Budget Crisis? Top Low-Cost High-Yield / Frugal Eating Food Ideas

If you’re like most people, a large portion of your income goes to groceries. Trimming your grocery budget dramatically could help you save more money, pay down more debt, or it could simply help you cope with a period of financial difficulty.Frugal eating can be tasty, too --- if you use your imagination.

Here is a list of some of the cheapest healthy food and recipe options. Many of these lower priced foods offer good nutritional value and will help you develop great eating habits. Some are also high satiety foods, resulting in feeling fuller, longer. Many people who adopt high satiety foods also get the great benefit of healthy weight loss while saving money. Some top picks for cheap and healthy food are: bananas, beans, potatoes, eggs, oats, tofu.

Here are some meal ideas to help you stretch your food budget, especially if you’re in financial crisis mode:

• Soup. Soup is an excellent meal from a nutritional and budget perspective. A small amount of ingredients can feed a large family and can supply that family with more than one meal. It’s also a great way to use up leftovers & you'll even find detox soup recipes that are chocked full of health benefits, too. Experiment with spices and try different bases. Tip: Tea as a soup base makes a flavourful and beneficial soup ingredient. You can use various teas to find new flavours. Creamy soups can also be filling. Love creamy soups? Use a roux with flour and butter and then add some milk for a new flavour and consistency that is very stretchable.
• Stew. Got leftover meat but not enough to feed the whole family? This could be great in a stew. Beef, chicken, or turkey can make a great stew. Add some vegetables, make a gravy, and toss in some dumplings to boost the heartiness of the soup and you have a winner. Tip: Extra stew leftover? Put it into a pie shell for a great side dish or main dish meal.
• Casseroles. Casseroles offer a great way to stretch ingredients and get plenty of variety from similar ingredients. Try some new ideas with meat, vegetables, rice, potato, and noodle combinations. Get creative with sauces to dress up your casseroles. Tip: Toppings can make a difference to how your family reacts. Try crusty bread crumb toppings, cheese (A little CAN go a long way), or top your casserole with biscuits (you can make homemade biscuits with a few staple ingredients and put the dough on the casserole for the last few minutes of baking.
• Frugal Portioning: Increase the portion sizes of vegetables and decrease the portions of meat. The suggested meat serving is only about the size of the person’s palm. More vegetables = lower cost and higher adherence to the food pyramid recommendations for optimal nutrition. Tip: Meatloaves can be more filling when using oats as a binder. And, try making mini meatloaf. It’ll help you plan for feeding a large family or help you save portions for an extra meal.
• Shop Seasonally. Buy food that’s in season and you’ll enjoy the great taste of that season and benefit from much lower food costs.
• Shop the sales. Plan your weekly menu by looking at the newspaper, clipping coupons, and centring your choices around sale items.

Here's a great tip:

Figure out how much you're saving! Count up the coupons and compare your grocery bill week by week to challenge yourself.

There was a time, not long ago, where a family added more water to the soup to stretch it. Today, too many people rely on convenience foods and go into deeper debt buy buying food on credit. If you follow advice from your Grandmother’s cookbook and plan carefully, chances are that you’ll stretch your budget further AND , for the most part, eat healthier.