Any suggestions on how to feed a family of 10 cheaply?

Question

I am mainly interested in dinner ideas

Answer 1

I completely disagree with almost every answer I've read. Filling the family with starches and cheap fatty meat will only promote poor eating habits and encourage obesity. Try to include lots of vegetables, fruit, chicken and fish. Frozen vegetables actually have more nutrients than fresh because they are frozen directly from the fields.

The answer is to shop wisely. Feeding 10 people is quite a challenge but if you shop at stores like Aldi you can save a bundle and their food quality is most often excellent with many low sugar items available. Their canned vegetables are from Green Giant! Then hit Sam's Club and look for the manager's specials in the meat case and shelf items that are reasonable. Spend a little time every Sunday reading the food ads in the newspaper and shop for the best specials at every store, resisting things you don't need. Search out outlet stores for things like bread, cookies, etc. Plan your meals based on sale items only and stock up on any good deals you can find.

I have been following these rules and have literally cut our food budget in half, although we continue to eat rib eye steak, King crab legs, etc. It's definitely worth the time it takes.

Here's a few websites with information on budget shopping and recipes. The first one is my favorite....

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/

http://www.recipezaar.com/cookbook.php?bookid=51062

http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/Pubs/Cookbook/thriftym.pdf

http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/shawnee/healthy_eating_on_a_budget.htm

http://www.betterbudgeting.com/frugalrecipelist.htm

http://www.netmums.com/lc/food/meals_on_a_budget.htm

Answer 2

Base the bulk of food on carbohydrates like pasta, rice, potatoes and bread.
The cheapest meat protein sources are milk, eggs, chicken, ground beef and tuna fish. Pork is good from time to time. Learn as many recipes with these as possible.
Buy bulk and generic. Designer brands and individual packs are costly for little in return on nutritional value.

Let's just list a weeks sample of dinner ideas for fun.
Mon Spagetti with meat balls. Garlic bread
Tue Tuna Casserole with Mixed Veg
Wed Chicken in cream sauce served over rice
Thu Lasagne and cheese bread
Fri Pork chops with baked potatoes
Sat Beef Stew with sweet potatoes and veg.
Sun Pizza !!! It's not that hard to make!

Answer 3

My grandma used to make this wonderful meal called Potato Hash. Just peel 2 or 3 big onions, chop them coarsely, peel 4 or 5 big carrots, and cut them into bite-sized chunks. Put both in the biggest pan you can find, cover with cold water, put on the hob, bring to the boil, cover and simmer. Peel a load of potatoes, cut in half if they're big, or keep whole if they're small. Add them to the pan, making sure there is enough water to cover them. Put the lid back on, and leave them simmering for about 30-40 minutes. Get 2 cans of gravyless stewing steak, and add this to the pan, season, stir in, and leave it all simmering gently. Add gravy granules when it's time to serve, turn the heat up, and stir well to make a wonderfully thick gravy to the hash. Serve with bread and butter, and pickled red cabbage if you have it.

If it's particularly cold outside, you could pour the potato hash into big pie dishes (or a huge ceramic mixing bowl), cover them with shortcrust pastry, and bake until the pastry's done.

Answer 4

There were 7 of us and my folks used to have this large potatoe bin in the basement. Every meal we had consist of potatoes in one shape or form. Its kinda funny how we joke about the ramen noodles being the cheap meal but dang werent those good. My mom was bringing those home to us from the oriental market before they hit the shelves of the grocery store. Today you can find recipes that call for dry crushed ramen noodles that make a great cold salad. Think of potatoes and pasta, they really go far and virsatile for a dollar. My dad cooked lots of soups in a large pot also and we enjoyed that.

Answer 5

Serve potatoes, rice or pasta with all dishes your serve.

Try to find out the cheapest vegetables like onions, carrots, etc and prepare meals based upon cheap ingredients.

Bulk buy to save money - ie buy one get one free offers or multipacks - even buying rice by the 5kg bag makes real big savings instead of buying 1kg per shopping trip.

Cook rather than buying ready-made meals - you just pay for the packaging and the convenience - also you can control what goes into your dishes.

Answer 6

Yes, stop having kids after two. The world is having enough trouble feeding all the excess people being born. 40,000 children starve to death everyday, our seas are dying from our waste, arable land is disappearing at 2% per year,finite resources (like oil) will soon run out and people have the stupidity to say the world has room for more people. Beans and rice are cheap, thats what the poor of the world are already eating so we might as well get used to it.

Answer 7

i would stay mainly with cassaroles as you can strech them ...also stay with ground meat recipes...ground turkey is about a dollar a pound cheaper than beef....pork is also cheaper....shop the bargins when they have weekly sales ....make a lot of real hearty soups with lots of veggies and go light on the meat..bean soups gives you alot of protien instead of so much meat.....when making burgers add some oat meal to the meat and some spices and strech the burgers further.....pasta are really cheap and good sauces homemade help strech the budget.....tuna is reasonable ...you can also buy jack mackeral for about a dollar and make patties ..and just follow a salmon pattie recipe...make all your deserts from scratch they all basically need the same ingredients of which you can buy in bulk....cornbread and biscuits go along way...for breakfast stick with pancakes ..french toast...and the hot cereals...just a few ideas as when i was in military had to help the younger airman with there finances and we cut some corners to help them into they had some time in and their pay was better...good luck...

Answer 8

Sure! Pork shoulder is one of the cheapest cuts and most flavorful! You can probably buy a couple of 10 pound shoulders for around $18.00; buy 20 pound sack of potatoes, a half gallon of milk and a pound of butter for about $6.00 and make mashed potatoes or roasted (even better, no milk or butter, just some olive oil and seasonings-probably about $3.00), for veggies, try some extra large cans of corn for around $1.25 each...$22-25 dinner! make your own gravy from the pork juices...

Answer 9

yep...i'v got 6 and do it.....get a big roast, only on sale, roast it with potatos and carrots, have pot roast one night and the next make homemade vegetable soup....use all the broth, the rest of the meat and vegies, and add tomato juice, corn, peas and green beans, cabbage if you like, and I add butter, that seems to cut down on the heartburn i get from tomato juice....I usually get the roast at 99 cents pound....i use 10 pounds and have lots of left overs......another one i do is get round steak, only on sale, i spend about 8 dollars on 2 family packs, and roast it with 2 big cans of mushroom soup and about 3/4 can of water, you can do this straight from the freezer, just thaw enough to cut into serving pieces, you don't have to brown it first, and then roast for about 4 or 5 hours on about 325, this makes alot of meat and gravy, so serve it with mashed potatos and a vegie or have as manhattens......with the price of hamburger these days, you don't have to stick to just hamburger meals....we also like soup beans and cornbread, the beans in the jars are great, just doctor them up with butter and salt and pepper and they are good...another chaep one is what I call "Boiled dinner" you boil small bite size potato pieces with smoked sausage and green beans and butter and salt and pepper, you can even use the cheap smoked sausage...my kids actually love this one....well there are a few ideas...hope this help...enjoy!

Answer 10

id make a big pot of jambalaya that is what my father always id i came from a famliy of 8-and its cheap-you get -
1)1bag of chicken breast(4lbs)
2)2 things of sausage spicy or normal
3)2 green bell pepper,onions,minced garlic
4)instant rice (biggest size),2 things barbcue sauce,any seasonings you want!
A)first you chop all you peppers,onions,and garlic,
then cut the chicken into cubes,and cut sausage into a reasonable size and rub the meat with your seasonings.
B)seer the peppers,onoins and garlic together in pot with oil,till onoins are clear,then throw chicken into pot ontop of veggies,and stir till chicken is cooked(when the chicken is cooked the pot should have broth in it from chicken)
C)then throw the sausage into the pan w/ chicken,and veggies,let that simmer bout 10 min.then take a bottle of barbcue sauce,and pour into pot then fill the bottle w/ water and pour into pot(you can put more then 1 bottle of bbcue ,it depends how much you like it)let the liquid in the pot boil,then pour min rice into the pot and pour just enough till the liquid is gone.
D)then from there turn stove on low and let the rice get soft and serve!(u can serve w/ sweet rolls and a salad if you like!)
hope you like good luck!