The Cheapest Meals To Cook During A Recession To Save Money

I also make lots of pasta to save money. I think pasta is one of the best types of foods for saving money, since you can get a decent size box for so cheap. Since my husband and I don't have any kids yet, we can usually manage to get two or three meals made for just a couple of dollars when the spaghetti sauce is on sale. We also make soup and sandwich meals a lot. I also try to buy food in really large quantities and freeze things, so that helps to bring down the overall expense.

I too make a lot of pasta and chicken dishes. Another cheap meal is beans. The not only provide protien but also fiber.

Chili is pretty filling, as is oatmeal. Both are faily inexpensive, and chili can be made from scratch or purchased in the can from a canned food warehouse for way less than from the local grocery store. Oatmeal is a quick fix, fills you up, and keeps you filled up for hours. Price if fairly cheap too.

well. we can buy a soup bone from our local butcher for just over a dollar and we add potatoes, carrots and barley to it and in the end you have a great soup. we also have a breadmaker that we got from friends for free and we make a loaf of bread to go with it. its a great meal. we, too, eat a lot of pasta too.

We use quite a bit of pasta, beans and rice in our menus here at home. I even put beans in our taco meat to give us more of it. My kids don't like this but at least they don't go hungry! In the past hamburger has been one of the least expensive meats to purchase and I have used alot of it! Spaghetti sauce, taco's, chili, Vegetable beef stew, meatloaf, meatballs, pizza and stuffed cabbage. I frequently check out recipe books from the library to expand on our dishes so that they do not grow too boring. It pays to be frugal these days. If we are not frugal we will not survive!

For us Asians, we really eat lots of rice. In our family, if there are any left over rice, it will be use to cook fried rice. Another simple and easy meal would be the claypot chicken rice. This kin of meals is easy and we can cut back on the vegetables and meat expenses. However, it is usually cooked for lunch and for dinner, we have a normal, balanced, meal

I do a lot of chicken too. I take the thigh and drumstick as quarters and simmer them from a frozen state add some seasoning. As the legs thaw cooking I get a nice broth and add some home made noodles. Two legs makes enough for 2 meals for 3 adults. I also do a pot of beans and corn bread regularly. I don't always put any meat in them but a concentrated ham broth or maybe some hamburger. breakfast is oatmeal made with mapleen and raisins one day then another is souredough pancakes.

I think soup is a really great item to make from scratch. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had ham, and when the ham was done, we used the bone (which still had some meat on it), beans, veggies, and broth. It made so much soup there was enough for a couple of meals and to freeze the leftovers. Chicken broth is inexpensive, add leftover scraps, veggies with pasta or rice, and it's world's better than what you get in a can and way cheaper. You can feed the whole neighborhood. Making homemade is the real key...from soup to cookies. All that packaged stuff is filled with preservatives and expensive. Even with coupons, you are usually better off making something from scratch.

Crockpots are a great way to cook economically... both for the contents and the energy taken to use them. Slow cookers allow for buying cheaper cuts of meat and, cooked over long periods of time, really tenderize them and turn them into a wonderful meal. I did some beef shanks one time that were as "melt in your mouth" as filet mignon by the time they were done. The cheaper cuts do tend to be very flavorful, when given the chance to show what they can do :) I make a lot of "empty the crisper drawer" soups in the crockpot LOL I use up any veggies (carrots, onions, celery, broccoli, cauliflower...), so they don't get wasted or go bad. I always keep canned tomatoes (diced and crushed), stock mix, canned beans (anything is good in a soup from chick peas to kidney beans to lentils to the cans of premixed bean varieties) and barley on hand. Any bits of leftover meat or fish, that aren't enough for another meal, can be chopped up in a soup so, again, no throwing anything away. An oven meal that is quite cheap is an Onion Blade Roast. Get the biggest blade roast you can when they go on sale (either bone-in or boneless.. either works). Get a large sheet or two of foil and a packet of dry onion soup mix (no need to spring for the brand name either - generic is good here). Sprinkle a bit of soup on the foil, place the blade roast on top and finish the rest of the soup packet over top of the meat. Wrap the roast securely in the foil and pop it in a roasting pan. The meat juices mix with the onion soup and give a delicious flavor to the meat.

We make up a lot of stuff and put it on a bed of rice. We have chili over rice and when we have it we put a little cheese on top. It ends up being affordable but we could use some new ideas.

Dave Ramsey is always saying "beans and rice, beans and rice." Beans have protein that you need and can replace expensive meat. I was reading about how people survived the great depression and they made a lot of dishes with cornmeal.

Tuna casserole is always good. I think casseroles in general are much thriftier than most meals. I also like soups. I like to make a nice ham, then I can get a few meals out of incuding some split pea or navy bean soup just from using the bone of the ham. Also you can get less meat if you slice it thin and make a nice stir fry out of it, with some veggies.

Pork and Beans baby. Can not get any cheaper than that. Well you could, but it is a nice meal for a just a tiny bit of cash. That is probably my all time favorite meal. That and chili dogs. Home made chili is best of course but some cheap canned chili on a hot dog with bread or a bun, that is a nice cheap meal also and to me it tastes Oh so good.

Tupperware used to have lots of ideas for being frugal. One I remember is what they called "free soup" . You would freeze in one large containers leftover little bits of meat, veggies, etc, just adding to the container, even with the juices. When you got enough to make your soup, you add one BIG can of tomato suace and make your "free soup". It is very good. You can add fresh potatoes and onions if you'd like, but it helps when times are tight and the weather is cold.