Ask Lemmy

When I was literal piss-broke, there was a college campus near me with an open food court. Couldn't afford the actual shops selling food there, but in that food court was a condiments station that randomly had one of those electric hot water dispensers for making tea, and styrofoam cups. It also had ketchup packets, saltine crackers, and pepper.

Turns out you can make a pretty passable tomato soup with ketchup and hot water. Bit of pepper and a handful of saltine cracker packets, and I had myself a hot meal for exactly $0.00

With some money to spend, rice is where it's at. Hitch a ride to Costco or Sam's with someone who has a membership, and they have iirc 50 lb bags of that short grain fortified rice for like... $15? That's well over 100 meals worth of rice.

Cook that up with literally almost anything that has some flavor or nutrients - whatever's cheap. Or just eat it straight... bland, but it'll fill you up. Eggs go great with rice.

Fair warning, you'll get fat. Cheap food is NOT usually healthy.

Rice and beans. Together they make a complete protein so can make up a larger bulk of your diet.

Pork loin, those gigantic big ones, are cheap per pound. Cut it into three for three roasts, freeze the other 2.

Try to get Multivitamins and magnesium. Long term you want those vitamins and minerals. Fish oil too. It's seems expensive but it's cheaper than fish itself.

You do not need to be broke for: noodles made in herb water
Once you try it you may never go back to only salted water

i think that it helps to always have some rice cooked and waiting to bump up the calorie count to almost any meal.

There's a few things I usually have at home because they're cheap, can be used for various dishes with or without additional ingredients and I will actually eat them before they spoil:

Beans, lentils, tomato paste, eggs, peanuts, cottage cheese, smoked tofu (not neccessarily a cheap item but I only use half a block or less per dish), bread, rice, spring onions, bell pepper, frozen spinach, hummus, cucumber.

When I was poor I ate boiled chicken and rice for every dinner. Breakfast was either cereal+milk (you can try ringing up multiple boxes at the self checkout using a "small" box but bag the bigger boxes), or yogurt+granola (I'd steal granola by ringing up bulk granola as cheaper bulk items and ring up the single yogurt cup in a 6 pack and pay <1/6 the actual cost).

If putting a pizza in the oven qualifies as cooking then that.

Dal makhani

oats with whey

2 cans of beans with oil and spices (or chickpeas)

pasta with oil and frozen veggies (pasta always whole grain ofc) pasta with canned fish

these are my go to meals. However i cook them because im lazy and these are all very healthy, chep, and easy to make

Basically pasta.

I don't know where you are, but a 500g pack can be had for significantly under 1€ and is sufficient for multiple meals. Add a similar priced can of tomatoes, onions (optional) and some spices (I assume you have those).

Obviously there are other options for the sauce, many are cheap enough to consider when money is tight.

Burritos. Beans, rice and whatever else you can get that's on sale it cheap. Make a batch Sunday night. The poorer was the more I would cook.

Seems like I need to educate myself on lentils and dry beans. Any EASY recipes welcome!

Breakfast: oatmeal

Snacks: popcorn (air popped, buy kernels. ~~Need~~ I recommend an air popper, but they're like 20 bucks. Then you can eat cheap popcorn forever)

Lunch/Dinner:

• Fried rice (egg, whatever meat/veg, I like doing soy sauce glazed canned sardines with it for a cheap meal)

• Red beans and rice

• Chicken & sausage gumbo over rice

• Enchiladas, rice, beans

• Rotisserie chicken tacos

• Collard greens and cornbread

• Pasta bake (chicken, spinach, pesto, white sauce)

• Korean rice bowls. Chicken, gochujang (a little expensive but lasts a long time in the fridge), red pepper flakes, ginger, garlic, vinegar, sesame oil. Marinate overnight. Cook on stove or in oven. Serve on rice with side dishes: carrot and cucumber banchan - just get some matchstick carrots, combine with vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, chili flakes. Cucumbers: slice thin, salt, drain. Combine with sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, red pepper flakes. Assemble.

• Make like 200 pierogis for like 20 bucks (and several hours) and freeze them for later. Boil or pan fry and eat with a sausage and some saurkraut. For fillings, I like a little ground meat with onion and mushroom and saurkraut - 1 part meat, 1 part mushroom, 1 part onion. Even cheaper is potato and cheese - typically this means mashed potato mixed with sour cream and cheese.

• Cabbage rolls. Head of cabbage, rice, ground pork, onion, garlic, a couple cans of tomato soup. Cook rice, mix with ground pork, diced onion, and garlic. Dunk cabbage head in boiling water for a minute or two, peel a leaf off, stuff with pork mixture and roll. Put all rolls in a baking pan on a layer of the tomato soup, top with tomato soup. Bake covered mins or until cooked (165f internal temperature)

In general, if you want cheap food then look for cultures with rich food traditions born from poverty. Also look for more plant-based recipes or find ways to stretch your meat using fillers like cabbage and onion.

Examples: Louisiana Cajun, American South, India, Eastern Europe, Central and South America, even provincial French food & Brittish "food" (I jest, but bubble & squeak or bangers & mash have fed many a hungry family)

Back when I was in the US like 5 years ago, I've been able to stretch my meals out to about $40 per month.

You can make a flavourful cheesy-pasta (not actual mac-and-cheese) with some pasta, some chicken bouillon, a tablespoon of butter or margarine, and a slice of processed cheese. For protein you can buy cheap chicken franks and chop it up, and for veggies I like frozen peas and frozen broccoli. Get store-brand for the cheapest possible options.

I was so stingy that I was able to stretch one box of pasta out to 11 meals, and I still looked forward to each meal.

To keep myself from going insane, every grocery run (every three weeks) I rewarded myself with a gallon bucket of store-brand ice-cream and two packs of store-brand chocolate sandwich cookies, all of which I completely devoured within one week.

I lost hella weight and felt really good about it. Unfortunately, I've gained it all back now.

Consider the food bank too probably.

Bulk dry beans, bulk sack rice, canned beans for chilli when feeling lazy or on sale, meat only on steep discount usually making stew or chilli with the worse less/undesirable cuts. Stir fry when you find better ones. Frozen vegetables and fruit bags. Store brand usually. Basic frozen pizzas, pasta bags with tomato based pasta sauce. Pasta sauce cans are frequently on sale and baseline is a low price.

Bananas, kiwis, and mandarin oranges are usually cheap in Canada anyways for fresh fruit.

I have a meat grinder attachment on my used mixer, very useful.

You can do a lot with apps like Paprika or Supercook. You add stuff you already have and it spits out only recipes with what you have on hand already. Helps me use up what I buy efficiently and stops you from getting bored of eating the same stuff. Less food waste and flavour bordeom is always good for mood and wallet.

If you have space, gardening. Fruit trees alone fill a deep freezer eventually.

Beans and cornbread. Or beans and rice. Cornmeal is especially cheap in the US with how subsidized it is, so cornbread is a good way to fill out a meal.

I started eating a lot of chickpeas recently. Buy them dried, boil them for a couple minutes them let them soak in the water for a few hours. Then either roast them in the oven or if I'm lazy, toss them in the microwave for like 5 minutes, then add some seasoning. I snack on them between meals, or also toss them into things like soup or curry.

Also if you want a different take on ramen, boil them until they are al dente, drain the water and then stir fry with some cheap veggies or whatever.

Depends where you’re at. If you’re not too far from forests and meadows, mushrooms, grasshoppers and herbs.

Other than that, rice, noodles. You can add the above things to your rice and noodles.

You can cook your noodles in tomato sauce like spaghetti al‘assassina to get some variety.

Remove wings and legs from grasshoppers before eating, they’re scratchy.

Only eat mushrooms and herbs you’re certain they’re not poisonous.

Beans/legumes can be cheap

Back in my early 20s there were a few things.

• Making beanie weenies were pretty inexpensive
• Ramen is the old standby
• Totino's party pizzas were also cheap calories
• Canned soups, stretched out with cheap crackers
• Peanut butter on celery or toast

No idea if those are still cost effective, but two or three of those could be stretched out over a week for under $10 at the time. I still eat all of those things at least every few years for some hits of nostalgia, even the cheap ass pizza.