Beating Broke

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4 Meals from the Pantry to Save Money

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Woman looking at her pantry shelves and grabbing a jar

If you’re like me, you may find it harder and harder to stay within the grocery budget as food costs skyrocket due to inflation. So I try to find nutritious recipes that aren’t expensive. In addition, to save money, I try to have one week where I don’t make a complete grocery shopping trip and instead only buy some fresh fruits and vegetables and make my meals from the pantry to save money. Doing this allows me to use up what I have and stretch my grocery dollars.

Our Favorite Meals from the Pantry to Save Money

These are the pantry meals we make during the weeks I skip grocery shopping:

Spaghetti

My kids don’t mind a pantry meal when the meal is spaghetti. So I buy pasta and pasta sauce when they’re on sale, and I purchase canned mushrooms at Costco. I mix them together for a quick, cheap meal.

We recently upped our spaghetti game by making Pizza in a Bowl (I left out the creamed soup and only used half the cheese.) I was amazed at how this meal stretched—we had it for two meals!

Breakfast for Dinner

Omelette with mushrooms

Another favorite is breakfast for dinner. We might have omelets with green peppers and cheese and a piece of toast. Or, if we have many bread heels in the freezer, we make French toast and eggs. Sometimes we make a breakfast sandwich with ham, egg, and cheese on toast or an English muffin. Another economical recipe is Ham, Broccoli & Cheddar Frittata. (If money is tight, I leave out the ham, and it still tastes good.)

Broccoli, Potato, & Cheese Soup

I recently found this delicious recipe for Broccoli, Cheddar & Potato Soup. I like it because I can use frozen broccoli. (This recipe and the broccoli frittata recipe are the only ways I enjoy eating frozen broccoli.) Like Pizza in a Bowl, this recipe stretches and easily feeds the four of us for two meals.

Fried Rice

Another frugal yet filling meal is Chicken Fried Rice. We use a rotisserie chicken from Costco and save the bones to make homemade chicken stock. Since rotisserie chicken at Costco is only $4.99, the meat is cheap, and we add rice, frozen vegetables, a few eggs, and seasoning.

How We’re Able to Keep Our Meals Frugal

For years, I’ve stocked up on items when they’re on sale, so I pay the lowest price for groceries. We have a pantry in our basement, two deep freezers, and two refrigerators so we can keep a full supply.

When ground beef is on sale, I may buy 20 or 25 pounds. We have food intolerances and can’t eat dairy, so when our favorite vegan cheese, Daiya, goes on sale, I may buy 20 bags. Then I won’t buy any more until it’s on sale again. If we run out before it goes on sale, we do without until the next sale.

Shopping this way makes having a pantry cooking week easy.

Final Thoughts

Keeping within our allotted grocery budget is getting more challenging every month. One way we rein in expenses is by making meals from the pantry to forego a weekly shopping trip once a month.

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The Benefits of Buying Only Necessary Groceries Each Week

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Benefits of Buying ONly the Groceries You Need

For the last few years, I have had a higher grocery budget, so I’ve stocked up on food. I do this for two reasons. First, we have food intolerances—specifically, we can’t eat gluten or dairy—so we need specific foods in the house. Second, I find having a stocked pantry makes mealtime easier. I never need to go out to eat because I have everything to make several meals, depending on what we’re hungry for. However, I recently watched a YouTube video that intrigued me. Based on this video, I’ve experimented with buying only necessary groceries each week for the last few weeks.

Steps I Took to Implement This Change

During the last few weeks, I’ve set a grocery budget of $140 per week for my family of four, which is much less than the $215 a week I typically spend.

I make a menu plan and grocery list the night before I go to the grocery store, so I know what meals I’ll cook during the week. I also try to choose recipes that will utilize ALL of an ingredient. For instance, I needed to buy green cabbage for a stir fry. But I only needed to use half the head of cabbage, so I picked another recipe that would use the other half of the cabbage later in the week, so I used ALL of the cabbage up that week.

Benefits of Buying Only Necessary Groceries Each Week

While I never thought I would enjoy shopping this way, I did realize several benefits of buying only necessary groceries each week.

I Saved Money

We saved a lot of money shopping this way. Over two weeks, we saved $150! This was in part because we were not stocking up on food. However, we also saved because I had limited food in the house, and we HAD to utilize the food we bought.

We Had Less Food Waste

Benefits of Buying Only the Groceries You Need

We typically have very little food waste, but shopping this way eliminated food waste. As I mentioned, I was mindful of finding recipes that would use up ALL of an ingredient. Previously, that other half of the green cabbage might have lingered in the refrigerator for a while. We would use it. . .eventually, but when we did, we might have to cut out some bad spots because we let it sit too long before using it.

Final Thoughts

This way of shopping enhanced how I shop and menu plan. Even better, the benefits of only buying necessary groceries each week were that we saved money and reduced food waste.

However, even though this strategy worked for me, I like to have a stock of food at home in case we can’t shop due to bad weather or limited supplies. From now on, I plan to stock up occasionally to resupply my pantry. Still, for the foreseeable future, I plan to buy only what I need and continue with this experiment to see what other benefits I realize.

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Our Favorite Ways to Combat High Meat Prices

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Ways to Save on the High Cost of Meat

The prices in the grocery store keep rising, especially for protein. Like most people in the country, we try to keep our grocery budget within budget despite inflation. However, we still want to eat healthy meals and rely on something other than carbs to fill us up. So instead, we use these ways to combat high meat prices.

But First, a Clarification

We are not vegetarians and have no desire to be. We like carbs, but we don’t eat a carb-heavy diet. Instead, we try to eat a well-rounded diet, including plenty of vegetables and fruit.

Our Favorite Ways to Combat High Meat Prices

Here are the strategies we use to save when buying protein.

Buy Direct from the Farmer

For years, my husband and I bought a ¼ side of beef direct from the farmer. We’d get a lot of ground beef and cuts like chuck roast, T-bone steak, and stew meat. We didn’t buy the latter items at the grocery store because they were too pricey for our budget. However, buying directly from the farmer saved us money so that we could enjoy the more expensive cuts of meat.

Buy Clearance Meat at the Grocery Store

I love to buy meat from the clearance rack for other types of meat. For instance, a week after Easter this year, our local grocery store had eight-ounce packages of diced ham on sale for .49 cents! I bought five of them and used them in soups and omelets over the next few months. We also frequently find sausage on clearance. My husband cooks those up on the weekend, slices them, and packs a few for his lunch. Typically, he’ll eat about ¾ of a sausage with his lunch.

Use Meat as a Condiment or Meal Component

Ways to Combat High Meat Prices

We almost always use meat as a condiment or meal component. For instance, we’ll add about three ounces of meat to our spaghetti, which makes four servings. Or, we’ll make soup with one-half pound of meat in it. Likewise, stir-fries are a great way to eat a lot of vegetables with a small amount of meat.

If we make steak, we’ll serve the four of us a portion of the steak so that a 10-ounce steak will feed all four of us. We’ll have ample vegetables on the side.

Add in Some Starch to Stretch the Meal

One other idea is to add some starch to stretch the meal. For instance, I like beef stew as is, but my husband and kids always add a bit of rice to it. They enjoy the flavor, and it helps to stretch the meal further.

Final Thoughts

While we are all struggling to maintain our grocery budgets now, know that this time of high inflation will recede. However, we always combat high meat prices with these strategies. We prefer to eat this way, regardless of what the economy and grocery store prices are doing.

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