OK, Give me your CHEAPEST meals.

Add some veggies to that ramen noodle dish!

French toast
Whole wheat waffles
pigs in a blanket (hot dog in bread dough wrapper)
pizza - if made right
beans and ham - lots of beans and little bit of ham
vegetable soup - use leftovers!
bread, cheese and a piece of fruit
ham and egg biscuit

When chicken leg quarters are 39 cents a pound, there's lots of possibilities. One of my favorites is to boil them down, add a few seasoning and chunk in a 25 cent can of whop biscuits, cut up into pieces...chicken & dumplings on the cheap...

My gosh, where do you live?
Ground beef on sale is $1.99 a pound and normally $2.39 a pound for 80% lean.
Cheese (Cheddar, Mozerrela, Pepper Jack, Montery Jack, Colby, etc) sale priced at $3.00 a lb.

Thats just north of Dallas at my local Kroger or Albertsons. I only buy these items on sale.

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Soup

Broth can be made with veggie scraps. Toss in a handful of rice cook for a few minutes, then bring down to simmer and crack a couple of eggs in to poach in the soup.

this is a great thread, getting lots of ideas!

make a simple broth from a carrot, onion, one stalk celery, and chicken bullion. when its really hot, slowly pour in a beaten egg--egg drop soup. add some bread and dinner is served. mmm!

Texas . . . the land of big beef, big guns, and big oil.

Too bad we have all the coal. :1pig:

A lot depeneds on what you want to call a meal.

Raman noodles, $0.16 per bag.
Can of ravioli, $0.85

Beans, fried potatoes and corn bread was what we ate as a kid when money was tight.

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the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

I guess it depends on what people consider as cheap. I see a lot of folks shooting for the under a dollar category, and thats not bad for one or two people. However, when you have 4 or more in the family it's not necessarily possible IMO.

One of my cheapest meals is bean soup. One bag of beans and left over smoked ham chunks that I've stored from the last holiday or family get together. a chopped onion and a skillet of corn bread. All in all it probably equals out to between $3 and $4 depending on store prices. However it feeds us for a couple of days.

I'm with the person who posted that any meal that feeds a family for a couple days is a cheap meal. Chili, spaghetti, homemade Veggie soup, etc can all be cheap meals if a person shops well. And if a person chooses to buy things like boxed mac & cheese that's up to them. Admittedly, I do. Mac & cheese mixed with some broccoli, or hot dogs, sausage, burger, tuna, tomatoes, or any other combo can feed a family cheaply. I know some folks turn up their nose at boxed mac for one reason or another, but to make it from scratch (which does taste better and is better for you) costs a lot more. I believe that things in moderation are ok.

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Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

Hey.

Roadkill stew is always an economical crowd pleaser...

RF

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Chicken tacos w/homemade flour tortillas

$2.65 4.5 lbs @ .59lb chicken quarters boiled, meat picked, 2,5 qts broth frozen
$2.50 Fresh bunch broccoli
.49 1lb white rice bought 50lb bulk
.19 1lb white flour bought 50lb bulk
.20 shortening and baking powder
.20 homemade taco mix
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$6.23/12 fed 6 people 2 nights meals plus made quesadilla snack for 4 children
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.52 per person per meal (snack was free)


A favorite meal saver of mine is if there is not enough leftover meat for all six of us. I make a double pie crust, mix meat w/alittle homemade gravy and cooked potato. Voila! Pot pie.

I know alot of people have mentioned deer meat, but I think it is worth mentioning again. Down here alot of hunting clubs would LOVE to have someone come up an process their kills...give them the tenderloin, and the cutter take the rest. Many of them take their kills to get them processed , but only because they refuse to have the waste....no so much because they want the sausage/straps/hams etc. One weekend of cutting meet during doe season when they are thinning them out could get a freezer full.

Chicken and rice around here is popular cheap meal.....with the boiled whole chicken and broth. Usually enough chicken to feed the family of 7 for one or two meals and left over for chicken and cheese tetrazinni(sp)...or chicken salad. Usually fry some cornbread up with it...... We get whole chickens for $3 so that should be under $1 each.

When DH and I were scrimping to save for our farm (not quite 20 years ago), we ate tons of homemade refried beans made up in burritos. With a little mozzarella cheese and homemade salsa --- we loved it fortunately!

I also found that the refried beans with salsa would make a good sandwich for a brown bag lunch at work.

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Cabbage soup. I usually make mine with carrot and onion, and sometimes with tomato, potato, and beans.

Or rice and fried cabbage, with egg drop soup on the side.

Onion soup and bread makes a good meal, too.

Sometimes we have breakfast for supper: eggs, pancakes, home fries.

Pasta Casserole...

Pasta
Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Onions from the Garden
Ground Turkey (cheaper than beef)
Spices

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the price is no longer under a dollar, but when i was in college, i used to eat a lot of tuna, mac and cheese and peas. i added the peas and tuna to the mac and cheese and i got several meals out of it.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

"All that is gold does not glitter..."

The canned beans are cheaper here than dry beans or lentils - even allowing for cooking increasing the volume to about double. Dry beans are running almost $2 per pound now - a 1kg bag (2.2 lbs) was $3.89 a month ago (price 3 months ago for the same was $1.69). Cooked, canned beans are $5.99 per case of 12.

Oh my gosh, where do you live? Dry beans here (non-organic) are about 75 cents to $1 a pound for bags up to 8#. I don't know how much the big bags are. I haven't checked.

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My Mother said when times were bad, Grandma would fry a big pan of home grown onions in lard and make gravy. Said she poured it over dried bread. She said with salt and pepper it was pretty good. Hope I don't get that hungry. Jklady

Nova Scotia - Canada. The land of $1.44 per liter gas too!! For months Walmart was half the price of Bulk Barn and grocery stores on the dried legumes, but now they are the same price. Glad I stocked up when I did!!!

Cheapest meal ... eating at my parents.

Seriously though, our cheapest meal has to be pasta. Meijer had various types of pasta on sale for $0.77 a pound. I got 55 pounds! Kroger now has their pasta sauce for $0.88 for a 26 oz jar. My wife's picking up 40 jars tomorrow. Add some onions and green peppers from the garden into a skillet with a little bit of oil, and for under $2.00 we have enough for the two of us for four dinners, plus leftovers for lunch. If we're feeling adventurous, we'll add a pound of hamburger to the mix.

Another cheap meal is beans and cornbread. I think that we can each have dinner for under $0.50 total. Add in a couple of fried potatoes, and that's a good meal.

It's getting closer to winter, and for me that means soup season. Chicken soup, potato soup, vegetable soup .... all great meals, all cheap. An added plus is cooking soup on the stove for hours will 1) help heat up the house, and 2) make the entire house smell great!