The underrated tuna melt, that staple of diners and lunch plates everywhere, deserves to be making a big time comeback. You probably have most of the ingredients in your fridge right now.

What are you waiting for? Get the recipe for Tuna Melt. If you're looking for a way to use ground beef in a spicy, simple dinner that'll make the whole family happy, then you've just found your recipe for tonight! Get the recipe for Tamale Pie. This ground beef enchilada dinner is especially a winner.

A little taco seasoning, some corn tortillas, a can of enchilada sauce, cover it with cheese and boom! You've got a powerhouse meal for four or for two, with leftovers ready to go. Get the recipe for Beef Enchiladas. Want to make your whole family feel taken care of? Treat them to a baked pasta dish.

It's easy, it's cheap, and it's super filling. Get the recipe for Classic Stuffed Shells. Who's in the mood for a minute dinner?

Besides gnocchi and frozen spinach, all you need for this meal is some cream, some cheese, and a few pantry spices. Get the recipe for Gnocchi with Creamed Spinach.

Tuna salad has been the centerpiece of a number of cheap and easy snack dinners in our household. Add some crackers, some cheese, a little fresh fruit, and you've got a meal! Get the recipe for Tuna Salad.

Broken noodles simmer in a tomato broth with sausage and spinach, capped off with a big dollop of blended cheese. Get the recipe for Lasagna Soup. An easy way to save on dinner costs? Have breakfast for dinner. This simple but delicious mix of eggs, tortillas, and sausage is a fun way to go all out while still saving some cash.

Get the recipe for Migas with Chorizo. If you're craving a tasty pasta dish that's a little more grown-up than jarred red sauce, give this dish a whirl. We're pretty sure it'll become a regular part of your dinner plans. Get the recipe for Salmon and Creamed Spinach Fettuccini.

We always seem to have the makings for tuna salad around, and elbow macaroni is not expensive. So when we're on a budget, this tuna mac makes a dinner that's fun, filling, and fast. Get the recipe for Classic Tuna Macaroni Salad. Is there a more classic cheap dinner than mac 'n cheese?

Especially because this recipe shows you how to cook the pasta and make the sauce all in the same pot, no draining required! Get the recipe for Easy-Peasy Stovetop Mac 'n Cheesy. Known around the Upper Midwest as "hot dish," this pure comfort-food classic is easy, inexpensive, and plate-lickingly good.

Get the recipe for Tater Tot Casserole. Linguine with Clam Sauce. Oysters Rockefeller. Steak au Poivre. Marry Me Chicken. Then ask your server about their policy. At lunch time, you can probably get a similar-tasting meal with a slightly smaller portion as dinner.

The cook is often the same person for lunch and dinner. Small, ethnic family restaurants can be real gems. These types of restaurants often have a limited marketing budget and tend not to advertise heavily.

They offer more bang for your buck. However, once they get popular, they may raise prices. Go when they are still relatively unknown. Ask for a senior citizen discount , especially at chain restaurants. These discounts are often not given at small family restaurants. The required age varies with locations and with the particular establishment.

Some start at 65 and some at Get the recipe to conquer your debt and regain control of your finances. If you are going to a restaurant for the first time, explain to the server when you enter that you only want to order an appetizer. If it turns out the appetizer is good, chances are that the entrees are as well, and you can proceed to order a full meal.

They may or may not, but it is worth asking. If your substitution request is reasonable, restaurant owners usually try hard to accommodate customers. Finally, if you are going to do takeout at the same time you sit down for a meal, you should order the takeout separately from the meal.

You can order the takeout before the rest of your party orders and pay your bill separately at the cashier. With upscale, sit-down restaurants, you have no choice. Lately, more and more non-restaurant establishments like Whole Foods Market offer booth seating and tables for free customer use, and of course, there is no tipping.

Wouldn't you like to be a Stretcher too? Subscribe to get our money-saving content twice per week by email and start living better for less. by Irene Akatsui.

Instead of ordering a soda or wine, drink water. Go with someone who is willing to split a dish. Sign Up for Savings Subscribe to get money-saving content by email that can help you stretch your dollars further.

Find out which restaurants have free refills…on food.

Once you become accustomed to eating homemade bread, the stuff out of the bag is pretty appalling. Better, healthier, cheaper.

I recommend the Panasonic YD, look on Craigslist or eBay. Yogurt is another easy thing to make that is just a matter of practice, a million recipes on the internet and no special equipment required other than maybe a thermometer. For the price of a half gallon of milk I can have a half gallon of yogurt for 10 minutes active time.

Plus no stabilizers and gums. Better, healthier, cheaper, pride! For better nutrition and even more savings, have you considered milling your own flour? Most modern whole wheat flour is actually white flour with the germ added back later.

Is that a challenge snowcanyon? When I lived in the city I did not have this option! King Arthur has a great website and they are customer-friendly, but their flour is mass-market and not particularly good, nor do they have all the varieties necessary for classic European-style unsweetened whole-wheat bread.

You can mill flour in one minute in a vitamix! I will give it a try for sure. KAF has a beautiful teaching facility in Vermont that offers lots of great classes with state of the art equipment. I was just planning to mention that King Arthur chewy granola bars are the best.

I make them weekly. It calls for cups fruit and nuts, any combo, so it is good for remnants of bulk purchases. I LOVE King Arthur Flour recipes, so this sounds great! And in a frugal win- we got our bread machine for free when a family member was moving.

If you can make split pea soup, you can make lentil. The primary difference is you WANT to cook the peas into oblivion, with lentils you generally want them to retain their shape.

We love both. Leftovers are great. Random bits of leftover veggies can go into either. A dollop of sour cream or yogurt on top makes it seem more special, or a very little sherry.

Homemade pizza can also accommodate bits of leftovers. Top with pizza-type toppings and heat in the oven. Sounds fancy. Pasta, veggies, and a sprinkle of parmesan, a little pepper.

Can be hot or cold. Warming even slightly may be preferable to stone cold out of the fridge. This means you also get less added sugar. Frozen veggies when on sale can be a great find, especially for things not seasonal or not readily available in your area. I like to cook dry beans for chili.

So cook a batch of beans pinto or kidney , make some into chili, the rest into refried beans. Both freeze beautifully. Explore vegetarian and vegan recipes to cut down on meat consumption. Find something else. I really appreciate your note at the top about being sure to find your food priorities and then figure out how to frugalize is that a word?

We try really hard to buy organic and to be frugal. Even that though has changed our habits to encourage frugality. I follow many of the tips you gave, already, but somehow, seeing it in plain writing makes it impressed upon me to really watch how and what I buy.

I know I can still reduce our food budget if I think more strategically. Thanks for the encouragement and reminders! I work outside the home, full-time, so I do this on weekends or evenings — it can be done!

I second your comments about coupons. The only exceptions to that will likely be from a local market. Kroger or Giant Eagle central Ohio will sometimes have coupons in the paper or their mailings for their house brand products usually a good deal , or occasionally for produce. Favorite go to meal during the week is garlic, onions, tomatoes, rice,shaved carrots, and jalepenoes.

I throw in sweet red peppers and sometimes left over chicken. Saute in some olive oil and yummy. Babywoods is so darling! Thank you very much for the list! May I ask how long do you store the homemade food in the freezer and at what tempetature? We have a small freezer inside the refridgerator, not a separate freezer, and I am not how long cooked food will be good there.

How long do you store food soups, lunches in the usual fridge and at what temperature? Do you maybe know if there are any safety rules in this respect? Thank you very much! Food stored below freezing will stay safe indefinitely, as bacteria cannot grow in freezing temperatures.

I finally feel very secure in feeding my family and myself… it only took 10 years of trial and error! I have also learned about cutting down food waste by going through my kitchen once a week and putting stuff on the counter that needs to be used up… right now I have corn meal, a can of cream of chicken, a can of cream of mushroom, fried onions, apricot preserves and pie crust mix… all items gifted to me by my Buy Nothing Group.

I make it a point to collect unwanted food items from my BN community and then build recipes around them. Last week we had salmon cakes and pumpkin pie because of my BN gifts. My food bill is still not as cheap as others, but I think it has to do with geography.

In general living on the west coast means that our costs are higher. and you can sub different types of flour and mix-ins nuts, seeds, etc. Our biggest foods savings, besides raising some vegetables and chickens in the summer, comes from eating bone-in chicken.

I agree that being judicious about your proteins can make a huge difference. Love the tips! We use most for our family of five healthy eaters—buy bulk raw ingredients, add beans and onions to everything to stretch it, slow cooker soups and stews, planned leftover meals, etc.

We also finally invested in a pressure cooker, which is proving to be a game changer! Less temptation to give into take out or eat through our entire stash of freezer meals when you can cook beans in 30 min or frozen chicken in 10!

We used to do more of our meal prep on weekends, but as the kids get older and have more activities popping up on weekends, it was getting hard to keep up with the prep.

Our other strategy is frittatas of every variety. Do you make it in a high speed blender like a Vitamix? I never enjoyed homemade hummus made in the food processor, but in the Vitamix or other comparable one the texture is so much smoother. We bought canned beans from target most recently and they were super firm and make very chunky hummus.

If you cook your own garbanzo beans, you can make sure to get them thoroughly softened first. Are you using dried chickpeas? which I personally think is superior Is your water hard? Our new house has very hard water so I now use distilled water to cook my chickpeas and other beans. It makes a big difference with the texture of the chickpeas.

I suffered though a year of horrible beans before I discovered water can make or break your beans and it is definitely worth the extra dollar for distilled water. I tried those once with no luck, so I went back to canned, though that may have been at my old apartment which had really hard water….

I may get some dried ones though and try out the crockpot method of soaking. Dumber people than I have mastered homemade hummus! Otherwise, make sure you blend, blend, blend. I use a Cuisnart as well — it should get fluffy. Make sure you have a little lemon juice in there. Great post! If you want to get all fancy with your hummus because I like the taste the tahini adds to it , you can always make it yourself.

And the bonus is that you can also use the sesame seeds for your homemade breads which we do quite a lot. We fed our Demon Child the same way and I can report, three years on, that she is willing to eat just about anything.

The kid asks for snacks of broccoli and fourth helpings of beans! but she eats it just fine. Thank you for sharing!

FW will have her in the kitchen with him as soon as possible! Hey guys! It just might be my all time favorite tv show! Just wanted to share the link for my favorite granola bar recipe.

One thing that has helped us consume more of our leftovers is packaging them in individual serving size containers. Then, when we need to grab food for lunch or dinner, we can just grab a meal out of the refrigerator and warm it up. The book itself is available at our library.

As someone who lives in a city with limited grocery stores but TONS of restaurants I have had to work on this- especially since I have a LOT of severe food allergies one epipen or ER visit is definitely more than my grocery bill! so I have to be careful of what I eat.

I love making soup from scratch and taking it to work, and buying basics rather than premade food. I also do use coupons a few times a year when I know basics like tp, paper towels, shampoo, etc will be on sale.

Also, befriend your local butcher! Easy protein source. Great list of tips and resources! Thanks again for always impressing! A big key for me has been to reduce the thinking behind. well, everything. Every two weeks I put on a pot of dry beans to cook for two hours, and add seasonings and oil as they cook down.

Then I scoop out half cup portions into lunch containers, let them cool, add cheap bulk frozen veggies, and shove all ten plus containers back in the freezer. At the beginning of every week, I portion out nuts in small containers for lunch, and oatmeal with cinnamon and chia and yogurt with honey for breakfast.

The savings in time, money, and stress have been terrific. All I have to do is fend off the folks who think eating beans and oatmeal every day reflect a serious lack of imagination. Great article! My approach is similar, but I have yet to give up the semi-weekly meal out at UNO or one of our local establishments.

You mentioned that you buy granola bars… I thought I would share this recipe for homemade granola bars , which I made recently and LOVED.

I changed a few things around, like adding toasted sesame seeds, pecans, walnuts, and I used sliced, skinless almonds instead of whole ones. Oh, and I added a tablespoon of butter and a little bit of salt to the mix. I toasted the oats and all the nuts first, which I think adds a nice flavor note.

After cutting the bars, I kept them from sticking together by wrapping them in little pieces of waxed paper. When I have had dinner failures…. hot sauce. We make what my husband calls salsa soup. Any bulk hot sauce you have can save a bad fish stew or similar.

I actually save up my scrap vegetables in a freezer bag in the freezer…when I have a couple full bags I make a batch of vegetable stock. Love this post and your blog.

Do you ever buy Frugalhound treats? Or do you make them homemade? Dog treats are one of the food priorities in our house. My mother grew up in wartime Europe and these were lessons necessary for life, not just lifestyle.

We are currently working on less packaged food. More of a health choice than frugality actually. I will say you are lucky with your little ones eating habits.

My oldest daughter has always been a great eater. We are working with an occupational therapist to expand her horizons. Unfortunately feeding your kids is not always as straightforward as one might think.

Fresh veggies are usually cheaper than most packaged options, you can get a lot of vegetables and fruit for less than it would be for prepackaged foods. The best part of this extremely informative article is the picture of Houndlett licking food off of Babylett.

Yes, you have been upstaged by the younger generation. My desire to eat gourmet food often was my incentive to learn to cook. The restaurant scene in Vancouver was vibrant and expensive! so I began researching recipes. And, of course, the savings have been incredible.

Because food is our hobby, we have no problem with sourcing great ingredients, eating out and generally spending most of our variable income on food. Having said that, there are plenty of things we happily do without to fund that one particular lifestyle choice. Your discussion about babywoods and healthy eating reminds me of our toddler.

On another note, you can freeze flour. I freeze my whole wheat flour to keep it fresh longer, which lets me buy larger bulk amounts than I could use in the normal run of things before it went bad. But, may I point out, there are also things you CAN expect. Not to get too personal, but, every month there are a few days that come where I know I will not be cooking.

Like spaghetti, really any type of pasta, with a package of frozen veggies to go along with it. He takes them for lunch too so I never seem to have any full dinners around for those occasions.

I do plan on working that in though so thanks for the ideas. Thanks for all the encouragement and the regular flow of ideas. It helps so much! We have many of the same tactics. We stay regimented with our grocery shopping always on the weekend and always one trip per week.

We compile the list as we go throughout the week adding items as we use them up or think of recipes to make. Thank you for all the great posts on grocery expenses!

We do love those Costco pizzas! Grocery budgeting is a fun challenge, but the other big killer of flexible expenses for me is non-food consumables: toiletries, paper goods, disposables I have cut down our plastic consumption drastically, but sometimes you just need freezer bags for frozen meals!

Do you have any advice on these, or could you point me to a post on it? not wearing makeup and getting LASIK. I would love a comprehensive post on non-food consumables in the same vein as your grocery posts.

I love your writing! We also try to use re-usable products as much as possible. For example: our glass tupperware gets used over and over again, I store our bread wrapped in a tea towel, I use rags instead of paper towels.

We also invest when it makes sense, such as in re-chargeable batteries, low-energy-use lightbulbs, etc. I hope this helps! Our power company lets us order LED lights at a HUGE discount. Check and see if yours does. Coconut oil makes a divine moisturizer. I also make a whipped body butter I love for winter coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, and almond oil in equal proportions, chilled and whipped.

I make a whipped body butter too with those same ingredients! Smells heavenly! Did you get from the Trash is Tossers website, like me?

Frugal weirdo toiletry tip: try Tibetan crystal deodorant! Mix previous. Press into a baking sheet. I tend to think we have the food thing down, but even I picked up some great tips here! I also really enjoyed how long it was, much longer than you usually write.

More Frugalwoods is a good thing in my book! My current frugal boss move is to make a giant egg bake for the week. I top with whatever bits and bobs of cheese are still hanging about, then 12 beaten eggs. Love this post! I have bought barley, millet, buckwheat, wheat berries, amaranth, and more at Whole Foods and is just insanely expensive.

I would love to source these great grains online and see big box. Any suggestions? I buy mine at the local grain elevators; wheat berries, oats, rye and corn. Just notice when and what the farmers are harvesting to determine when to stop at the elevator.

You can not pick up oats when they are harvesting wheat! We eat a lot like you do Mrs. We rarely eat out. It makes a huge difference in our food budget, but we do splurge on the specialty ingredients to make yummy Asian dishes.

So we pay a little extra for that good life. Such great advice all around. We had split pea soup last night and there is enough in the freezer for several meals. I want to give another thumbs up for freezer meals. They have saved me so many times.

Monday I got home from a weekend out of town and we had lasagna from the freezer. I make 3 at a time — still one left! Today we skied all day and came home tired and famished. There was a time this would have meant order pizza or Chinese take-out, but I had thawed a chicken and noodle casserole before we left.

That and some steamed broccoli will make a great meal. We are also big on packing lunches for road trips and anytime we will be away at lunch time. We prefer a homemade sandwich with homemade bread!

to fast food, and so does our bank account. Food is hard for me, since I have 14 allergies. Onions, garlic, rice, wheat, oats, eggs, peanuts, etc.

That does mean that I never eat out, which is budget friendly. I buy only raw food, in bulk when I can. I have a friend who has a severe corn allergy along with concurrent related food allergies. So totally hear ya about how hard it can be dealing with food. Most of the squash will be the main ingredient in soup.

I season with herbs, a little bit of salt, and a dash of chipotle chili, but you could use anything and could make it more sweet than spicy. You would have to skip the few that involve oats. Potatoes in 15 minutes, brown rice in Beans, lentils, kale, soup — no more standing over the stove — dump in and set.

Love these tips. I have brown basmati rice frozen in pint-sized packets for quick meals, too, plus lots of quart-sized soups and stews ready. Our biggest food priority is eating healthy fish sourced in the most environmentally responsible way.

So we invest in shipping pounds of wild-caught Alaskan salmon every year, plus 80 cans of sockeye for salmon salad and fish patties. Some people buy a side of beef, we buy Alaskan salmon and follow a Native American version of the Mediterranean Diet, which is a little seafood, lots of greens and vegetables, and some nuts, beans, legumes, and a few grains.

That quinoa bowl looks yum! Do you scramble the egg? Did I really say that?!? Must have been a moment of delusion was I pregnant at the time? The thing is that Mr. FW is really good at cooking and he enjoys it, whereas me, not so much on either of those.

If I absolutely had to cook, I would. But I prefer to clean and do the laundry while he manages all things culinary :. Have you considered purchasing an instant pot? Worth every penny in my opinion.

I use it to make yogurt, rice, quinoa, and so on. I currently have frozen chicken breasts in there that will cook up in 15 minutes flat. It helps me avoid to the temptation to buy takeout and premade foods because it is so quick and easy to use.

Yes, I agree the Instant Pot is great!! I make yogurt, soups, stews, and breakfast and lunch preps for the week. After considerable research, and hemming and hawing, I finally purchased an instant pot for many of the same reasons. Totally worth it! One big purchase we feel has paid us back tenfold.

A friend, however, makes them regularly and said the secret is brown rice syrup. She buys it from a co-op grocery store, it seems to be the kind of thing you either find at a health food store or at an Asian supermarket.

Worth a shot! Around here, regular price is about ¢ a pound, but every so often they go on sale for ¢ a pound and I buy the max the store will allow. I bake them, shred off whatever meat I can, and then turn the bones lots of bones! into broth. I priced it out as being about 50 cents per quart of broth made to store-bought strength, though I do reduce it for the freezer to save space.

The meat is useful for soup, casseroles, chicken salad, etc. Other protein— the cut of meat called top blade steaks, or Spencer steaks in the midwest, or flat iron steaks.

All the same. They are usually rather thin cut, oblong shape well-marbled meat with a line of gristle down the middle. The other cut I get is called chuck eye, only one of my local grocery stores carries it. I use that to make homemade cured salmon, aka lox.

We also use that salmon to make salmon sandwiches, basically eaten just like a burger with a piece of salmon instead of beef. Each piece is about ¼ lb so a sandwich runs about a dollar. Can you provide a recipe for the cured salmon? We have a lot in common when it comes to food and groceries.

My wife and I buy mostly whole foods, and organic when it matters. What we put into our bodies is very important to us. Sure we splurge every now and then on unhealthy food, but we keep it to a minimum.

Making meals ahead saves us big time during the week. After a long day of work, the last thing I want to do is think about making food. Having something frozen that I can heat up is a life saver during the week.

I loved reading this article! Hey guys, Apart from all the great tips from Mrs. Frugalwoods, I have a great tip I came up with while shopping for groceries.

Say NO to one of the products in your cart! Put SOMETHING BACK at the end of each shopping session! I am saying this because I, as probably many of you, love to just throw in ingredients or foods that we love, that are not necessarily cheap nor healthy.

It saves you money 2. What a super, easy way to save money on groceries. Thanks so much the the great tip. If spinach is cheap in your area you should really try it out! So much great information here. A cheese sandwich tastes so much nicer with a good green tomato chutney, or dill pickle.

And it is very empowering not to mention cheap to make your own. My homemade mango chutney is streets ahead of any of the sugary commercial stuff, and a lot spicier too:- When a friend gave me a free bag of nectarines I made chutney out of those as well. PS Totally off-topic, but we gave our greyhound puppy the empty peanut butter jar to lick this morning and she was in seventh heaven:- No need to wash out the container for recycling.

I have AdBlocker After I read through the whole article there were Zero Ads blocked. This is the first time I ever saw this. Way to go frugalwoods. RE: cooking, I completely thank the Food Network. My parents did teach me plenty, mostly about the importance of home-cooking and having food on the table every night.

From the Food Network watching, I learned a lot about how to do different techniques, like butterflying a chicken breast helps avoid the super thick and bland problem. Sometimes, I do one sauce in a big thing a Le Cruset or a casserole dish or pyrex. The other night, I used smaller ones and did two different sauces, but it gave me three nights worth of dinners where all we had to do was prepare a side veggie.

What are some of your favorite brands of box wines and styles-cabernet, merlot? I was wondering, do you guys have an opinion on the zero waste movement? You guys have offered a ton of great zero waste options—Sodastream, make coffee at home, make hummus or bread by hand.

Your article gave some great advice but I had to laugh out loud when you suggested hummus and veggies is enough for dinner. My husband would absolutely freak out! It was the only part I thought was completely unrealistic expectations and points to why you guys are so thin and America as a whole is overweight.

Eating whole homemade food in small quantities and snacking on fruits and veggies is what the majority of American would call a diet! I made the epic-ly frugal lunch recipe yesterday.

Eating it while I type. Curious as to the use of canned black beans vs. buying bulk? Great post, Ms. PDF cookbook designed for those living on SNAP benefits food stamps.

This post was very informative. I agree that bringing snacks and your lunch to work can save you SO much money. There are several people at my office that eat out every day or go pick up fast food. We also purposefully make too much food for dinner so that we can have leftovers for lunch the next day.

My husband and I also like to drink alcohol, but we limit that to the weekends now because it is so expensive. We are doing the low carb diet so I have to limit wine intake. My favorite drink is a chilton club soda, lemon, salt, and vodka.

Food has always been my struggle. I love food and spend way too much money satisfying cravings and experiments. I make a batch of this every Sunday and eat throughout the week. I also pack them when my toddler and I are running errands to keep hunger at bay.

The base of this is the nut butter and oats, and you can really play around with the rest. I sometimes add dried fruit or chopped nuts to it. If I find chia seeds on sale I will add a tablespoon of those.

Mix all ingredients together your hands will work better than a spoon and then mold into a glass dish and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Cut into the portions you want. I keep these in the fridge all week and take out as I want to eat them. You can also just mix all ingredients in a bowl, refrigerate, and then mold into balls. I am getting better I eat red sauce! We have reduced it to every other week. Our friends also love to host and vice versa.

We pick a theme and everyone brings dish. We also do grilled pizza in the summer which is a steal! Makes 12 wedges at approximately calories each. A yummy oatmeal variation is what I call my banana bread oatmeal. Cook as usual. I always cook my oatmeal in the microwave.

Great post and comments, too. For example, I bought a bag of fresh turmeric for a few bucks at an Indian store. Compared to the health food store super cheap. It freezes perfectly.

At Asian stores, I get teas for much cheaper. We have been doing it for years and have no children. We try to do bigger portions so as to do multiple lunch meals which we take for our respective offices and soups for most dinners of the week.

Do you have any other ideas come to mind? Thank you very much and keep writing! Have you thought to purchase garage sale a pressure canner?. Smitten Kitchen has a recipe for great granola bars. You can use whatever nuts or dried fruit you have on hand.

Bring water to boil Gently add a dozen eggs Boil 6 minutes Take off heat, let sit 20 minutes Drain hit water, add cool water,ice 20 mins.

rolled oats; mix together and roll into balls. Store in fridge and grab when you need them. I usually add T of flax seed meal for omega-3s and vitamins. Can add choc chips, coconut flakes, raisins, etc.

But I usually make them plain. My kids LOVE them. The recipe is on my website. I cut them into bars and freeze each bar. I totally agree that finding a workable granola bar recipe is tough.

What I do is make loose granola to top our homemade yogurt.. I like the crunch it brings to the meal. I have found that it is much easier to save on groceries, eat clean and healthy and not to throw away food when ordering all food via e-shop.

For few months now I have planned our meals family of 4 , ordered the stuff online and my husband just went to pick up the prepacked goods from store. Much less destraction and impulse bought items, much better planning and lots of saved time.

S- where we live it is free of charge to preorder and pick up groceries. Excellent post! I love that you keep weeknights simple.

That is something I try and do also. As for granola bars. I love having a simple snack and this recipe has been my go-to for years. I double the batch and put it in a 9×13 pan and leave it in the fridge.

Out family of 3 can polish off a pan in a week or so and they taste simply amazing on top of a little bit of plain greek yogurt. Melt peanut butter, honey and butter together. Then add any ingredients you want. Looks like you guys do consistent lunch and breakfast and then a more varied dinner.

Great strategy. We are in Milwaukee, so we shop on Sundays during the Packers game. It is like a ghost town. Do you have an average cost per meal per person that you try to maintain? We are mostly utilizing the recipes link from BlueApron, but rather than use their service we go to the grocery store and buy the ingredients ourselves.

This might sound like an odd one but it worked for me and when I pointed it out to my colleague she noted the cost savings too. I rarely eat meat but when I do I eat halal meat. We have a very large Muslim community in my city — large enough that there is a section at the grocery store for the halal meats and products in a very basic sense like kosher for Jewish.

The overall price point is different and when they do markdowns they are more substantial. Food has always been my easiest area to tackle with frugality.

I then go back and write a new list, re-ordering my items based on my path around the store. If you are NOT familiar with your store, ask customer service for a map. Seriously, most grocery stores have a map.

Anyway, write your items down in an order from door to register in one straight trip. I have saved SO much by doing this because I am a HUGE compulsive buyer and my persuasive snack side is far stronger than my practical frugal side.

The other thing I do is buy whole raw chicken. Out grocery store usually has them for. With the leftovers, I can usually squeeze out more chicken meals that are all cheap. Then with the bones, I make my own chicken stock and throw that in the freezer for other meals.

When my freezer starts to overflow with chicken stock, we just have chicken soup. I make the stock, but after straining out the bones, I just add onions, carrots, rice or whatever tiny pasta is in the cupboard.

Last, ask if your store has markdown sections. Ours regularly has a bread markdown randomly located in one of the frozen food aisles…. I make it a point to always browse these. It was about 4 times the amount I usually buy for my daughter for only about half a dollar more.

Excellent guide. I wonder what do the Frugalwoods use to store some of the bulk items, such as the big bags of oatmeal, quinoa, etc.?

Thanks again. Homemade bread is also a good place to add good stuff. Just blend twice as much whole flax seeds as you would use oil. Flax seeds keep for years. For real whole wheat bread, add in wheat germ. It can be bitter, so add as much as tastes good to you. I totally agree with your view on the judicious use of proteins.

My wife tries to use meat with every meal, but eating too much protein can be costly and even unhealthy. Keep up the great work! We eat out a couple of times a month. Yes, it costs more than cooking at home but we have some strategies to keep the bill reasonable.

We always portion out at least half the meal to take home and take any leftover bread to use for breakfast or lunch the next day.

We also try to avoid buying coffee or tea out. I have good travel mugs and will make drinks at home to take with us when we go for walks in the park. Other than that we do cook at home from scratch as much as possible.

Soups are one of my favorite things to make since you can often add in odds and ends and it still comes out good.

I added leftover rice to my split pea soup and it helped to thicken it nicely. When you have a spoonful of peas left on the dinner table—too little to serve again, too much to finish off—put that spoonful in the soup box. Repeat with whatever spoonful portions are left at the end of the meal.

When the soup box is full, all you need for a great soup is to make the base of your choice broth, tomato, etc and add in the goodies. Avoids waste and saves both time and money. Larabars homemade. Equal parts raw nut cashews typically, peanut is also good and dates.

Pinch of salt, vanilla and cinnamon. Awesome backpacking food. Awesome snack. Have to use a Vitamix. For the granola bar question, I make these granola bars religiously. They use brown rice cereal and brown rice syrup those ingredients are a bit more expensive , but making these homemade certainly saves and they are SO.

than store bought. Everyone loves these. If you have a food processing, another fun thing to do is to see how many things you can make in a row without having to wash it in between!

Keep a few to eat, and freeze the rest for later! The same holds true with grating cheese! Just buy chunks of cheese, and grate it yourself in your food processor! Bag each type of cheese into a freezer ziplock bag, and toss them into the freezer.

Grated cheese at your fingertips whenever you want! Then, when you end up with a batch of raspberries, for ex. Easy peasy, right? Got the idea? My trick to saving on baby food is skipping purée, homemade and store-bought, and doing baby-led weaning… Baby had what we had from the start and all we had to do was forfeit one or two spoonfuls from our plates to the little guy.

I think the Classic Glo Bars from Oh She Glows are pretty darn good and fairly healthy. Bulk foods are hard to find in Australia in the way they seem available in America.

Things like rice are available but other things that are suitable for coeliacs are not. I just discovered Walmart Grocery Pickup. I may never set foot inside a grocery store again. We struggle to lower our monthly food bill, though we do not eat out and cook almost everything from scratch.

Oddly, perhaps, produce is the killer. We are pretty committed to buying meat from animals not raised in factory-farm conditions, and because this is more expensive, we eat a lot less meat than we used to. And are raising meat chickens in the backyard!

Quite the adventure. But I still marvel at the low grocery bills I see posted from others. We live a major metro area in the SE. I recommend checking out ethnic grocery stores near you.

It might seem daunting at first, but just jump into it and explore. Those are pretty good and cheap, good for buying beans, various grains and flour. Produce and meat not too expensive either, and there are many interesting selections.

You would see many of the same foods in fancy international departments of your bigger grocery stores, and they would be a lot more expensive. Asian markets are great too. I also used to go to a big Korean grocery store when I lived near one to get cheap seafood and the variety was amazing.

Grilled octopus, anyone? Asian markets would offer cheaper rice in bulk. I know! We have lots of great Latino stores here in FL and we love getting our cheap spices there!

I always keep blue tape on hand for writing on food containers when I put them in the fridge or freezer. I put the name of what is in the container, along with the date of when it was put in the fridge. This helps for ensuring that we know how old something is before we eat it!

In medium bowl, mix together honey, melted butter, and egg. Add to dry ingredients. Pour in prepared baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Cool for 30 minutes before cutting. Leftover sandwiches which have been in the refrigerator become delectable treats when I smear a bit of soft butter on the outside and heat them up on a nonstick pan for a few minutes!

Try making flatbreads. Espesially good for hungry kids. My favourite recipes are Rachael Koo no yeast and ready to cook in 15minutes and Jenny can Cook.

You tubeVideo on how to make them is so easy. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Skip to content. Eliminate Excuses; Identify Your Parameters Mr. I eat a vegan diet and that food is expensive! I eat a lot of meat and it is expensive! I hate to cook and so I spend too much on ingredients! I love to cook and so I spend too much on ingredients!

Where You Shop My beloved Market Basket Our first stop is where we shop. Be Wary Of Coupons Our groceries on the conveyor belt. People wondered why I was photographing this… Coupons can be the best of times or the worst of times. How You Shop Mr. Make your list at home ahead of time and while looking in your pantry and refrigerator.

I always bring snacks and toys for Babywoods, which makes our weekly trips mostly pleasant. What You Buy Babywoods modeling some of our bulk, raw ingredients Since everyone has different dietary restrictions, preferences, and priorities, this category will be, well, different for everyone.

Instead of pre-made bread, buy flour. Good, pre-made bread is ridiculously expensive. Instead of chopped baby carrots, buy the big, whole carrots. Do you know how long 5lbs of carrots last? A long time, my friends. These are but a few examples. Look through your pantry and fridge and identify anything that came in a package.

FW whipping up homemade hummus. French Toast Casserole takes the stress out of preparing breakfast. You can prep it the night before and bung it in the oven in the morning. No fuss! Kedgeree is a traditional English Breakfast dish comprised of curried rice with smoked fish and boiled eggs.

For our family, we almost invariably eat homemade sourdough bread as toast for lunch. This is an incredibly frugal option, not to mention quick and easy to prepare once the bread it made. I have linked an easy overnight sourdough loaf that makes simplifies the process of homemade bread.

Bread is a great way to make a little portion of delicious toppings into a nourishing and filling meal. We will usually toast it and top it with any of these, depending on what is around.

To keep costs down, we normally buy one kind of topping, like peanut butter and jam, and make it last the whole week. It is surprising how delicious dinner can be when it is frugal. Pizza and pasta, for example, are two of the most frugal meals you can have, if you make them from scratch.

Lentils boil down in this vegan bolognaise recipe to make a rich tomato-based sauce which can go with anything. Vegetarian Chilli is made from basic pantry ingredients and comes in vast supply.

Another kid favourite, you can have Pizza on a regular basis and still stick to your budget if you make the base yourself. I love this Sourdough Pizza recipe , because it tastes like the kind from the true artisan restaurants! Use the above Sourdough Pizza Recipe, but shape them into little pockets filled with all the toppings!

Vegan Pumpkin Chickpea Curry is SO cheap to make, because it contains only basic ingredients, with no expensive dairy or meat. Plus, it packs an awesome flavour punch, a family meal must! Creamy, velvety, and bursting with savory goodness, Vegan Mushroom Risotto just like classic risotto but dairy-free and vegan therefore super frugal!

Fried Rice is a combination of long grained rice, mixture of warm peas, carrots and onions with scrambled eggs mixed all together. It has got to be the most frugal meal, stretching cheap vegetables into a satisfying plate of food. My Homemade Sourdough Pasta Dough is super frugal, using only 2 eggs, sourdough discard, and a little bit of flour.

Homemade pasta is time better than store bought stuff, and it feels like a treat meal while actually being really cheap! Homemade Sourdough Dumpling Wrappers make a few odds and ends into an interesting and nourishing meal. The Vegetarian Chilli above would make a delicious meal with these Homemade Tortillas sourdough, of course.

I make these tortillas often when I have a little bit of sauce which I need to stretch into a family-of-4 sized meal. Another version of the above hack, but a Mexican Lasagna out of leftover Chili and Tortillas is a frugal meal that always goes down a treat. Simply sandwich the layers with grated cheese a little goes a long way and there you have your meal!

All these Frugal Snacks are home-made and healthy, of course!

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Sign Up For Our Free Newsletter! SAVE NOW! Sending you timely financial stories that you can bank on. Please enter an email. Please enter a valid email address. IKEA fan over here! You are spot on regarding the regional airports. You usually find some very tasty home cookin there.

All they offer is a couple of vending machines. True, Michael. It would probably be wise to check the Internet to see if the particular small airports in your area have a diner before jaunting out there with the intention of getting a bite to eat. No IKEAs here and the only Costco on the island moved its food concession indoors a few years after opening.

The Costco I shop at actually has two concession stands — one indoors and one outdoors. Spaghetti, eh? You know, I actually prefer my Swedish meatballs served with egg noodles, but no such luck at Ikea. Well, Dr. My wife and I went out to dinner on a whim last night.

Yeah, the sitter is a real killer. Love those hot dogs though, and the very berry sundaes. I do like the traditional styling, but the quality is very so-so you get what you pay for!

However, I agree that the cafeteria is usually a pretty safe bet 😀. I agree, Jessica. I think you can do the same at Costco. Finally, try Googling restaurants near your address. Both are very close by, inexpensive and yummy. We usually take one of those home too with us when shopping there.

We usually heat the chicken and then shred it up and use the meat for burritos or tacos. Most will not believe this, but our local hospital has a cafeteria with good food at unbelievable prices! This is NOT what they feed the poor patients. And those who choose water or iced tea get free drink refills.

Because there are no servers, there is no tip needed. Our hospital is one of the most popular restaurants in town. That is really hard to believe, JE. There should be a law against that hot dog smell in a Home Depot exit area. Personal foul! Tantalizing the guests! I know. I feel deprived. However, I did go to an Ikea in another state once and tried their Swedish meatballs.

They were a great value indeed! And I forgot to mention that if you want extra meatballs you can get them for, I think, only 99 cents more. So the deal gets even better! My favorite suggestion is airport dining. I would have loved that as a kid. Actually, I would love that as an adult.

Too bad we dont have airstrips nearby. I know my kids used to enjoy going to our regional airports for weekend breakfasts. I absolutely do NOT overlook IKEA. My husband even stopped by one year the day after Thanksgiving for their free breakfast offering.

But it gets me thinking, how can they POSSIBLY be making any profit on a 99 cent breakfast? Then I remember, I usually walk away with plenty of merchandise to make up for it.

They more than make up for it in other areas. I used to eat there all the time when vacationing in Las Vegas. I have to admit that airport eating establishments are way overpriced for the quality of food they offer. Costco scares me with its junk food offerings. But Ikea! I love Swedish meatballs!

I finally feel very secure in feeding my family and myself… it only took 10 years of trial and error! I have also learned about cutting down food waste by going through my kitchen once a week and putting stuff on the counter that needs to be used up… right now I have corn meal, a can of cream of chicken, a can of cream of mushroom, fried onions, apricot preserves and pie crust mix… all items gifted to me by my Buy Nothing Group.

I make it a point to collect unwanted food items from my BN community and then build recipes around them. Last week we had salmon cakes and pumpkin pie because of my BN gifts. My food bill is still not as cheap as others, but I think it has to do with geography.

In general living on the west coast means that our costs are higher. and you can sub different types of flour and mix-ins nuts, seeds, etc. Our biggest foods savings, besides raising some vegetables and chickens in the summer, comes from eating bone-in chicken.

I agree that being judicious about your proteins can make a huge difference. Love the tips! We use most for our family of five healthy eaters—buy bulk raw ingredients, add beans and onions to everything to stretch it, slow cooker soups and stews, planned leftover meals, etc.

We also finally invested in a pressure cooker, which is proving to be a game changer! Less temptation to give into take out or eat through our entire stash of freezer meals when you can cook beans in 30 min or frozen chicken in 10!

We used to do more of our meal prep on weekends, but as the kids get older and have more activities popping up on weekends, it was getting hard to keep up with the prep. Our other strategy is frittatas of every variety.

Do you make it in a high speed blender like a Vitamix? I never enjoyed homemade hummus made in the food processor, but in the Vitamix or other comparable one the texture is so much smoother. We bought canned beans from target most recently and they were super firm and make very chunky hummus.

If you cook your own garbanzo beans, you can make sure to get them thoroughly softened first. Are you using dried chickpeas? which I personally think is superior Is your water hard? Our new house has very hard water so I now use distilled water to cook my chickpeas and other beans.

It makes a big difference with the texture of the chickpeas. I suffered though a year of horrible beans before I discovered water can make or break your beans and it is definitely worth the extra dollar for distilled water.

I tried those once with no luck, so I went back to canned, though that may have been at my old apartment which had really hard water…. I may get some dried ones though and try out the crockpot method of soaking. Dumber people than I have mastered homemade hummus!

Otherwise, make sure you blend, blend, blend. I use a Cuisnart as well — it should get fluffy. Make sure you have a little lemon juice in there. Great post! If you want to get all fancy with your hummus because I like the taste the tahini adds to it , you can always make it yourself.

And the bonus is that you can also use the sesame seeds for your homemade breads which we do quite a lot. We fed our Demon Child the same way and I can report, three years on, that she is willing to eat just about anything.

The kid asks for snacks of broccoli and fourth helpings of beans! but she eats it just fine. Thank you for sharing! FW will have her in the kitchen with him as soon as possible! Hey guys! It just might be my all time favorite tv show!

Just wanted to share the link for my favorite granola bar recipe. One thing that has helped us consume more of our leftovers is packaging them in individual serving size containers.

Then, when we need to grab food for lunch or dinner, we can just grab a meal out of the refrigerator and warm it up.

The book itself is available at our library. As someone who lives in a city with limited grocery stores but TONS of restaurants I have had to work on this- especially since I have a LOT of severe food allergies one epipen or ER visit is definitely more than my grocery bill!

so I have to be careful of what I eat. I love making soup from scratch and taking it to work, and buying basics rather than premade food. I also do use coupons a few times a year when I know basics like tp, paper towels, shampoo, etc will be on sale.

Also, befriend your local butcher! Easy protein source. Great list of tips and resources! Thanks again for always impressing! A big key for me has been to reduce the thinking behind. well, everything.

Every two weeks I put on a pot of dry beans to cook for two hours, and add seasonings and oil as they cook down. Then I scoop out half cup portions into lunch containers, let them cool, add cheap bulk frozen veggies, and shove all ten plus containers back in the freezer.

At the beginning of every week, I portion out nuts in small containers for lunch, and oatmeal with cinnamon and chia and yogurt with honey for breakfast.

The savings in time, money, and stress have been terrific. All I have to do is fend off the folks who think eating beans and oatmeal every day reflect a serious lack of imagination. Great article! My approach is similar, but I have yet to give up the semi-weekly meal out at UNO or one of our local establishments.

You mentioned that you buy granola bars… I thought I would share this recipe for homemade granola bars , which I made recently and LOVED. I changed a few things around, like adding toasted sesame seeds, pecans, walnuts, and I used sliced, skinless almonds instead of whole ones.

Oh, and I added a tablespoon of butter and a little bit of salt to the mix. I toasted the oats and all the nuts first, which I think adds a nice flavor note.

After cutting the bars, I kept them from sticking together by wrapping them in little pieces of waxed paper. When I have had dinner failures….

hot sauce. We make what my husband calls salsa soup. Any bulk hot sauce you have can save a bad fish stew or similar. I actually save up my scrap vegetables in a freezer bag in the freezer…when I have a couple full bags I make a batch of vegetable stock.

Love this post and your blog. Do you ever buy Frugalhound treats? Or do you make them homemade? Dog treats are one of the food priorities in our house.

My mother grew up in wartime Europe and these were lessons necessary for life, not just lifestyle. We are currently working on less packaged food.

More of a health choice than frugality actually. I will say you are lucky with your little ones eating habits. My oldest daughter has always been a great eater. We are working with an occupational therapist to expand her horizons. Unfortunately feeding your kids is not always as straightforward as one might think.

Fresh veggies are usually cheaper than most packaged options, you can get a lot of vegetables and fruit for less than it would be for prepackaged foods. The best part of this extremely informative article is the picture of Houndlett licking food off of Babylett.

Yes, you have been upstaged by the younger generation. My desire to eat gourmet food often was my incentive to learn to cook. The restaurant scene in Vancouver was vibrant and expensive! so I began researching recipes. And, of course, the savings have been incredible.

Because food is our hobby, we have no problem with sourcing great ingredients, eating out and generally spending most of our variable income on food.

Having said that, there are plenty of things we happily do without to fund that one particular lifestyle choice. Your discussion about babywoods and healthy eating reminds me of our toddler.

On another note, you can freeze flour. I freeze my whole wheat flour to keep it fresh longer, which lets me buy larger bulk amounts than I could use in the normal run of things before it went bad. But, may I point out, there are also things you CAN expect. Not to get too personal, but, every month there are a few days that come where I know I will not be cooking.

Like spaghetti, really any type of pasta, with a package of frozen veggies to go along with it. He takes them for lunch too so I never seem to have any full dinners around for those occasions.

I do plan on working that in though so thanks for the ideas. Thanks for all the encouragement and the regular flow of ideas.

It helps so much! We have many of the same tactics. We stay regimented with our grocery shopping always on the weekend and always one trip per week.

We compile the list as we go throughout the week adding items as we use them up or think of recipes to make. Thank you for all the great posts on grocery expenses! We do love those Costco pizzas! Grocery budgeting is a fun challenge, but the other big killer of flexible expenses for me is non-food consumables: toiletries, paper goods, disposables I have cut down our plastic consumption drastically, but sometimes you just need freezer bags for frozen meals!

Do you have any advice on these, or could you point me to a post on it? not wearing makeup and getting LASIK. I would love a comprehensive post on non-food consumables in the same vein as your grocery posts. I love your writing! We also try to use re-usable products as much as possible. For example: our glass tupperware gets used over and over again, I store our bread wrapped in a tea towel, I use rags instead of paper towels.

We also invest when it makes sense, such as in re-chargeable batteries, low-energy-use lightbulbs, etc. I hope this helps! Our power company lets us order LED lights at a HUGE discount. Check and see if yours does.

Coconut oil makes a divine moisturizer. I also make a whipped body butter I love for winter coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, and almond oil in equal proportions, chilled and whipped. I make a whipped body butter too with those same ingredients! Smells heavenly! Did you get from the Trash is Tossers website, like me?

Frugal weirdo toiletry tip: try Tibetan crystal deodorant! Mix previous. Press into a baking sheet. I tend to think we have the food thing down, but even I picked up some great tips here! I also really enjoyed how long it was, much longer than you usually write. More Frugalwoods is a good thing in my book!

My current frugal boss move is to make a giant egg bake for the week. I top with whatever bits and bobs of cheese are still hanging about, then 12 beaten eggs.

Love this post! I have bought barley, millet, buckwheat, wheat berries, amaranth, and more at Whole Foods and is just insanely expensive. I would love to source these great grains online and see big box. Any suggestions? I buy mine at the local grain elevators; wheat berries, oats, rye and corn.

Just notice when and what the farmers are harvesting to determine when to stop at the elevator. You can not pick up oats when they are harvesting wheat! We eat a lot like you do Mrs. We rarely eat out.

It makes a huge difference in our food budget, but we do splurge on the specialty ingredients to make yummy Asian dishes. So we pay a little extra for that good life. Such great advice all around.

We had split pea soup last night and there is enough in the freezer for several meals. I want to give another thumbs up for freezer meals. They have saved me so many times. Monday I got home from a weekend out of town and we had lasagna from the freezer.

I make 3 at a time — still one left! Today we skied all day and came home tired and famished. There was a time this would have meant order pizza or Chinese take-out, but I had thawed a chicken and noodle casserole before we left.

That and some steamed broccoli will make a great meal. We are also big on packing lunches for road trips and anytime we will be away at lunch time. We prefer a homemade sandwich with homemade bread! to fast food, and so does our bank account. Food is hard for me, since I have 14 allergies. Onions, garlic, rice, wheat, oats, eggs, peanuts, etc.

That does mean that I never eat out, which is budget friendly. I buy only raw food, in bulk when I can. I have a friend who has a severe corn allergy along with concurrent related food allergies. So totally hear ya about how hard it can be dealing with food. Most of the squash will be the main ingredient in soup.

I season with herbs, a little bit of salt, and a dash of chipotle chili, but you could use anything and could make it more sweet than spicy. You would have to skip the few that involve oats. Potatoes in 15 minutes, brown rice in Beans, lentils, kale, soup — no more standing over the stove — dump in and set.

Love these tips. I have brown basmati rice frozen in pint-sized packets for quick meals, too, plus lots of quart-sized soups and stews ready. Our biggest food priority is eating healthy fish sourced in the most environmentally responsible way.

So we invest in shipping pounds of wild-caught Alaskan salmon every year, plus 80 cans of sockeye for salmon salad and fish patties. Some people buy a side of beef, we buy Alaskan salmon and follow a Native American version of the Mediterranean Diet, which is a little seafood, lots of greens and vegetables, and some nuts, beans, legumes, and a few grains.

That quinoa bowl looks yum! Do you scramble the egg? Did I really say that?!? Must have been a moment of delusion was I pregnant at the time? The thing is that Mr. FW is really good at cooking and he enjoys it, whereas me, not so much on either of those.

If I absolutely had to cook, I would. But I prefer to clean and do the laundry while he manages all things culinary :. Have you considered purchasing an instant pot?

Worth every penny in my opinion. I use it to make yogurt, rice, quinoa, and so on. I currently have frozen chicken breasts in there that will cook up in 15 minutes flat.

It helps me avoid to the temptation to buy takeout and premade foods because it is so quick and easy to use. Yes, I agree the Instant Pot is great!! I make yogurt, soups, stews, and breakfast and lunch preps for the week. After considerable research, and hemming and hawing, I finally purchased an instant pot for many of the same reasons.

Totally worth it! One big purchase we feel has paid us back tenfold. A friend, however, makes them regularly and said the secret is brown rice syrup.

She buys it from a co-op grocery store, it seems to be the kind of thing you either find at a health food store or at an Asian supermarket. Worth a shot! Around here, regular price is about ¢ a pound, but every so often they go on sale for ¢ a pound and I buy the max the store will allow.

I bake them, shred off whatever meat I can, and then turn the bones lots of bones! into broth. I priced it out as being about 50 cents per quart of broth made to store-bought strength, though I do reduce it for the freezer to save space.

The meat is useful for soup, casseroles, chicken salad, etc. Other protein— the cut of meat called top blade steaks, or Spencer steaks in the midwest, or flat iron steaks. All the same. They are usually rather thin cut, oblong shape well-marbled meat with a line of gristle down the middle. The other cut I get is called chuck eye, only one of my local grocery stores carries it.

I use that to make homemade cured salmon, aka lox. We also use that salmon to make salmon sandwiches, basically eaten just like a burger with a piece of salmon instead of beef. Each piece is about ¼ lb so a sandwich runs about a dollar.

Can you provide a recipe for the cured salmon? We have a lot in common when it comes to food and groceries. My wife and I buy mostly whole foods, and organic when it matters. What we put into our bodies is very important to us. Sure we splurge every now and then on unhealthy food, but we keep it to a minimum.

Making meals ahead saves us big time during the week. After a long day of work, the last thing I want to do is think about making food. Having something frozen that I can heat up is a life saver during the week. I loved reading this article! Hey guys, Apart from all the great tips from Mrs.

Frugalwoods, I have a great tip I came up with while shopping for groceries. Say NO to one of the products in your cart! Put SOMETHING BACK at the end of each shopping session!

I am saying this because I, as probably many of you, love to just throw in ingredients or foods that we love, that are not necessarily cheap nor healthy. It saves you money 2. What a super, easy way to save money on groceries. Thanks so much the the great tip.

If spinach is cheap in your area you should really try it out! So much great information here. A cheese sandwich tastes so much nicer with a good green tomato chutney, or dill pickle.

And it is very empowering not to mention cheap to make your own. My homemade mango chutney is streets ahead of any of the sugary commercial stuff, and a lot spicier too:- When a friend gave me a free bag of nectarines I made chutney out of those as well.

PS Totally off-topic, but we gave our greyhound puppy the empty peanut butter jar to lick this morning and she was in seventh heaven:- No need to wash out the container for recycling.

I have AdBlocker After I read through the whole article there were Zero Ads blocked. This is the first time I ever saw this.

Way to go frugalwoods. RE: cooking, I completely thank the Food Network. My parents did teach me plenty, mostly about the importance of home-cooking and having food on the table every night. From the Food Network watching, I learned a lot about how to do different techniques, like butterflying a chicken breast helps avoid the super thick and bland problem.

Sometimes, I do one sauce in a big thing a Le Cruset or a casserole dish or pyrex. The other night, I used smaller ones and did two different sauces, but it gave me three nights worth of dinners where all we had to do was prepare a side veggie.

What are some of your favorite brands of box wines and styles-cabernet, merlot? I was wondering, do you guys have an opinion on the zero waste movement? You guys have offered a ton of great zero waste options—Sodastream, make coffee at home, make hummus or bread by hand.

Your article gave some great advice but I had to laugh out loud when you suggested hummus and veggies is enough for dinner. My husband would absolutely freak out! It was the only part I thought was completely unrealistic expectations and points to why you guys are so thin and America as a whole is overweight.

Eating whole homemade food in small quantities and snacking on fruits and veggies is what the majority of American would call a diet! I made the epic-ly frugal lunch recipe yesterday.

Eating it while I type. Curious as to the use of canned black beans vs. buying bulk? Great post, Ms. PDF cookbook designed for those living on SNAP benefits food stamps.

This post was very informative. I agree that bringing snacks and your lunch to work can save you SO much money. There are several people at my office that eat out every day or go pick up fast food. We also purposefully make too much food for dinner so that we can have leftovers for lunch the next day.

My husband and I also like to drink alcohol, but we limit that to the weekends now because it is so expensive. We are doing the low carb diet so I have to limit wine intake. My favorite drink is a chilton club soda, lemon, salt, and vodka.

Food has always been my struggle. I love food and spend way too much money satisfying cravings and experiments. I make a batch of this every Sunday and eat throughout the week. I also pack them when my toddler and I are running errands to keep hunger at bay.

The base of this is the nut butter and oats, and you can really play around with the rest. I sometimes add dried fruit or chopped nuts to it. If I find chia seeds on sale I will add a tablespoon of those. Mix all ingredients together your hands will work better than a spoon and then mold into a glass dish and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Cut into the portions you want. I keep these in the fridge all week and take out as I want to eat them. You can also just mix all ingredients in a bowl, refrigerate, and then mold into balls. I am getting better I eat red sauce! We have reduced it to every other week.

Our friends also love to host and vice versa. We pick a theme and everyone brings dish. We also do grilled pizza in the summer which is a steal! Makes 12 wedges at approximately calories each. A yummy oatmeal variation is what I call my banana bread oatmeal. Cook as usual.

I always cook my oatmeal in the microwave. Great post and comments, too. For example, I bought a bag of fresh turmeric for a few bucks at an Indian store.

Compared to the health food store super cheap. It freezes perfectly. At Asian stores, I get teas for much cheaper.

We have been doing it for years and have no children. We try to do bigger portions so as to do multiple lunch meals which we take for our respective offices and soups for most dinners of the week.

Do you have any other ideas come to mind? Thank you very much and keep writing! Have you thought to purchase garage sale a pressure canner?. Smitten Kitchen has a recipe for great granola bars.

You can use whatever nuts or dried fruit you have on hand. Bring water to boil Gently add a dozen eggs Boil 6 minutes Take off heat, let sit 20 minutes Drain hit water, add cool water,ice 20 mins. rolled oats; mix together and roll into balls. Store in fridge and grab when you need them.

I usually add T of flax seed meal for omega-3s and vitamins. Can add choc chips, coconut flakes, raisins, etc. But I usually make them plain. My kids LOVE them. The recipe is on my website. I cut them into bars and freeze each bar. I totally agree that finding a workable granola bar recipe is tough.

What I do is make loose granola to top our homemade yogurt.. I like the crunch it brings to the meal. I have found that it is much easier to save on groceries, eat clean and healthy and not to throw away food when ordering all food via e-shop.

For few months now I have planned our meals family of 4 , ordered the stuff online and my husband just went to pick up the prepacked goods from store.

Much less destraction and impulse bought items, much better planning and lots of saved time. S- where we live it is free of charge to preorder and pick up groceries.

Excellent post! I love that you keep weeknights simple. That is something I try and do also. As for granola bars. I love having a simple snack and this recipe has been my go-to for years. I double the batch and put it in a 9×13 pan and leave it in the fridge. Out family of 3 can polish off a pan in a week or so and they taste simply amazing on top of a little bit of plain greek yogurt.

Melt peanut butter, honey and butter together. Then add any ingredients you want. Looks like you guys do consistent lunch and breakfast and then a more varied dinner. Great strategy.

We are in Milwaukee, so we shop on Sundays during the Packers game. It is like a ghost town. Do you have an average cost per meal per person that you try to maintain? We are mostly utilizing the recipes link from BlueApron, but rather than use their service we go to the grocery store and buy the ingredients ourselves.

This might sound like an odd one but it worked for me and when I pointed it out to my colleague she noted the cost savings too. I rarely eat meat but when I do I eat halal meat. We have a very large Muslim community in my city — large enough that there is a section at the grocery store for the halal meats and products in a very basic sense like kosher for Jewish.

The overall price point is different and when they do markdowns they are more substantial. Food has always been my easiest area to tackle with frugality. I then go back and write a new list, re-ordering my items based on my path around the store.

If you are NOT familiar with your store, ask customer service for a map. Seriously, most grocery stores have a map. Anyway, write your items down in an order from door to register in one straight trip. I have saved SO much by doing this because I am a HUGE compulsive buyer and my persuasive snack side is far stronger than my practical frugal side.

The other thing I do is buy whole raw chicken. Out grocery store usually has them for. With the leftovers, I can usually squeeze out more chicken meals that are all cheap. Then with the bones, I make my own chicken stock and throw that in the freezer for other meals.

When my freezer starts to overflow with chicken stock, we just have chicken soup.

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Your first opportunity to save comes before you even leave the house with a bit of preparatory research. Some restaurants let kids eat free on certain nights.

Others offer day-specific discounts for particular entrees, like taco Tuesdays or prime rib Wednesdays. Others include a free dessert on a particular night or with a specific dinner. If your family has a favorite restaurant, find out if it offers special deals, discounts and offers to frequent customers.

Water will provide the hydration you need, and you can more easily afford your meal. Just like movie theaters offer reduced matinee prices in the daytime when seats are empty, restaurants incentivize dining out when business is slow. The same goes for happy hours and prix fixe specials that restaurants usually offer in the late afternoon or early evening between peak lunch and dinner.

If a shared meal with no appetizers, drinks or desserts in the middle of the day robs you of the pleasure that the experience used to bring, then accept that restaurants are now a rare treat more akin to concerts or ball games.

Budget and save for the moment, and when you have enough cash for all the trimmings and a tip, let your hair down. Spend big and treat it like the special occasion that it is. February 12, Read more.

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Real Estate. Crypto on the GO. And you have to be organised, because it involves a lot of from-scratch foods. This style of cooking is usually healthier and more flavourful.

I love what eating frugally has done for me. Easting every meal from scratch has forced me to be creative, healthier and lower-maintenance. Plus, it is REALLY helping our budget. Start the day right with these scratch-made delicious breakfasts that are surprisingly frugal!

Here is a basic porridge recipe , which you can easily refine with toppings of your choice. This overnight oats recipe will teach you how to make a base that can be used with any toppings or add-ins you choose. Homemade Yoghurt is so cheap and healthy when you make it yourself. Strain it for a Greek-style yoghurt, my favourite breakfast treat!

This Homemade Muesli Recipe is cheaper than store-bought, and better for you. Pancakes are a treat breakfast, but they are so cheap to make! This Sourdough Pancakes recipe is my go-to, and it never fails.

I love to make a uniquely-flavoured loaf, such as this Apricot and Ginger Sourdough , and toast it with butter and honey for a sweet breakfast.

French toast is a decadent breakfast that is actually made from simple ingredients. French Toast Casserole takes the stress out of preparing breakfast. You can prep it the night before and bung it in the oven in the morning.

No fuss! Kedgeree is a traditional English Breakfast dish comprised of curried rice with smoked fish and boiled eggs. For our family, we almost invariably eat homemade sourdough bread as toast for lunch. This all-star easy dinner recipe will work long after corn has gone out of season.

In the winter, just sub in shaved cauliflower or torn kale. This soup packs in all the ingredients that would make your doctor happy—lentils, sweet potatoes, leafy greens—but the fiery Thai green curry paste keeps things interesting.

This Haitian meal consists of sos pwa nwa, black bean sauce enriched with coconut milk, served alongside mayi moulen, a creamy cornmeal porridge flavored with garlic and herbs. Nothing is cozier. This family-friendly weeknight dinner takes a cue from Japanese grilled chicken meatballs called tsukune as well as the glossy, sweet-and-sour sauce that comes with them.

A classic Italian pesto , this is not. Spinach, cilantro, and miso come together for this uber-green sauce, which dresses, of course, springy ramen noodles. In this brothy beans recipe, caramelizing fennel, shallots, and lemon builds a base layer that is sweet, tangy, and bright. Tinned sardines add protein and a briny flavor.

A beloved Hong Kong dish with approximately one billion variations, this soup—which relies heavily on fridge and pantry staples—is meant to be a little sweet and a touch sharp.

Its silky texture comes from blended potatoes and broccoli stalks rather than heavy cream. Well, this is the salad version, with noodles in addition to pink radishes , orange carrots, purple cabbage, and green cucumbers. One head of cabbage goes a long way. This recipe, where wedges are bathed in turmeric-accented coconut milk until meltingly tender and sweet, uses just half of one to feed four.

The soul of this recipe comes from the ginger and tamari marinade that gives crispy tofu a sweet and savory glaze. We like to turn leftover tofu into tacos, for some Japanese-Mexican fusion.

Toss roasted sweet potato wedges in a sweet and nutty tahini dressing for this quick vegetarian weeknight dinner. And no, it will not break the bank. This budget meal is about turning leftover side dishes into something totally new. Nearly any roasted vegetable or cooked grain could be worked into a frittata using this method.

This looks like something that took hours in a crockpot to make, but in reality, the black-eyed peas soak up the flavors of an onion- and tomato-based gravy in under 30 minutes. Tuna salad deserves to be considered a dinner dish, not just a sandwich filling. Let the pan-fried chickpeas and red endive in this recipe convince you.

Pan-crisped and glazed sweet potatoes. With hearty, almost meaty lentils. And pistachios. Purchase lasagna noodles, mushrooms, mozzarella, and Parmesan. The rest of the ingredients for this cheap dinner recipe are already in your fridge or pantry. One style of cheap meals: recipes chosen with their leftovers in mind , making two meals out of one.

For example, these ground beef meatballs and their tomato sauce make for a great hoagie filling the next day. If you've already got miso in your fridge and don't want to spend on something new, you could use that in this stew recipe instead of gochujang. It will be a whole different vibe, but a vibe nonetheless.

Serve it with a poached egg and a slice of bread for a good cheap meal. Easy homemade tomato soup is an upgrade to the canned stuff, but we don't judge. Try pouring the soup directly over the sliced sandwich for an irresistible comfort food.

Consider this roast chicken your Sunday dinner. And then your Monday lunch, too. You can turn the leftover meat into pulled chicken sandwiches or a chicken noodle salad. Do not underestimate the potential of the often underrated legume, the lentil, a key ingredient when it comes to filling but cheap meals.

Our creamy, almost Alfredo pasta -looking stovetop mac and cheese is about as easy as opening one of those little boxes of shells and powdered sauce —but a lot more delicious.

Freeze half of these burgers to pull out during those times when you get the craving for fast food. Just add heat; you already paid.

Here are our favorite ways to prove that a cheap meal can also be the best meal.