When your broke what meals can you always make?

[45hopperbunny]

I have exactly £1.61 to last me until next Friday! I had to buy a bed outright at the end if last month so being £400 down for a month has had a massive impact.

It made me wonder though, when you’re super broke and have no money, what meals can you make at home? Or what food do you always have indoors?

I can always make,

• lasagna
• spag bol
• chicken & pasta
• tuna pasta

I always have in the house,

• pasta
• spaghetti
• bread
• some sort of food in the oven to last some days if need be
• beans
• eggs
• DD’s (15m old) porridge, yoghurts and fruit

Just wondered what other people have in their cupboards/fridge all the time!

Tacos - taco shells, black beans, rice, sprinkling of cheese, lettuce, tomatoes.
If you have any meat or protein you can add it. (Also avocado, sour cream also, salsa etc etc)

I am in the USA though and the ingredients are dirt cheap. Everyone loves them and we provide all the ingredients so everyone can "build their own" and then bring them to the table, but our kids are 16-21.

We always have tinned tuna and baked beans, along with random tins (currently veg curry, peas, plum tomatoes). And the freezer is usually full, we’re very fortunate. But the contents can vary. Some sort of mince is a safe bet. What I’d like actually is a good quantity of pasta and a ready pasta sauce or two, easy quick and lasts forever til it’s needed.

I can always make:
Lentil Bolognese
Lentil Dahl
Lentil and kidney bean burgers
Tuna pasta bake
Vegetable and kidney/black bean quinoa
Fish, rice and vegetables
Couscous
Sausages/chicken nuggets with potato stars and vegetables

We don't buy meat that often, only really buy it if I have a particular dish in mind so mainly and lentil and pulse based menu.

Soups and stews. Rice or pasta dishes. I keep a good assortment of frozen vegetables and canned and or dried legumes (particularly lentils, garbanzos, kidney, butter or black beans).

A roast chicken can be used for multiple dishes, while the bones/carcass can be cooked down for stock/broth. And I always have sweet onions, garlic, potatoes, yams on hand. I have a lot of sauces that I make in bulk and freeze in smaller containers to use a variety of ways: tomato-based sauces, curries, white sauces. Also I always keep a good amount of eggs on hand for a quick omelette, tortilla de patata, quiche, or just a boiled egg with toast.... And I try not to run out of olive oil or butter.

Similar to everyone else but since lock down I've always got tinned water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, a tin or pineapple, rice noodles and packet of cashew. The number of times that combined with a random carrot, pepper, onion and broccoli from the bottom of the fridge, gave us a decent stir fry were many!

I always have lentils, basmati rice,1 type of pasta, tuna, tinned tomatoes, oats, bread flour, coconut milk, olives, capers, a block of cheddar.
I'd make tuna or puttanesca pasta and lentil curry.

We are stocked on tinned beans and baked beans and tinned tomatoes, dried beans, lentils, and pasta.
I also pick up a pack of stock cubes every time I shop and so I have a load of them.

Therefore we can always whip up a dahl, a basic tomato pasta, or beans on toast.

Lentil bolognaise
bean stew

I mean these things are basically our diet alongside fresh veggies, which we grow.

We stocked up on deals when cheap and have a full store cupboard.

We always have tinned stuff such as
Mackerel, sardines, tinned tomatoes, chickpeas, cannellini beans etc, usually some potatoes and always have frozen green beans and spinach. Plus pasta and rice etc and usually have some nuts or seeds to spare

When we are running low we make a lovely curry with sardines and whatever veg is in fridge or freezer, jacket potato (sweet or white) with mackerel /mayo and salad. Cannellini bean curry (anjum Anand recipe) is easy and cheap, store cupboard fish cake from River cottage with tinned fish and potato also a good one.

Today all of our bread was mouldy because of the heat and we didn't manage to get to shops so made a quick pesto with spinach, cashews, little bit of basil, parmesan to have with spaghetti.

For dinner I did a tray of roasted veg (just whatever we had in the fridge/cupboard/freezer with some spices - put some walnuts and pumpkin seeds at end plus dollop of yoghurt

If we have eggs then a fritata with potatoes plus spring onions and other random veg also good and filling

Baked potato - we always have a sack of them. Omelette - or something egg related - we have chickens.

Always have flour, pasta. rice and lots of tinned tomatoes/beans etc. Always have lentils, pearl barley. Always have a cupboard full of spices and herbs.

I make a lot of soup. We also have a chest freezer that has plenty of last year's fruit in and usually mince/chicken breasts/fish of some sort.

I could probably feed the family for 3 weeks or so - more if we didn't mind boring, slightly odd meals.

I stock up when I get paid so could always last a few weeks just topping up with bits -I've had some tight spots in life so am conscious of always having food in so can get by if a bit tight that month.

I always keep in the fresh and tinned dept eggs, teabags, packets of ham, milk, block of cheese, pack of Philly, bread ,yoghurts with a long life, potatoes, salad leaves, cherry tomatoes , 4 or 5 tins of soup, tinned sardines and tuna and anchovies, couple of tins of coconut milk , 3 or 4 tins of fruit , several packets of stir fry sauce, rice, pasta, packets of ainsley Harriott couscous , couple of jars of good quality pasta sauce or passatta , several tins of tomato's, couple of tins of beans, gravy granules

Decent amounts of herbs and spices, soy sauce, Worcester sauce, mustard , and a chutney

Freezer
Loaf of bread
Crusty rolls
Several packs of M&S fishcakes(the cheap ones)
Packet of good fish fingers
Beef mince
Several packets of bacon
3 or 4 ready meals (usually M&S yellow sticker ones)
Packet of chicken breasts (often yellow sticker)
Peas
Green beans
Potato wedges
Roast potatoes
Yorkshire puddings

Beans on toast, sausage and mash with gravy, pasta and sauce/pasta bake.

Usually have some eggs in too.

I like to be able to put together potato-based things, so I can usually produce gratins, baked potatoes, bubble and squeak, potato salad, spicy wedges., to go with whatever state the cupboards and freezer are in. There are usually plenty of onions, pasta, tinned tomatoes, lentils, rice, cheese, baked beans etc in the house, but if I'm truly on the bones of my arse we'll have been running down stocks of fresh food and scraping together loose change to nip out for another pack of mushrooms. Luckily we're in no danger of running out of herbs and spices.

I always have rice, eggs, chickpeas, noodles, onions, potatoes, porridge tinned tomatoes. A stir fry or frittata is always good for using up extra veg, or you can make a rice bowl with an egg and some soy sauce/sriracha for something simple.

Buying frozen veggies is good as they won't go off. I also used to freeze loaves of bread when I lived alone as I could never finish it fast enough. When I was younger I used to make a lot of recipes from a website called Budgetbytes. A few times the author has done month long challenges of feeding herself within the budget of the US SNAP program (previously known as food stamps) so there are a lot of good ideas on there.

I can always make bread/dough. There’s usually a couple of kilos of pasta and rice, canned tomatoes along with lentils and the spice baskets in the pantry. There tends to be a basket of shallots and a couple of bulbs of garlic in the fridge. There is veg and bacon bits in the freezer.

From those I can make various pasta meals, curries, pizza if there is cheese left, soup, beans on toast at the bare minimum.

Macaroni cheese
Spaghetti in olive oil & chilli & garlic
Beans on toast
Cheese on toast

Chickpea curry too!

Always have the ingredients for chickpea curry, have the naan breads that last months.
Always have pasta and a jar of sauce.
Beans and a bottle of lemon squash, green tea bags, tins of soup. I am vegan so it’s easier I guess, I don’t need the bacon, steaks, mince meat, eggs etc.
I am not a massive fan of breakfast, I tend to have a later brunch of savoury items. There’s usually a loaf in the freezer, so I’ll take a few slices a time to defrost for beans on toast.

We always have
pasta
rice
chopped tomatoes (tinned)
tuna
beans
soup
potatoes
onions
and a ton of spices

The spices mean I can make even a bland meal taste nice :)

When l split up with my ex, l bought myself a £25 voucher for tesco so l always knew l could get a meal if l had no money.

My go to cheap meal would be soup and a roll or eggs on toast

Cheese omelette
Mash and something with gravy.
Pasta and cheese
Pancakes.

Anything with lentils, chickpeas or kidney beans and rice. Loads of good Indian recipes that actually taste delicious so no need to feel deprived and also it's not unhealthy which some cheap meals can be.

Baked potatoes.

A roast chicken once a week but then using up all of it, leftovers, soup etc

Frozen Irish sausages

Egg and chips is one of the most comforting meals ever.

I second, eggs and ramen aswell, baked beans and pasta. That was memory lane for me this thread. Hope you are doing well OP.

Various vegetarian pasta dishes, a daal. There's usually some sort of frozen meat in. At the moment we have a Turkey joint, pork chops and some Turkey mince frozen.

I am very lucky as I always have larder stocked full with tins and dried foods plus staples and a freezer with meat, frozen veg and fruit from garden and burgers, fish fingers, chicken nuggets etc. I run out of fresh fruit, berries, milk, bread and cold meats like ham and just need to top up midweek for those. I do still economise though and prepare some more basic meals mid week such as mozzarella and plum tomato pasta bake with breadcrumbs and grated parmesan on top served with frozen peas or sweetcorn. My adult son often takes the leftovers for lunch at work as has microwave use there.