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Needing cheap dinner ideas. They need to be kid friendly (3 kids all 3 and under) and budget friendly too. What are your favorites?

I've been looking into historical cooking stuff, as a curiosity. And I tried the recipe from this video, about recipes formulated for working-class families who needed to stretch their money out. The recipes are pretty vague, by their nature, but I ended up using:

• 2 lbs pork stew meat (if I scaled the recipe up, I might have used a whole pork shoulder for an even cheaper per-pound cost), cut into small pieces
• 1 large onion, peeled and diced
• about 1 Tbsp minced garlic, or 3-4 cloves minced
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 1 turnip, peeled and diced
• 2 yukon gold potatoes (or any potatoes that are convenient), peeled and diced
• 6 quarts water
• chicken/pork/beef bouillon, optional (adds to the stock)
• 2 Cups whole oats, ground into a powder
• 1-2 Bay Leaves, optional
• dried Thyme or Parsley, optional
• Salt and Pepper, to taste

While the historical recipe was pretty simple, I added a few steps that felt more common in a modern kitchen, and would add a bit of extra flavor.

1. Add any fat trimmings from your meat to a large pot over medium heat, and let the fat render out. Once the fat's been rendered, you can pull the pieces out, or leave them in the stew.
2. Liberally season the meat with salt and pepper, add it to the pot, and brown in batches. Remove everything, and set it aside for now.
3. Add your onions, and cook for 3-4 minutes, until transluscent and softened. Take a bit of time to scrape up the fond from the meat. Add your garlic during the last minute, and cook everything together until the garlic is fragrant.
4. Add the meat back in, along with your water and bouillon (if using) and bring everything to a boil. Add any herbs or spices you're using, if you wish. Reduce to a simmer, and let it sit for 45 minutes. This will infuse the water with proteins from the meat, and add richness and flavor to your stock.
5. Add your root vegetables (carrots, turnips, potatoes), and your oat flour. Stir to break up any lumps in the oats, but this isn't necessary. Cook for another 15 minutes, and then taste and season with salt and pepper.

The oats will thicken the liquid slightly, giving it a lot of body. I used some things I already had in my pantry, like oats. But overall I made this for about $12, and got 16 cups of stew (about 8 meals).

If I were to review the recipe, I could add maybe twice as many vegetables to bulk up the stew without much more to the total cost. But it's a really flavorful stew, that's rich in protein and quite filling (especially with bread).

I’m just looking for easy chicken meals but recipes online always have tons of ingredients I never have how do you guys make your stir fry’s? What sauces are good? And don’t require tons of ingredients besides chicken veggies a sauce and a few seasonings but still simple?

I went to Domino's today and got the extravaganza. It wasn't overly expensive but I realized the pizza wasn't really more coated with toppings despite there being more toppings on the order. I feel like when you get multiple toppings they just put less of each one on the pizza and it ends up containing the same total volume of toppings as there would be with fewer number of toppings.

Has anyone done the math? Is there some optimum formula where you can maximize topping content while minimizing cost?

Also (as an aside) how do they get away with charging more per topping if they don't provide the same amount of that topping? If I order a 3 topping pizza, for instance, I should get the same number of pepperonis, peppers and onions as they would put on a one topping pizza with each of those toppings. If not, they shouldn't charge per topping; they should perhaps charge by total mass of all the toppings instead of the number of different toppings (the quantity of which is determined by the person making the pizza).

It doesn't take any additional time for the pizza maker to put a different topping on the pizza since they're literally just in bins in front of them. Therefore it's simply a matter of food volume. If I'm paying more for another topping, I should be getting more total food. The pizza should actually weigh more. Otherwise it's not worth the cost.

We eat these once a week. They're tasty, easy, and cheap. Three of them are an adult meal.

Ingredients: corn tortillas, refried beans, salsa, a bag of grated Mexican cheese.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread out tortillas on cookie sheet(s) and bake until they're crisp. Let them sit for a minute until they get cool enough to handle. Spread refried beans on each - a can is enough for 6-8 tortillas. Dollop a tablespoon of salsa on top and spread it around. Top with grated cheese - the bag is enough for 12-16 tostadas. Put back into the oven until the cheese is melted.

In Mexico, these are topped with sour cream, chopped lettuce or cabbage, and sliced fresh tomatoes. That makes them messy and hard to eat, so we don't bother. We eat our veggies on the side. Serve with a salad, or frozen corn and frozen peas zapped with butter or oil. Or for the laziest like us, baby carrots and grape tomatoes with ranch dip make for a completely finger-food meal.

I got some money as a bonus for work, and my paycheck is going to bills and paying taxes, so I have to make $300 last the next 4 weeks. $75 a week sounds doable, but I am not certain on what to do. Thank you in advance!

I'm currently looking for new ideas to stretch my grocery budget while still eating well. What are some of your favorite inexpensive and nutritious meals? I'm particularly interested in dishes that are simple to prepare and use common pantry ingredients. Any tips for making cheap meals more exciting?

Depends on where you shop at

I like a mushroom cheese pizza

I usually shop at kroger

Pick these up

Mission® Fajita Super Soft Flour Tortillas 20 count $3.69

3 packages of Kroger® Pizza Blend Shredded Cheese $2.49 each

2 packages of Sliced white mushrooms $2.59

I usually just throw them in an airfryer

For $16.34 (Not including taxes) you can make 20 thin small pizzas

Not the best but it's something

Tastes better than consitant Ramen noodles lol

What’s your fav cheap ground beef meals?

Hello. I’m here because I want to help my brother out. He’s the one that mainly cooks for my sister and I. We’re low on money right now and our parents asked us to cook meals for the next 5 days that are cheap and simple. They really want us to make meals with chicken and rice- no meat or expensive ingredients.

Do y’all have any recommendations for good and cheap chicken meals/dishes? Or recipes that won’t cost a lot? Thank you.

Hi everyone, I'm a longtime lurker and up until now I've been able to figure out how to eat enough each week for under $100 (I have a very high metabolism and need 2500-3000 cals/day to feel healthy). However, my financial situation has changed, I'm not able to afford that anymore, and I'm losing weight too fast since not being able to eat enough (while already being considered underweight).

Does anyone have advice on how to eat for a week for $50? Due to medical reasons I can't eat beans often (maybe 1-2 times a week) but costs of tuna, rice, bread, chicken, milk, everything is pricing me out of even the cheapest ingredients. I'm slowly starving and I'm not sure what meals I can afford that will actually be enough anymore.

Even if I go to food pantries and get on food stamps, what kinds of ingredients should I look for and what meals should I plan for?

Thank you so so much for any input! I know the majority of us are struggling right now, I'm thinking of you and I hope we get through this together. ❤️

Edited to add: thank you so so much to everyone for chiming in! There's a ton of great info and I'm slowly making my way through responses, I didn't expect it to take off so much! I'll put together as best a summary as I can tomorrow and update you on what I decided to buy and what meals I'm planning on making. Thank you again. ❤️

I have a £70-£80 budget that needs to cover at LEAST two weeks worth of food for three people, one not living in the same household. Longer than that if possible.

They're picky about their foods and get mad if they don't get exactly what they asked for so the only place I can save some money so that we can also buy things like toothpaste is on my food. Normally I just mix up some flour and water and fry it with frozen veg, but I'm getting really bored of that.