How to feed a lot of people on a little money:

With our recent 50% (or so) decrease in income, there has been a lot of emphasis lately on getting as much for what money we do have, as we possibly can. Here are a few things I have found:

1) It is pretty cheap to buy a whole chicken, and you can get at least three meals off it (for a family of five, four of whom eat solid food). The way you do that is the first night, you roast the chicken, and serve roasted chicken with whatever sides you've got (we usually just do a little brown rice and broccoli. Everyone eats this without giving me any trouble about it.)

The following day, pick the chicken clean of all meat, and set the meat aside (maybe even freeze it if you want). Then boil the remaining bones and skin with the herbs of your choice, to make soup stock.

There you have two more meals. You can use most of the meat in a casserole, and then a little of it can be added into the stock along with some veggies and noodles, to make chicken soup. One chicken, three meals! (And that doesn't even count the leftovers, which make great lunches for those who are at home during the day.)

2) Find some delicious meatless meals to put into the regular rotation. Some favorites of my family are lentil and quinoa soup, red bean burgers, and black beans and rice. With our pepper plants producing like gangbusters lately, all of these meals are particularly great, since beans and peppers go together so well. These are by far the most cost-effective meals, with the cost per person coming in well under $1. Plus, there are always a ton of leftovers, so you've got lunch the next day.

Beans require a little more forethought than a lot of things, though. I've found that it's better to soak them overnight, then cook them in the crockpot all day until it's time to use them. Then you take out the amount you need, and freeze the rest for the next time. I've found that the average bag of beans will make two meals. The cool thing about this is that we really only have to worry with this overnight soaking and crockpot cooking every other time we use any given type of beans.

3) Sourdough bread is delicious and conserves yeast. Since the sourdough starter uses only a little bit of yeast, and then grows it on its own (hence the sour taste of the resulting bread), it lets us cheaply make homemade bread (cheaper than store bought), and still have plenty of yeast leftover for fun stuff like pizza crust!

4) A little meat can go a long way. Cooking a few strips of bacon so that everybody gets a little bit crumbled over their beans and rice, or on their red bean burger, will give the taste of meat without actually using a lot.


Among other things, this is how we keep our grocery bill low, and still eat delicious food at every meal.