Low Budget Meals

When I want some easy, low cost recipes I go on line. I go to the foodnetwork, they rate it from easy to hard. Type in anything you may want to cook ex: chicken, pork etc. then it will give you a bunch of receipes you can do with those items. Also kraft has easy receipes and campbell's.

My only suggestion would be to buy in bulk at maybe Sam's or buy a bundle of meat from a meat store. I think then any receipe could be made. Meat always seems to be the most expensive thing on my grocery list. Otherwise maybe try some of Rachal Rays 10 or 30 min receipes. I beleive you can go online to her site and get some of them. Also go to kraft.com and you can subscribe to there free receipe magazine, they have awesome ideas that are simple, cheap and also fun for the kids. Good luck

A. I am 46 I only have one child but between the familys needs I have been forced to budget.
Add cooked barley to hamburger or turkey meat to make tacos, meat loaf, hamburgers, meat balls any thing that require ground meat even chili. You can purchase 16 oz bag of barley for around .89c it is healthy 28 gram of fiber and 6% iron . the consistacy if the same as meat no one will even know. I have try it on many unsuspecting visitors.
I have so many ideas I could probaly write a book.
If you eat salad A cost cutter and time saver is grated carrots.
Wash peel and grate on the grater, add a couple tsp. of lemon juice and it acts as a preserver. bag up and put in the veg. drawer they last up to 1 1/2 weeks in the frig. Great for a last minute salad.
You can also boil up a big pot of unpeeled potatoes they last 1 1/2 weeks also. Slice in morn for breakfast, add onion or not. cooks up in 5 minutes Have them at dinner steam in micro for 2-3 min. or cut up in chunks add your favorite spice 1-3 Tbs. oil throw on flat pan and oven bake 10-20 minute. Grate them on a grater and make hash browns.
I also make my own sasage patties with 1/2 turkey meat 1/2 turkey sasage rice, onion. Cook them in advance and then to save time for braekfast all you do is microwave them. Gordons has wonder containers you can spend i after noon a month and cook 5lbs of taco meat, sasages or what ever else and save so much time. If you break the meat down into these containers, you can even take it with you to school or work. If you want some more ideas write to me ____@____.com

I have a huge list if you want some, my husbands in construction so times get lean and you have to get creative! Just e-mail if any sound good.

taco roast(my kids and hubbys fav,)
the anything alfredo meal
southwestern soup
italian refried beans
any kid stir fry
crock pot spagetti, lazagna
swiss steak
stuffed peppers

the list goes on, I just modify them to fit our finances

Hi A.,

There is a great website called miserlymoms.com. They have good recipes. Also, try shopping at Aldi and Sav-A-Lot. Sav-A-Lot stores carry some national brand stuff at low prices and Aldi carries their own brands which are great by the way. Since you live in Madison Heights, I think the closest Sav-A-Lot to you may be in Ferndale on 9 Mile (maybe even closer.) There is an Aldi on Van Dyke between 14 & 15 Mile Roads. You can go to yahoo.com and type in frugal recipes and a whole bunch of different websites appear. Joanne Purtan of Channel 7 news just did a segment with the couponmom who has alot of coupons on her website and great tips on ways to really save money at the grocery store.

Good luck.

MC

My family loves the "english muffin pizza". Very cheep, get engisl muffins, there is 6 people in my house so I usually use about 3 packs, slice them in half, put sauce on them (you don't have to buy pizza sauce if its not on sale, spag. sauce is the same, which ever one is cheeper) put mozz cheese on top and your favorite toppings. cook in oven until cheese melts. I hope your family likes this. Also GFS sells bulk food which is good priced for a big family on a budget.

Stay away from the processed foods for sure. I never really looked at grocery prices before about a year ago and was so shocked that the processed foods (you know the easy ones!! lol) are so expensive. Groceries are so expensive in general, but shop the outside of the grocery store - dairy, meat, produce. You can always get a lot more produce (healthier too) for your money than frozen meals, etc. Buy the store brands - especially cereals. Stick to meals with fewer ingredients - fajitas are a great choice, tacos, grilled veggies and chicken. There's a Kraftfoods magazine that we get in the mail and I've made a bunch of recipes from it there are very inexpensive. We also buy our meat from Costco and there are other things that are a lot cheaper from Costco than the grocery store. You have to know what they are though. My best advice to you is to make a dinner plan for each day of the week and stick to it. Shop for that weekly with a few extras that you know you need like milk, juice, whatever and your grocery bill will be a lot lower too.

I would go to the campbellkitchen, kraftfoods, ragu, etc.. websites and get easy recipies. Then when you shop for the ingrediants buy the generic brands. Most of the recipies only require a few ingrediants and you can use them on more then one meal plus most of them only take 20 to 30 minutes to make!!

Hi A.,
I've recently gone through a situation where I had to reduce the amount of hours I work. So, money was tight! Here's a couple of websites I stumbled onto. Both sites have great tips!

http://hillbillyhousewife.com/

http://www.healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com/index.htm

Best of luck to you!!

Have you tried shopping at any Aldi stores? They are cheaper then a regular grocery store.

You could try mealsmatter.org.
It is the website that WIC suggested for me.
They have a searchable database of recipes and a whole list of recipes that have 6 or under ingredients.
I use that website regularly now.

-P.

I know all about being on a budget. My husband and I have two beautiful children and we are living on my husband's salary as well. What we do to help make ends meet is at the beginning of the month we buy a family package of ground beef (ground round is healthier than ground chuck, and cheaper than ground sirloin) and a family size package of boneless skinless chicken breast. (I usually go to Whole Foods; you can get 7 nice size chicken breasts for about 20 bucks and I have each breast cut in half, the meat guy will do it for you) I divide both the ground beef and chicken breasts into freezer bags and freeze what I'm not going to use within a day or so. Then when he gets paid again, I buy another package of each. Then I clip coupons and buy what is on sale ... scour those ads in the sunday paper. Then stuff like sloppy joes or tacos is really easy and cheap. To make sloppy joes even cheaper, instead of buying sloppy joe sauce from a can, after you brown the meat, add your favorite barbaque sauce, yellow mustard and ketchup with a little garlic salt/powder and onion powder. That should save you a couple dollars each time you make it since those canned sauces can be expensive. Good luck with school!

If you go to Kraft.com they will normally give you a meal plan for the whole week that is for dinners that is under $20. They have some really good ideas too! Good luck and I hope things pick up for you. We are in the same boat.

Turkey Enchaladas (no I cant spell)

1 lb ground turkey (can get it in a frozen tube for around $1.00)
1 can refried beans
1 can enchalada sauce
1 pkg buritto wraps
shredded cheddar cheese

brown the turkey, mix in the refried beans. In a 9x13 pan spray with Pam. Put a little bit of the sauce on the bottom and spread around to cover the bottom of the pan. Fill the wraps with the turkey/bean mixture and roll them up and put them in the pan. When it is full pour the remaining sauce over the wraps and top with the cheese. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. This is quick, easy and cheap. I feed my family of 6 with it (2 adults, a 15 yr old and 4 yr old triplets).

hello i am 37 and have 6 childern and i can make one pk of chicken go for 3 meals by boiling it and taking the meat off the bone putting in soup and save a lot brocilli rice. also in there alfrado. i do the same with other meat i strech it becouse that is were the most cost is. hope this helped.

Hi A.,
I myself am on a budget when it comes to grocery shopping, I have fell in love with aldi food store, they have a lot of great foods, for a lot less then meijer's, There are some really great recipe's at pilsbury.com that is where I go to get alot of mine, or I buy those books at the end of the isle in the grocery store. I usually cook alot with biscuits and cresent rolls they have some fun recipes for the kids on there, but To bad for pilsbury that aldi has cheaper cresents and biscuits so I steal there recipes and get my stuff from aldi, sorry I didnt leave you any recipes but browsing on there website is alot more fun!! Hope you find some good one!! Good luck!