Great topic! It is hard being on a budget when you are getting less than you deserve. I shop at Aldis, Murry's for bulk when sale. Giant when I need fish and other meats. Also, the dollar tree sells groceries. You can get 3 pack of chicken breast for a dollar, they also sell other items for a dollar, such as mixed frozen vegetables, rib eye steak, bread, milk, lunch meat, scallops, burritos, canned goods, chips, sodas, popcorn, spices. Don't sleep on the dollar store you've just got to look.
You have a variety of chicken meals, baked chicken with stir fry and rice, bbq chicken and rice, steak stir fry, you just have to be creative! You can spend 50 dollars at the dollar store and com out with fifty items. You can spend 50 dollars at Giant, Shoppers, and Safeway and come out with maybe 10-15 items...Not to mention all of your paper and cleaning products.. Good Luck...

1 jar of spaghetti sauce can render you several meals, esp if it is for one person. 1 jar of sauce and one box of noodles are about a dollar each, if bought in generic and can make easy pasta just mixing them together, and it doesnt require meat. But, if you had enough of meat of course you could add meatballs, chicken, beef, you get the point,

Of course Ramen noodles are cheap, I bought a whole box for about 1.50.

Don;t throw leftovers away, that saves a lot of money. If you have a piece of chicken left, you can save it and do all kinds of things with it, you could 1 serving of chicken soup if you shred it up, or you could shred it, add some bbq sauce and have chicken bbq sandwich. Leftover save me lots of money.

Sandwiches are cheap, most sandwiches items, including bread, cost around 1.00 each.

You can also google "meals with 5 ingredients or less" and many inexpensive meals come up. Feel free to message me for recipes or anything. :)

Thanks all for the great suggestions! Thank You Thank You Thank You, God Bless

Any time a store has deep discounts on sale items, if you have the money, stock up as much as you can, especially on items like spaghetti sauce and fresh meat. When something like hamburger meat is on sale, I will buy a huge package, then make some into individual patties and freeze them. I also freeze a portion to add to the spaghetti sauce. One batch of spaghetti sauce can last for days, depending on the size of your family. To really stretch it, I'll use less sauce and meat. Also, stock up on pasta when it's on sale.

Costco has some great deals on canned chicken chunks. You get six cans of chicken. Each can holds a LOT of chicken chunks, and they are very, very good. You can get packages of ramen noodles for sometimes as little as 4/1.00. Just one can of the Costco chicken chunks mixed with a few packages of the ramen noodles makes a pretty tasty meal that will yield leftovers. They also have 10 lb bags of Kirkland chicken breasts for something like 15.00. The breasts are a good size and they are trimmed REALLY nicely AND individually wrapped.

Safeway also has some great deals on sale items, plus, they have that gasoline thing going right now when you use the little red card to get your discount prices. Not too long ago, I filled up my truck using the discounts I had earned by using that little red Safeway card and I paid 65 cents a gallon for my gas at a Safeway gas station. Our FILL UP ended up costing less than 10.00. Safeway also has killer deals on paper towels and bath tissue. We were able to buy 24 double rolls of bath tissue for something like 7.99 several weeks ago, and a pack of 16 rolls of paper towels for the same amount.

Another good suggestion that someone else made - never throw ANY leftovers away, even if it's just a few bites. If you're not that hungry, sometimes leftovers of just 2-3 bites of food can suffice for an entire meal.

Have a great day!
Janice : )

These truly are sad times. I used to live on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and dinner Monday through Friday . . . when I was working my job that didn't pay me enough to eat well. I would always treat myself on the weekends. I would buy a strip steak to cook for myself for like $6 and would find a deal on salad mix for around $2. Sam's Club and some grocery stores have a whole chicken for around $5. I used to have half one night and then half the next, so it came out to about $2.50 a meal.

I hope that this helps to give you some ideas.

Rice Bowls. If we have dinner leftovers they are gone in the morning.

Depending upon household size: pkg. of fresh cube beef, coat w/flour, salt, pepper, seasoning salt, garlic powder mix. Med. heat 1/2 cup of oil (I like olive oil) in frying pan; make sure pan is hot by sprinkling a bit of waterdrops in pan, if sizzle pan is hot. Put coated cube beef in pan and med. brown on all sizes.

To make beef stew buy frozen mix veg pre pk'd. Once meat is brown prepare frozen veg as instructed on pk, increase water to raise over veg and bring to boil, add beef cubes, bring to another boil, turn flame to low and let simmer 30 min stir occasionally.

To make gray thicker, in reheat frying pan used the residue from browning cubes, if needed add 2 tblspoons of oil, depending on desired thickness gradually sprinkle pinches of flour stirring until oil is absorbed by flour. Gradually add water stirring frequently until brown and creamy thick then add slowly add to stew stirring until dissolved; continue this step until stew thickens.

Beef and gray over rice: saute' slice onions and green peppers in 1 cup of butter/margerine low heat until lightly brown remove from pan, coat beef same as above; using same pan and remaining drippings from saute' brown beef, lower heat, add saute'd onions and green peppers to brown cube beef and gradually stir in water. Increae gray by following gray thikness above, cover let simmer 30 min.

Season to taste and enjoy!

Go to Save-A-Lot Store, VERY CHEAP!

Hi, I agree with #1 - a fantastic topic! The one area of life I seem to have control over is food on a budget! Currently I have very limited funds to buy food and spend way more feeding my dogs than I do on myself but that's ok.
I have had to cut out meat from my diet as I will not buy meat that is not organically raised from a local source and that is way too expensive for me now but am enjoying trying out new receipes with pulses and vegetables etc.
One of the biggest bonuses is that I have lost around 20pounds in weight and feel much better for not eating all the rubbish that I used to.
Strangely I am really enjoying having a tiny amount to feed myself on! Good luck to you.

Thanks all for so many great ideas, love the beef stew recipe, makeing it this Tuesday. Thanks again.

I hope you enjoyed the beef stew.

can you qualify for food stamps? in my state I did for $71 month....it helps...and food pantries are there too for the unemployed, I have not gone there yet....hugs billwfriend

Great topic Lisa! I have STRUGGLED with this one because when i was well off I used to eat out everyday for lunch and sometimes all three meals. I'm not talking fast food, I'm talking sushi and italian and fancy-schmansy meals.

Now I am really struggling to feed myself and since I had to move back home, I have to contribute and at times I cook or purchase the groceries and IT IS HARD to feed a big family. Great ideas here and recipies.

Low cost grocery items:

Grains and starches: different kinds of dried beans, dried split peas, lentils, rice, pasta, 10 pound bag or larger potatoes

Fresh fruits and veggies: buy what is in season and on sale

Meats: look for sales and compare prices for different cuts. You can often save money by buying a larger piece of meat and cutting it into smaller pieces at home. Canned tuna fish is cheap and versatile.

Meal ideas that will give you many meals:

Large pot of beans or chili with or without meat
Large pot of split pea or lentil soup
Large pot of vegetable or beef or chicken curry
Large bowl of hot or cold pasta salad with tuna, veggies, or whatever
Large batch of fried rice with or without meat (tastes even better as a reheated leftover the next day!)
Large batch of potato salad or other potato dish, hot or cold

You can find millions of free recipes for anything youd like to make online at sites like www.allrecipes.com. Have fun!

Recently I've been enjoying pizza made on cheap hoagie rolls with cheap homemade pizza sauce and a little shredded mozzarella. You could also use full-size loaves of French bread or make your own crust from scratch or even use slices of white or wheat bread, if that's all you have. Here is my kick a$$ recipe for homemade pizza sauce:

Pizza Sauce

Ingredients

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
3/4 cup water
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 heaping tablespoons grated parmesan cheese (optional)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt or more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Directions

1. In large bowl, mix together the tomato paste, water, and olive oil with whisk. Keep whisking until oil is incorporated. It will take a lot of whisking. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. No cooking necessary. Just spread the sauce on your crust, add toppings, and bake.