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Meals To Make When You Have No Money

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If you find yourself with limited funds for groceries and need meal ideas, here are some meals you can make when you have no money.

I am constantly on the lookout for cheap meals (See: 20 Dinners that Cost $5 or Less here and here). There are some great ideas in those posts, but now I’m looking for those “Oh crap, we don’t have a lot of money next week” meal ideas.

We’ve eaten for $30 a week and $37 a week on a few occasions and it’s been tough, but using the cheapest meals possible really helps keep costs down.

Are these meals healthy?

Some of the meals below may not be nutritionally balanced. That is, they have bare-bones ingredients and may not include any fruits or vegetables. When you have no extra money, you do what you can with what you have; and when you can add extra veggies to your meal, do it so you can add some extra nutrition. But I believe these meals are perfectly fine to serve to your family, whether or not you are in a rough financial spot!

Here are 16 meals, breakfasts and dinners alike, that you can make with very little money.

Meals to Make When You Have No Money

1.) Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches– This one’s a bit obvious, but PB&J is a classic staple. It’s kid-friendly, requires cheap ingredients, and is just plain good. I like to eat mine with a banana and string cheese or yogurt.

2.) Pasta and jarred sauce– These are items I recommend you keep in your pantry at all times. You never know when you need an emergency meal, and pasta and sauce is as easy as it comes. If you have shredded mozzarella, you can even mix cooked pasta and sauce in a casserole dish, sprinkle the cheese on top, and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes for a simple pasta bake!

3.)Bean and cheese burritos– Here’s my favorite recipe. Homemade refried beans and a little shredded cheese make an easy burrito. These freeze well, too!

Whole Wheat Waffles (4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer Day 1)

4.) Pancakes/waffles– You don’t even need boxed pancake mix to make pancakes/waffles. It costs pennies to make up a simple batch, and it’s a very cheap dinner alternative. I’m fond of this oatmeal pancake recipe, and this Freezer Whole Wheat Waffles recipe.

5.) Grilled cheese– The classic grilled cheese. You can do pretty much anything with this, but my favorite is sliced cheddar with fresh baked bread. I could probably eat about 5 in one sitting.

6.) Chili cheese dogs– Very simple and filling dinner. Canned chili is the easiest, although if you made chili earlier in the week, you can use leftovers to save money!

Freezer Sloppy Joes (4 Weeks to Fill Your Freezer Day 13)

7.) Sloppy Joes– Ground beef/turkey with a few condiments cooked together, and it’s a simple dinner! Here’s my favorite Sloppy Joe recipe, and if you’re going meatless, here’s a Lentil Sloppy Joe recipe. This one makes a ton!

8.) Goulash– Who knew something so simple could be so good? Cooked macaroni, ground beef, and tomatoes! Here’s the recipe we use.

9.) Baked potatoes– I LOVE making baked potatoes for dinner. You can add broccoli and cheese, bacon, taco toppings, or even baked beans. I’d never heard of that last one until recently, but it sounds interesting!

10.) Quesadillas– Add anything to it: Rice, black beans, shredded chicken, ground beef, or even just plain cheese.

11.) Red beans and rice– A good way to make plain rice and beans taste better. Here’s my favorite recipe!

12.) Biscuits– Biscuits make a great breakfast item. Make an egg sandwich, add a simple gravy on top, or eat plain with butter and honey. Here’s my favorite biscuit recipe.

13.) Tuna melts– The most basic recipe calls for tuna and mayo, with a slice of cheese, but you can add hard-boiled eggs, relish, or anything to make it more filling.

14.) Egg and cheese burritos– Breakfast burritos are great in the mornings, and even freeze well. You can add ground sausage to stretch it more.

15.) Rice and beans burrito bowl– Maybe I’m weird, but I’m okay with eating just rice and black beans. The best combination, for me, is adding roasted sweet potatoes, and eating it with salsa and shredded cheese.

16.) Oat bars– Any kind of baked oatmeal is cheap and great for breakfast. You can add bananas, chocolate chips, blueberries… The possibilities are endless, and they’re all delicious. Here is a cheap one that contains just peanut butter.

On weeks when we were a little low on cash for food, I would use Swagbucks to help earn gift cards for stores like Sam’s Club to stock up on essentials like toilet paper. That can get expensive, especially when your grocery budget includes household items!

Swagbucks really helped when we needed to pay for Allison’s baby formula. Click here to create an account and start earning FREE gift cards to stores like Sam’s Club, Wal Mart, Amazon, and Target!

Do you have any tested recipes to add to this list? Please post in the comments below!

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Comments

  1. Yum, these are making me hungry! I’m pinning this for later, when I meal prep I get tired of eating the same thing 3 or 4 days in a row. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

      • Try Mexican style sopa for a tasty change, lightly brown any type of pasta in hot oil, then add a can of tomato sauce with enough water to completely cover pasta over with about 2 cups extra liquid, salt to taste cook until pasta is tender. It will be a soup consistancy, you can perk it up by adding veggies, chicken, potatoes, bullion cubes, ect.

        Reply

        • I’m not sure who has this web site but I’m very glad I found it. My boyfriend left me after I gad to get on permanently dialysis. Not going to help me. My daughter and granddaughter live me they help take care of me. So I have maybe 40.00 left for the month for medicine food and gas. I love the recipes that you put on here affordable and good that all three of us would like. So I thank you and if any one has any more I hope I find your posts. Thank you 😇

          Reply

  3. Oh yeah, baked beans, baked potato and a knob of butter is gorgeous! Some people add grated cheddar cheese to it as well. Noms!

    Reply

  4. My kids still remember crockpot pinto beans with tomato sauce and smoke flavoring served with saltines and also spaghetti noodles with buttered broccoli and parmesan cheese as favorite dinners. They never knew I made up those meals when we had nothing else to eat.

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  5. Hi Jaime,
    I am a grandmother raising 5 grandchildren. Thank you for your recipes for dinner and . breakfast, I have one that my kids like, it’s english muffin pizzas.
    One package english muffins split. Spread with pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce. top with cheese and pepperoni or with anything else you might like on a pizza. Place in toaster oven or oven until cheese is melted.

    Rose

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  6. Taco Mac, chili mac,tuna mac, the list is endless. Box of mac ncheese and taco meat or other and can add other ingredients as availAble such as corn stewed tomatoes. My son and his best friend had cook off on Taco mac. He won. His frugal mom taught himwell

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    • That’s amazing! We’ve made something just about like yours: a box of mac and cheese, some taco meat, a can of diced tomatoes, and shredded cheese on top. I think it’s called Cheesy Beef Skillet!

      Reply

  7. One one of our favorite breakfast or lunch (sometimes a lazy dinner) is a hard boiled egg sandwich on favorite bread.

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  8. I always said as long as you have flour you’ll never go hungry. I make everything with flour. Tortillas, donuts, hot water bread, dumplings, all easy & cost penny’s 🙂

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  9. As kids my mom made up elbow noodles, onion, canned diced tomatoes and bacon. Fry the bacon then saute onion in grease. Add tomatoes and the bacon to onion and heat all together. Pour over boiled elbows. I still love it to this day and so do my kids.

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  11. homemade biscuits with homemade white gravy and if you have bacon use the bacon and bacon grease to make the gravy.
    Noodles + butter+ ketchup is a childhood fav of mine
    Noodles+ soy sauce+ pb cheap asian style noodle dish
    Noodles+ parmasan cheese and parsley and butter
    Tomato slice on bread is amazing and cheap when tomatoes are in season

    Reply

  12. My family loves ground beef with carrots and/or peas. Sometimes we eat this over rice. Sometimes just plain. Add a little seasoning and this is really good.

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    • Nice! That’s a good frugal meal. =) I seem to remember making a casserole a couple years ago that had just ground beef, rice, and a can of tomato soup. I could probably add some extra veggies to it too!

      Reply

  13. Try Ground meat, browned with onions & peppers, garlic salt. add a can of veg. soup serve over mashed potatoes.

    Reply

  14. Chipped beef gravy w/hard boiled eggs on whatever you choose. Bowl of wide egg noodles w/ bacon, garlic, green onion, and soy sauce. English muffin pizza’s can’t go wrong.

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    • We love English muffin pizzas here! We’ve also done bagel pizzas. Just a few minutes in the oven and you’ve got a simple but delicious dinner!

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          • That sounds very good and healthy. Tuna has protein My friend told me to make sloppy joes fat a box of jiffy cornbread mix put the sloppyjoes in a baking dish with cornbread mix on top and bake My granddaughter wants to try that to 😊

  15. Tuna pot pie was a favorite of ours that our mom made..
    1 can of tuna drained
    1 can of mixed veggies
    1 can of cream of mushroom
    Mix and put in an already baked pie shell and add cheese on top..
    Cover with aluminum foil (spray with non stick spray..
    Bake for 35-40 mins in 350 degree oven..

    Reply

  16. Our family favorite: Poor Man’s Hoppin’ John
    1 lb regular or hot pork sausage, 2 cans black eyed peas, spices to taste, such as garlic, onion, sage, and thyme. Brown sausage, add peas with liquid and spices. Bring to boil then let simmer uncovered about 10 mins until thickened and flavors combine. Serve with a little shredded cheese or cornbread on the side if desired.

    Traditional Hoppin’ John also has tomatoes, rice, and okra. My family doesn’t like those things, so I leave them out. It makes for a fast, economical, high fiber, high protein dinner. Especially right now, when you can stock up on sausage on sale for Christmas, and black eyed peas on sale for New Year’s.

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  17. HI. First of all. .. sorry for my English, î am from Belgium. When we have no money for groceries î look in my freezer. Most of the time there are some vegetables and î make soup. Put some pasta in there as wel. My kids love this.

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  18. I love a micro baked potato topped with cottage cheese then cook a little longer. Splash a bit of Italian dressing on top. Quick filling lunch when in a hurry. One of my favorite dinner meals is hamburger soup. Ground beef, lots of sliced carrots, some onion and garlic, maybe some celery, tomato sauce, beef broth, Worschester sauce and a bay leaf. Filling and satisfying on a cold day. I have also found Knorr sides, pasta or rice for $1 at Walmart, that can be jazzed up with a little meat or vegetables make 2 meals for my lunch. I have started making my own chicken pot pies with frozen crusts, a lg chicken breast cut in small pieces, carrots, celery, onion and a can of corn. Even less expensive if you make your own crust. I am a big fan of meals that have left overs for lunch the next day!

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  19. Cooked elbows with a can of diced tomatoes, add a little salt/pepper…take some slices of bread, smear butter, add garlic salt, broil…yummy quick cheap pasta and garlic bread meal.

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  20. To stretch taco meat and some small diced fried potatoes thrown into a fry pan with a little oil. Cook in a little water with some hot sauce when the water evaporates the potatoes will brown-a good way to extend ground beef or turkey for tacos. Saute some cabbage (or your prefered veggie) and add to whole wheat linguine or angel hair with a homemade stir fry sauce. Black beans with sauteed onion and red peppers with a small amount of bbq sauce make a good topping for baked (or microwaved) sweet potatoes. Also, sauteed diced sweet potatoes with the black bean mixture above makes a delicious quesadilla. Homemade refried beans using a can of red beans added to sauteed onions with chili powder and cumin, add some water and smash the beans. They are good on totasdos with shredded lettuce, onion and diced tomatoes. Also teriyaki chickpeas or spiced lentils with carmelized onions on top of brown rice . I could go on and on but these are a few of my go to easy recipes. I don’t believe that you have to spend a ton of money or spend alot of time in the kitchen to enjoy good food.

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  21. As a kid, my mother used to make macaroni and eggs: cook and drain elbow macaroni and add to a skillet with a little butter over medium heat. Add eggs, salt and pepper to taste and stir to scramble the eggs and mix with the macaroni. These days I like making it with boxed macaroni and cheese. It works great with leftover macaroni also. I love to eat it with ketchup and it is great with a little chorizo.

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  22. We plan meals off the store ad from Sprouts most of the time. The stores in our area of OKC will give out rain checks on most items that are on sale they run out of. I also share online ordering with family or friends. We get to free shipping a lot faster.
    Our biggest savings was moving our phone plans to Walmart straight talk. Excellent service but you have to change your APN settings if you have a phone from another carrier. I have a ATT phone on the Walmart network.

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  23. Dont forget. Spam or treat. You can use it for sandwiches or cut it up & cook it with canned vegtables like a stir fry

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  24. Potato soup was a big one in our house. When my Mom had bacon she would add it. If not no. Pancakes were a getting close to Friday payday with no food meal.

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    • Potato soup is delicious, and a great way for me to use up any extra vegetables! And pancakes/waffles are done here at least once a week. =) We love breakfast for dinner.

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  26. A roasted chicken can make 3 meals 1 chicken soup,using left over bones and the wings to make broth add in noodles and some vegetables ,use cut up meat 2nd meal chicken and rice,3 rd meal add veg and gravy make chicken ala King over toast.add 2 bags of pinto beans and 1 lb of bacon,this makes enough beans for 1 chili day 1 rice and beans and 1 bean soup day

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  27. College soup,, I never had money ,, and two kids,, I fry lightly one cup of any kind of pasta,then boil it in salted wated, pour off all but two cups of the pasta water, add one boullion cube, chicken, and add pepper if you like, one teaspoon of butter, and one can of chicken broth. Bring back to a summer,, I used to add a shredded carrots and a stalk of celery cut thin, as well. It’s still one if my favorite soups and my girls that are now adults still love it. Little did they know I made it out of desperation. I used to pack around saltines from the student Union building cafeteria and serve on the side.

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  28. I like to stretch ground meat for tacos with finely diced potatoes and a can of corn.
    I also like to make my own version of dirty rice with anything I have around. Ground meat, canned tomatoes, corn, onions etc.
    And finally cabbage and potatoes in the pressure cooker with onions and some sausages. Very simple but yummy and filling.

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  29. Corn Chowder- fry some bacon, drain and reserve, fry a chopped onion in the fat. Add diced potatoes and enough water to cover and cook til done. Stir in 2 cans creamed corn and 2 cans evaporated milk. Season with salt and pepper and add crushed bacon. You can add as many potatoes as needed and can also add another can of whole corn to bulk it up. Makes about 8-10 servings. I usually have the ingredients in my pantry for emergencies. Could be made without bacon and just use butter. Very handy recipe!

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  31. My favorite go to meal is two chicken breast with one can of cream of chicken and a chopped onion in crockpot for 6-8 hrs on low. Serve with mashed potatoes,baked potato, or rice. Very easy and pretty cheap

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  32. Every week i make a big casserole of différent soup with what i have in the fridge; broth, vegetables, rice or noodle, spices, you can eat this with bread or crackers, its cheap and good!

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  33. The majority of these suggestions are not very healthy. Most are high carb, high fat and high sodium options.

    Folks who have little money to spend on food, need more healthy options that can be stretched out to multiple meals. Soups, Casseroles and salads. Eating poorly tends to cause more health issues and weight gain. The more one weighs, the more food they will consume and ultimately spend more money.

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    • Thank you, Todd! As I said at the beginning of the post, some of these meals may not be nutritionally balanced; but adding a fruit or vegetable side helps!

      For a normal healthy person, eating carbs, fat, or sodium should be no issue. I hope that those who have medical issues and have been advised by their doctor to lower intake of carbs, fat, or sodium know that they may need to avoid some of these recipes. But someone like me, a long-distance runner, totally thrives on high carbs and even higher sodium! We all have different needs, so thank you for bringing that up. =)

      Reply

  34. thanks – you gave me a great idea for pasta!! (I’m gf/wf/cf/df/yf and it’s hard for me to find “budget” recipes that i can use.. 🙂

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  35. Wow, I have eaten many of these recipes as a child in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Not surprising as my mom was raised in the Depression and cooked what she knew. You have left out the jello salads with canned fruit, however! Also creamed tuna on toast. Make a white sauce with butter or margarine or even oil, flour, and milk or broth. When bubbling, add can of tuna, drained and mix. Add frozen peas if you have them to stretch this. Serve over toast, cut up for kids.
    Tip: using a whisk will eliminate lumps.

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  36. Cabbage is cheap if you finely chop it you can add it to many dishes to extend the other ingredients and also add more nutrition. Also we always use oatmeal wherever we can to stretch groung beef.Donna

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  37. We make this often because it’s now one of my husbands favorite meals! Depending on how much you would need to make would be less than $5. I always double it because i think it’s better the next day!
    1 cup cooked white rice
    1 lb chicken
    1 taco/fajita seasoning packet( I have also just used cumin, chili powder and garlic powder when I run out of the packets)
    1 cup water
    Cheese to sprinkle on top
    I put cooked rice in an 8×8 pan, add seasoning and water to chicken( the water mixes with the seasoning and makes the rice taste so much better!) pour the chicken over the rice, top with cheese and put in oven until melted.

    Reply

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