With the way the economy is going, everyone is looking to come up with ways to save money every month. Grocery bills are no exception. The rising cost of groceries is forcing people to come up with cheap meal plans for their families. This can often times prove to be a difficult task, but there are ways of doing it, without completely sacrificing nutrition.
*This was the popular free Grand Slam breakfast at Dennys, but it represents one of my favorite, cheap meals to cook at home – breakfast!
Menu Planning
Better menu planning will result in cheaper meals. If you plan out your menu for a month, or just a week, then you will avoid an expensive grocery bill by reducing the number of trips you have to make to the store to pick up supplies.
Making a shopping list for all the ingredients you will need while planning your meals will also help save money.
Once you have your grocery list completed, make sure you go through your pantry, cabinets, refrigerator, or freezer to see if you already have some of the ingredients on the list. If you do, mark them off your grocery list. This step alone will save you from buying items you don’t need when you go shopping.
Consider using alternate sources of protein, such as beans, or Portobello mushrooms, for cheap meals, or make meals that will stretch the amount of meat used for a cheap meal plan. Look for a family pack of meat.
Family packs often help lower costs when you are coming up with cheap dinner ideas. One large family pack of chicken breasts can often stretch to make up to three different dinners.
Never Shop on an Empty Stomach
Before grocery shopping the best thing you can do is eat a little something at home. Few things cause us to spend more on groceries than shopping while hungry. When I’m hungry, everything looks good, and everything winds up in my shopping cart!
Buying generic items, particularly when shopping for canned goods, can save money. Generic items and store brands are generally just as good as the name brands.
Clip coupons for the items that you need, not for the junk food that you wouldn’t normally buy.
Fruits and Veggies
Knowing what fruits and vegetables are in season will help you fill out a cheap meal plan. When produce supplies are higher, the costs are generally a little lower, so the best deals can be found on in-season fruits and vegetables.
Buying your fruits, vegetables, and meats in bulk will save money, and may just help you come up with cheap dinner ideas. You can pair up items that you may have never thought to go together and come up with a new recipe.
Buying frozen fruits and vegetables can save you money on groceries, particularly for things that are not in season, and they are often just as nutritious as their fresh counterparts.
Now for the fun part. After the planning and shopping have been done, it is important that you remember to cook at home every night instead of eating out. My wife and I often have to resist the temptation to leave the grocery store and pick up something for dinner because we’re too wiped out from shopping to cook.
How to Learn How to Cook
Picking up a cookbook, or searching for recipes on the internet, is the simplest way of learning, and it can help you to come up with cheap dinner ideas, cheap meals, or cheap meal plans. I highly recommend picking up the book, How to Cook Without a Book, which is an excellent for learning to put together healthy, inexpensive meals with ingredients you have on hand.
If you are like me, and need a little extra instruction, I’d recommend taking a cooking class hosted at local community colleges or culinary schools. Even if you don’t plan to become a chef, an introduction to cooking can provide some excellent tips to take back to your own kitchen.
*This post was included in the Festival of Frugality #233
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I have an interesting twist on the concept of doing a larger shop less frequently – I recently moved to a house that is comfortable walking distance from the local supermarket. We leave the car at home, walk to the supermarket with a little trolley and buy only what will fit in there and can be dragged home. It’s usually enough food for a few days and it gives us all exercise while at the same time giving great time for us to talk with our kids and teach them things about selecting food, road safety and so on.
We still cook meals at home with the groceries we buy, and manage to save money again on fuel and parking etc
Nice list, and in my experience menu planning is the critical stage. Menu planning also should take into account the time you have available to cook, and pre-preparation of items for the next night’s meal as well. A small amount of time spent on a Sunday morning can help reduce not only the need for last-minute trips to the store, but also can avoid the I-don’t-know-what-to-cook-let’s-go-out-to-dinner. Dinners out not only cost you much more than a home cooked meal (at least, healthy dinners out…) but also tend to take up more time and energy. Some advanced planning can go a long way to reduce it.
A trick I also find helpful is to simplify the planning by making certain nights follow a basic theme…. e.g. Monday pasta night, Tuesday seafood night, Wednesday burgers or sandwiches, etc.
p.s. mushrooms as protein? I think they are only like 1/8th the level of protein as lean meats.
@Bob K: You may be correct. For some reason I was thinking the large, portabello varieties had a bit more. Actually, they only have about 2g of protein, but only 40-60 calories per large cap.
I like the “theme night” idea. We are going to implement something similar this summer.
A few things:
* Nitpick: mushrooms are not a good source of protein. A portabello mushroom contains 3g of protein per 100g, and about an equal amount of carbohydrate (negligible fat). You’d have to eat 2000g (about 4.4 lbs) to get 60g of protein.
* For protein, you need to worry not just about quantity but also quality/completeness. Protein is composed of the various amino acids used to produce proteins in the body, and we need all of them. Most animal protein is complete, but vegetables don’t tend to be (quinoa and amaranth being notable exceptions, but they are currently a luxury food…this will change as our population continues to swell out of control). So you want to eat, for example, rice and beans together to get a complete protein.
* I’m a smoothy addict and my shopping bills went WAY down when I discovred that frozen fruits are as or more nutritious and tasty in a smoothy at a small amount of hte cost (and longer shelf life)
* Consider farmers’ markets. They have a (sometimes deserved) reputation as being a luxury with high prices, but this really depends on the market. There was one in Ann Arbor, MI (where I grew up) that had veggies and fruits far cheaper than any of the grocery stores in town, when they were in season. Where else can you buy good, fresh tomatoes for $0.50/lb?
* If you live alone, pair up with a friend or two for cooking and groceries. Living alone is not especially efficient, and in a group of people you can afford the gallons instead of the half gallons and the like. You’ll also have different favorite dishes which will help with keeping a well-rounded diet, and can take turns cooking dinner. This can be logistically difficult, of course. I’ve always had cooking co ops with my roommates and find it works quite well.
Grow your own garden, nothing beats the taste.
For protein you can get a lot of it from grains, like beans, lentil, etc… I believe a Mediterranean diet, example Italian restricts meat, especially red meats and recommends only in small portions and once a month.
Ditto on grow a garden – containers, whatever you can do to supplement the greens. Lots of things are year round and can be a permanent part of the landscaping.
Think soups and stews, goulashes, stir fries, and think EGGS for protein
Use the bones. Turkey carcass, ham bone, steak bones, etc – all will yield lots of meals when used for a soup base. Open the bones and use the marrow as a part of the soup – it’s good for you, too. I use a small pressure cooker to get all the meat separated from the bones.
Keep the basics on hand, but definitely stock up big when things are on sale and are things you can use. Shop the discount grocery stores – use what they have that’s inexpensive, and not what might want that’s expensive.
Do the cook once, eat twice concept. Or the cook one day a month and freeze meals for a month plan. There are great cookbooks on it available.
The cooking classes at Community Colleges are a lot of fun & have served me well over the years. Great point.
Along with cheap meals should go the Art of Food Preservation
Learn to can, dry, store, and/or freeze foods properly. Sure helps with surpluses!
The only thing about making a cheap meal is that the food might not be as fresh and it might not taste as good
Cheap doesn’t have to do anything with the quality of the meal…. some of my cheapest meals are also the freshest and the tastiest
Free fresh clams, fish, venison, and produce from the garden – doesn’t get any better than that… nor any fresher!
We’ve always eaten virtually all our meals at home but didn’t get organized about meal planning until this year. We used to buy mostly the same assortment of fruit/veg/meat over and over then later figure out what to make. We generally bought the same things week to week and probably had about 15-20 meals we ate on a regular basis. We never went hungry or resorted to eating out (we live 20min from town so eating out is generally less convenient that cooking) but we’d regularly have limited choices some nights because of a missing ingredient or two.
Now I keep a list of the meat in the freezer. Each week I choose ~5 items from that list to build meals around (I assume we’ll have leftovers 2 nights). Then I check the fresh and pantry supplies and decide on the side dishes. No point putting steak and green beans on a menu plan when there are chicken breasts and broccoli already in the house. I only start putting items on the grocery list when pantry staples get low, or I don’t have enough frozen meats or fresh veggies/fruits for the week. When I’m short a couple of side dishes, I don’t generally pick whatever sounds good out of the air, instead I first check the sale flyers for the week to see what deals are available. If we’re low on fruit for lunches there’s no good reason I must put oranges and grapes on the list if apples and blueberries are on sale. I also check the meat sales. If I don’t have 5 choices already in the freezer I’ll suppliment with whatever’s on sale. If I already have enough frozen meat options for the week, I’ll check the sales with an eye to restocking the freezer for future weeks. Unless a specific ingredient is needed for a recipe, we rarely eat anything that wasn’t on some sort of special. When that’s not an option we buy in bulk and/or generic.
I find that rather than feeling our meals are limited by what’s on sale, it’s actually caused us to have more variety. The identical items are rarely on sale week after week so following the sales means we never get in the rut of just replacing the same items week after week.
Great advice that I should be following. I’ve been slacking in the planning ahead department. Thanks for the reminder.
Another alternate source for learning how to cook is the internet. There are many how-to videos online now that teach you the basics (and not so basic) kitchen skills needed to make many dishes at home. I like this option because sometimes I have to see things and practice things several times before I learn them (like how to debone a chicken thigh — still practicing that one).
It’s also nice on those things you just need a refresher on.
I find having a basic plan around what’s in the house is important, but creating menu plans too far out often means we have to buy food we wouldn’t otherwise. I often won’t know until a day or so before if, for example, the garden will have enough kale to be a meal side or a nice soup addition. We buy in bulk on sale and build our main meals around what we have that’s available between the pantry, the freezer, and the garden. That said, because my husband and I both work outside the home and have three young kids, if we don’t plan at all, we end up getting home at six, throwing our hands up, and going out to eat in desperation. Nice article, Frugal Dad!
Meal planning is key, as is knowing where to buy the best for less. For example, I got enough food for breakfast, lunch and dinners for five days for my family of four for under $130 there last week!
Not shopping on empty stomach is so true. Also, another tip to learn to cook is go to parties and if you really like something, don’t forget to ask for recipe someone who made it, it could be really simple to make.
something that helps when you’re too wiped out to cook:
the day before, make a BIG batch of food. one batch for the current day, the second batch for the next day, etc. that way you won’t eat out or microwave disgusting TV dinners. it really makes life easier.
Meal planning hs saved us a ton this year. We used to just buy what sounded good, cook a meal or two, eat out the rest of the week, and most of the perishables would go bad. Now we have a plan. Even if we do eat out with friends unexpectedly, the next day we’re back on the menu plan. That has been working great and I throw out a ton less of food.
I recently started using the meal planning website E-Mealz to help me plan my dinners. They use the area grocery store deals as their guide to mealplanning and at $5 per month, it saves me time and money.
The plan itself is for a family of 4 and we are a family of 2, which means that lunches and dinners are covered (hooray, leftovers!). Breakfast and snacks are generally inexpensive mealplanning has been a lifesaver in cost-cutting.
We have been meal planning for over 2 years now. I have many many cookbooks (Jamie Oliver is my favorite. There is basically no recipe he has that we don’t like) and I do searches on ingredients, menu ideas, frugal meals etc for more inspiration. I sit down with a few cookbooks and my computer and think of what we have in the freezer/pantry that we can add a few things to and have a meal. I always write down what has to be thawed or marinated the night before so that we don’t forget and wind up eating out because of it. We occasionally move things around or do decide to eat out for whatever reason (this is incredibly rare) but we waste hundreds less $ per month than we used to (in restaurants as well as food we bought that went bad). Some weeks it is a struggle but most of the time, once we got into the swing of things, it’s pretty easy. It does take time (mostly when you first start) and committment but it is so very worth it in the end.
I just want to stress the importance of not shopping on an empty stomach. This gets me into SO much trouble!!! I always buy SO MUCH!:)
I love my really cheap chicken salad. But the ingredients in bulk from Sam’s club, make it at home, and enjoy lunch for a long time!:) Healthy too!
My wife & I don’t cook for different reasons. My reason – I’m a disaster in the kitchen and end up either smelling up the house or else almost burning it down. And the kitchen is always a mess after I’m done. So, we ate out a lot, which was a disaster on our budget.
I’ve found a simple recipe that even I couldn’t screw up. Just take a double sheet of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil; place a filet of salmon (or any other fish) on the foil and drizzle with more olive oil; add your favorite seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic power, dill, etc); fold up the foil into a loose cone around the fish and place directly on the burner and cook for 8 minutes. Simple, quick, and no mess.
Granted, salmon is not the cheapest meal, but it is a-lot cheaper than eating out every night!
Cheap meals are great ecause many times they are the easiest. And, compared to eating out, almost any meal prepared at home is ‘cheap’, especially if you go to a sit-down restaurant.
Quite often, if we are in a pinch, we will have breakfast for dinner. (That picture looked delicious by the way.) I always make sure we have enough eggs in the fridge. We also make tuna a lot, egg salad, maybe I giant salad with some rotisserie chicken thrown on top, pasta salad with chicken- there are a million things you can make that are quick, easy, cheap and not that bad for you. Of course, I also love to throw hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill too!
I do try to buy things inexpensively, but I will splurge on salmon, pork tenderloin and such because it is so much cheaper to eat at home than a restaurant.
Another resource for cooking ideas are cookbooks catered to ‘teens’. They are full of easy to prepare foods with few ingredients and foods that you are actually familiar with. They are quick, easy & fun, and hey maybe the whole family will get involved then.
One thing we do around here for rushed mornings is when i make pancakes i will make up a couple of dozen at a time, freeze them individually on cookie sheets and put in plastic baggies. Then i can pull them out couple at a time, drop in toaster and in 2 minutes you have a nice hot breakfast. We do this with waffles & french toast also. And i will patty up sausages, fry bacon and once again freeze this stuff on the cookie sheets and heat up when needed.
Excellent, well written post! I’m trying to get on the meal planning wagon and will soon be doing some freezer cooking with one of my best friends.
This is very ironic as on my own blog I’ve been discussing this very topic (in fact it’s the one I get asked most about).
I’ve started by having a ‘grocery challenge’ by budgetting for myself and my girlfriend of $200 a month for groceries. Sound ridiculous? Well.. not really – I find that I have a ton of food building up in my freezer, and lots of different items in my cupboard just gathering dust.
Careful menu planning and checking out the weekly flyers is key, and we’re two months in and doing great! We cook at home almost every night – and generally plan our dinners 3-4 nights in advance.
CSA gardening
I just got a brochure about CSA gardening this week and was wondering what you folks think. It’s basically where a local farmer will deliver you fresh vegetables every week for $25.50 approx a week for $15 weeks. This would take a chunk out of my budget for groceries I know, but knowing where the food is grown and having fresh veggies delivered every day may be worth it.
What do you guys think? Feel free to read over my blog post or leave a comment here to respond.. I’m on the fence to whether it’s worth it or not.
http://www.lencurrie.com/2010/05/monthly-grocery-update-a-new-twist/
Thanks for this post. I often make the mistake of shopping on an empty stomach and being shocked at the checkout counter because I’ve gone over my buget.
i grew up with my Mom cooking every meal from scratch so i have really high standards when it comes to food. that being said i am by no means a good cook.
through out the years i have learned how to make a few dishes here and there and i can tell you first hand that cooking is all about trial and error.
shopping on a budget and making delicious meals are possible, you just need to go for it.
Good list. I plan my month’s shopping list all at once, although the meats, fruits, and vegetables are a general amount as I want to take advantage of sales. It’s made a big difference in my grocery budget.
Don’t buy anything you didn’t plan on buying when shopping. This is the one area that doubles our family grocery store trips, practically every time.