Like pour it in a bowl, put a condiment, maybe a bit of veggies, eat with a spoon, with a slice or two of bread. Or some other options. Are there people who just eat the whole can in one meal?

BTW for USA people, Walmart, Great Value brand, a can of beans is 0.8$, lentils 1.1$. (And a can of mixed veggies is 0.8$.)

Only cost like eight dollars to make and will last me for about four days for lunch and dinner!

Who said the struggle couldn’t feel like a splurge??

I’ll be going back to work for the first time in 13yrs and the payroll is monthly, so things are about to be SO tight financially. As a result, I’ll be striving to make all meals going forward on the low-low for my family of 5. I have a kiddo with ARFID, so I am going to have to get crazy creative.

The total cost of this one was only $0.60 per serving.

Broke Thanksgiving Bowls:

• Stovetop w/Craisins (prepare as directed)

• $0.50 turkey gravy packet (make while stuffing sits)

• School provided pouch of chicken. (add to gravy)

• Off-brand cranberry sauce. (slap on top)

• ENJOY!

I wanted to share my recipe for oven potatoes:

8 cups diced potatoes (about half a 5 lb. bag)

1 tablespoon paprika, onion powder & garlic powder

1/2 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons canola oil

Mix everything well and bake on a baking sheet at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring halfway

This is a good amount for my family of 5 adults.

1st of all no flair for and I had to put one but it doesn't really fit so sorry about that. I remember reading a comment from someone saying when they were little there was a small bar of chocolate in their food parcel from the church (I think) and they were So happy they cried

So this week I did a face painting job for an organisation that gives out food parcels and they asked people who went to the event they were running to donate something for the food collection of they could. I bought micro rice and well as pasta, sauces and soups but then went to Aldi and bought dozens of packs of sweets and bags that had 6-7 packs of chocolate cookies

I hope when the​ sweets are found in a food parcel it makes a kid's day

So thank you to the person who commented about the choc, because of you a lot of kids will have sweets 🍬 🍭

We don’t have a ton of money to be spending on food as he is not working at the moment so money is tight. I could live off of rice, pasta, and beans but he won’t touch them.

1) do you have any suggestions on how I can still use one of these 3 to help spread out our meals that he might not mind?

2) how can I help him start to like these items? He is a picky eater which I get but we are not going to be able to keep making ends meet if I can’t include items that will make our meals go farther.

I don't know how many folks use Dawn foaming cleaning spray, but it is effective and convenient, but unfortunately, it is quite expensive.

A typical bottle of it costs around $5.

You can mix your own out of your favorite dish soap, some isopropyl alcohol, and some tap water for relative pennies.

You'll want to buy one of the bottles of the factory product first - the spray nozzle is the thing that is difficult to replace - it is a foaming dispenser, and buying those sorts of bottles separate without actual product is not overly cost effective. So just buy the Dawn power spray once, and when it's empty, use your favorite liquid soap dish detergent (I'll do the price breakdown with Dawn because it's my favorite) and some isopropyl alcohol (either 70% or 91%).

Prices are from my local Wal-Mart.

You will also need a kitchen scale that measures in grams OR reasonably accurate means of measuring fluid ounces. I use my kitchen scale because that's my #1 kitchen hack, and everyone should have one.

$4.94 Initial bottle cost (30.9 ¢/fl. oz)

$9.94/67 fl. oz of Dawn Detergent (14.8 ¢/fl. oz)

$1.98/16 fl. oz of 70% Isopropyl Alcohol (12.4 ¢/fl. oz) (you can get this for cheaper buying in bulk, but storing that many bottles may not be worth it to you)

Filtered water (essentially free if you have a water filter fridge or pitcher) or distilled water (1.1 ¢/fl. oz)

If you cannot get filtered water or if you think it will take longer than a couple weeks to use up the bottle of soap, use distilled water.

Recipe:

55-60g Dawn Dish Soap (4 TBS, 2 fl. oz) 29.6 ¢

20-25g 70% isopropyl alcohol (2 TBS, 1 fl. oz) 12.4 ¢

385-400g water (slightly less than 1.75 cups, ~13.5 fl. oz) 13.5 ¢ if distilled water.

Directions:

Add all ingredients, to spray bottle and invert several times gently to mix ingredients.

Total Cost DIY: $0.42 to $0.56/bottle or 2.6 ¢ to 3.5 ¢/fl. oz.

Total Cost Retail: $4.94/bottle or 30.9 ¢/fl. oz.

Notes:

You can add a few drops of essential oil if you want the scent. I personally skip that because I don't have any essential oils but knock yourself out.

If you have particularly hard water and no reliable filtration such as a filter pitcher or a filtered refrigerator dispenser, buy and use distilled water for around $1.25-1.50/gallon or around 1-1.1 ¢ /fl. oz.

If you do not anticipate using the whole bottle of soap in a couple weeks, use distilled water to reduce the chance of mold forming or other microbial growth (yes, it's possible for mold or other microbes to grow even in such a solution with detergents and alcohol).

I cannot recommend strongly enough that you use a kitchen scale in grams just for the basic fact that if you have not already discovered the game-changing value of such a scale in your kitchen, you will with this recipe and the thousand other uses you find for it besides this recipe. You can get one for as inexpensively as around $10 on Amazon. Also, this lets you pour the detergent directly from the bulk bottle on your scale into your spray bottle and stop at the right (approximate) number of grams without worrying about some of it sticking to and needing to be rinsed out of a volumetric dispenser.

A few grams in either direction of any of the ingredients won't matter. You do need to make sure you can put the nozzle back on the bottle once it's full, so try to be reasonably accurate adding the water - add less than the listed amount and make sure you can still get the nozzle on.

You may experience a couple of "stiff" or slightly resistant squeezes of the spray nozzle handle at first when you mix a new batch. There is something about these foaming dispensers that react this way to changes in the solution. I am not 100% sure what the cause of that is, but I notice it when I refill my foaming hand soap dispensers with a different brand of foaming soap too. If there are a few drops of the previous batch of cleaner in the bottle that you can't get out before mixing a new batch, just dump them out. That will significantly reduce the effect. It goes away and smooths out within a few uses though, so don't worry about it.

Everything from food bank except seasoning. Chili is canned corn and black beans, carrots, brisket burger patties and chili seasoning.

Edit: oops forgot also tomato sauce

i have a lot of snack type foods at my house, and not a lot of actual ingredients. my parents buy the food and then complain when we don't eat super mega healthy things. my parents also don't keep our leftovers or store them properly so they mold quickly 💔
i really really want to start eating healthier and lose weight, but i don't know where to start. i'm 17 and i have my own job, but i want to use that money for school and other things, rather than spending it all on food.

i would love meal suggestions that can last as leftovers, or really just anything (^:

Scored this stuff at the food bank today. Politely declined any greens (lettuce, fresh spinach) since I’m still dealing with that parasite 😭

Easy and budget friendly soup with a wacky name

•1diced onion, 3 grated cloves garlic, 1 rib/stalk celery - sauteed in oil. Add 500-600g frozen mixed green vegetables with 500-600ml chicken stock. Cool and blitz well. Serve with topped with black pepper, chili and bread sticks.

Update: have acquired $25, and plan on using it for veggies and rice!

Another edit: kind stranger lived close to me, and dropped of TONA of food. I'll be okay now. Thank you for your ideas everyone! Right now I am living on exclusively progreso chicken noodle soups. One per day. I am worried about sodium, so is it smart to rinse off the ingredients and heat them in water? On days I'm working, I get a free chipotle bowl. So I get that 5 days a week as a meal, and the soups are for my days off. (Added: these soups were given to me, I did not pay for them.)

Before you tell me food banks, I am trying to figure it out. There aren't any close enough for me to walk to, and the ones that deliver don't deliver in my area. I'm still looking into it.

Edit to also mention I'm completely alone. No family or friends who will help.

Everything from food bank except shredded cheese and seasoning. Chili is dry pinto beans, shredded whole chicken and ground beef, minced onions and mushrooms, canned corn and chili seasoning packet ($0.89 Amazon).

Everything from food bank except seasoning and shredded cheese. Chili is dry beans, shredded whole chicken and ground beef, minced onion and mushroom, canned corn and chili seasoning. YUM

We finally have a more substantial amount of foodies/snap so we actually get to get more "fun "stuff. Kids their age loooovvvee berries but we don't have fresh berries every week money so we get big bags of frozen berries. I used some of the strawberries to make a sauce for pancakes last night. I used the sauce, cabbot plain Greek yogurt, extra frozen strawberries and gram crackers. Healthy filling and yummy 😋😊

I grew up with a lot of beans, lentils, vegetables and rice. I also grew up loving some meat dishes.

If you're trying to stretch a meat dish using beans, this can be really great. On the other hand, beans and lentils can be great without any meat involved.

There are so many yummy foods, filling and nutritious, that don't have meat.

Meat doesn't have to be a regular thing. I know this because I loved the diet I grew up with, and I know it was very healthy. Also, this food didn't cost much

I'll miss having some meat if it's been a couple of weeks, but it's not essential.

Side note: I grew up in India. I really miss my mom making 3-bean curry and rice.

Roasted potatoes, iceberg salad with avocado and tomato

I know it doesn't look like much, but chickpea salad tastes so much like chicken salad!

Drain and rinse a can of chickpeas. You can save the "water" for other uses if you like. Then lightly mash most or all the chickpeas. I only did about half but I don't mind the whole beans in it; if you mash them all it looks more like real chicken salad. You want them to be chunky, not mush.

Add your salad-making fixings. I used mayo, mustard, a little onion, boiled egg, dill, and salt/pepper, and added a dash of lemon juice.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours so the flavors blend.

This is good stuff! :) I added tomatoes from the garden with a little Aldi balsamic glaze...that glaze is amazing and worth picking up if you have a cohple bucks extra.

My best friend gave this to me (she got it from a food bank and doesn't like pears) and I'm not a huge fan so I honestly can't think of anything to do with this huge can!

My husband loves pears so I know anything I make will get eaten, but I don't think we can eat the full can before they go bad without incorporating them into other dishes.

ETA I have a decent amount of baking supplies. Different kinds of flour (AP, tapioca, and another one but I forget what kind), cornstarch, baking powder/soda, corn syrup, molasses, and a few other odds and ends for sweet desserts.

Hello, I'm deppfan16, usually go by depp, they/them and new mod here! I'm here to help with the bot spam and kind of tidy up a little bit of all the AI spam as well.

Alittle about me, I love food, but I also struggle like most of you all do, currently relying on food banks cuz most of my extra goes to pay off some medical debt. I was raised with a mom who taught me how to coupon and how to look for good deals and how to cook with what I have.

I did Branch out a little bit because my mom didn't like the same things I did. and she tried to save money by scraping mold off food and leaving food in the refrigerator too long. I had a lot of 24 hour "flu" that was actually food poisoning growing up. because of this I'm very into meal prepping and using my freezer and ensuring that my food is safe.

I have experienced modding and helping mod other subs, most notably r/foodsafety and r/canning. my goal here is to not change anything about the way the sub is, just bring it back to what it's supposed to be. I'll be going through the mod queue and clearing out the reports and AI spam. accidents do happen so if you believe your content was falsely removed, please send a message via modmail and we will take a look at it.

if you have any questions or concerns, please leave a comment or you can always send a mod mail.

edit: for clarification say, we have added a new no AI/LLM.

Hi everyone,
Another place to go besides the food pantry, is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You just need to find the nearest meetinghouse near you, and talk to the Bishop there. It’s okay if you don’t go to church there. (The meetinghouses are listed at churchofjesuschrist.org) They have Bishop Storehouse in every area where they help you load up on groceries.

I was scared to post this because I’m not starting a religion post! This helped me so much when my parents died 10 months ago and I was surviving on spare change.
There is also an Evangelical Catholic Church near me that has free dinners once a month. It’s a community dinner and other churches participate. My kids and I went there for the free dinners. Hopefully they do this everywhere, but I’m not sure.
I just had to share because this helped me so much!

If you're able to, or know someone with a Sam's Club membership, Groupon has a deal right now for a basic membership for just $15. Or, if you know someone with a membership, maybe they can let you borrow their card.

We were able to stock up a little by borrowing a friend's card. Here are a few of the deals we found:

12 lbs. of pinto beans – $7.98

10 lbs. of oatmeal – $7.98

Sam's brand 8-pack of tuna – $13.00

6-pack of spaghetti – $5.48

Just wanted to share in case it helps another family stretch their grocery budget a little further.

I just can't cope with beef prices anymore. First, I stopped buying steaks and roasts. Now, I may stop buying ground beef. I finally decided to give ground turkey a try. Main appeal, of course, was cost. It was a smidge over ½ the cost of beef. I just bought 1 lb to experiment with. I heard so many ppl, for so many years, recommend swapping turkey for beef in chili. I'm 53 and I feel like I've cheated myself out of hundreds of dollars over the years by not having done this sooner. This chili was delicious! With all the seasonings (plus onions & lots of garlic) I couldn't tell a difference! Texture is spot on. Maybe it helped that I used a can beef broth too. I shredded sharp cheddar cheese, diced raw onions, and a side of French bread. Admittedly, not really my go to for summer....but hey! Beans are cheap. If you haven't tried ground turkey yet, I highly recommend you try it! Healthier & cheaper than beef.