What meals do you cook when very low on money?
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Basically pasta.
I don't know where you are, but a 500g pack can be had for significantly under 1€ and is sufficient for multiple meals. Add a similar priced can of tomatoes, onions (optional) and some spices (I assume you have those).
Obviously there are other options for the sauce, many are cheap enough to consider when money is tight.
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I'm really enjoying you second guessing all the decisions I made when I was poor! Not only was I struggling, but apparently did it completely wrong!
Third party here!
That other guy needs to fuck right off. You’re contributing reasonable stuff, they are not. Fuck em.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
Rice and beans. Together they make a complete protein so can make up a larger bulk of your diet.
Pork loin, those gigantic big ones, are cheap per pound. Cut it into three for three roasts, freeze the other 2.
Try to get Multivitamins and magnesium. Long term you want those vitamins and minerals. Fish oil too. It seems expensive but it's cheaper than fish itself.
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Get the rice!
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When very low on money, it's what's in the cupboard,.which is oil, butter and pasta. Cheese is a bonus but the fridge will be empty before the cupboard.
You should always have rice and pasta available. Cheep and quick. So good for when tired or lazy, as well as when broke. Lots of people recommend beans but I don't like them so much.
Look at the specials in your supermarket. Many please discount heavily for stuff that is close to expiry date. If you shop daily you've less waste and get food deals.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
Breakfast: oatmeal
Snacks: popcorn (air popped, buy kernels.
NeedI recommend an air popper, but they're like 20 bucks. Then you can eat cheap popcorn forever). Bonus tip: if you can get your hands on a cheap electric coffee/spice grinder or want to grind seasonings by hand into an extremely fine powder, you can make popcorn salt that coats the popcorn really nicely. E.g. curry popcorn (salt + curry powder), lemon pepper, ranch (get ranch dressing powder). Spritzing with a fine mist of water can help the salt stick.Lunch/Dinner:
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Fried rice (egg, whatever meat/veg, I like doing soy sauce glazed canned sardines with it for a cheap meal)
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Red beans and rice
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Chicken & sausage gumbo over rice
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Enchiladas, rice, beans
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Rotisserie chicken tacos
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Collard greens and cornbread, you can add bacon or other cheap cuts of pork to add protein.
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Pasta bake (chicken, spinach, pesto, white sauce, little cheese, optionally dried tomatoes - dry them in your oven to save money or buy canned for a little more)
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Korean rice bowls. Chicken, gochujang (like $5-8 but lasts a long time in the fridge), red pepper flakes, ginger, garlic, vinegar, sesame oil. Marinate overnight. Cook on stove or in oven. Serve on rice with side dishes: carrot and cucumber banchan - just get some matchstick carrots, combine with vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, chili flakes. Cucumbers: slice thin, salt, drain. Combine with sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, red pepper flakes. Assemble.
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Filipino style Chicken Adobo (potatoes, carrots, chicken, onion, garlic, ginger cooked in a vinegar soy sauce based sauce)
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Make like 200 pierogis for like 20 bucks (and several hours) and freeze them for later. Boil or pan fry and eat with a sausage and some saurkraut. For fillings, I like a little ground meat with onion and mushroom and saurkraut - 1 part meat, 1 part mushroom, 1 part onion. Even cheaper is potato and cheese - typically this means mashed potato mixed with sour cream and cheese.
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Cabbage rolls. Head of cabbage, rice, ground pork, onion, garlic, a couple cans of tomato soup. Cook rice, mix with ground pork, diced onion, and garlic. Dunk cabbage head in boiling water for a minute or two, peel a leaf off, stuff with pork mixture and roll. Put all rolls in a baking pan on a layer of the tomato soup, top with tomato soup. Bake covered mins or until cooked (165f internal temperature)
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West African Peanut Stew. Lots of recipes online. Contains a mix of peanuts, peanut butter, sweet potatoes, collard greens, chicken/veggie stock, and optionally chicken. Very filling, calorie dense, and cheap. I make like 2kg of soup for <$20.
In general, if you want cheap food then look for cultures with rich food traditions born from poverty. Also look for more plant-based recipes or find ways to stretch your meat using fillers like cabbage and onion.
Examples: Louisiana Cajun, American South, India (at least the more modest dishes without lots of meat and cream/butter), Eastern Europe, Central and South America, even provincial French food & British "food" (I jest, but bubble & squeak or bangers & mash have fed many a hungry family)
Staple foods should include:
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Staple Starches: potatoes (sweet potatoes and normal potatoes), rice, corn, beans, lentils
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Chicken (whole raw or rotisserie) - benefit of a whole raw chicken is you can use the whole carcass to make stock and get enough meat for 2 people for a whole week. Rotisserie is the same deal, but precooked and not best suited for all applications.
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Filler vegetables: basically all of your cruciferous vegetables, onions, root vegetables
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Back when I was in the US like 5 years ago, I've been able to stretch my meals out to about $40 per month.
You can make a flavourful cheesy-pasta (not actual mac-and-cheese) with some pasta, some chicken bouillon, a tablespoon of butter or margarine, and a slice of processed cheese. For protein you can buy cheap chicken franks and chop it up, and for veggies I like frozen peas and frozen broccoli. Get store-brand for the cheapest possible options.
I was so stingy that I was able to stretch one box of pasta out to 11 meals, and I still looked forward to each meal.
To keep myself from going insane, every grocery run (every three weeks) I rewarded myself with a gallon bucket of store-brand ice-cream and two packs of store-brand chocolate sandwich cookies, all of which I completely devoured within one week.
I lost hella weight and felt really good about it. Unfortunately, I've gained it all back now.
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There's a few things I usually have at home because they're cheap, can be used for various dishes with or without additional ingredients and I will actually eat them before they spoil:
Beans, lentils, tomato paste, eggs, peanuts, cottage cheese, smoked tofu (not neccessarily a cheap item but I only use half a block or less per dish), bread, rice, spring onions, bell pepper, frozen spinach, hummus, cucumber.
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Seems like I need to educate myself on lentils and dry beans. Any EASY recipes welcome!
Fry onions in coconut oil, add lentils and water, season with garam masala and/or other herbs and spices, optionally add dried fruit and nuts, eat with rice. The best thing about this is that all ingredients keep well in the cupboard so you can stock up a little when you can afford to.
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10 minute farro from Trader Joe's. $2 a bag.
https://traderjoesrants.com/2022/04/20/trader-joes-10-minute-farro-whole-grain/
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Burritos. Beans, rice and whatever else you can get that's on sale it cheap. Make a batch Sunday night. The poorer was the more I would cook.
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Seems like I need to educate myself on lentils and dry beans. Any EASY recipes welcome!
wrote last edited by [email protected]1 cup dry beans, 1.5 cups water in instant pot. Press the "beans" button and go back to Lemmy til pot beeps at you (about 45 minutes). Can't get much simpler.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
When I was poor I ate boiled chicken and rice for every dinner. Breakfast was either cereal+milk (you can try ringing up multiple boxes at the self checkout using a "small" box but bag the bigger boxes), or yogurt+granola (I'd steal granola by ringing up bulk granola as cheaper bulk items and ring up the single yogurt cup in a 6 pack and pay <1/6 the actual cost).
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I have to admit that I do not do beans nearly as much as I should. I think it is because canned beans are not nearly the deal money-wise as dried beans are ... and I am not good at letting beans soak without forgetting them and ruining them.
Magic words: pressure cooker. Electric ones are simplest, press one button and wait for beepng.
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Rice and beans. Together they make a complete protein so can make up a larger bulk of your diet.
Pork loin, those gigantic big ones, are cheap per pound. Cut it into three for three roasts, freeze the other 2.
Try to get Multivitamins and magnesium. Long term you want those vitamins and minerals. Fish oil too. It seems expensive but it's cheaper than fish itself.
Beans and rice is the real answer here, +1 to this
Lots of meals are cheap but few will also fill you up.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
When I was literal piss-broke, there was a college campus near me with an open food court. Couldn't afford the actual shops selling food there, but in that food court was a condiments station that randomly had one of those electric hot water dispensers for making tea, and styrofoam cups. It also had ketchup packets, saltine crackers, and pepper.
Turns out you can make a pretty passable tomato soup with ketchup and hot water. Bit of pepper and a handful of saltine cracker packets, and I had myself a hot meal for exactly $0.00
With some money to spend, rice is where it's at. Hitch a ride to Costco or Sam's with someone who has a membership, and they have iirc 50 lb bags of that short grain fortified rice for like... $15? That's well over 100 meals worth of rice.
Cook that up with literally almost anything that has some flavor or nutrients - whatever's cheap. Or just eat it straight... bland, but it'll fill you up. Eggs go great with rice.
Fair warning, you'll get fat. Cheap food is NOT usually healthy.
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You do not need to be broke for: noodles made in herb water
Once you try it you may never go back to only salted water -
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Microwaved hotdog
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When I was poor I ate boiled chicken and rice for every dinner. Breakfast was either cereal+milk (you can try ringing up multiple boxes at the self checkout using a "small" box but bag the bigger boxes), or yogurt+granola (I'd steal granola by ringing up bulk granola as cheaper bulk items and ring up the single yogurt cup in a 6 pack and pay <1/6 the actual cost).
Petty theft rings too true. Had a friend that worked at one of those bulk ingredient shops who'd regularly just take home like a kilo of rice or flour. They don't check anyway and it hardly affects their bottom line.
