sooooo...we're not really broke but we're trying to spend less money and we're trying to do this in part by planning our meals a month in advance. Anyone here got any relatively inexpensive meal ideas for two?
Dont plan too far in advance.. Your better off going 3-4 days. Nothing worse than eating something you arent in the mood for.
One thing to try is making extra of things so you have lunch/evening snack for the next day. I think re-heated spagetti tastes WAY better than fresh! :icon_mrgreen: and it saves you some serious $$$ to take a lunch to work. Things like chicken legs and wings are way cheaper than breasts, also buying a whole chicken is often VERY cheap and can make 2-3 meals. Stick with fresh stuff too... no frozen dinner is worth the savings.
When we are on a budget I try to shop every 3-4 days as to not have wasted food. We buy whole chicken, spagetti stuff, whatever cuts of meat are onsale to make stir-fry, some vegies, some berger meat. Multi purpose stuff.. If you buy items w/ the idea of using 1 thing for 2-3 meals you can save a TON! You can make chicken 3 days in a row if you change how your making it... Seasoned and grilled chicken one day, leftover from that in a fresh salad the next, and use wats left after that for some kick ass homeade chicken soup!
Some all around cheap grocery items that can be used in numerous combinations:
Chicken Chicken Chicken!!! its always cheap! and there are a milion ways to prepare it!
Ground beef ( burgers, spag, tacos, chili, nachos grande! =)
cheap cuts of steak choped up and stirfried or fajitas, philly steak sandwiches, beef & noodles...
Potatoes (VERY CHEAP) (fries, baked, roasted, w/ cheese... endless..
Eggs (one of my favs, breakfast for dinner!!! nothing like french toast and egss for dinner =) breakfast is one of the cheapest meals to make!
FRESG vegies! and salad items! filling when you make a salad w/ some leftover meat from the day before.
Wow.. i could go on and on... I love saving $$$ on food =) I find that when I limmit our grocery budget we have more food and better, well thought out meals.
Going way back to my extreeme budget days of college :icon_mrgreen: The ole standby of Ramen noodles and cheese sandwiches. And you gotta have some koolaid :icon_mrgreen: I bet I have easily eaten 1000 packs of ramen in college :icon_mrgreen: I even had some for luch today! funny I comented to my wife that I had the Buck Fifty special for luch.. I ate 2 leftover eggrolls we bought yeaterday for .50 ea and an instant ramen cup of noodles :icon_mrgreen:
You hit me right before dinner w/ this thread and I am HUNGRY! :laugh: I guess thats why it got soo long! I cant wait to see what others sugest.
:cheers:
Well we don't really have to worry about what we're in the mood for because our menu meals consist of things we both always like to eat. We're not going to add too many new things each month. We plan on things that do leave left overs for lunch the next day or two...I love leftovers for lunch. We plan on buying a couple weeks in advance and then swapping the meals around to suit what we need.
its a (unsaid) secret competition at work to see who has the best setup at lunch :laugh: One guy lives at home and his Mom cooks all day everyday... he has some of the BEST lunches :flipoff:
If you want to eat out on the cheap, go to Pizza Hut for the lunch take-out special. This may be only good if the have the buffet inside. For a grand total of $2.65 out the door I get a empty pizza box that I fill with at least 10 pieces of pizza AND a salad pie-tin container that I load up! This is enough food for two people!
or if your piss broke, , cant beat ramen noodles, and several cans of vienna sausages cut up and mixed in wiht it
Almost anything will fit in a budget IF you cook from scratch. Buy whole chickens instead of breasts. Buy roast and cut it up yourself for stew. Start with dry beans and soak them and cook them. A lot of this can be done in advance and frozen. I'll boil a whole chicken then bone it and put the meat in baggies in the freezer (same with stew meat). Veggies are generally cheaper than meat, and usually healthier, so we eat a lot of them. I love hummus and I make it from scratch (dried chickpeas).
In general. make food at home and skip the fast-food or restaurants and skip convenience foods at the grocer. I have lived well on a little money for a long time. My salary is better now, but we still try to economize. And as a result we're debt-free (except for the mortgage which goes away before 2015!).
Quote from: yamahonkawazuki on September 07, 2008, 07:11:34 PM
or if your piss broke, , cant beat ramen noodles, and several cans of vienna sausages cut up and mixed in wiht it
Yama Beat me to it.Lived on Raman Noodles for Years. Hard to live on them for 19 Days Straight During a Blizzard though.After 7 Days you just want to Shoot yourself to get Away from them.
Pinto Beans is another good Choice.A few Dollars Worth lasts several days.Get some Entertainment from them too setting Around listening to everyone Fart. :laugh: :laugh: Get tired of Straight Pinto Beans make Chili. :thumb:
Oh yeah.Another Idea.All you can Eat Chinese Buffets or a Golden Corral and a Box of Zip lock Bags. :laugh:
well you can always add to teh ramen noodles, even up to and including a special herb, many ways to make em.
Ramen is a good one, as is mexican tortillas and frozen meat from mexican place (seriously they sell cheap cheap stuff ... partially cos its frozen ... like a freaking rock, but meat from there and the guy cuts it with a band saw. No kidding.
Cool.
Buddha.
Rice FTW! It's cheap and packed with nutrients. and all it takes is another inexpensive protein (I'm lookin at you chicken and fish..) and you have a great meal. Frozen veggies are also way less $$$ than fresh. I also went with a lot of peanut butter, lots of protein in there.
Ive spent a lifetime living on rice, ramen, frozen chicken, pasta, and peanut butter. Chinese has always been my best option for take out. A 12 dollar order is about 3 meals..
Quote from: respite on September 07, 2008, 11:39:06 PM
Ive spent a lifetime living on rice, ramen, frozen chicken, pasta, and peanut butter. Chinese has always been my best option for take out. A 12 dollar order is about 3 meals..
INDEED/ CEpt the rice. that is not nuke friendly
:laugh:
My first wife and I spent 6 months living on chicken as our cheap protein, to this day it's rare for me to even order chicken much less cook it. We do the bulk of our shopping at Sam's club as well, things we use a lot through out a month in our cooking like rotel, peas, corn, sloppy joe mix, etc. we buy in bulk. It's cheaper than running to the grocery store every few days. There's more cost up front buying in bulk but it saves us a ton on the back end.
PBJ are cheap chiken is cheap Def when its on sale. hamburger helper is like 6 bucks after the meat and will last for atleast 2 meals for 2 people
if you are poverty poor/broke their are meals on wheels, the red cross, united way, state food stamps, soup kitchens, community kitchens and food banks. before i joined the military and was paying my own way at university i ate a lot of no name craft dinner and breads. no name soda, pretty much no name anything. many grocery stores have "sell by" dates. if they are not already marked down you can ask the guy to do it for you. i have done that with lobster and high end meats. they will take up to 1/2 off. the same can be said for produce sections. buying in bulk can also help. one healthy way to keep those hunger pangs at bay is to drink cool or cold water....trust me it works. i am sorry for your financial difficulties. i think many of us, myself included, know what you are going through
Beanie weenies are Pretty cheap too. Nuclear Cheese Samiches are Pretty good.Bread,Cheese,Microwave and 30 Seconds.
I used to put my bread in the toaster then nuke some cheese between the toasted slices. Awesome. I can handle beanie weenies but when we get into that category of food we're getting outside what I'm looking to have for supper. We're not poverish...after working 15 hours I'm having food. I'm just looking for simple, cheap meals to add to our menu.
...holy crap...I just depressed myself thinking about working 15 hour shifts 5 days and 5hrs on the sixth and still barely bringing home enough to keep the a/c on...
wal-mart usually has 10 pound bags of chicken leg quarters for less than 5 bucks, as long as you dig dark meat its cool, i ate that for a lil over a yearwhen we were scapin by, i cant even look at legs without gettin sick to my stomach any more, although pinto beans, fried potatoes and cornbread rock
also try this http://www.angelfoodministries.com/ (http://www.angelfoodministries.com/)
ok before anyone else suggests we take handouts keep in mind that I'm posting here...on the internet...something you pay for.
...
I'm seeing a lot of ways to get cheap meat here, why not just delete it and go vegetarian. Just get a decent cook book or two, do a bit of research and enjoy. I did it for 20 years, can't beat fresh vegetables for cheap and healthy!
Quote from: makenzie71 on September 08, 2008, 08:40:58 PM
ok before anyone else suggests we take handouts keep in mind that I'm posting here...on the internet...something you pay for.
LOL yeah I understood your intent.
We eat pretty good and canned goods at sams are economical you just have to be prepared to store the quantity and realize your not going grocery shopping for cheap. We buy our tomatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, potatoes, etc. all at Sam's. The quantity seems daunting at first but when you cook every night the bulk quantity works out to where you don't really have any waste. We eat dinner and take the leftovers for lunch we haven't had to throw away any spoiled produce it gets used in a timely manner. If you want steak the steak selection here is good and they're huge, we split an invidual steak which is more than enough meat so out of one 4 pack of steaks for $40 we get 8 steak dinners and usually have part of a steak to take to work the next day with salad and mashed potatoes.
OK this vegetarian thing is not healthy and not normal feeding for a human. lets go back in time and it is known that our brain developed as a result of eating meat. then it took another leap once we started cooking our meat. so to all the vegans..if it were your way we would still be swinging in the trees, hooping and hollering, chucking shaZam! and pissing on passerby's on the ground. meat is critical for a healthy human diet. it is IMPOSSIBLE to live on a complete vegetarian diet without supplements. it is what we are. how biology and nature created us. in case you haven't noticed i can't stand this whole veggie thing and debate. iron, calcium, complex proteins and carbohydrates. can't be done...give me MEAT!!!!! :)
Vegans also have issues with protein poisiening, they get so much protein with no fats or carbs when eating soy products that it's unhealthy. It takes way to much work to maintain a healthy diet when excluding meat.
Remeber the very first thing consumed for energy is fat's carbs are converted to and stored as fats and protein is used to build new muscle tissue etc. Normally excess protein is excreted as nitrogen in the urine and, you don't store it but when your not getting fats and you go through your stored reserves of fat the body begins cannibilizing proteinaceous tissue for energy and you don't rebuild tissue as fast as it's burned.
Oh yeah eating on the cheap, sorry I followed frankie off topic.
Mac and cheese with a can of tuna a can of rotel and 1/2 cup of corn and 1/2 cup of peas makes a great cheap and easy meal.
Quote from: bikejunkie223 on September 07, 2008, 10:00:05 PM
Rice FTW! It's cheap and packed with nutrients. and all it takes is another inexpensive protein (I'm lookin at you chicken and fish..) and you have a great meal. Frozen veggies are also way less $$$ than fresh. I also went with a lot of peanut butter, lots of protein in there.
rice and beans.
rice and beans is pimp. we're doing that but kalee doesn't dig it much, though
Beer can chicken!
Drink about 1/3 a can of beer. Clean one whole chicken, set can in oven safe roasting pan, dry season chicken to your taste, stand it up over the beer can and bake/grill at 350-375 till done :thumb:
AWESOMELY moist chicken! :icon_mrgreen: Doesnt taste/smell like alcohol at all...
Make some green beans and hot rolls.... Mmmmmm
Great dish for two, takes some time to ppick the leftovers off the bone, but well worth it for lunch the next day
O0 Think We'll have that for dinner tomorrow :laugh:
Quote from: pantablo on September 09, 2008, 11:19:44 AM
Quote from: bikejunkie223 on September 07, 2008, 10:00:05 PM
Rice FTW! It's cheap and packed with nutrients. and all it takes is another inexpensive protein (I'm lookin at you chicken and fish..) and you have a great meal. Frozen veggies are also way less $$$ than fresh. I also went with a lot of peanut butter, lots of protein in there.
rice and beans.
good supplier of "natural gas" :thumb: O0
Quote from: makenzie71 on September 09, 2008, 07:05:29 PM
rice and beans is pimp. we're doing that but kalee doesn't dig it much, though
you're broke. suck it up.
Cheapest way, go to the supermarket, buy shaZam! loads of spag bol sauce, tomatoes, peppers, whatever veg you like, get a couple o packs of mince, cook your mince, stick your veg in to cook, cook some spag bol to your chosen recipe, but cook loads and buy bulk. Then when its cooked in your huge ass pan, dish it up into plastic takeaway containers etc etc... so you have 1 portion per container and freeze it all. Do the same for your chillie recipe. Also at the same time cook up 3 or 4 different soups in big quantities, and freeze those into portions too.
Now all you need is potatoes, rice and possibly bread. Have two or three freshly cooked meals a week using like before cook a whole chicken, save the rest for salads and sandwiches the next few days, stirfry lets you use up crap meat in a tasty way - crap meat is cheap. stews - can also be frozen, then when you dont have ne fresh meat to cook something with whip out a couple of portions of your spag boll and cook up some pasta, microwave spag boll till defrosted and plate up, Super cheap super quick. Also soups for your dinner with your salad and chicken leftover.
Quote from: pantablo on September 10, 2008, 12:24:52 AM
Quote from: makenzie71 on September 09, 2008, 07:05:29 PM
rice and beans is pimp. we're doing that but kalee doesn't dig it much, though
you're broke. suck it up.
LOL harshness pablo, doesn't become you.
You can still have variety on a rice and bean budget. Kas makes an excellent point about stir fry we do fix that quite ofen, and nothings more fun than making home made pot stickers and hoisan sauce for them.
Okay here is a good one for you,
2 baking potatoes, 1 can wolf chilli no beans, 1/2 can sauerkraut, 3 bratwurst's, mustard of your choice, I have a very spicey brats n beer mustard we like it's got lots of horse radish in it.
Cook bratwurst til brown and warmed through, and quarter them, microwave baking potatoes till done while heating saurkraut and chili, serve chili over fluffed baked potato and brats on bed of saurkraut with mustard to taste. Filling, tatsty and economical if you buy bulk packs like I do from Sam's figured it up last night our entire meal cost $4.
I also like to do linguini noodles with wolf chili no beans and parmesean cheese on top, for $2 you can feed 2 people. Add a salad to that and you'll feed 2 for $2.50
We like restraunt style Italian dressing, $7 a gallon at sams we have a jar we refill from the gallon jug, its a very economical solution to salad dressings, the only problem is you have to have room to refridgerate an entire gallon jug.
Went shopping last night and spent $110 but that's enough with a few simple additions from the grocery store totaling up to another $20 at most that we won't have to shop again for another month. Ground beef was $2.56 a LB but you have to buy the 10lb giant tube of it and then break it down at home into individual freezer bag portions. In this day and age of rising food prices that's pretty good.
Something else you might think about is back here we have a "salvage" grocery store that we go to, sometimes the cans are a little dented, but it saves us quite a bit of money vs the normal grocery stores. We also have a garden plus raise chickens (for eggs & meat) on our small farm. Along with that we are also vendors at the local farmer's markets so we buy some of our stuff there also.
Tony