Inexpensive/Cheap Homemade Meals

heichmanron · June 5, 2013

Let me start by saying that this is my first post on here, so if I'm breaking some forum rule (I looked for a section, but there didn't seem to be one...) I'm apologizing in advance.

I looked through the forums for a related topic but I didn't seem to find anything relating to cooking on a budget or cooking good food when you don't have much money. Although this forum might not be related to saving money per se, who doesn't think about how to save money when they are cooking?

I'm currently a PhD student, so most of my time revolves around doing my research and cooking, when I'm not doing one, I'm doing the other, so I also look for ways to make food that doesn't involve much attention/time at attention while it's heating, but at the same time I look for a balance between variety/cost, also the ability to reheat/store the food easily is important.

It's really like an optimization problem! You can't always have it all, but you can try. I don't have money for special equipment, so almost everything I make is limited to using a rolling pin, knives, standard cookware/bakeware, and (my only real cooking equipment) a food processor.

So, that brings me to my question, what do you like to cook when you don't want to spend much? I love cooking good food, but I spend about $50/5 days (that's my budgeted amount), so that leaves certain ingredients off the table.

I'll start things off with what I've been making recently (I'm not sure how to attach pictures, so if anyone is interested, those are forthcoming, I post the pictures on imgur here: http://roncooking.imgur.com/):

tuna arancini
tomago sushi
pizza margherita
not a recipe, but saves money: cultured butter/buttermilk
roasting my own coffee
creme fraiche
grilled pita on the stove every morning
chicken liver pate
vegetable galettes
risotto (Parmesan is expensive, but for the amount of risotto you can make, its worth it for sure)
simple broiled chicken thighs with garlic, thyme, lemon, olive oil
homemade sausage (several applications, goes in pasta, good for breakfast, good on pizza, ravioli)
mochi
homemade dulce de leche
crepes
piroshki (if soviet times taught Russians anything its how to make good cheap food...)
shui jiao dumplings
hummus/falafel pitas with israeli salad
labne
flan
ravioli (I actually made a ravioli maker from a wooden board for this)
bread pudding
beef pot roast
as well as making a lot of broth for different applications

My philosophy is mainly to make as many of the ingredients of a recipe as possible on my own and to turn the unneeded parts of one recipe into the ingredients in another one (i.e leek stems can be used in broth, bones from deboning a chicken be used to make tare, etc)

Chris Amirault · June 5, 2013

Welcome, heichmanron!

Our standing leftover-cleanout dishes aren't on your list, namely, fried rice and nachos. Half onions, a handful of leftover peas, a knob of cheese, almost dead cilantro, two eggs, grilled vegetables, shredded chicken or pork: if you have the base ingredient (rice or nachos), nearly everything in the world can be dumped into/onto that ingredient for a quick, easy meal that has little or no added cost beyond what you'll throw away in four days.

dcarch · June 5, 2013

I like inexpensive.

I don't like cheap.

dcarch :-)

**FrogPrincesse** · June 5, 2013

My go-to inexpensive dishes are risotto and quiche, plus egg-based dishes in general (omelettes, etc). I always have the basic components, and then I can customize the recipe based on what ingredients/vegetables I have that week.

HungryC · June 5, 2013

Welcome, heichmanron!
Our standing leftover-cleanout dishes aren't on your list, namely, fried rice and nachos. Half onions, a handful of leftover peas, a knob of cheese, almost dead cilantro, two eggs, grilled vegetables, shredded chicken or pork: if you have the base ingredient (rice or nachos), nearly everything in the world can be dumped into/onto that ingredient for a quick, easy meal that has little or no added cost beyond what you'll throw away in four days.

I do what he does, and I sometimes use leftover rice from a takeout chinese binge.

But you need to add beans-n-rice to the list. NOLA style red beans, charro beans (pintos), blackeyed peas, lentils, white/navy beans, dried favas: best protein bang for your buck in the entire supermarket. Dried bean cookery requires initial prep work, then lots of slow, low-attention-required simmering, perfect for those AMs or afternoons when you're stuck at home reading, grading, writing, etc. Legumes are your friends.

heichmanron · June 5, 2013

Welcome, heichmanron!
Our standing leftover-cleanout dishes aren't on your list, namely, fried rice and nachos. Half onions, a handful of leftover peas, a knob of cheese, almost dead cilantro, two eggs, grilled vegetables, shredded chicken or pork: if you have the base ingredient (rice or nachos), nearly everything in the world can be dumped into/onto that ingredient for a quick, easy meal that has little or no added cost beyond what you'll throw away in four days.

That sounds like a good idea, I might think about making the nachos myself, maybe come up with a creative way to quickly press tortillas (or hit them with a cutting board? haha), it seems as long as you have a kind of starchy "substrate" for flavor, you can do a lot.

I like inexpensive.
I don't like cheap.
dcarch :-)

You say potato I say... potato? (I don't think that translates to well to text...) But either way, by cheap, I don't mean lesser quality.

My go-to inexpensive dishes are risotto and quiche, plus egg-based dishes in general (omelettes, etc). I always have the basic components, and then I can customize the recipe based on what ingredients/vegetables I have that week.

I just made some risotto, quiche is also definitely a good one, its basically a savory custard pie, you can toss any combination of things in there that go well together, I've made them a bunch of times in the past, my favorite was one I made with cabbage, onion and some homemade pastrami and jarlsberg.

Edited June 5, 2013 by heichmanron (log)

Jaymes · June 5, 2013

Yes to all of this. I could make a bag of potatoes and a bag of rice and a fat chicken feed my family of five for a week.

And although this is not the best time of year for my best tip, perhaps when next fall rolls around, you'll still be in search of inexpensive eats.

Assuming you're in the US, every year in November, the supermarkets put turkeys on for sale. Sometimes they're even free if you purchase a certain amount. You do have to have some freezer space, but I always did, and I'd buy two or three extra. I'd have the butcher saw them in half with those big saws that will cut right through frozen meat. Then wrap the halves separately and stick them back in the freezer.

You can feed a lot of people for quite a few days with half of a turkey. In the summertime, we often would smoke one of the turkey halves out on the grill. Made a meal nice enough even for dinner guests. If you're by yourself, you could stew one of the halves, take off the meat and freeze that in smaller portions, and then boil the broth down to make little ice cubes of flavor.

Another thought - when we were really running short of cash and I had a big family to feed, I'd go to our local butcher shop and ask for some bones for the dog. They gave them to me, usually free. And I'd use that to make soup. Also, at our local farmer's market, if I got there at closing time, there were frequently vegetables that hadn't sold because they were bruised or in some other way not appealing. I'd get those free, too. One time, I got three big sacks full of corn because those ears had a worm chewing happily in the top. Just cut out that worm, and I got a lot of perfectly good corn.

Edited June 5, 2013 by Jaymes (log)

Emily_R · June 5, 2013

I totally agree about beans -- even canned beans are very affordable, and of course you can make your own in large batches. I have a great and super easy recipe for black bean soup that is a go-to for rushed nights when I want something tasty. I make it with cornbread and have enough for lunch the next day. And lentils! My all time favorite soup is this red lentil with carrot, that serves as dinner easily with a little bread... (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/dining/091arex.html?_r=0 -- I add an extra carrot and grate the carrots so they meld with the red lentils.) And just last night I made a new recipe that I loved for a pasta with pancetta and lentils. Also, chickpeas! This chickpea and spinach recipe is fantastic -- I serve it over toast with a fried egg and it is quick to make but so satisfying... http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/03/spinach-and-chickpeas/

heichmanron · June 5, 2013

But you need to add beans-n-rice to the list. NOLA style red beans, charro beans (pintos), blackeyed peas, lentils, white/navy beans, dried favas: best protein bang for your buck in the entire supermarket. Dried bean cookery requires initial prep work, then lots of slow, low-attention-required simmering, perfect for those AMs or afternoons when you're stuck at home reading, grading, writing, etc. Legumes are your friends.

Beans are a great one, but for some reason my girlfriend doesn't really like them, I think she doesn't find them to be substantive enough and if I serve them to her she usually just picks at her food haha, they need to be in a soup for her to eat them, minestrone and black bean soup are good ideas though. Lentils are also great, I don't use them often either, but they are good price and very tasty! I agree, legumes are a natural go-to for cheap and easy.

You can feed a lot of people for quite a few days with half of a turkey. In the summertime, we often would smoke one of the turkey halves out on the grill. Made a meal nice enough even for dinner guests. If you're by yourself, you could stew one of the halves, take off the meat and freeze that in smaller portions, and then boil the broth down to make little ice cubes of flavor.

The turkey idea is a good one, I always saw them around November, but since I don't do anything for thanksgiving, I didn't think of buying them, although making stock out of them o grilling them is a good one, no reason I can't keep them in the fridge for a couple of months either (same with the stock I might make out of them)

I totally agree about beans -- even canned beans are very affordable, and of course you can make your own in large batches. I have a great and super easy recipe for black bean soup that is a go-to for rushed nights when I want something tasty. I make it with cornbread and have enough for lunch the next day. And lentils! My all time favorite soup is this red lentil with carrot, that serves as dinner easily with a little bread... (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/dining/091arex.html?_r=0 -- I add an extra carrot and grate the carrots so they meld with the red lentils.) And just last night I made a new recipe that I loved for a pasta with pancetta and lentils. Also, chickpeas! This chickpea and spinach recipe is fantastic -- I serve it over toast with a fried egg and it is quick to make but so satisfying... http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/03/spinach-and-chickpeas/

The recipe you linked is very similar to something I've done in the past, I've done spinach and chickpeas, some olive oil, lemon, garlic, but I also add quinoa so I have some additional grain-like addition. Lentils seem to be a running theme here, so it looks like I should definitely give them a try

Plantes Vertes · June 5, 2013

A great utensil for inexpensive meals is the pressure cooker. It makes bean food easy. You can get one off eBay very cheaply - mine was about £18 if I remember well, and I use it often. It also speeds up cooking so you save on gas/electricity, and you can do 'long' cooking quickly, so you can use cheaper ingredients and make them tender.

A herb garden is the other essential, or a window box if you live in a flat. The aromatics will make basic ingredients delicious and if you remember to water them ( :unsure: ) they'll last forever! You can even grow your own chillies if you have a warm spot, then dry them to use over the year. Maybe mint, basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, coriander, tarragon. They can all go in a small space.

It's also good to have a lot of spices about. They'll be cheaper from Asian grocery shops. Don't keep them too long or they'll lose flavour.

Indian food seems to be a very inexpensive cuisine. I lived with my SO on £12/wk back in our impoverished youths when we had important things like a bar tab to fund, by buying a sack of potatoes, tinned tomatoes, frozen spinach, lentils, some other beans, garlic, oil rice and spices. Madhur Jaffrey's books are very useful for that.

Edited June 5, 2013 by Plantes Vertes (log)

heichmanron · June 5, 2013

A great utensil for inexpensive meals is the pressure cooker. It makes bean food easy. You can get one off eBay very cheaply - mine was about £18 if I remember well, and I use it often. It also speeds up cooking so you save on gas/electricity, and you can do 'long' cooking quickly, so you can use cheaper ingredients and make them tender.

I've thought of getting a pressure cooker, but I'm afraid of spending money on one that might not be as good as I need it to be, or spending too much on one, although the fact is speeds up cooking so much might just convince me to get it, many people I know rave about how simple it is.

A herb garden is the other essential, or a window box if you live in a flat. The aromatics will make basic ingredients delicious and if you remember to water them ( ) they'll last forever! You can even grow your own chillies if you have a warm spot, then dry them to use over the year. Maybe mint, basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, coriander, tarragon. They can all go in a small space.
It's also good to have a lot of spices about. They'll be cheaper from Asian grocery shops. Don't keep them too long or they'll lose flavour.
Indian food seems to be a very inexpensive cuisine. I lived with my SO on £12/wk back in our impoverished youths when we had important things like a bar tab to fund, by buying a sack of potatoes, tinned tomatoes, frozen spinach, lentils, some other beans, garlic, oil rice and spices. Madhur Jaffrey's books are very useful for that.

I've tried growing herbs but my cats always seem to knock them down or eat them haha, so I need to figure out something to remedy that, this is a bit outside the scope of the question, but I've been thinking of making an Arduino controlled kind of indoor greenhouse for my living room, it would automatically water and provide full spectrum light for the plants and cost me about $70, but I haven't had time recently, so maybe when I do.

Indian food is also definitely a good one! I make chicken tikka and chicken makhani pretty often, as well as a saag paneer (making the paneer is fun too) and navratan korma, all of them are great.

I'll look into the author you mentioned, I've never heard of her.

Edited June 5, 2013 by heichmanron (log)

IndyRob · June 5, 2013

I was going to say you could get an AeroGarden for less than $70, but it looks like the prices have gone up. But the consumables would cost less with a DIY solution anyway.

But it's amazing what can be made from just flour, eggs, water, salt and/or sugar. I just wish dairy was as cheap.

Edited June 5, 2013 by IndyRob (log)

heichmanron · June 5, 2013

I was going to say you could get an AeroGarden for less than $70, but it looks like the prices have gone up. But the consumables would cost less with a DIY solution anyway.
But it's amazing what can be made from just flour, eggs, water, salt and/or sugar. I just wish dairy was as cheap.

Those gardens are very interesting, very similar to what I want to make. Milk is fairly cheap where I am ($2/gal), so I use that to make a lot of cheeses, yogurt (drinkable or greek) as well as labne, cream is also not too bad ($5/qt), so I use that to make butter, buttermilk, creme bulgare and mascarpone.

rotuts · June 5, 2013

two of my friends had these types of gardens. they do not work as well as the pictures suggest. and eventually if you use them indoors you will start to get some interesting bugs on them.

Soup. fz veg. in one lb bags always go on sale... add potatoes, lentils (bulk) beans etc.

you will need decent bread. consider a bread machine. $50. you get toast and sandwich bread much better than you can buy for three times your cost. its very cheap. toast some to go with your soup. this is not artisan crusty bread, but better than you can buy for toast and sandwiches.

Edited June 5, 2013 by rotuts (log)

Plantes Vertes · June 5, 2013

you will need decent bread. consider a bread machine. $50. you get toast and sandwich bread much better than you can buy and very cheap. toast some to go with your soup. this is not artisan crusty bread, but better than you can buy for toast and sandwiches.

Yes, this is an excellent suggestion. I have access to one at the moment and the bread it makes is superb, and about £0.35-0.70 per loaf depending on flour and other ingredients used. You can also prepare the dough in them and then remove it to bake in the oven, but I find the cooking function quite satisfactory. The downside is that they are absolute beasts and will dominate your counter space like a grumpy despot.

Edited June 5, 2013 by Plantes Vertes (log)

rotuts · June 5, 2013

although 'big' they are not heavy and I keep mine out of the way:

http://www.amazon.com/Breadman-TR520-Programmable-2-Pound-Loaves/dp/B000Q4QM1Q/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1370471587&sr=8-6&keywords=bread+machine

mine was $50 now is 68:

http://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-5891-2-Pound-Programmable-Breadmaker/dp/B00067REBU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1370471587&sr=8-5&keywords=bread+machine

go basic. not more that $ 60 the more expensive ones dont do a lot more. just make sure you do not scratch the non-stick 'pan'

ePressureCooker · June 6, 2013

Yes to all of this. I could make a bag of potatoes and a bag of rice and a fat chicken feed my family of five for a week.
And although this is not the best time of year for my best tip, perhaps when next fall rolls around, you'll still be in search of inexpensive eats.
Assuming you're in the US, every year in November, the supermarkets put turkeys on for sale. Sometimes they're even free if you purchase a certain amount. You do have to have some freezer space, but I always did, and I'd buy two or three extra. I'd have the butcher saw them in half with those big saws that will cut right through frozen meat. Then wrap the halves separately and stick them back in the freezer.
You can feed a lot of people for quite a few days with half of a turkey. In the summertime, we often would smoke one of the turkey halves out on the grill. Made a meal nice enough even for dinner guests. If you're by yourself, you could stew one of the halves, take off the meat and freeze that in smaller portions, and then boil the broth down to make little ice cubes of flavor.
Another thought - when we were really running short of cash and I had a big family to feed, I'd go to our local butcher shop and ask for some bones for the dog. They gave them to me, usually free. And I'd use that to make soup. Also, at our local farmer's market, if I got there at closing time, there were frequently vegetables that hadn't sold because they were bruised or in some other way not appealing. I'd get those free, too. One time, I got three big sacks full of corn because those ears had a worm chewing happily in the top. Just cut out that worm, and I got a lot of perfectly good corn.

You can also thaw out those Thanksgiving turkeys and bone them to save a lot of room in the fridge. The same deal for hams at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, can usually get them for 88 cents a pound with a $25 purchase - so you break up your grocery list into $25 bundles and bring some relatives. I bought post-St. Patrick's Day corned beef for 99 cents per pound this year. Bought as many as I could fit in my freezer, used part as corned beef, turned the other portion into "faux" pastrami.

One of the best ways to save money on your groceries is to know when things go on sale every year. Its like clockwork. Canned broth goes on sale several weeks before Thanksgiving and Christmas, but they jack up the prices right before the holiday to nail last minute shoppers with full sticker prices. Spaghetti goes on sale once or twice during the late spring and summer, when domestic tomato crops start coming in for the year, the manufacturers need to clean out their old stock and take advantage of low tomato prices, so pasta sauce and pasta go on sale together. Mexican food goes on sale right before Cinco de Mayo and right before the New Year (except fresh cilantro, chile peppers, etc. which are all summer crops). I know that every three weeks or so, one market has a sale on whole chickens, another market has a sale on whole chicken breasts once a month, and they're all staggered, so I can get chicken on sale somewhere. And with fresh vegetables, its knowing the growing cycles and the loss leaders at the store, and taking advantage of that. As soon as the strawberries start going up in price, the peak of the table grape season will happen, so I'll eat grapes instead. When grapes start climbing in price, stone fruit (apricots, peaches, and the like) will be coming in cheaper. (Actually, there's some overlap in that last example, but you get the idea.)

dcarch · June 6, 2013

Forage in your own garden. Many edible "weeds".

Sous vide cooking can give you many options of enjoying low cost cuts of meat.

Also, sous vide give you more meat for the money. I did a side-by-side test. Sous vide corned beef has 6.5 % less shrinkage. That is 6.5% savings right there.

dcarch

ePressureCooker · June 6, 2013

A great utensil for inexpensive meals is the pressure cooker. It makes bean food easy. You can get one off eBay very cheaply - mine was about £18 if I remember well, and I use it often. It also speeds up cooking so you save on gas/electricity, and you can do 'long' cooking quickly, so you can use cheaper ingredients and make them tender.
I've thought of getting a pressure cooker, but I'm afraid of spending money on one that might not be as good as I need it to be, or spending too much on one, although the fact is speeds up cooking so much might just convince me to get it, many people I know rave about how simple it is.

You'll not be surprised that I would second, third, fourth, the recommendation of getting a pressure cooker (given my user name), but I really recommend you consider this. Since you're a student, I'd think the best option would be an electric model (my sister, my parents and I all bought the Cuisinart CPC-600, which is about $100). Now that may seem a lot, when compared with the cheapie pressure cookers (its nothing compared to the more expensive stovetop models) but its worth the investment for a couple of reasons. You can switch to cheaper cuts of meat, if you eat meat. I pay $3.99 or less a pound, often less a pound, and I eat beef for that, too. I signed up for Vons' just for you program, and they'll give me online coupons and deals every week to try to get me in to spend money. Often I'll get a deal, buy $25 worth of Ranchers Reserve beef, get $5 off. I've bought pot roast, London broil, etc. on sale, plus the $5 off, or if you want something specific that never goes on sale, like brisket, check and see what day all the briskets in the case expire, show up that morning and check the discounted items. Got brisket for 50% off, plus add'l discounts, cooked it up in the pressure cooker that night, nobody knew the difference.

Plus you can pressure cook a lot of inexpensive, but nutritious things, like beans, brown rice, grains like barley, make soups, etc. really easily, and in a fraction of the time. I've been using my pressure cooker to eliminate a lot of the processed food in my diet, I'm eating better, and its costing me a lot less. Plus if you live in an apartment with all electric appliances as many student renters do, its a lot cheaper to operate a small electric pressure cooker than to run the stove top or the oven (tho a microwave beats the pressure cooker). Wish I had had an electric pressure cooker when I was in college, I could have thrown dinner into the pot, then sat in my room and studied while I let it do the cooking. Electric pressure cookers have timers, the alarm goes off, my machine switches from pressure cook to "keep warm" mode, and I can come get my meal when I feel like it.

Edited June 6, 2013 by ePressureCooker (log)

Ttogull · June 6, 2013

Having received my PhD several years ago, I recall my version of your situation. Seems we never went hungry though, despite our limited stipends and, more importantly, limited time. Many memorable meals cooked by colleagues from other countries.

It's not clear where you live. Where I live, the international stores offer far better quality items at a fraction of the cost of national grocery chains. For instance, limes were recently 3/$2 at a national chain, and 5/$1 at a Korean supermarket. The Korean market's were better quality because, IMO, their customers would not buy the cr*p sold by the other store. Likewise, a Latin store always has ripe avocados (they manage their inventory) at lower cost than national chains. Plantains chaper than bananas, etc. In my experience, the international store product is usually fresher, cheaper, and longer-lasting than its chain counterparts. Again, I attribute this to the clientle knowing the difference between quality and cr*p but having tighter budgets.

For meats except pork, I go to a Halal butcher. He's cheaper, but I'd go if he was double the price. Awesome, awesome beef, lamb, and chicken.

I agree with the others above about beans. Beans are so versatile. Even today, without a limited budget, I eat a couple of pounds (dry) per week. Yesterday I made 1 lb black beans. Combined with grilled corn and red pepper for a side with salmon. Today was more black beans with super ripe mango, avocado, and scallions with jerk chicken. Breakfast tomorrow will be grilled plantains with black beans. The pot liquor will be used to make rice. Add to that puréeing, refrying, converting to mock burgers, etc., beans are the ultimate cheap food.

heichmanron · June 6, 2013

Forage in your own garden. Many edible "weeds".
Sous vide cooking can give you many options of enjoying low cost cuts of meat.
Also, sous vide give you more meat for the money. I did a side-by-side test. Sous vide corned beef has 6.5 % less shrinkage. That is 6.5% savings right there.
dcarch

The garden idea I've done when I lived in Israel as a kid haha, but I live in a city not, there is no "garden" now. I've done sous-vide using a vacuum sealer and a heated water bath in my oven (the oven temp range starts at 100 F), although its a hassle in the oven, and making a sous vide machine would cost me about $90, I've thought about it, but right now I don't have time.

You'll not be surprised that I would second, third, fourth, the recommendation of getting a pressure cooker (given my user name), but I really recommend you consider this. Since you're a student, I'd think the best option would be an electric model (my sister, my parents and I all bought the Cuisinart CPC-600, which is about $100). Now that may seem a lot, when compared with the cheapie pressure cookers (its nothing compared to the more expensive stovetop models) but its worth the investment for a couple of reasons. You can switch to cheaper cuts of meat, if you eat meat. I pay $3.99 or less a pound, often less a pound, and I eat beef for that, too. I signed up for Vons' just for you program, and they'll give me online coupons and deals every week to try to get me in to spend money. Often I'll get a deal, buy $25 worth of Ranchers Reserve beef, get $5 off. I've bought pot roast, London broil, etc. on sale, plus the $5 off, or if you want something specific that never goes on sale, like brisket, check and see what day all the briskets in the case expire, show up that morning and check the discounted items. Got brisket for 50% off, plus add'l discounts, cooked it up in the pressure cooker that night, nobody knew the difference.
Plus you can pressure cook a lot of inexpensive, but nutritious things, like beans, brown rice, grains like barley, make soups, etc. really easily, and in a fraction of the time. I've been using my pressure cooker to eliminate a lot of the processed food in my diet, I'm eating better, and its costing me a lot less. Plus if you live in an apartment with all electric appliances as many student renters do, its a lot cheaper to operate a small electric pressure cooker than to run the stove top or the oven (tho a microwave beats the pressure cooker). Wish I had had an electric pressure cooker when I was in college, I could have thrown dinner into the pot, then sat in my room and studied while I let it do the cooking. Electric pressure cookers have timers, the alarm goes off, my machine switches from pressure cook to "keep warm" mode, and I can come get my meal when I feel like it.

I'm more interested in pressure cookers due to the speed, since the cheap cuts of meat is what I already cook with (I just pot roast them in my oven), maybe as soon as I have extra money I will get one, it's really a time/cost trade off. If I can cook the same thing faster, saving time is saving money.

Having received my PhD several years ago, I recall my version of your situation. Seems we never went hungry though, despite our limited stipends and, more importantly, limited time. Many memorable meals cooked by colleagues from other countries.
It's not clear where you live. Where I live, the international stores offer far better quality items at a fraction of the cost of national grocery chains. For instance, limes were recently 3/$2 at a national chain, and 5/$1 at a Korean supermarket. The Korean market's were better quality because, IMO, their customers would not buy the cr*p sold by the other store. Likewise, a Latin store always has ripe avocados (they manage their inventory) at lower cost than national chains. Plantains chaper than bananas, etc. In my experience, the international store product is usually fresher, cheaper, and longer-lasting than its chain counterparts. Again, I attribute this to the clientle knowing the difference between quality and cr*p but having tighter budgets.
For meats except pork, I go to a Halal butcher. He's cheaper, but I'd go if he was double the price. Awesome, awesome beef, lamb, and chicken.
I agree with the others above about beans. Beans are so versatile. Even today, without a limited budget, I eat a couple of pounds (dry) per week. Yesterday I made 1 lb black beans. Combined with grilled corn and red pepper for a side with salmon. Today was more black beans with super ripe mango, avocado, and scallions with jerk chicken. Breakfast tomorrow will be grilled plantains with black beans. The pot liquor will be used to make rice. Add to that puréeing, refrying, converting to mock burgers, etc., beans are the ultimate cheap food.

Thankfully I live near many local stores and am pretty savvy about where to get what I actually buy to eat. I don't buy much beans, but I think it's a good idea to start expanding in that direction.

jamesbarns · June 6, 2013

I actually just went through one of my really REALLY old binder's from middle school. Somehow I was lucky enough to find my Foods classes folders. I took the time the other day to document them one google docs and am super happy about it! It has anything from stir fry from top ramen, to gourmet microwavable potatoes. I can "share" the documents with you if you would like. Best of luck!

---------------------------------------------

James

http://toptenreview.hubpages.com/hub/Best-Top-Rated-Mini-Refrigerator-Fridge-with-Freezer

ePressureCooker · June 6, 2013

It's not clear where you live. Where I live, the international stores offer far better quality items at a fraction of the cost of national grocery chains. For instance, limes were recently 3/$2 at a national chain, and 5/$1 at a Korean supermarket. The Korean market's were better quality because, IMO, their customers would not buy the cr*p sold by the other store. Likewise, a Latin store always has ripe avocados (they manage their inventory) at lower cost than national chains. Plantains chaper than bananas, etc. In my experience, the international store product is usually fresher, cheaper, and longer-lasting than its chain counterparts. Again, I attribute this to the clientle knowing the difference between quality and cr*p but having tighter budgets.

Its highly dependent on where you live. When I lived in San Francisco, you're right, the Chinatown markets were the best place to get inexpensive produce. Its partially because they can manage their inventory better than supermarkets, they don't need to buy so much unripened produce so it will last longer, they buy just what they need of ripe, ready to eat produce, just when they need it, and they get a better deal because supermarkets won't touch produce that's that ripe. Where I live now, most international markets are at quite a distance, or they're in neighborhoods I, as a woman, don't visit alone. Though I must put in a good word for Henry's / Sprouts, which has significantly better prices than Whole Foods does on produce. But on the plus side, where I live now, I have room for a garden, and grow many of my own vegetables. Can't beat that for fresh and economical for most produce.

Darienne · June 6, 2013

Back to Jayme's getting 'dog' bones for free and using them for soup. Not likely to happen anymore. We have to pay for dog bones and they ain't cheap.

As for buying a bread machine. There are always lots for sale at second hand stores. They are unused gifts. Get one for Christmas...never use it...finally get rid of it. I've purchased at least 3 second hand machines...one was filthy...and they all have worked perfectly.

Welcome, heichmanron, to eGullet.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Darienne (log)

olmoelisa · June 6, 2013

I have three rules to prepare inexpensive meals:

1) never go to the supermarket. Little shops have usually less choice, but are cheaper.

2) Never buy offers such as 3X2. You will waste food (unless you have a big family).

3) A vegetable garden is a great idea. If you don't have a garden, do it on your balcony or even in the kitchen.

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