How to Eat Cheap at Home

College students, young professionals and parents cooking for children all understand the desire to eat cheap. One of the best ways to shave food costs is to eat at home. A budget doesn't have to keep you from cooking nutritious food that tastes good and with a few simple tricks you can develop satisfying staple meals for less.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Eat a staple grain with every meal. At lunch, eat a sandwich on hearty wheat bread. At dinner, cook with white or brown rice or pasta. These complex carbohydrates will fill you up and keep you energized, but are also incredibly cheap.

2. Eat eggs. Eggs are a great source of protein and vitamins, and are also incredibly cheap (much cheaper than meats). Scrambled eggs are a healthy breakfast or snack, and an omelet with some veggies thrown in can give you a full dinner or lunch. A fried egg on a sandwich or with rice is also a nice way to add some protein without having to buy or cook meat.

3. Buy generic brands. Generic brands can cut the cost by anywhere from 10-to-50%. If you're skeptical, check the ingredients and nutrition information. You will see for yourself that it's basically the same stuff inside.

4. Act like a vegetarian. Even if you do like to eat meat, it's much cheaper to prepare vegetarian meals for yourself and only eat meat once in a while. Fresh produce can get expensive, but baked potatoes, eggplant parmesan, and a big salad made with romaine lettuce are all filling and affordable.

5. Buy some frozen and canned vegetables too. Fresh produce is nice, but have some frozen and canned veggies on hand. They keep longer and are easy to prepare when you're just throwing something together.

6. Plan for what you are going to eat. Don't go to the grocery store hungry, and plan what food you will eat every day so that you don't give in to the temptation of ordering carry-out.

Tips & Warnings

• Drink cheap, too. Drink more water with meals, and cut back on carbonated and alcoholic beverages.

Who Can Help:

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[knowhowtosave]

on 12/20/2008 if you are on the run, every fast food place has value menu with dollar items. these hamburgers are smaller but just as good as $5 ones. buy 2 and save $3. tacos same way. lots of variety and the chains are having to reduce menu and add to value menu to survive. if you have to eat on the run during the day or night, keep you money in your pocket. only order the small fry for a buck as all the fast food places now try to upsize you and take your cash!

the advice to add pasta and rice to menu is great but be sure to get long grain brown rice as it has more nutrients than white rice and will have more dietary benefits for your health plus is taste better.

purchase your dry items such as flour, rice, beans, sugar and even butter in bulk to save $$. toilet paper also as you save even more.

use dish towels instead of paper towels to save a tree!
easy to wash and much more

[mmmickey55]

on 12/13/2008 Figure out the "high end" products that you like and which you can make yourself:

1. If you like yogurt, make it yourself. A yogurt machine is $50, but if milk costs $3.50 a gal. and yogurt is $2.50 a quart, you can make 4 yogurts out of a gallon of milk at a third of what you pay at the store.

2. Homemade bread is really cheap and good. You can make a loaf for less than 50 cents, and a good bread costs $2.50. A cheap bread machine is an excellent investment (takes me literally five minutes to get one going).

3. If you like wine, make your own. Here in Canada, a drinkable bottle on wine is $10-12. I can make an excellent one for $2.10. And beer is the same -- 6 bottles of beer costs $8-9, but I can make the 6 bottles for $2.50. (And it's really good beer, too!)

4. Get a $9.99 rice cooker. Buy rice in 20 pound bags and use it every day. It's very versatile and you

[ricoco1]

on 11/10/2008 Best way: go vegetarian! Not only you will spend much less but will probably end up eating much healthier.

[mikaay]

on 10/22/2008 One more thing!
I call my dish, "Last resort Goolash"

[mikaay]

on 10/22/2008 Don't forget about a nice big cheap sack of beans that keep forever and is very cheap in bulk. I bought a 25lb sack about 6 years ago and I'm almost to the end of it. I'll start with putting the beans in my rice cooker, and add every spice I have, in addition to vegetables, meats and whatever comes along or is in my fridge or freezer. The beauty of it is that it keeps just fine in the rice cooker, which switches from warm to heat as it needs to. And as the contents decrease, I just add more ingredients and water, more spices and different things, which allow you to change the flavor while never losing your foundation. It's great for the really desperate, broke guy who will at least have something to eat when times are tough, even if you do get tired of the same thing. Great to dip bread into also.