/r/budgetfood

Photograph via snooOG

Food on a Budget

(helpful resources, favourite blogs, etc.)



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Rules

  1. Direct link submissions to blogs and recipe sites are not allowed. You may link directly to an image of the dish, and then leave a comment with the recipe that includes a link to the blog.

  2. No food safety questions, when in doubt, throw it out.

  3. No health claims, positive or negative. We are not doctors or nutritionists.

  4. Mods reserve the right to remove posts that seem spammy (this includes cross-post spam), inappropriate, or appear to be farming karma.

  5. Recipe Request rules: must include a budget within your post. If you need recipes for specific ingredients, please check out r/whatshouldicook.

  6. No low effort content.

  7. No solicitation of any kind.

  8. Be kind

  9. Follow Reddit rules.


/r/budgetfood

2,632,484 Subscribers

4

Need recipe help!

Due to some confusion on who would be buying what… I have four slightly used cheeseballs left over from thanksgiving and am unsure how to use them. I can definitely eat them as cheese and crackers but don’t want any of it to go to waste. Does anyone have any ideas on how to incorporate these into my meals over the next few weeks? There are four flavors: truffle, garlic and herb, port wine, and sharp cheddar! Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

25 Comments
2024/11/30
19:21 UTC

36

An opportunity...

If you have been trying to stretch your food budget and live in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana and have a Winn Dixie (and potentially Harvey's) near you, this might be an opportunity to keep an eye on.

Last summer Aldi bought SE Groceries and they are closing some of the Winn Dixie's to convert them into Aldi's.

Yesterday I went into one of the Winn Dixie stores that is closing near me on Sunday. All food was 75% off and all health and household stuff was 95% off. There wasn't a big selection left but I was able to buy several pkgs of dry beans, jars of mayo, peanut butter, sauces, salad dressing, crackers, soda, snacks, canned soups, olive oil, and more, plus three bottles of vitamins, a lot of things I haven't been able to afford lately. I bought 68 items, $248.00 worth of groceries, I spent a grand total of $40.46.

It's been such a struggle lately and it felt like someone just gave me a huge Christmas gift.

4 Comments
2024/11/30
18:39 UTC

0

Why are there no $1.00lb post harvest hams, anywhere?

Every Thanksgiving there are hams marked down the following 2 days after Thanksgiving. Why not this year?

11 Comments
2024/11/30
16:58 UTC

37

Pro tip: turkeys and hams after thanksgiving/xmas

If you have a large freeezer, grocery stores almost give away turkeys and hams after Christmas. I bought a full ham for about 7 dollars last year. They are so large and bulky they need to get rid of them quick to open up space in the coolers.

4 Comments
2024/11/28
20:07 UTC

85

Baked pumpkin.🎃

Pumpkin is super cheap right now!

Recepie-

Cut pumpkin in half, scoop out seeds and quarter.

(I put olive oil and salt/pepper on before I baked mine but you don't have to.)

Bake Pumpkin at 375 for 55 mins covered.

Serve with butter and brown sugar.

13 Comments
2024/11/28
02:50 UTC

24

What are the cheapest places to shop?

Need to tighten the budget, but I'm already buying generic and shopping at ALDI.

42 Comments
2024/11/28
02:23 UTC

22

Dollarama Budget Meal

Hey y'all, I made up this under $10 meal for grocery items from Dollarama I thought i'd share for those in a pinch. This meal can serve up to 2 people. If you try it let me know how it turns out for you!

3 Comments
2024/11/27
08:04 UTC

2,609

Is this actually a thing? 10 person Thanksgiving for only $58?

I canNOT wrap my head around how who’s could be possible. I’m assuming they filled their basket at a low cost shop. And probably didn’t include all the “extras”. I.e. spices , herbs, butters/oils, flour, beverages, yada yada.

That being said. What’s your estimated Thanksgiving cost & for how many people, I’m super curious.

2129 Comments
2024/11/26
20:53 UTC

85

Does anyone else keep a running tally of food costs when grocery shopping?

I always add up the cost of each item and add 9% at the end to get a feel for what I’m paying for at the counter. Anyone else?

93 Comments
2024/11/26
00:23 UTC

22

Slow cooker cheesy chicken stew(?)

https://preview.redd.it/jxk3bkwkey2e1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c69ac9bab4175d0792cc49d46eecb14468415cb

Tonight I was trying to recreate something I had made previously that ended up much closer to a soup, and accidentally ended up with something felt more like a stew. The up front cost may seem a little high depending on your preferred ingredients (I live in the midwest, arrived at $22.45 ignoring sales and accounting for unused ingredients), but by the time cooking is done it fills a 6 qt crockpot and it's decently filling--my leftovers filled a large casserole dish and about half of a medium-sized tupperware container. I'm not really a skilled cook so this could probably use some refinement but hopefully it's a good base for someone else!

Ingredients (separated roughly by order of addition to pot):
--------------------
5 carrots
6 potatoes (~1.5-2.5lb?)
3 chicken breasts

1 stick salted butter
4 cups chicken broth

3 cups heavy cream
1.5 cups Parmesan
2 cups mozzarella

Steps
--------------------

  1. coat bottom of cooker with olive oil
  2. cube chicken, slice potatoes/carrots and add to pot
  3. Add broth, stir everything around a bit
  4. Add butter
  5. Cover, cook on low for 6.5 hours
  6. Add heavy cream, stir thoroughly
  7. Add Parmesan and mozzarella, stir thoroughly
  8. Cover, cook on low for 1 hr
  9. season to taste, add flour for thickness as needed (1/2 cup for modest improvement--may be difficult to dissolve into the liquid)
4 Comments
2024/11/25
01:56 UTC

33

Trader Joe’s squash is 1.99 EACH, any size or variety

I bought a squash when I traveling last September. It was 1.99 a lb. Almost 9 bucks for damn squash

6 Comments
2024/11/23
20:41 UTC

792

Reminder that turkey before Thanksgiving is the cheepest meat you can get all year.

At my local grocery store its 59c a pound. They keep well in the freezer. I will buy at least 4. 1 for Thanksgiving, 1 for Christmas, 1 I'll quarter, and 1 or 2 for ground turkey. Then make a few gelatinous stocks from the carcasses. Stay cheap my friends.

106 Comments
2024/11/23
16:30 UTC

52

lidl france, 17,50€

lidl france 17,50€, we got nutella biscuit again, i missed it :,3

13 Comments
2024/11/23
12:48 UTC

177

Wild rice chicken casserole from 2 days ago

It’s still cooling! Will report back in the comments.

26 Comments
2024/11/21
23:22 UTC

64

$30 meal for 4?

I just offered to cook tonight for my brother and his wife and daughter as a last minute thing as they will not be available next week.

He's insisted it doesn't need to be anything fancy which is good because a usual I'm broke, but I still want a lot of food since this is basically our Thankagiving.

I've roughly priced out a "mock Thanksgiving" but with chicken instead of turkey:

Drumsticks baked with a bread crumb coating, loaded mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing, mac n cheese, green beans with bacon, some kind of spicy Cajun vegetable soup with rice and whatever I have, garlic toast, chips and celery sticks with cream cheese dip, maybe a pot of beans if there's time. (I better put that on now..).

I can get a big pack of drumsticks for 99 cents a pound, cornbread mix for a dollar, French bread from the store bakery for a dollar, already have green beans, and celery can be used in three dishes. Just making tea for drinks. So I was like sure let's just do the simple thing and then ask them to bring a dessert.

I have most of the common pantry staples at home already and cheese, sour cream, butter, milk. I feel like I could do something more exciting or scrap the Thanksgiving theme altogether, but on short notice my brain is freezing up, any ideas?

41 Comments
2024/11/21
17:16 UTC

43

What is a good high protein breakfast that is budget friendly

I love eggs mixed with bacon and sausage. I lift weights. It's getting expensive to buy the jimmy dean 8 pack breakfast sandwiches. I want something I can prep fast on Sunday

66 Comments
2024/11/21
02:48 UTC

46

Got two 16 pound turkeys for less than $10

If you live near a Giant grocery store and still need a bird, they have them super cheap!

11 Comments
2024/11/20
17:26 UTC

177

One-pot Korean Army Stew (Budae Jjigae)

14 Comments
2024/11/20
16:59 UTC

14

Thanksgiving Dinner

What are you guys making for main,sides,and desserts? Just looking for som inspo.

37 Comments
2024/11/20
13:15 UTC

181

Monday morning market $15.50

I like to go later in the morning when they start to mark things down. You have to check things over pretty well to avoid the bad things. And I wash it all when I get home to make sure I know what needs to be used soonest. So far, I’ve found one yellow squash that has to be thrown away but all in all, I’m pleased with my haul, in Central Florida.

21 Comments
2024/11/18
17:44 UTC

33

$5 dinner ideas?

My partner and I are working towards moving out for the first time and we're looking at a $300 monthly food budget. That puts us at $2 for breakfast, $2 for lunch, and $6 for dinner combined (not $6 per serving). We're from Canada so this is closer to $4.25 USD. We also follow a vegan lifestyle.

Any recommendations for vegan meals for two that stays within our $6 budget? Also open to lunch/breakfast or even very cheap snack ideas.

So far we've got stuff like beans and rice, stir-fry, soups, bean tacos, and pastas. For breakfast/lunch, we've got cereal, oatmeal, chia cups, toast with nut butter/spreads, veggies or crackers and hummus, smoothies, pancakes, bagels, pre-prepped breakfast burritos.

48 Comments
2024/11/18
04:58 UTC

93

Stock up on frozen turkeys if you have the room to store them.

Search around and look for deals because in today’s world you won’t find cheaper protein unless you have your own farm. We have 4 turkeys in the freezer right now:

Turkey 1 was bought shortly after our primary grocery store put their stock out. Cost $1.89/lb and I was okay with that because we got the exact size we wanted for Thanksgiving. We got a 21 lb bird

Turkey 2 was free based on our rewards points from our primary store. Roughly 18 lb bird.

Turkey 3 was on sale for $0.79/ lb. Got a 10.5 lb bird

Turkey 4 was on sale for $0.39/lb as long as you are signed up for their rewards program. Got a 13.5 to 14.5 bird.

I probably could have done better than this with a little more patience and with a little bit of risk taking - especially if we tried to buy after Thanksgiving. Overall I’m content with the results.

Deals are out there if you’re willing to buy in bulk.

60 Comments
2024/11/18
01:38 UTC

334

Baked potatoes are my biggest budget food hack

Hi there, I hope you all have a splendid Sunday. Sending good vibes. Let's talk about baked potatoes. For me they're the ultimate budget food hack. I buy potatoes in bulk and usually do a tray of baked potatoes at least once a week. A few of them will be eaten directly as lovely baked potatoes 😍.

But I will let the bulk cool out and put them in the fridge. Here they last a few days and they are a great base for some quick meals:

Breakfast potatoes: just dice a few of the baked potatoes from the fridge and fry them up in a pan. Add some onions garlic paprika and whatever other leftovers you have, like sausage or meat and add a few eggs in the end. Cheap and powerful breakfast.

Potato salad: just dice the baked potatoes and add some mayonnaise, onion, gherkins and paprika and you have a quick potato salad.

Hash browns: just shred them in a bowl and combine with some flour, egg, salt, pepper and spices. You can even add herbs or cheese.

Twice baked potatoes: just soup them out, fill them to your liking and quickly heat them up in the oven or microwave.

Potato burrito: Mash, shred or just cut the baked potato and fry in a pan with some eggs, cheese, bacon and other available leftovers. Fill in a tortilla.

Potato soup: just peel and blend the potato with some broth, milk and seasonings and you have a simple potato soup.

Loaded potato skillet: cut the baked potatoes up and saute with some onion, garlic, peppers and other available leftovers. Then top with cheese and eggs.

I hope this can inspire some of you and maybe help a little. Thank you.

78 Comments
2024/11/17
10:16 UTC

109

How do you deal with the rising food prices? What changed in your shopping over the last time?

Hi there, sending good vibes to you all. Hope all of you are having a nice weekend. So I have a question, how are you dealing with the rising food prices? Did you change your diet or shopping behavior? What did you change?

My Grandmother always used to keep a little notebook about her grocery costs. And I continued this tradition. And I recently went through my books and just thought about how much food costs increased over the last few years. Now I would love to hear how others deal with this situation.

257 Comments
2024/11/16
20:08 UTC

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