Grocery shopping on a strict budget

[A home for their hearts]

I'm needing some ideas for recipes that are inexpensive and nutritious. We are on a really tight budget right now so I need ideas that can possibly be used for multiple meals.

[lynn]

buy a ham make a ham dinner one day, baked potatoes with ham and cheese on top the next then another day scrambled eggs and ham or chop up whatever ham is left add cream soup, bean and cheese and bake. The idea is to buy one meat and make several meals. With chicken I make a meal, with vegetable, potatoes etc one day, shred what left and mix with taco or chili seasoning and black beans and wrap in tortillas. The left over ham can also be thrown into crock pot on pinto beans cover with water and let cook all day. I hope this makes some kind of sense. The other cheap healthy meals is beans over rice, spaghetti, use left overs creatively. beans become a staple when times get tough but they don't have to be boring. some ideas, chili, wrapped in tortillas with cheese, beans over rice etc.

[*anj*]

Yes, hams and chickens can definitely be stretched beyond the main dish meal.

I do the same thing with turkeys. I have one in my freezer right now that I received free of charge in November. I will probably cook it in a couple of weeks. We'll eat it as turkey dinner once or twice, then I'll make some sandwiches with it, or make turkey salad, and there's the ever popular Turkey-Stuffing Casserole. Then I'll take what's left and make a stew.

 

When meat is on sale (I mean those Really. Good. Sales.)you would do well to buy the largest package that you can afford. In my area, pork shoulders regularly go on sale for .69/lb, and sometimes the store circular will have a coupon making the meat .49/lb. When this happens I can get a huge 10 pound roast for only $5! This can be stretched over a few meals.

 

Use bits of leftovers for lunch. Today I made whole wheat tortillas from scratch (super easy, super cheap) and I had some leftover White Bean Dip and some leftover Sloppy Joe meat in the fridge. We rolled these up in the tortillas, voila!

 

If you can learn how to make things from scratch, and buy the ingredients in bulk, you will save a lot of money. I make granola, cookies, tonight I'm planning to make pretzels, bread, tortillas, etc. They are better tasting, better quality, and only cost me pennies per batch, compared to even sale prices for store bought products.

[Stirsmommy]

I have done this with a turkey. Cooked it one day for turkey dinner. Then pick it cleaned and made stock from the bones. I save a bit of the turkey for soup. The rest become enchiladas, pot pie, sandwiches, pizza, pasta just about anything that calls for cooked meat. Good luck.

[A home for their hearts]

Use bits of leftovers for lunch. Today I made whole wheat tortillas from scratch (super easy, super cheap) and I had some leftover White Bean Dip and some leftover Sloppy Joe meat in the fridge. We rolled these up in the tortillas, voila!

 

If you can learn how to make things from scratch, and buy the ingredients in bulk, you will save a lot of money. I make granola, cookies, tonight I'm planning to make pretzels, bread, tortillas, etc. They are better tasting, better quality, and only cost me pennies per batch, compared to even sale prices for store bought products.

 

Would you mind sharing how you make these from scratch? It sounds like a great idea!

[*anj*]

Sure!

Here's the tortilla recipe:

 

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups unbleached bread flour (You can play around with the proportions, as long as you end up with 4 cups in total. I only had 2 cups of ww already ground, so that's all I used.)

6 tablespoons olive oil (you could use another oil if you have that on hand)

8-12 oz. water, as needed

1 tsp. salt

 

Mix the flour and salt, add oil. Gradually stir in the water, only as much as you need. Knead briefly, just until the dough is smooth.

Split the dough up so that you have 16 balls. Flatten each ball a bit, then lay out on a piece of wax paper or wooden board, or whatever. Cover with a clean towel, then let them rest for a half hour or so.

 

Heat a heavy (cast iron) pan or griddle on the stove. Take each disk and roll it out a bit until it's about 8" in diameter, then throw them one by one onto the (ungreased) griddle. Cook each one for maybe a minute on each side. As you cook them pile them up in a bowl, and cover with a towel to keep them warm and soft.

 

Roll them up with bits of leftovers, or smear with refried beans, or ricotta cheese mixed with veggies and a bit of parmesan, or you can make them into quesadillas.

 

I can give you some of the other recipes later. Right now I need to go and finish schoolin' them youngin's! :D

[cin]

My friend does the same thing with beef. She makes a roast, then makes a beef stew and beef barbecue. When I bought a ham for Christmas dinner, I purposely bought one that was a little bigger than we needed, and I had 4 large chunks left. I've already used one to make a Yummy pot of bean soup. (white beans, garlic, onion, bay leaf, a touch of honey, and chopped ham). I love this because it's all done in the crockpot!

 

I put our leftovers in a serving size freezer container and freeze them. THen dh takes them for lunch every day. We also eat them for lunch on the weekends. This saves us about $5/day vs dh eating out AND I don't ahve to buy special things for lunch. I buy generic soups and spaghetti-o's like stuff, so we do have 'fun' easy lunches once in a while :) . I buy broccoli and cauliflower on the head and it's alot cheaper than the bags. We can eat off of those for almost 2 weeks. (DH gets a salad every day at work, it's sold by the pound).

 

I buy mostly store brands, buy meat that is discounted, and I go by my menu/list. i do NOT take anyone with me. (HOnestly, DH is the WORST!!!) Our grocery store has a Starbucks in it. If I stay under budget I get a Latte. (Don't tell DH, but I usually get the Latte and drink it WHILE I shop:o) It does help that we have 1 big eater (DH) and 3 small eaters, but I usually spend about $70/wk.

[Excelsior! Academy]

If you are on a seriously tight budget check out Hillybilly Housewife. She has some desperation menus. If you are on a moderate tight budget check out e-mealz. They email you menus and grocery lists weekly. They promise to keep the basic meal plan around $75 a week. It does cost $15 every three months and it is store specific. They have 11 different plans to choose from.

[mom2tbcnm]

I like Hillbillyhousewife.com recipes for cheap and good stuff. Great granola for breakfast and snacks., Katty

[G5052]

I'd recommend any of the recipes in the Tightwad Gazette books (many libraries have these) or Dining on a Dime (DH gave me this last Christmas, can buy used on Amazon, or she has a great website at http://www.livingonadime.com with a free newsletter I enjoy.

 

The biggest help for us to is basically cook from scratch and use inexpensive ingredients. I bake all our bread and rolls from scratch and use my Dutch oven and crockpot a lot to make soups and stews. I find that my family is satisfied at dinner with good bread, a hearty stew/soup, and fruit or salad. I tend more towards natural/organic foods and belong to two different co-ops where I buy in bulk and get that type of food for pretty close to standard grocery store prices. Just a few weeks ago I bought fifty pounds of organic, grass-fed hamburger for $4/pound. For lunch we eat homemade bread, cheese, fruit, mac-n-cheese (organic bought in bulk), nachos, bean burritos, etc. Breakfast is pancakes (I make huge batches and freeze) or oatmeal.

 

This really doesn't take as much time as you may think either. DH is disabled and I work nearly full-time part of the year, so for me it's doable because I basically pick simple recipes that cook themselves.

 

Good luck!

[momee]

Just some ideas to think about - and things I've learned the hard way.

Dh used to make so much less and although we had less children and they ate much less than they do now - I was much more careful with how I spent my money. Now we have a bit extra and it just disappears on stuff we really don't need; that's another issue though.

 

Back to groceries...

we save money mostly by buying in bulk and being smart about the food we buy. If I remember each thing I buy costs money it puts a different spin so to say on my grocery cart.

When we were really tight I would only bring cash into the store. I would only be able to spend that much - it was amazing how much I put back that we really didn't NEED.

 

I think today people waste a ton of food. Either with purchasing more than they will use or in buying things for recipes that they never end up using.

 

I do have a meal plan. I realized the hard way though that when I was using someone else's ideas for my meal plan- especially those from a cookbook or a friend's with recipes - I ended up buying stuff I used only for that recipe! What a hidden waste that can be. Spices especially. We have a little yoga shop that sells bulk spices and is cheaper than Whole Foods on quite a bit of things. One more stop though so you have to weigh the benefit of doing something like that.

 

Use a meal plan but be sure it's stuff your family will eat and if fairly familiar with. That said we do try new stuff (like the TVP sloppy joes - cheap but blech! yuck! ick!) but I need to limit those to one or two every paycheck.

 

I once saved a whole week's budget by just eating what we had on hand. It's amazing how much stuff gets stocked up on in the pantry that we don't eat! NOT GOOD> When making your grocery list plan to use those two cans of cannelini beans for soup with homemade bread - kwim? Also how many times have you gone into the store without a list, come home and wondered what will you eat for dinner, lol. Lists are very important to me as is not!!!! sending my dh. Bless his heart he just isn't as familiar with the usual cost of things. He bought hamb. meat for $8 one time. I about bit his head off poor guy. After apologizing I realized he had no clue what it should be, he was just following my list.

 

Another area we end up getting hit in the budget is when I don't plan. Then we end up eating out. I'm tired, I don't have a plan or ingredients I need and everyone's hungry so we head out. It sounds fun and we could all use the together time BUT -

I have to remember pbjs on nights like those are sooo much smarter than spending $45 at a restaurant for all 5 of us. That's half of my goal for the week!

 

I can send you my meal plan for brkfst, snacks, lunch, pm snacks and dinners if you'd like. Remember though if it's not food you normally eat it may not save you that much. I also have worked and reworked this thing tons of times to adjust what meals my kids like, what Sam's usually carries, etc so it's pretty personalized.

 

I just redid it and did so with our budget and health in mind...it's not stellar but works for the stores I shop in and how we live during the week.

 

One last thing I've learned the hard way. The importance of staying home. I've noticed with teen, preteen and younger one and ME pregnant we are hungry often and each time we go "in town" we end up eating somewhere.

 

Being home also allows me the all important breathing room to actually feel like I have energy and time (two things I'm in short supply of too often) to make things from scratch. If I've not been home and there's laundry piled up and the toilet is gross and ...fill in your own disaster -

I'm surely not going to feel I can reasonably spend two hours making pancake mix for the week or soaking beans and making raisin bread.

 

Hope this wasn't too long. I sometimes ask for help on these boards and get such a quick reply when I really need "conversation" about something. This is an area I'm pretty close to - we eat all the time :eek:

Stephanie

[YJ in AL]

Stephanie,

You have some great ideas, and we are right there with you when it comes to eating out because of lack of planning/tired/etc. If you do have a copy of your list, could you please share it?

 

Many thanks,

Yvonne

[OnTheBrink]

When you have a little more money, a good cook book is The Six O'Clock Scramble by Aviva Goldfarb. Her recipes are divided into seasons, then weeks. On her website you can download grocery lists for that week and she has a list of staples that her recipes call for. One of the lovely things is that her staples are just regular things. There's nothing that's hard to find or obscure. She has a nice diversity of meat, poultry, fish and vegetarian recipes, as well as notes on how to veg up or meat up one of her recipes. We've like most of what we've tried. Like with anything, there'll be one or two that got a thumbs down by my kids, but for the most part, she's saved me some money and gotten us to vary the normal boring routine.

 

As for the here and now, if you have an Aldi near you, shop there first, then whatever you need that they don't carry, get at Walmart of Meijer. Aldi even has a website with recipes that call for only their products, so that's a help, too.

[momee]

ahh...tried to post my excel info on the menu here, totally didn't work.

Anyone have idea on how to post it?

[cricket1178]

where you are coming from. We've BTDT and are still there doing that! I have found that soups are a great way of stretching the budget. I can a big pot of soup and usually stretch it for 3 meals. If you don't want to eat the same soup for three meals (most people don't) you can freeze it and it will be there ready to go when you need it the next week. HTH.

[Mrs. Readsalot]

I buy large packages of pasta, rice, beans, etc and build meals around them. Meat is more of a luxury at penny pinching times. I do stock up on meat when it is on sale. ie turkeys at Thanksgiving when they are 39cents a pound. I also, at times, I make bread from scratch. I cook most meals from stratch and avoid the pre-packaged stuff. This past week I bought a 5 lb bag of potatoes on sale for 99 cents Today I am making twice baked potatoes with the entire bag. My ds will eat them for lunch for as long as they last(usually not long)

[freethinkermom]

I try to make things stretch more because I hate grocery shopping than to save money, but it works out that way which is a bonus.

 

Some of our family favorites:

 

Mix about 1/2 cup per pound of oats (quaker oatmeal) into ground beef before cooking or forming into hamburgers. It makes it healthier, gives it a nice meaty not-grainy texture, and seems to make the meat juicier.

 

My kids LOVE tvp sloppy-joes or BBQ-joes. They would rather have these than the beef version anytime.

 

We also love the hillbillyhousewife recipe for meatless "meat"loaf with tvp and wheat gluten. I make up two. Freeze one. The kids like to slice it up for sandwiches. I also adapted the recipe to use italian spices and made "meat"balls which were a big hit. I bake them, then freeze them and grab a few for pasta or "meat"ball sandwiches.

 

Potatoes are also a big budget stretcher here. I make stuffed potatoes in a big batch and freeze them in sets of 4. One package is a snack or lunch size for the family, two is a dinner main dish when served with a big salad. A ten pound bag of potatoes makes a lot of meals.

 

I also like to do freezer cooking when I can. It really is the same concept as making as many meals from, say, a chicken as possible. They get frozen, though, instead of having to eat them all in one week. When I go shopping I have my list of staples that need replenishing and I buy whatever meat is on sale in bulk. Then I check my freezer cooking books for recipes that use what I have. My freezer is tiny (I want one for the garage soon!) so I cannot do a whole month at a time, but I will do several meals worth a couple of times a week.

[A home for their hearts]

I can send you my meal plan for brkfst, snacks, lunch, pm snacks and dinners if you'd like. Remember though if it's not food you normally eat it may not save you that much. I also have worked and reworked this thing tons of times to adjust what meals my kids like, what Sam's usually carries, etc so it's pretty personalized.

 

Stephanie

 

That would be great!

[Rebecca in GA]

You're getting some great advice here!

 

We try not to waste food. As other ladies have mentioned, planned leftovers are great, as are soups. Tightwad Gazette was the first place I read it, and saving bits of leftovers to make "refrigerator soup" (as my children call it) helps stretch things even further. A spoonful of taco meat, a bit of rice, six pieces of broccoli -- if you save them in a bowl in the freezer, next week you can add a can of beans, a can of tomato sauce and some spices and then serve the soup with your six stale hot dog buns, which you have split, buttered, sprinkled with garlic powder and toasted.

 

We eat very simply, like some of the other folks have mentioned. A typical week's menu might include breakfasts like steel-cut oats cooked overnight in the crockpot, muffins, eggs and toast or waffles. Once a week I try to cook either bacon or sausage and eggs, and I reserve a couple of slices of bacon for fried rice later in the week (I also do this with leftover pork roast). Lunches are leftovers or quickies like baked potatoes, soup and crackers or some type of pasta.

 

Dinners are even easier. We do spaghetti with tomato sauce or with low-fat white sauce (red with ground beef, white with chicken); grilled chicken with vegetables; bean burritos with rice and corn; fried rice (leftover rice, onion, leftover meat or bacon, eggs, soy sauce) and steamed broccoli; Frito pie (homemade chili served over corn chips and topped with cheese), etc.

 

One of the things that helps me immensely is to plan my schedule first, then my menus. If I know time will be tight on Tuesdays, I'll plan a crockpot meal that cooks itself while I'm busy. I cook batches of chicken and ground beef for the freezer, so it's easy to grab and thaw one or the other for a quick casserole. I keep my spice cabinet well-stocked so we can have a variety of flavors.

 

As I menu-plan (vital!) for the week, I consider whether any fruits or vegetables need to be used quickly, so that we might have salad, bananas and berries early in the week and save the frozen/canned fruit and vegs for later. If the eggs or cheese or milk are aging, I bake something and either freeze it for later or plan a meal around it (tomato soup, quiche and a hearty batter bread, for instance).

 

I buy what's on sale. I try to be thankful for what I can afford and don't mind eating a lot of chicken and ground beef, with the occasional roast thrown in. If the price is within range, I choose organic; if not, I don't sweat it. I buy marked-down yogurt, eggs, milk, meat and produce and rearrange my menu to use those things quickly, or freeze them. (Sometimes that means that the kiddos eat yogurt twice a day, but they don't seem to mind, because sometimes it's not in the budget at all!)

 

We never get bored and there's always something to eat and something different to try, or cook, or make. We're not picky or brand-loyal except on a few things, so that when peanut butter is BOGO, it doesn't matter to us whether it's Skippy, Peter Pan, Jif or store brand. We buy lots of store brands and try not to run out of staples like flour, oil, sugar, baking powder, etc.

 

One thing I highly recommend for when you're a little more solvent is a supply of wheat berries and some type of grinder. My family eats a lot more healthy, fresh whole grains because we were able to invest in this. We still eat some 2/$1 white bread, too, but most of our breads, muffins, waffles and treats are made with the healthier grain.

 

I'd like to recommend two cookbooks to you. Maybe you can check them out of the library or pick them up cheaply somewhere, but they are "Whole Foods for the Whole Family" and the Betty Crocker Cookbook. Both have explicit directions on how to make a wide variety of foods, so that if you learn to cook/make them from scratch you will save your family a great deal of money.

 

Good luck to you! :)

[Audrey]

I got a big chuck roast -- they're very inexpensive. You can get them boneless which is a bit more, or with bones for lots less. Pound for pound of useable meat, the one with bones is still cheaper.

 

I cooked this up in the big slow cooker on Sunday. With that, we had potatoes, green beans, salad, and homemade chocolate pudding for dessert. (very cheap to make pudding, btw)

 

I'll get 3 more meals out of this, so I divide it into 3 baggies. One will be for beef on biscuits for tonight. Homemade biscuits = super cheap, super tasty. I'll make a little gravy to go on that. Ds doesn't like gravy, so he will have some BBQ sauce on his. With that goes buttered carrots, and baked apples for dessert.

 

I'll also make a spanish beef and rice casserole, and a beef & noodle soup for the rest of it.

 

Edited to add: I do a Frugal Friday post on my blog every week. Many of them deal with food frugality. Last Friday was about bulk purchasing.

[A home for their hearts]

Has anyone used the $40 or $70 meal plan? This looks like a great idea but some of the recipes I'm not sure my dc would like. They are very picky eaters.

[Ottakee]

I buy ONLY what is on sale most of the time. And it must be a real SALE, not just 10 cents off, etc. Generally I don't buy it unless it is at least 33% off.

 

We buy lots of store brand things--esp. when they have the 2-4 time a year "stock up" sales. I can get cereal for 99 cents a box---and then buy 20 of them.

 

I buy skinless boneless chicken breasts at no more than $2/lb.--just 1-2 pieces can feed the whole family in a soup or casserole.

 

Try to make lots of soups, stews, etc. Great way to stretch your meat and use up leftovers.

[Renee in NC]

I eliminate non-necessities. I don't buy dairy products other than some butter (and sometimes sour cream.) I buy little to no meat - the idea being that we can eat meatless 4-5 days per week. If I am limited on my budget (which seems to be often!) I buy in this order:

 

produce

frozen veggies

canned veggies and fruit

starches/grains

beans

meat

 

I finally realized that I was being silly when I didn't want to pay $1.88 per pound for tomatoes, but I would pay $3.00+ per pound for hamburger. I try to center our meals on the veggies and use the grains/meat as "sides."

[jg_puppy]

This thread has been very helpful. I would love to start cooking from scratch, but I have a hard time finding recipes that the family will eat.

Jan

[A home for their hearts]

This thread has been very helpful. I would love to start cooking from scratch, but I have a hard time finding recipes that the family will eat.

Jan

 

I have the same problem! Any suggestions for transitioning?

[jg_puppy]

Does anyone have any recipes for muffins that taste like the boxed kind? (blueberry) I know they are not very healthy, but maybe if I start with a few things then I can gradually make them more healthy.

 

I would also love a good bread recipe. I can't seem to find one that works well. I have a small Kitchen aid mixer with a dough hook that might work for small loaves. It isn't one of the high powered ones.

 

Jan

[Rebecca in GA]

This thread has been very helpful. I would love to start cooking from scratch, but I have a hard time finding recipes that the family will eat.

Jan

 

How about starting with one or two elements from scratch or fresh, such as a small salad with their choice of dressing and homemade refried beans, with something they're used to eating and enjoy, such as boxed mac and cheese?

 

I think just making sure they're good and hungry before they sit down has helped my children enjoy new or from-scratch foods. I don't control their eating, exactly, but I do eliminate snacks in the afternoon if I think there's a chance they'll balk at dinner.

 

Also, they are not allowed to criticize the food. It's a respect thing, and once we set consequences and got the "but I don't want this" whining under control, they began to eat with more enjoyment. Remembering to be truly thankful for plenty helped with the pickiness (so did interaction with some underprivileged folks).

 

Have them help prepare the meal. Talk about different colors, textures and new foods. Look up nutritional information and talk about how much healthier and better they feel when they eat properly. Draw and color pictures of the foods. An interest in the food and a sense of accomplishment at having helped -- plus lots of praise from mom! -- helps around here as well.

 

Again, I can't recommend highly enough Whole Foods for the Whole Family and the Betty Crocker cookbook for learning to cook from scratch, although any good, basic cookbook with clear instructions would do. Even with a limited budget, these would be a good investment. Once you can find your way around the kitchen with confidence, it becomes easier to make up a nourishing, filling, inexpensive meal from whatever is on hand.