Your preferred cheap meals

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crimsonghost747

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Like most of you can understand sometimes in life we find ourselves in a tight financial situation. This is especially true for most students when they have to figure out how to pay rent, bills and food with extremely low income.

So what are your favourite recipes for cheap yet delicious meals?

I often find myself using something very cheap to create the base of the dish. Either pasta, boiled potatoes, baked beans or a simple salad are a huge part of my diet simply because they are cheap, fill you up and can be mixed with so many different things.

One of my favourites is pasta with tomato sauce. So simple, fast and easy. Takes about 10 minutes to make. tastes good and it won't certainly hurt your budget. You can include both minced meat and cheese depending on your taste and budget.
 
I love a big bowl of pasta, and I never feel deprived eating it even though it's inexpensive. You can buy a can of crushed tomatoes, some fresh garlic, onion and parsley and add that to some pantry ingredients you already have on hand, such as olive oil red pepper flakes, some sea salt and cracked black pepper, and a little sugar and some red pepper flakes. The tomatoes are generally $1 for a 28 oz can, and between the onion, garlic and parsley you're maybe at another $2.50 max. You can make a sauce that tastes and is 10x fresher and more flavorful than the stuff you would pay $6 or more a jar for.
 
Each Monday, I make a batch of pasta sauce from half an onion, a tin of tomatoes, half a pepper, some courgette, and either a tin or tuna, or some minced beef. This is enough for 3 or 4 portions for me, I reheat it each night, and cook pasta fresh to go with it. I've never worked it out to the penny, but it's around £2.50 a meal, including the pasta.

I make careful use of bulk buys, IF they are things that will last well. Recently, two different supermarkets had different deals on pesto, so I ended up with 6 jars, for about the price of 4. They last for months until I open one, and I use it to enrichen my pasta sauce.

My work dinner is two slices of bread made into a sandwich (sometimes with some pickle, sometimes just bread and marg), and a packet of instant noodles - currently 17p a pack - and a chocolate biscuit. I'm lucky that I'm happy to eat the same thing everyday - I just want FOOD at lunchtime, as I have a physical outdoor job, so I'm not bothered if it's a bit boring. I spice the noodles up a bit with a dash of soy sauce. My lunches work out at about 60p a day, where my colleagues pay £1 or more for pasties and stuff.
 
I'm a big fan of food and I love to eat different kinds of recipes and I don't step back in doing it when given a chance. I mostly love street food and I try them at home whenever possible. But at times I couldn't figure out my budget categorizing it to all my needs. Then in such situations I find cooking noodles as the best option for myself as I enjoy eating them. Cooking potatoes and few other vegetables and stuffing them between two bread slices making a sandwich is my other option. They give enough calories when taken along with a glass of fruit juice. I just can't withstand my hunger and eat whatever I feel like eating at that moment. Sometimes I feel like resisting myself not to eat the street food only in order to enhance my savings. But this don't happen with me because I can't stop myself eating such stuff.
 
Red beans and rice is a weekly meal at my house. I often add a smoked sausage and we tend to top it with shredded cheddar and sour cream, so I'm not sure that it maintains it's super low budgetary brag after all the doctoring up, but my kids love and it is quick and easy and cheaper than most meals.

I also look for discounted meat at my local grocery store. When beef stew meat goes "buy one get one free" I'll stock my freezer. Then this goes in the crock pot to slow cook all day with a packet of lipton onion soup. I serve it also over rice, or sometimes over egg noodles. It is another relatively cheap and super easy meal that my family loves.
 
College student here, so I definitely know the strain of money vs the need to get food. My favorite cheap meals usually involve eggs and leftovers in order to stretch meals out further and for a lot less money. I try to shop the sales at local grocery stores and plan meals according to the sales. This past week my boyfriend and I made a simple stir fry - cubed chicken, broccoli, red and green peppers, soy sauce. The first night of the meal we made it with chow mein and stir fried everything. We only made enough pasta for that one meal, but we used up all the chicken we had bought on sale as well as all the veggies since we knew we could save it for later. For quite a few breakfasts/meals after that we were able to make omelets out of the leftover veggies/chicken/soy sauce stir fry mixture. I think I calculated it out to around $1 a meal per person at that point.
 
Huge batches of soup that can be frozen for multiple meals. My favorite is a south african peanut soup... canned tomatoes, veg or chicken stock, brown rice, red bell peppers, onions, chili powder and peanut butter! You literally throw all of that into a crock pot (add the peanut butter for the last 30 minutes on high) and let it sit for 8 hours-- easy, cheap and so delicious. I also like to throw in adobo sauce when I have it on hand for extra flavor and spiciness!
 
Crimsonghost747

Actually with or without financial strain, there are indeed some good cost effective food which everyone may like. I have my own personal preference for something called as Vada pav, which is basically the Indian version of burger and it costs only INR 10. In USD it is equal to USD 0.17.

That is what I call cost effective, tasty and filling. The not so good part is that it is junk. :(
 
Almost any bean stew variation in the slow cooker. Water and beans, salt and pepper, and then anything else is a bonus :wink:
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
I have a wonderful dish that is red lentils, potatoes and onions plus some herbs & spices. It is one of those dishes that is not much to look at, but tastes divine.
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Oh my god, lentils are the best and super good for you as well. Especially as the weather gets colder I am all about the soups and stews, there doesn't seem to be a combination of beans and root vegetables that I won't eat.
 
I usually make a pasta dish when I am getting low on money. I usually have a lot of jars of different sauces or I will make my own. Alfredo sauce is my favorite but most of the time I will make a tomato sauce with pasta. And some green veggies on the side.
 
I think pasta is a really good ingredient that can be healthy and you can add all sorts to it. I usually add passata, spring onion, chilli, white wine and fresh mussels and squid. Sorry got a bit carried away there and it's not exactly cheap but I just love food too much. And I'm sure if you found all of these ingredients on offer or in bulk then you could stock up, freeze them and save money.
 
pipps said:
I think pasta is a really good ingredient that can be healthy and you can add all sorts to it. I usually add passata, spring onion, chilli, white wine and fresh mussels and squid. Sorry got a bit carried away there and it's not exactly cheap but I just love food too much. And I'm sure if you found all of these ingredients on offer or in bulk then you could stock up, freeze them and save money.
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Well, regular pasta itself is not particularly healthy. It's a cheap simple carbophydrate, and easy to overeat.

With whole wheat or other complex carbohidrate pastas it's better, but of course those cost more. Smaller portions of the pasta and higher amounts of healthy sauce/vegetables/whatever are good too.
 
My roommates live on red beans and rice, chick pea curry, and zughetti. Yes, I said zughetti. You slice up zucchini like spaghetti noodles, cook it in boiling water for just around 3 minutes, and smother it in spaghetti sauce. It's delicious.
 
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