Money is tight and I need recipe ideas! Please?!


Question: I am 34 weeks w/#3 and we are temporarily living on one income. Produce is so expensive, and so are lean meats! We have a 2 and 5 year old, so it is a family of 4. We have been eating so poorly trying to save money (unhealthy food is SO much cheaper) and eating alot of the frozen banquet entrees (like the salisbury steak family size for $2) and I will but ground beef and chicken when it is on sale. We just can't afford to eat the things we used to eat. Do you know of any cheap but HEALTHIER meals for a tight budget? I don't want to have a 15 pound baby.... lol.


Answers: I am 34 weeks w/#3 and we are temporarily living on one income. Produce is so expensive, and so are lean meats! We have a 2 and 5 year old, so it is a family of 4. We have been eating so poorly trying to save money (unhealthy food is SO much cheaper) and eating alot of the frozen banquet entrees (like the salisbury steak family size for $2) and I will but ground beef and chicken when it is on sale. We just can't afford to eat the things we used to eat. Do you know of any cheap but HEALTHIER meals for a tight budget? I don't want to have a 15 pound baby.... lol.

When I was a kid and money was tight, my mom would make stuff that went a long way...ham and beans, potato soup, chicken & dumplings, stuff like that (a whole chicken and a box of bisquick is pretty cheap). I would think those are healthier than processed stuff.

rice is cheap, pasta is cheap.....canned veggies are pretty cheap...also look for discount or bargain grocery stores...here in CT we have expect discounts and price rite so maybe you have a store like that....good luck?

try this Parmesan chicken ..I haven't known a kid yet that didn't like it and chicken is usually cheap.you can use chicken tenders in place of the breasts.Kids like the smaller pieces anyway.i also use packets of Cheese you get from Pizza delivery's..this is good with green beans.
INGREDIENTS
4 (4 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 tablespoon vegetable oil




DIRECTIONS
Flatten chicken to 1/4-in. thickness. In a shallow bowl, combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and basil. In another bowl, beat the egg. Dip chicken into egg, then coat with crumb mixture. In a large skillet, brown chicken in butter and oil over medium heat for 3-5 minutes on each side or until juices run clear.

Not really a meal idea, but better than nothing I guess... here's a couple of money saving hints...
Buy frozen vegetables, they're just as nutritious as fresh, but MUCH cheaper!
Try buying bone-in chicken breasts, getting the bones out is kinda a pain, but it's a lot cheaper than boneless!
salad salad salad.... lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers (etc) are usually fairly inexpensive, and salads can be made into a great meal (add in some grilled chicken, ground beef [taco salad!], avocado, etc.)

When money was tight for my husband and I, we ate a lot of potatoes. They are pretty cheap and you can make a lot of different things with them. Also, we ate a lot of Ramen noodles, but they have high sodium content, so that wouldn't be the healthiest thing to eat. If you find the right stores you can get a lot of things for pretty cheap-the store brand is much cheaper than name brand for example. Also cut coupons and look at different fliers for different stores, there are always sales on items. Good luck!

Do you have an Aldi's by you?
It's a little store that sells food but at discounted/cheaper prices. We've all been there (in your shoes) and I wish you the best of luck!! : )

http://www.aldifoods.com/index_ENU_HTML....

Baked potato soup about $8 to make a pot

5lb bag potatoes, peeled, diced into one inch cubes (not perfect), boil 20 min.

Drain, put back in pot, add one 16 oz container lowfat sour cream, mash up (leave it a little chunky, or whatever you like)

add chicken stock until soupy (i make mine about the same consistancy as oatmeal) salt and pepper to taste

garnish with some cheese and/or scallions and/or bacon bits and/or more sour cream

a crok pot of beans flavoured with mustard ketchup onion and bacon
hot dogs
grilled cheese sandwiches
cole slaw
potato salad
pasta with bacon and tomatos
bake a ham and it will last for days( use ham bone in soup for split pea soup)
chicken drum sticks in cracker crumbs, bake in oven, serve with french fried( cut potato wedges and baste with oil and salt and pepper and roast in oven)
cabbage wedge salads with a little dressing on top
fish sticks, carrot and celery stix and blue cheese dressing with macaroni and cheese

different combos of these:

eggs
canned chicken
rice
pasta
canned beans
canned potatoes
canned vegetables
canned tomato sauce
broth

Make some stock from a chicken portion, on the bone gives best flavour. Then make a thick soup with carrots and/or other vegs, add cooked chickpeas, a jar will do. Chop up the chicken and add it too. Serve with bread. Very filling

try to include whole grains in your diet with little bits of more expensive proteins like chicken, beef and cheese for intance whole grain corn or wheat tortillas with brown rice with beans and cheese or some chicken and cheese. Pots of beans or lentils with a whole grain corn bread. Or chili is good when you drain the fatty ground beef. Potatoes and broccoli are a complete protein . Make a soup with a llittle cheese and serve with bread. Frozen broccoli is probably cheaper and almost nutritious as fresh. I use a lot of celery, onions and carrots for flavor, nutrition and texture. Hit Cash & Carry or Smart and Final where the quality of the meat is as good as if not better than supermarkets for a lot less $$$. They don't charge a fee like Costco and they have fun items for the kids like mandarin sections in big cans. Also it is much cheaper to buy your bulk products like cheese & tomato sauce there . You can always freeze some. Peanut butter with bananas or apples & oatmeal are two more whole food products that can be bought in bulk. You can culture your own yogurt with a small container of yogurt and a gallon of whole milk. Much less expensive than the little containers. Add some fruit or jam for a treat for the kids. Google a few frugal cooking sites there are a lot of them out there. Shop the outside of the store for meats and veggies and avoid the deli all together.

My mother used to make the following dishes for us - my father was in the Navy and not even making $300 a month - there were 3 children in our family.

She would take elbow macaroni and boil it. Then she would add a can of diced tomatoes to it and sprinkle it with a little shredded cheese (cheese she shredded herself was cheaper than already shredded cheese). That was our meal.

Another she would make would be to take a can of stewed tomatoes, heat until just boiling, then add a couple of slices of bread to it and gently stir it, spoon it into bowls and sprinkle it with sugar. She loved that is still enjoys it to this day.

She would take or make macaroni and cheese and add maybe four slices of SPAM - diced, to it along with (you guessed it), a can of diced tomatoes. Very good.

The SPAM wouldn't be good for you while you're pregnant because of all the salt and sodium in it.

She would make chili for us using 4 cans of kidney beans, 3 cans of tomato sauce 1 pound of hamburger, and a package of Chili Mix powder. She would break the hamburger up into clumps and cook it in a skillet until no longer pink. Then she'd put it in the pot with the other ingredients, bring it to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. She would stretch the chili by serving it over rice. Then if she could get some lettuce and tomatoes, we would have that for a salad.

She would buy a bologna log (not sliced) and put it through the grinder and into a bowl. She would then grind up some sweet pickles and put it into the same bowl. She would then add mayonnaise and mix well with a little black pepper. We had that on sandwiches for school. We also had egg salad sandwiches for lunch for school as well as tuna fish sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

My mother would also make Tuna Noodle Casserole which had in it elbow macaroni or egg noodles, hard boiled eggs, a can of cream of mushroom soup, sauteed onions, sauteed or canned mushrooms, and frozen peas - thawed in the boiling water for the macaroni after the macaroni or noodles were done cooking. She would put all that in a casserole dish, sprinkle bread crumbs over the top and dot it with butter. Then she'd bake it at 350o for 20-30 minutes or until the top was golden.

See, there is a lot you can eat when the budget is tight. She would also buy milk for us on the first of the month (military pay day) - lots of it - and put it in the freezer to bring out as we emptied one. But, if you do that, be sure and shake it up first before pouring each time because the freezing causes the rich part to go to the top.

My grandmother was very very poor and at that time she learned to prepare all the organ meats that the butcher normally gave away to feed dogs with - like tripe, brains, tongue, liver, kidneys, etc. Now, unfortunately, they are more expensive than some other meats. But, look for the sales and the sections where they are discounting the meat because of pull dates. Ask the butcher when they go through and pull their meats so you can get there to get a good selection. Stew meats are good to put into things from stews to soups. Ham bones, ham hocks, etc. can make nice soups - same with beef bones. My grandmother saved all the juice from any vegetable she cooked - kept it in containers in the freezer, and whenever she wanted to make a soup, she would have a nice broth to work with - and it had the vitamins in it. You can take the fat from pieces of meat and boil them, remove and toss the fat, refrigerate the broth, and scoop off the fat on the top of the liquid - to have a nice base for a meat soup.

Hope that helps.

Isn't it ridiculous that healthy food IS so much higher priced than processed food and all we hear in the media is how unhealthy our country is!! Ugh! So for some suggestions: Soup is a wonderful way to eat healthy and cheaply. Bake a whole chicken and use that as meal #1 then cook the bones down to make a soup base and add lots of chopped veg and meat that you can pick away. Homemade biscuits are simple and "cheap filler". Standard meal in my house growing up! You can do this if you're willing to do some cooking. Breakfast for dinner is always another great idea. Try doing homemade bread and turning it into french toast with scrambled eggs and canned fruit and all they'll know is how great it is. Good luck to you and congrats on the new addition.

well go for stores that charge differently and get a member card so you get discounts. because once you have that baby you will be spending unbelievable amounts of money on diapers, as you probably know from your first children!! budget too. also, do what you can to get more money.

How about:
sheperd's pie, roast beef in the crock pot (you can use a very cheap cut and it will be tender and good - add 1 can of mushroom soup, half soup can of water and a pouch of onion soup mix), homemade macaroni and cheese, chicken or beef stew, spaghetti





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