This summer I'm gonna eat beans, soup, grits, and oatmeal.
Then I'm going to bathe myself in excess money a la Scrooge McDuck
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This summer I'm gonna eat beans, soup, grits, and oatmeal.
Then I'm going to bathe myself in excess money a la Scrooge McDuck
Yup yup... it doesn't get any cheaper than ramen. I just have to add hot sauce to liven it up.
Shit's so bad for you...delicious, but high in salt and sat fats
cheap hot dogs, mac n cheese, hot sauce.
i agree that hot sauce will make anything cheap taste better.
Egg sandwiches are great.
Hot dogs is one of those things though,
if it's the cheap stuff, I won't eat it.
Ball park franks are that weird median of decent hot dogs that I can actually ingest.
I do peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day for lunch,
I eat out on wednesdays with coworkers.
I do like eating hamburgers though,
I usually buy 80/20 ground meat and make my own burgers.
I do like baking chicken too.
My actually eating costs ranges from 2-3 dollars a day.
Maybe a little more for the operating costs of using the range.
Yes, noodles kill my stomach,Quote:
Originally Posted by Segata_Sanshiro
I usually get around to feeling it the next day in the morning if I eat at night.
Also, it's not delicious, it has msg.
The msg is a chemical that interacts with chemicial receptors in your brain
and tells those receptors that what you're eating tastes better than what it does.
Like putting a pretty bow on a javelina.
But yes, high in salt, and noodles are actually prepared by being flash fried in oil.
It's amazingly cheap, but I wouldn't recommend it more than a couple times a week.
I grew up on it as a kid and nowadays my stomach can't take eating it.
I was just thinking about this the other day - there is a Jimmy Johns right next door to me. I pick up a few day old breads for 48 cents. Buy a 3 or 4 dollar jar of spaghetti sauce and some cheese. It makes great pizza subs in the toaster oven. you have about 6 lunches for under 8$. Compare that to the 6 dollar meal you would spend if you bought the regular food there.
We buy that bread and use it for tons of other things as well - croutons, meatball subs, garlic bread.
During the week we eat fairly cheap and use Groupons on the weekends. When I'm on the road I eat delivery food every single night.... it gets old really fast. Thanks to per diem though I don't really have to pay for it :)
the whole chicken is a godsend for cheap eating. you can often get three here for 9 euro, bit of salt, bit of pepper, and some garlic powder. roast em up and you got enough to last you for a week if not more. that and a few tins of heinz beans=dinners for a week.
I've taken a facny to cous cous lately, cheap and pretty filling too. Add bit of smoked sausage into the mix and your good to go :D
The trick is to avoid ready-made stuff and prepare the food yourself. A few pounds of potatoes, onions, eggs, flour, beans, coffee and bacon, as well as fresh fruit and the occasional fish are enough to bring you over a month or two and will be considerably cheaper than feeding on overpriced frozen pizza, instant soups, burgers or other stuff like that.
Then again, quality food should be the last thing to skimp on.
Cous Cous?
Is that kind of like fried rice?
Sausage costs too much.
Every once in awhile I'll see sausages combo'd with coupons for other things.
That's the only time I ever (I can really afford to) pick them up.
Couscous looks like rice but AFAIK it's some sort of soaked wheat.
Not very fond of it tbh.
Neither am I.Quote:
Originally Posted by Takumaji
I agree with the above. Noting beats preparing a fresh king salmon meal that comes out to only around $5.00-$6.00 per person. Only downside is its rather time consuming to prepare a full meal from scratch. I don't mind doing so as cooking, especially BBQing, is a hobby of mine but I can see why some people don't want to deal with it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Takumaji
Practice makes perfect, the more you cook, the faster you'll get. I still remember the days when making a normal pasta sauce was a challenge, now it's something I do between two beers, and all I need are a couple of ripe tomatoes, onions, garlic, salt, pepper and oregano. For about $5, you'll get enough pasta sauce for four, add another buck or two for two packs of spaghetti and you'll have an inexpensive and fresh meal. I have a thing for simple but tasty recipes like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by gum_drops
The problem with soup is the typically high amount of sodium in it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Takumaji
I'm Scottish, used to eating shite and thinking it's Raymond Blanc's finest creation :lolz:Quote:
Originally Posted by Broback
When I was in high school, my daily lunch consisted of 2 Dr. Peppers and a Cup O Noodle. Looking back on it, it's a miracle of science that I survived.
In my high school days I'd often just eat a honey bun and some milk, and save the extra dollar to buy SNES and Genesis games after a couple of weeks. How the hell did I live like that?
trader joes makes an extremely good (for a jarred) pasta sauce for $1.00. combine with a pound of pasta and you have a few meals for $2. eating cheap doesnt mean eating bad. start using coupons. a dozen eggs can be had for less than $1 at aldi. also aldi (if there is one near you) is a great place for food on the cheap. there is a lot of great food there not just ultra generics. just sayin.
For the longest time I would eat that as a snack along with milk when I worked nights.Quote:
Originally Posted by GohanX
If it wasn't for the old housekeeping ladies that invited me to eat with them at night,
that's all I would have ever ate.
fuck the soup and noodles...
water and toast is where it's at. j\k
I get a lunch where I work. We get a ridiculous amount of food (soup or salad and an entree), so I either save some for dinner or eat it all and I won't be hungry for dinner. I'm sure its ridiculous unhealthy to eat it everyday but I consider it part of my total compensation and take full advantage of it.
While in college, I survived off Turkey sandwiches, quesadillas with canned beans, pasta with marinara sauce and chicken and rice. All cheap shit, if you buy on sale. Also, I used to buy beef jerky in bulk and mixed-nuts packettes to snack on during the day.
Yeah I forgot that Spaghetti is cheap
Toast, that's not a bad idea. Get some wheat bread for $2, cook it in a pan two slices at a time
What about tortillas + something else? Whole bunch of dishes you can make with tortillas, trust me...I know :lolz:
With canned stuff, meat doesn't have to be expensive. Those sardines are a bit salty but it's nothing that can't be leeched out before eating.
see i wish i could do stuff like that in this house. but since my girl and i are living with her parents when i cook i have to cook for them too, and they're very traditional irish folks. if there's no potatoes with a meal they wont eat it, if there's anything other than just salt and pepper on their roast chicken they complain. and they like the skin a bit chewy and not crunchy with that snap to it. so in short cooking for them is a difficult process of breaking my urge to be creative with all i've learned in kitchens and classes, and trying to give food flavor, while still keeping its plainness for them. only time they ever step outside of their norm is when they order the odd indian take away. also i'm cuban, and after all the cooking my ma taught me growing up having to cook plain jane everything well its a little soul crushing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gigaton Chode
though i agree with you on the soup thing. a few tomatoes, some chicken stock, cream, crushed garlic, sliced onion, roasted red bell pepper, and a big pot to boil it all down in wont cost you an arm and a leg. throw in a pinch of basil, some rosemary, salt, cracked black pepper, paprika, thyme, and a pinch of sugar, and whip out the kitchen aid immersion blender to make it a proper smooth soup and you've got a tomato soup that will make about a week of lunches. one thing i do like about living here though is the seafood. lobsters are cheap, scallops are cheap, monk fish, octopus, crab, its all cheap and fresh caught every morning. you head down to one of the many fish markets and you can stock up on anything you need. this weekend i paid about 30 euro for a pound of scallops, a kilo of lobster, half a kilo of crab meat, and a pound of white bait (little anchovy type fish), i might go back there and pick up the makings of a paella next week. but for now i'm just glad with the big haul of fish i got for next to nothing. with as cheap as the fish is here i could put together a big pot of gumbo or chowder, an etoufe, anything, and it'd last me a good while on leftovers alone.
so in short another suggestion for cheap eating: move close to the coast.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Takumaji
I guess it depends on how it's prepared. The last time I made it I used fresh chicken stock for liquids, made a huge difference in taste compared to using other liquids. The feel of the grain feels like cream of wheat like bigger cubes of it like the difference between table salt and hawaiian salt in size. Might be a bad comparison since most of you probably never seen hawaiian salt.Quote:
Originally Posted by Broback
I've had freshly prepared Couscous and liked it to some extend but really hate the instant stuff, gives you a grainy mouthfeel even if you let it soak for hours. Guess Couscous is one of those dishes that look simple on the first look but require some experience to get it right, similar to Italian Risotto. One mistake and you'll end up with a mortar-like rice mud that will turn your stomach upside down.Quote:
Originally Posted by Xian Xi
carl weathers on eating cheap
I know the feeling, Everyone i know have at least 2 big bags of potato's in there kitchen lol, but this thread is really good, cause i must admit i spend about 80euro a week on food :(Quote:
Originally Posted by John Terry
there's a fish market in finglas called taste of the sea, its cheaper than any fish shop i've been to, and there's always some type of fish on special offer. if you're a seafood guy, give em a look. as for meats though i've got a decent rapport with the butcher's in ongar and they cut us a decent deal from time to time. i remember at christmas i got a whole turkey, spiced beef, three pounds of sausage meat, 6 pounds of mince, and loads of black and white pudding for about 80 euro. they're good for a deal from time to time, get in good with a butcher near you it'll help.Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleiDog
Thanks for the tip, This thread is also making me very very hungry
The best way to eat cheaply is to date an anorexic on WiC.
http://www.fox5sandiego.com/videobet...7-5d153b6a97c0
Eating on a dollar a day.
The biggest mistake with Risotto is when people try to be creative and add things to it that defy the meaning of Risotto. I once saw on a menu, pomegranate risotto. I even asked how the pomegranate was incorporated and they said it was more of a topping with whole pomegranates, yuck.Quote:
Originally Posted by Takumaji
The tortilla is unnecessary. Just cook a pot of beans, some rice, add some chopped cilantro and a jalapeno to the rice with a little olive oil, and some chopped spinach, and put it in a bowl, topped with cholula and mango hot sauce.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yue
Meal.
PB & J and home made pizza, And if I eat out I bring my own soda.
50 packs of ramen for $8. Not the best or healthiest thing, but its cheap. 99c store can be your friend at times.
I personally like to cook things from scratch, depending on what you make, it can be really cheap, or very expensive. I make a pot of rice and pop it in the fridge, use it for a few days-a week depending on how much I make. I also make some random stuff to go with it some seasoned ground beef, chicken (half a breast) with some random vegetables and or bread. Then I put on my hot pink apron with Bobaks pic on it and bake some brownies :D
Oh...ever heard of flautas, enchiladas, tacos, tacos dorados, tacos suaves, chilaquiles, quesadillas, burritos, etc. Tortillas are a staple in Mexico for a reason: you can do lots of stuff with it! And don't tell me a lot of people in Mexico don't eat cheap. I mean to say you can eat cheap with a bit of variety with them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Agent Sands
Though I like the meal you came up with lol.
Ugh, pomegranate Risotto... that's not creativity, that's grasping for strawls. I dislike some of the current food trends, like stuffing chocolate in everything. Ah well, the food snobs will gulp it down anyway and it will make them feel really cool and state-of-the-art and whatnot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Xian Xi
Of course I know about the versatility of tortillas, and I have been eating enough flautas and burritos to be mistakenly deported to Mexico. But over the past month I have been trying to cut out the unnecessary parts of my meals, and I figure tortilla is definitely there. I only use tortillas if I am packing a lunch and don't want to bring a container. If I am at home, I can put everything from my burrito in a bowl without the tortilla.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yue
Totally agree.Quote:
Originally Posted by Agent Sands
But we're talking about eating cheap, and a whole bunch of stuff can be eaten by itself, without the bread, tortillas or whatever.
Tortillas are cheap but we can eat well enough without them.
Middle ground reached? =)
They have fat free hotdogs now
Bought some. They're not nearly as bad as veggie dogs
I hate to be contrarian here, but have you noticed that once you go beyond flour tortillas, the prices almost double? Whole wheat tortillas should not cost more, but they do. Probably go for dirt cheap in Mexico though, since they don't have the same marketing there as here.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yue
Lately, my roomate and I have been cutting down on food costs. We will go to our local cheaper version of a corner market and find some good food for cheap prices. We would get a pack of 8 big chicken drums for $2.30 and do half BBQ style/Hot Wing style, or a fresh 12oz pork tenderloin for $5 cooked on the grill. Just use side items to fill you up. You don't have to eat close to 1lb of meat every meal. I also make am Indian curry beef dish with stew meat, Patak's curry paste, broth, potatoes, carrots, onions, garbanzo beans, tomato puree and can tomatoes, then serve it over rice. I cook it kinda like a low liquid stew, lol. It will last for 3 days as left overs and I don't get tired of it.
When we buy a good quality steak, we just get one big 22oz ribeye for $12 and cut it in half after we cook it. It really saves when you cook for more than one person. We just throw our money together and make a meal. I rarely eat out these days and hate spending the money along with driving to these places constantly. I occasionally will hit up Taco Bell for some fresco tacos late at night due to no choice other than the drug store.
Eating cheap is effortless. Eating heathly will break you.
It's easy to eat healthy. Past few months I have changed my eating habits. Dropped meat and all animal products. I get most of my protein from quinoa and nuts. My intake of green vegetables has skyrocketed. I was only able to run 2 miles max at a time, and now I am running 5 to 6 miles every other day without breaks. And all through this, my grocery costs have dropped.Quote:
Originally Posted by Clessy
The problem as I see it is time. People who work 40 hours a week or take a full class load will not want to spend time cooking for themselves or preparing their food. When you're buying a finished product, often the ingredients would be things that you don't want.