Eating on a Tight Budget

I make my sweet and sour beans.

In a crockpot combine
2 large cans baked beans
5 cans whatever other beans you like or on sale....kidney beans, black beans, great northern bean, butter beans...my kids eat them all!
1 large onion cut into rings...you can use more if you like
option....bacon or ham or a ham bone. I always make this after having a ham. Or I get a honey baked ham ham bone....there is enough meat on the bone for a meal and then I throw the rest in.

1 tsp dry mustard powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

I had to guess on the last 3 ingredients....havent measured these for years.

I throw these in the crockpot in the morning and by dinner it is done. Even better on the 2nd and 3 days.

Soul food! Love it! Whats better than a pot of greens with a ham bone or ham hocks!

Just bumping this fun thread up for the morning crew!

I can remember when I first got married and all we could afford was those huge packages of chicken leg quarters, we would get them on sale for $.19 a pound. Now I can't touch'em. Also round steak was REALLY cheap and I would make tips out of them in my slow cooker. But then at $.89 a pound on sale was a steal to todays price of $4 a pound :shock:

When I was growing up my parents didn't have much money either and one of my favs. from then was the canned spaghetti. I think it was franco american or something like that. So my mom made her own because buying the canned stuff cost too much. So she would make spaghetti and mix in tomato soup and grated parm. cheese. I still make that to this day and my kids love it. I have even fried some bulk pork sausage and added that and made a whole meal out of it. I just found that you can buy the tiny rings like spaghettios and tried it that way. OMG my daughter couldn't get enough of them.

I do alot of hunting and fishing and we always have fish in the freezer. When I don't feel like making my own fish breading and I want something that has alot of flavor I go to the local deli that has broasted chicken and buy some of their chicken breading instead of paying alot for a small box of fish breading off the shelf. They only charge me $.75 for a 2# container full. It's cheaper and tastes sooooo good on lake pearch :D

I eat Kraft Mac n Cheese.....lots of it..........

NOOOOOO not Kraft lol :wink:

top ramen is the ultimate cheap meal, although little to no nutritional value! I add chicken or ground beef for a protein source.

Loves poached eggs on toast....I have the little microwave poacher and it makes for a good cheap lunch!

I still buy the leg quarters. I cut the backbones off and make stock from them. Then I seperate the drums and thighs and make lemon chicken or fried chicken to serve with the green mentioned earlier. Puddljumper, that was you I was talikg about anonymously! I catch and eat fish too. But I do that regardless of my financial situation.

I make something called hillbilly stew, my Dad use to make it all the time to feed 5 kids! Basically, it's green beans, onions, butter, pared/diced potatoes and bacon ends. Yummy!

I hear ya Frog. We really didn't get the chance to go fishing last year because of the gas prices. So the boat just sat :( There really are no places to get good fish off-shore by us. But yes we fish no matter what our finances are. Because buying lake pearch is nuts at $18.99 a pound :shock: And going out to eat them the prices are nuts there too. A pearch plate with 4 fillets is $12.99 and hubby is still hungry after lol.

Shaz, That sounds so good!! Add some venison to that and it would be great :wink:

Shazz! Thats what I'm talkin' about! That sounds awesome. Where do I get bacon ends? I am a die hard foody but I never searched for them! I have to try that! My favorite cookbook of all time, and we have a collection of hundreds, is a paper back called Peasant Cooking. it is the soul food from around the world. I believe the best recipes come from necessity. I made a soup once that I still today call Soup Park Ridge because I was single and living in Park Ridge NJ. I had a chicken carcass, a tomato, some broccoli, onions, noodles and whatever else was around. I bought a loaf of crusty bread and with a little grated parmesan cheese. it was the most satisfying thing I have ever eaten! Sort of like a minestrone I guess!

You can get bacon ends and pieces for a butcher/meat market. Or if your grocery store slices their own bacon they usually sell it too. Heck if ya can't find any let me know I can send ya some. We have an awesome meat market not even a block away that has award winning smoked meats :D Plus I used to work there so I can pull some strings :wink:

when i was kid, we lived on a farm=poverty..lol..7 kids and my dad was a farmer=double pverty..lol..anyways, our favorite food was potatoe soup..we grew the potatoes and kept em in the cellar for all winter..potatoe+fried hamburger+onion+milk+flower(to thicken)=yummy..add some cornbread and meal done right..plus make in big stock pots and it will feed a large family for days!!!!

omg! my fav is ham and limas, the bone left on a ham always has a little meat and stuff on it throw it into the crock with the limas and cook for 2 days salt and pepper it feeds me and my son for 2 days for less than 1.00 its a 1.00 for a bag of limas at save alot and we use less than half of the bag so maybe .50.

rameon noodles, i can make a meal out of a baked potatoe for myself i dont have a big appetite, so when my husband is not home we eat sooooo cheap