It is totally simple and amazingly excellent, at least to me, but I love to have just plain pasta with Olive Oil drizzled over it and some seasonings(oregano, basil, parsley, whatever)sprinkled over that. You just toss it, and it is SOO good. It costs maybe $.50 for the pasta and whatever good olive oil you like to eat. True, this is a once in awhile meal as eating only pasta isn't a good idea.

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

Awful article. Such writeups are only interesting when they offer insight into how to save money WITHOUT sacrificing quality. The Simple Dollar blog has disenfranchised me of late, I think it may soon drop off my reading list

nobeastsofierce

Its a great idea - and not just for saving money. When I get home and am too tired to cook (cooking for two) then rice and beans is usually the meal of choice. Really cheap, too: one can of organic black beans: $1; 15lb bag of rice which lasts about 5/6 months:$20

Its little wonder that rice and beans is the meal of choice for so many people around the world.

Christopher

Economize like a restaurant and select ingredients which can be purchased in bulk and used in a range of dishes. Going the extra step of converting left overs into new meals might also be a route folks are willing to take. (Ex. Casserole.)

zolielo

Heck, we have been having this every week for years now. Some decent soup and some grilled cheese is awesome on those cold and dreary days. Something else I used to do as a bachelor (similar to what Git Em SteveDave (a Jay and Silent Bob reference?) wrote about) was cook up some pasta, add a can of diced tomatoes, add butter, and italian seasonings, and a bunch of garlic salt. Heck, I still eat it every now and then.

Couple of other cheap meals are chili-mac (one can of chili to one batch of mac n cheese or shells n cheese) and another one is one package of shells n cheese (or mac n cheese) one can of cream of mushroom soup (don't add water) and one can of tuna. Tastes pretty similar to the tuna helper cheesy stuff, and makes a pretty decent sized batch.

derekhaltom

And if you do it right youcan make a large amount of soup in very short time, and have leftovers. I assume that you would save even more money by making a large pot rather than giving into the canned "soup" substitute. Using Trent's idea you can even "splurge" on a crusty loaf of bread and still save quite a bit of cash in the longterm.

BrisketKid

Also, yet another common sense post.

marcmarc

What's supper? Can someone call Laura in from the field? Johnboy needs to say goodnight.

marcmarc

This is stupid.

Steamed veggies and some meat = cheap and healthy unlike "bread and soup"...

Advocating a bad diet to save money is ridiculous. There are soooo many other luxuries one can cut down on before worrying about food.

iceman7

One of the easiest and cheapest ways to save money and stay healthy is to eat a high-protein breakfast--and I don't mean something with 7 g. of protein. Eggs are ideal, especially free-range if you can get them inexpensively. A two-three egg breakfast will have 12-18 g. of protein, which will not give you a bottom-out, ravenous feeling an hour and a half later. You'll feel satisfied longer, meaning you'll end up eating less over the course of the day. I don't have the URL for the study I saw but it's been repeated several times. Another bonus: the vitamins in the yolks.

I do this every day, and as a result I usually don't feel like eating for 4-5 hours, even snacking, thus saving both money and calories.

WomanWithManyHats

When I was a kid in Sweden, we always had a soup and pancakes night once a week (that's thin Swedish crêpe style pancakes). It's a pretty traditional thing to do, and it does save money.

Nowadays, with food processors being so ubiquitous, we can all make the most fantastic soups... I love doing a mix of vegetables, cheeses and herbs/spices to create a really special soup. Then, with a food processor, one can create wonderfully creamy soups without having to thicken them up with cream.

Healthy, cheap and real comfort food for me! :)

milylasouris

Sure, it works and there's no need to sacrifice taste. Homemade quesadillas or burritos work well too and can turn leftover meat into an entirely new meal.

vered

No! No! No People! Eating is a basic necessity of life, don't cheat yourself by trying to save money here. Always eat the healthiest foods possible; the savings will come later by not having as many health care bills. If you really need to save money now, just don't buy that damn 50 inch LCD TV! Just don't buy that damn new car! Just don't go to the damn movies!

Now, with that said, I know there are inexpensive healthy foods, so by all means, if you can eat those do so. I'm saying don't eat a bag of expired potato chips you got for a dollar simply because some blog says it is a great way to save. It's NOT!

nobodyzhome

Soup and bread is A'OK with me as it is a meal that meshes nicely with breakfast, whence they meet the next morning. You can also drop some vitamins in your soup and have a great nights sleep, if it doesn't have them implemented already.

Excellent, as this type of light meal with mesh nicely with breakfast the next morning; there are actually benefits to eating light, even if its only one meal per week. You can easily control the intake of sugar, cholesterol, and the plain-old over-indulgence.

chocbar31

Another way to save money without skimping on food quality is to watch those portions. I think portion size is equally important along with what it is you are eating. I just happen to eat soup and bread one night a week so this is not so much a money saver but reinforcing my nutritional and fiscal values. Believe it or not, some people enjoy simple meals and don't need steak or seafood every night of the week. Bobbie Flay wannabe's :)

@iceman7: How is soup and bread unhealthy or not cheap? You might not like soup or just like steak or chicken better. That, however doesn't make one better than the other.

gravitus

Eating cheap food is bad idea in any occasion. You will just end up with higher healthcare bills and will try buying suppliments later . There is no merit in his suggestion. Eating cheap food is very expensive solution in my opinion.

If you need to save money, I have a better list for you

-Stop driving car. Learn to car pool or ride with public service
-Cancel your tv, tivo, hdtv subscription (this probably will save you a lot instantly, more than the guy is suggesting)
-Stop your netflix addiction
-Stop buying superhero comics
-Cancel your people`s magazine(or similar magazines) subscription
-Stop hiring illegal- under paid immigrants to take care of your lawn. You should take care it yourself.
-Move to smaller home
-Stop buying suppliments(just eat healthy)
-Stop spending money on extra booze, limit your intake glass a day
-Do not buy any junk food
-Prepare your lunch at home, do not go to restaurant for lunch everyday
-Stop playing and buying video games
-Stay away from daily deal web sites

If you do all above, probably you will save thousands of dollars every year without sacrificing your food.

kartal

I like this idea. It's something I do anyway during the week because sometimes I get home and am too tired from work to cook a full meal, and I'm surprised with how much I am potentially saving by doing this. Hooray, laziness?

chareverie

Wow, since when is this news? My parents made pancakes for supper a big treat for us four kids. We didn't know it was because there wasn't any money left that week for more groceries.

When my husband and I first got married, I could make one big pot roast last for most of a week of suppers. Pot roast, followed by stew, followed by beef and vegetable soup with homemade biscuits. We qualified for food stamps, that first year, and if I'd only known it I wouldn't have had to be quite so creative with the most frugal grocery list I could manage, every week.

Nowadays, even though we are vastly more prosperous in comparison, I try to make one supper a week from just what I have on hand. Yeah, sometimes that turns out to be pancakes. Homemade, though--not from a mix.

Thus I feed three adults well, with nutritious homemade meals, for $100/week or less. Every week.

infmom

Oh, I almost forgot: for fast, healthy, and usually inexpensive Asian recipes and a healthy dose of attitude, try Jaden's Steamy Kitchen blog. One caveat for parents: Jaden's steamy kitchen can get a little "steamy" in the language at times. ;o)

Keter

I was raised a "country cook" which means cooking from scratch - fresh, basic ingredients. Over the years, I picked up some sophistication as a cook as interesting new ingredients (and a larger discretionary budget) became available to me (truffle oil, microgreens, etc.), but never forgot my roots: simpler is better...and cheaper, and better for you.

It is entirely possible to eat very frugally and get superior nutrition. One word: vegetables. Fresh, frozen, or canned, you can always find some veggie at a bargain price. Use rice, pasta, beans, or lentils as a base, invest in a good selection of spices, and the variety of delicious and wholesome dishes you can come up with are almost infinite.

As a kick start to high-flavor frugal eating, look to Indian cuisine. Curries are delicious and can be made from very inexpensive ingredients. The veggies and turmeric are great for your health!

For those with children or adult picky eaters who only like "American" food, cruise over to Ivy and Heather's excellent "Home Ec 101" blog for a regular infusion of fresh recipes and tips plus a weekly meal planner that ensures maximum value and taste even from your leftovers.

Lastly, even on the most frugal budget, put your $$ into ingredients that add the most flavor (especially butter, olive oil, and fresh spices, since they contribute so much to the taste of any dish they are added to). And don't skimp on quality for any ingredient that will destroy the pleasure of eating if it isn't top-notch. This advice particularly applies to meat and cheese. To save money, use less of the pricey ingredient: one tiny, perfect steak can be very satisfying, but no force on the face of the Earth can make a thin, stringy, off-flavored cut worth eating.

Bon apetit!

Keter

@nobodyzhome: Couldn't agree more, health is #1, and sacrificing nutrition for $ is stupid. I think people start to forget, $ is a tool for us to survive, and the basic necessities are top priorities. Food, Clothing, Shelter.

And listing these is about as common sense as some of the posts lately we see on non-technical things, come on LH, it's pretty funny. You guys are on point with most tech articles, but when you guys put articles like this it makes me laugh. Maybe it's just filler? I assume the user base here is somewhat intelligent and can come to some of these deductions ourselves. I mean look at the comments above me, There's more worthwhile info there than in the actual article. (looking @ you Keter and others, nice posts). I'm not trying to be a pain, just stating some things I've noticed.

Food is expensive lately, and I do understand the wants and needs of people to save $, but I think going to the extremes of Soup and Bread is a bit much. Mostly empty calories, where's the protein? I'm going to grill some chicken breast :P

RJinLA

Food is unnecessarily too cheap in America. In my view food should be higher. Stop buying cheaper foods, you are not saving money you are just killing good farming and helping unhealthy corporate farming practices. To provide you cheap food the corporations are coming up more high tech more chemical methods of production to keep the prices lower. In the end this affects the taste and health of the food you are consuming. Are you aware that amount of pollution that is created by hormon use by cattle industry is one of the worst enviromental problems in America? Stop going for cheap food please. This particular crowd behaviour affects everyone`s health in the end.

kartal

The Italians, especially the in Tuscany, make a great soup/bread meal by adding stale old bread to the soup. It's usually a vegetable/tomato broth with beans (white beans or kidney) added in. Add some leafy greens (kale, dandelion--talk about cheap) and maybe a sausage if you are feeling flush and then toss in some coursely chopped day-old bread. Usually it's half of the leftover baguette from dinner a few nights ago that is pretty much rock solid, in my case. After about 15-20 minutes the bread becomes mushy in the broth and turns it into a really thick mushy flavorful mess. It's the ultimate comfort food that you can make as cheap or fancy as you want. Add some really nice olive oil to finish and some parmasean cheese and it's perfect.

andersch

One way to save some money on food without sacrificing quality:

If you eat pizza once a week or so, don't take for granted that you have to spend $14 or more to get a large. Look around for smaller pizza places, especially family-owned, instead of ordering from Pizza Hut or other chains.

There is a family-owned pizza place near us that has a carryout special. $8 for a large two-topping pizza. After tax, it's about $10, which supplies my wife and I with two meals each. That's $2.50 per meal per person. You can't beat it.

Vertigo50

@andersch: I was thinking about mentioning this! It's not just Italy, though: it was common practice all over Europe in the Middle Ages.

One misconception about Italian food, though: it's not mostly grains. That's just what most of the people there were eating when our G.I.s went through in WWII. Traditionally the pasta or rice part is a small appetizer portion, and the meats and veggies are the main part of the meal. But during WWII meat was requisitioned for their Army (and ours) and became scares, and local fighting made it hard to raise a garden. So when the Allies came through the people were eating grains, the only thing they had left (meat and vegetables being more perishable). Sophia Loren lived through that time, which in context was the basis for her famous comment that "Everything you see here I owe to pasta." Her family nearly starved to death at one point.

A starvation diet can't be the basis for good health.

WomanWithManyHats

Do this because you like this sort of food, not to save money. The average American throws out more food than much of the rest of the world eats.

These leftover-based dishes are quite trendy (ribollita, acquacotta) and basically every cuisine in the world has recipes that are peasant cooking. Raviolis is pasta stuffed with leftovers, meatloaf and meatballs are preparations with leftover meat (and bread), etc.

You can save a lot more food costs by: eliminating soft drinks, junk food, candy, fast food, $4 espresso drinks, bottled water, etc.

BarneyRubble

I also favor empty-the-fridge leftover potluck nights.

I'm not sure if I am seeing this, but it seems to me that lately I am seeing more money saving tips, and this is a trend I fully support; given the trends I am seeing living in an area 9 miles from the the city in Ohio (Lorain) with the highest unemployment rate in the state.

pschroeter

@chocbar31:

"You can also drop some vitamins in your soup and have a great nights sleep, if it doesn't have them implemented already."

Eh? What kind of soup are you slurping? Give me some.

Vestan_Pance

Here is a tip:

When buying fresh produce in a premeasured bag--weigh it. Grab 3 or 4 bags and walk over to the scales and weigh them. I've seen a 2 1/2 pound difference. The cited weight is the minimum and whatever extra is in there is just a bonus for you. Do this with taters, carrots, apples, tomatoes, etc.

Also, I am a bread machine user. We like it fresh and made to order. I try to keep bags with it already mixed up and there is only a need to add liquid and throw it in. (Soured milk makes the BEST breads. MMmmmmm.)

A last tip, when making a tomato sauce or soup, blend up a bunch of carrots in the blender. These thicken the tomato product while the seasonings disguise the carrots. I love this for spaghetti. A fragrant little sprinkling of cheese on top and the texture of stirred-in cheese throughout, and everyone has always been fooled!

As a bonus, since I cook cheaply and in sometimes in bulk, I have found that these homemade meals can win lots of points and favors when traded with coworkers/neighbors. Back when I was a student, I used to take leftover muffins or whatever in the the ER where I was routinely rotating. It's how I got an ear infection taken care of and my general prescriptions filled. ;)

As far as the attitude that eating economically is unhealthy--I think it is truly the opposite. Being a food snob is unhealthy. A broken hip at 70 because you spent a lifetime of consuming meat as your every meal main course and didn't fill up on the bright green calcium-filled veggies on a nearly daily basis or kidney disease because you restricted your liquid intake to your daily coffees or booze instead of supplementing your drinks with soups and such--a "cheap" diet is a rather easy way to sneak in quite a few health habits.

Blondgirl

@Blondgirl: To add to your excellent suggestions--if a bread machine recipe calls for powdered milk, powdered buttermilk tastes even better.

Run carrots through the food processor till they're very fine granules and mix that into a batch of homemade sloppy joes.

Dinner leftovers make great lunches at work the next day, if you work someplace where you can store them safely. Not every workplace has a fridge.

infmom

From the article:

"The single best method I've found for creating a cheap supper night is to check the grocery store flyer before I go to the grocery store. Almost every grocery store has an exceptional produce deal or two for the week that you can use to center your meal around. At our local grocery, there's usually some form of fresh vegetable on sale for as low as $0.29 a pound and usually a fruit near that level as well. A pound of a particular vegetable forms the backbone of a very healthy meal.

Even at standard prices, your fresh produce can be dirt cheap. According to Ohio State University's data, you can get "cabbage at 4 cents per serving; potatoes at 6 cents; broccoli florets at 7 cents; and whole carrots at 10 cents per serving.""

That sounds to me like he's advocating finding bargains eating vegetables. How exactly is that unhealthy?

krark

Um, I don't think a lot of you read the article. The "soup and bread night" was from a book called "Miserly Moms." The Simple Dollar actually said that "soup and bread" night wasn't a good idea because it was unhealthy, and suggested finding alternate food bargains in the fresh produce aisle.

krark

Um, soup is healthy. It's healthier than your supermarket-blanched meat-product. Especially if you make it yourself.

Condalmo

My family saves money by making our own pizza. We used to order it out, but my pizza is so much nummier.
Soup is okay, but I just couldn't have it once a week, I get sick of it too easily.

Natnie

Good soup and good bread = healthy
Canned soup and cheap bread = not so healthy
Powdered package soup and crackers = not so healthy

kartal

@nobeastsofierce: Snob! I guess you've never had really good, homemade soup. It can be an excellent meal when done properly. No sacrifice in quality as far as I'm conecerned.

Paperclip

A lot of people here must be punching their tickets to Completely Missing the Point. No one's saying get crappy, low-quality ingredients to save a few cents, the whole thrust of the article is to use what's on hand, etc. to save money and eat well at the same time. Common sense, really, which we all know is nothing of the sort.

drjayphd

@kartal: I totally agree... Most soups sold in stores have high sodium, possibly high sugar and even sometimes MSG. Not to mention that higher quality soups are not that cheap. If you are not vegetarian, you can make a vegetarian night to save money. There are plenty of ways to make something healthy, quick and cheap.

CadErik

this is common sense. especially for anyone of standard means who has gone to grad school, traveled extensively, done fieldwork in remote areas, or otherwise been forced to survive on a very limited budget :)

garbanzo-bean

"Steamed veggies and some meat = cheap and healthy unlike "bread and soup"..."
@iceman7: Isn't soup just steamed veggies and meat, with extra water?

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

this is common sense. especially for anyone who has been to years of extra schooling, yet strangely can't figure out that sentences begin with capital letters. of course, that only applies if your parents have paid for you to follow U2 around Europe and have been forced to survive on only $5k a month until your trust fund kicks in.

better sell your iphone on ebay straight away and spend the proceeds on bread and soup.

drewls

@Keter:
"One word, vegetables"

Really? I find locally that vegetables are typically the most expensive per-unit item on my shopping list. In fact, my wife and I have discussed many times what a barrier this is to nutritious eating, and postulated that this probably has something to do with why people resort to less expensive, fattier prepared foods.

In response to the post, I'd say I thought everyone already did this. Isn't it something that just naturally works its way into your shopping cart?

fadecomic

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: Soups require stock. If you just boil some veggies and meats in water for about a half-hour, they'll be cooked, but you won't want to eat it.

On the other hand, you can make stock pretty easily. I like to get one of those cheapo roast chickens from the store for a quick dinner when there's no time to cook - then, freeze the carcass and make stock with it later. It's a one-two punch of flavor.

crashfrog

@kartal: Are you aware that amount of pollution that is created by hormon use by cattle industry is one of the worst enviromental problems in America?

Are you aware that's a myth? If you put together every single cow in America, they put one-tenth of the hormones into groundwater that American women on birth control do.

The simple fact is that many of these measures are necessary in a world where malnutrition is three out of the five leading causes of death. McDonald's may have shitty burgers, but I'm not about to consign millions to death by starvation to make it taste better.

crashfrog

This is a great idea- Quakers have been doing it for a long time, especially at gatherings. We call it a "simple meal" and enhance its effects by donating the savings to environmental charities.

QuakerProf

@fadecomic:

"I find locally that vegetables are typically the most expensive per-unit item on my shopping list. In fact, my wife and I have discussed many times what a barrier this is to nutritious eating, and postulated that this probably has something to do with why people resort to less expensive, fattier prepared foods."

If you buy in-season veggies or buy frozen or canned on sale, veggies are still quite inexpensive. Buying something exotic or in the off-season? Don't, or be willing to pay for the shipping, storage, and inevitable losses associated with imported food.

I suppose there could be regional differences in produce prices as well...New York city no doubt imports nearly 100% of its produce, so the prices could be expected to be higher there all the time as a result. In Texas, we're surrounded by agricultural land, so seasonal produce is typically a great bargain.

My experience is that cost has to do with people buying "cheap" processed food only in the very poorest areas. Blame the fact that many poor neighborhoods lack real groceries, leaving convenience stores the only source of food that doesn't require extensive travel. Convenience stores don't provide an adequate variety of foods, and aren't set up to deal with fresh foods, so they charge a premium for them.

In most neighborhoods, the choice of prepared food over fresh food is driven by convenience (time) and emotion (instant gratification, comfort food), not economics.

Keter

You can get soup and a smoothie for $5 at coldstone creamery. Why, I have no clue. It's good for people with eating disorders, liquids come up much easier.

Conrad

Ground turkey. Reeeally cheap. Sure, it ain't beef, but it's still pretty darn tasty, to me.

GrandStan

BTW this is peasant food. It's what my father said people ate for years in Italy pre WWII. A big pot of fava beans with whatever greens you had, and 3 huge fresh baked loafs of bread everyday. Pasta was perhaps 3 times a week. Meat when that animal was of age for slaughter, and since they were inland you can forget about fish.

gaspipe1

@kartal:

I agree with some of the ideas. But come on you only live once, you have to enjoy life rather than try and trim a buck here and there. One point you do have is w/out comic book, tv and mags you do have time to make lunch and cut your grass.Me personally I rather just focus on how I can make more money so my family can live comfortable.

gaspipe1

@drewls: you are a pig.

i paid my own way through grad school by working eight hours a day, thank you. i don't have a trust fund or an iphone. and my parents most certainly did not pay for my travels.

as for my capitalization, you must forgive my laziness. i can assure you that the punctuation in my doctoral dissertation is impeccable.

next time you are feeling spiteful, try to remember that there are people attached to names on the internet - and those people are strangers to you. please, don't assume you know anything about them.

garbanzo-bean

P.S. Though the good posts and comments from fellow Lifehackers made up the poor article. Agree with others that a nice simple meal does not have to be expensive at all.

ICEBreaker

Not driving a 4 litre car to the Ritz is one thing. Luckily most of us are not at the stage where we can't afford a decent home cooked meal. While I am sure this article is useful for some people, it probably isn't for most Lifehackers.

ICEBreaker

Hello!! I am so happy to see your love for Italian food! Maybe this website can be interesting for you: http://www.your-tuscany-vacation.com/ It contains nice information about Tuscany and it's updated everyday with new material! And.. especially.. there's a very nice FOOD section! Ciao!!

AthenaEmu

@crashfrog: Myth? Sorry but I cannot take your comments serious.

kartal

Twice a week we make homemade pizza - it costs just $2 for a large pizza with a thin layer of shredded parmigiano-reggiano cheese, some low fat skim mozzarella, a light spreading of tomato sauce, fresh basil leaves from the garden, and a couple handfuls of fresh arugula which is very healthy.

We will usually add 1/2 a litre of organic tomato soup to the meal and fresh filtered water as something to drink. The whole cost of the meal is about $3, and this feeds three of us.

Its quite healthy, and inexpensive, and my son loves pizza nite. I always have about a kilogram worth of cold-rise dough in the fridge, so we can make this anytime.

Sometimes on a Saturday morning, I will take a bit of the dough out, flatten it into an 8 inch disc, put it into a frying pan with some extra virgin olive oil and a bit of unsalted butter. I will flip it a couple times until it gets crispy on each side and soft on the inside, then make a fried egg. I use the existing fats in the pan so that the egg glides effortlessly. I flip the egg, cook for a few more seconds, and then put that on the disc of cooked dough. Yum-o!

We have a large 17cuft freezer, and buy things in bulk. The best two purchases were 40 pounds of skinless/boneless chicken breast, at $1.78 per pound. And fresh sockeye salmon (whole) for $1 per pound (yes one dollar per pound). We cleaned them up, cut them into steaks, vacuum packaged them, and now we have half the freezer full. Talk about cheap eating! You just have to stock up on good quality food when its cheap!

pizzaandgelato

Wow how amazing post! 300 $/y just for one night a week. Think of how much could one save if one ate only soup for dinner every day: more than 2 100 $/y!!

artwo

Why not skip a meal in general. There are a lot of benefits to intermittent fasting and it doesn't get anymore cost effective than just not eating a meal or two.

Check out [www.modernforager.com] or Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat ebook.

jumpow