One of our local Facebook groups is now filled with “feed a family of four for $10 by spending $7 on ground beef or dumpling cans of stuff into a pot” type posts because of the looming hungergeddon with SNAP being withheld.
I posted this to show the difference between what is probably the cheapest cook it yourself full meal in a box and the homemade version.
Since we are posting cheap meals here is a comparison of buying for the meal and buying for the pantry.
Mac and cheese two ways. I went to cook dinner but only found one box of mac and cheese. Well my wife only wanted basic mac and cheese with a single smoked sausage cut in half. Easy. She gets the boxed stuff. Cost of hers was $1.63
But what was my dinner going to be? The same but different. The last of an onion, a small bell pepper from the garden†, 4 oz of Colby Jack left over from yesterday, one smoked sausage like hers, 4 oz of elbow mac, milk, butter, flour. Cost for mine: $2.81.
These two bowls are almost identical in calories.
More than double the cost?
Calories in her bowl: ~1580
Calories on mine: ~1800 calories
So the homemade version is almost 42% more than hers but on a nutrition and flavor level they can’t compare at a the 78¢ difference.
I didn’t intentionally buy anything to make my specific meal. It was made from pantry staples that I always have on hand and can be bought in bulk. Flexible ingredients that can be combined in infinite combinations on the fly. It’s not just cheap it lets you solve cravings without going out.
What’s the time difference between these two meals? About 4 minutes. And that was entirely because the elbow mac is better quality than boxed and takes longer to cook. The bechamel cheese sauce and the pepper, sausage and onion mix all cooked while the pasta was cooking.
† literally free because I got the seeds from the library and planted in the ground, seed starter tray, no mulch, no fertilizer.
I grew up poor so this was a staple. Dad would add bacon and frozen veg and it never ended up costing all that much (and if you must have meat, bacon really is great calories per pack and the fat can sub in for butter). This, grilled cheese, and instant ramen with egg and spinach was 80% of my childhood (the rest being frozen foods when Dad was too drunk to cook!)
Now that I’m older, I’ve refined it to just make carbonara with added mushrooms and spinach, but the idea is the same. Family of four plus leftovers for less than ten bucks. And if you’re even poorer, consider learning to cook with lentils or chickpeas, you can buy a lot for a solid price and go well with rice which you can also bulk up on. I had a roommate survive on like $20 a month.
I bet soy is about to get really cheap soon, too…
I loved off donated bacon grease, potatoes and grilled ham and cheese for half a year once. Ramen and PB&J another period. That was in the 90s. Not quite $20 but too close to it.