Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I would want cooking at home to be cheaper, but sometimes after you buy all the necessary ingredients, the price tag for the meal is sometimes about the same as dinner somewhere, but at least it's healthier and you control what goes into your food. I think certain dishes that you make at home would be cheaper than eating the same dish at a restaurant. I remember a simple dish of lemon pasta with a couple of shrimps thrown in could set you back at least 10 bucks, but if you make it at home it is a fraction of that and there's plenty to go around and for seconds, too. I think the cost savings depend on what you are going to make. Usually, at home we like to look at what's on sale that week and cook accordingly.
Stuffed cabbage or stuffed grapeleaves make a ton and you will have food for days!!! Make some hummus or baba ganooj to go with it and get some pita bread and you're set for awhile. Or buy a cucumber, tomato, maybe some goat or feta (or not), peppers, lettuce, dress it with olive oil and lemon juice....great side dish. Very inexpensive!
I bought a 25 lb bag of rice from an asian grocery store months ago and I still have some. It was like $20.
I guess you can tell i like middle eastern cooking but once you have the spices you need you can see you don't need much..I've made some african stews before from this website that gave me food for days. Seriously days. African Recipes, African Food <--ALL of the recipes I made from this website yielded a TON of food
you can also cut the ingredients in half too and then use the leftover meat for another recipe
I am on food stamps and get the max amount, which is $189 per month. It's just me using them. For a long time, I was running out of food at the end of the month and living on pancakes and buttered bread for the last week. Last September, I got fed to the teeth with running out of food and figured there had to be a better way.
First thing I did was look at the food I was buying, and I realized that it was almost all processed and premade food - TV dinners, frozen pizza, etc. The next thing I did was get on a few recipe sites and look for home cooked food I might actually eat (I already knew I was a picky eater). I made a list of recipes and a list of ingredients for those recipes that I would need to buy. I also made a list of all the stores within a ten mile radius of where I lived and I'm lucky because there's a lot of them. The ones I didn't get a sales flyer for, I looked up online. Then I made a list and pretty much stuck to it.
The hardest part was the first shopping trip I did to a discount grocery store. At least half my food stamps went for spices and ingredients like breadcrumbs, hoisin sauce, things like that. But after that, looking at the sales, I was able to get drumsticks for 88¢ per pound, pork loin for $2.99 per pound, things like that. And I had to cook them, which I'd never done before. So I learned how to make pork roasts, mashed potatoes, and use a crock pot, which I fortunately already had but had never cooked in.
I started having enough food till the end of the month, then I started having extra food at the end of the month. The beginning of July was a watershed. I actually had enough food from the previous month to last me almost partway through July and I didn't have to go out and do a full month's shopping because I had run out of everything to eat. All I had to do in July was pick up a couple things to fill in what I was short on.
At this point in the month, I have 11 days left until my EBT card is filled again and right now in my freezer I have a whole chicken, one chicken breast, 3 half pound pork roasts, 2 containers of spaghetti sauce with meat, a full loaf of bread, 8 individually packaged tortillas, a pound and a half of hamburger, 2 hamburger patties and buns, 4 huge servings of macaroni and cheese (homemade), and a pound of sausage that I rolled into into sausages.
I've got a head of lettuce, a bag of beans that I'll make into refried beans and put on the tortillas, 3 cans of tuna for tuna melts, 4 packages of shredded cheese (I do use a lot of cheese), a dozen eggs, pancake mix, Uncle Ben's rice, Hamburger Helper (I haven't eaten that in 6 months and it was on sale), spaghetti, onions, and things like that. Instead of just salt, I now have 26 or so spices, all of which I use to flavor the food I eat.
This gives me more than 20 days of food and I still have money left on my EBT card.
I shop at 7 local stores and 2 stores that are out of my area, but still worth checking out and going to when they have really good sales. I have currently cut myself down to 2 good meals a day and that seems to work well for me. Occasionally, I have even cheated and will now let myself have treats as long as I make them myself. I bought some baking chocolate last week and tonight I'm making chocolate croissants. Next week, with what I have left over on my EBT card, I'm going to the Farmer's Market and seeing what they have available there. I don't buy too many vegetables at the store except potatoes because after eating fresh food from the Farmer's Market, all the store bought stuff tastes like cardboard. So I'm dying for some fresh fruits and vegetables right now.
I know for a lot of people, cooking can be difficult, especially if they're working one or two jobs. I'm still not gung-ho on cooking myself, which is the reason I cook and freeze so much food, plus I hate doing dishes. One thing I do is cook what I know I will like and eat, plus I'm reading a good cooking blog right now that actually shows me how to cook the foods in the recipe with videos. I love that site, since I do so much better when I'm shown how to do something.
There's a lot of things I won't buy again, like teriyaki sauce or biscuits or split pea soup or refried beans, because I can make those at home and for a lot cheaper. My goal is $3 or less per meal and while I can't always do that, I can pretty much average that. There are still some things that I'd like to buy, but won't because of how it looks when I'm using an EBT card. Someday I'd like to buy a red wine for cooking or a beer for beer batter. Just to let you know, yes, I have bought steak like London Broil and Petite Sirloin when it's been on sale and is cheaper than hamburger, which is about $4 to $5 per pound here. Usually any meat that is $2.99 per pound or less is fair game on my list, and using that as a guide line, I can get chicken breasts, pork roasts, ribs, and occasionally steak. So far, my biggest achievement was to be able to afford the 10 pound roll of hamburger. That was $32, but the price per pound was WAY lower than hamburger in the pound packages. I simply made 10 one pound sections, put them into freezer bags and I didn't have to buy hamburger for months. Before, I couldn't have afforded to spend that much money on one item, even to save on the price per pound.
It's not easy and I'm still buying cooking equipment, a cookie sheet here, a rolling pin there. And sometimes I've been frustrated because there was no food to eat unless I made it and I didn't feel like making it. But to the OP, it can be done. And cooking at home is definitely cheaper or I would have given this up a long time ago.
edited to add: the reason I'm on food stamps and not working right now is because I am awaiting a decision for federal disability. The original hearing was more than a year ago. I was turned down then because everyone is turned down the first time. I checked with my lawyer not too long ago and I was told they hadn't even assigned anyone to look at my case for an appeal. Meantime, I'm only on state disability right now and that amount qualifies me for food stamps.
Last edited by rodentraiser; 07-23-2015 at 09:13 PM..
I easily spend $40 at the grocery store for lasagna.
However it makes 12 servings easy.
I don't know how anyone can make it for less. The meat and cheese are at a minimum of $20.
I found a recipe online for spinach artichoke lasagna that's a little cheaper since it's meatless, but I like to go all out on the cheese (and meat when I make meat lasagna) so i do end up spending quite a bit on lasagna. Although I do tend to have Parmesan on hand, and sometimes mozzarella, so I don't have to buy as much when I decide to make it. But like you I get at least 12 servings (13 X 9 pan). So that's like $3.33 per serving, tell me where you're going to get a $3 piece of lasagna outside of home cooking.
Spanikopita which is greek (or lebanese) spinach pie makes a lot too and the most expensive ingredient is by far the cheese...it still works out to only a few bucks per serving.
It's not that cheap in most of the country....even on sale and I am currently in Wisconsin.
And no....living in a high cost of living state is not always a choice...how is a young person born and raised there supposed to just move to somewhere cgeaper?
I lived on the IL/WI border for the past fifteen years and the food prices are MUCH lower in that area than they are here. Look at the great number of options in SE Wisconsin and N Illinois including Aldo, woodman, and other discount options.
The last time that I looked, there is no "cheddar curtain" surrounding Wisconsin and there are many roads that lead out of the state.
I know for a lot of people, cooking can be difficult, especially if they're working one or two jobs. I'm still not gung-ho on cooking myself, which is the reason I cook and freeze so much food, plus I hate doing dishes. One thing I do is cook what I know I will like and eat, plus I'm reading a good cooking blog right now that actually shows me how to cook the foods in the recipe with videos. I love that site, since I do so much better when I'm shown how to do something.
There is an app called Out of Milk, which provides an alert when the stores in your area has sales. You can then select the specific category that you need, or just browse all of the sales.
For example, Winn-Dixie, Publix, etc. show up on my app with their sales for the week. I can then select the category that I need (Fresh Meat, produce, etc.) and add it to my shopping list.
You can also change the settings so that the app may alert you when you are close to the store.
I dream of pot roast, but the only way I can afford it is to go to a restaurant. A small sized roast on manager's special was $9.99. The rest were $12.00 and up. Let's not talk about other cuts of meat...the best value right now seems to be bone-in pork chops.
Add up the cost of all the other ingredients and that restaurant meal comes out at less, and no dishes to wash either. Every time we go to the supermarket prices have risen by a minimum of .50 and a lot of them by $1.00.
Can Can sales can be great but I noticed that prices on non-Can Can items were higher. So they just juggle with prices and the shopper ends up paying a lot anyway. Besides that, our local ShopRite is beginning to look like stores in the old Soviet Union, with half empty shelves and less variety. Sign of things to come?
If you try to recreate something you found on pinterest or from a popular restaurant then yes, it can be expensive. However it doesnt HAVE to be expensive. Hit your local farmers market and get veggies for the week. Get bogos at the store, and buy meat when its on sale. For instance last nights dinner for me, 1 of the frozen chicken breasts I got in a frozen bag of 6 for 5 dollars, sauteed in salt and pepper with olive oil and garlic cloves. 1 pack of those buitoni premade refridgerated tortellinis that I got bogo, one jar of pasta sauce that I got on bogo. Total "cost" about 5 dollars.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
