Hey Pandas, What’s Your Best Go-To Cheap Meal? (Closed)

Potatoes. Maybe with a bit of oil and herbs. Soup, mash, boiled, baked, fried, dep fried… All of it can fill you up on a low budget.

Scrambled eggs with a little cheese, sliced tomatoes, toast if you have bread.

Ramen. You can be as creative as you like, with or without the flavor packet.
Egg Noodles. Limitless possibilities.
Eggs. Without end for creativity.

Vegetable Soup. At the bare minimum all that is necessary is a bag of frozen mixed veg ($2) and a can of tomatoes ($1). The bags of soup mix veg or those small cut mixed veg works best. Simmer the tomatoes with any seasonings that you have till it cooks down and concentrates which essentially makes a broth concentrate. Add water and the veg. Done. Add any pantry fillings or leftovers you have such as canned beans, lentils, grains or noodles will make it heartier. $5 for a giant pot of soup. Variations are endless.

Beans on toast. Every time. Want to class it up, for not much money? Cube up some cheddar and drop it in while the beans are being heated up.

Hamburger gravy over mashed potatoes

3 day's of family dinners from a full chicken - hear me out... Chicken dinner on Sunday. After, pull the meat you can access easily then boil the carcass up.
Now pull the rest of the meat easily once it's broken down and cooled (especially the oysters underneath, yummiest bit) and save the boiling liquid and you now have an abundance of chicken stock. DAY 2 - chicken salad or chicken n chips (or a pie of some sort) and gravy from stock. Day 3 - Any left over veg or if you have noodles or anything really for soup. Another quick alternative is hot chicken and stuffing baguettes with gravy from stock and a few homemade crisps or chips on the side (even make coleslaw if u save a carrot or two and some cabbage etc)
Absolutely nothing left from the chicken. Suddenly that chicken dinner just became very cheap! May pay a £1 or two more for a bigger chicken but in the long run it works out way cheaper.
Also stir fry with any bits of veg you have is another alternative to day 2 or 3.

Potato hash is nice and cheap and can make bucket loads at once.
Just learning basic cooking skills will save you a fortune and you can pretty much make any fakeaway but much cheaper, healthier and tastier.

I'm no chef but I'm adept and self taught. I feed my hubby, daughter and myself daily on fresh protein and veg for less than £2 each a day and we even have a treat of rump steak once a fortnight. I've never used a pasta sauce from a jar, my veg soup (easily becomes chicken or beef and veg soup) is made from veg cuttings I freeze everyday and when I have enough I make into soup. Once whizzed up nobody knows any different. Loads of these recipes and ideas. Just takes a bit of organisation, trial and error and patience. Also helps that anything new I try and create becomes a family fun time going through the taste and visual tests. Made some real clangers 🤢🤭 but also some amazing meals for practically nothing. Buy veg in bulk but prep your meals so you don't buy anything that will be wasted. Check out butchers and talk to butcher about cheap cuts, butchers are only to happy to educate people but people seem embarrassed to approach a butcher shop. Hope this helps at least one person in anyway...

Cabbage soup is probably the least expensive thing anyone can make in bulk and I love it. Don’t ask for a recipe - I literally don’t have one. I eyeball everything. My Mom’s friends wanted the recipe for Christmas one year and I tried to write it out but it just doesn’t work that way. Anyway, what I’m saying is that it’s a great way to make a bunch of soup out of not a lot of expensive ingredients. I make it in bulk and freeze in single serving sizes. Perfect easy, yummy, budget friendly goodness.

Soup, and grilled cheese sandwiches. Sometimes I substitute the soup with ramen.

Prices in Canada have been affected by inflation, but two whole loaves of bread where I go are $7, cheese slices are less than $5, butter is $6, and store brand ramen is usually sold as 6 packs for $3, or something low like that.

Any cheap pasta and any cheap tomato sauce... you can make the taste better with your favourite spices and it you have instant comfort food...

Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich. Cheap and it is my go-to comfort food

Peanut butter toast. Super delicious and crunchy with a nutty flavor.

Really cheap and easy to make is rice with eggs and peas. Rice made in the rice cooker with boullion flavour of choice (3 cups uncooked rice with 4 packets of boullion). 4 hardboiled eggs chopped. Heat a bowl of frozen peas. Mix together and you're set. Delicious, filling, simple, and serves 3-4 people. I buy an 8kg (roughly 40+ cups) bag of rice for $12, 16 packet box of boullion for $3, a dozen eggs for $3.50, 1kg bag of frozen peas for $2.

White rice topped with refried beans, any sauce/stew lying around, finally chopped cabbage and a dollop of sour cream. Simpler than you think but holy cow is it good.

Ramen noodles.

Oatmeal, oatmeal everything. In the most dire of situations all you need is water to turn it into porridge and just a little keeps you going a long time.

I love cooking. Personally, I cook creamy lemon pasta (recipe on NYT cooking) but for an easy one, spinach fried in olive oil, garlic, lemon zest and juice, or grilled cheese with canned tomato soup (I make homemade tomato soup lol) a tip for the grilled cheese is mayonnaise on the outside… makes it crispier and tangier.

The best thing to come out of a major recession is it causes people to show their individuality and creativity. Dollar General was my dirty little secret, and when HLN did a story on them, it kinda ruined it. And enjoy seasonable veggies from local business. Don’t look at it like suffering and doing without. Look at it like accepting a challenge, and making more with less. (Confession: I’ve been replacing ketchup and mustard with the cheaper brand in the more expensive containers - for YEARS - no one noticed yet. And I’m not sorry *S*)

Lentils, onion, garlic, bacon.

One of my kids faves is something we called "ghetto enchiladas" (please don't get offended, I was a single mom on a very tight income no child support all that) A bag of frozen burritos (whatever's your fave) smothered in red or green sauce, cheese and black olives (or whatever toppings you like) bake it at 350 for about 30 minutes serve with sour cream and there were never any left. Takes 1/8th of the time to make, and it cost maybe 15 bucks to make. Kids are grown now and still love it.