Feeding a Family on a Tight Budget

by Laurie Childree, Staff Writer

Image © Lyn Lomasi; All Rights Reserved

Feeding a family on a budget can be difficult, and a tight budget increases that difficulty. There are foods that can help you stretch your meal to feed more than you normally would providing you portion everything out properly. Let's take a moment to examine some ways to make the food and the budget stretch.

Reusing any leftovers

It doesn’t really matter what you’re planning to have or what you had the rest of the week when it comes to leftovers. One day a week simply combine them all into a pot. Use leftover vegetables to make a soup, toss in a pack of crackers and you have a meal for a cold day. Leftover meat can be used for sandwiches, or tossed into the vegetables to make stir fry go farther.

Rice and Beans

You can put anything on a bed of rice or beans and serve it. Leftover vegetables can be mixed with rice or beans to make the portions stretch farther. Shredding leftover meat and adding it to leftover rice, vegetables and beans can make a single portion into two.

Meat Is Expensive

Meat is the most expensive portion of the grocery budget for those who eat it. In order to save money on meat it is important to watch the prices, and portion it out. Freezing only portions that you will use to make a meal is important. Smaller portion sizes can be served at meals with vegetables and sides. Shredding meat, or cutting it into small pieces will allow sandwiches to be made or the meat placed into vegetables for stir fry. When you are in a real bind you can purchase canned meats and use those in place of traditional packages. The portions will automatically be smaller.

Bread

Bread can help to fill you up, and adding it to meals can make them stretch. Slices of bread can be toasted, or you can toss an inexpensive pack of rolls into the oven. Bread can be bought on sale or clearance and frozen in portions to use later. Cornbread can be made in large batches and used for several meals.

Snacks

Peanut butter on saltines, celery, or apples can make a quick and easy snack. Sandwiches can be made and cut into smaller portions to make snacks for children. Crackers and fruits can be served plain for children with water.

These are just a few ways to save money and make meals stretch further when you are in a bind. Use your imagination and learn how to substitute things in the meals that you make. You will find that things go farther than you ever imagined.