My family can't eat tonight because we can't afford to spend any more money

Yesterday, got a package of four chicken legs, bone-in, skin-on, backs attached, marked down to $5 from $10. Put them in the Instant Pot with a bit of water, diced onion, and chicken bouillon powder, and set it to 20 minutes at low pressure.

When it was done, I took all the meat off, and put the bones, gristle and skin back in the pot. Added another cup or two of water, and put it back on to high pressure for 90 minutes. Afterwards, I strained that and put it in the fridge beside the meat.

Today, after going for a short adventure to the beach, I used about half the chicken, half the stock (now beautiful golden jelly), and half the fat (collected from the top of the stock), plus some leftover/frozen veg, to make a truly yummy chicken stew that I served on some mashed potatoes. And because everything that went in was already cooked, it all came together in about 20 minutes. I blame the potatoes for taking so long.

Maximum value for minimum effort, and minimal cost. Fed five adults for about $7 ($1.40/ea).

Chicken - $2.50 (includes bonus stock and fat)

Carrots - $1 max

Peas - 1 cup from a $6 bag, so maybe $0.50

Potatoes - 1/4 of a $3 bag, so about $0.75

Dairy - $2 (milk and butter in the spuds, bit of yogurt in the stew)

Seasonings - 1 Tbsp bouillon powder, homegrown sage, flour, call it $0.25

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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?

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)

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

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.

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.