Inexpensive Meals for Families

Food prices are increasing rapidly these days. Hence you need to plan some cheap meals that can fit into your budget easily. For this, you might need to search your mother's old cook book for recipes that can help in this regard. If not that, then you can try out some of these ideas for your family members and friends. Though some of the cheap meal ideas listed below may not be wholesome, they are sure to help you on a month end!

Healthy Meal Ideas

For Breakfast

• Most of us love cornflakes and they also fit into your monthly budget. It can be mixed with milk and honey or sprinkled with sugar.
• Another option is to buy eggs. They are not expensive and can be served for breakfast, lunch as well as dinner. Scramble them into rice or cook an omelet to serve a healthy breakfast for your family.
• Also, one can stock up his/her kitchen with ready to cook mixes and pancakes and serve them for an early morning breakfast. Pancakes can be blended with different inexpensive fruits to make breakfast cheap and yummy. These are available at cheaper prices in the wholesale market.

For Lunch

• As we already know, eggs are inexpensive and easy to cook. They can be boiled and served with bread for lunch. Baked scrambled eggs with pepper, or egg noodles can be a part of some cheap quick meal ideas.
• One more option is to make a toast and serve it with vegetables. Also, sandwiches with peanut butter and some fruit; say apples or bananas, can also be served for an afternoon lunch.
• Furthermore, a chicken can be a pick for the ones who would like to have a heavy lunch. You can pick up a large chicken from a wholesale food store and stock it up by roasting it. The roasted chicken can be mixed with different curries or diced with tomatoes for lunch.

For Dinner

• Packaged soups are cheaper than the ones at restaurants. So buy a canned soup that can go along with cheese, sandwiches or just bread. They can make your late night dinner. Most of the soups can also be sipped alone. Well, that's if you prefer a light dinner.
• One more pick for an inexpensive dinner can be salads. They are nutritious and go well with soups and sandwiches. They also make your dinner light. One can opt for making a salad sandwich or a potato salad that is quick and inexpensive as well. Chicken salad can be mixed quickly and served for dinner.
• Eggs, as you know, are an all-time hit; they go well with bread, rice and noodles. Baked egg rolls, scrambled goose eggs, fluffy scrambled eggs and other egg recipes can be tried out if you love eggs.
• Another possible item in this list is yogurt rice. Mix yogurt and rice together and your meal is ready. Rice is inexpensive and readily available at home and yogurt if homemade, is cost-effective.
• If you wish to have desserts after your dinner, try baking some white flour cakes, top them with fruits that are cheap. Or use chocolate syrup bought from a wholesale store or whipped cream that's made at home. Also, homemade puddings with a layer of whipped cream are quite a cost-effective dessert idea.

For Kids

• Kids enjoy jam and bread. So buy some jams and stock them in the kitchen. Jams can fit your budget when bought in bulk.
• One more way of saving money is to prepare sauce at home and serve it with sandwich or an omelet. A sweet chili sauce that contains tomato and honey can be easily prepared. Homemade sauces are cheap and go well with sandwiches and eggs. Sauces like the tomato sauce, chili sauce and tamarind sauce can be easily prepared at home and are relatively inexpensive, if bought from a wholesale shop.
• Another option is to buy honey in large quantities. It can be served along with chicken, tuna or egg. Kids love food when something sweet is served along with it. One can try out baked chicken with honey for the kids.
• If your family is vegetarian then you can bake potatoes and spread cheese over it for breakfast or lunch, it's nutritious as well.

For Guests

• If guests suddenly come at your place for lunch or dinner, you generally opt for some quick meals. The quick meals can also be cost-effective and tasty. Pasta can be another good option for large groups and families. A pasta salad with broccoli and onion is easy to cook most love it.
• Spaghetti is also cheap and easy to make. Try cooking spaghetti with butter or cheese. It's cheap and yummy.
• Pasta and Spaghetti make a great combination and can serve a large group. Just churning up some half spaghetti pasta for a large group.
• If you do not have both in the house, then boil some 2-5 minute noodle packets. They are cheap and available everywhere in the market. These are tasty and easy to cook.

For Vegans

• The vegan, can go and grab some potatoes from the market and mash, chop, bake or fry them with other vegetables available in the house. Also, a potato soup can be easily cooked and enjoyed by the vegetarians.
• If you are bored of eating potatoes, then you can mix up some green leafy vegetables and make a leafy vegetable salad for everyone.
• Another option is to make different types of sprout curries and serving them with bread, rotis or rice. They are inexpensive and easy to make.
• As we know, rice is inexpensive when bought in large amounts and stored. So you can add onions, tomatoes, spinach and other vegetables and make a meal. Cooking rice with tomato and green chillies serves a spicy meal.

For the Whole Family

• Include oatmeal in your breakfast. It is tasty, healthy and inexpensive. It is a good source of magnesium, iron and calcium along with other minerals and dietary fibers. It also contains vitamin B and E that helps in the functioning of the brain and nervous system. Oatmeal cereal or oatmeal pancakes can be made quickly without spending a lot of money. It can be flavored with honey or sugar and served to the kids. Baked oatmeal is a good option .
• As discussed above, egg is cheap and hence can be an option in almost every meal of the day. It is a nutritious food with high content of protein and amino acids. It is also a natural source of vitamin D and choline. Choline helps in functioning of the cardiovascular system, nervous system and brain.
• Cheese and butter sandwiches are some quick bites providing different amino acids, vitamins and proteins. Tuna sandwiches, chicken sandwiches and vegetable sandwiches contain large amounts of proteins, vitamin B and calcium.
• Fruits are nutritious and can be blended with vegetables to make up a dish that is easy, inexpensive and healthy. Try buying some fruits from the wholesale and serving them after dinner. Making a salad or sandwich with a combination of strawberry and spinach can be a rich source of calcium and vitamin C.

Plan Well

• Saving on milk is a good idea to save money. Use powdered milk instead of whole milk. If you and your family is not used to powdered milk then mix it with whole milk, reducing the proportion each time, till your family gets used to it.
• Use homemade juice concentrates instead of buying different types of juices from the market. This will also save some money.
• Store pickles in your kitchen, they go well with plain rice, bread or rotis. Pickles are cheap and can also be made at home.
• Go the vegan way by skipping non-vegetarian food items and including vegetables in the meal for a few days as vegetables are always cheaper than chicken, tuna or fish and hence inexpensive.

Well in my opinion, careful meal planning can help you cut down your expenses a great deal.