What do you cook when money is tight?

[tbs727]

I am loving this thread! This is my biggest weakness, I am keeping a spreadsheet of menu ideas to go with my perpetual pantry. Thanks so much for sharing all your tips. Maybe someday I'll have some of my own to add.

[MOMMYDEAREST]

our money is always tight. i'm a very big coupon shopper. if it wasn't for my coupons, we wouldn't have alot of food. i always buy meat when its on sale. for instance, i ahve about 4 packs of hot dogs in my deep freezer, but this week krogers ran them on sale for $.99 so i picked up a few more packs. that way i always have something to fall back on if money is really tight. the elats amount i ahve ever sepnt weekly at the grocery store was $30.00. a cheap easy meal to make is pigs in a blanket (hot dogs wrapped up in buscuits). my kids love them & they are so cheap to eat.

[momof42003]

Great thread, and I don't believe I have seen this one either.. Thanks for the bump.... Great ideas here.

[sunshine]

Since there was such an interest in the $20 challenge, I thought I'd bump up this thread.

[littlemotherhaywood]

Since there was such an interest in the $20 challenge, I thought I'd bump up this thread.

Thanks.

I noticed the beginning date and wondered where it came from, lol. Lots of great ideas here

[betharoo0]

For us we eat A LOT of beans and rice for dinners. Ground beef is not cheap here, i use Ground turkey when it goes on sale for 99 cents a pound, we eat chile which goes for a couple of days and then i freeze the rest. with chili we have it over rice, noodles, fritos(walmart brand is cheap), make chili dogs, etc.... i always plan all my meals right down to the snacks, and we dont buy alot of snacks, when its real tight no snacks. some nights its just a type of bean and rice and side veggi and tortilla. NOTHING GETS THROWN AWAY!!!! i reuse all leftovers. with chicken i most always buy boneless skinless thighs that i get for 1.67 a pound. WHY? well beacuse i most always chop one or 2 thighs into a casserole or the like, we hardy ever just eat the chicken pieces whole, like 2 thighs to a person, and i dont like paying for skin and bones that iam not going to eat. breakfast we eat alot of oatmeal and i dont mean instant with flavors, i buy my oats in bulk, i make cookies, bars,etc...
i also make alot of "giso" (SP?) which is usually a little meat (chix,beef, pork, whatever on hand) fry in a little oil, with seasoning add corn or pasta or green beans, rice,or whatever filler you have on hand and some tomato sauce, water cook down and wala! dinner!
btw you don't add all the ingredents, like i do chicken with the corn or chopped beef with green beans and tomato sauce, this goes into DH lunch the next day
when i shop the less packaging the cheaper its going to be, like i dont buy mac n chesse because a box at .33 cents here is not a buy where i live when i can get a whole pound of macaroni for like.50 cents and make sonthing with that. the less processed the better. hope this helps.

[PeacewithMyself]

When things are tight...

We either have a pot of pintos in the Crockpot or a soup of some kind as the first part of the meal. With HM Bread.

After eating beans or soup and bread. Then we cook something else light. Such as an omelet or open a jar of Canned Fruit for desert.

An old time dinner during canning season would be whatever you are canning with one of the above for dinner.

If you were making strawberry jam - You might have Strawberry Shortcakes with homemade biscuits for dinner after a bowl of soup or beans.

If you were canning green beans then you might have 'leftover soup' (or clean out the frig soup) and a big bowl of green beans with some bacon grease cooked with it for flavor.

We always cook 2 times the amount of rice that we need for 1 meal. Then this becomes breakfast as rice with milk and sugar. Or added to so many other dished. Maybe as a treat Rice Pudding.

Instead of buying Potato Chips make your own crackers. You can control how much fat and salt and they taste great.

[betharoo0]

peacewithmyself, those are good ideas! do you have a recipe for homemade crackers?

[Nada.Leona]

Rice and frozen veggies. You just can't go wrong. Spice it up different, use different rices (I always use real rice, not that gross instant rice :yuck: ) and different frozen veggies. For about $10, you can make a lot of meals!

[jen k]

potatoes...mashed, potatoe pancakes-sprinkled with white sugar, homemade perogies with sour cream, homemade fries, homemade hashbrowns, baked potatoes, potatoe salad.

hamburgers, tacos, hamburger goulash.

pasta, mac and cheese, spagetti.

rice, fried rice, stir fry.

beans with toast, sardines and toast.

pancakes, homemade waffles, omlets.

soups, tomatoe soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, homemade chicken soup and garlic bread, any soup and homemade biscuits.

bake more, cinnamon buns, homemade bread, muffins (i like to use up the leftover cranberry sauce from turkey dinners at x-mas and thanksgiving), buiscits, cakes (i freeze the bananas that are over ripe and use them to make banana bread)

salads and anything i can use from the garden.

tea and coffee, homemade lemonaide (from concentrated lemon juice), homemade ice tea.

even when things have been tight i've always tried to have milk in the house. it might have meant watering it down for receipes but never watered down for drinking. it's just always felt "okay" as long as the mortgage is paid and there's milk in the fridge.

[jen k]

oh yeah, and a friend of mine gave me a meatless receipe that costs very little. you'll either love it or it'll be just okay. here it goes...

black beans (you'll have to soak them overnight, then cook them...slow cooker works well for this)
rice
sour cream
salsa

cook the rice and beans
serve the beans over the rice
top with salsa and sour cream

simple. four food groups. filling and nutricious.