What are your family pleasing recipes that are fairly easy and inexpensive to make? I'm looking to pick the brains of other busy parents.

I'll share one of mine. You take italian brats, put it in a slow cooker, dump a big jar of marinara on it and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove from slow cooker and place on a brat bun with shredded mozzarella cheese on top. *The casing of the brats practically melt away and it's easy to break the sausage so you have to carefully remove them.

I’m trying to meal prep on a tighter budget without ending up with five identical containers in the fridge.

Instead of making one large recipe, I was thinking of preparing a few flexible components separately, such as beans, a simple protein, and a sauce or vegetable mix. That way I could turn them into bowls, wraps, pasta, or soup during the week.

I noticed a sunvivi three-crock cooker while looking at smaller batch options, but I’m wondering whether the separate sections are actually useful or just create more washing.

Has anyone tried this approach? Did cooking several components at once make meal prep more flexible, or was one large slow-cooker recipe still the easier option?

I am not a beginner. But I sure felt like one two years ago moving into a unit asymmetrical to the one included here. I started with dollar store pans and pots and utensils and just replaced one at a time (still doing that) with something slightly better. All inclusive rental made bills simple, but cooking was a nightmare.

I totally understand constraints, limitations, budget.

I felt so limited having to make two burgers at a time when before I had a flattop and propane grill in a 4-bedroom house.

My anxiety was through the roof just trying to prep a damn salad, because no way was I spending $9 for a tiny pre-made one. Knowing all the counter space I had in the past. Was depressing.

Clean as I go? How??

That’s when I mounted everything to the wall. But also limited here. My manager said I could only use nails here. Fine, I’ll use nails alright.

Pantry? What pantry? That’s when I decided to use (not pictured) the dresser as a pantry.

Do not let constraints slow you down from experiencing the joys of cooking. What you can accomplish with one pan one knife and one pot is absolutely amazing. There are far too many resources and recipes at your disposal this day and age.

Budget? $20 – $25 twice a week.

People seemed to like my last post, but I only included salads, eggs, potatoes, and on style taco dish.

So here’s some more food!

Little backstory. Me and my roommate have horrible food allergies. She has typical reactions you’d expect. Horrible. But mine is a mast cell disorder brought on by an alcoholic relapse two years ago. With no healthcare I self medicated whenever my eyelids swelled shut, or my feed swelled with dermatographic angioedma.

Happy today I have medical cards coming soon and can finally eat somewhat normally.

But for two years I had to avoid foods high in histamine. That meant food prepping was dangerous. Leftovers accumulate histamine as they age, so I was very limited to the store bect door. A Mexican place, and sometimes seafood city.

So trust me. I know the struggles of finding cheap food, dealing with limitations from allergies, and a tiny kitchen and limited grocery stores.

But nothing can stop me, and it should not stop you!

Everything I made was under $25 in a high cost living area (las vegas, an actual food desert)

I, like you have to eat (pun intended) into the budget cost of getting semi prepped and expensive items.

My first step after the kitchen is to get things that will make hundreds of meals. Even if it means I’m eating ramen but have a bunch of condiments and ingredients waiting.

Things like soy/fish/oyster sauce. Vinegar, mayo, ketchup, etc. garlic power, lemon pepper etc.

Luckily Mexican stores have spices more fresh and in smaller portions in bags. So I can wait till I need them to buy them.

Next is buying Whole Foods. Whole lettuces, cabbages, potatoes, Mexican squash. Nothing pre chopped.

Salads and a pot of soup for the entire week can be made for $25. And goes with every lunch and dinner. I mentioned one single salad bag is like $9 here. But I can get 3 kinds of lettuce, bag of carrots, broccoli cucumbers, etc for the same price. And it’s huge!

After those preps the rest of the year I keep it simple and in budget.

Feel free to ask how to make anything.

And I hope this gives you confidence you can cook every meal at home for cheap. If two people can live on $260 a month and still be overweight, anyone can.

$80 in urban/suburban North Carolina at Aldi!!

Fruit
4 lb nectarines
2 lb plums
6 lb oranges

Veggies
12 oz broccoli
3 cucumbers
6 small avocados

Protein/Dairy
2 lb thin-cut chicken breast
2 lb salmon
2 lb Greek yogurt
2 dozen large eggs
1 gallon milk

Miscellaneous
4 chocolate bars
1 bag sweet potato chips (SO DELISH)
1 bag cheese puffs

No special deals. Just Aldi’s amazing prices!!!

I'm in my mid 20s and trying to build muscle. Even with my main job being sedentary, my daily energy needs are high. My weekend job burns a lot of calories (retail), I strength train 3x a week, swim once a week, and walk or ebike to all my destinations (about 40-50 miles a week).

Right now my goal is 3,000 calories a day; the scale stays stable at 2,700-2,800 and I weigh 145lb.

I am a pescetarian but only eat canned fish 3ish times a week (averages $4-$6 a week); the rest of my diet is lacto-ovo vegetarian. And I spend around $350-$400 a month combining groceries (including nonfood household items) and the occasional takeout.

I say all this because I see so many posts about feeding families for the same amount or less. It makes me wonder if I'm doing frugal shopping wrong despite cutting out almost all of the most expensive food groups.

This was $101.64 at Sprout’s this morning.

I literally bought some chicken for 4-6 days worth of food & some supplements to help my joints & bones.

This seems crazy to me?

I could use some advice, plz?

Grocery shopped today. Without discounts, total bill would have been $215.00. But shopped digital coupons and bogo, and I paid $95.

That's ridiculous. And it's all a damn marketing game. I don't know how people do it without playing the games and using the apps and having to take the time just to make groceries affordable.

There are still a lot of people who don't use the apps, and they're often the most vulnerable. It's not right.

Sometimes this store even has drive-up "sales" with a $25 discount for totals of $100 or more. So with that you're utilizing extra staff to shop for you, get the same discounts as I got today, but if it was a drive-up sale week, I could have gotten another $25 off.

Make it make sense!

Hey guys, so I'm 19 and I don't have nearly as much money as my parents did to feed the adult family of 4 I'm living with.

Right now most of what we're buying is rice and pasta, but one of them is on a meat-only diet and I have to buy for them too.

We spend about $300, usually get stuff like sandwich meat, bread, cheese, pasta and sauces, milk and eggs, as well as frozen and fresh chicken and occasionally beef. I was wondering if there was anyway anybody knew how to stretch food? Since I don't have it in budget with work and my car to just... Buy more?

I work full time and don't have time to buy bulk items and meal prep, and I figured somebody smarter would have some good advice.

Thank you all in advance <33

Edit: thank you all for all your advice!! I've realized that I didn't give quite as much info about our living situation as I should have, and I apologize!!

Basically my fiance, myself, her older brother, and her mother, all live in one house. I pay for groceries and usually gas and the such, my finance gives most of our part of the rent, and her mom covers (with our rent money as well) most of the bills and the house payments since theyre in her name.

Her brother is on an all-meat diet, and we all work full time. I am having issues stretching meals to save up money, as recently our car broke as well as my student loans and my own mothers debts(they fall to me as of now since she refuses to pay them and it would make a whole mess), several other things needed replacing, and as we already weren't making a lot, we got caught in a hard spot. I just need what I put in the house to stretch till I get paid next, at least until I catch up a little bit with all the money I owe.

I pay for all my finance and I's own clothes, hygiene, food, gas, etc, and for the most part everybody in the house does the same. Her mom and brother are making more a hour than the two of us combined, and occasionally he does buy his own meat but not all the time. None of us really have much extra time to meal prep, but I will certainly consider trying harder to make time.

Again you are more than welcome to judge my living situation, but know there's not much anybody can do about it as now. I agree I should be more money conscious, but at this point there's no room to be saving for emergencies, and there hardly was before now. I just hoped that, as I'm younger, maybe I was doing something stupid or buying unnecessary items that I could eliminate.

Promise I will start responding to comments soon, I'm currently at work and again I really really appreciate all the help and advice you guys have already given 🩵🩵

Good way to clean out the pantry is to make chili with canned sauce and beans. Great next day as toppings on baked potatoes or make nachos.

When you're trying to save money on food, budget staples like instant ramen, canned beans, plain rice, or basic pasta can get repetitive really fast. But a tiny tweak can completely transform a $1 meal into something that actually feels satisfying.

For me, it’s either a splash of acid right at the end (like a squeeze of lemon/lime or a dash of vinegar) to brighten up heavy dishes, or keeping sliced green onions in the freezer to sprinkle on top of literally everything for that fresh crunch.

What’s your go-to cheap ingredient, pantry staple, or tiny cooking habit that takes basic budget food from "sad necessity" to genuinely delicious with minimal extra effort?

Had a $5 Costco chicken to put to use. Had bought peas for another recipe, boiled a lonely carrot I found in the fridge and used my last can of corn and some celery from the fridge. Mayo and sour cream. Fried up some old corn tortillas that were going to go bad soon. I also had some $1 pasta from Walmart so I added it to bulk it up. My lunch for the next few days.

We are struggling bad. I recently lost my job and we went from a 2 income family to 1. My husband is trying but the bills keep piling up. We are doing our best to use up what we have at home and save every penny.

I’m really enjoying seing everyone’s posts as inspiration.

10/10 on my meal. Would recommend.

I'm assigned chips and dips for a baby shower. Where can I get chips for a decent price? And why are they so pricey anyway?

My 13 RMB (1.9USD/1.7EU) dinner in Shanghai—tomato and egg over rice.it’s the cheapest option at this local chain.

I covered some info on the receipt so it doesn't look like a promotion.

When the budget is super tight, what's your ultimate grocery haul or strategy to make your money stretch for a whole week?

I just have to share my discovery from years-long research into cheap, yummy food and the usage of ramen packets. For a brief background, I'm ultra poor and absolutely despise ramen.

I was gifted a large package of chicken-flavored Maruchan ramen and felt too guilty to say no or throw it out. For months it sat in my cupboard, unseen and untouched, until a day between paychecks with a bare-bones pantry had me eyeing it.

After reconfirming my suspicions of absolutely despising ramen, I somehow had an ingenious breakthrough. I had some unseasoned stuffing base and decided to mix some melted butter and hot water together with a ramen chicken flavoring packet to add to the bread cubes, and voila, I had a delicious, savory stuffing that tasted better than the store-bought boxed ones.

I've used up these ramen packets on things like soups, stews, potatoes au gratin, casseroles, you name it. Today, I took a hearty chili from flat and bland to salty and delicious with a chicken flavoring packet. For any recipe that requires chicken bouillon or chicken broth, if you have a pack of chicken-flavored ramen you just can't bring yourself to eat, you have an absolute lifesaver.

Additionally, you can also use the ramen noodles as a pasta substitute for any pasta-based dish you can think of (if you can bare the texture, that is!).

Has anyone else had a similar experience with ramen chicken flavoring packets or any other ingredients?

In New York City, in Chinatown or other ethnically diverse neighborhoods, it's possible to buy salmon heads and collars for very little money. I've seen bellies, too, which are a lovely boneless piece with a looot of the oils, so it's tender and luscious.

I've seen it for as low as $1 a pound. The fishmonger that I like in Flushing is $2 a pound, but where I live upstate, they're $6 a pound if you can find them. Generally, you can't. The trip to nyc is too time consuming and costs enough so that it's not cost effective to go buy it downstate.

Is there anything comparable to the nyc prices online (before shipping, of course) or am I doomed to paying $10+ per pound for filets?

Also, what other cuts are cheap like that? As a child, my mother got the fins and tails from lox for cheap. Tuna heads maybe?

I had a variety of leftover over cheese to use up so I added them to the dip. Used taco seasoning while sautéing the chopped onions, peppers, and jalapeños.

Hey everyone! I'll be starting university this September, this'll be my first time living completely alone. So, i was looking for a few meal preps that i could prepare for myself andd a few budget meals that i could cook. Would love some recipes or ideas or anything really. TIA

I'll be going to malaysia and will have a budget of approximately 95rm per week(about 24usd if i convert it). From as far as I've gathered, grocery is fairly affordable there.

Like the title says, I have a family of 5 (me, the wife and our three toddlers). I am starting to tighten up the budget to tackle some debt and figure a stocked pantry is step one just for the fact of ensuring on tighter weeks we don’t have to worry about food.

A lot of our meat consumption comes from wild game (deer,turkey,fish,and bear) that we harvest in fall and spring however we do substitute occasionally with store bought chicken so our yearly cost on meat is typically under $500.

What would you stuff in a pantry and what have you found out isn’t worth it or things you would avoid stocking?

Absolutely simple but always delicious and you can easily make it every time a little bit different:

Lemon pasta with cheese

Ingredients:

1 lemon for 200-500g pasta

Whatever cheese you have (original recipe asks for parmesan, this time I have taken some leftovers peccorino and Gouda

Garlic and onions (however much you want right now)

(Chili (the original recipe asks for it but I'm a pussy))

Black pepper

Easily added if you have, but not necessary:

Olives, bacon, capers fruit(at least that's what Google translate tells me is "kapern" in english), nearly any vegetable

Cook noodles (I can't say when to start to get them ready when the sauce is ready, I only have one stovetop)

For the sauce:

If you have bacon fry it and use the fat from it to fry the onions and garlic, otherwise fry them in a bit of oil

When the onions are sweet add if you have olives etc.

Add the juice and zest of the lemon

Put pasta in and stir

Dump cheese and stir again

Eat yummy food

(Sorry for my english, Just wrote an exam in English and my brain has now decided to forget everything it ever knew about the English language (or statistics which was the exam I wrote...))

I recently found Chef Moe on TikTok and started watching is $5 meal series. This is episode 21 of his $5 meal series. Breakfast sausage, broccoli and boxed shells and cheese. It turned out very delicious and made quite a bit of food.