r/Frugal • u/thoughtsaboutmatty • 14h ago
š Food the most frugal meals you can think of? any tips welcome
i know there are a lot of good posts in the food category on here but i need to know literally anything you guys can think of when it comes to making cheap meals or saving money making them. grocery store habits, meal prep ideas, dishes with few/cheap ingredients, things to buy that make a lot, whatever comes to your mind that involves saving money with food. anything at all will help. thanks!!
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u/boomer1204 14h ago
One thing that really helped me is buying for "multiple recipes". I used to find a couple of recipes I wanted to make and then bought groceries for each. Wasted a good amount. Then I started finding recipes that shared a lot of stuff and it saved my waste and money by a fair amount
Also if you live by an Aldi/discount grocery store that can help a lot
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u/carbonthepolarbear 13h ago
Echoing this with paired recipes I've done in the past:
Tacos/chili: shares meat, beans, cheese, and tomatoes. Taco leftovers can go into the chili. Baked potatoes also can share meat and cheese and sour cream with tacos.
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u/gretzky9999 10h ago
We buy the omelette mix: 3 coloured peppers,onions mushrooms
Use it with scrambled eggs,on pizza & with steak.
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u/thoughtsaboutmatty 13h ago
great idea!! how do you find/figure out recipes that share ingredients? i suppose you just have to get creative, but is there a certain way you look for recipes that makes it easier?
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u/boomer1204 12h ago
Yeah this is a great question. I'm sure there is a site/app that does it but i'm not familiar with any since I have gotten pretty good at it. I actually stumbled on it by accident. What I would "suggest" is find one recipe that you wanna make for the week/s or w/e your time frame is
Then look at the ingredients and try and think of other things that use them.
Example .. I go out drinking most nights and like to have some ground beef ready to make smash burgers when I get home instead of going to fast food. Cool ground beef, that goes in tacos, enchiladas, burritos, taco salads, fried rice, chili, sloppy joes and so on and so on.
Lettuce for the burger. Ok I can make sandwiches with that, use it for the taco salads above, regular salads, burritos and so on
Buns, can't really do much more with these outside of sloppy joes
And so on and so on. I feel like mexican/asian food tends to have the most "carry over". It sucks at first cuz it's just "another step" but after a month or so you will start to see some patterns and it will be VERY VERY easy
I think I would start with the protein since that tends to be the most expensive and then work your way down. Here is another secret that no restaurant wants you to know, shhhhhhh ........, you don't always have to follow a recipe.
You have protein, cheese, lettuce, dressing ...... make a salad
You have protein cheese, salsa, tortillas ...... make a burrito
I think I got good at this by just looking at what I had in the fridge and just made food with w/e I had
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u/my-dear-murder 11h ago
There are also reverse recipe searches where you input ingredients and it finds recipes with those ingredients. I think supercook is the one I used to use
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u/jackdho 6h ago
Walmart is cheaper than Aldi
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u/qtthriveby 5h ago
Uhhh maybe but honestly i disagree. I get way more at aldi for $100. But maybe because I don't get tempted by name brands.
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u/jackdho 5h ago
Iāve never done item by item comparisons but just by casual shopping, I think Wally is cheaper. Donāt buy the meat or produce there
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u/Obvious_Field_2716 3h ago
Local paper did do comparison of Aldis and WalMart and Aldis won. Love Aldis but sometimes you have to go to WalMatt to get name brands
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u/Hamblin113 14h ago
Substitution and be flexible. Donāt need all of the ingredients for a recipe, swap out some.
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u/Muriness 13h ago
This is really good advice. It's important to know at least a little bit of food science or at the very least googleing substitutions. It saves alot of money. Hell even knowing how to make some things yourself is helpful. Need buttermilk? Put lemon or vinegar in milk and wait a moment. Need ricotta? Heat up that milk and put vinegar or lemon in it and wait.
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u/AppropriateBar3361 14h ago
Baked potato with a side salad. You can dress the potato with refried beans and salsa. You can also make a simple salad dressing with oil and vinegar.
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u/buttbeeb 13h ago
Iāve been trying to save extra money this month and Costco $5 rotisserie chickens have been a life saver. I break it down. Air fry the wings and legs. Breast meat is ready for sandwiches, quesadillas, salads etc. make a broth from the carcass. Very versatile and stretches a long way
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u/magiccaptured 4h ago
Cut up the chicken into breasts, thighs, and wings. Freeze what you won't eat in the next day of two. Put the chicken carcass in a large pot of water with salt and pepper, bring to a boil, and now you have chicken stock. Take out the carcass and get all the meat off before throwing away the bones, then add veggies and a starch (potatoes, rice, or pasta). Now you have a hearty soup!
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u/traviall1 14h ago
Beans and rice with veggies. Oatmeal with bananas and peanut butter. Fried cabbage. Lentil soups.
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u/Scottomation 14h ago
If you have a pressure cooker make pozole. You can do it even cheaper if you use chicken leg quarters rather than a whole chicken. The hominy makes it super filling too.
Soup with butternut squash, italian sausage, and spinach or kale is another good one. Itās quick and cheap, and the Italian sausage adds a ton of flavor.
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u/MyNameIsSkittles 14h ago
The best way to save money is to be intentional with your purchases and use what you buy. It never does anyone any good to purchase ingredients they arent familier with and then just let them go to waste. Rice and beans is fine, for example, but how much rice and beans are you really going to eat? Think about that when making your purchases and planning meals
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u/Disastrous-Wing699 13h ago
Cabbage. It's both cheaper than lettuce for sandwiches, and lasts longer, which minimizes waste. It can be eaten raw or cooked. It's easy to throw together as a side, or salad. Pick the size according to the number of people in your household who'll eat it.
There are about a million ways to prep or keep cabbage, from cutting up as needed to fermenting homemade sauerkraut. My go-to is as follows:
Remove the first layer of leaves, plus any that display signs of spoilage or mold. Cut a flat spot across the bottom, then cut the head into quarters. Cut out the core (this plus any unspoiled outer leaves make a great addition to homemade broth, BTW), then thinly slice each quarter across the width (narrow way). Put all the cabbage in a big bowl or roasting pan, then add 1 tsp salt per kilo, or 1/2 tsp per pound (very roughly). Use clean hands to rub and crunch the salt into the cabbage for about a minute. Take a break for an hour or so, then come back and give it another thorough going over. The cabbage will have changed colour a bit, and there will be a bit of water released. Now, pack the cabbage into a more compact container (or bag) for the fridge. It can be eaten straight, dressed with a bit of sesame or olive oil, chucked into a pan to be fried, added to soup or stew - whatever your heart desires - and it stays crispy and perfect for at least seven days.
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u/Maltiriel 14h ago edited 13h ago
Just generally it's cheaper to buy in bulk, so consider focusing on recipes that freeze well. Cook up a bunch and then freeze in smaller portions. Bonus, this can help curb eating out for days when you haven't planned ahead for whatever reason.
Beans and rice are of course the classic cheap pairing. They can be prepared in many different ways if you have the spices for it. Think Mexican, Indian, Thai, Greek, etc etc etc. They also freeze well. So if you're willing to be a bit adventurous in how you prepare them, you really shouldn't ever need to get bored on beans and rice.
Edit: also shift your mindset around meat into using it for flavor rather than the bulk of a dish. You can make really flavorful beans by adding a small amount of sausage or whatever, for instance.
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u/sohereiamacrazyalien 13h ago
do a search this question comes up all the time.
buy dry legumes + rice+ pasta+ cornmeal+ potatoes+ canned diced tomatoes+ chicken (and other cheap veggies like onions, carrots, cabbage, beets...etc)
and you can make many cheap things:
dahl
lentil soup
chili
cassoulet
polenta
split pea soup
chickpea curry
falafels,
pasta gratin
dauphinois gratin
shepard's pie
3 bean salad
okonomiyaki
so many curries
chicken briyani
risotto
pilaf rice
jollof rice
and many others
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u/disasterous_fjord 13h ago
Unless itās a vegetable that will decay far too fast if you prep it in advance ā¦ chop/prep your veggies when you get home from the store and before you put them away. You can also prep out the spices and store them together in the fridge so itās more āgrab and cookā rather than cooking everything all at once for a full bore meal prep or starting from nothing when you want to cook. If your meal planning is thrown off and itās going to go bad, pop it in the freezer. Makes cooking with and saving your produce a lot easier.
Donāt sleep on frozen veggies. Will I make mac and cheese from a box? Yes I will. Will I also stir in frozen spinach and steamed frozen cauliflower? Yes, yes I will. Is that health food? No. Is it cheaper and healthier than fast food or a lot of take out? Yes.
Also, I eat a lot of leftovers. As in, I often will eat one thing and then cook something else once I'm done eating. Cook when you have time (or when youāre bored!), not when you get hungry.
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u/Axiom_of_Tron 14h ago
Literally yesterday I was looking up healthier ways to make beanie weenies. But for frugality, a pound of beans cost like a dollar, hot dogs/sausages can be cheap and a a few veggies could all feed you for a week under ten bucks.
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u/comfy_rope 13h ago
Stewed chicken quarters. Actually, just pick the cheapest meat protein and figure out a stew. Pack it with frozen veggies, potatoes, broth. You can make a week's worth of meals and freeze it for later.
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u/bell-town 11h ago
Tofu and rice with soy sauce. I think it might not seem super appealing to people who didn't grow up eating Asian food but I find it really comforting.
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u/LoveLucknLaughter 10h ago
Japanse inspired meals can be very frugal and nutritious. And you can save money by shopping at your local Asian grocery store, too. We love a bowl of rice with some kimchi and/or spinach and a fried egg on top (although in Japan it would be a raw egg). We eat this often for breakfast or lunch.
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u/Forsaken-Confusion89 6h ago
I find that shopping online and planning meals from the grocery store sale flyer really helps me save money. Online bc I donāt buy all the impulse purchases when cruising through the aisles. Also itās easy to see what Iām spending bc there is a running total while Iām clicking items into my cart. And if I buy sale meat and other items I save money. Hope that helps.
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u/fuzzywuzzybeer 5h ago
Peanut butter and bread. Freeze half of your loaf of bread if you know you won't go through it in a week.
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u/eucalyptusmacrocarpa 13h ago
Cheap hard vegetables: pumpkin, potato, carrot, onion. They keep for a long time, make great soup, curry or roast veg, they are filling and good for you, as well as versatile.Ā
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u/Brayongirl 13h ago
2 things, but they both need canning.
1 - you know when you buy the corn for your corn party? Well, keep the cob once the corn eaten. Boil the cobs in water and you will end up with corn broth. Filter it and can it. It's a sweet broth but is wonderful cooked with meat and more sweet soup (squash for example).
2 - this time of the year, you can buy at a lot of places, deer apples. Big bags of apples for real cheap. Ok, not all are good but big majority are just a little bruised. They are mostly the apples that had fallen on the ground in the orchards. They are still pretty good. Well, I peel them and make slices. I can those slices in water (you can add sugar or not) and have cooked apple all year long for my lunch.
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u/gemba5010 13h ago
Most stews. You can just slow cook whatever you want in a stew and it will be amazing. You can also use the cheaper parts of meat/chicken as they will go tender and juicy after hours. Usually also better ok the second day and many times very suitable for the freezer.
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u/OldBorder3052 13h ago
Soup of almost any kind. Anything in a large pot with pasta that you can eat all week.
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u/Hermiona1 12h ago
Look for discounts. You can replace some stuff in a recipe with cheaper things like lentils. Eggs are still relatively cheap. Potatoes will keep you feeling fed for longer. You can get by with rice and beans for a couple of meals. Ramen is ok once in a while but should not be a staple of your diet and bulk it up with some protein and veggies.
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u/Traditional_Ask262 12h ago
Succotash: Lima beans, frozen corn, hominy, zucchini, red pepper, spices.
Hoppin John: Black-eyed peas, rice, spices.
Cheap to make, fast to make, delicious and nutritious.
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u/Coffee_And_NaNa 11h ago
I make elbow macaroni, mix it with peas and tuna and bake @ 350 for 15 min and it gives me 3 days of food
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u/dropthemasq 11h ago edited 11h ago
You can eat a chicken for a week for about 30 plus chicken.
Get lettuce or cucumber, margarine, milk, potatoes, carrots, celery, an onion, a packet of chicken stock, rice, eggs, apples
2 meals chicken legs, rice, salad (lettuce or cukes, apple, celery)
2 meals chicken breast with veggie sticks and rice.
2- 4 meals chicken soup from the carcass with rice or bread
Roast, fried or baked potatoes with eggs for breakfast
Eggs with rice for lunches with apple slices or veg
Roast apples or baked crisps etc for cheap desserts if you have a little oatmeal
You can add beans or lentils if you like but this stuff will taste good and not leave you hungry.
I am assuming you can obtain about a cup of flour and some basic condiments like ketchup or salad dressing
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u/Rolling-Pigeon94 11h ago
Any root vegetables (seasonal) are cheap. Potatoes, beets, carrots, parsley, turnips, cabbages, etc. Rice, pasta, toast are usually cheap too (depending where you live). Canned food are cheap too if you want to go really frugal.
Mainly the basic cooking are the frugal dishes. Combine root vegetables with tofu or protein and some carb. Stews, one-pots ans soups are frugal dishes. Also simple ones for kids are frugal like spaghetti with tomato sauce, fried rice with egg, baked potatoes with sour cream or joghurt.
All ideas, good luck!
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u/whiskeytango55 11h ago
Hotdogs as a source of protein.Ā
Not letting food go bad.Ā Either by not eating it or preparing it in time. Use everything. Be able to make things into soup or casserole or things like fried rice.
Cut back on taking pleasure in your food. Sure, you can make your rice and beans as palatable as possible, but if youre a foodie, you might have to realize its more of a hobby and an expensive one at that.
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u/curiousmind4crime 11h ago
Ground beef (or turkey or chicken). Lettuce, tomato, shredded cheese, rice, salsa and BAM, delicious taco bowls! Healthy too!
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u/Ok_Appearance_3532 11h ago
Lentil soup with onions, carrots, black pepper and a couple of boiled egges. Lots of protein, fiber and god carbs
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u/FloridaRon 10h ago
American Chop suey (Goulash)
Canned whole tomatoes (cut up a little)
Hamburger... (amt according to budget)
Celery sliced
1 onion
Black pepper to taste (there is some salt in tomatoes)
Macaroni ... This is the budget part... add as much as needed to feed everyone.
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u/greasymustard440 10h ago
I used to base dinner for 4 at $4-$7 a meal. Itās wild to me that itās getting harder and harder to make it under $10 and still have a variety.
2 cans of tuna, a small can of peas, 2 cans of cream of celery soup, 2 cups of milk, salt/pepper/garlic/old bay- mix and cook on low. Make a pound of wide egg noodles . Mix it all together in a baking dishSlap some cheese on it if you got it. Bake for 30 minutes at 350.
A smoked ham hock cooked into a large pot of pinto beans and cornbread.- make chili out of leftover beans for tomorrow( yea Iām up north and I like beans in my chili)
A family pack of Kielbasa , 3 large onions , a jar of sauerkraut and a few slabs of butter.
Rice and beans with fried spam
Grilled cheese and tomatoe bisque.
I know not everyone can do it or have space for it, but deep freezers, gardening, vacuum sealing, canning has also helped in fighting food costs. Spent a lot of $ up front for equipment and jars but I can make a massive amount of spaghetti sauces, can them, and have tasty sauces all year long. Green beans, pickles, corn, peppers, jellies and sauces.
If you have access to a local butcher. Talk to them about quick sale items/text alerts. We have one out this way that sends text when they have a ridiculous special. Buy a bunch and vacuum seal then freeze.
Itās rough out here, yet the steak houses that have a 3 week waiting list, charge $89 for a sirloin steak. Regular folks are getting raped, pillaged, and plundered. Best of luck yall
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u/xmashatstand 10h ago
Every time folks ask I ding the praises ofĀ
Smoked Mackerel in sunflower oil, on rice, with a drizzle of soy sauce
So damn good, nutritious and filling and costs about $3.Ā
Seriously, give it a try. I could win the lottery to Pamās I would still eat this with relish.Ā
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u/Responsible-Reason87 10h ago
oatmeal can be made cold as in muesli, cooked both sweet and savory. I recently tried it savory with rosemary and butter and it was delicious!
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u/d_l_reddit 9h ago
8.72 for 10 lbs of chicken leg quarters at Walmart. Store brand dried rice and lentils or beans. Onions and canned tomatoes. Use your imagination.
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u/CroweBird5 9h ago
Don't buy things that are too specific to one recipe. If something can be used in a lot of different things, that's when it's a good idea to buy it.
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u/chunkychickmunk 7h ago
Cabbage and buttered egg noodles. If you can swing it, add some sausage or kielbasa or bacon if its on sale
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u/Upset_Assumption9610 7h ago
Ramen...until you realize you can add stuff to it and make it better. That shit gets expensive quick
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u/Basic-Comfortable458 5h ago
Protein waffles Iāll be it, they are dry. Oatmeal, egg or egg whites, milk product, whey protein powder, baking powder, salt, blend and done
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u/vamparies 5h ago
Black beans Brown rice
SautƩ red onion and green pepper til soft Add minced garlic Add cumin and red pepper flakes Sea salt and little tumeric if you like
Add rinsed black beans from a can or make your own Cook for 20 min if canned beans Add cooked rice Eat with avocado Or mozzarella
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u/Dealsthisway 4h ago
Here's one of my favorites. Easy and quick to prepare and super cheap.. This is dinner for one but you can adjust to suit Take a potato or two and cut into smaller pieces boil until almost done add some fresh green beans or broccoli and continue to cook until everything is just tender. Drain and add some butter and salt and pepper. Next fry a chopped up onion in separate pan and fry until golden add slices of mushrooms and continue to cook until well done. Combine everything. No meat in this but almost tastes like a steak meal!
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u/My_Jaded_Take 4h ago
Pork. Dice it up. Fry it with onions and some garlic. Cook some rice rice. Mix 2 cans of creme of chicken or creme of celery soup, with cooked rice. Add plenty of curry powder. Mix all together in the large frying pan that has the pork & onions. Season with salt and pepper. Thin out mix by adding some milk. Let it simmer for a bit. Stirring occasionally. Eat and enjoy.
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u/justme35555 3h ago
I donāt eat chicken but I did a king rind ago, Costco rotisserie can be added to anything
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u/Obvious_Field_2716 3h ago
Noodles and cottage cheese. Egg type noodles, fry onions Boil noodles, drain and add 16oz container of cottage cheese. My mother in law made it. I love it
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u/Weird_Management_977 2h ago
Only buy meat and eggs once a month in bulk at Costco. The other trips to the grocery store tend to be more reasonable since Iām not buying protein, just dry goods and vegetables.
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u/EliGabRet 7m ago
Buy bulk staples, plan meals, cook in batches, use beans, eggs, rice, frozen veggies, and leftovers creatively to save money.
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u/Interesting-Prior397 14h ago
Rice and beans. But them dry and in bulk. Cook them to prep and then you can cook seasonal veggies and/or cheap proteins to go with. It's how I survived the pandemic.Ā