6 Frugal Meal Ideas You Can Make on a Super-Tight Budget
Are you on a super tight budget this week? Here are six easy frugal meal ideas to help get you through! A lot of these have pantry ingredients and are easy to make on busy weeknights.
My husband and I have learned how to eat on a really small budget. We’ve gone down as low as $30 a week for our family of three. So, I’ve had to learn how to get really creative with the money I had and try to make as many cheap meals as possible. Here are my favorites:
1. Baked potatoes and toppings
Ingredients
This is such a simple, filling, and nutritious frugal meal. But you can get really creative with the toppings and add a salad if you have it in the budget. These are large Russet baking potatoes, plus oil, and seasonings. Wash and scrub the potatoes while preheating the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
1. Prep the potatoes
I like to slice my potatoes in half because they bake more quickly. If you bake them whole, poke holes in them with a fork. Put the baking potatoes on a baking sheet. Then use your hands to cover them with olive oil. The olive oil helps to crisp up the skin. Then, sprinkle salt and pepper over the potatoes.
2. Bake them
Baked potatoes sliced in half will bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Whole potatoes can take 40 to 60 minutes to bake. Once they are done, you should be able to easily stick a fork in them.
3. Create toppings
Some favorite toppings are sour cream, shredded cheddar, and baking bits. Top with chili for an extra protein boost.
2. Bean and cheese burritos
Ingredients
This is a filling meal and rice, salad, or roasted vegetables all make great side items. All you need is fried beans, tortillas, and shredded cheddar cheese.
1. Heat up beans
I used canned refried beans for convenience, but you can save money by cooking your own dried beans. One can of beans makes about four servings. It took about 10 to 15 minutes to heat them up in a pot. I also added some taco seasoning.
2. Fill tortillas
Add a spoonful of beans onto two tortillas, then sprinkle with shredded cheese, and fold the tortilla up.
3. Goulash
Ingredients
This warm, hardy, delicious dish is more of an American style of goulash versus a traditional goulash. It makes a ton of food. You need ground turkey, cheddar cheese, pasta, sauce, vegetables, and seasonings.
1. Cook turkey
I use ground turkey, but you can use marked-down meat to use, instead. Start by cooking the meat in a large skillet on the stovetop. Add frozen or fresh diced green peppers to the skillet as you are cooking the meat.
2. Make macaroni
Boil water to make macaroni.
3. Add tomatoes
Add one can of diced tomatoes once the meat is cooked in the skillet. Add basil, oregano, salt, and pepper.
4. Add macaroni
Add the pot of cooked macaroni into the skillet and mix.
5. Melt cheese
Melt shredded cheese on top of the skillet. Fill up a bowl and enjoy.
4. Pasta bake
Ingredients
This is a super easy and simple dish. All you need is penne, pasta sauce, and shredded mozzarella cheese. You can add more to the dish, like meat or vegetables. I like to serve a side of vegetables with the pasta bake.
1. Make pasta
Make the pasta in a pot of boiling water, then pour the pasta into an 8x8 baking dish and top it with a jar of sauce. Mix well.
2. Add cheese
Top with shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25 minutes or just enough for the cheese to melt.
5. Red beans and rice
Ingredients
This is just a quick meal, and not meant to be a traditional dish in any way. It is also a great quick vegetarian meal. The recipe calls for two cans of kidney beans, tomato sauce, rice, olive oil, and seasonings.
1. Mix kidney beans and sauce
Add the kidney beans, tomato sauce, olive oil, and Adobo seasoning to a skillet on the stovetop. Let the mixture simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Make rice
I used instant rice, but you can use any favorite rice. I seasoned my rice with some Adobo seasoning.
3. Plate the rice and beans
I divided the rice into four bowls and added the bean mixture on top. You can top this with sour cream, shredded cheese, or avocado.
6. Tuna melt sandwiches
Ingredients
Sandwiches are my go-to when I’m low on both energy and money because they are so easy. You’ll need bread, two cans of tuna, cheddar cheese slices, mayonnaise, butter, and seasonings.
1. Make tuna
Mix two cans of tuna, 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise, some garlic powder, and paprika. You can add pickles or relish to the tuna if you like.
2. Prep the sandwich
Butter two slices of bread. Add a slice of cheese and a spoonful of tuna between the two pieces of bread.
3. Grill the sandwich
Then cook them like you would a grilled cheese sandwich until they’re toasted to your liking.
Frugal meal ideas
Frugal meal planning can be easy. Have you made any of these frugal meals? Let me know some of your other favorite frugal meals.
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Who did not know this? Add in baloney sandwiches with fried baloney use cheapest white bread you can find and then put a slice of American cheese of any brand inside the fried baloney sandwich or you can use cured salami instead of baloney. Yes and fry in either vegetable oil or olive oil or use a mixture of oils. Also the highest grade of any of these food items will be more expensive however if you wait until the expiration date that is mandated by the federal and/or state government, you can make all of this by buying at a grocery outlet store. Even the Dollar Store and/or the Dollar General Store and even the 99 cent store.