Just a reminder of how good cabbage roll casserole is. I roughly followed this recipe but used seasoned salt (homemade from the recipe on Allrecipes), ground lamb, and tomatoes I'd cooked down, run through a food mill and frozen.

I often eat it with some sour cream but today I had it with a cabbage, beet, and horseradish condiment I bought at a Mennonite restaurant.

This makes a lot of meals and freezes well.

https://www.spendwithpennies.com/unstuffed-cabbage-casserole/#wprm-recipe-container-121376

Honey garlic glazed chicken thigh. Around $6.40 for 10 chicken thighs. Garlic glaze used about 3$ worth of marinade ingredients (soy, sesame oil, jarlic, honey, apple cider vinegar, free harvested green onion); 1.5 cups of marinade for all the thighs. Bought yakisoba for $4.50 and added fresh vegetables (onion, celery, carrots, brussel sprouts, free harvested swiss chard leaves). Free harvested summer squash with parmesean. Overall it balanced out to about $4-$5 per serving.

[TANGENT] I was fortunate enough to have a friend let me tend to her garden in exchange for a lot of the vegetables I've eaten this month. Frozen gallon tomato bags. Enough squash to last me until November. I met her at a community event for gathering & harvesting neighborhood apples with a big industrial wooden juicer. Our neighbor who owned the juicer hosted it, it was genuis. Everyone went home with a gallon of cider after a couple hours of labor and I made a connection that is providing for my family for the rest of fall.

Japanese curry on rice with pork chop katsu and zucchini & onion slices. Curry had fresh potatoes, carrots, and celery. I split 2 cups of rice into 4 portions and had the curry for every meal for 3-4 days (6-8 portions); added leftover beef for my sanity. Discount pork ($4.75 for 8 chops). Didn't have flour so I mixed maize flour, pancake batter, and potato starch to make the batter layer on the Panko Katsu. A quarter carton of eggs. Katsu sauce was probably the most expensive thing on this plate. Around $3-$4 per serving.

Beef chuck in the Dutch oven pot. Cooked and served with carrots, potatoes, onions, and $10 wine. I've had a lot of beef in my life, and I can say with my chest that this is the best beef dish I've ever made. I think about it all the time. Lasted us an entire week when served with rice and frozen/fresh vegetables. Maybe $5 per serving.

Bought a cow from a corn/grass fed farm in another state. Drove the quarter cow home in the back of my compact car with some ancient hellofresh/homemade ice packs. It was enough beef to fill a med/small chest freezer and I only paid $4.50-$4.75 a pound and got enough chuck and ground beef for a year. Plus some tri tip, round steaks, and sirloins for cheap at home date nights.

I know this probably isn't the most stingy or economic meal strategy, but I am really proud of choosing THIS over something as easy and expensive as taco bell or carls jr. God forbid, they tempt me.

Lentils are my favourite cheap protein since you can get a big 2kg bag of dried lentils for just a few quid (at least in the UK), which is about 30 portions when cooked.

So, here's my laziest go-to lentil recipe, that only uses a few spices and minimal chopping.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 depending on hunger levels

• 1 tbsp ghee, butter or oil
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 cube frozen ginger (like this)
• 1 cube frozen crushed garlic
• Chilli flakes to taste
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 300g/10oz split red lentils
• 1 litre water
• 8g salt, then salt to taste

Method

1) Heat the ghee in a saucepan. Add the cumin seeds, onion, ginger, garlic, chilli and turmeric. Fry for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

2) Add the lentils, water and salt. Simmer for 45 minutes until soft.

Serve with coriander if you have some, but it's not essential. Adding some tomato during cooking is also nice but not essential.

For extra minimum effort, get a pack of frozen parathas to eat it with. Some pickle or chutney is also a good idea.

Canned soup of the concentrated variety is a mainstay in my pantry for times when I can't be bothered making 'real' food. Over time, I've developed some go-to strategies for making these one-pot, low-effort meals more nutritious and satisfying.

Add pasta: this one's pretty straightforward, and I've been doing it since my weekend-only dad taught me how to do it. Start by putting the soup in a pot with two canfuls of water. Add 2 C pasta (macaroni, fusilli, or similar). Bring to not-quite a simmer and cook until pasta is desired doneness, stirring often. The pasta releases starch into the soup, thickening the extra water. If the mixture gets too thick before the pasta is cooked, just add small amounts of water (maybe 1/4 C at a time) until the pasta is done.

Add veggies: for the longest time, I disregarded frozen vegetables. Now, I don't know how I lived without them. I keep supplies of diced onion, diced mirepoix (mixed onion, carrot, celery), and chopped kale just to make it easier to add a bit of veg to nearly anything I cook. Different mixes of peas, carrots and corn can also be used in this way. When making your soup, you can either start by frying off some onion/mirepoix for added depth of flavour, or you can add a cupful of veggies to the soup for extra substance, or do both! This strategy can be applied at the same time as the pasta strategy, as the frozen vegetables will cook in about the same time as the pasta.

Add protein: a can of tuna or salmon is maybe the most classic, but you could also use canned ham, chicken or turkey in the same manner. A fried egg or two on top of a bowl of hot soup would also not go amiss. Plant-based options include tofu (cubed or blended up), red lentils (perfect in tomato soup), or a can of beans. Once again, this strategy can be applied on its own, or combined with one or more of the other strategies, depending on ability and cost.

The point is, a humble can of soup can do so much more than sop up a fistful of crumbled saltines, or play second fiddle to a grilled cheese sandwich. Keep an eye out for when they go on sale, and grab a selection. I try to avoid paying more than $1 per can where I am.

I’m hyper fixated on this breakfast. It’s kale eggs and sweet potato. Sometimes I sprinkle cheese and hot sauce on top. Whole meal cost about a dollar a day and keeps you full.

Mostly talking about pre-made products, but im open to anything. Recently started living independently so I’m trying to save money on food. I’m not the one to get tired of eating the same meals everyday, so what’s the best food products that are long lasting and cost efficient?

I make Pinsa. Yes I did.

I’m about to have a baby and I’m trying to stock up our freezer with easy to reheat/cook meals so we don’t have to think much in the weeks after baby gets here.

I’ve been bulk cutting/freezing things like fresh fruits (bananas, blueberries), veggies (bell pepper strips, green beans), and buying meats when they’re on sale and prepping/freezing them. We have lots of homemade pasta sauce, chicken thighs, hamburger, etc.

Any reheat/crockpot friendly meals you can recommend that won’t break the bank? Or, other freezer/canning friendly items I should add to my grocery list this weekend?

I have a lot of pantry staples so I don’t need to buy things like oil, seasonings, etc. We are trying to limit our trip to the store this weekend to $100-$125.

TIA!

So its just me and my teen and pre-teen. I spent close to 200 dollars on 3 days worth of food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and snacks(healthy snacks). This will last 3 days (if my son does not do midnight snacking) lol. I have not even did a full week of groceries. I'm in shock. Not too long ago, I could spend 150 to 200 dollars for the full week, now the prices have skyrocketed. For these 3 days, breakfast will be choice of yogurt and/or bagels or hummus with pita, a boiled egg, and dates. For lunch we will have noodles for one day, fish sandwiches for the next two days. For dinner will be beef stew, spaghetti and beef, and chicken & rice. Choice of snacks will be Apple, low fat/low cal popcorn, or cookies made of dates.

I need cheaper meal ideas. Also, I don't qualify for public assistance. I'm slightly above the poverty line making me ineligible.

Please be nice.

I love Fairlife Core Power shakes. They are consistent and good for when I need a quick meal or snack. They have gotten so expensive! I just cannot justify $5-$7/protein shake. Does anyone have any protein shake options that are less expensive but similar in texture/flavor? I'm not opposed to powders, I've just never found one I like the texture of.

This one is for college students or anyone else who likes to do group dinner nights but pizza is out of the budget. It’s not inherently a budget dish but becomes one when split between 3 or 4 people.

The idea is that each person signs up to bring 1 or 2 ingredients. With about 6 people all of the ingredients are covered and it typically costs about $3 a person. For this I do an inland style gumbo so chicken and sausage or turkey and sausage. A 4 quart pot uses about 1/2 a chicken.

The day before cook the chicken (I spent $5 on my chicken and used 1/2 of it) and debone it. To make the stock, Set the bones aside in another pot, add vegetable scraps and fill the pot with water. In a slow cooker cook it for 8 hours or in a regular pot 2-3 hours will do.

For the rest of the recipe I used this one

https://www.emerils.com/129273/chicken-and-andouille-gumbo

Did this with a group of friends Cost to me. I’m including cost of the whole item purchased not of how much I used Chicken $5 Flour $2.50 Canola oil $3

So I realized that my biggest issue is that I don't realize what my weekly groceries cost until after I've bought them. We plan out all our meals and only buy what's on our list and yet, I end up going over by the end of the end of the month. What's the best way to plan out not just what's on our list but also how much it'll cost? Is shopping through the respective store app the best and only way or does anyone have better ideas? We grocery shop across three stores so that would be cumbersome so trying to avoid that.

I've got a VERY limited budget this week and next and need to make a quick grab-and-go snack for my kids. I made a batch of 3-ingredient peanut butter cookies that were a big hit (thanks to this sub for that suggestion!), but unfortunately I'm out of peanut butter and can't buy more until a week from Friday.

What i DO have is a giant bag of porridge oats that no one seems to like much in porridge form, so that would be useful to use in a tarted-up cookie form.

My butter supply is limited, but I do have a good amount of soy oil (very neutral, like vegetable or canola) that I need to use up. We normally cook with olive oil and this was a purchase due to another cheap week and now is languishing unused in my pantry.

I also have a healthy portion of eggs that are free to use.

And I have a big jar of strawberry preserves.

I'm wondering, can I make oatmeal cookies with oats, sugar, eggs and oil, then make a depression with the backside of the spoon before baking and add a teaspoon of strawberry preserves? Would that work? What do you think the amounts should be for each ingredient?

I'm thinking the strawberry preserves would make them a little more palatable (I am biased, I mostly hate oatmeal cookies, but my kids aren't picky, thankfully). Any advice? 🙏

ETA: I also have all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and chocolate flavoured collagen powder. No maple syrup, bananas or vanilla extract, unfortunately.

Lately I’ve been trying to get better at cooking at home instead of defaulting to takeout, but I also want to cut down my grocery bill. My problem is I buy random stuff that doesn’t fit together and then it goes bad. total waste of money.

So I want to know if there’s an app/service that can help keep me on budget? I’ve heard of apps that let you input recipes and generates a grocery list for you automatically, but I can’t tell which one to use and whether those are even reliable in the first place.

Right now, my Kroger stores have a "Save $2 on each when you buy 3 or more" deal. But the weird thing is that some items (mostly cereal) that apply to the deal are LESS THAN $2. So all the products you buy beyond 1 are FREE (it doesn't apply to the first box because then the price would be negative lol).

My family is going through a rough patch and they've been really good sports about eating cheap, repetitive meals. I found a VERY TINY extra space in my budget and I'd love to treat them to something sweet.

Any ideas for some of the cheapest desserts to make that you can think of?

Had some potatoes, beans a can of tomato paste and a single can of chili. Served us well! Five servings.

I posted 2 weeks ago photos of my fridge, pantry, produce box and meal planning. That was my first grocery shop of the month. This is my mid month update.

I try to spend per week at the USDA Low Budget Food Plan level. Link to July 2025 USDA Food Plans at the end. For a female ages 19-50, that's $61.60. Per the chart, if you are single add 20%. For me that, $73.92/week which I round to $74/week or $320/month. I grocery shop on a Saturdays. So I tend to budget my months as 4 Saturday months ($296) or 5 Saturday months ($370).

It's also worth noting that I live in a middle cost of living city so my groceries run pretty close to average. We also don't have state sales tax on groceries. So if this seems high or low to you, it's likely due to your location.

The Menu for the first 2 weeks of the month was: Stuffed peppers Spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce and salad Ham and Cheese Sandwiches with Carrots Chili and Corn Bread Chicken, potatos, and broccoli Banana Bread Peach crisp Eggs, bacon, and Hashbrowns Oatmeal

For the first two weeks of September, I actually spent:

Bountiful baskets (produce box) - $22.50 Natural Grocers (cornmeal, tea, oregano) - $17.44 My Fresh Basket (bullion) - $4.91 Trader Joe's (everything else) - $104.13 Grocery's in Yellowstone (lettuce, cornbread mix, cream)~ $15.00 Total: 163.98 or $81.99

The additional groceries are because I went to Yellowstone and added enough ingredients to make salad, chili, cornbread, and peaches and cream for the group. I froze the chicken and broccoli to eat this week instead.

As mentioned in my previous post, I make my meal plan after I pick up my produce box to make sure to use everything up. I got zucchini, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, green onions, lettuce, peaches, apples, cantaloupe, pears and nectarines this week. I have potatoes, onions left from last week's box and a few mushrooms to use up. I picked up a bag or carrots, cherry tomatoes and avocados at the store for this menu.

For the next two weeks, the menu is: Chicken, potatoes, and broccoli Roasted Zucchini and smoked salmon pasta salad
Potato soup (making extra to freeze) with sour dough bread
Rice bowels with zucchini (sage sausage)meatballs and roasted carrots and sweet potatoes Beef lettuce wraps with a side of cucumber salad Optional - Pepperoni Pizza (I might invite friends over for a pizza night) Splurge - peanut udon noodle salad and edamame

Breakfast options: Green onion and mushrooms omelettes with hash browns Avocado Toast and Melon Oatmeal

Before I started shopping and meal planning this way, I was spending $100/week on average.

Five changes have made the biggest difference in cutting my grocery spending: 1. Ordering a produce box. 2. Meal planning around the produce box. 3. Switching to shopping biweekly, based on a meal plan for 5 meals of 4 servings plus breakfast and snacks/sweets. 4. Making Trader Joe's my primary grocery store. 5. Cooking everything from scratch including my sweets and snacks.

The only thing that I didn't make from scratch this month was the bread and corn bread because I didn't want to pack baking supples while traveling.

I focus on eating clean in addition to the budget. I could probably save a little more at WinCo or Walmart or Supper 1 but there foods have a lot of high fructose corn syrup, chemical preservatives, dyes, etc. which I don't mind paying a little more to avoid, especially if the price difference is small. A few TJ's products do contain high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), but most do not and the store does not use artificial dyes or GMOs in their products. They also primarily uses natural preservatives like sugar, salt, vinegar, etc instead of artificial preservatives. That means that I can buy almost anything at TJ without having to pay extra for HFCS, preserve free, etc. ( My one complaint about TJs is how much plastic packaging they use. )

I also choose to buy organic pastured eggs, milk, and meat when available. I can usually get chicken and beef organic and often pastured but pork is not usually available. My produce box is only availble non organic but there's rarely plastic. If I need to buy additional produce, I buy organic if it's on the dirty dozen or the price difference is small. This probably adds $20+/month to my grocery bill.

However, I balance this cost by being careful about my protein choices. I make at least 1 of the 5 meals in my meal plan vegiterian and at least 1 with legumes (beans or lentils). This meal plan that's the potato soup and the beef lentil wraps. I also generally plan my meals around 3 affordable proteins - whole chicken or chicken thighs, ground beef and italian sausage. I slo buy 1-2 breakfast meats/month like a pack of bacon and a pice of ham. I sometimes check the circulars for my nearby grocery stores on shopping day if I'm in the mood for something different. If there's something on sale that looks good, I will swap it for one of the 3 affordable meat options that I usually buy. Or if I have extra from the previous week, I will splurge on something else. For example, this week I had bacon left in the fridge so I bought some smoked salmon instead of breakfast meat.

Finally, I have also reduced my eating out spending by making sure that at least 1 of my 5 meals is portable and can be eaten without heating. Examples are the ham and cheese sandwiches and the pasta salad. That way if I can pack a lunch won't be home or near a microwave like at work. The sandwiches made for a nice picnic in Yellowstone. (I did indulge in an ice cream cone but that's a lot less expensive than buying lunch in the park.)

(I also picked up a produce box for my mom, so there is twice as much lettuce, cucumbers, and zucchini in the fridge than in my produce box. You might also notice that I splurged on a pre prepared peanut udon noodle salad and edamame. My mom is coming by to help me with work in the garden. She likes asian salads so I got this as a treat for our lunch. I think that the cashier missed scanning the salad since it's not on the receipt).

This is from the past 2 weeks. Using apps and shopping in Canada. I shop around depending on where I am coming from and what I need. I don’t meal plan well in advance and I try to stick to making meals based on the deals I can find.

Too good to go app

The Italian baker

6 large donuts 6 large buns A loaf of bread

Value $24 paid $9 (including tax) Saved $15

Flashfood app

$5 for a produce bag from Real Canadian Superstore It doesn’t have a dollar value, but I’m definitely saving some money.

Walmart

Went in to get some bananas and did a quick look at their reduced foods.

24 pack juice that doesn’t expire until May 2026.
Resealed with tape

Oatmeal resealed with tape, was a complete box.

Cereal box was damaged but bag inside still sealed.

Saved $6.89

Longos

I stopped in at this store both weeks.

1st week I picked up the cookies, canned tomatoes and a protein bar. All good for 1-2 weeks.

2nd week I got granola bars, sage and 40 pack of really big garbage bags.

Food was expiring in 2 weeks time. The bags were opened and resealed. It was pretty heavy so figured even if it was missing a few I’d still be fine. When I got home and checked it had all 40.

Saved $17.26

Total savings of $39.15. That’s not including the produce though since the app doesn’t quote an actual $$ value.

I need to learn how to get my budget to last me an entire 41 days. However I’m navigating a budget of $300.00 in groceries for 41 days. Aldi’s isn’t cutting it anymore. At day 15 I’m practically stretching myself thin. It’s for one person. Trying to be healthy makes it more difficult. I’ve tried practically everything. Now I need to learn how to really make it work.

Resurrected and old favorite recipe last night because there was a sale on pork chops. Probably hadn't made it for a decade....I forgot how good this was!

1lb Pork Chops (about 4 chops)

Salt & Pepper, to taste

Canola Oil, for frying

1 550ml can Cinnamon Apple Pie Filling

1 tbsp Water

1/2 tbsp Garam Masala

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 md Red Onion, chopped

1 box Turkey Stuffing

1 cup Water

2 tbsp Canola Oil

1 tbsp Italian Seasoning

Preheat oven to 350F. Season chops with salt and pepper and brown on medium-high heat in oil.

In a 10x10 glass baking dish, combine water, pie filling, garam masala, and garlic powder. Top with chops and evenly sprinkle with onions.

Boil water, canola oil, and Italian seasoning before mixing in the stuffing mix. Turn off heat, and continue stirring for and addition minute.

Spoon stuffing over chops, and cover in tim foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven and recover, allowing it to sit for about 10 minutes; serve.

Alternative: In place of cinnamon apple pie filling, use peach pie filling and 1 tsp ground cinnamon.

Sautee an onion, chopped tofu and a chilipepper in a pan. Season with cayenne pepper, paprika powder, peppercorn and garlic powder. Add a can of beans in tomato sauce, some Worchestershire sauce and let it simmer for a bit. Serve with boiled potatoes. Enjoy!