Concept : cheap meals can afford you some more expensive ones

I started this blog to help people stretch their snap dollars so they could eat well on four dollars a day.   It has morphed into a bunch of frugal ideas for everyone , not just those in dire straights.   I’ve been working n dire straights, without a safety net of snap, but I also realize that a lot of people have been a lot worse off than I was.   Times have changed for us and I wouldn’t see us in any way dire straights.  It’s actually a little t more secure feeling knowing that our income isn’t going to change and we have the luxury of being able to do what we want , when we want to do it.  We still have volunteer positions, but it’s not the same.   I can still help people s t r e t c h their buck at the grocery store and have been for six years now,    I spend time searching for ideas that work and can be incorporated into a efficient way of buying food and cooking it.  The end result is home cooked, efficiently cooked meals that taste good.   I try for low saturated fat, hydrogenated oil,  salt, sugar, HFCS, and caustic soap free food.

This blog is going to be about low cost, good food.   If you can add some comfort foods that are low cost to your meal plans, it affords you a way to have a more expensive meal or two and still maintain a four dollar a day  budget. It’s all in the averaging.

Prices when I can quote them are based in buying your food at the RBP in the Seattle area.   Seattle is one of the highest COL states in the nation.  One might think that was because of the high cost of housing ,  but I research a lot of grocery shopping blogs across the country, and food is higher here. I think it is especially curious that even things grown on the west coast are cheaper in the mid west than they are here.

Four servings

• Chicken noodle soup , cheesy drop biscuits comes in at two dollars 
• Potato soup, artisan bread comes on at 1.50 
• Pizza for cheese, a dollar 
• Waffles or pancakes, fruit, eggs 2.50 
• Spaghetti with red sauce as low as 1.13 add a salad and some Parmesan cheese, or green beans (50) 
• Red beans and rice.  Beans come in at .0125 a half cup serving, Rice is .03 a serving. Cost is nickel a serving plus vegetables and spices. 
• Chicken enchiladas with green sauce 2.28 
• Taco soup 3.00

Notes: 

Chicken stock is virtually free and can be fat and salt free if you make it from chicken bones.   Dry little time involved.

Anything that takes meat pieces instead of a hunk of meat is going to be less expensive per serving,  add beans, rice, or cheese to “beef” up the protein.  If a meal doesn’t have enough protein, consider  adding a protein rich desert. 

Scratch pizza crust, and artisan bread costs about a tenth of what ready made does and it takes literally ten minutes or less.

Consider getting the tools to make cooking faster and easier.   You buy groceries over and over again,  tools you buy once.   They can save a bundle  of money.  The easier something is, the more likely you are to do it when you are tired or things are hectic.