Food is often the largest flexible expense you probably have, especially if you have kids at home. I struggled for years to keep our food bill down. I searched the weekly sales. I tried to find great deals and checked all the in-store coupons. (I tried and epically failed at clipping coupons…a few times!)
Now our food bill is almost effortlessly low. The method is simple. I wrote about our $1 a pound food rule, but that is just step one to keeping our food bill low.Â
The second step is that we have an arsenal of meals costing around $1 per person. And even less for breakfast. Sometimes we splurge and make something more expensive, but when we have a whole stack of easy, healthy meals we love that are affordable, keeping our grocery bill low is easy. When your easiest and tastiest meals are also the most affordable, your food bill easily stays low!Â
If all the meals you love to make, your go-to meals, are expensive to make, you will always struggle with your food bill. No amount of weekly sales and coupons can fully compensate for expensive meals.Â
Even adding 5 or 10 super affordable meals will give your food budget the room it needs to make space for the more expensive meals.
If 10 or 15 meals a week out of your 21 costs under $1 a person, your food bill will naturally go down. Then, if you happen to find a great sale, you can stock up, and it helps to drop your food bill even lower.
When you sign up for my email list, I have a great resource page with all my best free guides, including this post as a printable menu!
Under $1 Breakfast Ideas
Scrambled Eggs and Tortillas:Â We toast the corn tortillas in a pan with a bit of salt and seasoning.
Pancakes: (scratch or Krusteze bag from Costco) I mix it 70% mix, 30% uncooked oatmeal, and add some frozen fruit.Â
Oatmeal: I cook it on the stove for 5 minutes and add some frozen cherries (we pick ourselves) or frozen strawberries.
Homemade Hashbrowns
$1 Lunch Ideas
Black bean salad: 1 can of seasoned black beans, diced tomato, and canned corn with a bit of olive oil and seasoning or Italian dressing.
Mexi Bowl: Mexican Style rice ( I make a big batch in my rice cooker with canned tomatoes, onions, and seasoning), corn, salsa, cheese, and black beans.
Protein Smoothie: We buy protein powder when it goes on sale at Costco. One scoop of that plus a few frozen berries and maybe a banana.
Peanut Butter Wrap: Our go-to lunch when we are traveling. Peanut butter in a flour tortilla.
Bean and Cheese Quesadillas
Protein bars: A few times a year, protein bars go on sale at Costco, and we stock up. These are my go-to lunch if I happen to be out and about instead of stopping for fast food.
$1 Dinner Ideas
Roasted Potatoes, Onions, Carrots and Pork Roast
Bean soup:Â We have a large variety of bean soups from minestrone style, ham, and white bean, or chili.
White bean and Chicken Chili:Â Seasoned white beans, chicken thighs, canned seasoned tomatoes cooked together in a crockpot. Plus a bit of sour cream and cheese. I love this served with tortilla chips!
Three bean enchiladas: Layer corn tortillas smeared with refried beans, seasoned black beans, and red beans. Add in whatever you have found on sale: canned corn, olives, chopped onions, salsa or enchilada sauce, and some cheese.  If we have some affordable ground meat or chicken thighs, we’ll precook that and add 1-2 pounds for 7-10 servings.
Tostadas: Corn tortillas skillet cooked with refried beans and optional toppings: diced tomatoes, cheese, salsa, sour cream, onions, corn, sauteed peppers, zucchini, or ground meat.
Chicken Noodle Soup: I use whole wheat pasta, soup stock, carrots, onions, chicken thighs, and some seasoning.
Mash Potato Bowls: From the bottom – layer up Homemade mashed potatoes, canned corn, Grilled chicken thighs sliced thin, and brown gravy.
Pasta Salad: Whole wheat pasta, olives, tomatoes, chopped onions, Italian dressing, maybe a bit of feta cheese.
Spaghetti: I buy whole wheat pasta in bulk, and we serve it with white or red sauce (or both!) This is our easy go-to after a long day hiking or at the lake.
French Toast: I don’t know why, but I only make this for dinner! We often add a side of eggs.
Asian Noodles: I use romaine noodles and add in some frozen Asian veg or if the kale is going gangbusters in the garden, a big batch of kale. (This is literally the only way I can get my kids to eat kale!)
Grilled Peanut Butter Sandwiches: I don’t know why these taste so good grilled. I add a bit of honey and sometimes sliced banana. It’s amazing.
Grilled Burritos: This is a camping favorite. I use refried beans or black beans and some cheese in jumbo tortillas with salsa and cook them on the grill.
Popcorn: Most Friday nights (our family fun night), I make batch after batch of popcorn in our air popper, and we eat while we play games or watch a movie.
These are most of our go-to meals. Adding a few more low-cost meals that are easy and healthy will keep your food bill low without constant fretting.
Each week we stock up on fresh produce that happens to be on sale that week to add to these dishes. For example, when avocados go on sale for .60 each, I’ll buy 8 and add them to everything! I stick to the $1 rule for fresh produce, and we add about 20-30 lbs of fresh produce a week to our meals.
But none of the dishes are dependent on items that might not be affordable that given week. Instead, they are based on foods that are always affordable or easy to stock up on and store.
What are your easy and affordable go-to meals?
Ahh I love cheap and yummy meal ideas. We eat super similarly to this – lots of beans and veggies, plus rice or potatoes. We make a game out of creatively using leftovers – can it be turned into a quesadilla? On top of rice? Stirred into a potato hash? It’s a great way to stretch meat!
We’ve also found it’s so much easier to eat delicious and frugal food once we learned how to use spices. Then we’re not dependent on meat and cheese to carry the flavor! We plant a huge herb garden every year and it’s so fun to go out and pick whatever we need for that meal fresh from the yard.
My go to for cheap chicken is to buy a whole chicken (way cheaper than parts!) and roast it with two lemons inside. It is SO EASY and flavorful and can be dinner with a veg on night 1, then shredded into something on night two, put in soup on night 3, etc. Though I suppose with 7 in your fam, you wouldn’t have any chicken left for night #2 🙂 And I have an obsession with making chicken stock – I have so much in my freezer!!
This is great, Jillian! I’m putting the mashed potato bowls on my recipe list to try in the fall. And I’m very intrigued by grilled PB sandwiches – we’ll definitely try that this week!
Spices makes SUCH a difference! We have an herb garden too and plant a few news ones each year. It’s so affordable and easy. And we can do a whole chicken for two meals, but probably not three. 😉
I have no idea why grilled pb is so good! I probably wouldn’t eat a normal pb sandwich for dinner, but grilled with honey and banana and it’s just too good! Oh, and put a little cinnamon in that too! It’s almost desert. =)
Try a peanut butter and honey quesadilla! Soooo good!
Oh I bet my kids would love that too!
I also buy turkey from the deli, you can get bread for under a dollar, same with gravy and potatoes. you can do turkey roll ups. delish and filling, same with roast beff. If you see the feast I do for five dollars, its amazin
This recent CBS story also includes a 50 minute investigative special on Hunger in America from 1968 (there are some tough scenes to watch). It’s amazing how much Johnson’s war on poverty changed food availability to impoverished people in the U.S. It’s also interesting to note how many of your staple food items (beans, rice, and peanut butter) were such a staple portion of these communities’ diets in 1968 (handed out as leftovers from the USDA at that time).
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/where-americans-are-going-hungry/
Interesting! I try to base the meals around things that are mostly unprocessed. Things that I can at least remember where they came from. Like apples from trees. Or carrots from the garden. Instead of Doritos from….who knows! =) Most of the super processed stuff is much more expensive per pound, and I don’t feel awesome when I eat too much of it.
Great ideas, and it’s nice that they are kid-approved, at least by your kids. We love tostadas, but are the only people I know who eat them. They’re so delicious, flexible, and inexpensive!
Oh, those are my fav! So filling and yummy, plus they only take a few minutes. And your right these are all super kid friendly! =) I hadn’t thought about that but it’s totally true.
Love this list! I have so many recipes, I get overwhelmed easily. I copied and pasted this into a word document to hang in my fridge, but may I be so bold to suggest making it pretty and a PDF?
Not in my fridge, on my fridge!
Oh…..I might have to send that idea over to my awesome graphic lady, Audra! =)
We have several similar recipes in our rotation. Can you say beans?!! Cheap, healthy, easily spiced, you can do a million things with them.
Getting an instant pot was a game changer for us when it comes to dry beans. I can have beans go from dry in the bag to ready in 50 minutes now, no soaking. I try not to buy many kitchen gadgets these days, but this one has been worth it!
So I really try not to buy more kitchen stuff too, but have been seriously thinking about one of those! And I love beans SO much. I ready a bunch of research studies about the health benifits about 10 years ago and really doubled down. We do so many different things with them. One day I should do a whole post of just ways we eat beans. Chickpeas in curry, hummus, blackbean salad, baked beans, white bean salad. Beans are one of the few foods that always really hit the spot for me. Not too heavy, not too light.
Thanks for your continued excellent work, Jillian. These are great ideas and anyone can take something from them, regardless of dietary restrictions, etc. Hope you are enjoying your travels!
The trip has been so amazing so far! And I was thinking about that when I was writing it, how there is a least one for everyone. =)
Great ideas here – goes to show that folks on super-low food budgets can and should avoid the chemically infused crap at Taco Bell!
We rarely eat out at fast food places any more. When I have some go to options that take 5 minuets or less to prep, it’s faster than doing the drive through. And cheaper! I’m not to picky about types of food as long as it’s real food that I know how it came to be. =)
Love this post and gives me some new ideas. We like to do eggs a lot – they have been so inexpensive lately. We make eggs and hashbrowns, egg and cheese burritos with salsa, and boil them for salad. Yum.
I’m excited to try the mashed potato bowls. Those sound great!
So we had ducks for a few years and would get a dozen eggs a day! So I actually have a bunch of egg ideas! Especially beings I have one kiddo who doesn’t really care for eggs. =) Two of the favorites. 1. I would make stuffing and put a spoonful into each spot in a muffin tin. Then make an egg mix and pour it over and bake them with a bit of cheese on top. We called them packman muffins because they would come out of the oven super hot and I would cut a slit to cool them and they looked like packman. =) The other was egg waffles. I would make an omelet kind of egg mix then cook it in waffle irons. For some reason my kid who didn’t like eggs, still really liked those!
everybody should learn to cook some basics. we make a pot of beans from dried at least once a week. whole chickens are great for stock making. delicious cooking liquid like stock goes a long ways. i’m working on making our bread even better, like those loaves that are 5 bucks in the store are about 50c worth of flour and a baking it in a dutch oven will serve you well. spray it with water and bake it with the top on for crusty bread! our shopping list is like a barbell as there are only 2 of us in the house but most dishes are dirt cheap or something special like a steak or some fish but not much between. oh, and we love this phillipino dish called adobo. it’s cheap pork or chicken stewed in garlic, vinegar and soy. nice list.
I’ve been thinking about getting an insta pot to make cooking dry beans easier. I haven’t had awesome luck cooking them on the stove. But it would be cheaper than canned! I wait to stock up on the canned when it goes on sale for .50 a can, which isn’t too bad.
are you doing an overnight cold soak? it works well with black, red, pinto, and chickpeas. but, you’re right, that’s not too bad for zero work and planning.
I used to cook them from scratch with the overnight soak. It kind of fell by the wayside while we were both working 40+ hour weeks. Then our kid count went from 1 to 5 in under two years! But we might be able to get into the swing of it again. =)
what about a post about free hobbies? That would be great….
That’s a great idea! Thanks!
You sound like us. Tortillas for everything! We could basically write a cookbook on tacos alone. We eat them about 6 times a week. It sounds like a lot but I’m talking breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everything from breakfast tacos to lunchmeat tacos to Italian inspired tacos and everything in between. It’s our biggest and best budgeting tip. We never get bored, always eat healthy (mostly), and cut our portions down which is beneficial in multiple ways.
Thanks for all of the other tips that aren’t tacos 😉 we’ll definitely be trying some!
I love the sound of a taco cookbook. =)
White chicken chili for under $1….yeah right
These all sound great! I really wish I could eat them. As someone who has massive food allergies, I have found no way to really reduce our food budget. All of the things they tell you to eat, would land me in the hospital or kill me.
Food allergies make normal recipes tricky. You kind of have to work backwards, starting with healthy affordable things you can eat then figuring how how the heck to make that stuff into meals. =)
This is making me so hungry! We are moving in a week and I am not buying any groceries until after we move so the pickings are slim around here.
I definitely have food-related plans for our new place though. We’ll have a nice garden space, so I hope to give that a try, although I’m not really the best with plants. I am also thinking to get a chest freezer so that we can stock up a little more on some things. (We will be living 25-30 minutes from a grocery store, so having stuff handy will be nice.)
Thanks for the tips. I often feel that my spending on food is higher than it should be. Perhaps after the move, I will see what I can do to bring it down a bit.
I love our garden! It’s a great way to add seasonal fruit and veggies into our diet. =)
Our favorites-Hummus with carrots & celery, egg salad, chicken salad, chalupas, huevos rancheros with side of beans, deviled eggs, lentil soup
That’s a great list!
Great to see a blogger from Montana! I live way across the state from you! I’ve been up by Kalispell, it’s beautiful up there!
My wife and I’s biggest spending category is food! These are great ideas that I’ll be sure to come back to!
Food is often our largest expense as well. I’m always looking for ways to make it easier, healthier and more affordable. =)
I really love your list, especially because you eat affordably AND healthfully. It’s really easy to let the healthiness slide when trying to be super frugal, so this is very helpful. Our biggest frugal help is our bread machine, and making homemade peanut butter. Our Kroger store had Planter’s Cocktail peanuts for $1 per 16-oz jar, limit 5, so I was able to buy 5 pounds of peanuts for $5…and then blended them up one can at a time for super fresh peanut butter.
Hi, love your menu ideas. For the Asian noodle dish do you mean “ramen”?
chicken dumpling soup completely from scratch:
Buy a whole chicken, season and roast it (or just buy a cooked one at Costco or Sam’s). Let it cool until you can handle it with bare hands. Strip the meat off and set aside, you don’t need to get it all off, leaving some on the bones will help the broth that you are going to make next. Most of the skin will not be used (you could use it as a starting point for homemade dog food).
Roughly cut up some onion, carrot, celery, parsley, tomato, garlic cloves (add or omit vegetables – it doesn’t really matter). Place chicken bones, a little bit of the skin and veggies on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until it all starts to brown a little. Move all this into a large pot. Add enough water to cover by a inch or two and simmer for about two-hours. You are now making the stock – season it with salt pepper and herbs. Strain the liquid and discard the solids – there should not be much fat to worry about.
Cut up some more vegetables that you want in your soup – almost any will work, use whatever you like. Add vegetables to your strained and seasoned stock and bring to a low boil. Now to make the dumplings – mix one cup flour, one egg, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper and milk as needed. Make a loose dough and add dollops of this to the boiling stock.
Lower the heat. Add the cut up chicken meat. Taste and season the soup. Enjoy.
This sounds like such an amazingly easy thing to do! However what to do with my carnivores who won’t touch a bean (refried, black, navy, you name it!) A real struggle for sure as the price of animal based proteins has gone up significantly! Will keep trying! Thanks for the information.
All my life I’ve thought that cheap food is delicious, but it’s unhealthy! And I really wanted to learn delicious recipes from cheap products that will be useful!