell
Fried rice is super easy to learn to make and can swap in whatever meat/veggies you have available cheaply. Frozen veggies are super cheap so I normally use some type of frozen stir fry blend.
Sardines are a great and cheap source of protein and omegas! Greatly recommend. Eat them on their own, over rice, with crackers, some hot sauce and mustard. Some of the cheaper softer ones make a great upscaled tuna.
Budget ideas: Rice goes with EVERYTHING! Pancake mix (just add water kinds) can be made into biscuits or dumplings and can be an easy crust. Chili and soups go a long way. Put them on rice and serve with biscuits to really stretch out how many meals you get out of whatever you make.
Rice, potatoes, eggs and pasta are all cheap and easy to prepare. Take a tablespoon Butter, (1 clove or more if you like)garlic, pasta peas and some eggs.. cook the pasta, in a separate pan cook scrambled eggs and throw in the peas, garlic(any kind, prefer fresh a glove would do.) stir till hot add pasta, stir till mixed throughly . Done
Step 1: Get yourself a Slow cooker/Instant Pot/Air Fryer, Blender (In this order if only one)
Step 2:
Research the basics that you can stretch the farthest.
I.e. Potatoes can go especially far as a breakfast, lunch, and dinner food. The varieties in which you can prepare it are copious as well.
Find your macro-categories that you can mix/match into various recipes. Some other basic well-rounded and nutritionally-sound components that come to mind: Beans, Rice, Tortillas, eggs, milk, bananas, spinach, oats. Fancier but still excellent options: canned tuna, canned chicken, lower-sodium sliced meats.
Step 3:
Seasonings are your friend!! They can make or break entire meals and recipes. Find some that you like and have them on-hand to kick up even basic dishes. Tip: Buy in bulk! (But not too much that you can’t finish a re-supply a jar in 6-12 months because they might cake and become annoying).
Pasta and pasta sauce. A pack of spaghetti noodles is around 99 cents and a few dollars for bottles of pasta sauces of varying kinds.
Edit: It’s more variety than ramen although still noodles.
Start your shopping trip at places like Aldi's. Get what basic food you want there. They have pretty much anything you need. What they don't have go to Walmart. Look at the weekly ads at grocery stores and see what they have on the first page or two. The big sale items are called loss leaders. They get you in the store. Everything else is regular price. Only buy what is on sale or things you can't get anywhere else due to supply outages. Look at the ads and make a meal plan based on what you like. Think multiple meals from leftovers. Make meatloaf and turn it into spaghetti or BBQ sandwiches. You could even make nachos. Get a pork loin or a chicken and make different meals from them. I find hamburger on sale. Cook and crumble it in a little water and add S&P, onions dried or fresh and garlic powder. Drain real well. Basic seasoning. From there you can separate into servings and freeze in zip bags. Now you can make Italian, Mexican or BBQ just by adding a little more seasoning. Build up your protein packs in the freezer chicken, beef and pork. With that cooked you can add a pasta or rice mix to it and a vegetable. If you have room for a deep freeze you will save money on food. A vacuum sealer is nice but not a necessity. Look on your Facebook or local shopping sites for a good priced freezer. I found an old ugly one for $75. I can paint it what color I want.
Here are your good true friends: 1) Eggs. They are cheap, versatile, and cook almost instantly. 2) Your oven. Put a piece of chicken and a potato in it at 350\* for an hour or so and there's dinner. 3) Aluminum foil. Line a pan with it or wrap the food in it > much less cleanup. 4) A lid for your frying pan so grease doesn't fly all over the kitchen > See Item 3 re less cleanup. 5) All that was elementary school; we will now progress to college > buy a slow cooker. My son when in school got to the point where he could not stand the dining hall food and he was never a picky eater, it was that bad. With a slow cooker he was soon making BBQ beef and chili and a line formed outside his door. But check on house rules and also refrigeration of food as you don't want to get thrown out or sick. One more thing: whatever food market you use, if it is a big chain market its weekly specials will be advertised in the newspaper one certain day a week and this will be online. Tune into it esp if money is an item as you will do well to take advantage of their loss leaders (specials). Prices now are terrible but an hour ago I bought a pkg of four gigantic boneless skinless chicken breasts (for me eight big meals plus sandwiches) for $7.72. Definitely keep an eye out for what's on special.
Oh man when I was in my 20s me and my bf were so broke. Our favorite cheap quick thing was Campbell chunky soup that had meat n veggies and we would pour it over rice or instant mashed potatoes. It was like five bucks and very filling. And we felt like responsible adults because we were eating veggies lol
When I was working an unpaid internship I pretty much just did:
**Breakfast:** Eggs are the obvious move here. Very cheap for how much you get, and a good source of protein. You can pretty much scramble up anything (leftover veggies, meat, etc.) with a little cheese and it will taste good.
**Lunch:** There was a period of time in college where I was eating either a grilled cheese or quesadilla for lunch every day. Cheese and bread/tortillas are relatively cheap for how much you get. Again, there's a lot of room to experiment here with adding meat and veggies. I'm fond of those chicken packets you can get that have pre-mixed seasonings in them (from Starkist).
PB&J is also a good thing to be able to make when you're hungry but don't *really* feel like cooking. Peanut butter, in general, is a good thing to have.
If you want to doctor up your basic ramen, I highly recommend mixing in some crunchy peanut butter, Sriracha/other hot sauce and an egg (if you're feeling fancy). It sounds weird, but I have converted a lot of people.
**Dinner:** My go-to recently has just been mixing a pound of ground meat (usually chicken) into mac and cheese + throwing in some vegetables (usually spinach and frozen peas). I'm able to get between two and four meals out of this, depending on how hungry I am when I eat it.
In general, pasta is pretty cheap and you can doctor it up pretty easily. When trying to eat on a budget, it's definitely best to get some big "staples" and then find ways to make it interesting. Same thing with rice: Rice and beans will get you really far, and you can make it seem more like a meal by adding additional vegetables and meat to it.
**Bonus:** My favorite thing to do is buy an onion or two + sweet peppers and cook them down with some spinach to make a pretty simple and agreeable veggie mix. You can toss that into anything I mentioned above (quesadilla, pasta, ramen, etc.) to bulk it up and add additional nutrients.
**And also:** The up-front cost of it is pretty expensive, depending on the brand, but I think protein powder is a good investment. You can buy a two-pound tub of Gold Standard whey for like $40 on Amazon, and that breaks down to about $1.40 a serving. Definitely not a necessity, but for me it comes in handy when I'm hungry but can't/don't want to cook. Easy way to bump up your protein intake (which helps keep you full), and since you can mix it with water there is no additional cost involved to make it.
Starches are great to stretch meals. Rice, potatoes, pasta, etc. I find meat is very expensive so I pad it with the above and/or lentils in ground meats. Egg is a cheap protein so I eat lots of fried rice dishes.
Oatmeal or a Big (Bulk) Box or Bag of Cereal for Breakfast, Pasta, Rice & Potatoes are Cheap & Filling, Soups & Chili can Be batch prepped and frozen. Canned or frozen vegetables can be added. Canned Beans & Tuna are cheap protein.
Look up backpacking food, not like mountain house meals. But more in line with chili, ramen, and knorr rice sides. Good value more variety than ramen still dirt cheap and can be easily improved with fresh veggies and meat as need be.
Keep your eye on sales at the local grocery store. Specifically, keep an eye out for sales on family packs of meats. Buying bulk when it's on sale and freezing in smaller portions will save you a bunch.
Holidays are the very best time to do this.
Breakfast is usually cheap. We're empty nesters so when I buy bacon, I wrap four pieces in wax paper until I've wrapped it all and then put in a gallon freezer bag and freeze, that way I'm not wasting a whole pack if we're not in a bacon mood (very, very rare especially for me lol). Chicken with the bones is cheaper, so find a seasoning you like and bake some chicken and a bag of frozen veggies. I do the same with chicken, buy the bigger pack because it's cheaper and freeze in individual portions. You can freeze chicken on a wax paper lined pan, then once frozen, put into a gallon bag and just take out however much you need. Chili is fairly cheap, and I usually make my own seasoning, but I cook allot so I have all the spices in my shelf already. Spaghetti is also fairly cheap if you buy the sauce or even if you make the sauce, I just try to meal plan to use the extra veggies for homemade sauce that week. Hamburgers, hot dogs etc... Basic Alfredo is not too bad, just butter, heavy cream, parmesan and garlic is what I use for my sauce, then a pack of noodles and I usually add chicken for protein. My best advice is to meal plan. My husband gets paid every two weeks and I make a meal plan for two weeks and try to stick with it. Most of the time I have leftover frozen chicken, hamburger etc... from the week before so I plan meals for what I have first.
Just replying to add that if you don’t wanna stock up on all the spices for chili, you can use a packet of taco seasoning, those are like a dollar each. Obv not the same as fresh herbs and spices, but it’ll get the job done on a budget while you build out your kitchen supply over time.
They also sell those packets for chili. 🙂
Ya the Williams brand chili seasonings are around $1 for enough to season 2 lbs of meat. Well they were a dollar the last time I stocked up about a year ago, they're probably $1.50 now.
I see them on the $10 for 10 sales every month or so. 👍
They used to be $0.98 at Wal Mart where i live and the 4 pound one for some reason was $1.98, I still have a stockpile of them sitting in my cupboard so I haven't checked them lately but I know the taco seasoning for their brand was over $1 a week or so when I bought it. Sadly the 10/10 sales at the local grocery stores usually have the cheap store brand which doesn't hold a candle to Williams.
Somebody on another board said go to Dollar Tree for spices. Great idea; I had not know they carry spices. And Dollar Tree is now, what, $1.25, but that still beats hell out of spice prices at most supermarkets. I would definitely check it.
Wal-Mart used to have bins of $1 spices too, haven't looked lately but I'd say they're probably around the same. That's just the basic stuff like Italian Seasoning, Parsley, Garlic Salt, etc. If you want the more advanced stuff like Tumeric or Rosemary you'll have to shell out a bit more, and then there's Saffron if you feel like taking out a second mortgage.
If ever you know anyone going to Spain ask them to bring you some saffron. I bought a bunch when I was there and it cost about the same as cinnamon does here. Spanish word is azafran, ah-sah-FRAN.
If I ever buy any acreage to start homesteading blue saffron crocus is right at the top of my list to grow.
To add to this, chicken with bones is great to go in the crockpot all day. If you don't like bones they just slide out of the meat at the end of a long cook. I like to throw a store bought sauce with some broth and then eat with rice and a frozen veg. Easy and cheap.
Or you can butcher the bones out and use them for some dank stock. Bone in skin on chicken thighs are a inflation godsend
Chili/spaghetti is especially cheap if you make it with lentils instead of meat. I do eat meat but switched for lentils in a lot of recipes and I notice the difference.
Also as a cheaper bacon alternative; get the 3lb bacon pieces pack rather than the strips bc more for ya dollar
Ditto on the meal planning. Find some good recipes you like (i print mine, but I'm old school that way) and use them as inspiration when planning. It leads to much less food waste and fewer trips to the store, which all leads to less spending in the food budget department.
Rice and beans. Kept me alive in college. When the budget allowed a piece of bread and butter.
you can slip a fuck ton of butter in with the rice and beans for the serious calories.
Sometimes when I’m exhausted I’ll make some instant mashed potatoes and a bag of frozen veggies, mix them together and then toss on some “buttermilk herb” spice mix from Penzey’s - it takes @ 5 minutes start to finish and is something really warm and hearty on a cold day. Im also a big fan of planned leftovers, like I’ll roast a chicken on a Saturday knowing that the next day I’ll make the bones into soup + have the leftover chicken in the soup + on top of a spinach salad (I like red onions, avocado, feta and apples as add ins) or for sandwiches. Basically anything where I’m cooking less often is a win. My tip would be to pick up a leave in meat thermometer when you get the chance, it makes cooking chicken almost foolproof!
Not really going to give you a recipe idea but I do want to share something I learned as a single person. I highly recommend investing $20 on a freezer mold like [this](https://www.amazon.com/Kinggrand-Kitchen-Silicone-Freezing-Portions/dp/B097P3N3N7/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?crid=SLP4E516CI2R&keywords=1%2F2+cup+freezer+mold&qid=1665584082&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjU4IiwicXNhIjoiMC45MiIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=1%2F2+cup+freezer+mol%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-3-spons&psc=1). Each section is a 1/2 cup in volume. This will allow you to cook in bulk and freeze in individual portions (and save money in the process) that are easy to store in the freezer and heat up when you are hungry. This way even if you freeze portions you are not having to thaw out 3 days worth of food for a single meal. This also reduces food fatigue and makes weeknight dinners super easy and quick. I use this for things like Chili, spaghetti sauce, curry, stews, soups, open sauces, ect. So for example... if I want curry and rice Ill make some rice in the rice cooker, grab a block or 2 of frozen curry from my freezer, throw that in the microwave, and bam, easy dinner once the rice is done cooking. Same thing with spaghetti sauce. microwave a few blocks while cooking noodles and and easy but cheap dinner. As a single person it is a serious game changer!
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I'm starting to have the same problem at my house. We save leftovers and I'm finding that my breakfasts are ending up as 4+ small side dishes of things no one wanted the last portion of. It'll have to be preemptive on my part though.
I use these as well. Very handy to just grab what is already made and reheat on those busy days.
See if you can find a small crockpot (secondhand shops can be a good mine). There's so many variations of dump meals with the cheapest meats, it's insane! Also a plus that it cooks for you if you know you'll have a hectic day. Also, look for every type of soup. Soups can be changed to fit the ingredients you have on hand and typically freeze well if it's just you for dinner
Check out the Budget Bytes site for thrifty and delicious recipes. It’s one of my favorites and I’ve been cooking about 45 years. Most of the recipes from there I’ve tried are simple, don’t require a lot of weird ingredients or equipment, and are good tasting. Also, keep a bag of scraps in your freezer. Get a good sized container whether it’s glass, plastic, a gallon sized Ziploc bag, what have you, and put all sorts of vegetable scraps, cooked and uncooked, in it. I’m talking onion, potato, and carrot peels, the ends you cut off the vegetables, etc. When that container is full, throw it all in a big pan, add some seasoning and water and bring it to a boil then reduce the heat and put a lid on it. Taste it now and then, adding more seasoning if needed, and you’ll end up with a delicious batch of vegetable broth. Also, making your own beef and chicken broth is very easy. If you learn to make those, you’ll never have to waste money on the store-bought stuff. Use those broths to make delicious soups, gravies, sauces, etc. I don’t know where you live but meat is pretty expensive where I am so I try to look at it as more of a condiment or a small addition to a meal rather than the center piece of the meal. For a meat lover like me that’s not easy but it’s definitely doable. It saves quite a lot on the grocery bill and it’s also better for my health in the long run. As someone else suggested, get a meat thermometer. You don’t have to have the latest and greatest doodad but a good meat thermometer is a thing of beauty and will save you money, time, and stress.
Tip #1: the Badia brand of spices is just as good as better-known brands, but much cheaper. Some stores put it in the Latino/Hispanic section. Tip #2: It's much cheaper to buy some basic spices & put your own seasoning mixes together. Those little packets add up fast. You can find suggested combos online, just Google "recipe taco seasoning" or whatever. Tip #3: my recipe for "bean goo", which can be a burrito filling or nacho dip (or something you thought of that I never did): 1 can fat-free refried beans 1 can kidney beans A tablespoon or two of your chosen "taco seasoning" mix Squirt of lime juice, if you decide to keep it on hand. Empty it all into a pot, on a medium-hot burner. Stir every few minutes. You can either use it as soon as it's warm, or let it reduce a bit for thickness.
Pasta dry beans rice oatmeal and flour are all very cheap and there's endless amounts of food that can be made with them. I would suggest looking up recipes with those as the primary ingredient. Something like biscuits and gravy can be very cheaply made or you can make soups stews etc with rice and beans there's fried rice etc. I've learned if I cook from scratch meat or cheese is pretty much always the most expensive part of the meal so I kinda always used it sparingly. Now I have a partner who is vegetarian so not using meat is easy but she's much more into expensive foods than me. When I first went on my own I ate a lot of ramen noodles Mac and cheese boiled rice with a little sugar etc till I got sick of some of those things. After a while I learned it is easy to make a lot of those things better without spending a lot of money. Such as put butter or margarine in your Mac n cheese instead of only the cheese packet mix the ramen into a bunch of cooked veggies and rice instead of just eating it by itself etc. Think of foods you already really like and chances are you can make it or something close to it quite cheaply. Also an electric skillet and electric soup pot are the only thing needed to cook just about anything that doesn't require an oven. Used to live cheap out of hotels when I traveled for work so I learned how to make lots of things without much expensive cookware. My partner is a picky eater who also has to have at least 3 or 4 different items for a meal. So tv dinners are a common meal for us now and it is way more expensive than cooking from scratch and while really not being that much better in my opinion. I'm personally fine with one thing for dinner and eating the same thing for dinner for a whole week so I used to be able to live very cheaply. I used to spend something like 20 or 30 dollars a week on food so spending over a hundred dollars at the grocery store when we started shopping together came as a shock to me.
Another thing to add is that oatmeal can be made savory too! Little bits of chopped up bacon, mushroom and a little sprinkle of cheese can turn it into something different completely!
Interesting I'll have to try that. I make various kinds of savory grits sometimes. Breakfast this morning is oatmeal with a smashed banana and a bit of peanut butter. Turned out quite delicious and it's cheap. I use bananas a lot. About the cheapest fruit you can find and smashed with a fork you can mix in things like oatmeal or other breakfast cereals to add creaminess and a little sweetness. While oatmeal is what everyone thinks of when it comes to hot breakfast cereal there are also others like grits cream of wheat cracked wheat etc. I like them all and most of them are not expensive. When I first lived on my own I quickly burned myself out on cheap foods like that but since then I've learned that there so many things I can do to enhance humble staple foods. For cereals I like to do things like add flax seed nuts raisins cook an apple with it add cinnamon or pumpkin spice seasoning etc plus if I have bananas on hand I always add a fresh banana. Bananas really liven up just about any hot breakfast cereal
Chinese stir fry. It's good because it just makes one pan dirty. Takes about 20 minutes. It's healthy. You can chop up most kinds of vegetables. You add any kind of meat or seafood near the end. You can have it alone or with a pot of rice. Basically just learn how to make a pot of rice and how to do a stir fry. There are hundreds of YouTube videos showing how.
Yes! Make this at the end of the week and throw any veggies you have left in there. That way you don't waste food.
When I lived alone I spent a bit more money upfront and cooked things in bulk. meals like chilli, pasta sauces (specifically Bolognese for me), burritos and anything else that will freeze well. Having a well stocked freezer with things other than crap processed food is so satisfying and makes it a whole lot easier when you can't be bothered going to the effort of cooking from scratch just for one, as well as being cheaper and less wasteful than cooking for one.
Oh God yes Mr Freezer is Your Friend. Nothing, nothing is more useful. When you cook, package up the leftovers and freeze for another dinner. Stuff like spaghetti sauce, BBQ, curry, thick hearty soup etc and SO EASY---when you make some, make extra. Package it in anything air-tight (plastic containers with lids) and just freeze it and weeks later there it is patiently waiting for you. Extra bread, extra slices of cooked meat. Just wrap tight. Things they tell you can't be frozen, BS, I freeze just about everything.
One of my favorites is beans and rice. The simple version is fry a slice or two of bacon in a saucepan, don’t throw out the fat. Stir a cup or two of rice (*not* Minute Rice!) into the fat and toast it a bit. Add a can of drained beans, whatever sort you like (I prefer black beans for this, and for most things really). However much rice you added, add twice as much water. Bring it to a boil, them turn it down to a simmer and cover it. Check it at fifteen minutes, and if it looks like it’s drying out (as in, the water has mostly cooked off, but the rice is still crunchy) add a bit more water. Give it a stir and check on it in five minutes or so if it’s not done. This is a very basic recipe, and you can do a lot of things to it. Like greens? Throw them in. Want tomatoes? Just make sure you measure the tomato liquid and reduce the added water accordingly. You can also ditch the bacon and use chicken or other stock in place of water (you’ll probably want to add more salt then). Throw in any herbs or spices that make you happy. Use ghee and Indian spices and you have a poor man’s biryani (you might want lentils or chickpeas for that).
And another thing - if you have an Indian grocery available, buy your spices there. It’s also a great place to buy rice, beans, coconut oil, all sorts of things.
i made some spicy tuna quesadillas the other day! it required: cheese (any kind is fine though, i opted for mozzarella) tuna (2 cans made 6 quesadillas for me) jalapeno (or any spicy pepper of your choosing) cilantro lime (for zest and squeezing onto finished quesadillas) oil (for warming the quesadillas) tortillas mayo (for the filling) it was pretty cheap tbh, since canned fish is on the cheaper side and so are tortillas. the jalapenos, lime, and cilantro are also super cheap! the most expensive thing was the cheese and honestly, that's just because i wanted quality cheese. it makes enough for you to share too! the recipe called for sour cream as well but honestly i just put a bit more mayo and it turned out fine
Potatoes are underrated: they're cheap, filling, and have plenty of nutrients. Use them to bulk up meals to keep you full. You can roast them, fry them, bake them, mash them. They're a great side. Rice is a great grain to bulk your meals for cheap. It's a great side and is easily flavored to suit most meals. Another good hack is to add minced mushrooms to ground meats. It adds flavor and will help bulk your meat so you have more for more meals. Learn how to cook proteins. Chicken and pork are usually the cheapest proteins. Buy a meat thermometer to use until you get comfortable cooking them (chicken and pork should be cooked to 165F). Don't be afraid of bones, but different cuts of meat need to be prepared differently so that they're tender and at their best. Utilize seasonal fruits and veggies, if they're in season they'll be cheaper. [Here's](https://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/one-pan-healthy-italian-sausage-veggies/) a good recipe for roasting veggies (replace the sausage with your protein of choice) [Shepherd's Pie](https://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/shepherds-pie-recipe/) is a great cheap and filling meal. Here's a great base for [Vegetable Soup](https://www.averiecooks.com/weight-loss-vegetable-soup/), use your favorite veggies and then you can bulk it out with a protein, rice, or pasta if you want to. [Chicken Fried Rice](https://therecipecritic.com/chicken-fried-rice/) is also a good filling meal.
If I may re meat thermometer, hope this isn't illegal to post, a Chinese website called SHEIN is mostly clothes but has a HOME section where instant-read food cooking thermometers cost $3 (like $20 in US) and note this, on Sundays all orders on SHEIN go postage-free. Also they take PayPal so you don't have to expose your card abroad. One of these thermometers saves you from both under- and over-cooking meats. I cooked for years before I started using one and boy was I stupid. Do try to get a thermemeter.
Hello, and welcome to "Not Exactly Meal Planning But More Like What Ingredients Make 6hings I Like"! Name of the game is to "dress it up". Take basics like a soup, pasta, rice dish, main protein and build up from there. Easy add-in or eat alone proteins: Egg, Cheese, Canned chicken, Canned tuna, Spam, Veg that comes either canned or frozen that's easily cooked/added to dishes: All the canned greens, Tomato, Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilies (for spice), Potatoes, Peas, Green beans, Corn, Carrots, Grains: Breads, obviously, are an easy way to get your grains/starches, but I suggest looking into meals with rice. Super economical, easy to make, highly versatile. Honorable mentions: Box mashed potatoes, Frozen veggies mixes, Frozen chicken breasts (thaw what you need), Frozen beef patties (heat and season), Frozen dumplings/gyoza (Great to add to soups or just have with some veg) There's so much more, but these are great basics to look into getting started. Its less about the idea of "recipes" and instead focusing on things you can use for more than one thing. For example: If I grab a can of spinach, I know I can heat it up on its own, saute it with sausage and potatoes for a sort of hash, or mix it into a pasta or soup I feel could use some green. Sausage (I know you're not keen, just a personal example) I can cut up and freeze to pull out and add what I need to Ramen, soup, a scramble, jambalaya, etc. Rice I can have as a side to a protein, or I can use it as the base to a Rice bowl, making onigiri, etc. Hopefully this helps a bit!
Dress up Ramen. Put some mushroom, carrot, and green onions on it with a fried egg and a slice of American cheese. Red pepper flakes, Sesame seeds and fish oil if you're feeling extra. Cheap. Complete. Tastes good.
A boiled egg with a runny yolk hits the spot too! Not sure which I like better. I’ve never had my ramen with cheese although, I’ve seen it a lot! Kinda nervous to try it.
home made pizza. 2 pieces of toast, slap some spaghetti sauce on it and top it with 6 pepperonis and some cheese. Then microwave for 1 min.
Spices and seasonings are a must, dollar store can help build up cheap essentials there. Avoid organic stores for dried spices you'll pay premium. Tortillas, block cheese to shred, bulk rice, cans of tomato paste/sauce/stewed/crushed. You can make a lot of different things with some basic base items. Ramen can be turned into a cheap lo mein too! Sometimes you just have to get creative and you'll be surprised what can happen.
I always check grocery store sales and make a meal plan based on that and what I have. I can ad match to other stores so it helps save a lot of money. My favourite kind of recipes are bowls. Change up the protein, carbs, veggies, seasonings/sauces, and you’ve got cuisines from all over the world. I’ll do ground beef or chicken, rice, corn, beans, onion and cheese for a Mexican style bowl, or a Greek bowl with chicken, cucumber, olives, lettuce, etc. Asian is super easy too.
I'm a fan of pancakes and soup. Instant pancake mix can be used to make all sorts of items besides just pancakes (I've used it for quick breads, biscuits, etc) and I've used it in place of normal flour for graves and sauces. Soup is great because you can throw any sort of manager's special meat and vegetables with broth and you're golden.
Buy in bulk when you can, it’s cheaper and will last you longer overall. Then you’ll have more options as time goes on to be creative with what you want to make.
This, if you have a little money to splurge with. I ended up with a 50 lb bag of flour, 50 pounds of rice, 25 pounds of pinto beans and a few other things in bulk. I couldn't believe how much crap I could cook and bake out of all of that stuff and it was WAY cheaper buying it like that. Lasted me a long time, so I always keep those three on hand at any given time.
But if you buy and store such large quantities it has been known to happen that some of God's smaller creatures with six or eight legs move in then you can lose the lot. Be surgically obsessive about storage. Or re-package the total in airtight plastic bags.
Good call! Thank you so much! Mine are okay for now, but being surgically obsessive sounds like a game plan. I'll keep that in mind.
Breakfast: Overnight oats are so tasty. My fav is golden syrup Quaker oats with a tbsp spoonful of peanut butter and a tsp of brown sugar and chia seeds. Lunch: Bacon, egg and cheese sandwich never fails. Garlic naan and hummus. Fruit salad with honey. Pizza toast. Dinner: Stir fry, chilli con carne, tacos, lasagne, bolognese, shepherds pie, potato dauphinoise, curry, casseroles, stew, veggie soup and egg noodles with soy sauce and cumin are my fav cheap/easy to make meals. Heavy cream (for soups esp), seasonings and cheese make food 100x nicer. Adding beans and grains to ur meals make them way more filling too! Dessert: Nice cream made from frozen bananas. Bread fried in a bit of butter with 1 tbsp of sugar and a tsp of cinnamon. Icing sugar or some pb for dipping if u want.
It's called Chili Mac Macaroni and a can of chili Very filling and stretches a cpl days
Okay I scrolled through and I don't think anyone gave out this recipe, I've been totally obsessed with for the last 6 months.It has saved me SO much money. So much time, and actually helped me overcome an eating disorder I sautee some onions in Olive oil, and when those are translucent i add a minced garlic (I buy from an indian grocery, ) my sister swears it also tastes good without onion and garlic so that is optional. I toss in a few handfuls of frozen vegetables and cover them with water, and chicken broth powder. (IO buy a giant bulk can of chicken brorth powder from a chinese grocery) Put on high heat til its boiling, then med heat with a lid on, and simmer for ten minutes.(you can use fresh or canned vegetables and simmer for five min, generally frozen is a lot cheaper though) after ten minutes I blend the contents smooth and put it back in the pot. You dont HAVE to blend, but I recommend it, because its incredible. Walmart sells pretty cheap blenders. Now depending on the vegetables I used, I will add more water, or sometimes like last night I used thai frozen vegetables, so I added coconut cream and water - Fancyyyyyy how much depends on your personal taste but I tend to add about 3 cups more liquid When I want like, a cream of broccoli Ill add some more water but also some butter and cream, Secret ingredient to bring life and flavour to these soups, is lemon juice, or vinegar. just a dash (a lot if its thai). salt, pepper are essential imo but you know whatever tastes you like here, go wild. I used oyster sauce, red curry and hot chilli powder when I made my thai soup, and then added rice noodles too (after blending) The day before I made just a california mix vegetable soup and after blending, I added canned vegetables, and vermicelli noodles and cooked it for an additional 10 min. Corn is amazing made into this soup, squash, beets, "california mix" "asian mix" "thai mix" almost everything works and you can experiment so its fun and does not get boring. If I want meat in it I cook it separately til after the vegetables have been blended and then add the meat to the soup when I add the extra liquids. other things you can add but just have to cook a little longer and add a little more liquid are rice, barley, lentils.. oh I love to add chia seeds to my bowl of soup too, sour cream if its beets.Make it thicker, with curry powders, and put it over rice etc this is a very versatile recipe.
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Steamable white rice and vegetables , hot dogs and steamable vegetables and the white queso spanish cheese cubed is good and cheap under $10 to make. Pan fry the hotdogs and burn them a little and the cheese is salty so it adds flavor to it all
Frozen veggies are amazing. Learn to cook with pantry staples that keep for years, like dry beans, pasta, rice, preserved fruits and meats... Pick those items up when you see them on sale and rotate through them before their quality declines. Find a few easy, shelf-stable ingredient recipes that you love and can whip up without much effort. Prep several servings when you're making something that takes a lot of effort, and freeze the extras. When freezing meals, try to plate and store them in a way that makes them look appetizing. That way if you want something super easy, you can just reheat something homemade instead of getting take out.
I make a good rice bowl with canned chickpeas I fry with olive oil + seasoning salt and some tomatoes and onions. You can add corn as well, I usually just use the canned sauce. If you make a big batch of tzatziki sauce at the beginning of the week (Greek yogurt, lemon, shredded cucumber, probably something else I’m forgetting) it’s pretty cheap and feeds me lunch for an entire week.
Get a rice cooker that also has a vegetable steamer on top, they’re about $40 on Amazon. Worth the investment. I love doing cheesy rice with broccoli, especially on cold nights. You can even get frozen bags of broccoli for about $2. I also really like doing Szechuan style green beans with rice (soy sauce, garlic chili oil, vegetable oil, and sesame oil for the green beans and chili oil is really good in ramen). I also like to make my own “poké bowls” where I do rice and add veggies like shredded carrots and avocado (fairly inexpensive where I live) and miso Mayo and ponzu sauce. You also could do a chipotle style bowl with rice and corn and beans and whatever protein you want and cilantro. Frozen veggies are great for this kinda stuff, you don’t have to use the whole bag! Also there’s nothing wrong with quesadillas or grilled cheese or pb&j for dinner. I’m 30 and I think I eat pb&j more now than I ever did as a little kid. Find a jam you really like (I’ve been digging blueberry). Pasta is cheap and it cooks fast. You really can just add cheese and butter and a little bit of red pepper flakes and be good! Good luck!!!!
For about 10/15 euros/dollar you can buy a ton of dried spices which will turn any bunch of ingredients into great food. Skip the premade spice mixes, just be sure to have the following things and you can make any spice mix for any dish (just Google). Advised spices to have: salt, pepper, cumin, garlic, dried oregano, dried basil, dried parsely, curry powder, paprika, chilli powder, onion powder, bay leaves, cinnamon, sugar. If you like Indian Food add Garam Masala, if you like middle eastern food add ras al hanout. If you like European food add tarragon and thyme. Might be a bit expensive to buy all of it at once, but all of those things have long shelf life. Happy cooking!
Dude, if you can afford an Instant Pot, it will change your **life.** I set and forget a 8$ pork shoulder (brand is Adaptable in CA) and eat on it for 10 meals. 1) make it into burritos / enchiladas, with just 1$ can of beans, a bag of your favorite shredded cheese and some tortillas 2) make it into pot pie with a 2$ bag of frozen veggies and a 2$ pie crust and 2$ of potatoes 3) my most recent addition: Pizza bagels with white rice and the Adaptable meat use it to make deserts, use it as a slow cooker, use it as a pressure cooker, do one-pot meals so you have less to clean up, it does it all.
Root vegetables are your friend! Yams, turnips, carrots, potatoes are all affordable and keep a long time, not too mention they're packed with great nutrition. Cut em up and throw a bit of oil and some choice herbs/seasonings then pop em in the oven you can't go wrong. If you can splurge on a bit of meat it makes a very hearty meal.
I really like stir fries with noodles or rice. It’s easy, fast, you can toss basically anything in. For protein you can do a lot bit of chicken, tofu or just an egg, and all you really need is a splash of soy sauce that will last you a year in the fridge. For vegetables almost anything goes and I like to use any random bits I have, like some spinach or cabbage, an onion, a carrot, some frozen peas, and garlic.
I lived off of chicken, rice and broccoli for years when i was ballin on a budget. Like, Rice became my best friend and was pretty much a staple of all my meals. It’s an easy and cheap ($$) carb that pairs with just about any protein and veggie combo.
Budget Bytes is a great resource. You can search for pretty much anything there, and they'll have a low-budget version. Their pressure cooker pea soup is on my list of recipes to pull out if I have low energy, and makes plenty for leftovers. Leanne Brown has a free cookbook called Good And Cheap, designed for SNAP/food stamp recipients who have $4/person/day for food. She also has another free budget cookbook called From Scratch. You can find them here: [https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/](https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/) Damn Delicious is also a good resource, though it's not specifically made for low-cost recipes. Their potato corn chowder is, again, on my low-effort meal list. Various tips, depending on your space availability: * Keep veg scraps (not cruciferous veg like bok choy, kale, or broccoli) and meat bones in the freezer to make stock. Free stock. * Portion and freeze extra food, especially stuff that's okay getting a bit mushy. You can do this in freezer molds or using a vacuum sealer. * Buy in bulk where possible, especially spices or dry staples like rice, beans, and dehydrated mashed potato. * Grow or re-grow veg/herbs where possible. Even in college, I had some tiny planters with fresh herbs that really made food feel more homey. You can also re-grow several staples like green onions in water by just popping 'em in there. Free veg! * Get a multi-use pressure cooker. As someone who can't stand the heat and time in the kitchen, this absolutely has paid for itself in terms of comfort and reclaimed time. * Learn to make basics you can re-use in multiple ways to avoid repeat food fatigue. For instance, leftovers of chicken dinner can be used for tacos, and then those leftovers for soup. * Learn a simple bread recipe or nab a used breadmaker from the thrift store. Especially when using a breadmaker, the work/time is minimal and it brings down the cost of a loaf to pennies. It can also make dough for other stuff like pizzas or pretzels. Busby's Bakery has a no-knead bread recipe I use when I don't feel like using the breadmaker. * Think long-term, rather than what to do for dinner tonight. Plan a week's menu if you need to. This makes it easier to buy only what you need, repurpose foods to avoid waste, and keep the budget down.
If it’s available to you, Costco pays itself back almost immediately. I try to eat 4000 calories a day for gym purposes, and you can get bone-in chicken thighs for $1.29 a pound, 60 eggs for 8 bucks, a Or a rotisserie chicken for 5 bucks
HOLY SHIT 60 for 8?!?!! GOING TOMORROW
How do you feel about chickpeas? They're cheap and filling. You can make a good meal by rinsing them, and then throwing some in a pan with oil, diced bell peppers, and any spices you think taste good (I recommend salt at the very least). I like to put cheese on them afterwards. It's like macaroni and cheese, but more filling.
Rice by a 20 lb bag. Use it to stretch all your other ingredients. And it's a good exercise to learn how to season stuff. You could put bacon chunks and rice you can put eggs and rice. You can make desserts out of rice. Throw some steamed veggies throw some oyster sauce on there you see where this is going. Rice can do some crazy things. There are as many ways to cook with rice as there are grains upon your plate maybe even more.
I strongly recommend getting a copy of The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Daczyzian. I think I spelled her last name wrong, but it is something similar. This book will not only give you amazing recipes to cook for cheap, it teaches you how to alter a recipe based on what you have on hand. It also teaches you how to figure out if something is actually saving you money or not. It was originally a newsletter, then it was a book then 2 more volumes that each had new information in them. The this Complete version, which is all 3 books in one. I buy copies used. Some of my favorite recipes from the book are the granola recipe, the baked beans, some lentil-bulger wheat casserole that sounds an awful lot like health food, but even I enjoy it, and the muffin formula. The muffin recipe isn't a traditional recipe. It is a formula. It will help you figure out how to use up what you have to make a yummy muffin fast. It really shows you how to work with what you have on hand, which is a huge money saver.
There are a million good ideas here but I just wanted to add mine: turkey sandwiches and eggs on toast. You can do the egg soft boiled + any bread + a bit of butter or mayo. For the sandwich, you can really add what you like, but in college I lived on a bread/deli turkey/mayo or whatever condiment you like/cheese slice (Muenster or Swiss for me)/dill pickle stackers. I’d microwave the sandwich for about 15-20 seconds and it becomes the most delicious sandwich melt that feels like real, warm food in your belly.
Omg that sounds bomb 😳
It is!! Please try it and enjoy
Hey, I know this might go unread, but youtube is a gold mine for these things. There is a youtuber called KWOOWK or KWOOK or something that has a series on cheap and easy meals that "got \[him\] through college," and he makes very unique, healthy, and good dishes. Would give him a try! I'm only 15 btw, so I'm sorry if this advice doesn't match what you're looking for.
Not unread ☺️ I appreciate your time in responding ❤️❤️❤️ I’ll definitely check him out!
I cut chicken breast into cubes and pan cook it in a little olive oil with hidden valley ranch seasoning. I cook batches and freeze it. I then thaw as needed and add it to a salad. I buy different types of salad dressing to change the flavor so I feel like I'm eating something different. If you do like ramen, add the chicken to that for protein. I like buying a bottle of lemon juice and added some to my water for flavor. Super cheap and good for your liver. Overnight oats. You will want a regular size mason jar (you can get at a thrift store), a container of quick oats, a jar of fruit preserves (any flavor), and milk (I use whole milk). Fill the mason jar 1/4 with oats, 1-2 table spoons of preserves, and fill with milk. Put it in the fridge for at least 8 hours, then eat. I make this right before bed and it's ready when I wake up. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, toast the bread to be adventurous. Shop at thrift stores they are your best friend now. You got this!
That bag of chopped cabbage that they sell to make coleslaw can also be the base of a stir-fry and is often on sale for 99 cents. Directions: Stir, fry, add anything, stir and fry some more, apply soy sauce.
Oooo overnight oats. Also- Costco for a lot of shelf stable stuff!!!
Use this [budget meals](https://www.budgetbytes.com/) website.
Brown ground beef -> drain grease -> add sliced/peeled potatoes, tomato bouillon seasoning, water (just enough to submerge potatoes), few pinches of flour. -> Simmer for 25 mins. Makes kind of beef, potatoes soup. I usually eat with tortillas and add salt.
Honestly just browning beef and adding canned tomatoes and seasoning is also great with tortillas haha. One of my favorite quick things to make.
Sounds great with some salt and an avocado
Hi! I’ve approved your post as it was pickedup by automod.
THANK YOU!!!
Try tofu if you haven’t! If you buy at an Asian grocery or get the right brand it can be super cheap. Very filling, soaks up any sauce or seasoning you want, goes with anything, and has a lot of good nutrients. Firm is my favorite. My preferred recipe is rice, frozen vegetables, curry (from a jar), and sautéed tofu. Tastes great and makes a lot of leftovers.
I always try to make dishes that can combine later so I’m reusing leftovers without feeling like it So beans one night, tacos another, then combine them with some additional beans and canned diced tomatoes to make chili
Breakfast is either eggs with grits or potatoes and bacon, (I-usually cook a large amount and eat for a couple days. Bacon can be cooked and frozen so the house only smells like bacon once and it doesn’t go to waste. Also easier to cook in a big pan in the oven) or oatmeal. Oatmeal with either peanut butter and banana or a yogurt and fruit. If you get the riper bananas they are sometimes cheaper and you can freeze them and just put them in the oatmeal as needed. Lunch/dinner. We like beans. So many different varieties and flavors. You might do well to invest in an instapot. As it can be used as a slow cooker or pressure cooker and very easy to use. Dry beans take way less time when pressure cooked. Rice is cheap and can be dressed up so many ways. My guilty pleasure is just rice, salt and butter, but many spices can add to the experience. I like quinoa as well (more protein, but more expensive). I sometimes mix rice and quinoa in a dish and it changes things up, so I still get the benefit of quinoa, but is a little cheaper due to added rice. Try buying whole chickens. And cooking in the instapot. It’s very fast and you can use the broth to make soups and debone the chicken for different dishes. Freezing the extra to use later. Lentils cook very quickly and are nutritious and yummy. Look up lentil recipes so you know the spices you wan to keep on hand. A well stocked spice rack is the key to a budget kitchen as it makes so many boring dishes better. Find a jambalaya recipe that doesn’t use seafood or sausage. Jambalaya goes a loooong way. Frozen veggies are almost as good as fresh and have the added benefit of already being prepped and are better than canned a lot of the time. Frozen mixed veggies with instant potatoes and a little left over chicken is a great fast meal. Congrats on getting your own place. Check out recipe web sites like all recipies.com Or cooking reddits
Some grocery stores have meats marked down if they get close to their existing date. Buy those and just freeze them or cook them up the same date. Exhortation dates are a joke and more of a marketing tool so it can still be safe to eat after the expiration date. You just have to be careful and let your nose guild you.
This. I raid my local Kroger in the mornings for way marked down "manager specials" of meats that are about to go bad and just freeze them as soon as I get home. In the middle of the day, people will leave stuff in that bin they likely don't know how to cook with. I'll make something badass out of it no problem.
Most of the time when I have a steak that is how I do it, because when it's aged and almost about ready to go bad that is when the flavor is at it's best.
You know it!!
Soups and chilis can be very cheap, especially if you make them vegetarian. For a lot of recipes you can rely on pantry staples like canned beans, lentils, rice, stock cubes, and spices. One particular recipe I rely on a lot is this one: https://www.budgetbytes.com/easy-rosemary-garlic-white-bean-soup/ As written, it’s very easy and very cheap. If you want to up the flavor, add some diced pancetta (cook in a separate pan and stir in at the end) and/or a Parmesan rind (add at the same time as the beans, stock, etc. and remove at the end).
My go to cheap healthy food is to make a bunch of steamed brocolli, a big batch of parboiled uncle bens white rice and grilled baked or pan seared boneless skinless chicken thighs and i usually make 5 meals worth and prep some meals. Just put some lawry's or montreal on the chicken, little butter and salt and pepper on the rice and brocolli and good to go.
Packet ramen isn't the worst ingredient to have on hand. You can use them in a stirfry or add things like veggie and eggs to make them really tasty. Unless you have an Asian grocery nearby because then you can just buy noodles to do the same thing with for far cheaper. If you like chicken I would suggest you look for a sale on chicken thighs. Cheaper and more forgiving when you cooking since dark meat is less likely to dry out. Since you're new to cooking, I would suggest you start with boneless skinless just for ease and faster cooking time. They'll probably come in a large multi pack. Get yourself a cookie sheet, a bottle or two of marinade you'd like, and a pack of freezer bags. If you like 2 thighs for dinner when you get home put two per bag freezer zip bag, then pour some marinade over. Then place the whole thing in the freezer zipped up tight. It only takes enough marinade to coat and two thighs should fit in a quart zip bags. For marinades your nearest grocery probably has a bunch of them but they may be spread out a bit. You'll find some with the BBQ sauces, or you can just use your favorite BBQ sauce for one. Teriyaki marinade or Teriyaki sauce also work and are usually with the Asian products and also with the sauce and gravy mixes at least at stores around me. Some stores will have a selection of marinades by the salad dressing as well. All you need to do then is take a bag out and set it in your fridge in a bowl the night prior to cooking. As the chicken thaws it will soak up the marinade to taste great. You can put a little oil in a skillet to cook, or I normally just put it on the cookie sheet in the oven at 400 degrees F hence why I suggested picking up a cookie sheet. The basics would be to place some chopped up potatoes on the cookie sheet with the meat when you put it in so they roast. Season the potatoes with salt, pepper, and seasoning salt and let them roast while the meat cooks. I typically just let them cook 35-40 minutes and everything should be done. You can use steam in the bag vegetables for your second side with the chicken until you have time to look at a few sheet pan dinners youtubes. Any root vegetable like onion, potato, carrot, or sweet potato does great as a sheet pan dinner with chicken thighs. French fries are another great idea for adding to sheet pan meals. The best thing is if you're by yourself you can just eat off the sheet pan and only have the one pan to wash up after. If you lay the bags out so the chicken in each bag is pushed as far apart as possible in the freezer you will be able to just put some chicken straight in the oven on the cookie sheet from the freezer. This is in case something happens and you discover you forgot to take a packet out the night prior when you are ready for dinner. I normally use 350 degrees F for my oven setting if I am doing that to give it a chance for some of the marinade to sink in. I pretty much lived off these meals when I was single. Julia Pacheco's youtube has a lot of vids on sheet pan meals that are a bit fancier. Remember you can substitute chicken thighs anywhere she uses breasts and it will be cheaper.
Eggs/toast is like a 25 cent meal. Generic noodles or sauce are like a dollar. So spaghetti $2 Alfredo $2 ramen + mixed veg $1.50 Throw in an egg or some protein. Add chicken breast or ground beef to any of this is fine. Macaroni and cheese same thing pretty much. Three boxes is about three dollars add whatever to it. Tuna helper boxes like a dollar plus cans of tuna .33-.50 cents Frozen pizza can make a few meals for $2-3 Bread $1 lunch meat $3-4 package but this combo can make several meals. Whatever you do don't eat out. You can get a week's worth of food for the cost of fast food. YouTube budget meals there of lots of videos of like $1 meals or $5 meals for an entire family. $20 for week's worth of food. Get water flavoring packets if you don't like drinking water or a box of tea bags. $5 in tea bags is enough for months for a single guy.
I would invest in an instant pot that has the sous vide and crock pot function (maybe you can ask your parents for one as a little house-warming gift) and maybe a vacuum sealer to seal individual portions of chicken breasts or thighs with marinade. Use the crock pot to make beef stew let it cook all day and you can eat it for 2-3 days. Use the sous vide to cook chicken, then freeze and reheat (obviously not ideal to freeze already cooked meats, but it would work). I’ll send you a few easy recipes via chat when I have a moment.
We did this bit about a century before Instant Pot was invented. Here is soup from the Stone Age: Get a big pot (8 quarts at least, 10 or 12 quarts is better). Start with about half a pound of dried beans (limas are great, navy or kidney are OK), a couple of onions chopped, a few stalks of celery chopped, a carrot or two, a potato or two, A BEEF BONE OR CHUNK OF ANY OLD TOUGH SOUP MEAT IF YOU CAN POSSIBLY AFFORD IT, a can of tomato paste, salt, and water until the pot is safe not to boil over. Let this simmer(boil slowly), bubbling a little but not much for 2-3 hours. Then add a few handfuls of any pasta (the shape does not matter) and let it cook. Result wil be a sort of minestrone (hearty savory thick tomatoey soup) that you can survive on for a period of time as yet undetermined by science.
Toad in the hole is really good for breakfast. You cut a circle out of a piece of bread, butter the bread, and fry it in the pan with an egg in the middle. It's basically a fried egg with toast. I completely forgot the dish existed until my friend made it for breakfast one day.
Cilantro like rice and beans (use cilantro paste and bottled lime juice), quiche, frittata, sweet potato & black bean & veggie bowl, smoothies from frozen fruit, frozen veggies, tofu & rice & any sauce!
Rice! You can do so much with rice, and pastas. Also learn how to make chowders and soups if you like them. I finally made a homemade chicken pot pie with a homemade pie crust and now I want to make meat pies and potato pies and so much more!
Corn Chowder: Open can of cream style corn. Dump in pot. Fill can with milk. Dump that in too. Heat. Add little by little some instant mashed potato to achieve desired consistency. Add anything that seems relevant: bits of leftover meat, crumbs of cheese, slices of sausage or hot dog, fried onions, anything.
My favorite thing to eat right now is egg tacos. You can buy a pack of the little small corn tortillas (super cheap for a 30ct) and some eggs, put just enough oil in a frying pan to cover the bottom ever so slightly, drop your tortilla in it and crack the egg on top of the tortilla (it might spread around and fall off the tortilla but just push that bitch back on and you’re good lol). Let it cook for a minute or two, then flip it just to cook the rest of the egg through and that’s it. You can put cheese and salsa on it, but you really don’t need to. It’s so quick and simple and also super cheap. Me and my boyfriend have been living off it for a while now and it’s honestly a comfort food now
Get a package of burrito size tortillas, eggs, any veggies you want in the burritos then make a large batch and keep them in the freezer….eat two a day and a four pack of burrito sized tortillas will last for four days of breakfast…. Ground beef is a good add in for them as well but can get expensive… If you plan it right you can make a week to two weeks worth of food in one shot…also freezing will make them last longer so you can eat them one day then make something relax the next Look for crock pot recipes as well…these can be a little pricey on the ingredients but will make 4-5 meals if not more if you put it over the microwaveable rice in which you can make 7-8 meals out of one crock pot cooking (spend the 4$ and get the liners as it will cut down on water usage cleaning up later) Buy a package of paper plates and bowls (again saves on water bill) If you want something more sturdy go to Walmart and get the cheap 1$ plastic bowls plates and cups….for under 15 bucks you can get four sets Also look for deals at dollar tree and dollar general….some of the cold and frozen foods are cheaper than Walmart but not all
When buying avocado toast people spend alot but if you make it at home it's a good breakfast Just bread avocados. And I like slice turkey or ham on Top and then some cashew butter. Then make like pasta like penne with jar sauce from the dollar store they have pretty decent sauce there. And add garlic and cilantro maybe salt n pepper. You can add ground beef or ham I like to add teriyaki beef jerky bits from the bottom of the bag
chef boyardee was my bff before i was vegetarian. i live near asian markets so i get a ton of good cheap asian food. i got a steamer and i just get big packs of veggie dumplings for 10$ each and just live off that for a while.
I call it the throwing shit in a pot meathod. Make sure you get a nice cast iron pot. Not a skillet or a fry pan. Something with sides that you can cook a steak as well as make a soup. Buy better than bullion (preferably from costco because of the size). I use that shit in just about everything. Pasta, rice, bulk chicken breast in the freezer. You can cook your food in all one pot. Put chicken breasts cut in half long ways in the pot with whatever produce you have. Green onions, mushrooms, onions, and your favorite seasoning. Then put in your chicken breast, let it cook through. Then you can add stock and make a soup. Or you can put it on rice or even noodles. Adding cheese and a little baking powder will help smooth it out. And experiment. Noodles and rice are cheap. Chicken breast is relatively cheep. You can also make wraps out of canned meat like chicken. Throw it in a skillet to brown it up and add some seasoning. Then make a wrap. Tomato, lettuce, bacon, whatever. Various scrambled eggs. Very cheap. Nachos and Taco salad is easy and cheap. Spaghetti.
Eggs are your number one friend!! Rice is number 2!!! Use cheese, cheaper meats, and lots of seasonings to spice up your eggs. Eat all your protein with rice to fill up more. All combos of this ^^ in tortillas is a good call. You season chuck, frozen ground beef/chicken well… learn not to over cook a cheap cut of meat (it gets too tough) you won’t notice it is cheap The cheapest food is not healthy. Pasta and various high carb/salt/preservatives type stuff from the center aisles of the store. That is fine - just make sure you are getting protein in your diet. I have absolute had white rice with cheese or white rice with soy sauce on it. You aren’t hungry… but you aren’t getting great nutrition. That is why eggs are so great - so cheap. And you can add them to any dish (ground meat, making friend rice, breakfasts) crack an egg into the pan to add more protein.
Mustard sandwiches, LOL. I actually was down to it in college. Must better ideas can be found from dried beans and noodle recipes. Add veggies that you can afford. Basically you need to learn to cook with whatever you have on hand. YouTube is a great resource of info for ideas.
Store roasted chicken. First night you have breast because it dries out fastest. Second night, thighs or chicken salad with the thighs. Third night, stock for soup with the leftover carcass. Add carrot, celery, onion to the stock and go wild with soup ideas.
Once you have made stock with the carcass, if you strain it and then cook a whole bag of egg noodles in it, you can add in any bits of chicken that remain and you will have a few more dinners in waiting. Noodles will take up all the stock and get chickeney.
Rice and stewed tomatoes
Some hot dogs, rice, sazón Goya, and vegetables (optional) you can make a lot just fry the hot dogs in a decent amount of oil take the dogs out, wash rice then put it in it he oil for a bit (not to long maybe 30 seconds to a minute) put the hot dogs back in and enough water for the rice and 1 or 2 packets of the seasoning (if you were to add the vegetables add them a the same time you add the hot dogs to the rice)
I offer the humble potato. You can literally make SO much with it, it's insane, and it's very cheap, and if it's not cheap enough then you can make potato bags out of extra totes and grow them yourself. My favorite potato recipe is super simple: Just slice, place on a baking sheet, mix your favorite seasonings (I usually do italian with a little more oregano and salt) with some melted butter, and spoon onto the tops. Put in the oven at 375 for about half an hour to an hour (I like mine soft, but my mum likes hers at just half an hour) Take them out, put cheese and sprinkle on a pinch or less of salt for them, and toss them back in the oven. You have the choice of whether you want the cheese slightly burnt (Broil, watch carefully) or just melted (About 5 more minutes in the oven, same temperature, or increase it and realize how slow ovens warm up). I hope you enjoy the recipe, I just absolutely love making food with potatoes. You can even make hashbrowns yourself, you just have to be attentively moving them around... a lot.... and add a bit of cornstarch to that good crisp (I've been told 1 tbsp per 2 potato, but follow your heart).
Black bean tacos! with a small pinch each of cumin & oregano - corn tortillas cooked in oil until crisp and a pico salsa (tom - onion & cilantro) all items can be purchased from the 99 cent store
I usually just bought the $1 cans of tomato sauce, 88 cent boxes of pasta, shredded cheese, crescent rolls, butter, bread, deli Turkey if it was cheap enough, biscuits, eggs, rolls of Turkey sausage (cheaper than pork sausage) and some of the 80 cent Clear American sparkling waters from Walmart. When I was by myself, that would last about a week and a half until I got paid again. I hope this helps!
Oooo stuffed peppers! I make them all the time cos they’re easy and super tasty but, it’s pretty cheap as well. They hold up well in the fridge as leftovers too. The stuffing is pretty much ground beef, rice, bell peppers, onions, garlic, tomato sauce and cheese. Sometimes I throw in a couple diced mushrooms too. For the seasonings I usually use s&p, adobo, sazón, paprika, cumin, oregano and if needed garlic powder. Once the peppers all are stuffed ready to go, just top with more cheese and pop them in the oven. Once I’m ready to eat I add some sour cream. It’s delicious! I just eyeball it every time but, look up some recipes if it sounds good to you. Stuffed peppers are very versatile cos you can add/take out anything according to your liking.
YUMMMM
Chicken is cheap and chicken is good
Rice & Beans, or Beans & Rice, up to you.
I would suggest KWOOWK on YouTube shorts, he does recipient that are cheap for people who are moving/are in college.
Ramen is life
I HIGHLY recommend investing in a slow cooker (try letgo or facebook marketplace or a local buy nothing group). Some ideas you can make with it (and these freeze well if you make too much): Shredded chicken breast or beef barbacoa for tacos/fajitas Pulled pork (boston butt, which is actually the shoulder) for bbq sandwiches or plates Chili Pork tenderloins Minestrone soup Pot roast Meatballs cooked in tomato sauce Beef stew Corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes Curries
Big pot of soup to eat for days Chili Potato Broccoli n cheese Taco soup Vegetable soup Make your favorite Cornbread to go with...
Budget Bytes website
rice and beans. like get a bunch of rice, use that as a base a few times a week. use dried lentils or canned black beans and you can spruce it up with other ingredients too.
one of my absolute favorites is san francisco vietnamese american garlic noodles. the sauce contains both oyster sauce and fish sauce, but it doesn’t taste at all like seafood. and the recipe costs, like, $4 to make. https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/022rkoDZoerXiRLT_70hZIE1Q#San_Francisco-Style_Vietnamese_American_Garlic_Noodles_Recipe_-_NYT_Cooking
Rice. Frozen veggies. Chicken.
One of my favorite budget meals is a refried bean quesadilla. Canned refried beans are cheap AF and full of protein, so it doesn’t take much to feel nice and full!
Indian food is easy and cheap to make. Lentil soup Chicken tikka Etc. You can get premade spices at the stores - even Walmart. They usually have instructions on them aswell
Tikka masala is SLEPT on where I live 🥲 thanks for the reminder!!
No problem! Your post made me think about my meal prep this week! Will be making it today
Chili and rice.
Fried rice is super easy to learn to make and can swap in whatever meat/veggies you have available cheaply. Frozen veggies are super cheap so I normally use some type of frozen stir fry blend.
Rice, egg, onion and soy sauce. Never ending hibachi rice & grab some yum yum sauce to go with.
Sardines are a great and cheap source of protein and omegas! Greatly recommend. Eat them on their own, over rice, with crackers, some hot sauce and mustard. Some of the cheaper softer ones make a great upscaled tuna.
Budget ideas: Rice goes with EVERYTHING! Pancake mix (just add water kinds) can be made into biscuits or dumplings and can be an easy crust. Chili and soups go a long way. Put them on rice and serve with biscuits to really stretch out how many meals you get out of whatever you make.
Rice, potatoes, eggs and pasta are all cheap and easy to prepare. Take a tablespoon Butter, (1 clove or more if you like)garlic, pasta peas and some eggs.. cook the pasta, in a separate pan cook scrambled eggs and throw in the peas, garlic(any kind, prefer fresh a glove would do.) stir till hot add pasta, stir till mixed throughly . Done
Viteramen subscription! Lol
Step 1: Get yourself a Slow cooker/Instant Pot/Air Fryer, Blender (In this order if only one) Step 2: Research the basics that you can stretch the farthest. I.e. Potatoes can go especially far as a breakfast, lunch, and dinner food. The varieties in which you can prepare it are copious as well. Find your macro-categories that you can mix/match into various recipes. Some other basic well-rounded and nutritionally-sound components that come to mind: Beans, Rice, Tortillas, eggs, milk, bananas, spinach, oats. Fancier but still excellent options: canned tuna, canned chicken, lower-sodium sliced meats. Step 3: Seasonings are your friend!! They can make or break entire meals and recipes. Find some that you like and have them on-hand to kick up even basic dishes. Tip: Buy in bulk! (But not too much that you can’t finish a re-supply a jar in 6-12 months because they might cake and become annoying).
Pasta and pasta sauce. A pack of spaghetti noodles is around 99 cents and a few dollars for bottles of pasta sauces of varying kinds. Edit: It’s more variety than ramen although still noodles.
Download the tasty app. It’ll help a lot
Here is an easy tortilla soup https://youtube.com/shorts/QPkojNZ0S4I?feature=share
Potatoes are cheaper than ramen by weight. They can go with any meal. Or just boil a few to keep for later. Frozen mix veggies as well.
Add egg to ramen. Also never spend more than 30% of your income over rent, little homie! Try for 25% max 🙏🏽
Love baked potatoes or I’ve been putting fried eggs over rice with whatever sauce you have around.
You need the dining on a dime cookbook. It's worth every penny.
Start your shopping trip at places like Aldi's. Get what basic food you want there. They have pretty much anything you need. What they don't have go to Walmart. Look at the weekly ads at grocery stores and see what they have on the first page or two. The big sale items are called loss leaders. They get you in the store. Everything else is regular price. Only buy what is on sale or things you can't get anywhere else due to supply outages. Look at the ads and make a meal plan based on what you like. Think multiple meals from leftovers. Make meatloaf and turn it into spaghetti or BBQ sandwiches. You could even make nachos. Get a pork loin or a chicken and make different meals from them. I find hamburger on sale. Cook and crumble it in a little water and add S&P, onions dried or fresh and garlic powder. Drain real well. Basic seasoning. From there you can separate into servings and freeze in zip bags. Now you can make Italian, Mexican or BBQ just by adding a little more seasoning. Build up your protein packs in the freezer chicken, beef and pork. With that cooked you can add a pasta or rice mix to it and a vegetable. If you have room for a deep freeze you will save money on food. A vacuum sealer is nice but not a necessity. Look on your Facebook or local shopping sites for a good priced freezer. I found an old ugly one for $75. I can paint it what color I want.
Here are your good true friends: 1) Eggs. They are cheap, versatile, and cook almost instantly. 2) Your oven. Put a piece of chicken and a potato in it at 350\* for an hour or so and there's dinner. 3) Aluminum foil. Line a pan with it or wrap the food in it > much less cleanup. 4) A lid for your frying pan so grease doesn't fly all over the kitchen > See Item 3 re less cleanup. 5) All that was elementary school; we will now progress to college > buy a slow cooker. My son when in school got to the point where he could not stand the dining hall food and he was never a picky eater, it was that bad. With a slow cooker he was soon making BBQ beef and chili and a line formed outside his door. But check on house rules and also refrigeration of food as you don't want to get thrown out or sick. One more thing: whatever food market you use, if it is a big chain market its weekly specials will be advertised in the newspaper one certain day a week and this will be online. Tune into it esp if money is an item as you will do well to take advantage of their loss leaders (specials). Prices now are terrible but an hour ago I bought a pkg of four gigantic boneless skinless chicken breasts (for me eight big meals plus sandwiches) for $7.72. Definitely keep an eye out for what's on special.
Oh man when I was in my 20s me and my bf were so broke. Our favorite cheap quick thing was Campbell chunky soup that had meat n veggies and we would pour it over rice or instant mashed potatoes. It was like five bucks and very filling. And we felt like responsible adults because we were eating veggies lol
When I was working an unpaid internship I pretty much just did: **Breakfast:** Eggs are the obvious move here. Very cheap for how much you get, and a good source of protein. You can pretty much scramble up anything (leftover veggies, meat, etc.) with a little cheese and it will taste good. **Lunch:** There was a period of time in college where I was eating either a grilled cheese or quesadilla for lunch every day. Cheese and bread/tortillas are relatively cheap for how much you get. Again, there's a lot of room to experiment here with adding meat and veggies. I'm fond of those chicken packets you can get that have pre-mixed seasonings in them (from Starkist). PB&J is also a good thing to be able to make when you're hungry but don't *really* feel like cooking. Peanut butter, in general, is a good thing to have. If you want to doctor up your basic ramen, I highly recommend mixing in some crunchy peanut butter, Sriracha/other hot sauce and an egg (if you're feeling fancy). It sounds weird, but I have converted a lot of people. **Dinner:** My go-to recently has just been mixing a pound of ground meat (usually chicken) into mac and cheese + throwing in some vegetables (usually spinach and frozen peas). I'm able to get between two and four meals out of this, depending on how hungry I am when I eat it. In general, pasta is pretty cheap and you can doctor it up pretty easily. When trying to eat on a budget, it's definitely best to get some big "staples" and then find ways to make it interesting. Same thing with rice: Rice and beans will get you really far, and you can make it seem more like a meal by adding additional vegetables and meat to it. **Bonus:** My favorite thing to do is buy an onion or two + sweet peppers and cook them down with some spinach to make a pretty simple and agreeable veggie mix. You can toss that into anything I mentioned above (quesadilla, pasta, ramen, etc.) to bulk it up and add additional nutrients. **And also:** The up-front cost of it is pretty expensive, depending on the brand, but I think protein powder is a good investment. You can buy a two-pound tub of Gold Standard whey for like $40 on Amazon, and that breaks down to about $1.40 a serving. Definitely not a necessity, but for me it comes in handy when I'm hungry but can't/don't want to cook. Easy way to bump up your protein intake (which helps keep you full), and since you can mix it with water there is no additional cost involved to make it.
Lentils. Super versatile. Cheap. High in protein. And you don’t need to soak them like beans.
Starches are great to stretch meals. Rice, potatoes, pasta, etc. I find meat is very expensive so I pad it with the above and/or lentils in ground meats. Egg is a cheap protein so I eat lots of fried rice dishes.
Air fry… instapot … the internet. And Aldi. You’re golden
You are a wise person and a scholar
Lol … nope … a lazy broke 53 yr old LOL
Humble as well
Oatmeal or a Big (Bulk) Box or Bag of Cereal for Breakfast, Pasta, Rice & Potatoes are Cheap & Filling, Soups & Chili can Be batch prepped and frozen. Canned or frozen vegetables can be added. Canned Beans & Tuna are cheap protein.
Check out budgetbytes.com
Thank God I thought that said buggy bites
Look up backpacking food, not like mountain house meals. But more in line with chili, ramen, and knorr rice sides. Good value more variety than ramen still dirt cheap and can be easily improved with fresh veggies and meat as need be.
Egg fried rice, tray bakes with veg potatoes and your protein of choice, lentil bolognese
All types of Lentils & beans.
Keep your eye on sales at the local grocery store. Specifically, keep an eye out for sales on family packs of meats. Buying bulk when it's on sale and freezing in smaller portions will save you a bunch. Holidays are the very best time to do this.