Cheap groceries, and more importantly cooking more meals, is the easiest way to save money and has the largest immediate impact upon your budget. Even eating out as cheap as possible, it’s easy to spend over 15 dollars a day on horrible over the counter food. By preparing your own meals and packing lunch, you can eat for a few dollars a day, and not sacrifice anything but a few minutes of time. When you make the switch, you can save over 300 dollars per month without even noticing a difference in lifestyle. Here are some things you need to pick up, as well as some simple recipe ideas:
Eggs:
Dozens of possibilities. Beyond scrambled, over-easy, and poached, you can put almost anything in an omelette
Bread:
Useful for sandwiches and more, a basic staple
Beans (canned):
Can be combined with most sauces for high protein, high fiber meals. You can easily dump out some canned beans in a pan and add diced veggies and tomato sauce to make a vegetarian chili within minutes
Rice:
Hundreds of possibilities for combination with meat, bakes, stir-fries, sauces, curry and spices, etc
Pasta:
Like rice, can be combined with a vast amount of sauces and meats
Tomato/pasta sauces:
For pasta and rice
Spices of various varieties:
A one-time purchase of 5 or so spices will last a long time and make sure you don’t get sick of any particular flavors/styles of cooking
Vegetables that are on sale/special:
Low calorie, high fiber, good variety of flavor/texture for dishes
Chicken or beef that’s on sale/special:
Protein and variety of flavor
The important thing here isn’t just that these things often result in fulfilling, delicious, nutritious meals that can cost less than a dollar, you can make thousands of combinations of food. Pasta and chicken combined with various spices and sauces can yield more combinations of food than you’ll ever get sick of eating (or making). Rice is a staple world-wide with obviously can be prepared hundreds of ways, and most people in the western world cast it aside.
When shopping for any of the above, make a list and stick to it. Avoid full price vegetables and meat, they can make or break your budget. Many grocery stores have a weekly newspaper that you can pick up near the entrance, and glancing over it can let you know where the amazing deals currently are. Also, make sure to take your time when looking up and down the aisle. Cheap groceries are mostly found up high or at your feet - additionally, look at the unit price (per ounce, liter, gram, etc). This does all the calculation for you and should be in smaller print under or next to the price on the aisle shelves.
Anyway start cooking now! In a few months you can save up the difference it costs to go on a vacation!
Great article. We used to be a family of convenience and we ate out more then we should have. My husband lost his secure job 5 months ago and we had to tighten our belt. I started cooking at home 6 days a week, looking for cheap options like meatloaf, pasta, stews and hardy soups. I dusted off the breadmaker and Magic Bullet. We save so much money and my kids absolutely love it. The older one even express his desire to learn how to cook. So we not only save money, we also eat healthier food and have fun as a family.
I was raised as a poor child, and grew up and married a poor man. No complaints, it is what it is but we do learn to live cheaper than most people and learn how to survive. Hard times are not new to us. We learn to sew early on, learn to cook cheap and shop at thrift stores. Make do or do without. Use it up, wear it out. I have actually enjoyed the challenge along the way. The only thing I would add to your list is flour and powdered milk. Biscuits, dumplings, meat pasties, homemade noodles, gravy, all become possible with flour on hand. For instance, Chicken and dumplings can be made from chicken stock and save the meat for another meal. Homemade tortillas, pancakes, crepes, all need flour. So add a bag of Self rising flour and you can do more with less. If you have enough, add a bag of Self rising cornmeal too. Then you can have hush puppies, cornbread, bread your fish, make a hot breakfast cereal, polenta,,,etc…Mama would mix up some powdered milk and get it really cold (sometimes she added evaparoted milk from a can to it to make it richer) and we would have it for Supper. Cornbread and milk is still a good thing, as Martha would say.
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