Allrecipes has a good looking page for ideas on cooking for less.

Are you able to cook on a budget, how are you making it happen?

 

I checked your link and followed to the vegetarian suggestions, noting a very heavy use of lentils. Seems to me that too few of our hungry American populace have an appreciation for this bean-like food. If I had to stock an empty pantry from scratch and with very little money, I would buy lentils. AM

Thanks Brandy! I love sites/articles with these topics even if fellow Stretchers can often offer MUCH cheaper meal ideas/recipes that think 10 bucks for 1 meal is a bargain lol What's frugal to one may not be to another. One can always bump ideas though and take their "frugal" ideas and frugalize them even more so - super Stretcher style!!! I will check out some more of the articles, lots of great reads and I have realized Stretcher has a NICE library of them too.

My shopping budget includes funds for pet food/items, HBA, etc, so considering what is actually spent on food is pretty low and we eat well. No one lacks for anything. I think a main tactic is having a nicer item paired with more frugal items. For example, ground beef paired with black beans and bell peppers and seasoning to make tacos. And even though I don't think the government's ideas of what we should eat are always spot on, I think the my plate concept (not so meat heavy) offers a good guideline for many people that is actually easy to follow. Another thing that really helps, and I think allrecipes does ths well, is scratch cooking. I think too few people think cooking is too hard and meals have become about instant gratification. Too much thinking of "What can be ready in 5-15 minutes?" Not sayiing a good meal can't come together quickly, but it's not an every night thing.

BargainBinge:

even if fellow Stretchers can often offer MUCH cheaper meal ideas

We have some very well experienced meal planners here. I was hoping some would throw in their super bargain ideas.

 

I am not having any brainstorms at this particular moment, but I think you could have some fun with it and have an "Eat Like a Kid" meal every week, regardless of your household composition. Most foods we associate with young palates (mac and cheese, PBJs, hot dogs -- even cereal) are among the least expensive, so that certainly might be one idea to work in some cheaper foods and still have fun with it by putting a little spin on it.

Tomorrow I plan to stretch a teeny bit because I don't want to throw out anything. The thing I'm not throwing out is orange-flavored sugar leftover from the final "sparkling" of candied orange peels. Using the refrigerator roll dough I made tonight, I will form rolls just like making cinnamon rolls, but using powdered oranges along with the orange sugar and pecans to make some tasty sweet rolls. AM

Anna, I would of never thought to use them that way. That sounds so good, please let me know how they come out.

I was recently given $40 to cook meals for a family in our church.  Wanting to bless them with as many meals as possible (they're a family of 8!) I was able to make 8 meals!  All containing chicken or ground beef. I made:

Tomato based chicken and rice

Creamy chicken and rice

Two trays of spaghetti casserole

Two trays of ground beef shepherd's pie

Two batches of chicken soup

I'll have to find my receipt but I purchased $9 worth of ground beef (5 pounds) and $10 worth of boneless, skinless chicken breasts (5 pounds), large sack of rice, carrots, frozen corn, jarred spaghetti sauce (I'll make my own next time), potatoes, noodles and some cheese.  I did use my spices, flour (the gravy for the shepherd's pie) , bouillon and a few other items.

I wish I could have used all organic ingredients, but I wouldn't have been able to make nearly as many meals.

found chdicken breat for $.98 a oound got  100 pound  I spilt with all the family

got turkey for $.39 a pound got two I will cook tomorrow  and  then slice alot for sandwhich and make  dinner tool

 

got some of my baking supplies today .