budget friendly

[Scrat2007]

meals if anyone could give me any meal ideas that are good for my wallet and lunch ideas for dusty would be great. we will only have about $50.00-$100.00 to spend a week any ideas would be great we like all kinds of meat and noddles chicken sandwhichs, it would help us alot if we got some ideas for meal friendly foods and stuff. b\c when we come back we will have to buckle down again. any ideas are welcome. thanks so much..

[mapache315]

50.00-100.00 a week? wow, you could get a lot with that.

buy a loaf of bread, a big jar of peanut butter, and some juice boxes. should cost around $10- there's lunch for about 1.5 weeks.

[splashsmama]

Hubby and I eat on a budget as well.

Spaghetti is always a cheap meal, and the leftovers are always super tasty. Just noodles, sauce, and meat. Can't go wrong there.

There's also Hamburger Helper.
Soup and sandwiches.
Sloppy joes and mac-n-cheese.

Some things I usually cook are:
1. Mexican Chicken Casserole - (chicken, can of cream of chicken soup, can of cream of mushroom soup, taco seasoning, Rotel or salsa, Doritos, and shredded cheddar cheese). Boil chicken then cut up into tiny pieces; mix chicken pieces in with both soups, taco seasoning, Rotel/Salsa, and a smidge of the broth created from boiling the chicken; layer the bottom of a casserole dish with Doritos, then pour chicken/soup mixture over the Doritos, cover the mixture with more Doritos and sprinkle cheddar cheese over the top. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350-375.
2. Lasagna - Noodles, spaghetti sauce, cottage cheese, meat, and mozzarella cheese.

And both make plenty of leftovers, especially if it's just the two of you eating at dinnertime.

HTH.

[Scrat2007]

i;m not saying we'll be spending the whole 100 some weeks we could only spend 50 depends on what we have to spend. it would be great if we could get away with only spending that in one month.

[Hathery]

Go to the Pampered Chef website here (http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_products/recipesearch/recipes.html)and at the bottom of the screen there is a "Watching Your Budget" section where they list meals that are less than $2.00 per serving.

[LAN63]

Amanda,
The best budget friendly thing you can do is have breakfast for supper. Eggs are delicious, can be made a bazillion different ways and are pretty cheap. Also pancakes for supper--another fairly inexpensive dinner.

[aphrodite]

Spaghetti, Mac-N-Cheese with hot dogs, Hamburger Helper, Pastas, Home-made soups that can last for almost a week.

Also if you go to certain stores you can get chicken for $7.88 a bag and there's like 10 or so pieces in there, make two pieces baked with vegetables, frozen veggies are only $2.00 a bag or so and if you buy a big bag you can portion it each night. It's a great way to lose weight too.

And there's those little pot pies in the frozen section or you could make a home-made one for not too much more.

We do mostly pastas, hot dogs/sausages with saurkraut because its cheap and taste good, and lots of vegetables.

My mom and I have to budget out to 150 a month so it's not too hard to do once you know where to find deals.

[galtinel]

Make your own Hamburger Helper: 1lb ground beef, and season it while cooking (I tend for Italian or Mexican). Drain fat off (I even rinse as my hubby has high cholesterol). Then in a big soup pot (because I make enough for leftovers, and you can brown the meat in it as well -- saving cleanup) add a large can of crushed or diced tomatoes that are pre-seasoned (Mex or Ital.), a large can of tomatoe paste, and water (fill each can once and dump into pot getting the stuff that stuck). When the paste has disolved, add back the meat and 1lb of pasta and any other dry seasonings that you want for more flavor (ground garlic/onion, italian blend, mexican blend, cayane pepper, black pepper) and simmer with a lid for 15 minutes. Then take lid off and reduce down to consistency you like (I like it thick, not soupy).

And I buy my ground beef when it's on sale in 3-5lb packs and cut it up and re-freeze in ~1lb lumps to save money. Sometimes, I cook the whole thing in advance and then freeze portions of the ground beef.

Can be done with ground turkey/pork/chicken as well...just watch the water content of the meat when cooking and I bump to 1.25lb on the bird-meats.

[tunes]

Tuna casserole, homemade mac 'n cheese, breakfast for dinner (Laurie nailed that one).

Make a pot of spaghetti sauce and meatballs. Use it the first night for spaghetti, the second night make meatball subs.

Homemade soups. They take a little while, but are SO much better than store bought and would last just two people quite a while. I make a vegetable stew that if you let it thicken just a bit, it makes a fantastic pot pie as well.

http://www.eatingonabudget.com/
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/index1.htm
http://www.lowcostmeal.com/

There are a couple of links that have decent recipes on them. Maybe you can find some you guys will like.

[MischievousChins]

I think the main thing is watching sales, stock up when the price is good... so many things can be frozen and used later.
Around here Meijer is one of the best places for Groceries when there are sales, Aldi's is good too, and Super Walmart's not bad.

What always kills my Budget is when I have to buy things like Paper Towel, Toilet Paper, Laundry soap, and that stuff.

I did "the grocery game" for awhile, it really does work, but I got tired of clipping coupons, so mostly I just watch sales.