|
I'm not very much of a cook, but I love making food! But I get saddened when I see a new recipe I want try and find out the ingredients for one dish would come close to breaking my food budget. I'm on a very small food budget, about $50 a week and am sick of making the same thing every day because it's cheap. My selection of foods that I've been able to make are as follows. Mashed potatoes (delicious and dirt cheap to buy potatoes), spaghetti with marinara, rice-a-roni with ground beef (sometimes I thrown in some fresh onions and peppers too) and pasta-roni with chicken, and sometimes pizza bread. That's about it. I need some foods that are little more....gourmet, with ingredients that can be used in more than one dish. I'm not very knowledgable about cooking, so can you guys help me with some affordable, tasty meals? (Also I don't really spend time in this forum, so checked the first two pages and didn't see any threads like this, I'll close it if there already is one)
|
#
¿
Oct 9, 2011 19:52
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 18:39 |
|
|
Very good ideas, thank you. But I should add $50 is our absolute MAX to spend, our regular budget is about what you say, $30. However the prices in your estimate are bit off. I've browsed the grocery store and the prices are usually a couple dollars higher than that. Maybe it's just where I live. Also, I'm not vegetarian. I like meat, if me and my boyfriend don't eat it, we don't get full, and that is usually where most of the expense comes from. But I've found buying a bag of frozen chicken breasts is quite helpful and lasts quite a while. Thanks for a good start on planning our next grocery trip, I'll definitly be taking this advice with me. On more thing to ask about. My boyfriend and I work 12 hour days and usually just stock up on crackers, muffins, cup fruit, applesauce, etc. and our lunches are microwavables. This is really killing the budget, so some good meal ideas that are still great reheated would really help out too.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 9, 2011 20:55
|
|
|
These are all really helpful for me. I'm going to see if my mom can send me her old crock pot, I always loved making chicken and beef in it and the juices can totally be used for soup. Just picked up some whole oranges instead of ones in a cup and some rice, onions and potatoes. Making some chicken and rice soup for tomorrow's lunch. My plan for now is to make my lunches on the weekend and save them for the week. Like LogisticEarth said, working 12 hour shifts all day is a deathwish. I only have about 3 hours of spare time, time which I would rather chill out than make food. So anything that can be prepared ahead of time is awesome.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 9, 2011 23:25
|
|
|
Nautatrol Rx posted:Lazy poors Wow that was extremely helpful and yet insulting at the same time. I will assume that you were being facetious and was only commentary on our social order, not a direct insult. So thank you, maybe this will help me become not lazy and I can stop feeding on the dirt caked on the bottom of my shoes when I get home from doing poor people stuff (mostly doing drugs and walking around wal-mart) and will slowly become a useful member of society. Maybe one day I can even start paying people off in order to make myself look better to other people paying people off. I can dream right? But seriously, really helpful post.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2011 00:06
|
|
|
I live in a really small hick town in West Michigan, so ethnic markets are out of the question, I'll just use Altair's advice. All the other advice has helped, I started making more food that can be later used again and we've kept full all day eating it at work instead of buying snacks. We'll see how my spending improves. Thank you all so much.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2011 02:51
|
|
|
This all has been good help. I hope everyone else is getting as much out of as I am. I recently got a pretty nice paycheck (72 hr weeks will do that) and went to stock up on bulk foods and jars. I now have a shelf full of jars of rice, beans, pasta, flour, sugar and spices for the coming weeks and I'm pretty excited. My plan is to work on this no-knead bread thing. I would love to just freeze a shitload of dough (can you freeze dough?) and then just take it out when I need more bread. I cooked a whole chicken for the first time the other day and let's just say it didn't last long with how my bf eats. But if I can find a large amount on meat for cheap, I can have sandwiches for a week. I just need to splurge a bit on cheese, but other than that lettuce and onions are total of 1.50. That plus little vinegar and oil, you can have some bomb loving sandwiches. My rice creations could still use some work, they end up quite bland... so a LOT of salt is used, and I would rather avoid that. Really my only big expense has been cheese and I'm not willing to give that up. I loving love cheese and almost no meal is complete without some form of cheese.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2011 00:04
|
|
|
I've been looking for a good cheap rice cooker or crock pot becaue that seems to be a good idea. I love pot roast so hopefully I'll find a good one. I also forgot to mention although these are all great ideas, I can only use some of the because of my limitations. By that I mean I live in an apartment with no appliances. We have an induction cook top, a mini oven (which just BARELY fit the whole chicken I roasted, and a mini fridge. So I'm trying my best to use this with what I have, but I really can't make too much food because of storage space (We convinced our landlord to buy us a drat fridge though, but who knows how long that will take). Frozens are the best because we do have a large freezer. That thing is kept pretty full, it's kind of a pain to have to thaw things all the time though. Another thing, Potatoes are awesome. I bought a 10 lb bag and it's lasted me for 2 weeks so far. I've made hash browns, au gratin, scalloped potatoes, put them in soups, mashed potatoes. Potatoes are awesome. If you are poor you need them. Potatoes are loving awesome.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2011 15:21
|
|
|
Thanks dino, I would love to have some rice recipes please. Really, great help with the rice thing. That was my problem, I added all the spices and flavoring AFTER cooking. I'm really still just learning how to cook, but I'm just loving soaking it all in. My extra cash from my long weeks has gone to some good cooking wares, spices and more food. So when I get really strapped for cash again, I'll have a good stock of stuff to keep us going. This has seriously been LIFE-CHANGING. The amount of money I have been spending has gone down drastically, We have steered away from bland, boring, and repetitive frozen Boston Market meals and my bf is so happy to have a different lunch every other day. I'm sure we are both getting quite healthier too, working in a factory for 12 hours a day really burns you out and a nice filling homemade meal, although a pain in the rear end to make after work, is definitely worth it.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 25, 2011 02:18
|
|
|
We just got a regular size fridge (we were seriously living off a loving college mini fridge) So now time to stock up, $30 is my goal! Also, leeks, they are so interesting and I always want to buy some, but I have no idea what I should use them for or what they taste like. I imagine they are kind of like green onions. Also, a good thing to do to save a couple dollars here and there is buy store brand. It's usually never too different quality-wise and you can save a couple cents to a couple dollars. There are a few things I wouldn't buy store-brand, but most things (pasta, cheese, flour, sugar, butter, canned poo poo) are the same stuff, different package. I feel like I learned so much from making this thread, now I'm even posting advice for others!
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2011 19:46
|
|
|
Something really cheap and good that I discovered is actually a variant of what I feed my dog. We give my dog a mixture of brown rice and ground beef, I just add some Turkey of Beef gravy to it and it is really good. So that is always an option.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2011 01:03
|
|
|
Biscuits and gravy are fantastic, actually anything with gravy is. Make gravy, it's cheap to make and can make boring food in to amazing food.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2012 18:48
|
|
|
Broccoli is awesome. Buy all the broccoli. I buy giant gfs bags of broccoli and eat it plain as a snack during the day. Then steam it for a side at dinner. It's amazing and good for you!
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2012 23:31
|
|
|
Hey guys, shut up. Wal-Mart is cheap and convenient, and, in a lot of small cities, that is the only place you buy groceries. At the time I made this thread, Wal-Mart was all I could afford because it was the only place to buy groceries without driving 20 miles away, and it was really cheap. If you are really concerned, just spend LESS there, but sometimes you can't afford to boycott it. Hell, even in the town I live in now it's the only place to buy fabric  Anyway, please end this derail, and continue talking about awesome ways to make cheap food.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 11, 2012 14:30
|
|
|
2 years and this thread is still going huh? I kind of need it again, however I've gotten much better at buying things that you can re-use and recycle leftovers with. My boyfriend was visiting a few weeks ago and came up with making a breakfast casserole. Basically just layer egg(cheap), hash browns(potatoes are cheap), some cheese, sausage, and maybe some bell peppers. I pre-cooked all but the eggs and cheese and then threw it in the oven. If you really want to go the cheap or vegetarian way you can skip the sausage. You really only have to do a lot of work one morning so you can have breakfast for a few days. It stayed pretty fresh and we actually put the left overs in tortillas with sriracha for spicy breakfast burritos. Another thing we did was stew. Seriously beef or venison stew is the bomb and if you buy a large amount of the vegetables you can use them later in stir fry or steam them or pretty much anything. Also, I stand by the fact that stew is always better the second day, so make lots of it!
|
|
#
¿
Feb 5, 2014 22:02
|
|
|
Hi thread, I'm back Speaking of spices...I recently started a hydroponic mini spice garden. It takes up about a 1'X2' amount of space and I have so many gat dang herbs I don't know what to do with them. Invest in a a little window garden, it pays off. I almost cry at the fact that I will never have to pay money for overpriced dried tastless spices. Seriously, some always fresh herbs will change everything from "good to "great"
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2015 10:26
|
|
|
I currently dont have a working camera (cell phone) but I started my first garden with a little plastic trough, soil, and a few packets of seeds (cilantro, basil, parsley, dill). Planted them, and left it in the window with the most sun, supplementing with a cheap grow light. I recently upgraded to this bad boy, because I am significantly less poor than when I started this thread 4 years ago. I think it was about $150, so by no means is it a must.  My window trough is now dedicated to some salad green sprouts, so I will update on how those are coming along once they get a little bigger. I usually do a small tomato and bean garden in the summer too, but with the weather getting colder and summer coming later, it has been less successful. If you live in a place where you are able to plant a small garden (outside or inside) I would strongly suggest it. It really helps save quite a bit of money on fresh produce, which is what seems to take up most of my grocery expenses, next to meat. It takes literally 10 minutes a day, max, to take care of.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2015 10:42
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 18:39 |
|
|
Oh yeah its by no means something you should go out and buy if you don't have spare change, I bought it as a treat to myself because I've had an herb garden for some time and wanted to expand. But growing small plants and herbs is super low effort for the amount you'll save for overpriced crap. It at least helped me save, as well as made my food taste 1000x better. Potting soil is like $4 for 5 lbs and you can use almost anything to plant it in. Packets of seeds are $3 usually. You make all that back very quickly.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2015 21:45
|
|