Meal planning on a tight budget

[fungirl2727]

Thanks for all the great advice! I love, love, love pasta so I will be eating that 2-3 times a week for sure. I'm not trying to be vegetarian, but meat is so expensive that I will not be eating much of it. My mom bought me a bag of boneless/skinless chicken breasts when I moved in so I will be using that for a while. Other than that, ground beef/chicken can go a long way!

I wish I could do more cooking ahead, but my fridge is not full sized so I don't have a lot of extra room, especially in the freezer. Grapes are on sale for .99/lb next week so I will buy extra, they don't take up much space.

About getting a roommate - I wish that was an option, but I am in an apartment and already signed a 12 month lease. It's just a studio, so no room for a roommate even if it was allowed.

The montly allowance I gave myself for food didn't seem too bad until I realized that I had 3 meals a day to plan for - not just dinner. I will take lunch with me to eat in between

classes, because campus food is ridiculously expensive!

To the person who said their DH graduated with only 20K in debt... I am extremely jealous. I've already got double that, and will likely be here more than 4 years.

Yea I understand on the debt part of student loans! My daughter dad went there and was in the jewish frat and has about 80k in student loans. He never did find a job in his field and pays about 800 month in student loans. The only reason my hubby had school so cheap is he was in navy and got sone grants and 1200 gi bill every month and we pay 200 a month for his student loans. Ohio state is my favorite college of all times. Go bucks. I use to go all the frat parties there when I. Was younger.

[fungirl2727]

Have you ever tried to babysit or tutor any kids? I have a tutor for my 3 yr old that I pay 10 bucks for 45 min of her time with him a wk. He goes to preschool but needs 1/1 attention with some one other then me.

[a_tyson8]

Yes, I am registered on Care.com but I have not gotten any responses yet. I don't know anyone in the area, and most people don't want to leave their kids with complete strangers. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a family or two that needs a sitter occasionally, and then hopefully they will have friends that need sitters, etc.

[fungirl2727]

Yes, I am registered on Care.com but I have not gotten any responses yet. I don't know anyone in the area, and most people don't want to leave their kids with complete strangers. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a family or two that needs a sitter occasionally, and then hopefully they will have friends that need sitters, etc.

Have you ever try putting a ad on craiglist? Have you tried asking anyone on craiglist on the lesson section if they need a tutor for child. I meet my tutor at the book store and she sits at desk and works with my son. I will walk around bookstore and read magazine well she works with my child. That is where my friend found are tutor. So this lady makes 80 under table with the both of our kids getting tutor from her or 100 a month. Just depends how many wks in the month. It helps our kids and she has a little bit xtra money.

[cintinative]

Keep pursuing the babysitting option. You may need a car, but it would be a good position for you long term, as the pay is often good. If you have references from your home town that should be sufficient. If not, maybe you should consider working at a restaurant within walking distance or on-campus at the food court. If they allow a certain amount of food free for hours worked, it may be worthwhile for you. I worked in the catering portion of my campus' food service and we were allowed a free meal every night/day we worked.

[Gertie2u]

Breasts are usually the most expensive chicken. I've found choosing leg quarters or thighs can be just as good in most recipes if not better because dark meat tends to not dry out the way breasts can. If you watch, you can get a big bag of leg quarters on sale really cheap and easily eat for a week off of it. Here is what I do.

I pick up 3 10lb bags when they have them on sale around $6 a bag, along with a head of celery, a bag of carrots, a couple of onions, a bag of noodles, a 1 lb package of spaghetti, a bell pepper, a can each of Italian stewed tomatoes, cheddar cheese soup, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, cream of celery soup, and a garlic bulb. Soak the chicken from bag one in a sink full of salt brine. The cheapest and easiest way to make a salt brine for chicken is to take a carton of rock salt, put a cup in the sink and fill it 2/3 with cold water. Put the chicken in, then some ice. If your sink is small, you may have to get a large plastic bucket which you use only for food purposes. Check your dollar store as they often have something large enough. If necessary, you can do half the bag of chicken at a time, keeping the other half in the fridge. The salt brine process will help make the chicken taste better and it helps clean it. Let it sit in the cold brine for an hour or so. The salt in the brine won't allow bacteria to grow, so it will be safe. After the chicken has sat in the brine, drain it well, rinsing lightly.

Divide the chicken into zippy freezer bags 2 to 3 leg quarters per bag. Get all the air out and freeze. You can choose to put a bit of marinade in a bag and slosh it around so the chicken is coated first before getting the air out and freezing. I pull these out and roast them in the oven for a variety of meals. You can change the flavor by using different herbs and spices.

For example, roast one package dry rubbed with chili powder, cumin, garlic and onion powder for around 25 minutes in a 400 degree oven with each quarter resting on a couple of onion slices. While it roasts, cook a cup of rice on the stove or in a rice cooker with one bay leaf. After 25 minutes, pull the chicken out of the pan. Dump in the rice, withholding the bay leaf. At only 20 minutes, the rice will probably not be fully cooked, but this is fine as you'll be cooking it further in the oven. Somewhat drain a can of Rotel tomatoes. You don't want it dry, but you want to hold some of the liquid aside in a cup. Mix the tomatoes, rice, chicken pan juices and roasted onion, plus a pinch of cumin and chili powder up a bit and see if it seems dry. You can add back some of the liquid from the Rotel tomatoes as long as you don't mind spicy, or you can add a couple of tablespoons of water. Now put your chicken leg quarters back on top. Cover with foil and cook 30 - 45 minutes for a Mexican chicken and rice dinner. I usually turn the oven down to 350 when I have put the chicken and rice back in.

The next night, I might roast a new pack of chicken leg quarters 25 minutes in a 400 degree oven with rosemary, sage, and thyme. After 25 minutes, I would add a bag of stuffing mix and enough water in addition to the pan juices to make the stuffing mix damp but not wet. If I have them available, I would add onion and celery, maybe even an apple or pear to the stuffing for flavor and bite. Chopped carrot is also tasty in stuffing.

Back to your original bags of chicken leg quarters:
For bag number two, I go through the brine process. Place 1/3 of the chicken in a large freezer zippy bag and pour a bottle of mesquite bbq marinade in. Slosh it around so the marinade is spread over all the pieces, get as much air out as you can, and freeze. Place the second and third 1/3 of the chicken each in a large freezer zippy bag. In bag #2 (second third of the leg quarters), add a garlic herb marinade. In bag number three (third 1/3 of the bag of leg quarters), I usually add an Asian ginger sesame. Just pick three different marinades you like. You'll be grilling these if you have a grill. If not, cook them under the broiler on each side about 4 minutes. Change the oven over to bake at 350 degrees and bake another 20-30 minutes until the meat is done. A thermometer is the easiest way to tell, or cut with a knife down to the bone. Juices should run clear and there should be no bloody quality near the bone.

Once all of bags from bag number 2 of the leg quarters are in the freezer, brine the last bag of leg quarters.

Take out your biggest pot. You want to put enough chicken leg quarters in such that it is full but not stuffed. You need some room for the water! Wash all the vegetables, and then clean them. Discard only whatever looks spoiled, all dried up, or won't wash up. This means you should end up with a bunch of celery ends, the celery heart, some carrot peels and tips, and maybe the inner peels of the onions. If necessary, a few slices of one of the onions can be used instead for the onion. Add those to your pot and cover all with water. One fourth of a teaspoon of salt and some rosemary, a garlic clove, and some pepper would be a good addition here. Remember you will be seasoning to taste when you use the broth, and the liquid will be cooking down somewhat as the pot simmers, so hold back on the salt a bit now. Bring the pot of chicken to a boil and boil 10 minutes. Reduce heat to simmer (which means that it is not rolling at a boil, but rather simply bursting a bubble every now and then on the surface, usually around a 2-3 on your stove dial) , cover, and cook a further 30 minutes approximately. Remember to stir occasionally. Time depends on size of chicken, how much water, and other variables, so it can be hard to give an exact time. You want the chicken to be starting to pull away from the bone. If you take a long fork or pair of tongs to a piece of the chicken, the meat should come off the bone easily. Now for the difficult part. Remove the chicken pieces to something like a large cake pan. You'll want it to have sides as liquid may drain out of them you'll want to keep. Remove all the pieces of carrot peel, etc. I place a container at least as large as my pan under a colander in your kitchen sink and just pour the stock through into the big bowl. Return the stock to the pot, return to the stove, and bring it to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente. Remove the spaghetti to a large bowl containing the four soups and the Italian stewed tomatoes. If the tomatoes are not crushed, you can mash them up with a potato masher or crush them in very clean hands if you don't have one. Mix up the soups, tomatoes, and spaghetti. Grease a couple casserole dishes.

By this time the chicken should be cool enough to work with. Remove the good chicken meat to a bowl and throw the skin and bones in the trash as you've made stock from them already and gotten their goodness in the pot. Take some of the chicken and place it in the casserole dishes with the spaghetti and soup mixture for chicken spaghetti. My pot is a large stock pot, so I can use about 1/3 of the chicken for some pretty meaty chicken spaghetti, but if you just have the pot that typically comes with a set of pots and pans, you will probably want half in the chicken spaghetti. Cover the chicken spaghetti tightly with foil and it is ready for freezer or refrigerator. I usually freeze it. You can pull it out of the freezer, place into the oven and turn it on. When the casserole is hot and bubbly - around 45 minutes for a 10x10 casserole - sprinkle with some Parmesan, maybe some herbed bread crumbs. Put it back in long enough to get the top browned and melty and serve with some garlic toast.

While the chicken was simmering, I would have chopped all the vegetables - the carrots, celery, bell pepper, onions, and several garlic cloves - and now would be the time they're needed. I'd add most of them to the boiling stock on the stove, along with plenty of chicken. After five minutes, turn the pot to a simmer. Simmer 15 minutes and add the noodles. Turn the heat up to medium (high simmer) and cook until the noodles are done. You've got chicken soup! Add salt, pepper, and herbs like rosemary, sage, and thyme to taste. I usually put a little of the finer-chopped onion and bell pepper into the chicken spaghetti, but you don't have to.

Remember, you've also got the rest of the chicken from the last bag. I usually bag this up in a large bag and refrigerate. Any leftover chicken soup gets frozen in plastic containers to take for lunches, and I use the rest of the chicken thighs from the refrigerated bag through the coming week. There are just so many yummy things you can do with chicken leg quarters. You can throw several in the crock pot with BBQ sauce in the morning and come home to bbq chicken. Any leftover BBQ chicken can be allowed to cool and removed from the bone. You can shred it up and freeze it for future use. Great for BBQ chicken sandwiches, or use it to make stuffed bell peppers with some leftover rice. If you cut the stem end off jalapenos, remove the seeds, and stuff them with the chicken and a little chopped cheese, you can batter them and deep fry them for a great snack. We call them "Armadillo eggs".

On the next day, fill the crock pot with a fresh batch leg quarters from the refrigerated bag and an Asian ginger sesame marinade, or maybe a garlic and herb marinade instead. You can serve the Asian version with steamed vegetables and rice, and the garlic and herbed version with mashed potatoes and salad perhaps. Be sure to cook up whatever remains in the refrigerated bag at the latest on the sell by date from the original bag. I sometimes make a second pot of chicken stock, sometimes roast them in the oven and either way finish up by getting all the chicken off the bone and in a zippy bag in the fridge.

One of our favorite ways to use the cooked chicken is in Thai red curry chicken. Just chop up a medium yellow onion, Julienne a bell pepper or two. Saute the onion until it just starts to caramelize. Add the bell pepper, cook for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Clear a space in the center of your large skillet or wok and add 2-3 tablespoons of red curry paste. Cook stirring it around in the clear space about 30 seconds until fragrant. Toss your veggies around in it for a couple of seconds, and pour in one can of coconut milk. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and simmer 4 - 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add your cooked chicken, simmer a minute or two. Stir in a tablespoon of chopped cilantro, serve immediately over cooked rice. We like it with broccoli florets and snow pea pods cut in half length-wise added with the bell pepper, but if your budget is too short for those, it is tasty without them as well.

If you've used all the ideas we've listed for the chicken leg quarters and still want more, just google chicken recipes. Personally, I just like variety, so I serve it up in a different style each day and my family and I happily eat chicken for days. Three bags of leg quarters for $18 would feed my family of three for the better part of a month easily, so it ought to work out well for you. With the bigger bags, I cook them up all together at once, then debone the leftovers and use the meat in a variety of recipes from casseroles to chicken sandwiches, fancy chicken roll ups, and chicken salads. Even chicken tacos! The smaller bags are great to thaw and cook in the oven or even the crock pot. Even small quantities of leftover meat - say if there is just a leg leftover untouched - is removed from the bone and saved. You can put it on a sheet of waxed paper on a tray in the freezer spread out and have a bag of cooked chicken in the freezer you can pull whatever quantity you wish out of. My daughter likes to grab a handful to heat in a skillet until thawed while she prepares a grilled cheese for the skillet. She ends up with a grilled cheese with chicken sandwich that is pretty tasty.

[qshoppinggirl]

great ideas!

[VivaciousJewelz]

Wow, those are awesome ideas!

[a_tyson8]

Breasts are usually the most expensive chicken. I've found choosing leg quarters or thighs can be just as good in most recipes if not better because dark meat tends to not dry out the way breasts can. If you watch, you can get a big bag of leg quarters on sale really cheap and easily eat for a week off of it. Here is what I do.

I pick up 3 10lb bags when they have them on sale around $6 a bag, along with a head of celery, a bag of carrots, a couple of onions, a bag of noodles, a 1 lb package of spaghetti, a bell pepper, a can each of Italian stewed tomatoes, cheddar cheese soup, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, cream of celery soup, and a garlic bulb. Soak the chicken from bag one in a sink full of salt brine. The cheapest and easiest way to make a salt brine for chicken is to take a carton of rock salt, put a cup in the sink and fill it 2/3 with cold water. Put the chicken in, then some ice. If your sink is small, you may have to get a large plastic bucket which you use only for food purposes. Check your dollar store as they often have something large enough. If necessary, you can do half the bag of chicken at a time, keeping the other half in the fridge. The salt brine process will help make the chicken taste better and it helps clean it. Let it sit in the cold brine for an hour or so. The salt in the brine won't allow bacteria to grow, so it will be safe. After the chicken has sat in the brine, drain it well, rinsing lightly.

Divide the chicken into zippy freezer bags 2 to 3 leg quarters per bag. Get all the air out and freeze. You can choose to put a bit of marinade in a bag and slosh it around so the chicken is coated first before getting the air out and freezing. I pull these out and roast them in the oven for a variety of meals. You can change the flavor by using different herbs and spices.

For example, roast one package dry rubbed with chili powder, cumin, garlic and onion powder for around 25 minutes in a 400 degree oven with each quarter resting on a couple of onion slices. While it roasts, cook a cup of rice on the stove or in a rice cooker with one bay leaf. After 25 minutes, pull the chicken out of the pan. Dump in the rice, withholding the bay leaf. At only 20 minutes, the rice will probably not be fully cooked, but this is fine as you'll be cooking it further in the oven. Somewhat drain a can of Rotel tomatoes. You don't want it dry, but you want to hold some of the liquid aside in a cup. Mix the tomatoes, rice, chicken pan juices and roasted onion, plus a pinch of cumin and chili powder up a bit and see if it seems dry. You can add back some of the liquid from the Rotel tomatoes as long as you don't mind spicy, or you can add a couple of tablespoons of water. Now put your chicken leg quarters back on top. Cover with foil and cook 30 - 45 minutes for a Mexican chicken and rice dinner. I usually turn the oven down to 350 when I have put the chicken and rice back in.

The next night, I might roast a new pack of chicken leg quarters 25 minutes in a 400 degree oven with rosemary, sage, and thyme. After 25 minutes, I would add a bag of stuffing mix and enough water in addition to the pan juices to make the stuffing mix damp but not wet. If I have them available, I would add onion and celery, maybe even an apple or pear to the stuffing for flavor and bite. Chopped carrot is also tasty in stuffing.

Back to your original bags of chicken leg quarters:
For bag number two, I go through the brine process. Place 1/3 of the chicken in a large freezer zippy bag and pour a bottle of mesquite bbq marinade in. Slosh it around so the marinade is spread over all the pieces, get as much air out as you can, and freeze. Place the second and third 1/3 of the chicken each in a large freezer zippy bag. In bag #2 (second third of the leg quarters), add a garlic herb marinade. In bag number three (third 1/3 of the bag of leg quarters), I usually add an Asian ginger sesame. Just pick three different marinades you like. You'll be grilling these if you have a grill. If not, cook them under the broiler on each side about 4 minutes. Change the oven over to bake at 350 degrees and bake another 20-30 minutes until the meat is done. A thermometer is the easiest way to tell, or cut with a knife down to the bone. Juices should run clear and there should be no bloody quality near the bone.

Once all of bags from bag number 2 of the leg quarters are in the freezer, brine the last bag of leg quarters.

Take out your biggest pot. You want to put enough chicken leg quarters in such that it is full but not stuffed. You need some room for the water! Wash all the vegetables, and then clean them. Discard only whatever looks spoiled, all dried up, or won't wash up. This means you should end up with a bunch of celery ends, the celery heart, some carrot peels and tips, and maybe the inner peels of the onions. If necessary, a few slices of one of the onions can be used instead for the onion. Add those to your pot and cover all with water. One fourth of a teaspoon of salt and some rosemary, a garlic clove, and some pepper would be a good addition here. Remember you will be seasoning to taste when you use the broth, and the liquid will be cooking down somewhat as the pot simmers, so hold back on the salt a bit now. Bring the pot of chicken to a boil and boil 10 minutes. Reduce heat to simmer (which means that it is not rolling at a boil, but rather simply bursting a bubble every now and then on the surface, usually around a 2-3 on your stove dial) , cover, and cook a further 30 minutes approximately. Remember to stir occasionally. Time depends on size of chicken, how much water, and other variables, so it can be hard to give an exact time. You want the chicken to be starting to pull away from the bone. If you take a long fork or pair of tongs to a piece of the chicken, the meat should come off the bone easily. Now for the difficult part. Remove the chicken pieces to something like a large cake pan. You'll want it to have sides as liquid may drain out of them you'll want to keep. Remove all the pieces of carrot peel, etc. I place a container at least as large as my pan under a colander in your kitchen sink and just pour the stock through into the big bowl. Return the stock to the pot, return to the stove, and bring it to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente. Remove the spaghetti to a large bowl containing the four soups and the Italian stewed tomatoes. If the tomatoes are not crushed, you can mash them up with a potato masher or crush them in very clean hands if you don't have one. Mix up the soups, tomatoes, and spaghetti. Grease a couple casserole dishes.

By this time the chicken should be cool enough to work with. Remove the good chicken meat to a bowl and throw the skin and bones in the trash as you've made stock from them already and gotten their goodness in the pot. Take some of the chicken and place it in the casserole dishes with the spaghetti and soup mixture for chicken spaghetti. My pot is a large stock pot, so I can use about 1/3 of the chicken for some pretty meaty chicken spaghetti, but if you just have the pot that typically comes with a set of pots and pans, you will probably want half in the chicken spaghetti. Cover the chicken spaghetti tightly with foil and it is ready for freezer or refrigerator. I usually freeze it. You can pull it out of the freezer, place into the oven and turn it on. When the casserole is hot and bubbly - around 45 minutes for a 10x10 casserole - sprinkle with some Parmesan, maybe some herbed bread crumbs. Put it back in long enough to get the top browned and melty and serve with some garlic toast.

While the chicken was simmering, I would have chopped all the vegetables - the carrots, celery, bell pepper, onions, and several garlic cloves - and now would be the time they're needed. I'd add most of them to the boiling stock on the stove, along with plenty of chicken. After five minutes, turn the pot to a simmer. Simmer 15 minutes and add the noodles. Turn the heat up to medium (high simmer) and cook until the noodles are done. You've got chicken soup! Add salt, pepper, and herbs like rosemary, sage, and thyme to taste. I usually put a little of the finer-chopped onion and bell pepper into the chicken spaghetti, but you don't have to.

Remember, you've also got the rest of the chicken from the last bag. I usually bag this up in a large bag and refrigerate. Any leftover chicken soup gets frozen in plastic containers to take for lunches, and I use the rest of the chicken thighs from the refrigerated bag through the coming week. There are just so many yummy things you can do with chicken leg quarters. You can throw several in the crock pot with BBQ sauce in the morning and come home to bbq chicken. Any leftover BBQ chicken can be allowed to cool and removed from the bone. You can shred it up and freeze it for future use. Great for BBQ chicken sandwiches, or use it to make stuffed bell peppers with some leftover rice. If you cut the stem end off jalapenos, remove the seeds, and stuff them with the chicken and a little chopped cheese, you can batter them and deep fry them for a great snack. We call them "Armadillo eggs".

On the next day, fill the crock pot with a fresh batch leg quarters from the refrigerated bag and an Asian ginger sesame marinade, or maybe a garlic and herb marinade instead. You can serve the Asian version with steamed vegetables and rice, and the garlic and herbed version with mashed potatoes and salad perhaps. Be sure to cook up whatever remains in the refrigerated bag at the latest on the sell by date from the original bag. I sometimes make a second pot of chicken stock, sometimes roast them in the oven and either way finish up by getting all the chicken off the bone and in a zippy bag in the fridge.

One of our favorite ways to use the cooked chicken is in Thai red curry chicken. Just chop up a medium yellow onion, Julienne a bell pepper or two. Saute the onion until it just starts to caramelize. Add the bell pepper, cook for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Clear a space in the center of your large skillet or wok and add 2-3 tablespoons of red curry paste. Cook stirring it around in the clear space about 30 seconds until fragrant. Toss your veggies around in it for a couple of seconds, and pour in one can of coconut milk. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and simmer 4 - 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add your cooked chicken, simmer a minute or two. Stir in a tablespoon of chopped cilantro, serve immediately over cooked rice. We like it with broccoli florets and snow pea pods cut in half length-wise added with the bell pepper, but if your budget is too short for those, it is tasty without them as well.

If you've used all the ideas we've listed for the chicken leg quarters and still want more, just google chicken recipes. Personally, I just like variety, so I serve it up in a different style each day and my family and I happily eat chicken for days. Three bags of leg quarters for $18 would feed my family of three for the better part of a month easily, so it ought to work out well for you. With the bigger bags, I cook them up all together at once, then debone the leftovers and use the meat in a variety of recipes from casseroles to chicken sandwiches, fancy chicken roll ups, and chicken salads. Even chicken tacos! The smaller bags are great to thaw and cook in the oven or even the crock pot. Even small quantities of leftover meat - say if there is just a leg leftover untouched - is removed from the bone and saved. You can put it on a sheet of waxed paper on a tray in the freezer spread out and have a bag of cooked chicken in the freezer you can pull whatever quantity you wish out of. My daughter likes to grab a handful to heat in a skillet until thawed while she prepares a grilled cheese for the skillet. She ends up with a grilled cheese with chicken sandwich that is pretty tasty.

WOW! This is great! Thanks so much, that must have taken forever to type out. I will be printing this out and using it for sure