Please share your secret for producing a meal for a buck fifty. Because there’s no way to do that where I live. Are you hunting for your meat or something?
The food budget is $5 max per day per person here. Mr. b doesn’t like pasta so that’s off the menu and usually rice, beans and potatoes since we try to low carb. No highly processed packaged junk food or breakfast cereal. Breakfast is maybe yogurt with berries, eggs or leftovers. Snacks are veggie sticks, nuts, pickles or leftovers. Coffee comes from Folgers and the $10 coffee pot, not Starbucks. Water comes from the tap, not a plastic bottle.
Homemade yogurt is super simple to make and at least half the price of store bought. Greek yogurt is pricey but all it is is regular yogurt that’s been drained. FYI, the whey that’s drained off makes Greek yogurt less carby.
It helps that I only grocery shop every 4-6 weeks and there’s just two grocery stores - Walmart and an HEB chain store that has nasty produce and minimal selections (the olive section consists of canned black olives or jarred green olives with pimentos and they haven’t sold pork ‘n beans, boxed angel food cake mix or fresh cauliflower for years so take that great selection to the rest of the store). No, I don’t have access to coupons and the grocery store doesn’t accept them. The big saver is making from scratch and stocking up on sales to stock the freezer and pantry. Too many people just toss items in their grocery carts without looking at the price and no thought if they will use it before it goes bad. ALWAYS look at the price and compare.
Pork and chicken are usually the best meat buys. Last night’s dinner was green beans and stuffed pork loin - $1.29/lb on sale frequently. A boneless loin is cheaper than bone-in or boneless pork chops and how hard is it to slice it up into chops. Stuffed it with some prunes, onion, pecans (free from our trees), the last wee bit of feta cheese and squash. Rosemary seasoning from the bush in the yard. Nice hearty winter dinner.
Window sill grown basil and our pecans make an almost free pesto. A homemade pecan pie at Thanksgiving was nowhere near the cost of a store bought pie.
Chicken leg quarters are regular priced at .69 cents/lb. Easy enough to buy a couple of 10 lb. packages and divide the legs and thighs for the freezer. Breasts go on sale for $1 but for some reason are double that price if they’re packaged frozen. It’s ridiculous that whole chickens are so expensive so rarely buy those. However, before roasting one, cut off the wings and add them to a freezer baggie. Eventually there’s enough to make hot wings which is waaay cheaper than purchasing a package of frozen wing pieces.
Of course, beef is the highest but can still find it under $4/lb. Boneless country beef ribs are <$3 lb. and they’re very versatile. I usually cook them as a steak - ok, sometimes tough but not gonna pay $12/lb for a real steak and still cross fingers it’s not tough. Leftover “steak” was sliced thin a couple nights ago and turned into stroganoff (no noodles) to use up the last of the mushrooms and an onion that was looking sad (hey, HEB, your produce isn’t fresh!). Lots of reconfigured leftovers here.
Or $3.99/lb for pre-seasoned fajita beef skirt steak and that’s bought when it’s combined with a “meal deal” when you get 3-4 items free (usually a 2 liter soft drink, tortillas, salsa/guac, refried beans or a pint of ice cream). The fajita seasoned meats at our store include beef, pork or chicken thighs. It isn’t worth the price to buy the pork or chicken so the beef is the go-to purchase since it’s boneless and if it can be bought with the free stuff. Neat thing is, add some soy sauce and ginger and the Mexican pre-seasoning works for a Chinese meal. Yeah, no high carb rice with Chinese here so a veggie stir fry side.
Mr. b likes homemade flour tortillas over store bought and they’re a no brainer to make. Mandarin pancakes (mu shu pork wrappers) are also a no brainer for pennies. Yikes, have you seen the price of store bought tamales??? Geez, just buy a big pork roast on sale and make your own. Yes, tamales take a long time to make but worth it and they freeze well.
Walmart 4 lb bag of frozen tilapia fillets (16 fillets) is good for a fish meal so an almondine fillet with carrot souffle and a cucumber salad for a light summer dinner. Fresh carrots are cheap and it’s pennies to fancy them up into a souffle. I refuse to pay over 50 cents for a cucumber when anyone can grow them on the back fence so slice up one and add onions, sour cream, dill, etc. for a quick salad. The last time I was needing a package of tilapia, the price seemed high so didn’t buy it. Don’t remember what it was so that may raise the price per meal plate.
Weigh carrot packages to determine which are cheaper for the weight. It’s usually cheaper to buy a package of red, yellow, orange bell peppers than it is to buy them separately. But avocados are cheaper bought separately than packaged. Since avocados turn brown quickly, do you need the more expensive larger ones or will the smaller cheaper ones do? No expensive prepackaged salads so it’s iceberg or romaine. I can cut up my own lettuce and save a couple bucks thank you very much. Roma tomatoes are always the cheapest tomatoes. Buy in-season produce. Pay attention to what’s in the fridge and don’t let it go bad.
Frying up a batch of homemade potato chips (not low carb) is crazy cheaper than a bag of Lay’s. If the price of homemade chips vs. packaged chips doesn’t convert folks to stop buying prepacked stuff, nothing will. And what’s with those expensive single wrapped potatoes??? A 10 lb bag of Idaho potatoes is the best buy hands down.
Don’t let produce (or any food) go bad as that’s $$$$ in the trash. If something starts to look old, use it immediately or put it in the freezer. Cauliflower, celery, winter squash, onions, cabbage, carrots, apples and such last a long time in the fridge so no need to worry much about them. Eat first the veggies/fruit that won’t last like fresh greens, summer squash, tomatoes, peaches and berries. Bananas can be dipped in chocolate and frozen whole at the starting to go bad stage. If bananas get to the yuck stage, turn them into banana bread. Use the entire broccoli rather than tossing the stem in the trash like my aunt does. That ugly white part of celery and the leaves get chopped up for the freezer so it’s easy to grab a handful when it’s needed. When chopping up an onion, there’s another tablespoon or two that can still be chopped off the end pieces before being tossed. A tablespoon of onion might not seem worthy of your time but little things add up and is enough for a sandwich. Wilting lettuce goes in Chinese or the soup pot along with the rest of the little bits of this and that (with homemade low carb egg crepes subbed for noodles). Canned veggies get drained into a large freezer container for “free” vegetable stock rather than dumping it down the drain. Ok, it isn’t free but sure beats dumping it after you’ve already paid for it.
The Thanksgiving turkey carcass gets turned into stock. Chicken bones, too. Save the Christmas ham bone and fat for bean pots. Waste not, want not.
After cutting the corn off fresh corn cobs, put the cobs in the freezer to later make corn cob jelly. Don’t pass on fruit tree drops if your neighbor offers them. Eat them now or freeze them for pies or jelly later. Don’t throw out that pulp from jelly making but make it into fruit butter. Boil down the cores and skins to get even more pulp. Look around and you might find some free for the picking wild grapes or cactus pears to make into jelly.
There are a few exceptions to the make from scratch rule.
Cheap store brand sandwich bread and the plain Walmart bakery bread can be half the price of homemade. However, 5-6 made from scratch Schlotzsky’s sandwiches with a copy cat bun recipe costs what 1 does from the drive-thru. To be fair with the price, I use only the called for ham and cotto salami but not the genoa salami because it isn’t sold around here but can’t tell the difference in the sandwich quality.
Do double duty with holiday decor. Don’t carve the pumpkin for Halloween but leave it intact and eat it later. There’s some winter squash on the table from a Thanksgiving centerpiece that will soon become a year’s supply of squash soup.