Fast!

Six ways to cook a cheap dinner fast.    Yes, I used the words cheap and fast on the same sentence.  LOL.   My first thought was something I  remember from cooking school.    You have to cook squid either fast or very slow.    Otherwise, it is tough.    

1.  Always keep an organized kitchen. As closely as possible keep things close to where you use them.   A kitchen should have the fridge, sink and stove within close proximity of each other.   They call that the kitchen triangle.   
2. Have a plan. It's always faster with a plan rather than flying by the seat of your pants.    Less chance for disasters!   
3.  Clean your fridge out and wash it before you go grocery shopping,    This way you know what you have, what.needs to be eaten quickly and what you need to buy to complete meals.   No running to the store at the last minute.    
4. Prep veggies and meat before the dinner hour,     Tonight we had sloppy joes, fruit and corn on the cob.   The meat was already cooked.   I defrosted it in the microwave while I shucked corn. The fruit was already washed and cut up,   I added the sloppy joe sauce to the meat while I cooked the corn in the microwave.   Dinner in 10 minutes flat.    
5. Plan no brainier dinners,    Crock pot meals ate good, winter or summer.   When the veggies are prepped  , salads are fast.   A lot of casseroles can be prepped, shoved in the oven, amd you can walk away.    
6. Foil dinners leave the cooking to the BBQ or the oven and leave no cleanup.   No pans or serving bowls and the dishes are a cinch.    

• Speghetti and meat balls
• Sloppy joes 
• Stir fry with ramen noodles 
• Breakfast for dinner 
• Soup and sandwiches or cheezy Bisquits 

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the Put Dinner On The Table meal train from a different

 Perspective . The  emphasis is on purchasing good food( shelf- stabll/ freezer staples )at the lowest possible cost and purchasing enough to last you until it goes on sale again -- Keeping a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you use on a regular basis. 

It means that when you shop, rather than purchasing just what you need for a day or a week, you  buy a loss leader protein, produce you will need on sale, a stock item if it's a RBP, and dairy instead.    This allows you to put well balanced meals on the table consistently  for a four dollar a day budget per person. 

  You spend more time on the planning and shopping end of the meal train and less on the cooking mend by cooking efficiently.    

Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on four dollars a day, spending more isn't hard.   You still get more bang for your buck.