Recipes

>>18100051
I usually try to spend less than 30-35€/week for breakfast, snacks and 10 meals.

Golden rule: spending very little is all about meal planning and prepping.
Prepare a weekly schedule for meals, buy just what you need, cook once or twice a week. Repeat meals if necessary.

For lunch I usually eat carbs or salads, dinner is always proteins.

>Veggies and fruits
Buy according to the season. By this alone you can save a lot of money. I go to farmer's market, on Saturdays you have 1 kg of anything for 1€.
I love avocados too - they cost 1€/1.30€ where I live and I use them as the main part of a lot of dishes. I love them in salads and with chicken, feta cheese, eggs.

>Carbs
Pasta is cheap as fuck - I usually either make homemade pesto or cook it with veggies. Some ideas might be pasta with broccoli/zucchini and bacon bits; pasta with tomato sauce; baked pasta/lasagne
I often buy grains and cook them, then put bell peppers, olives, onion and chicken in them. I like making homemade pesto too, and I add some potatoes and peas.
Rice goes with anything - chicken, beans, any kind of cuisine. Always have some.
I buy sandwich bread, the shittiest one.

>Proteins
Eggs are cheap as hell and very versatile. You can use them as ingredients for complex recipes, or you can make yourself scrambled eggs, omelettes, and such.
Cheese can help for extra flavor. Cream cheese is also very versatile.
Beans are a great meal, too. Sometimes I just eat beans with olive oil and onions and I love it.
Chicken is super versatile and the cheapest meal. You can freeze it too, add it to most meals and it is just awesome. Grilled chicken is amazing, you can put it in the oven with some beer and some potatoes and it will taste amazing.

Spices and herbs are THE game changer. You can even grow your own.
Bread is lame? Putt garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano on it and you have great food.

Your diet will consist of the following :

TUNA
HOT SAUCE
TOP RAMEN
OATMEAL
CHEAPEST CHICKEN YOU CAN FIND
RICE


sub in beef every now in then if you can.

>>18100051
learn to bake bread and garlic knots.

>>18100198
This is quite true. I love's me some tuna.

I remember being tight on finances. I'd buy 60 eggs, carrots, oatmeal, peanuts, top ramen, cheese once a month.

Carrots and peanuts are just snacking items. Top ramen is a meal. Put together ingredients in coffee mug: one egg mixed wth oatmeal, a little water, and cheese is cooked like pancake is also a meal.

That has the most energy, surprisingly guests thought it was tasty too.

Cheese is the only luxury item here.
I spent a maximum of $40 a month for food that could feed at least 3 people.

Keep in mind, i purchased food for the month, not the week. I also purchased things that keep for a long time that were not canned. That is how i saved a lot and didn't get nutritionally deficient.

Lentils

Bangers and mash
That's what I lived on for a little while. Plus it tastes good.

just be sure to keep the sushi and caviar to a max of five times a week

I forgot about the existence of potatoes when i was saving money:(

I live off of oats (fuck those bags of oatmeal, they cause cancer), rice, lentils, mung beans, black beans, fruits, vegetables. Healthy, minimalist, and cheap as fuck.

Plus simple use of spices and knowing how to properly prepare food makes all the difference

I'm not desperately poor but on the cheap side. Coincidently OP, Eating healthily and saving money go hand in hand.

I buy rice in 10kg bags for €18 a pop which works out at like €0.18 per 100g serving.
I've started buying a lot of cottage cheese and I eat it with crackers. Both things are very cheap. I havnt figured out what else i can do with cottage cheese yet. Here cottage cheese costs €0.53 per 200g.
Beans come at around €1.50 per 500g. Theyre a good source of carbs and protein and there are a lot of different types.
Couscous is a cheap alternative to rice when you want to mix it up.
Chicken and liver are your meats of choice. Liver is cheaper but its not something you want to eat every single day. Buy chicken from a butchers in bulk to save money. I buy 10 breasts for €10 usually.
Peas, spinnach, apples, and kale are my veggies of choice and i add them to every meal.

>>18100776
I like your diet, i just can't bring myself to liver though...

>>18100733
I also forgot about the existence of beans when i was saving money. I will keep in mind what you said about the mini bagged instant oat meals though.

rice/pasta etc. which are cheap in bulk would be main part of dish
then just add whatever to them. you can just throw in random vegetables and put in a sauce or something and it'll taste edible enough
can add beef/chicken/fish/slice bacon

example:
get rice cooking
add some oil and get pan hot, throw in mince and break it up with spatula, add in some salt/pepper with it (think its better to add before but its easier to do after)
take out mince once its cooked alright, then add in some stuff like cabbage (easy to break up quick, add garlic butter before and place ontop of that melted and it tastes like caramalized onions kind of) or any veg you want to heat up, i usually just use cucumber/zucchini, cabagge and tomatos on melted garlic butter, and a bit of hot chilli mixed in if want to make spicy
once they've got some heat and mixed in then add the mince back to it, then add in any herbs/spices or whatever, can just use pasta sauce/relishes to give some diff flavour
then add rice and stir

garlic butter melted then put cabbage ontop in pan is probably best thing for anything i think, easy to get made and tastes good with most things

if you want easy and cheapest meal then rice and frozen beans, then add some garlic in some melted butter, then pour on beans then add rice and stir. easiest and cheapest and still tastes half alright but its hard to eat garlic too often, can switch it out for a relish or pasta sauce
hot pepper/chillis and spiciness also mask taste of things and make it taste 'better' if you like spicy foods