Hubby and I will be moving soon, and money will be very very tight. How can we eat (decently) on the least amount of cash?
Buy rice and beans in bulk to start. That will let you make a base for many things for next to nothing. For instant meals, ramen noodles and instant mac and cheese are the students old stanby.
Lots of good hints in this previous thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=163315&highlight=bulk+food+freeze
What it boils down to is that you can spend time or money. If you can’t spend money, then you need to spend some time. By this I mean shopping carefully so that you get a deal, maybe going a little further to a cheaper store, buying and cooking in bulk, freezing it etc.
It depends on what you like, and your diet. Rice, pasta and beans are cheap. I bought a pound of blackeyed peas for under a dollar, and added some hamhocks that cost $2.50. I had a small bowl Wednesday, a larger bowl on Thursday, and another yesterday. I have two big servings left. Ditto collard greens with hamhocks.
Buy your ground beef five pounds at a time. It’s usually cheaper when it’s packaged that way. I put 1/2 pounds into ziplock bags and freeze it, pulling a packet out when I need it. Adding 1/2 pound of ground beef to a jar of spaghetti sauce and pasta will make four or five good servings, and it will be cheap.
Ramen. 'Nuff said.
Peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Vegemite sandwiches (yum!). Sandwiches are cheap.
Pizza recipes can be gotten off of the internet. It’s cheaper than buying one at the store, or ordering one from a take-out.
Get a “club card” from your market. I bought a pound of Hormel bacon for $1.99 with a Cost Cutter card, while the non-card price was $5.99.
Of course, most of my suggestions are carb-rich. If you’re an a carbohydrate-restricted diet, it’s a little harder. But in any case, I’ve found it’s cheaper to take advantage of “family size” pricing and freeze the excess for later use. I’ve also found that it’s cheaper to cook a lot and store the rest. (But then, I’m used to Bachelour Kibble – leftovers!)
Speaking of leftovers, I could get four or more meals out of a single lunch! There was an Italian place I used to frequent. I’d order the prime rib sandwich. At lunch: Eat the salad and two pieces of garlig bread. Eat the three onion rings. Take two pieces of garlic bread (they were half slices) and make two prime rib sandwiches for two more meals. Eat the cole slaw and the pickle for another lunch or a mid-afternoon snack. Re-heat the French fries in the oven (so they’re crisp) for yet another meal. Not bad for eleven bucks (including tax and tip)!
Similarly, lunches at a Mexican restaurant would result in at least a dinner; sometimes dinner and breakfast. Two or three meals, $7 (including tax and tip).
But for cheap meals, beans are great. Don’t like black eyed peas? Use pinto beans instead! Don’t like hamhocks? Make 'em without! Frijoles negros? Add cumin.
Rice? I like it plain. But I’ve also added a tin of shrimp, a tin of mixed vegetables, and some soy sauce, and cooked it with vegetable broth instead of water. Rice with peas is good, too.
Salmon isn’t exactly cheap (even up here), but it’s not too dear and is a great meal. Try it with Soy Vay Very Very Teriyaki. Can’t be beat! Go ahead and spend eight bucks for a nice fillet. Buy a bottle of Soy Vay (about $6, but you’ll have plenty for later). Cook it in the oven. Make some white rice (pennies), and some sort of veggie. (I like asparagus.) A bit more expensive than a “mess-o-beans”, but a nice treat and it probably won’t destroy your budget once a week. (FWIW, Trader Joe’s has good salmon at a good price. I wish they’d open a Trader Joe’s up here.)
[ul]
[li]Everything from scratch. None of these handy-dandy envelopes of side dishes where you add water and heat.[/li]
[li]Forego any hopes of what you might have for dinner next week. Go to the grocery store weekly and purchase only things on sale (exceptions being staples that you are out of and must have). Then, make your meals out of what you have on hand.[/li]
[li]If something is on a particularly good sale, buy a couple of them.[/li]
[li]Make a conscious effort when you walk into the store that you are not going to “treat” yourself to anything. Or at least, keep your treat to something under five dollars and only buy a single treat. There’s no sense in utterly depriving yourself, but you must be conscious of what you are buying and when.[/li]
[li]If you do get that familiar urge to eat out, eat in instead. That is, buy a roasted chicken or something from the deli at the grocery store. You can turn what would have been a $40 meal into under $15 if you’re cautious.[/li]
[li]This may or may not work for you…I’m a low-carber. Since I went low-carb a few years back, I find that I genuinely eat less. Sticking to veggies, proteins and fats staves my hunger and does so effectively for hours at a time.[/li]
[li]Make the choice to eat less at every sitting. Not only could most people use this approach to their health’s advantage, it will also lower your food costs. Within a couple of weeks of making concious decisions to reduce the amount you eat at a sitting, you will actually begin to eat less because of reduced want. A 4 to 5 ounce serving of the main dish will become the new norm and your body will be quite happy with it.[/li]
[li]Eat only when you’re hungry. Avoid the late-night snacking that not only frequently contributes empty calories, but also tends to be of bags or boxes of relatively expensive foods. Eating out of boredom or habit can significantly increase your food costs.[/li]
Of course, not all of these might work for you and your hubby. It depends in part on the lifestyle you currently live. Good luck, though. It is very possible to drastically reduce food costs, eat savoury meals, and not go away hungry.
[/ul]
Shagnasty beat me to the rice and beans, because I was being typically verbose. 
I forgot to mention hot wings. Get a bag of chicken wings (segmented) for eight bucks. Get a bottle of Frank’s Red Hot sauce. If you eat half a dozen wings at a sitting, this will last you quite a while. You can use some of that Very Very Teriyaki you bought for the salmon to change things up a bit. 
If you do get the desire to snack, munch an apple or a banana. Do you have a canteen at work? The food there is often subsidised.
Couple more thoughts come to mind after reading Johnny L.A.'s post:
[ul][li]If you’re buying meat, try to buy it frozen rather than fresh. It’s sometimes much cheaper without any real loss in quality. Besides, if you buy the 5-pound-chub of ground beef, you’ll end up portioning and freezing it anyway.[/li][li]Go for cheaper cuts of meat. A chuck roast or chuck steak are often tastier than expensive cuts. Of course, they are typically a tougher cut, so it will be important to marinate or cook differently. A chuck roast is my favorite by a long shot based upon flavour alone, but can be very tough and stringy, so I simply cook it in the oven at 225 or 250 for 3 to 5 hours and it comes out “like buttah”.[/li][li]Make enough at dinner to have leftovers for a few lunches or even another meal or two. If you make a pot of chili, do it in quantity and save it in 6 or 8 (or if you lack freezer space, make less and store less) empty margarine containers for another day.[/li][li]Check out your local library for cookbooks that contain casual recipes - that is, easy-to-make meals with a minimum of ingredients. When you find a recipe you like, store it. Try some out only when you have the groceries on hand (as in my last post, don’t buy ingredients just because you plan to use it in a meal, unless it’s on sale).[/li][li]Also, easy access to a huge variety of recipes at allrecipes.com.[/li][/ul]
My credentials: I grew up in a family with very little money, and learned frugality by watching my mother.
Think of bulk, nonperishable, filling foods that can be jazzed up with a variety of flavors- rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. Buy in bulk, but only if you’ll actually eat it all- you don’t save money by letting that 20-pound sack of potatoes grow into an unexpected garden in the cupboard.
Use your freezer. Save and eat all leftovers. They make a handy sack lunch to bring to work.
Avoid eating out, and stay away from snack and soda machines. Water’s better for you anyway- carry a bottle of water at work so you won’t be tempted.
Don’t let food spoil- when you buy perishables, freeze them, or else use them right away.
Get advice from your aging relatives- people who lived through the depression picked up good, reasonably tasty, ultra-cheap dishes. Plus, it’s a good way to bond with your aging relatives, who appreciate feeling needed.
In most cases, stay away from convenience foods- it’s a lot cheaper to make things yourself. And skip the things you don’t actually need- cookies, chips, booze- except on special occasions.
Don’t make yourself miserable. Find the inexpensive foods that you enjoy eating. You won’t stick to it if you’re feeling deprived. Once in a while, treat yourself to the Good Stuff. And find different ways to treat yourself. Growing up poorish, Mom used to make homemade pizza every Friday night. Tasted great, and a lot cheaper than ordering pizza.
Think about other areas than food, of course. Find the cheap ways to have fun. A walk in the public park is free, and several of the museums in my city have a ‘free day.’ Your public library has videos to watch, so you don’t have to rent or go out to the movies as often. Lots of towns have discount movie theaters. Learn new card games and dominoes games.
You’d be amazed how little furniture you actually need.
Haunt the thrift stores for the things you need. You can get good, high-quality stuff there, if you have the patience to dig through the less good stuff.
Learn to fix things. Don’t throw things away without asking yourself if they could be fixed or put to a different purpose.
If you have room, grow a vegetable garden. Cheap and yummy. In the summer, you’ll find yourself eating directly from the garden- pick, wash, eat. Learn to can, and you’ll have veggies all winter, too.
Meat is expensive compared to vegetables and grains. Eat less meat, and use it to add flavor instead of as a main dish whenever you can.
Pick up cheap and useful hobbies and skills. Learn to sew, or build things. It isn’t really usually true that sewing your clothes is a money-saver, but being able to mend them certainly is, and so is being able to make a quilt from clothes too old to wear, or make new curtains to brighten up the room.
Have fun with it. Living frugally can be a sort of game, and it can be fun to figure out cheaper and more effective ways of living.
Don’t let yourself feel ‘poor.’ Keep the house clean and attractive- use fresh-cut flowers from the garden, or bright fabrics, or whatever you like. Go for the attitude, ‘Aren’t we great, for having this much fun and such a pleasant life while not wasting money or resources,’ rather than ‘We’re poor, and have to scrimp.’
Read about environmentalism, and be proud that living frugally is easier on the earth. Read books like ‘The Tightwad Gazette’ and ‘Living More for Less’ for inspiration.
If you want to eat REALLY cheap buy a big bag of macaroni($2 tops)…a box of generic Velveeta(about $3 for 2 pounds)… a bunch of cans of tuna(around here they’re about .42 cents each)
Measure out the macaroni to equal one normal box…cut a wedge of the Velveeta and add a can of tuna and you have several meals for less than .25 each
You could eat a week for less than $8 or until you get sick of mac and cheese(if such a thing is possible) 
I don’t need to eat cheap but I do this all the time…I love mac and cheese with tuna…yum
Stir fry is a great tasty way to go.
Celery, onions, carrots, cabbage, garlic, squash all cheap as can be. Ad a modicum of your favorite meat. Voila.
Buy a gallon of olive oil.
You can eat better by spending more time than you can by spending more money. Making a stew from scratch takes more time than heating up a frozen dinner, but it is cheaper and tastes much better.
As other posters have said rice, beans, and pasta are really cheap. They are also very flexible; from rice you can make plain steamed white rice, risotto, paella, fried rice, spanish/mexican rice, rice pudding, chicken and rice, etc.
Tortillas are also a great bargain and can help extend the more expensive ingredients. For me, nothing is better for weekend breakfast than huevos rancheros.
Take advantage of ethnic markets. The food is usually better and cheaper than at a supermarket.
Don’t scrimp on the things that make a big difference. Use butter rather than margarine, buy a decent extra virgin olive oil to use for salad dressings and pasta, buy really good rice, use spices liberally. You wouldn’t flinch to pay $3/lb for meat so why not splurge on really good fruits and vegetables for the same price.
Take advantage of things when they are in season; when avocados are 5 for a dollar make lots of guacamole or bacon, lettuce, tomato, and avocado sandwiches.
Ask for labor saving appliances such as a bread machine and a rice cooker for presents. Home made bread is usually cheaper than store bought and warm bread with butter is such a luxury.
Finally, remember that time, talent, and good (not the same as expensive) ingredients will result let you eat better than 90% of Americans.
FisherQueen: what a great post!! Terrific suggestions.
And a Crock-Pot! It will save you money by being able to use cheaper cuts of meat and time by just tossing everything in and forgetting it.
Re: gardening.
Even if you’re moving to an apartment you can probably grow SOMETHING to save a little cash. If your kitchen window is sunny enough you might be able to grow leaf lettuce or herbs. If you have a balcony/patio you might be able to pull off tomatoes. There’s a special hybrid now what you grow hanging down from a suspended bucket. Stay away from things where one seed produces one food item. (For example, carrots or onions. Not cost-effective.) Look for things like that that produce a high yield from one seed. Every year in our garden we plant 4-6 tomato plants and have enough tomatoes every summer to have fresh salsa, tomato sauce, soups, salads, etc until we can’t stand any more. We then can an entire freezerful and give the rest away! AND we’ve been using the same packet of seeds for like 3-4 years. Now THAT’s value! For maybe $1 we’ve eaten hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of tomatoes.
Buy all your cheese in bulk. slice it up, seperate it and freeze what you don’t plan on using in the near future, just be carefull you can refreeze cheese a just few times before it gets kind’a funny. So only get it out when your going to use it. Make sure you freeze it in water tight storage bags. That way ou can defrost cheese quickly by putting it in a bowl of warm water. It takes about a half hour for a quart of cheese to defrost in the water.
Do they Amish live near where your moving? Amish stores are usually pertty cheap. The ones Amish shop at not the Amish themed ones of course. Plus you get to see a diesel fridge.
If you make your own pizza look for a simple petta bread recipe (just flour, bread yeast, water, and salt, nothing else). That makes the best crust.
Buy bread yeast in bulkit’s alot cheaper that way.
I thought I had mentioned in my post in the old thread, but seems I hadn’t that another good way to save money is to use all of the food.
By this I mean don’t be throwing away stuff that is still food! Let’s say you make a stir fry on friday with carrots and leek in it. Keep the tops and bottoms of the carrots and the outside leaves of the leek and make them into a stock for soup the next day. Soup is a great way to eat cheap, make your own, freeze it in portions and you can defrost it quick and easy anytime with some tasty bread.
Same goes for most stuff, buy a fresh chicken and you can eat for days from it. We would, for example, have a roast chicken on a friday night with veggies. The next day I might mix the gravy from the chicken with most of the rest of the chicken and mash the left over potatoes and put them on top and bake the whole thing in the oven, at the same time I boil up the carcass with the tops and tails of the veggies to make a really nice chicken stock, freeze half the stock for making soup later, and use half of it to make a rissotto on the sunday. Thats 3 dinners (and a couple of sandwidges) and some great stock put away for another day.
I think the key is planning and working from scratch. I wouldn’t personally go the Ramen noodle route (they have zero nutritional value; might as well drink salty water) or boil five tons of beans (you’ll soon wish you’d never seen a bean).
Plan your leftovers. Boil a chicken on Saturday (throw in some chopped onion, celery, carrot and bay leaves for taste) and turn it into four or five good dinners:
- two breasts with a gravy made from some of the broth you got when you boiled it…yummy with mashed potatoes or rice
- batter the legs & wings and fry them until the outside is crunchy…goes well with a sallad
- pick off larger pieces of body meat and freeze, you’ll be able to make a nice pasta or rice sauce
- pick off the rest of the body meat (the small bits) and freeze it for the basis for delicious chicken sallad sandwiches
- freeze the broth (I find 16oz to-go cups handy for this) to use as basis for cream of chicken soup or to make sauces
You can work similar miracles with beef or pork. All it takes is a little forethought.
Learn how to cook vegetables, especially roots, which are cheap, highly nutritious and very tasty. Potatoes, of course, are yummy, so make mashed ones for one meal and make enough to fry potato pancakes the next day or so. It’s a good idea always to try to cook for at least two meals. Boil a little extra rice one day and you can make delicious fried rice another day. Some chopped onion, peppers and a small smoked sausage and you’ve got yourself a delicious risotto for next to nothing.
I can afford to eat whatever I like, but I still cook this way. First of all, it’s healthier; secondly, it’s an interesting challenge. I take pride in serving a well-balanced, tasty meal for two that costs under $5. Of course, sometimes I just need a slab of that $12/pound prime ribeye, but that’s for a treat.
Good luck,
- PW
Get a pressure cooker.
Make beans. It takes only 40 minutes in a pressure cooker with no soaking or other fuss. Eat with rice, and maybe tortillas. Make soup, nachos, whatever if you are feeling ambitious. It’s a practically free and nutritionally just about perfect way to eat. I just had a big bowl of bean and with crumbled tortilla chips and tobasco sauce myself.
Well, I’m currently living out your question, heh. Not a lot of money, but still eat, eh, fairly decently. I guess.
Get a Sam’s Club membership. For two people, I can spend $100 and have plenty of food for 3-4 weeks. Save-A-Lots are cheap too, but there aren’t any near me, so I couldn’t say how cheap.
Buy cheese in chunks, buy a grater, and freeze. Cheese chunks are a lot cheeper that pre-grated.
I make mini pizzas with regular bread, totmato sauce and cheese. Not gourmet, but still tasty. I add garlic to the sauce, but I love garlic.
I can’t make real gravy to save my life, but the cheapest powdered stuff you can find is still quite good. I like making egg noodles and brown gravy. About $3 for a big meal for 2 people (with leftovers).
Lawrey’s s’getti sauce is cheap (powdered for about $1), but makes really good sauce. All you need is a can of tomato paste (usually 3/$1 where I shop), and you can add 1/2 lb of hamburger if you want.
Potatos are good and cheap, also (about $2 per 5lb bag here).\
Learn how to can. I don’t have a garden, but my dad does, and I help him can tomato juice and make applesauce every summer. Very easy to do. Even if you don’t have a garden, buying whole apples or tomatoes and making juice or sauce is a LOT cheaper than buying it that way. He also makes salsa.
Freeze, freeze, freeze. `Nuff said.
Yes. Make sure you always have pasta and rice, and fill your freezer with plastic bags of sauce. Plain tomato sauce can be added to all kinds of things to make great pasta and risotto, but you can pre-make in bulk and freeze almost anything to be added to pasta, rice and potatoes. Buy meat and fish in bulk and divide it up into portions to freeze.