Meals for a Budget of Ten Dollars a Day

Finding ways to make healthy, delicious meals on a budget is a challenge with soaring grocery costs.            Ten dollars can go a long ways with the right purchases — and right attitude — about what you put on the table.

Keep Breakfast Simple

Pre-packaged breakfasts may be convenient and tasty, but the prices translate to a little food for a lot of money. The ingredients to make a batch of waffles from scratch (flour, sugar, etc.) can be purchased at off-brand prices for less than ten dollars.

Freeze the waffles in a ziplock bag once they’re cooked and reheat them individually for a quick ten-minute breakfast time that won’t cost a fortune.

Instead of sugary cereals, try buying a large carton of yogurt and serving it up granola style with a sprinkle of Cheerios on top or a few golden raisins. Even brand-name yogurts are available in large cartons (and multiple flavors) for under three dollars.

Don’t Lose Lunch

Letting lunch slip into the fast-food frenzy is easy; but when eating out, think dollar menus, not super-sized items. Yogurt, salads, wraps, burgers and more are available for only a dollar on fast food chain menus. Pair your choice with a mate from the same section and skip that large soft drink option.

Fixing your own lunch can save you even more change then downsizing your fast food order. Peanut butter and jelly is a classic choice and can be affordable without resorting to the industrial-sized grape jelly jar of your childhood. Or buy lunch meat in bulk when it’s on sale–freezing a few extra packages means your cajun turkey and roast beef will last longer than the usual week in the refrigerator.

Dinner

Pasta is versatile, easy to prepare, and cheap to buy. With a jar of spicy marinara sauce, a loaf of plain bread, and a little butter and garlic, you can serve up spaghetti and garlic toast for five dollars or less. Prepackaged Alfredo sauces are also cheap; purchase some inexpensive fresh mushrooms and tomato and prepare a mouth-watering sauce and saute instead of red sauce.

Invest in a bag of wheat flour (you can freeze the extra) and make simple, healthy pita pockets. Stuff them with simple tuna fish, sliced lunch meat, or a little cheese and cheap pepperoni for a quick and tasty meal that only costs a few dollars to fix.

Nixing name brands and embracing bulk purchases, freezing, and preparation time is only part of the battle. But feeding yourself or your family for only a few dollars a day is achievable with a little practice and forethought, as well as a little mealtime creativity.