I've looked around on the Internet and haven't been able to find much, but I'm looking for tips on how to reduce our grocery bill each month. Also interested in some of your cheap, yummy recipes.
Any ideas? Thanks!Moms and Dads- Share your budget-friendly, delicious, healthy recipes. On a tight budget- any tips?
This was my answer to another ? about eating good and innexpensively. Here's a few ideas that we like to use frequently:
We only spend $200-$250 a month on food:for me, my husband, and our almost 4 year old.(baby is on formula)
Breakfast ideas:
Fruit salad ($5 at most for the fruit), lasts at least a day or two.
Cereal (we only buy whats on sale 2/$4), lasts all week.
Eggs ($1.68)
Turkey bacon($2.10)(24 pack lasts a week)
Toast (husband gets our bread for free from his job, because he makes it lol)
Pancakes ($1.68/box), lasts 3 times at 2 pancakes each.
Milk ($3.59/gallon)
Syrup ($1.50)lasts all month
=$18.05/week before any cupons or store discounts
Lunch ideas:
Salads($5 at most) deli lunch meat, cheese, croutons, dressing
Fish($5 at most...usually $3/lb.)
Lean ground turkey burgers ($1.95 for meat..other stuff in fridge already)..makes 6-8 with 1lb of meat!
Taco salad,w/ground turkey($6 for everything if you have 0 stuff in fridge)
Baked chicken strips-skinless chicken breast($3.50),green beans, corn and mashed potatos to go with it ($3)
=$24.45/week before coupons or store discounts
Dinner Ideas:
Pasta w/ meat sauce(ground turkey $1.95,pasta sauce 2/$5), %26amp; garlic bread ($7)
Stuffed chicken breast,sliced/stuffed with a lil cheese and cilantro($8)
Gumbo, add potatoes, carrots, smoked sausage,corn ($7)..lasts 2 days.
Taco night, made with tortilla w/ refried beans smeared across the center, taco shell on top of the tortilla/beans, add meat, cheese, lettuce, and salsa!- made with ground turkey ($9) ...usually can only eat 1 of them and are stuffed, so they can last for 2 days.
=$31/week before coupons or store discounts.
Totals:$73.50/week (thats before any store discounts or coupons at all!!..we usually are able to cut it to around $50 a week if we want to.)
We only drink water, milk, and juice.(water free out of fridge, juice varies week to week, usually $5/week)
We primarily only cook with 97% lean ground turkey meat.
Anyways theres a few cheap easy ideas to start with. It can deffinately be done, and is so much healthier/yummier! lolMoms and Dads- Share your budget-friendly, delicious, healthy recipes. On a tight budget- any tips?
With a family of five, I';m always looking for low cost meal ideas, and something that my kiddos will actually eat. We usually have boneless, skinless chicken breasts on hand all the time because it's very versatile, healthy and relatively inexpensive ($8 for a 3lb bag). Just brown your chicken in some olive oil along with some chopped onions and garlic, chop up your chicken (i just use my spatula to do this as it cooks in the pan) I then add a can of stewed tomatoes, some cream and some seasonings. Add any kind of cooked noodle you have on hand to the chicken/sauce mixture and you've got a meal. For a different meal, but one that's equally budget friend, I cook my chicken the same way, chop it up, season it with lemon pepper and add a can of cream of chicken soup. Serve it with some noodles or rice. Yummy!!
I also really like the Kraft food%26amp;family magazine, although their recipes call for a lot of convenience foods that are more expensive. So if it calls for a bag of pre-cut veggies, cut your own and save some money. Buy the store brand when you can, for a lot of items there is virtually no difference to the name brand. Know the days that your grocery stores do their clearance pricing, and shop for things like meat on those days. I tend to buy my meat on reduced sale (it has a sell by date in the next day or two), and then freeze it until I need it. Plan your weekly menu and make one trip to the store. People make more impulse buys and spend more money if they make several trips to the grocery during the course of the week. Watch for good sales-one of the grocery stores near me sometimes has bread buy 1 get 2 free, so I'll get three loaves of bread and put two in the freezer until we need them.
When you do your meal planning, plan for leftovers. Make a turkey breast on Sunday, then on Tuesday it's turkey pot pie. Brown bagging lunch can really save on the grocery bill as well. My husband either takes leftovers or sandwiches almost every day. Also, I've learned that if I keep certain foods in the house (even if they aren't necessarily the most cost effective) it keeps other food purchases down. For example, if I have Pop-Tarts in the house, hubby will take a package with him for breakfast. If I don't, he hits McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. So if he spends $4.00 for one breakfast, I can usually buy 2-3 boxes of Pop-Tarts for the same amount of money, and it's good for at least a week worth of breakfast.
We'll do breakfast for supper a lot.
Also I'll usally get a $1.50 Sunday paper, and will use $5 worth of coupons from it on groceries. My only credit card is also a Target Visa, so we'll typically get the Target reward day for 10% off everything, and then use that for a big grocery shopping day.
As for recipes, you can sign up for a free Kraft Food and Family magazine on the Kraft website. The recipes arent always the healthiest, but you can make subsitutes - like when they have a recipe for mac and cheese with hot dogs mixed in. But other things like chicken brushcetta are pretty good.
check out the campbells soup website. They actually email you recipes daily if you sign up. They're all really good and cheap since the main ingrediant in every meal is soup. I like the cream of chicken soup that makes the cheesy chicken, broccoli and rice casserole. It's super easy and fast to prep, takes about 45 minutes to cook and really cheap. We stock up on frozen veggies when they're on sale and buy bags of frozen chicken rather than the 3-4 pack that people typpically buy. Oh yea, for that casserole, I noticed I like it better with different kinds of cheese (cut up some pepperjack, colby jack, sharp cheddar... I even use a little of each if I have them... gives it extra flavor. bon appetite... or whatever they say! LOL
Cream of Chicken Noodle- Family size Cream of Chicken soup and cooked elbow noodles Very easy, quick and cheap. The noodles make it much more filling and in my family of 2 adults and a 5 year old we sometimes have leftovers.
Pizza Toast- Bread, spaghetti sauce, sliced or shredded cheese. Spread sauce on slice of bread and cover with cheese. Cook in a toaster oven until cheese is melted. Add lunch meat, hot dogs, pepperoni, or other toppings if you like.
Tuna Helper PLUS- Tuna Helper and frozen veggies or canned veggies. Prepare Tuna Helper as usual. Run frozen veggies under warm water to remove any ice or drain canned veggies to remove excess liquid. Add veggies to Tuna Helper towards the end of cook time to heat them.
Supreme Ramen Noodles- (not as healthy but sometimes you have to make do). Ramen noodles, boneless chicken breasts, frozen veggies. Cook Ramen noodles normally (1-2 packs per person usually). Boil chicken breast and veggies. Drain chicken and veggies. Cut chicken into squares. Mix noodles, chicken, and veggies and flavor packets or something else for more flavor.
I get almost double my groceries by shopping at Aldi. http://www.aldifoods.com/index_ENU_HTML.…
Also have you ever heard of the share program, everyone can do it:
http://www.sharewi.org/ See if there is one in your area.
Did you know you can make your own mixes like taco seasoning, gravy mix, chili seasoning, yellow rice, hot chocolate, cleaning supplies, rice a roni, biscuit mix, and so so much more:
http://www.budget101.com/102mix.htm
http://www.recipegoldmine.com/mixes/mixe…
RECIPES:
Chili. Jar of spaghetti sauce (no mushrooms). 2 cans chili beans not drained. 1 jar chunky salsa (hot or mild to your taste), chili seasoning (homemade), cooked elbow noodles, 1/2 pound hamburger cooked and drained. Use all off brands. Stir together and heat thru. Remove from heat. PUt some slices of cheese on top or sprinkle shredded cheese on top. Cover, will melt.
County style ribs and potatoes. Make a foil bag using foil. Cut a large piece of foil and another the same size. PUt on top of each other. Put horizontal in front of you. Fold the top down twice 3/4 inch each time. Then flip it over and open. Trim fat off ribs, poke all over with fork, put on foil. Pell some potatoes and cut in pieces. Set next to the meat. Spinkle the meat all sides with seasoning salt, pepper, soy sauce, worchestire sauce, and liquid hickory smoke only if you have it. Put a ring of onion on top off potatoes, put 3 pats of margarine around the potatoes, sprinkle with seasoning salt. Then squeeze some bbq sauce over the meet and potatoes. Close the foil well over the food so it is closed and wont leak. Heat in 400 degree oven until done. At the end of cooking open foil, put some of the liquid over meat and potatoes and put some more BBQ on the meat and dont cover foil back over it. Cook for an addl 15 minutes.
Chicken breasts:
Put tin foil in cookie sheet, spray with Pam. Sprinkle chicken all sides with seasoning salt. Melt 1/2 stick margarine. Poor over chicken, both sides. Cook in 400 degree oven until done.
Serve with yellow rice (homemade mix recipe) and a vegetable.
Check out the on sale meats and specials at your local grocery store. Also clip coupons!! And if possible buy in bulk. We usually get things like toilet paper, meat, and lunches, at Costco. One big savings for us was coming up with a menu for the week, that way when we shopped we had a list and avoided unnecessary buying, like snacks, food that wasn't going to get eaten, etc. Stick to staple foods, like potatoes, veggies, meat, and avoid processed/pre-made foods which are more expensive.
Hot dogs. (All beef). It's cheap. I cut them up and put them in the skillet with some soy sauce. We call them Shoyu (Soy Sauce) Dogs. We have steamed rice with it and sometimes steamed veggies. Chicken and rice is a classic staple too.
I'm not sure how old your children are, but here are some ways to make your own baby food that's healthy and cost effective.
http://www.mycitycontent.com/Homemade_Ba…
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