Eating Inexpensively

So, it’s saving time. For the next month or two, Babe and I will be spending as little as possible. We have to come up with quite a bit of money to take care of the expenses related to moving into a new place. That being said, we’ve got food in our cupboards that we need to work with. Anything that we buy has to last a while, or at least be able to make a good bit of food and be freezable. Ideally, we won’t be spending more than US$20 (on grocery) in any given week. Also, we’d like to have a normal amount of energy, and not miss out on too many nutrients that we would normally get when we’re not on a crazy budget. And not end up super flabby from muscle loss. Hahaha. Good luck to us, right?

Here are meal ideas we’ve come up with so far (using what we have):

• Tuna and grits (It’s a Bahamian thing. When I make it again, I’ll take pictures. I don’t really use recipes when cooking, but I’ll try to pay attention to the amounts I use as well as the method.)
• Corned beef and rice (Recipe coming soon!) with corn and cabbage if we manage to swing it.
• Eggs and turkey bacon
• Oatmeal (with raisins, bananas, PB, Nutella, cinnamon, brown sugar… Whatever we can get.)
• Tuna pasta (This is Babe’s specialty… Corkscrew pasta mixed with tuna, maybe tuna salad? And some corn, seasoned well. YUMMY)
• Tuna sandwiches
• Homemade spaghetti (Make a tonne of it and freeze to have between other little, less satisfying meals)
• Salad (Keeping it simple with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olives, and a little dressing.)
• Ramen Noodles (Make it better with tuna, frozen veggies, mushrooms, corn… Whatever makes sense.)
• Fried rice (with mushrooms, red/yellow/green peppers, shredded chicken, onions)
• Grilled cheese and tomato soup (If we manage to squeeze cheese into the budget.)
• Baked beefaroni (Mix up corkscrew pasta with cooked ground beef, pasta sauce, and cheese. Requires cheese, but should make enough for quite a few meals in the 9×13 inch pan)
• Pancakes. Probably with fruit. Like an apple, or banana. Whatever has a price that smiles at us. As opposed to laughing at us. Hahaha.

Items we always usually have had in stock:

• Tuna
• Corned beef
• Spaghetti (noodles, not canned soup)
• Grits
• Oatmeal
• Rice
• Potatoes (Hopefully we can keep this up)
• Corn (Hopefully we can keep this up too)
• Ramen Noodles (We never really ate it before. We just kept it “for hard times.”)
• Eggs
• Bread

What are your ideas for decent meals that are easy on the tightest of budgets?

What do you think we should buy (not exceeding the $15 budget) to help ourselves out with meal-making?