One of my favorite cheap meals is pasta with tomato juice. Everyone always thinks this sounds so weird, but it's something I've been eating my whole life! The best pasta to use is something small--little shells or stars or alphabet pasta, for example. cook & drain the pasta, then add tomato juice (it shouldn't be too soupy, but it shouldn't be too thick either). I also like to add a little shredded cheddar or colby-jack cheese on top. This goes great with a grilled cheese sandwich!

My budget food tips :
-Invest in a pressure cooker. It costs money initially, but it takes the annoyance out of homemade stock, dry beans, and other long-cooking foods that are more expensive to buy ready-made. It is much more tempting to save bones and chicken carcasses if I know I can have my stock ready in 25 minutes instead of 3 hours, or beans in 10 minutes instead of overnight.
-Always shop with a list, and plan things like roast chicken + chicken soup in the same week so you use every part of the chicken/bones without needing to worry about storing it.
-Reduce ground beef to half of what the recipe requires. You can either replace with lentils, or just leave it out completely. For example, use one pound of ground beef and divide it between chili and meaty spaghetti sauce. You won't notice there is less, and if you brown it all at once, you save yourself a step later in the week for the next meal.
-Eat (seasonal) vegetarian meals a few times a week.

Thanks for the idea, Elise. Here, in Spain, there is a great economical crisis and the food is more expensive each day. Potatoes are a good solution: cheap and various recipes.
A lot of kisses

Great tips. We can learn so much from the older generations. Thanks for sharing the ideas. And a budget section to your site is a great idea. Two of our favorite budget meals are black bean burgers and salmon burgers. Both recipes are on my site. Soups can also be budget friendly. Thanks agian for the great ideas.

We eat tons of rice and beans. Grains in general are pretty cheap (as long at you tend toward the "oats" end of the spectrum and away from the "purple wild rice"). Lots of bread, too; good for you and calorie dense. We eat eggs at least once a day and save meat of any kind for special occasions. Fruit and veg from the local farms is cheaper than the store. As my husband says, we've become "quasi-loca-flexitarian."

We, in making a small budget stretch, have found that starting with whole, unprocessed foods that you cook yourself is wayyyy cheaper than buying anything "convenient".

I loved this entry! Especially relevant for these distressing times.

Great post Elise! Good tips.

My college roommate and I almost started a blog called Krazy Kollege Kooking. The jist of it: cooking fancy on a college budget. Of course, then we realized that the initials were KKK, and we had midterms to attend to, so we never completely got it off the ground.

This post is a reminder of our Microsoft Word plan documents littering our desktops!

A staple at my parents' house was always a "stoup" of some kind. My mom's soups were never the watery-thin light soups, they were more along the lines of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type soups. Her lentil soup still is one of my favorites.

She would make a "sofrito" to start, which is a can of tomato sauce, equal amount of water (or stock), lots of onion, lots of garlic, oregano, salt, olive oil, whatever other spice, and let it simmer a bit. I've adapted the sofrito to add in some chopped bacon or sausage out of the casing for a meaty flavor. Let it cook a bit, add that to the cooking lentils. Add in chopped carrots, potatoes or sweet potato, squash or pumpkin, or all if you like. I always use whatever veggies I have on hand, and chop them into big chunks for texture. Let it cook for about 1 or 2 hours until it is the consistency you like. Season to taste, and you have a pot of lentil stoup to last you about 4 days.

That was a one bowl meal for us. Sometimes she's pair it with a watercress salad, and we'd were set for the evening.

I make one of these once a week at least, it's a great packed lunch.

My very very favorite budget meal was one I think my mother came up with. She would take a large can of Vegetable Beef Soup, and add to it, Hot Dogs, Pasta (salad or elbow macaroni), Barley, Worcestershire sauce and a few spices in the cupboard. Cook them all together in a huge pot and we'd have dinner and lunch for a good couple of days. We always just called it Hot Dog Stew. To this day it is a major comfort food for me. Hmmm, now I know what I may have for dinner tonight...

One of my favorite cheap meals is grilled cheese. I buy the French bread loaves when they're on sale at the grocery for $1 (and freeze what I don't use; and they're also great for French bread pizzas--also cheap and yummy). I buy colby and provolone cheeses from the deli (instead of sliced and packaged) because it doesn't take much; I might buy five slices of each. Throw them on the panini grill with some butter and they're done in no time! My husband and I also really like chipped beef on toast. I figure we can have dinner for about $1.50 when we have that. Not bad!

We joined a farmshare for the first time this summer, and not only was it an amazing culinary adventure, it was extremely economical! We had 17 weeks of organic, unbelievably fresh fruit and vegetables, and it worked out to be about $17 per week. The same amount of food would have been at least $40 at Whole Foods! I can't recommend it enough.

One thing I must mention as a follow-up to my previous comment about Indian food: the spices. They tend to be unbelievably expensive in regular grocery stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, or Wegmans, but you get the same spices for really really REALLY cheap in Indian stores (or the Indian section).

Back in the 80's I was raising 2 children as a single parent, no child support from their father and the courts couldn't/wouldn't get me any. (he refused to work). So,some days I would find myself going down the aisles in the grocery store with a handful of change. These nights we would have a can of store brand vegetable beef soup mixed with vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I could probably write a book on taking change to the grocery store and coming up with supper for 3. My oldest son has a Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, my youngest son is an electrician attending college to get a degree in Electronics Engineering. So, it didn't hurt them to eat cheap.

Oh, and hummus! Or cheese sandwiches!

I also have use fresh spinach as an alternative to potatoes, rice, pasta, or tortillas. It is particularily good with red sauce based dishes -- and less carbs.

Fast, cheap, and nutritious, I like to whip up a pot of soup with veggies from fridge and freezer, bouillon cubes, and an egg or two.

For a very inexpensive and totally nutritious side dish (we're talking 6 - 8 servings for less than 50 cents/serv), i like to make cashew cabbage:

Ingredients
1 head of cabbage (if large, just use half)
1/2 onion, diced
1/4 - 1/2 c almond milk (or your milk preference)
salt and pepper to taste

1/2 C coarsely chopped raw, unsalted cashews

To cook
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Core and chop cabbage and place in a 9 X 13" baking dish. Mix in the diced onion and enough almond milk to coat the bottom of the dish. Season with salt and pepper to taste (probably 1 - 2 tsp salt). Bake uncovered for 40-50 minutes, until cabbage is soft. Before serving, top with cashews.

I really like this post and one of the main reasons I read your blog is that you have so many cheap recipes that actually taste really good!

My best tip for people who love to cook is to build up your pantry and food reportoire a little bit at a time. I try to buy one "specialty" food item, like a spice or interesting vinegar, a week. When I do it little by little, it doesn't add much money to the grocery bill and then when I want to try a new recipe I don't feel as intimidated by a long ingredient list because I know a lot of the stuff is already sitting in my pantry. I also try to do one new recipe a week.

I was one of 7 in an Italian family and we
never went hungry. Pasta fazool is cheap and good and yet I hear that food pantries
have a hard time giving away kidney beans.
One can of beans a package of frozen spinach a little ditalini some fresh carrots celery and onions and you can make
quite a bit. My mom would also saute onion and add some chick peas and water to make a simple soup served with soup mac. buy a small container of ricotta cheese boil up a
pound of shells don t drain it too well. throw in ricotta some fresh ground black pepper and a little parmesan- yummo

Really appreciate the budget tips! Turkey stew will have to be on my menu soon...

One of our favorite meals on the cheap is Channa Masala (also called Chole), a spicy vegetarian curry made with chick peas.

Ingredients:
from grocery section:
2 cans chickpeas
1 can tomatoes
butter or olive or vegetable oil

from produce section:
one medium-sized onion, sliced
several hot peppers, chopped (serrano or jalapeno work well, use fewer for less heat)
3 medium sized potatoes, cut into roughly 1-2 inch pieces
4-6 garlic cloves, chopped or minced (or the equivalent in the jarred variety)
about a 2 inch piece of ginger, chopped or grated (If the pieces in the store are huge, I always break off a piece only as big as I need right there in the store)
cilantro

For spices, I use 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp coriander, 2 tsp masala (garam masala, or tandoori masala, or masala tea) 1 tsp cumin or cumin seeds, and 1 tsp turmeric

cooking instructions:
melt butter over med-high heat (or use olive or vegetable oil for a healthier version)

add onions and cumin (or cumin seeds) and stir together. Cook until onions are beginning to brown.

Add garlic, ginger, and chiles. Stir a few moments, then add the can of tomatoes and the rest of the spices. Allow to cook for a few minutes so the flavors become well blended. Add the potatoes and the chick peas, and add in some water. lower heat and partially cover. Cook until potatoes and chickpeas are softened. Add cilantro to taste. Serve with rice or pita bread.

Cheap, easy, and tasty!!! :)

I didn't see the spaghetti recipe on the "Budget" page, then I looked at the recipe and realized why. Maybe add a "Budget" version of spaghetti sauce that's tastey too? Instead of "Italian Parsley" you can just shorten it to "Italian Herb Blend" and "Fine dry red wine" to "Two-Buck Chuck Red." LOL Thanks Elise for sympathizing with everyone who's having a hard time right now and helping.

Lentils and rice (also known as mujadarrah) - what could be cheaper? I use Deborah Madison's recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Another lentil recipe I love is from Heidi Swanson's blog www.101Cookbooks.com - Lively Up Your Lentil Soup. A can of crushed tomatoes, lentils, onions and spinach. Both of these recipes are delicious, economical AND super easy.

In Louisiana it's Red Beans and Rice but my personal fave is a fried egg and tomato sandwich. Ummmmmm.

I love this topic! I always plan my meals one week in advance. That definitely saves on last minute trips to the store or ordering Chinese in a moment of weakness. Also, I can make better use of ingredients - so, I buy celery for one dish that calls for just a couple of stalks and use the rest later in the week for a soup or stew.

I also like to buy the giant package of ground beef at Costco. It's usually about 6 lbs. While I'm there, I also buy the big (I mean BIG) can of tomatoes, another BIG can of tomato sauce etc. and then I go home and make a giant sized pot of pasta sauce. I divide it up into 6 or 7 freezer bags and I've got spaghetti sauce for at least a month. I buy another giant package of ground beef and make meatloaves for the freezer.

My favorite inexpensive meal is what my kids call, "Mommy Noodles." I cook elbow macaroni, then mix with a little butter and some parmesan. I add seasoned salt and dried basil (or other fresh herbs if I have them). Sometimes I'll toss in some grilled chicken or sausage. But it's their favorite anyway I make it.

My favorite meal growing up was what we called potato burgers. Mom took about a pound of ground beef (really that's all she ever used to make dinner for 8) and mixed it with shredded potato, green pepper and onion diced small, and some spices. Then she cooked the individual patties in her electric skillet until browned on one side, flipped, poured a small amount of tomato sauce on each, then covered and cooked until done. I think we ate them with green beans and homemade bread and butter. Yum. :)

All fabulous suggestions! Even harder? Cooking on a budget while still trying to cook healthy. I hope that someday my food budget won't be so tight!

In general, these guidelines work for me. Some of them may not be viable everywhere, however, like buying on the farmer's market:

- Everything you can do yourself saves you a lot of money. (Like cleaning vegetables, or slicing them)
- Eat in season.
- Eat vegetarian more often. Beans, eggs and certain mushrooms can be adequate meatreplacers.
- Buy on the (farmer's) market. Sometimes you can even get good deals towards closing time, when the sellers don't want to take vegetables/fruit that are (nearly) ripe back home. All you need to do is eat or prepare it in the next 2 days.
- Canned tuna is relatively cheap (it is over here, at least) and can be used for tasty food. Recipes in plenty here :)
- Buy in larger quantities. Obviously this only goes for things that you will use and that you will use before their "best before" date. Example: rice.

My favorite budgetfood would be a dutch mash called 'hutspot'. You cook potatoes (the kind that is suitable for a mash), halfway through you add sliced onions and carrots. After cooking, drain water. Mash together. Serve with a roast, or just gravy. Very hearty (and healthy too!) food for a low price.

To GARRETT & ELISE: What if you don't have a panini grill for those grilled cheese sandwiches?

I use a cast iron pan to make grilled cheese sandwiches. ~Elise

It's astonishing the "nothing" recipes that will tug at you if you let the originator "get away" without passing them on. Kudos to your family for sharing. My brothers and I have tried endlessly to recreate something we only much later in adult life realized was Mama's version of Stone Soup. We all called it Potato Stew, but it had a red-sauce base, probably from tomato paste (one of her "secret" ingredients). There was seriously cooked-down onion and garlic, too, generous amounts of potato (probably russet, from the mealiness I recall) and the occasional slice of spicy sausage or frankfurter. I do remember her boasting once that she could feed a family of 6 on a half-package of frankfurters. But no combination of the above, no attempt to replicate Potato Stew has produced the thick, delicious stuff we gulped down for autumn/winter suppers when we were kids...oh, 50 years ago. The missing ingredient must be Mama. God, that sounds sappy, but I wonder if TLC isn't an ingredient we sometimes forget about. Sounds like your family has it in spades, Elise.

Trish: I don't do panini, I just do plain old grilled cheese using a nonstick fry pan. Rather than haute or cafe cuisine, I call it rustic.

It's all about renaming things. For example, I didn't burn the onions, they're just highly caramelized. ;)

Also, for those cheeses. Save the rinds and store them in the freezer. Use them for soup stocks, they have lots of great flavor!

Excellent post! I appreciate all the comment suggestions too. My biggest money saving tactic is planning my weekly menu before going to the farmers market or grocery store. Next time around, I will use many of your dinner ideas for the coming weeks. Thanks!

We stretch the dollar by making a lot more soups, casseroles and one pot dinners, bean&rice combos and stir fries. We also have one or two vegetarian dinners each week.

We eat more greens (collard, kale, chard), sweet potatoes, squash, cabbage and other less pricey vegetables. The ways to prepare them are infinite and delicious.

To extend soups, we serve them with some noodles or rice in the bottom of the bowl. Chili can be extended as chili-mac. (The teens love it that way.) Or make some cheesy garlic or herb bread to accompany them. (spread softened butter on bread, sprinkle some garlic powder and parmesan cheese, or make a herb compound butter to spread on. Then heat in hot oven for a couple of minutes and it's ready.)

Leftover meats and veggies become casseroles, pita fillings, tacos, fajitas, enchiladas, or fritatas. We don't waste leftovers, but change the way they are prepared to eliminate repetition.

I've been experimenting with tofu and will add it to a stir fry to extend the "meat" protein for my meat eaters.

We buy meats only on sale and stock up for the freezer. We buy a whole ham or turkey (on sale) or make a meatloaf, meatballs, etc. After a dinner, some goes into the freezer, some made into a soup and some becomes "lunch meat". My only true weakness is hard salami.... *sigh*

My husbands co-workers ooo and ahhh over his chicken or fresh ham sandwiches. Little do they know, we're saving dollars and eating better because we don't or very rarely buy deli meats.

We also save time by cooking in "bulk" (double or triple batches), then freezing them for another week night meal.

We joined a CSA this year, and for $20 a week, we had the most amazingly fresh and delicious supply of vegetables for a family of four. We also shop at our local farmers market.

We have very little sunlight and very poor soil, but I planted six tomato plants and a variety of fresh herbs (got to have them) in some large pots along the sunny side corner of our home.

For a super quick and inexpensive meal, we make ramen noodle soup, adding leftover meat, some veggies, and etc. and call it dinner.

Great idea for a post! Making good use of leftovers is definitely a money saver and something I've been trying to implement more.

One of the earliest foods I learned to cook is something my mother ate a lot as a child. She was part of one of those old southern farming families; that is, she was 11th of 13 children. They very very often had to stretch their meals...using the same ingredients over and over. The simple solution: biscuits and gravy. Same three ingredients: flour, water, grease (fat, lard, what have you). They saved the bacon grease (or whatever meat they had when they had it), and used it bits at a time. It's always amazed me that the same three ingredients made two very different foods, and how little of them was needed to get large quantities.

ah... a favorite topic of mine: eating well on a budget is withing the reach of everybody by learning a few culinary techniques, learning what's in season locally, planning formals, buying in bulk and learning to cut-up meat etc...I did a series of posts myself a few weeks ago on roasting one large chicken on Sunday and using it during the rest of the week in ways that don't feel like left over:
o Sunday: Roast Chicken
o Monday: Tomatillo-chicken Soup
o Tuesday: Rainbow Stir Fry
o Wednesday: Tex-Mex Chowder
o Thursday: Fajitas
o Friday: Pizza

Cutting out processed food, sodas and bottle water, will go a long way towards eating better (both taste & nutrition) and eating cheaper.

Thanks, Elise, for the great article which spurred all the comments - and the new "budget" category.

Sylvie

I recently remembered and cooked up a specialty from my barely-post-depression youth, probably originating with my southern-born, po'folks, dad's side of the family: Ham, potato, & green bean stew. Ham hocks are really cheap and have a lot of flavor....No recipe, but here's what I did:

Heated up a couple quarts of water. Simmered a ham hock until the meat was tender, fished it out and trimmed of the bits of meat, then threw everything else back in the pot (if you cook the meat the whole time it will lose its flavor). Simmered for a loooong time, skimmed off some floating fat. An hour before dinner I quartered some white potatoes and an onion, cut fresh green beans into bites, and into the pot with the veggies, plus a bay leaf, a smashed garlic clove, and some pepper corns. Simmered VERY gently; added the meat bits back in and tweaked the seasoning a few minutes before serving. Everything gets tender and hammy-flavored. (This is the only time it's OK to cook green beans past the bright and crispy stage!)

Dish up into a bowl with a very little broth, and chow down with hot cornbread -- the kind with more cornmeal than flour and hardly any sugar, not the muffiny-stuff you get these days; you heat up an iron skillet in the oven with some bacon fat and pour the batter in to sizzle and bake up crumbly and brown. Butter some to eat alongside, and toss some in the bowl to soak up broth, and have the rest with lots of honey for dessert.

The stew is just succulent and filling and yummy and incredibly cheap! Memories of a very very poor time that makes today's poverty look rich....

Another quick, vegetarian, southern sort of meal-for-one -- steamed kale and a baked (or nuked) sweet potato. Butter with the potato and vinegar on the kale.

Another thanks, Elise, for a website that's fun to read and recipes I actually use!

I have stopped visiting my barista after finding a "Moka Pot", a stove-top expresso maker. This saves me $1400 per year ($4/day) (or a one month mortgage payment--pay attention here Mr. Bernanke).This simple device is easy to use, easy to clean and easy to store. A one cup Moka Pot costs less than $20. I also froth my own milk on the stove top using a pear-shaped frothing utensil (I think it is used for bartending...).

I don't remember for how long I have been reading this site, but this time last year I made my first recipe from your archives..the sour cream apple pie with streusal topping, which has established me amongst my friends as the favorite chef! Thanks for that Elise! This is the first time I am driven to comment, as a budget-minded college student. I have to admit that my inspiration comes decidedly from my favorite restaurants.

In high school in New Jersey, I was a waitress in a Tex-Mex restaurant, and would spend the larger parts of my shift in the the kitchen kibitzing with the mexican cooks, so I am with you 100% on that one!

I went to college for a year in Manhattan and my favorite restaurants were Pommes Frites(a belgian french fry place with a selection of more than 27 mayo sauces), The Hummus Place(which was just that..a $5 serving of hummus with tahini and a boiled egg plus a $2 lemonade), and The Peanut Butter Co.(my favorites being with orange marmalade and almonds, and of course with fried bananas and bacon.) I love falafel and have yet to give it a try, and there was this japanese place that made a rice, called Hibachi rice, very similar to the one mentioned by ambitious which I LOVE to the point that I learned how to cook rice in order to make this. Take white rice and fry it using any oil that is on hand, pour some soy sauce and crack a couple of eggs over it depending on the amount of rice, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and they would put some amazingly crunchy green peas in it, but I use frozen. I have also tried but failed to recreate a pineapple cashew rice from a Thai restaurant in the Village. Variety really is key.

Now I live in the Dominican Republic and have a garden where I hope to have a variety of fresh produce year-round. Including 3 varieties of avocados! I will be eating VERY cheap!

I love eggs in every manifestation! My parents raised us on a budget as well, and our cheapest but favorite food were plantains. Green ones we would boil and mash up, I like them with a garlic butter poured over them, yellow ones(the sweeter variety) sliced longways and fried, or both as tostones, cut into pieces about an inch thick, fried, smashed flat, and fried again to make a kind of chip. I've never liked the thicker versions of these served at restaurants, nor the too thin versions that are transparent, but they do need to be crispy on the outer edges. These were usually served with a combination off eggs, cheese, and sometimes as a side with rice or meat or on fancier occasions, shrimp in a tomato sauce.

Ok well it's been fun sharing, I must do this again! Love you both Elise and Garret!

Great post.

One thing nobody's mentioned is Vietnamese food -- it's inexpensive, and the fresh herbs and aromatics are such a nice break from heavy winter fare.

My Vietnamese friend Son Le's marinade for pork, beef, or chicken:

1 tbsp. white sugar
1 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. lemongrass (for chicken, substitute ginger)
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. chopped [red] onion
black pepper
chili pepper
1/2 C. soysauce (for chicken, leave out and add some salt instead, creating more of a paste consistency)
10-15 drops fish sauce

You only need to marinate the meat for 20 minutes or so. Serve it over rice noodles with a big squirt of lime juice and some cilantro. Mm.

When my kids were small, in the 80's, we did the soup, meat, carb casserole every week. My granddaughter isn't big on 'mixed up stuff,' but her favorite meal is Chili Beans - a pound of ground meat and a can of baked beans, a little brown sugar added. Now, at 10, she makes it herself.
I read an article recently that said the foods our mom's used to cook were more nutritious and less fattening than the same recipes we make today. I'm glad I have my mom and grandmother's recipe books, and, for decadence, my baker grandpa's recipes as well. Another benefit of using these recipes - they force you to slow down.

While I appreciate the ideas for cooking on a budget, the most healthy foods for you are conspicuously missing: where are the veggies?

Hi Alynn, I focused on main courses as protein tends to be expensive and isn't season dependent. You can find plenty of vegetable recipes here on the site, many of them are quite budget friendly, assuming you are buying your vegetables in season. ~Elise

I really like these budget friendly recipes, not only because they're cost conscious, but also because they're what I would call comfort food. In addition, they're foods that my family eats without complaint!

Elise mentioned Mexican food as being budget friendly because it's based on inexpensive ingredients. Others have mentioned Chinese, Thai, Indian, Spanish, Slovak, Turkish and Vietnamese foods as budget friendly cuisines. The cuisine of southern Italy is called "la cucina povera," the cuisine of poverty.

I can't think of a traditional cuisine that isn't based on cheap, healthy ingredients. The cuisine of nearly every country (and regions within a country) is based on locally grown, seasonally available, budget friendly, healthy foods. Every region usually has one or two grains (and bread made from those grains), a starchy vegetable or two, and legumes on which much of the cuisine is based. They are supplemented with small amounts of meat, fish, poultry, dairy products and eggs along with seasonally available vegetables and fruits.

I've read that home cooks in nearly every other country stick to their own cuisine -- you'll rarely find a home cook in southern Italy making Chinese food. Or a cook in rural China making Italian food. Our "melting pot" has made all of it American Home Cooking -- and we cook all of it at home.

I'm restricting the variety of recipes I cook at home. Pick the foods of your region in the U.S. or your country of origin or one or two that you like and limit your cooking to them. My own cooking reflects my Midwestern/German background, but I love the foods of the Mediterranean, and include some of them. Many of the ingredients are the same, so it limits what I need in my pantry.

I'm also using more potatoes and making more soup. Both very budget friendly and healthy. There was an article in the New York Times on Sunday 10/26 by Elisabeth Rosenthal about potatoes. A search of "depression era recipes" brings up many recipes using potatoes.

I love the ideas everyone has presented. here.

One of our household favories is chicken and potatoes cooked in Italian dressing. Take whatever chicken parts you like, add some diced potato (one medium potato per person in bite-size pieces), drizzle 1/2 bottle of your favorite Italian dressing over it, and cook in a casserole dish in the oven until done. Only three ingredients!

This site is fantastic!
Really love the stuff on here!

Make your own bread. Three cups of flour, a tsp. or less of yeast and a bit of salt is all it takes to create a loaf of bread that goes for $4 at the grocery. Lack of time is not an excuse with no-knead bread recipes.

Another super cheap dish is scalloped potatoes and onions. Resist the urge to add cheese, garlic or anything else. Just parboiled potatoes, carmelized onions, and white sauce, seasoned with salt and pepper.

We have a family of three and we eat on less than $350.00 each month. We live in Oregon and things can be a bit pricey in the Portland area. Our menu always includes fresh veggies (usually around what is on season), fresh fruit (season also), whatever protein is on special and for any can or spice items, BUY the store brand!! ;) We also eat a lot of black beans, pinto beans and lentils (cooked at home), rice and whole wheat pastas, as well as fresh corn tortillas, eggs and cheese products! I am from Mexico but carry a Spanish heritage and I have the perfect recipe for you :)

Cook some lentils with a drizzle of olive oil (extra virgin), once the lentils are cooked, add some chopped onion and salt and pepper to taste. Add some chopped ham and a kielbasa ;), as well as a can (or two) of diced tomatoes!! and voila!! Delicious and very nutritious, I always make a green salad with this, my little 2 year old LOVES this lentil soup!!

You cannot beat Heinz Baked beans on toast. !!

I love this article and all the information from your readers. I also really enjoy this site.
I have 3 small kids who, I think like all kids, can be a bit finicky. One thing I found that saves a ton of money is homemade yogurt and granola. Here in upstate NY milk is only $2/gallon but yogurt is $3/quart ($12/gallon). I found by taking about 10 minutes of active time I can make a gallon of yogurt for a little over $2. I used the WikiHow site recipe b/c all I need is milk, yogurt (about 1 tbls), some dry milk, and a heating pad. So easy and I let my kids add flavorings if they want.
For the granola, I take 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar with 1/2 cup of water and microwave for about 5 minutes add a little salt and vanilla and mix it with 8 cups of oatmeal and whatever nuts, seeds, flax, germ I have in the house. Bake at 275 for 45 min. The kids love it! The granola is great for the kids to bring to school for snack also. I let them throw in some raisins, chocolate chips or whatever.
The other tip is joining your local CSA. Not only do you get healthy, organic produce, it makes you look up recipes for items you have never heard of and vary your diet. I find it easier to get my kids to try something new, if they know it is also new for me. My daughter has learned she loves kale and my son has learned he doesn't!

Great tips, thanks Kathy! ~Elise

Elise, I work in a food bank at a local church. I get an assortment of canned foods to put into packages for those who come to the church in need of food. While packing the food bags it occurred to me that surely I can group these canned/boxed foods in such a manner that I can give a family "a meal". (I try to put enough for 4 dinner meals in each bag) I see from the posts that many of you really stretch your budget. I only have access to canned/boxed items donated to the church. I put bean and rice donations together in bags, I put tuna helper and a can of tuna together, I thought of putting hamburger helper together with pinto beans or canned chilli or Mac & Cheese donations, which are plentiful, with a can of chilli. I am looking for ideas of ways to combine the variety of canned goods in ways that make useful "go togethers" for a meal. Might there be any suggestions which could help me better serve so many families in need right now. Thank you for all suggestions. Annie