Our top 5 Cheap Dinner meals

February 18th, 2009 | Posted in Frugality We all know that college students try to live on a tight budget, because they have little or no income. Finding cheap meal ideas is a must even at the sacrifice of taste. However eating cheap doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice taste. Here is out top five cheap dinner meals to fix for you and your family that will save you a few dollars at the grocery store.

1. Fancy Ramen Noodles. They are not just for college kids. You don’t have to eat these tasty noodles right out of the pack, you can fix them up to make a gourmet meal, well almost gourmet. Personally I like the noodles and the spice packs, even though not extremely healthy, they can make a good base for a meal. You can add vegetables and even meat to the noodles to give them a gourmet feel. If you are trying to save a lot of money you may have to skip the meats.
2. Grilled cheese and soup. For about $7 you can easily feed a family of 4 as many sandwiches as they can eat and a tasty bowl of canned soup.
3. Spaghetti – The classic spaghetti and marinara sauce dinner can easily be fixed for under $5. Noodles are about the cheapest meal you can fix and a can of marinara or even Alfredo sauce is about $3.
4. Breakfast – Breakfast isn’t just for breakfast. Eggs are less than $2 per dozen, a package of biscuits about $1.50 and a package of bacon about $4. For well under $10 you can feed a family of four a good dinner.
5. Homemade vegetable soup – Everybody loves vegetable soup! It’s something that’s easy to make, you can freeze the leftovers, and it’s cheap. Don’t have a lot of time to fix dinner? Put some vegetable soup in the crockpot and let it simmer all day while you are at work. There is a vegetable soup starter kit for about $2, a couple of packages of frozen vegetables can be found for $1 each and a couple of cans of tomato soup is less than $2. For about $6 you can have vegetable soup for 4 and probably save some leftovers for you lunch.

Most of our top 5 list isn’t the most healthy meals but you don’t have to eat them everyday. Include them in your dinner plans a couple of times per week and you’ll be fine. Use that extra money you save for a gym membership if you want!