# What is your 15 dollar grocery list? :)



## largentdepoche (Dec 9, 2005)

We're going to be running it tight in January it seems. If you had 15 bucks, what would you buy to last awhile?

I already have a large amount of flour/baking powder/ and I can always borrow eggs and milk from my Mominlaw. We have a large amount of beans also.

What would you buy?

Thanks!

Kat


----------



## WildernesFamily (Mar 11, 2006)

$15 to get through all of January? For how many people? 

I'd buy rice, vegetables and ground beef. Also butter/marge if you can't get any from another source, so you can use it with the flour/eggs/etc. for breads and so on.


----------



## DocM (Oct 18, 2006)

ground turkey is cheaper than ground beef here. Frozen veggies, rice, oatmeal.


----------



## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

1 pound of bacon $2.50...cook and save fat add to beans for flavor

5# chicken leg quarters...2.50 (about 10 legs)

bag of rice 2.50

3# elbow mac 1.50

3 cans spaghetti sauce $3

2 boxes jiffy bisquit mix $2.50

1 can of evaporated milk (add water to make double)

Boil 1 chicken leg for 20min use juice to make soup...remove meat from bone...add what you got....beans rice etc serve with bisquit


----------



## RedHairedBonnie (Mar 1, 2006)

I'd start with a detailed inventory of what you have. Do you have spices to make your own pasta sauce? Canned tomatoes, chopped or sauced is cheaper than pre-made pasta sauce. There are sites that you can put in what you have, and it will tell you what you can make-I think hillbilly housewife is one. Then start working out a menu, when times are tight who wants to eat rice and beans every night, you want to look for variety. One of my favorite cheapies is boiling carrots and potatoes together, then mashing them together. It is good on it's own, and if you have any left overs, or little bits that don't make a meal I toss them in and bake it.
Good luck, I've read enough of your other posts, I know you are resourceful, and can do this.


----------



## Aintlifegrand (Jun 3, 2005)

Rice, Chicken leg quarters, Mac and cheese 4/1.00, Cabbage, ground beef.


----------



## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Potatoes, carrots, cornmeal, oil, pasta, cheapest chicken you can find, mac and cheese (cheap boxed), onions and cabbage, TVP, a little chicken and beef flavoring from bulk bins. I realize not all this will apply if the markets in Finland don't have the same items that we have here in the States....what else do you already have on hand, and what's cheapest in the markets there? What can't you eat - seems like you've mentioned food intolerances in the past?


----------



## Speciallady (May 10, 2002)

10 pound bag of taters a must
1 whole chicken 
2-3 dozen eggs
1-2 packages of ground turkey
peanut butter
elbow macaroni


with the chicken you can boil it and ration it out. Make home made noodles, chicken noodle soup with veggies, ground turkey can be used in place of hamburger for goulash( macaroni noodles, turkey, onion, ketchup) 
potatoes can make several different meals.

Mashed potatoes, garlic taters(cut in chunks pour butter and garlic powder over the top, bake in oven til tender) Baked taters, fries, boil taters take out skins dress up skins for one meal, use insides for mashed taters. fried taters. 
What kinds of veggies in cans do you have?


----------



## largentdepoche (Dec 9, 2005)

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

WildernesFamily - There's just Hubby and I. I'm counting on whatever we buy to keep us for about two weeks, maybe more. Money is always iffy this part of year and also due to doc visits coming up.

RedHairedBonnie - We probably won't be grocery shopping until the end of next week so what stock we have now will most definitly be eaten up. I do have spices to make pasta sauce which is good. Tons of pizza spices and things like that. Thanks! I love Hillbilly Housewife, I learned many recipes from her site. She has the best and easy biscuit recipes anywhere. 

manygoatsnmore - We go to the cheapest store in Finland with the prices. Thank you Lord for good location  Oh we're going to be eating everything up this week so I'm guessing maybe one or two cans of beans left over, and that's about it. Luckily we get 14oz of baked beans for about .40 cents and we can get some cheaper vegetables. I do have lactose intolerance but if I cook all the milk it's not such a problem. I can't eat raw vegetables and alot of fiber, my intestines get all moody.

Speciallady- We just have beans but we can get very cheap frozen vegetables. I can get 400 grams of soup veges for 82 cents which is good. 

Thanks for all the hints and all! We eat pretty vegetarian minus tuna because it's very cheap. Meat here is outrageous since we don't have very many meat farms and all.

Thanks again!

Kat


----------



## titansrunfarm (Aug 14, 2005)

Come over here for dinner, I'll share


----------



## WildernesFamily (Mar 11, 2006)

Sounds good Kat!

My hubby and I worked on a Moshav in Israel some time ago for very little money and we were trying to save to do some more traveling. We could make one chicken last a week between the two of us. We'd make a huge pot of chicken stew, add veggies: potatoes, green peppers, onions, sometimes even tomatoes if the farmer would give us some. We'd add in salt and fill the pot to the top with water. Once it was cooked we'd pour off the extra water into a jug and keep in the fridge. For breakfast we'd have a slice of bread (provided by the farmer each morning) for lunch we'd have a cup of the poured off chicken stew water/broth (made a very thin soup) with bread and for dinner we'd have the stew over rice. Worked for us!  Of course this was short term - long term you'd probably have some problems with your digestive system  

Since you eat very vegetarian then rice and frozen veggies would work well - there should be a couple different meals you can make up.

Good luck! January is a very lean month for us as well.


----------



## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

Cream of mushroom soup, water, tuna and 1#elbow mac(cooked) (tuna noodle goop)

Salmon cakes(use tuna if needed) mashed potato, egg and fish made into patties and fried in a little oil.

Baked bean sandwiches...

Can you get boullion? chix boullion and rice

There is a baked bean quick bread recipe too that is very hearty....a good side or breakfast


----------



## MorrisonCorner (Jul 27, 2004)

Well, I'd stay away from pasta, even though it is only pennies. My husband will eat pasta for dinner and an hour later be hungry again.

The Brits stretch the meat and vegetables part of the meal with a lavish application of fat, starch, and eggs: Yorkshire Pudding. An American variant on that is rice pudding at the beginning of a meal. Various cultures do variants of meat pies... the Mexican "tortilla and.." is basically a meat pie. 

I'm a great believer in (assuming you can make a pie crust) tourtiere. This French Canadian dish is basically a meat pie with allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon for spices, but you can "meat pie" with any spices which suit you. You can make a potato crust (shepherd's pie). The secret to "stuffing husband and kids" is starch, lard, and eggs. Three relatively cheap ingredients.

I use dried fruit in my meat pies, carrots, potatoes, celery, and the omnipresent onion. But you can buy very cheap cuts of meat and chicken cook them slowly in a crock pot with your vegetables, toss them into a crust... and presto. That which might have fed two now feeds four. Magic.

In short, if you've got flour, buy lard. With flour and lard you've got pie crust, tortillas, biscuits, pizza crust, dumplings... things which fill up the husband and kids and don't have them back in the kitchen an hour after dinner.

This said, a lot of "I'm hungry" when you're in serious straights is imagined. You think you're deprived and your brain goes into panic mode... "I'm hungry..." whine whine whine. So never let the other people in your household know there is an issue in the pantry unless you absolutely can't avoid doing so. As soon as they figure out they're being "deprived" by having to eat meat pies and tortillas they'll be "extra hungry," whether or not they need the calories (or are genuinely hungry).


----------



## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

I second (or is it third?) the recomendation to buy potatoes. There are SOOOOO many things you can do with them ... baked, boiled, fried (sliced, diced or hashed), mashed, scalloped, au gratin, soup ... even potato pancakes! 

I'd also recommend picking up a good multivitamin. Fresh fruits and vegetables may be too pricey for your budget right now, but you can always supplement those lost nutrients temporarily with a pill!


----------



## BeckyW (Mar 11, 2003)

Don't forget lentils and split peas. Think about skillet dishes with a little meat (ground turkey works), vegetables and rice or pasta. You may find you eat a whole lots healthier on a tighter budget with no room for junk food!
We've had great threads on this subject before - you may want to search the archives.
BW


----------



## menollyrj (Mar 15, 2006)

Spaghetti & spaghetti sauce. Cheese. Potatoes. Hamburger. Egg noodles. Frozen mixed veggies.

Make spaghetti w/meatless sauce. Use the remaining spaghetti sauce as pizza sauce for a cheese pizza (make your own crust). Make scalloped potatoes w/a bit of hamburger mixed in w/remaining cheese. Use some hamburger to make beef noodles (make your own cream sauce w/flour & milk & assorted seasonings). Make veggie soup w/last of the hamburger. Could also make chicken noodle soup if you had enough $$ for chicken or chicken parmesan w/spaghetti sauce & cheese.

-Joy


----------



## jen74145 (Oct 31, 2006)

Lentils. You can mahe a filling lentil stew (huge pot) for about a buck... toss in a couple optional carrots and an onion, thicken with some margarine and flour, and you're fed.
Potatoes.... myriads of ways to serve them. Big pots of chicken soup, homemade bread (if you have yeast), pancakes if you don't... 
Meat pies are always thrifty... you can make a crust of cornrbread, biscuits, potatoes, whathaveyou.


----------



## michelleIL (Aug 29, 2004)

Well, My stepdad sent me 25 bucks from walmart for christmas. I was down to this one pot of veggie and rice soup, and was tired of it. I do not qualify nor do I WANT to qualify for food stamps, so this has been quite a challenge for me, and a good disciplinary action. I bought powdered milk, eggs, flour, a gallon of vinegar, baking powder, baking soda, a bag of apples, oranges...red and green apples, all in one bag, for 2.50...I forgot what all else there was, but quite a bit, and I only spent 20 bucks. I got some gift certs from long john silvers, and I hardly ever eat there, so I shared them with an aunt and my brother and his girlfriend. well, dad and I pitched in five bucks for both aunt and brother, so the aunt got ten, and brother got ten too. (I already had potatoes and some other things in the fridge. I've been away from home, so this is the first in the stocking of my pantry.
Michelle


----------



## kitaye (Sep 19, 2005)

Rice, Ground beef, Garlic, and ingredients to make biscuits and bread.


----------



## BasicLiving (Oct 2, 2006)

Since you are mostly vegetarian, I recommend bean soups of all sorts and add rice or noodles - and serve with any type of bread. Buy lots of rice, noodles and all kinds of dry beans. You'll have money left over!

15 bean soup
split pea soup
navy bean soup
kidney bean and cheese tortellini with spinach soup
And many more I can't think of right now.

My husband and I used to eat bean soups 5 meals a week - I threw them in a crock pot before going to work and they were done when we got home. Great meals and very inexpensive.

One of my husband's favorite "quick" meals is to make macaroni and cheese and add a can of tuna. Not bad and very inexpensive.

Penny


----------



## michelleIL (Aug 29, 2004)

My big thing is going to be making things to freeze, cuz I don't want to eat the same thing all the time. Only ramen noodles fit that bill! LOL
Michelle


----------



## Wildwood Flower (Aug 26, 2006)

Potatoes
Onions
Cabbage
Mac n Cheese (3/$1.00)
tomato paste (3/$1.00)
Whole Wheat Spaghetti
ground beef or turkey
Oatmeal
Brown Rice
margarine
peanut butter
tuna fish
canned milk


----------



## diane (May 4, 2002)

I would forget the canned beans and buy dryed beans. Beans and rice make a complete protein and there are many different ways they can be cooked, seasoned and served. We pretty much existed on them while serving in Haiti, as do a great many of people in poor countries. You have flour and can get eggs......make your own egg noodles to go in the soup you can make with the less appealing cuts of the chicken. The rest of the chicken can be fixed with various rice dishes. A couple of pounds of beans, a couple of pounds of rice, one good sized chicken and flour could feed two people for a couple of weeks if you put in the effort. Flour tortillas are really simple to make. With $15 you can buy chicken, beans, rice, onions, potatoes and some sort of fat and eat simple, but well.


----------



## Kris W. (Dec 9, 2006)

I doubt I could buy four boxes of cereal for 15 dollars.......


----------



## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Go to a grocery with a deli. tell the meat manager that you would like the necks and backs from the deli turkeys. They will usually sell them for pennys a pound. Make a huge batch of soup. Add spuds, home made noodles, whatever. After a couple days of eating add some dumplings for a change. If you don't add water it will eventually turn into stew.


----------



## Kris W. (Dec 9, 2006)

Yuck!!!!!!! *vomits*


----------



## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Kris W. said:


> Yuck!!!!!!! *vomits*


???? You seem like one who would starve amidst plenty................


----------



## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

Lots of homemade soups and breads is the only things that come to mind right now. I bought 2 grocery bags full of different types of beans/lentils for about $7.00. I plan to make up several of the recipe in a jar mixes.


----------



## jill.costello (Aug 18, 2004)

EGGS.

They are cheap, healthy, last a good while, and are versatile.

french toast
hard boiled (can mix with tuna to stretch the tuna)
mix with shredded potatoes and fry
add to bread mix for heartier bread


----------



## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

willow_girl said:


> Fresh fruits and vegetables may be too pricey for your budget right now, but you can always supplement those lost nutrients temporarily with a pill!


Sprouts, wheat grass???


----------



## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

15 bean soup mix in a bag is 2 dollars here. Add a ham bone from the deli and throw into the crock pot. Tastes better the second day, served with hot biscuits.


----------



## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

You could always fast, lol!


----------



## Silvercreek Farmer (Oct 13, 2005)

Looks like my post from yesterday is lost but the gist was to look for out of date bread or restaurant left overs, may need a connection to get these but free is best! Also might want to look for someone who likes to hunt but doesn't care for the meat, I have scored some good stuff that way. Otherwise figure out the cost per edible calorie for several cheap foods then pick a little variety from the best, although do use some judgement when using this method, I have a friend who onced lived for a week off of a tub of margerine!


----------



## wombatcat (Mar 29, 2005)

Ok, I added it up, if you buy everything on my list it comes to about $16.38 or so, depending on how different prices are where you live. I also have to say that I shop at Aldi and SuperWalmart, so if the prices seem too low, that's why. But this is what I would expect to pay for these things this week.
Ramen noodles and eggs or veggies make a filling meal for pennies, so does a peanut butter sandwich  

1 case (24 pk) ramen noodles 2.40
eggs free if you can "borrow" them
10 lbs potatoes 1.99
rice 1.99
boullion 1.75
peanut butter 2.75 
bread 1.00
cheap canned veggies of your choice--canned, only because they will
not spoil 1.00
generic macncheese .25-.35/box 1.00
milk 2.00/gal
margarine .50


----------



## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

I just took a ham out of the smokehouse. Now granted a whole ham will be more than $15 but we have gotten a pile of meals out of this ham. We are 7 people btw. First night, we had ham and baked spuds. Next day ham sandwiches. The next morning scrambled eggs with ham. I trimed the fat after roasting it and made buscuits and gravey this morning. Whats left goes into the soup pot tomorrow and will certainly provide several meals. I figure there will be about 45 individual servings from this one ham.


----------



## hedgeapple (Mar 5, 2006)

perhaps to help with fruit, if you have a freezer you could maybe buy one or two cans of frozen fruit juice concentrate and each day cut off just a small piece to mix with water to have a glass of fruit juice for that day.


----------



## Junkman (Dec 17, 2005)

My DH loves bean cakes. Add a little flour to cooked leftover dried beans, making a pattie and fry in bacon grease. Tastes like meat. Don't add so much flour that you can handle them. Drop them in the hot grease by spoonful. So glad you have eggs and milk! With potatoes, potato salad and slice them real thin and fry for chips. Biscuits with peanutbutter, cheese, whatever is leftover can be a treat. Whatever you fix, serve it on the table fixed like for company. Don't forget Jello for dessert. If you need to go to a food bank, go. That is why they are there. Anyone can get in a tight spot.
We try to always have peanutbutter and salad dressing. Do you all like oats? Check your Dollar store for cheap canned food buys. (If you have one in your area.)Junklady


----------



## largentdepoche (Dec 9, 2005)

Thanks everyone for your advice and help!  

Kat


----------



## straight shot (May 9, 2006)

for 2 adults

bunch of bannanas @.29 per lb
I quart plain yogurt 1.59
oatmeal .99
sltine crackers,59
3 can tuna 1.50
popcorn 1.00
pasta sauce 1 to 2.00
pasta 1.00
2lbs ground anything on sale .99
1 whole chicken .79 per lb
rice 1 lb for .60
vegies 3/ 1.00
potatoes 1.99 per 10lbs


----------

