OK, Give me your CHEAPEST meals.

In cool weather I make a big pot of vegetable soup. We like browned ground beef
to start the pot; add tomatoes (we like crushed); carrots, potatoes, anything else handy such as leftovers I have stuck in the freezer for this purpose.

Season it up with with onion powder, garlic powder, we even like a little chili powder.
It tastes a little different each time, but is cheap, healthy and tasty.

Is that $1 per person, or for a meal for a family?

One of our cheapies is spaghetti:

1.2 lb. ground turkey - $2.39
2 jars pasta sauce - $2
1 package spaghetti noodles - $1 (I can often find wholewheat organic noodles on sale for this price)

$5.39, feeds our family of 7, plus dad's lunch the next day, so $5.39/8 = 67c per person. You could add a homemade loaf of bread with some garlicked butter for another $1 or so.

Or...

Rice - 40c (for 2 cups dry rice, I buy the big 50 lb. bags from Costco)
2.4 lbs ground turkey - $4.78
summer squash and tomatoes from the garden

Cook up the ground turkey, dice the veggies, add and cook 'til tender. Add whatever spices you desire and serve over rice.

So that meal for our family is $5.18, serves 8, so 65c per person. Okay, but assuming you don't have a garden, you could probably buy the veggies (in season) for about $2 to $4 depending on how many veggies you want in the meal.

Chili is cheap.

Chicken stew (made with a whole chicken) is cheap and lasts for a couple of meals, can turn it into soup with bread for lunch.

Sometimes, even though you know better, there is no choice. If you think otherwise, you haven't been very hungry.

tinda

I've certainly been there. At one time I went from a 100% organic diet to a diet of cheap white carbohydrates because it was a matter of trying to get enough to eat. When you are hungry, you aren't real picky.

I would do the same thing again if it came to that.

I KNOW real hunger.

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I hate to sound stupid, but what is a loss leader?? I agree on the nutrition thing. Our food is the last thing that should be compromised (not sure if I spelled that right?)

loss leader is a low profit or no profit item a store offers to get you in to buy other items. Publix offers bread for .89 a loaf. they hope you buy other high profit items to make the diff up.

And if you buy *only* the "loss leaders" you're called a "cherry picker" which is sometimes frowned upon by store management... especially when beef chuck roast goes on sale for 99c a pound and you leave the store with nothing but lots of chuck roast in your cart

THai Peanut noodles -

Ramen noodles 25Cents or so. Cheaper if you can find a good sale.
a couple packs of Soy sauce from the "gas and go" that sells eggrolls
1 table spoon of Peanut butter
Sesame seeds I like to toast them (these have a high cost even in an Asian market but you don't use that many so per serving the price is about 5 cents or so.)
1 scallion (baby onion) White sliced thin green part chopped to your desired size.

Cook noodles - toss flavor pack in trash
take cooked noodles put back into the pan add soy, sesame seeds, scallion and PB. Mix until PB melts and coats everything.

Very yummy and about $0.60 per serving. Guess this could feed 2 but I usually eat it all myself . . . Hey maybe that is why I need to diet!

gideonprime.

Now I just finished supper, but that still sounds soooo good

Two packets of ketchup and one of mustard on a saltine cracker.

Great advice about asking for the bones to take home! I wouldn't have thought to ask....

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"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy

I used pickle relish on my crackers too. (got them free from Wendy's)

Made ketchup soup with ketchup packets as well.

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Angela

I suppose if ya go to taco bell enough and buy their 1.25 taco's you could get enough of the hot sauce packets to make up a pint of salsa.
They throw about 10 packets in the bag every time I go. He Heee

Another good way to stretch meat and make a meal cheaper is to make a meat "spread" to go on a sandwich. Only have half a pound of ham and 5 people to feed with it? Chop it finely, and then mix in a bunch of bread crumbs and some relish, mayo, or other condiments and seasonings. Then spread it on your home baked bread for a cheap meal. This is good because I will always have flour and condiments in the house.

Also, make a meal you would usually make for the family, but leave out the meat and cheese. This is really easy with pasta dishes (not just spaghetti!) and can be extended to other meals too. The meat and cheese is the expensive part, the rest is usually cheaper.

Kayleigh

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http://kayleighjeanne.blogspot.com

Sandwich spread. Mom used to take those small cans of deviled meat and mix them with lots of boiled eggs, pickle relish and mayo and spread it on crackers, or homemade bread. It was kinda a rare treat for us because we didn't have sandwiches that often.

Kmac15,

Thanks.

Also if you have some cheap chicken (like thighs) you can cook them up bone them and add the meat with the other ingredients and you have thai peanut noodles and a poormans Chicken Satay all at once.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, if you have any peanuts around you can through them in whole or crushed. But after the meat and peanuts we are talking about $.090 a serving, I would guess.

Still pretty cheap and yummy. Hey even a little exotic!

Chicken Burritos:

Tortilla's are about the most expensive part of this, though cheese ain't cheap these days either but if you find blocks on sale and shred it yourself it works out to only a few cents per serving.

Take cheap chicken - Thighs usually and par-boil in mexican spices - de-bone and shred meat
Make rice and make beans (I use black beans most of the time but whatever you have should work.
Shredded cheese (I use cheddar or american -American if I want it salty)

Sprinkle cheese on Tortilla add rice beans and meat (That is all I add for folks who like onion or peppers or shredded lettuce go for it but it does add a few cents to the overall serving price) fold and bake for 10-15 minutes at 350.

Works out to about $0.75 to $0.90 per burrito depending on price of meat and cheese.

You can also use chuck roast, I put the roast into a crackpot and stew it all day long in mexican spices and then shred it and oh man it is killer. Tends to put the price up slightly higher unless you get a really great sale on Chuck Roast I would say you are pushing $1.00-$1.25 per burrito at that point but still one big one ususally does me nicely for a meal.

I make my tortillas at home, for cheap! I just use a cup of flour, a tbs of olive oil, a pinch of salt and half a cup of water. I let the dough rest for half an hour, then flatten them into the tortilla shape with my rolling pin. You cook them in an ungreased pan at about medium heat, flipping them when they start to slightly brown on the bottom, then cooking them till the top lightly browns too. Then you put them on a plate in a plastic bag, it holds the moisture in.

This will make enough tortillas for a large family to each have a few, we always have leftover tortillas.

Kayleigh

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http://kayleighjeanne.blogspot.com

Another cheap meal I eat a lot of times for lunch is just a tomato sandwich with mayo.A loaf of bread,a jar of mayo and a couple of tomatoes might set you back more than $1.00,but you can get a couple of meals from it.And if you lay a slice or two of bacon on it and toast the bread,it takes a whole different flavor.

Awesome!

Thanks for the recipe!