Cheap Meal Ideas And Recipes – How We Ate For $7 A Week

Here are some cheap meal ideas and recipes you can use to save money on groceries! If you want to cut your food bill, using just a few of these ideas and recipes can cut your food bill a lot!

Cheap Meal Ideas And Recipes – How We Ate For $7 A Week

In her Penny Pinching Mama video series, my mom Jill explained how she spent about $7 a week on groceries when she was raising my brother and me on $500 a month income. That was in 1988, so with inflation, it would be more equivalent to around $14 a week now.

In this post, I will share some of the cheap meal ideas and recipes Mom used to keep our grocery budget so low.

This was our food budget out of necessity because of our extremely tight financial situation. You may not want to limit your food to just these things but, at the time, things were desperate for us and Mom was trying to figure out how to feed us within the very tight budget we had.

Don’t get stuck in these numbers. If you find yourself saying, “I could never do that…” or “That is impossible these days…”, you are sabotaging yourself and you will never reach your goals. You will need to decide if you would rather convince yourself there’s nothing you can do so you can lament your financial condition or if you want to take action to empower yourself to make your situation better.

Even if you don’t get your grocery budget this low, you can likely save money from what you are spending now. Most people can save a LOT. I’m sharing these cheap meal ideas so you can think about what your goals are for saving on your food bill and consider how you might be able to reduce your spending.

Look it over and then figure out what you might want to implement in your family budget. If you can take a couple of these cheap meal ideas and recipes and lower your grocery bill even by 10%, you will be saving money over what you are spending now. Then keep checking out our other ideas and figuring out what else best works for your family situation.

For more ideas how to save money and reduce your stress, check out:

• Eating Out – Stop Eating Your Way Into Debt!
• Car Payments – Paying Cash For A Car and When Should You Buy A Newer Car?
• How Many Clothes Do You Really Need?

Most people could save a lot more money on these things than on their grocery bills, so if you want to save the most you can, be sure to check out the above posts!

 

Cheap Meal Ideas And Recipes – Basic Meal Ideas

Here are some cheap meal ideas and recipes for each meal of the day and a couple of dessert recipes. Implementing these recipes into your meals at least a few times a week will help you save more.

 

 

This easy muffins recipe is a perfect recipe for a quick breakfast or snack. My mom used to make these often. They are delicious just as they are. If you’re looking for cheap meal ideas to cut your budget the most, you would save more money serving them plain, but you can also add things like nuts, fruit or chocolate chips for a little extra variety.

 

 

This easy egg salad recipe is another tasty recipe to help use up all those colored eggs after Easter. You can make up a big batch and have it for several lunches. You can add lettuce leaves or celery for extra crunch.

Egg Salad Recipe

6 hard boiled eggs, chopped
½ cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
1 small stalk celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped, or 1 tsp. onion powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper

Mix all ingredients. Best if chilled for 1 or 2 hours. Makes 4 sandwiches.

 

This easy chicken salad recipe is a tasty recipe you can whip up in just a couple minutes that makes delicious sandwiches, perfect for lunches at home or packed lunches. It’s a perfect way to use leftover chicken or to stretch a little bit of chicken into another meal!

Tuna Salad Recipe

3-4 (5 oz.) cans tuna, drained
½ cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
1 small stalk celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped, or 1 tsp. onion powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper

Mix all ingredients. Best if chilled for 1 or 2 hours. Makes 4 sandwiches.

 

Cheap Meal Ideas And Recipes – Dinner

 

This easy chicken and dumplings recipe is an easy way to make chicken and dumplings like mom and grandma used to make! It’s a perfect comfort food recipe that is quick and easy to make!

Easy Chicken and Dumplings Recipe

4 cups chicken broth
1/2-1 1/2 cups chicken or turkey, cooked
1/2 cup celery, sliced
1/2 cup carrots, sliced
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. parsley flakes

 

Dumplings

2 cups baking mix
1/4 tsp. thyme, dried
1/2 tsp. parsley flakes
2/3 cup milk

In a Dutch oven, combine broth, chicken, celery, carrots, bay leaf and parsley. Bring to a boil.

In a bowl, combine baking mix, thyme, and parsley. Stir in milk just until moistened.

Drop by tablespoonfuls into the boiling broth.

Cook uncovered for 10 minutes and then cover and cook an additional 10 minutes. DO NOT PEEK or your dumplings will be soggy.

Remove dumplings with a slotted spoon and serve in bowls. Remove bay leaf and spoon broth over the top of the dumplings. Serves 4.

 

This quick and easy beef stew is my mom’s beef stew recipe and it is the best beef stew you will ever eat! It is probably my favorite of all of the cheap meal ideas. Every time I make it, everyone raves about how great it is. It’s so great we hardly ever have leftovers! If you need a quick and easy meal to put in the crockpot or on the stove to simmer, this is the recipe for you!!

This recipe is a tasty, tummy warming recipe for cool winter days and you can easily use leftovers in places of some of the ingredients. This is a very low cost recipe and is very tasty as written, but you can feel free to modify it to your liking. If you prefer, you can add or take away veggies and if you don’t mind the extra cost, you can add more meat.

Easy Beef Stew Recipe

1/2 lb. round steak, cubed
6 cups water
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. garlic salt, (or to taste)
1 tsp. onion salt, (or to taste) or 1 onion, chopped
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
6 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 Tbsp. cornstarch or flour
2 Tbsp. water

Brown the meat in a large saucepan. Add all of the other ingredients except the vegetables, cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water. Simmer for 1-2 hours until the meat is tender. Add the vegetables and cook for 15-20 minutes, until tender.

Mix the cornstarch into 2 Tbsp. water. Add to the boiling stew and simmer for 15 minutes until thickened. Makes 2 quarts.

This homemade stew recipe is great with cornbread or Ninety-Minute Rolls.

 

This Quick and Easy Chili Recipe will get you in and out of the kitchen fast! It’s a homemade chili recipe that even kids will love!

This quick and easy chili recipe is another of my favorite cheap meal ideas! If you are a chili connoisseur, it may not be for you but if you have picky eaters or children this recipe is perfect. You can adjust the amounts of the ingredients to the size of your family without doing much harm. This is also a perfect recipe to make the day before and just warm up when you need it.

Quick and Easy Chili Recipe

3 small cans tomato soup*
3 soup cans of water
1/2 to 1 lb. cooked hamburger
Chili powder to taste
Garlic powder and onion powder to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

I usually use at least 2 teaspoons each of chili powder and garlic powder. You can also use onions. Put everything in a large pan and simmer at least 2 hours. It’s better to let it simmer all day if possible. You can add almost anything you want to this basic recipe. Beans work well or I like to crumble in some fried sausage for extra flavor.

*I have also replaced the soup with a large can (32-36 oz.) of tomato juice and it is good, too!

 

This easy cornbread recipe is so delicious, sweet and moist you can eat it with nothing on it! It is the best cornbread ever! Serve with stews, chili, soups and more!

I loved drowning my cornbread in syrup until I discovered this easy cornbread recipe. This cornbread is so delicious I can eat it with nothing on it! It is sweet and moist, easy to make and has the best flavor! It’s great to use to make dressing (stuffing) or to serve with stews, soups or chili. It is so good, it will probably become a staple in your home!

Best Ever Easy Cornbread Recipe

2 cups baking mix (Bisquick)
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir all the ingredients together. Blend until smooth. Pour into a greased 8×8 inch baking pan and bake for 30 minutes. Serves 9.

Tip:

I like to bake my cornbread in a cast iron frying pan. I grease it with bacon grease and heat the pan in the oven while it is preheating. As soon as it is hot (about 5 minutes of so or the amount of time it takes to mix the batter) I pour the cornbread batter into the pan and bake it.

You can also easily make this easy cornbread recipe into corn muffins by pouring the batter into muffin tins.

 

Cheap Meal Ideas And Recipes – Desserts

When people think of cheap meal ideas and recipes, desserts don’t often come to mind, but it’s nice to have a little sweet treat, especially for the kids. Here are our favorite cheap and tasty dessert recipes my mom made for us. They make great playtime or after school snacks!

 

This is the best homemade sugar cookies recipe! Sugar cookies are a great treat for holidays or for kids’ snacks. These are so light and fluffy, you’re sure to love them! My mom made these for us and now my kids love Nan’s sugar cookies just as much!

The VERY Best Homemade Sugar Cookies Recipe!

2 cups sugar
1 cup shortening
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
6 cups flour

Cream together the sugar, shortening, eggs and vanilla. Add buttermilk. Stir well. Then add the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth.

Roll into balls and drop about 3 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet or silpat. Wet the tips of your fingers, smash down a cookie and sprinkle with sugar or colored sugar.

If you prefer, you can roll out the cookies. Chill for 2 hours and then roll out. The dough will be very sticky. Cut and place on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes, just until golden. Makes 4 dozen.

*This recipe can be easily halved. 

 

This easy no bake fudge cookies recipe is a wonderfully chocolatey recipe to satisfy your kids on those hot summer days! These cookies are our kids most favorite recipe and older kids can easily make this recipe themselves!

No Bake Fudge Cookies Recipe

1/2 cup milk
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Before you start, cut about a 20 inch piece of wax paper. Lay it on the counter. This serves as something to drop the cookies on.

In a saucepan, mix milk, sugar, cocoa, and margarine. Bring to a boil and boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter, vanilla, nuts. Mix until peanut butter is mixed in. Add oatmeal. Drop by spoonfuls on the wax paper.

This must be done a little quickly because the cookies start hardening pretty fast. If the humidity is high or you don’t boil them the right amount of time, they may not harden. Don’t panic! Just pour it into a container and use as fudge sauce for ice cream. …Although my kids love eating these homemade no bake fudge cookies with spoons if they don’t get hard enough to eat as cookies!

 

These cheap meal ideas and recipes are from volume 1 of our cookbook: