r/povertykitchen

Best meal ideas for extreme budget?

I have $100 for groceries for the next month. I have a big bag of Kirkland rice and some beans but that’s about it. Not sure what to purchase. I’m not doing snacks. No pleasure just strictly trying to survive. Food bank is hit or miss. All ideas and insight are helpful. Only feeding myself no family. Thanks

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u/Ecstatic_Trip_8305 — 3 days ago

Just got fired. Looking for new job. What food to make for meals?

I got fired today, and I have plenty of food in the house right now. Lot of frozen stuff. Hopefully I find a new job soon but just in case I need to grocery shop, what can/should I eat and make? I hate doing dishes but at this point I'll do whatever needs to get done. It's just me so I don't need to worry about too much variety like if I had kids.

I am also going to try to count my calories because I'm trying to lose weight (260 pound fatass). I go on regular walks, but I allow myself a calorie budget of 2,257 calories a day by recommendation from MyNetDiary. I eat mostly frozen meals because it's a way of controlling my portions, because I'm an emotional eater (binge eat when sad, binge eat when happy). But again, i'll do what needs to be done. I'll cook even if I don't like it and I'm not good at it.

Maybe I'm overreacting, maybe I'll find a new job soon, but I've been unemployed for months before and I was not so smart about my food choices back then and I don't want to fall into a depressive DoorDash addiction again. I gotta change.

The simpler the better. I just don't want to eat cheap ramen for every meal.

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u/No-Ticket8760 — 3 days ago

Poor (wo)Man's Cheesecake

Cheesecake is my absolute favorite thing to eat, but its pretty expensive as a poor person and time consuming to make as someone working a lot of hours. so i found a way that i can afford to easily satisfy that craving as a snack anytime!

Mash up some cream cheese, powdered sugar, and a bit of vanilla flavoring in a bowl and spread it on a graham cracker- and enjoy! My kids like to add some strawberry jelly on top, but I like the taste of them plain.

It comes out to around $17 for everything pictured and can last a long time, that is if you have self control 😆 (the sugar and flavoring comes in handy for many other recipes as well)

u/hardlybroken1 — 5 days ago

Is Cooking Whole Chickens Still Cost Effective?

I understand you can get broth out of the chicken, but from a purely calorie perspective, is buying whole chickens actually still cheaper than buying cuts of chickens?

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u/ballskindrapes — 6 days ago

Big pot of simmered pintos

I get a lot of dried beans from the food bank and was craving just a big old bowl of beans. I simmered them with cilantro stems, jalapeño, onion, garlic, bay leaf & salt.

u/Expensive_Recipe_433 — 6 days ago

Food Bank chicken noodle bake

12 oz egg noodles

1 can Cream of mushroom soup

1 can Green beans

2 pouches chicken

Cook noodles, mix it all together (add an extra can of water or milk or both too) and bake 25 minutes.

Oh, and I was out of bread crumbs so I crushed up some Bulbasaur Goldfish crackers to use as a topping.

u/i__hate__stairs — 6 days ago

"Cowboy beans". Do you have a favorite recipe?

An earlier post about pinto beans made me want to ask this.

I had some really great pinto beans and I could kind of tell what the ingredients were. I did a search online, and it looks like they were a "cowboy beans" kind of recipe. I tried to make them myself, but didn't quite nail it.

Do you have a good "cowboy beans" recipe? I would like to know how you make them.

Thank you!

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u/PrestigiousFog — 6 days ago

Older frozen pork chops

Hello everyone!

I was taking inventory of my chest freezer and found some older pork chops. At what point would you just toss em or still cook them, though they probably need to go in a stew or something if cooked? They are about 6 years old 😅 wrapped in freezer paper and in a freezer ziplock bag. They have not been thawed and refrozen at any time.

I genuinely don't know how they got missed for this long.

Thank you in advance!

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u/Alternative-Rise-708 — 7 days ago

Tonight's Bargain Meal a Bangin' Turkey Burger

Turkey on yellow sticker - $1.12 cents per burger served with a jacket potato and a 1/4 can of baked beans, all up $1.45 AUD. Remaining burgers stashed in the freezer.

u/flyingthepan — 5 days ago
▲ 76 r/povertykitchen+1 crossposts

Need help with cheap, low sodium, no liquid meals please

So, my husband was just released from ICU with a restricted diet. 1500 mg sodium per day, 6:cups of liquid (including that of which is "in" the food itself). I'm not much of a cook, and until now, most of the foods we ate included lunch meat sandwiches, canned soup and cheap oven ready meals. We currently only own one skillet and a sheet pan for the oven. Hopefully we will be able to acquire a crockpot soon. We are religiously no pork/no shellfish . We are disabled, and require pretty easily assembled, quick cooking meals preferably. I am so struggling with this.

I've ordered eggs, potatoes, rice, a whole chicken, frozen tilapia, frozen bag of broccoli/cauliflower/carrots, a salt free garlic herb blend, and a box of low sodium veggie burgers. I'm open to new grocery ideas (please) for our next paycheck. I've never meal prepped, but I do have gallon plastic bags that I can use for prepping (no type of "Tupperware" for storage) if you have any ideas? What else can we do? What about cheap meals for a crockpot? I need strictly low budget. Please help!

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u/Avarens — 9 days ago
▲ 459 r/povertykitchen+3 crossposts

onion and garlic baked brie

seasoned with a garlic pepper blend, and some smoked salt, baked at 400 f for about 15 minutes, then topped with some chopped green onion

u/Deppfan16 — 9 days ago

Stretch fresh veggies as far as possible

Hi folks, I recently got a very generous amount of groceries from the local food pantry, including a lot of fresh veggies that I wouldn't normally buy for myself - I get frozen every time to make sure I don't waste anything/let it go bad but honestly my diet is mostly carbs since it's cheap. I have carrots, baby potatoes, cucumbers, a really shocking amount of onions, and some bell peppers. What's the best way to stretch them as far as possible knowing I may not have access to more fresh veggies for a while (at least until I'm allowed to go back to the food pantry)?

My ideas so far -

  • Carrot cake, slice and freeze
  • Treat myself to a nice dinner with roast carrots, potatoes, and onions?
  • Cucumber sandwiches
  • Vegetable soup

As you can see I'm not really sure what to do with a fresh vegetable.

Any ideas or should I just try to cook and eat it all as quickly as possible so it doesn't go to waste?

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u/Mocha_Kitten — 10 days ago

Need ez cheap cooking recipies for big family 🙏🏾

(also posted on r/easyrecipes)

Hii. Im 13 but im the only one in my family who cooks. My dad wants me to cook more to save money so im trying to learn more recipes if anyone knows cheap ez (ideally only needing 1-2 pots/pans) to make food that has 5+ servings id rly appreciate it ❤️ im not that good at cooking yet so nothing too complicated or needing tons of prep time.

I did learn about slow cookers and I'm trying to get one!

Edit: post got locked oop, thank you everyone who responded!♥️

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u/oliviaiaia23 — 9 days ago

If you don’t have a kitchen and need calories and protein, Taco Bell has some really cheap burritos: $1.50.

Obviously the biggest problem would be excess salt, but it’s pretty decent with 9g protein. Fiber looks ok too.

Its always cheaper to make things yourself, but if you can’t, this is a great option.

u/Reasonable_Pickle556 — 10 days ago

$6.49 Chicken Casserole

I have a thing for grabbing church or community cookbooks for free or cheap at the thrift. The ones they print up as a fundraiser and note the contributor. I like to see what people are actually making or used to make in yesteryear. Classic recipes that are cheap and easy. Lots are dump recipes, like this one.

I didn’t know where this one was going but it turned out to basically be a creamy chicken noodle soup. I like knowing I can keep every ingredient in the pantry for a day I can’t or don’t want to get out. So, thank you Nellie Brown from First Baptist Church in Minnesota!

One serving (2 people) would be $6.49 at Aldi, but I doubled it for $12.98 (3 people and generous leftovers). (Not including a thin layer of breadcrumbs on top) This would make a yummy comfort meal for sickies next winter!!!

Creamy Chicken Casserole
(1) 5 ounce can of chicken (Aldi has the 12.5 oz can which worked for me since I doubled. Then I added another one because we eat a lot!)
(1) Can Cream of Chicken Soup
(1) Can Chicken noodle Soup
5 ounces evaporated milk (again I used a larger Aldi can which was good for doubling)
4 ounce Chow Mein noodles (near the Ramen) Skip the seasoning packet.
Breadcrumbs on top, if you want.

Pour everything into a glass baking dish. Break the Chow Mein noodles up with your hands as you throw it in baking pan. If you double it, use a 9 x 13. Mix it all up, making sure to break up the chicken and noodles. Sprinkle top with breadcrumbs if you want.

Like I said, I added much more chicken than it called for. Use whatever amount of chicken and noodles as you like. It just needs to fit in the pan!

Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Breadsticks on the side are especially comforting! We all enjoyed it!

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u/bigformybritches — 9 days ago

White Bean and Tomato Soup.

An easy to make tomatoey soup with white beans - cost $6.50 AUD for all ingredients. Makes 7 serves @ 92 cents a serve. Worth some effort for a budget friendly and tasty meal with a slice of toast. Freezer friendly.

u/flyingthepan — 12 days ago

Whoever told me to put onion soup mix into roasted potatoes... I would like a word with you

You want to come over to my house and have some dogshit looking ass potatoes?

I boiled the potatoes first cut them up and then switch them over to a frying pan. Once I saw them starting to get brown edges I added onion soup mix as was recommended to me. Well this had the effect of clumping up, retaining moisture and actually preventing further browning. Now I have is a bunch of dog food ass looking potatoes that no one wants to eat, and they have no flavor.

Anyone wanna offer advice on how I went wrong?

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u/ShitTheFuckDown — 11 days ago

Jacket Potato topped with Chilli Bean Soup.

Air fried potato, just topped with chilli bean soup - somtimes poverty can be tasty. Total cost $3.50 for 3 tasty serves.

u/flyingthepan — 11 days ago

Food bank find!

I am so incredibly grateful for everything I get when I occasionally visit the food bank.

Often I get items I never would have purchased normally, but they turn out to be delicious.

I got this 6-pack of mangoes. They all looked quite over-ripe, and I was afraid they wouldn't be edible.

OMG they are ripe and juicy and so delicious! I ate 2 just now.

I think I have been buying mangoes wrong this whole time!! The ones I buy are always super hard to cut, and nowhere near as juicy.

Food bank win!

u/elijolie — 13 days ago