Budget minded meals

[young_]

Just curious, I've been on a tight budget lately being unemployed and I've had to watch what I eat. I've been staying active and trying to gain weight, so I've been eating a lot, but cheaper foods. My question is, when the going gets tough, what foods do you turn to?

Examples: 1 dollar banquet TV dinners, ramen noodles, pb&j's, sandwiches, etc.

I've been buying frozen chicken breast in bulk and just cooking them different ways. Grilling, baking, etc.

Thanks in advance!

 

[XpL0d3r]

I'll usually cook pasta and grab some ground beef or turkey and add that in.

For lunch I was eating deli meat sandwiches for a while.

Also, eggs, ramen, whole grain cereal, aaand fast food when I'm lazy.

 

[young_]

I'm used to cooking some gourmet meals with a ton of ingredients so this has been quite a transition for me. Ham and cheese omelets have been a nice go to meal lately

 

[Wreckless Hype]

I eat these meals a lot because they are filling, delicious and easy to cook. Also, my packed lunchbox boils down to like 7 or 8 bucks to fill me up all day.

Breakfast is usually a cup of coffee, omelette with 1 egg, egg whites, some real bacon bits, diced peppers, onions, and mushrooms and I'll sprinkle some cheddar on top. I'll have a banana and sometimes a Chobani if I'm still hungry.

I buy large 5 pack chicken boneless chicken breasts from Walmart, halve them and grill em, steam fresh broccoli and sometimes I'll cook a couple cups of Quinoa. I can easily make that last 2 weeks (Quinoa bag lasts like a month and a half)

Large package of spring mix salad, sliced salt and pepper almonds, 4 pack of solid white albacore, crumbled feta cheese, balsamic vinaigrette. Delicious salad.

Sometimes just cook up ground turkey plain with broccoli and quinoa, or will add less sodium taco mix for flavor.

I've mixed a can of solid white albacore with some coarse mustard and eaten that with a fork, delicious and simple.

With those lunches, I'll take a container of cut veggies (bell peppers, carrots, celery, broccoli, cucumbers - all raw), a chobani yogurt, bag of fresh almonds, maybe a bag of goldfish crackers if I have them that week, individual packaged pepper jack cheese sticks, hard boiled egg, KIND granola bar, Real Medley granola bars. Ice water on the side. Good all day at work.

 

[TokyoSkies]

I'm used to cooking on the cheap, as I spend all my money on useless s**t

Chicken breast is cheap and easy to prep, as you know. We do burgers/steaks occasionally, as well as LOTS of stuff with lean ground turkey. We do turkey tacos, turkey sloppy joes, turkey meatballs and spaghetti etc (whole grain noodles, organic sauce etc.). Cooking is far cheaper than anything processed, but requires more time.
For breakfast, eggs, whole wheat pancakes, omelets are my best friend, as well as scrambled eggs and a bit of bacon/sausage as a treat.

 

[XpL0d3r]

And now I'm hungry. Thankfully lunch break in 11 minutes

^ Tuna and coarse mustard sounds good, I'll have to give that a try. Same with turkey sloppy joes, I haven't even had normal ones in forever.

 

[Wreckless Hype]

Slow cooked 3lbs of ground turkey and made chili out of it. Not ideal for the summer obviously, but when you look at it as cost per meal, stupid cheap. Beans like 2 bucks, spices are nothing, sauce a few bucks. Hole thing cost like 12 bucks to make and lasted me over a week for lunch and sneaking bowls to snack on at home.

 

[TokyoSkies]

I eat these meals a lot because they are filling, delicious and easy to cook. Also, my packed lunchbox boils down to like 7 or 8 bucks to fill me up all day.

Breakfast is usually a cup of coffee, omelette with 1 egg, egg whites, some real bacon bits, diced peppers, onions, and mushrooms and I'll sprinkle some cheddar on top. I'll have a banana and sometimes a Chobani if I'm still hungry.

I buy large 5 pack chicken boneless chicken breasts from Walmart, halve them and grill em, steam fresh broccoli and sometimes I'll cook a couple cups of Quinoa. I can easily make that last 2 weeks (Quinoa bag lasts like a month and a half)

Large package of spring mix salad, sliced salt and pepper almonds, 4 pack of solid white albacore, crumbled feta cheese, balsamic vinaigrette. Delicious salad.

Sometimes just cook up ground turkey plain with broccoli and quinoa, or will add less sodium taco mix for flavor.

I've mixed a can of solid white albacore with some coarse mustard and eaten that with a fork, delicious and simple.

With those lunches, I'll take a container of cut veggies (bell peppers, carrots, celery, broccoli, cucumbers - all raw), a chobani yogurt, bag of fresh almonds, maybe a bag of goldfish crackers if I have them that week, individual packaged pepper jack cheese sticks, hard boiled egg, KIND granola bar, Real Medley granola bars. Ice water on the side. Good all day at work.

THIS is eating well. I need to take note haha.

An idea of my daily meals:
Breakfast - 100% Organic Greek Yogurt (Vanilla), English muffin or bagel (cinnamon raisin because I like nomz stuff), Red Bull Total Zero. Weekends I'll cook scrambled eggs/omelet/waffles/pancakes, sometimes I'll do a scramble bowl (potatoes, eggs, cheese, bell peppers, red peppers, a little onion), if I feel like making breakfast.
Lunch - I eat those Amy's 100% Organic Microwavable bullshits a lot, because I don't have a lot of time to meal prep lately. They're not bad, low calorie, filling, and organic. If I have time to meal prep, I'll make a bunch of chicken breast and steamed veggies with brown rice. Serves as a good meal for a week or so, or until I get sick of it and cave and get a damned sammich.
Dinner - Whatever roommates and I decide on. Sometimes we grill steaks/porkchops, sometimes we grill chicken, sometimes we do stir fry, river trout tacos (wild caught by us!), chicken fajitas etc. We just try to be conscious of what is that we're cooking/eating. One of my roommates is borderline paleo: nothing but fish, chicken, and red meat, with a bit of veggies/fruit in for good measure. No cheese, only greek yogurt for dairy, hardly any bread. s**t is hardcore, but he maintains it, so we tend to help abide by that for dinner.

 

[Wreckless Hype]

THIS is eating well. I need to take note haha.

Ha. I try to stick to it, but sometimes you get bored and need to throw in a s*** day, which is totally fine and often recommended. For example, today I'm eating a QuickChek peppered ham and turkey on a 12" italian parm roll with white chaddar, onions, black olives, bacon, oil and vinegar with a Rockstar Sparkling energy (Cherry), and Doritos citrus 404 flavor. NOT eating well today

The men in my family have salt problems so it's mostly to keep hydrated and not eat too much processed stuff with tons of sodium. Plus it's really cheap.

I don't ever mess with the microwave things and I try to avoid lunch meats sometimes only because of salts. Also, my microwave meals come out in a steamy liquid pile of molten magma, so yea. Sometimes (today) I indulge. I also have MacD's on occasion when I feel lazy or cheat days.

All the organic and GMO crap I never really cared about. Also tends to make things more expensive. "Organic" just means that the amount of crap added has to be below a certain threshold, so they'll hit like 1 or 2% below it and market it as super healthy ORGANIC food. Doesn't matter to me at all.

If you can find a local butcher, boom, cheap fresh meat. Used to buy 25lbs of chicken from a butcher at $1.50 a pound. Was awesome. Moved though and not possible anymore.

Weekends are generally a free for all when it comes to the grill. Burgers, dogs, brats, ribs, whatever. We'll usually grill some zucchini if we make steaks, and also potatoes. With the burgers and dogs, etc, we grill corn. Sometimes with the sit down meals we grill asparagus. Delicious.

Edit:

Back in the day I used to buy tortilla wraps, take them to work with grilled chicken sliced up, some lettuce and onion and a bit of ranch I made with no fat yogurt and ranch dip mix.

 

[joe7987]

You can buy the bagged frozen tilapia filets at your local grocery store. They're super cheap at wal mart, and tend to be decently priced everywhere. Throw that together with a few frozen vegetables and you have a healthy, protein packed meal that tastes good and really doesn't cost that much (~$2-3 a serving?)

Add potatoes to everything. A bag of potatoes is super cheap per potato. Potato soup. Dice the potatoes, cover with olive oil and some spices and throw them in the oven. Baked potatoes with butter. Baked french fries. etc etc.

Apples and Oranges are also really cheap by the bag.

Peanut butter banana honey sandwiches on whole wheat bread are cheap, delicious, and healthy.

Quesadillas - not so healthy, but buy yourself a pack of tortillas, a bag of cheese, and whatever else you want in it (I like to dice jalapenos) and you've got a cheap meal. If you make several (e.g., use the whole tortilla bag and the entire bag of cheese) these get to be really cheap per serving.

Nachos - I buy a pack of tortilla chips, the knockoff brand of kraft singles american cheese, and a can of black beans. Throw the beans and cheese in a bowl. Toss it in the microwave. Mix them up, then pour them over the chips (or use it as a dip). That's a meal that feeds two for less than 2 bucks a serving.

Homemade burritos - Rice, beans, cheese, and jalapenos. Make it in bulk. Throw them inside of a soft tortilla. Wrap it up. Individually wrap the burritos in plastic wrap and throw them in the freezer. They keep forever, are really cheap, and are easy to bring to work.

grilled chicken salad - Buy some chicken, toss it in a salad with cheap veggies (romaine, carrots, alfalfa sprouts, etc.)

Macaroni and cheese with tuna and peas - Buy macaroni and cheese of your choice (I like velveeta shells and cheese). Buy one can of tuna and one can of peas. Cook the macaroni and cheese as usual. Throw in tuna and peas at the end. Enjoy with a nice IPA.

Grilled cheese - self explanatory.

Grilled chicken and cheese sandwiches - Same s**t, but add in some canned chicken. Top with hot sauce.

You've cooked before. Just go to the grocery store and see what ingredients are cheap. That's the key. Look at several different ingredients, not recipes. Then decide what you can concoct from those ingredients. Don't be afraid to experiment. I've made some weird s**t that worked, and some that didn't. If it works, you have a new menu item that you can make for really cheap. If not, oh well, you didn't lose much money.

 

[connies96hatchie]

Since it's grilling season everywhere, chicken breasts are usually on sale for 99 cents a pound. I usually pick up the frozen 2.5lb bag of chicken tenders whenever Tyson or Market Pantry has them on sale $5 at Target.

Not sure if you have been trying to coupon as well? Dollar Tree stores have the Sunday newspaper for $1 and have the normal Smart Source & Red Plum coupon inserts.
Try downloading free store apps and you can link their coupons to your in store rewards cards.

Couponing has helped me while I worked part-time and raise my daughter the past 5 1/2 years.

 

[young_]

Thank you Joe for that very detailed post! I'm looking for other peoples recipes and ideas of cheap and filling meals and that post was spot on.

Connie, I must admit, I have only used like three coupons in my entire life. I'll have to look into that more

 

[Wreckless Hype]

You've cooked before. Just go to the grocery store and see what ingredients are cheap. That's the key. Look at several different ingredients, not recipes. Then decide what you can concoct from those ingredients. Don't be afraid to experiment. I've made some weird s*** that worked, and some that didn't. If it works, you have a new menu item that you can make for really cheap. If not, oh well, you didn't lose much money.

Pretty much what I end up doing a lot. Leftovers together in a skillet, hell yea. If it works, I'll make it again on purpose. If not, hell, at least the left overs are gone!

Cheap ingredients is definitely a better way to shop than cheap meal ideas. At least that's what I've found in the long run.

 

[joe7987]

No problem dude. Glad it was helpful. I'll post up more ideas if I think of them. I was in your exact same position a couple of years ago.

 

[connies96hatchie]

Connie, I must admit, I have only used like three coupons in my entire life. I'll have to look into that more

Another suggestion is most grocery stores compare prices if they are the same product. Just bring in a weekly sales ad from another store and they can do a price adjustment at any of the customer service desks. When you are penny pinching, it helps.

 

[Wreckless Hype]

I started using this app also, Checkout51. They give you weekly offers on random things like $0.50 back on bananas, $0.25 back on this or that, whatever. You buy the stuff, photo your receipt and upload it and they credit your account with them. When you get over $20, you can redeem it for a check. It's not much, but it's just a little extra here and there. I don't really let it dictate what I'm buying, but it's nice to get a little bit back just for buying things I normally buy.

 

[joe7987]

I started using this app also, Checkout51. They give you weekly offers on random things like $0.50 back on bananas, $0.25 back on this or that, whatever. You buy the stuff, photo your receipt and upload it and they credit your account with them. When you get over $20, you can redeem it for a check. It's not much, but it's just a little extra here and there. I don't really let it dictate what I'm buying, but it's nice to get a little bit back just for buying things I normally buy.

Another app for this is ibotta. Each app probably has a different selection of things per week. Doubling up might increase the savings.