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There are 5 adults and 2 kids in this home right now so I am trying to come up with cheaper meals for the family. Anything you can think of is helpful. Thanks!
Make menus from what is on sale for the week. Stay away from the boxed garbage. Make your own versions of the boxed meals for a lot less money plus it's much better for you. Instead of buying expensive cereal buy a large container of old fashioned oats for breakfasts. Believe it or not a bowl cooks in the microwave (one minute) just as fast as the sugared junky packets. Look on-line and in the newspaper for coupons for frequently used items. Sometimes you can find canned goods at places like Big Lots. I don't know where you live but shopping at Aldi's or Sav-a-lot can save a lot of money. If you are a member I think Sam's Club is a great place to get a lot of things in bulk and their meat is decent. I think it is well worth the membership.
Pasta meals for dinner. Spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, pizza pasta bake, baked ziti... You could also bake or crock pot up a few whole chickens (google sticky chicken!), make a salad, and get some corn on the cob or cheap baking potatoes.
I don't know where you live but I can usually get 8lbs of potatoes for .99. I'd make a breakfast bake/hash with some sort of cheaper breakfast meat, diced potatoes, diced veggies, and cheese. A pancake bar is another good idea. Just google pancake recipes. I've made some really good ones from scratch. Put out an assortment of toppings and syrup.
Soup and sandwiches for lunch! Or potato bar. Or taco bar. Or grill up some burgers and dogs.
Hmm, I wonder if CD moderators will "warn" me again if I make a joke and say "eat one of the kids?"..
1. Eat Fewer Calories - For the adults, only. I think children should eat as much as they can if they're relatively healthy. Are any of the adults overweight? It may be a good moment to consider whether or not a calorie limit may be in order to reduce the size of the meals. I think that a lot of adults in America may not need as many calories as we normally consume, and if they're willing to do so, they can eat less and possibly more fruits and vegetables and shrink the food budget and their waistlines at the same time...
Maybe you can eat more of these cheap and healthy things:
2. Lentils - A bag of lentils is so inexpensive, and they're full of protein and don't seem to cause gas like chickpeas and other beans. I use a rice cooker and make lentils and brown rice and eat it with olive oil and salt. I guess the other stuff is not really cheap, but you can also make lentil soup and eat that with rice. There are lots of recipes.
3. Flour for Breads - Big bags of wheat and white flour seem pretty cheap. I wouldn't recommend baking with plain white flour for weight and health reasons. You can make yeast breads, or sweet breads like zucchini bread, or pumpkin bread with canned pumpkin and freeze them. Mix in some of the wheat flour. I like to eat sweet breads with cheese. I don't know if Americans would like that, but I love it for lunch. I also don't really buy bread, and usu making my own leavened bread takes too long.
Soo
Whenever I feel like having some "bread", I usually make flat fried dumplings which are kind of like Indian fry bread or Indian Poori (but with wheat flour and baking powder). So if you can convince your bunch to eat that, it's cheap and fast and you can eat it with chili/stew/curry whatever.
"Fried" may sound bad, but if you drain off the oil, and use vegetable oil, IMO it's better than eating a yeast-leavened bread that may be made with butter or another saturated fat.
Make menus from what is on sale for the week. Stay away from the boxed garbage. Make your own versions of the boxed meals for a lot less money plus it's much better for you. Instead of buying expensive cereal buy a large container of old fashioned oats for breakfasts. Believe it or not a bowl cooks in the microwave (one minute) just as fast as the sugared junky packets. Look on-line and in the newspaper for coupons for frequently used items. Sometimes you can find canned goods at places like Big Lots. I don't know where you live but shopping at Aldi's or Sav-a-lot can save a lot of money. If you are a member I think Sam's Club is a great place to get a lot of things in bulk and their meat is decent. I think it is well worth the membership.
Thanks for the ideas.Yes I live pretty close to sav a lot and love to shop there for their canned stuff its usually a lot cheaper than other stores and aldi's is a little farther but worth the drive because of the prices. We have had a sams club membership for a few months and go there to get my son's diapers so will take a look at their meats etc.
Homemade chicken soup is always a winner at my house.
There are all kinds of cheap cuts of meat that turn out sensational when cooked low and slow. Pork Shoulders can be smoked or roasted. Pot roasts are wonderful. Whole chickens are cheaper can be purchased and cooked any number of ways, whole or cut.
The good thing about these types of foods is that they can be made with fresh ingredients, controlled salt content and many taste good in a crock pot. Set and forget before work, come home to dinner.
Do what I do... if you have the freezer space, buy some big turkeys when they go on sale this Thanksgiving season. There are a million and one tasty things you can do with roast turkey meat, and the carcass will make the base for some tasty soup. You can't lose with a turkey, especially when they're on sale.
There is a thread in the recipe forum by Laura707 called...Some of my most often used recipes. She is a cook on a Tug Boat. I think its a tug boat but it is a working vessel on the Mississippi. Anyway, she has alot of great recipes that feed a bunch and they don't look expensive.
Good luck
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Turkey comes to mind, fairly cheap and makes great sandwiches.
