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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 9/2/2006 10:26:58 AM | | I like making my own pasta sauces. This is inexpensive (unless I add shrimp with the marinara) and delicious. The best way to cut down on food expenses is to use what you have first, before going out and buying everything. You can get creative right from the pantry! | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 9/2/2006 11:57:06 AM | Another thing I eat when I am feeling cheap (or poor or too lazy to cook) is I mix one cup of rice with a can of tuna. I add a little soy sauce and a pat of butter (or trans free margerine) and mix.
This keeps me full for HOURS. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 4/5/2009 12:56:10 PM | | Black Bean Salad – You need: 1 can black beans, 1 can corn or frozen corn, 1 lime, ~2T fresh chopped cilantro, a fresh veggie (I like green pepper or tomato or avocado if you want to splurge). Add all ingredients to a tuper-wear and juice the lime. You might also add some chili powder or tobasco. Let it marinate together for at least 30 minutes. Eat with corn chips. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 4/5/2009 4:29:43 PM |
For my slightly less poor weeks I would go to our local meat packers and pick up pork shoulder. It's always about $1.19 lb and has less fat and wastage per lb. than hamburger if you trim it yourself.
The shoulder of other animals also make cheap, yet tasty meals. They have a lot of tought, connective tissue, but long and slow cooking takes care of that.
Another way to save money is to avoid processed and pre-cooked foods. However, this involves knowing how to cook from scratch. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 4/5/2009 6:39:10 PM | When my kids were little and money was tight I made Tic Toc soup. Boiled carrots and potatoes drained. Add some butter, milk, salt and pepper and stir until some of the potato edges crumble off and thicken your broth. They also loved it with just butter and no milk. My daughter made it once for her ex husband when she hadn't had time to shop and he absolutely loved it thinking it was some unique side dish. She didn't tell him any different.
Lately when caught in a pinch I've been making baked or boiled potatoes with just about anything I have on hand. You can put a zillion different things with potatoes. Sour cream & onion chip dip, butter & shredded cheese, butter & snipped chives, cheese & jalepeno dip, the left over little smooshed frozen package of chopped broccoli found in the back of the freezer & butter & cheese, ranch salad dressing, any left over meat & cheese ( roasts or bbq is good with bbq sauce), or anything else you have on hand. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 4/7/2009 2:09:10 PM | Cheap would be a successful hunting season. I think I paid $72 to have a deer proccessed last year. That was for about 50lbs of meat including ground, cubed and steaks. 
We'll leave out all of the stuff that I bought and gas to and from the place I hunted. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 4/7/2009 2:45:27 PM | 5 thin sliced chicken breasts
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup parmesan
salt/pepper
garlic powder
onion flakes
1 stick of butter
cooking oil
Melt butter in a sauce pan and add onion flakes and garlic, salt and pepper to taste
Mix the breadcrumbs, parmesan and add garlic salt and pepper to taste
Heat oven to 350
Dip the washed chicken breasts in the butter and then dip the breasts into the breadcrumb mixture ( coat well)
Add enough oil to cover the bottom 0f a 9x11 pan
Place the breasts in the pan and top with the remaining breadcrumb mix
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or till juices are clear.
I usually serve this on top of orzo pasta or rice | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 4/7/2009 7:06:22 PM | Here is the thing, when you are poor pride doesn't fill your belly, so even when you swallow it, you still feel hungry. There is lots of free food available, but you have to ask for it, and it will never be food that is easy to prepare, or that makes any sense for meal preparation.
I pick up government surplus for a pantry. I can't tell you how many bags of flour, huge cans of peanut butter, and blocks of government cheese we had until we hit on the idea of peanut butter cookies and cheese straws. Now our welfare meals on wheels recipients always have bags of munchies.
Many grocery stores will give or sell for almost nothing their old bread. As long as it isn't moldy, it makes great toast, bread pudding, or bread dressing. The same goes with fresh veggies and fruits. We get literally bags and bags of bananas. We make banana bread from them. Any fresh veggies have the bad spots cut out and we make veggie soup. Unfortunately, no meat, but still nourishing and plentiful.
A lot of churches run food pantries, and you can always get food from them. Sometimes you wind up with some odd combinations, but you won't go hungry.
Even restaurants will sometimes give you left over food they can't sell. Good grief, if you are embarrassed, tell them it's for your dogs or pigs.
With all the food there is available, there is no reason for anyone to be hungry. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/26/2009 6:52:07 PM | | it is not difficult to eat nutritiously even when poor. at the regular supermarket / grocery store, select the freshest produce, especially seasonal and on sale. it is much healthier than trying to figure out what to do with sugar, sweet, high fat and poor quality ingredients or foodstuffs. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/26/2009 7:50:34 PM |
it is not difficult to eat nutritiously even when poor. at the regular supermarket / grocery store, select the freshest produce, especially seasonal and on sale. it is much healthier than trying to figure out what to do with sugar, sweet, high fat and poor quality ingredients or foodstuffs
My eating poor plan involves planting various fruit trees and growing a garden. I plan to attach as much wildlife as I can into my yard and try to always have a free/cheap place to go deer hunting. The first year on the trees and garden won't be cheap, but after that it could provide more than enough fresh fruits and probably enough to make some money off of | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/26/2009 9:24:43 PM | I am always a little takenaback by this question/thought.
I am in total agreement with some on here that have said there is no reason to go hungry or eat unhealthy on a very, very low food budget. Free food is everywhere, even is you have zero money. Now, to get healthy, as in fresh, or high quality protein, you may have to look at tiny bit harder, but it is still everywhere for free. Now, I am speaking for USA only, I do not know about other countries.
Even if you do have some money and refuse to go to the places that have food to give away, you can still eat well on just a few dollars. The cheapest food in the store is fresh vegetables. My personal experience has only left me with one and only one time in my life when I didn't have food overflowing in my house and I wondered what I would do. I had only $40 and needed to feed 2 of us for 10 days. I thought for about an hour and then realized that often the cheapest things are quite filling and that I may not be able to get meat, but I was sure I could get more than enough vegetables than we would need for 10 days, so I went to the store...
10# bag of potaotes, about 2.30
heads of cabbage, about .10 a pound
all leafy greens, onions, Brussels sprouts, leeks, garlic, carrots, strawberries, citrus etc... was dirt cheap, as this was end of winter, early spring so both seasons vegetables were the cheapest of all year. Chicken is always also cheapest in spring, as is beef roast, often. Of course there is always dried beans. I ended up spending $25 and coming home with food that lasted 3.25 weeks. I will never forget that. We never felt like we were lacking money that whole time. We ate very well.
Now I had staples like flour, butter, oil, spices and rice, but that was all I had. We had a few months before moved from another state and had just gotten jobs, but not quite started and no checks and moving/getting a house had cost us a few thousand more than expected, as well as finding jobs.
Right now in US there are Angel Food programs that sell about $100 of meat for $25 to anyone that wants it and you place your order a month in advance because you get to pick what you want. These boxes include NY strip steaks, roasts, whole chickens and turkeys or other cuts. I work at a very wonderful food pantry that our church runs and people get everything possible that a grocery store has at our pantry, plus more, for FREE. What I see most is that people CHOOSE very bad foods. The most unhealthy choices. They frequently turn down meat (turkey, venison, ham, chicken breast, roast) and will never take organic food, never take the fresh food.
They always choose canned corn, canned fruit, lots of snacks, canned beans, hamburger helper, weiners, cheese, canned juice with mostly sugar and no juice, and sweet cereals. We sometimes have to throw food away that expires. It is just crazy. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/26/2009 9:38:17 PM | This may ruin all my chances of ever dating again but here goes!
If you are on a budget and wanting good food as cheap as possible remember these things. ( I did these things when travelling across the US)
1. Keep all condiments you get from fast food,quickie marts etc.
2. Buy alluminum foil, and reuse (wrap food, then use it on the grill,baking dish etc.
3. Buy rice,beans and pasta from the bulk bins if possible
4. Create multiple meals at once from the same items (make country gravy for SOS,buscuits and gravy,over rice,mashed potatoes, and tougher cheap roasts)
5. Crock pot crock pot crock pot anything and everything you can. make LARGE amounts at once, then seperate and store. If you notice sales on roasts,shoulders buy them and seperate them into single portions. ( remember the alluminum foil?)
6. Get creative ( mac and cheese with tuna,raman noodles with teriyaki sauce,canned chicken and broccoli)
There are many things you can do with a potato,, tomato, and any veggie.
Remember Betty Crocker can be your greatest friend! And last but not least find the dented can store, dollar food mart, farmers markets etc. Great deals and bulk products of name brand goods quite often. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/26/2009 9:40:02 PM | I guess I didn't say what I would eat if I was trying to eat dirt cheap. Well, I guess it would be the following dishes....
I would go back to Jewish Cooking 101
Boiled and roasted chicken (for the broth and the to make it taste better)
With the broth I would take some out to make Potato Kugel
With the rest I would make Matzah Ball Soup
Salads are CHEAP
I would also go for many Indian and Middle Eastern Vegetarian Meals like...
Chana Masala (tomato curry chick peas)
Potato and Pea dishes
Cauliflower dishes
Lentils!
Eggplants
Also, the Southern US cheap meal staple of my childhood that my mom actually made well...
Pinto Beans and cornbread
meatloaf, candied carrots and mashed potatoes
fried potatoes, squashes, corn
Rice and gravy
Enchiladas made from whatever is cheap at the time
There is a lot of cheap foods that do not have to be unhealthy. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/27/2009 1:25:32 AM | For a Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart to print out go to
About.com -- Has links for charts also lots of other money savers.
The best chart is the one from USDA. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/27/2009 2:35:49 AM | On June 6 of this year I had a party at my home. 186 guest.
I went red-neck and used paper --
Salad Bar was 12 ft x3 ft loaded with about any veggie
you could want along with ham and turkey cubes and crumbled
bacon, sliced hardboiled eggs and 5 kinds of cheese
Hot dogs with all the trimmings
Home made Vegetable Beef Soup---Fresh veggies mostly
Cupcakes -- with buttercream froasting--Lemon frosting and
of course chocolate
Ice cream bar with fixings
Drinks was Iced tea- sweet and unsweet-coffee-fruit punch-
lemonaid-juices-assorted soft drinks-
It was all buffet except the wine purchased from a nearby winery
Entertainment was Karoake and dancing
Now the punch line here is the money I spent.
Paper Products was 32.06
Food and drinks 172.86
I pulled this off with double coupons-buy 1 get 1 free and special sales
I did have to spend 3 hours shopping at different stores and drive 42 miles
total. I came under budget so went to a nearby winery and they were good
enough to give me good prices. so the evening we enjoyed the wine with
fruit and cheese
The only thing I didn't get a bargain on was the 15 lbs of ground chuck to
make the chilli.--because I insisted to have it ground then and not take what
was on the meat counter
If anyone has tips on something better I'd love to hear it. I enjoy having
parties. Be it a romantic night for 2 or over a hundred all day. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/28/2009 12:40:42 PM | my favorite "cheap" or "poor" dish ... is CHILI SOUP! made almost entirely from CANNED goods!
I start out with ground beef or swiss steak ... whatever I have or was on sale at the grocery store ... brown it ... cut it into little pieces if you have to ... to that pot you browned the meat in ... add a can of chili beans (rinse it with water into the pot, too) ... (I usually use Dennison's chili con carne) ... and add anything else interesting ... but AT LEAST ... kidney beans, black beans, corn and tomatoes ... remember to rinse all these cans and pour into the pot ... you are, after all, making SOUP!
sometimes, I've added frozen vegetables ... you could add seasons but I never have!
I've served that to some really picky friends and they all love it ... there's just enuf chili and not too much ... I usually serve it with cornbread ... maybe a salad if I'm trying to impress someone!
now that I'm thinking of chili and cornbread!
another CHEAP recipe is something I laughingly call TAMALE PIE ... make cornbread batter ... rub the baking dish with butter ... put in a few spoonsful of the cornbread batter ... dump in the can of chili beans ... you CAN add canned corn and olives, too, but that's not necessary ... spoon on the rest of the cornbread batter over the chili beans ... bake till done and (hopefully) crispy in places ...
I've never served that one to anyone ... it's pretty common! but I personally love it! I admit to being one of those too-picky eaters! | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/28/2009 1:49:14 PM |
They always choose canned corn, canned fruit, lots of snacks, canned beans, hamburger helper, weiners, cheese, canned juice with mostly sugar and no juice, and sweet cereals. We sometimes have to throw food away that expires. It is just crazy. I hate to say it, but that may be because they don't know what to do with fresh food, or how to prepare it. We gave pots and pans as a wedding gift to a mid 20's couple- it took them two weeks to open them up. Cans require nothing more than open and microwave. Hamburger helper has instructions. A steak does not come with instructions. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/28/2009 7:01:18 PM | | Girly, I can very much appreciate your thought. All of us at the Pantry thought the same thing, so we all provided easy to make nutritious recipes that are popular in this area and attached them to the foods that go in them as well as had them out for them to look through and choose from. Our Pantry is run like a custom boutique. We get 4 times more people than the next busiest food pantry in the county and town. Every agency refers to us. We bend over backwards to help and please the clients. No matter what, the recipe cards were never taken and no increase in more nutritious foods occured. We even made a point of talking about the foods, dishes, recipes. We even tried comparing them to the popular food shows people watched. What we heard was, "Nah, I have always eaten this, so that is what I will stick to." In the end, most people never change the eating habits they grew up with. People who do change, and want to change, don't need our help. At least we tried. People have the right to choose and even if I disagree with their choices, I MORE agree with their right to choose. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/29/2009 10:01:15 AM | TACO RAMEN SALAD
1 package beef ramen noodles
1/2 lb. ground beef
1 small tomato, chopped
1/2 cup onion chopped
1/2 cup sliced black olives
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
Thousand Island dressing to taste
Cook noodles according to package directions and drain. Brown beef
and drain. Stir in 1/2 seasoning packet. Mix all ingredients
together. Add dressing. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/29/2009 11:49:06 AM | I've had a tough year so far,with no work in my field. Employment Insurance takes care of basic bills and the like,but my grocery budget has been pretty tiny. I've been able to stock up a couple of times,such as with my income tax refund,but I have had to make a few trips to the local food bank to help out.
I like to make stews and soups as much as possible. You can use use fresh,frozen or canned vegetables,and poultry or beef or pork. Even ground meats can be used for a good stew. With a loaf of bread or a package of buns you can get a few meals out of a good sized pot,and the rest can be frozen and stored for later. | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 7/31/2009 10:58:47 PM | Angel Food
I think I saw it mentioned but here is the web site
www. AngelFood.com
I volunteer for the local site and buy from them.
Bargains-Bargains - Quality -Quality
And for $ 40 you can get a Peanut Butter Maker
Well worth the money--you can use any kind of nuts
If you are lucky enough to live around an area which
has lots of nut trees you can just pick them up .
I have pecan trees and lots of people come walking by
and fill their pockets or bags. Peanuts are cheap in the
season. You can make the most amazing tasting nut butter | |
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| Food for when your being cheap or being poor
Posted: 8/1/2009 5:35:41 AM | I have to, at least partially, agree, SS. People change for their reasons, not ours, and if they want to change, sometimes they do need help, but in my experience, they'll ask for it.
Had a friend whose son could burn water. If it didn't come out of the freezer and go into the microwave, he was hopeless. Offered to teach him some simple dishes preparatory to his heading off to university ... nope, not interested. Fine ... go hungry or get fat on the crap I know you'll be eating.
Six months later, he's on the doorstep, hat in hand, sheepish look on his face ... needs to learn how to make a roast beef dinner for a date he wants to impress.
People change for their own reasons.
Food banks do good work. Salut. | |
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