post you low cost recipes

tell me how you cook dinner on a budget...

give me some of your cheap meal ideas...

(I'm all about budgeting today)

Re: post you low cost recipes

well... if you go to the meat section... they reduce meat that is near the expiration date, you just buy it, put it in the freezer till your ready to use..... saves ALOT of money

Re: post you low cost recipes

My favorites when I was in college were:

Ramen noodle soup - all you need are a few snow peas, carrot slices, etc. to dress it up.

Pancake night! DH might not go for it, but it stretches the budget.

Other suggestions - watch for the chicken sales - buy one - get one, etc. Get extra and freeze. See my posting from a few days ago - Easy, fast chicken recipe for beginnners. The extra ingredients are not expensive and it's an easy dish to stretch.

At Costco I spent about $18.00 on some thick cuts of good beef then cut them up and made shish-ka-bobs - it yielded enough to feed 9. Add some onions, green peppers, pinapple chunks, small tomatoes - looks fancy but not overly expensive - about $3.00 a person for the 'entree'/

Re: post you low cost recipes

great ideas...

we do have pancakes for dinner sometimes!!! DH LOVES it!!!

Re: post you low cost recipes

I second the meat sales! Often we design our meals on what is cheapest at the store.

Often big London broils are on sale and you can squeeze several meals out of one piece of meat.

We used one london broil for stir-fry one night, fajitas, and steaks... $5.00 for 3 meals of meat.

Re: post you low cost recipes

You can also do a stir fry with ramen noodles instead of rice- you just boil noodles for 30 seconds. drain and set aside. fry you meat then your veggies, then toss in the noodles until cooked. i ttastes great and doesnt look cheap. if you do chicken stri fry -use chick noodles- steak then use steak noodles, etc

Re: post you low cost recipes

interesting idea....I try to stay away from the ramen noodles b/c they are so unhealthy...but DH loves them...

He cracks an egg in his and gets egg drop soup...

Re: post you low cost recipes

Make your own pasta! My FH and I did that tonight. A pound of flour cost us 80 cents at our local italian deli. Add two eggs, mix it up, throw it through a pasta maker, and before you know it you'll have a huge pasta dinner with plenty of leftovers! We used jarred sauce tonight, but I'd rather have homemade pesto sauce

Re: post you low cost recipes

You may want to look into purchasing whole chickents and cutting them yourself, you save a lot (at least 50% based on price/lb). Also, look into buying fruits and veggies in fruit and veggie shops, vs. supermarket.. Often, supermarkets are much much more expensive, depending on where you live. If you have time to cook, dont purchase things like 10 minute rice or 5 minute pancakes. They are usually more marked up.