Budget cooking for one?

Hmm...how cheap are we talking here?

The things that I usually do-I live alone and am broke too-is a nice, simple spaghetti bolognese. If you make enough of it, you can freeze the sauce and have it ready made whenever you want. Also, vegetable soup! Like the sauce, your best plan of action is to make lots of it, and then keep it. You can have soup for two, maybe three nights before it starts to go iffy, but the best thing to do is to freeze it.

 

One of my favorite ways to cook on a budget is through Bulk Breakfast Burritos. These are cheap, one session preparation, can last for weeks, and they are delicious. What you'll need is some flour tortillas, two dozen or so eggs, four or so cans of beans, a jar of salsa, some saran wrap, some green onions (optional), shredded cheese (optional), bell peppers (optional), and spices like tarragon, chili powder, garlic powder, black pepper, red pepper, etc. First cook the eggs, then add the beans, then the vegetables. Take out a single tortilla and put a large spoonful of egg mixture onto the tortilla (about two heaping tablespoons). Put a tablespoon or so of salsa on top, along with anything extra. You’ll want to put the eggs and salsa in the middle of the burrito. First, fold over the sides of the burrito then just roll it up from the bottom. Saran wrap and freeze for future meals.

 

Hi Shoplady! I like to buy fresh produce and then freeze it! Freezing is your friend! You portion it out into bags and then freeze them and use it when you need it. I think making ahead of time and then portioning it out saves you from having food spoil

 

I enjoy making burritos, tacos or sandwiches for myself, it requires less cooking time and preparation than pasta, rice or most other carbs since you can buy ready-made bread/tortillas. Add enough fresh greens and you have a balanced wholesome meal.

 

Purchase cooked frozen meals at the Kroger store. Those are cost effective meals. You do not have to spend time preparing anything after a long day at work. Many of the meals are nutritious. If you add up the time spent on meal preparation, and shopping for ingredients, it is apparent that it is more cost effective to purchase frozen meals.

 

The best way to save money solo is to either buy in bulk and freeze on the front end OR make big meals in batches and freeze them to bake / reheat later. I prefer to do the latter. It's easy if you have the freezer space. If not, you can always do the cheap meal route but making good food at home is pretty reasonable.

 

It would help if you gave us some examples of things you like to eat. It's kind of difficult to suggest recipes or money saving tricks if we don't know what you usually like to buy at the grocery store.

But in a more general sense, some of the things I recall doing when I first moved out and money was really tight:

Establish a standard grocery list of must have items, and be sure to pair it down to the essentials that will get you through a couple weeks at least. For example, I never knew exactly what I would be in the mood for dinner each night, but 9 times out of 10, I would be fine with a burger and fries. So when grocery shopping I always made sure to buy a large pack of ground beef (which was usually on sale, but I was also getting a discount for buying it in a bulk size) and portion it off into individually wrapped burgers when I got home, along with a 5lb bag of frozen fries and a large pack of hamburger buns. This would also help prevent me from impulsively stopping by MdDonalds or Burger King on the way home and blowing $6 or so, when I could make a burger and fries at home in a few minutes for much less. For lunch, I tried to avoid going out to eat, so I would stock up on Lean Pockets and bags of Sun Chips to bring to work. Or if there was some sale on frozen meals (like $1 each) I would stock up on them for a change of pace. For breakfast, it was easy - I either had eggs & toast with coffee/OJ or Natural Peanut Butter & Grape Jam on toast with coffee. Either way, breakfast was inexpensive - and I would even splurge on the good bakery breads. Breakfast can be even less if you love Oatmeal. Spruce it up with some inexpensive fresh fruits, walnuts and honey.

Aside from that, I would always make sure I had a pantry full of pasta sauces and pasta, as well as some fresh parmesan/romano in my fridge, and maybe a bag of frozen meatballs. Also a variety of soups for snacks in between meals. I would also grab some frozen pizzas when they were on sale to have as a treat on weekends (and to avoid delivery pizza - much cheaper). I would also buy up a few packs of whatever meats were on sale, in case I got sick of burgers and wanted to make something else - even if it was just something simple like some grilled pork chops along with a couple of vegetable side dishes. Egg Noodles with butter and parmesan was also an inexpensive side dish.

 

the best thing you can do if it is only yourself is cook on the weekends, plan the meals so you can have a little something different each day with out having to do much additional cooking. For example make sauce and freeze in small portions, then you need only make noodles. Cook a roast, take parts and add gravy for sandwiches or serve over rice. I like to cook chicken, one day roasted chicken with potatoes, then leftovers I make chicken salad or chicken fajitas. There's a lot you can make to stretch out meals,

 

I think soups and pastas are some of the best things to cook for solo meals. They are very easy to make, very difficult to mess up and they are so convenient to freeze and store for later consumption. For example, you could make big pots of soup or pasta sauces and you can just freeze them in portions and then just take them out and heat them on stove tops or the microwave for each individual meal.