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Inexpensive meals |
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elus0814 
P'insightful 
Member Rating(5)  Beginner Pinner 287 days Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Location: Tyndall AFB, FL Posts: 2199 |
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 Topic: Inexpensive mealsPosted: 30 Oct 2009 at 11:27pm |
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I thought I would start a thread for inexpensive meal ideas. I'm having trouble coming up with interesting and inexpensive meals. Asking DH seems to lead to a pricy dead-end. He just says "I'd be good with a steak". Oh, thanks dear, another $20 dinner? Sure, let me scoot on into the kitchen and whip that up for you. While I'm working in there would you mind printing some more Benjamins in the basement?
Our inexpensive stand-bys are: PB&Js grilled cheese whole wheat pasta soup pulled pork |
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Liz - SAHM to DD 9/04, DS 12/05, DS 03/09
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HC in KC
P'insightful
Member Rating(1) Beginner Pinner 241 days Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Location: Oz Posts: 2279 |
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Posted: 30 Oct 2009 at 11:50pm |
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Haha! We're not too different from you...
pasta soup homemade pizza breakfast for dinner |
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Holly
BFF and wifey to Chad, SAHMama to Owen, and fur mum to Sonny |
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katsmom
P'insightful
Member Rating(1) Perennial Pinner 5 years 9 days Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Location: USA Posts: 1634 |
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Posted: 31 Oct 2009 at 3:10am |
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Our meals end up being less expensive by doing a few things:
- Making ethnic meals
- Mexican (usually have a lot of beans and rice in them)
-Chinese (stirfrys with lots of rice and vegetables, with only small pieces of meat)
-Italian (lots of pasta)
- Making casseroles and cutting the amount of meat used in half by using more vegetables and rice or pasta
- Thinking like a restaurant - Starting each meal with bread and salad or soup (or both). That way, we usually eat less of the main course. Then the meal will last for two meals. This is an especially good thing to do on those "steak" nights when you can't reduce the amount of meat in the main course.
Felecia
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Bectoria
P'incorporated 
Member Rating(57) P'insane  Perennial Pinner 4 years 264 days Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Location: Disney Posts: 21842 |
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Posted: 31 Oct 2009 at 8:24am |
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prices are per meal, not per serving
sloppy joes w/ fries - $3-5, depending on the price of ground beef and if I use a can of Manwich drop biscuits and sausage gravy - $2 pancakes and eggs - cheap Swedish meatballs (mix 2 lbs ground beef w/ 1 box stovetop, make 24 meatballs, bake, and freeze half for another meal) - $3-4 or so, depending on the cost of ground beef biscuits, eggs, bacon - $cheap I very much agree with Holly on the breakfast for dinner thing. I mean, it's just cheap and good. I can get NY Strips at a regular grocery store for about $2/good sized steak...thinner than costco steaks but still good. I can get ground beef for as low as $1/lb - I don't ever buy it for more than $2/lb. Ever. I've seen it as high as like $3/lb. I do often get the higher fat kinds and just drain them well after browning. My favorite recipe for drop biscuits are these: http://www.pauladeen.com/index.php/recipes/view/easy_rolls/ Now, I know it says they are "easy rolls" but really these are more like biscuits. |
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Becky
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! |
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mamab
P'inductee 
Perennial Pinner 2 years 136 days Joined: 08 Jul 2007 Location: United States Posts: 392 |
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Posted: 03 Nov 2009 at 6:20pm |
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we do similar things:
pasta homemade pizza- beer dough is so easy burritos with rice and beans lentil soup with brown rice did i say pasta?? soup and sandwich quesadillas and chili and i am pretty sure that oatmeal is the cheapest breakfast ever |
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sahm to posey, born 11/06, and one in the belly coming 3/10
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RachandSoph
P'incredible 
Member Rating(19) Yearlong Pinner 1 year 247 days Joined: 18 Mar 2008 Location: Alberta, Canada Posts: 3357 |
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Posted: 04 Nov 2009 at 12:50am |
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One of our faves is 'macaroni/hamburger/tomatoe soup' (a friend calls the same dish chop suey)
cook hamburger(season to taste)
cook macaroni
mix together with the tomato soup( I use 2 cans for our family of six as we like it saucy)
breakfast for supper...eggs, pancakes, bacon
macaroni and cheese from scratch(I use velveeta to make my cheese sauce)
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Mikia
SAHM to ... DD Rachel06/06,DD Sophie 11/07. |
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umbribyz
P'integral 
Member Rating(4) P'insane Beginner Pinner 335 days Joined: 20 Dec 2008 Location: Maine Posts: 8668 |
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Posted: 04 Nov 2009 at 8:08am |
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Great ideas so far! Let's see what else...
Soups are great inexpensive meals.
Whole chicken: I make chicken stock with the remains of a roast chicken to have on hand. We got 4 meals for 5 of us (and enough for lunch leftovers for 2 of us) out of one whole chicken (about $5) so that turned out pretty inexpensive. First meal was roast chicken, baked potatoes (given to us by our nice neighbor) frozen mixed vegs. Next 2 meals took leftover chicken meat, rice and 1 lg. can cream of chicken soup and 1 small can of cream of celery soup to make a casserole. Again, frozen vegs on the side. Then I took the carcass of the chicken and made stock. I thought I had picked the bird pretty clean, but as it simmered enough meat came off of the bones to use in a pot of chicken noodle soup. Added some egg noodles and a few baby carrots cut up to make. I made some homemade bread on the side.
Tomato and Rice soup: Another inexpensive soup option is to mix equal parts chicken stock and canned, diced tomatoes and add rice and seasonings. We depended on that a lot one year when DH was out of work. Fortunately, I had canned a lot of tomatoes that year. Even buying canned tomatoes is not expensive.
Baked potatoes: Add chili or refried beans and some cheese as a topping to make a side dish into a meal.
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Carrie
married to Michael and mommy to Tregg (8), Ashton (5), and Braden 7/10/08 |
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mttav
P'integral
Member Rating(32) P'insane Yearlong Pinner 1 year 216 days Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Location: id Posts: 10118 |
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Posted: 04 Nov 2009 at 11:48pm |
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We eat a lot of potatoes (yes, yes, I see the stereotype and claim it wholeheartedly). It's super-cheap for us because it's free.
 Baked potatoes (with cheap, delicious, homemade, hamburger gravy, perhaps), mashed potatoes and homemade gravy from whatever meat we're eating, garlic mashed potatoes, homemade french fries (but we usually bake ours instead of frying them), parmesan potatoes, roasted potatoes, grilled potatoes, dutch oven potatoes, hashbrowns, peas and potatoes (since peas are also free for us), parsley potatoes, potatoes in casseroles (shepherd's pie is my fave!), potatoes in soups, potatoes in stews... you probably get the picture. We like to buy our meat from a local butcher who has good prices, but anytime our parents or grandparents buy a cow or half a cow, they share with us. We get corn (fresh or frozen depending on season), canned green beans, frozen peas, apples (and applesauce, apple juice, etc.), squash, carrots, onions, and other stuff from my GPs garden since we don't have anywhere to plant our own garden yet. And if we hit a really rough spot... we eat Top Ramen. Edited by mttav - 04 Nov 2009 at 11:56pm |
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Mama to Tryne and Moses and wife to the world's best daddy!
Waiting list OPEN for custom hats. Longies... hopefully next month. |
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Dec1st
P'inductee
Yearlong Pinner 1 year 104 days Joined: 06 Aug 2008 Location: Saskatoon Posts: 137 |
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Posted: 05 Nov 2009 at 1:18pm |
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The only one we make that I didn't see listed above was quiche.
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Erin B: mom to Ellie, Step mom to the best two preteen girls in the world, wife to an amazing man
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katsmom
P'insightful
Member Rating(1) Perennial Pinner 5 years 9 days Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Location: USA Posts: 1634 |
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Posted: 05 Nov 2009 at 2:35pm |
Quiche can be frozen too, so its easy to make several at once and stock up.
Felecia
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ojennarae
P'interested 
Beginner Pinner 222 days Joined: 11 Apr 2009 Location: North Carolina Posts: 42 |
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Posted: 12 Nov 2009 at 11:04pm |
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I need some ideas for recipes.. I can't cook to save my life!
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minneapolismama
P'incredible
Member Rating(7) Perennial Pinner 2 years 192 days Joined: 13 May 2007 Location: United States Posts: 6994 |
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Posted: 13 Nov 2009 at 11:00am |
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rice and beans
quesadilllas- use whatever shredded veggies i have on hand and/or meat/beans quiche breakfast chicken noodle soup- it feeds us for 3 days baked ziti- again, tons of meals there homemade refried beans- serve with cheese, lettuce, sour cream and chips for dipping |
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Katie, momma to Alexander (2-8-07)
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mommyjessica
P'insightful
Member Rating(18) Perennial Pinner 2 years 96 days Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Location: Here and Now Posts: 2710 |
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Posted: 13 Nov 2009 at 2:29pm |
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yesterday i made green beans with left over baked potatoes and left over pork chops. one pot meals are the best and left overs are already cooked. so, i just threw a few spices in there and it was yummy and cheap. PLUS... TIFFANY ATE IT!!! she is just not a veggie eater but when i had jared try a bite of green bean to judge the spices, tiffany wanted a bean too. i was a proud mommy :) oh yeah, i should mention that jared got a 50 lb bag of potatoes for $5. i went back to get a big bag of onions for $5 as well. so, the potatoes were VERY cheap and i used canned green beans. so, however expensive the pork was, that is how much the meal was plus a few pennies. and i only used two chops to feed jared, tiffany, mil and myself. there were left overs as well. |
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Jessica-
Wife to the Husband, Jared, Mommy to the kid, Tiffany Eve- born gorgeous on 12-31-07. Unexpected fruit due mid May 2010 |
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mommyjessica
P'insightful
Member Rating(18) Perennial Pinner 2 years 96 days Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Location: Here and Now Posts: 2710 |
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Posted: 13 Nov 2009 at 2:31pm |
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rice and beans. i usually make a big batch and freeze in small containers. you can add anything to rice and beans to make a meal.
i second oatmeal. very important staple.
spaghetti without meat. served with salad.
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Jessica-
Wife to the Husband, Jared, Mommy to the kid, Tiffany Eve- born gorgeous on 12-31-07. Unexpected fruit due mid May 2010 |
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fancyoats
P'investigator 
Perennial Pinner 2 years 200 days Joined: 05 May 2007 Location: rhode island Posts: 5483 |
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Posted: 15 Nov 2009 at 1:36pm |
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we like to make white bean soup with a hamhock simmered in there. hamhocks are supercheap, but they give good flavor to soups. split-pea soup is good with hamhocks too. add some homemade bread for dipping in the soup and you've got a nice meal.
chili is another cheap and good meal, esp if you don't use very much ground beef. sometimes we chop up 3-4 strips of bacon into tiny pieces. fry that up and then cook some kale or chard or collards in the bacon grease and eat with cornbread. maybe some sliced tomatoes on top. we make lentil & caramelized onion croquettes sometimes too. blend together cooked lentils and caramelized onions and an egg and maybe little bit of breadcrumbs and whatever seasonings sound good. shape into balls and dredge in breadcrumbs, then pan-fry them until crispy. |
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Ariana, mama to beautiful redheaded babe Amy Denise, born Oct 2007
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