Several people have been asking us for cheap meals and tips for eating cheap in our inbox, so I’m going to use this as an opportunity for our followers to share their inexpensive meal recipes. Reblog or message us with recipes that you make on a budget and I will add them to this post.
Tips
Look at the websites of grocery stores near you, and signing up for their mailing list. There’s a store near me called Winco, and they send coupons for discounted and free items. Just yesterday I got some coupons from them and it came with one for a free bag of bagels. -Mod H
If you work somewhere that has food for sale I would suggest asking what your work does with the leftovers. My friend works at a movie theater and they just throw away the popcorn that doesn’t get eaten by the end of the night so he takes it home. I work at a restaurant and it’s pretty shocking how much food just gets thrown away. Fruit that is slightly bruised won’t get used because it’s ugly. If we don’t sell enough of a pre-made meal, we discount it for a couple days, and if there’s still leftovers they get tossed. Lettuce and veggies constantly get thrown away after a few days. It’s really never ending to what gets unused at restaurants, and if you work somewhere like this it doesn’t hurt to ask for foods that are going to be throw away. -Mod H
A lot of grocery stores have a shopper’s club card. Sign up for them. They really do help. Watch the weekly flyers. Places like Kroger have a thing where you go on their website and you can load coupons on to your shoppers card. That way you don’t have to pay for a Sunday paper to get coupons. Also, sign up for stores like CVS, they always have good deals and you get rewards, like $5 off your next purchase. -Anonymous
Dried lentils can be bought in bulk, rich in protein and fiber, and store almost indefinitely without refrigeration and they are easy to cook, just put them in water and let them soak. The hotter the water the faster they soften. From there they can be the bases of many recipes. –moebithinking
Buy cheap bulk rice and noodles. If you have a freezer and a microwave buy frozen veggies in steam able packs for when you need a quick meal and don’t have a lot of energy to cook. Prepare lots of rice and freeze it and then just make some microwave veggies. Also, keep eggs and bread on hand. And bologna/deli meats if you like that. –Anonymous
When I’m a bit tight on cash I often get bulk white rice (AUSD about $10-12 for 15 kilo) and canned soups, which you can find on special for AUSD $1.50 a can. They have bit of everything (meat, veggies) and adding a few cheap veggies and seasoning can make them pretty tasty and healthy. Rice lasts for ages and I can get by on about $15 of cans per week. –restwhenyouaredead
Coupons actually help. 1. Buy dry beans (pinto, black, kidney, etc). Sure it takes longer to prepare, but you can cook a large batch and stick them in the fridge. Reheat on the stove with some water and taco seasoning and add to a tortilla or use chips to dip with. My go-to in college was hamburger helper with ground turkey. Both are incredibly cheap at the store. 4 average size meals with that or 2 large meals. -bytheunbreakablexvx
The tri colored garden pasta counts as servings of vegetables. For example, Food Lion brand has ½ serving of veggies per 4oz of pasta. –Anonymous
Canned tomatoes are incredibly flexible. I like using a can plus some veggies to basically make my own pasta sauce. Speaking of, pasta can be bought for cheap. Ramen with vegetables and egg is pretty filling. – tehdhole
One thing that has helped make many foods palatable is spices, best tip I can give, as many spices are cheap if you get them in bulk, even from places like Whole Foods which price gouge. It will make eating the same foods day after day easier. –sentientdessert
Buying spices: Go to the 99-Cent Store, they have spices in shakers that are cheaper that the shakers at the grocery store. Or go to the grocery stores and look for the spices that come in baggies. They are always either down the aisle with spices, or the Mexican Food aisle. Or go to places that sell it in bulk that you fill up yourself. There’s a store near my house that sells spices by the pound, so it will say $1.27 for a pound of pepper, but you can add more or less depending on your budget.
In Canada I’ve noticed that a lot of East Asian grocery stores sell produce for very, very cheap, often 50-70% of what you’d pay even at a relatively cheap grocer’s. Also, I’ve found replacing rice with grated cauliflower microwaved for five minutes or so to be a cost-effective substitution. –zou-2
Never throw scraps away! If your recipe calls for the broccoli stems to be chopped off, don’t throw the stems away, keep them for another meal. If you have leftover bones from meat, I’d suggest keeping them and making a broth with the bone. If there’s leftover anything, or anything edible that is about to be throw away I’d suggest stop and google a recipe with that item before you do. -Mod H
I know that cooking supplies can be expensive, but thrift stores have loads of crock pots, pans, pots, and other cooking supplies for much cheaper. Most thrift stores have an electronic section with plug-ins, so go check to see if your item works or ask an employee to test it. -Mod H
If you looseleaf tea it’ll last much longer than teabags. Just a tablespoon of looseleaf can be used over and over as long as you dry it properly. this is a way i spend a little extra in order to balance out the cheap stuff.also you can add any kind of fruit/peels or herbs to a plainer looseleaf tea. My mom likes to pick some of our lavender and swirl it around in the tea. You can grow lavender, rosemary, lemongrass, etc and save money because the stuff you use will grow back. –rruthwhitney
Sometimes bulk isn’t always cheaper. Make sure to check out the price per ounce when at the grocery store:
Meals
I like to make cheap stews with whatever is on sale at the grocery store. For example, a 2-pound bag of baby carrots is always about $1, a 5-pound bag of potatoes is always about $3, and then I just look around for things I can add to it. Canned beans and canned veggies are usually cheap. Then I pick up some inexpensive tomato sauce 50ish cents for a small can, 70ish cents for a large can. Then I get home and drain the canned foods and put all this together in a pot, fill the remaining room in the pot with water and let it simmer for hours. I like to add a ton of pepper too. Depending how much you make, this can last quite a few days. And the bag of potatoes is always too much, so you can make baked potatoes or mashed potatoes or homemade chips. -Mod H
I do Mac attack; basically Mac-and-cheese and you put whatever you want in it. I like to put bacon, green onions, tomatoes, green peppers in it. You can always change what you put in it and it’s pretty cheap, especially if you buy your food from the right place. Another thing that I like to make that’s fairly cheap is mashed potatoes with tomato sauce and cheese. Like all three mixed together. –depressingegocentric
I like to chop up some veggies, throw them in a pot with water, wait for the water to boil, throw in the ramen. Wait for the ramen to start to break apart and then put in an egg. Cover the pot and turn off the heat, wait ~five minutes and serve. –tehdhole
Homemade veggie burgers! Lettuce, onions, carrots, little pieces of toasted bread, all in a blender, then mix it with eggs in a bowl to form the patties and fry them in a pan. It makes a ton of meals. –breakingladd
My favorite has been white rice with tuna fish or egg. This is good for carbs and protein. Cook rice to your desired consistency, stir in a raw egg or canned tuna while rice is still hot. Hot rice cooks the egg. For drinks, re-use tea bags (recently used not sitting for a few hours or more.) The second or third cup will not be as strong as the first, but it stretches the tea out. –sentientdessert
Bean salad: full of protein. Cans of mixed beans or chickpeas are usually cheap. Add a bit of white vinegar, oil if you want (I like olive – also generally cheap) salt, pepper, chopped celery, whatever other spices you like. Maybe add tomatoes. Stir it together! It’s quick and easy. –dream-residue
I like to get a can of crushed or diced tomatoes (normally ~50 cents), a can of black beans (about a dollar) and a bag of white rice (depends on the size; bulk bags are cheaper in the long run, but I don’t always have the initial cash for a huge amount. I normally buy just a pound that still lasts forever and doesn’t go bad). I mix and heat the beans and tomatoes together and serve over rice. A mixture of 1 can of tomatoes and 1 can of beans lasts me about 4-5 meals with rice included (about ½ -¾ cup cooked rice for each meal). The beans help me feel full for a while and the tomatoes help it not be too bland. 🙂 I’ve also found that corn tortillas are cheaper in my area compared to wheat bread and make just as good sandwiches for ½ the price. –sweetironiclife
My go-to cheap (vegan) meal: Get a big tub of red or green curry paste. It’s usually about $6, but it lasts forever. Add a few spoonfuls to a pot with an equal amount of heated oil. Fry with garlic and ginger if you have it. Then add a can of coconut milk (usually $1.50) and whatever protein and veggies you have on hand. Bean and lentils work well. Boil some rice, leaving the curry mix on simmer. This works really well for using up broccoli stalks and such that you would otherwise toss away. –caltwentynine
Potatoes! I like to cut them into smallish pieces so they all still have a little piece of skin, and fry them with butter or oil until the skin is crispy. –halfofanelephant
Cheap meal idea: well, around my town, spaghetti noodles and butter/margarine are two of the cheapest things you can buy. And some pepper lasts a lifetime. So I basically live off of buttered, peppered spaghetti noodles. Sounds awful, but if you add enough butter and pepper, it’s surprisingly delicious. – Anonymous
Roasting a whole chicken with whatever veggies are on sale is the best cheapest thing. If you’re feeding two people you eat the drumstick/thigh area one night, turn the breast meat into chicken salad for lunch and tomorrow’s dinner, and boil the carcass and make chicken soup which can be stretched over an extra day if you make matzoh balls/dumplings/noodles/rice. If you do it right you can get 4-5 days of meals out of that thing and it costs about $20 for a chicken and veggies. Also Goya beans are a gift, you can make beans and rice, black bean soup, and black bean burgers for two people from one big pot of beans that costs less than $10 to make. –ceceliaisgray
Also cheap but filling is a casserole made of red potatoes and sausage. You grill the potatoes in a pan until brown, then add the sausage (can be squeezed from casings, already loose, or plain ground beef depending on what you have on hand.) Once that’s browned put all of it into a casserole dish and add a cup of broth on top (I use chicken bouillon cubes which are like $1 for a whole jar.) If you have cheese sprinkle it on top, and add a vegetable you like or mushrooms if you have any/can get them cheap. Cook that in the oven for 45 min or until potatoes are soft. This lasts me like three days and I always have a ton of potatoes left for other things. –wafflability
Something really easy is to buy egg noodles (generally cost under $2 for a big bag that will last several meals.) When I boil the noodles I throw in a veggie like broccoli at the same time, then drain and add olive oil and salt for taste. You can stir in whatever protein you have on hand to add more flavor/nutrition. I usually chop up a chicken thigh and season it since those are cheap to buy frozen in bulk. –wafflability
Tofu is a fairly cheap protein around where I live ($1.25 for a 6 serving package) and fairly quick to cook, so I mix some with frozen spinach and other frozen veggies (usually $1-2 a package, but they last a while), and then mix them with rice. Eggs could probably also be used instead of tofu if they’re cheaper, but either way it’s a cheap meal with a good amount of nutritional value. –roesbynoothername
Cucumber salad: 1 sliced red onion, thinly sliced cucumber(s), salt, pepper, and whatever seasonings you have/want to add, oil or rice vinegar. Makes about 8 servings depending how much cucumber you add. I’d suggest 3. -Mod H
Corn tortillas are usually pretty cheap, and they come in giant packs. Frying them or just warming them up is delicious, and you can add beans, tomatoes, salsa, cheese, or whatever you have and it makes them even better. -Mod H
I have a sweet tooth and a low bank account, so I like to get some apples on the cheap, slice them up and fry them in butter (oil works fine too, you just want to make sure the Apples won’t stick to the pan. Add a handful of quick oats (cheap off brand is like 2 bucks and oatmeal is a filling breakfast too) Then dump sugar/Brown sugar/syrup and keep cooking until the apples get soft and mushy and you’ve got an Apple crisp sort of dessert without all the baking. –chef-dingobrawler
Mashed potato powder. I lived off the stuff for months. Buy the biggest bag you can – even a small 60p Sainsbury’s Basics bag lasted me a month – and mix it with anything liquid. Can of pasta sauce? Chopped tomatoes? Can of baked beans? now a solid and filling snack about twice the size,should do 3 meals if you need to. Just add water? Get it to the right consistency, you’re golden. It’s filling and nutritious – starchy, energizing, and vitamins (depends on the brand tho tbh). Add milk powder and you’ve got a complete nutritional profile, and it tastes great with just water added if you have absolutely nothing else. You can also use it as a substitute for real potato in many recipes, or just as a solidifying agent to bulk foods. – kcstarke
Another good resource for everyone and anyone is the website Recipe Key. If you’re close to payday and just need to know what you can make with whatever’s on hand, you can input whatever ingredients you have available and it will tell you what you can make with what you have, or it will suggest one or two ingredients you can buy in order to make a meal. –bittergrapes
There’s a good site for eating on a budget called Budget Bytes. it calculates how much every meal would cost, and tends to have good recipes. -Anonymous
Check to see what’s in season in your area on THIS website. (Foods that are in season are usually much cheaper.) -Mod H
www.supercook.com is super useful, add what you have and it’ll tell you your options, plus you can add restrictions (dont show recipes with meat, shellfish, nuts, whatever) so if you have any dietary restrictions it’s super helpful. – kcstarke
There’s also a website called BuffetGO and you pay a dollar or a few dollars and get heavily discounted meals from buffets during their last 15 to 30 minutes of service. Only areas in California, New York, New Jersey, and Chicago offer it right now but if you’re in the area it might help.
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