Budget Cooking Without Feeling Broke

Cooking on a budget doesn’t mean buying a bunch of cheap processed stuff. As I said earlier, I buy a lot of produce. Whole fruits, nuts, and vegetables may cost more, but depending on what is purchased, several meals can come from a single purchase. Think of shopping and cooking as cost per serving versus cost per cost, or whatever the term the cool kids are using for how much we spend on groceries.

Just because some of the ingredients I cook with aren’t expensive, the final dish won’t feel cheap. Beans and rice, roasted vegetables, soups, eggs, and stews have always been part of how I eat. Not because they’re trendy. Because they work. If you enjoy what you cook, you will enjoy eating it, and in turn you will purchase it again.

Stretching food is mostly about repetition and timing: cooking once and eating twice, using leftovers in a different way the next day. This is the backbone of the “450 Test Kitchen” way of thinking—doing more than just using the reheat function on the microwave. Buying what’s in season. Not wasting food you already paid for.

Some weeks are tighter than others. That’s just life. But I’ve learned that good food doesn’t come from spending more. It comes from paying attention.

Budget cooking isn’t always about sacrifice. It’s about intention. I can remember some lean times growing up, as well as recently, when luxury eating was Hamburger Helper made the classic way, with no sides or “bowl of.” As long as it was a starch and a protein, it was what was for dinner.

Budget cooking is where innovation lives. Depending on what is created during those “dark times,” it stays on the menu once things improve. I don’t claim to have been the creator of this type of sandwich, just creative with it. One of the greatest creations for us is what we call to this day the “welfare sandwich.” To others its just another breakfast sandwich, but to us its warm and fuzzy memories.

Welfare Sandwich Ingredient List:

1 loaf of sandwich bread
1 lb of breakfast sausage
1 dozen eggs
1 package of cheese

Budget for everything: $5. Thirty-plus years ago, it was possible to feed three people on such a small budget, with leftovers for another meal. Of course, water was what we drank. The meal in the photo was partially repurposed from the meal from the day before. Today, the welfare sandwich has gone uptown with more expensive ingredients, but sometimes we just go simple and spend less overall.

In the end, we still have the goal to keep things simple, cheap, and delicious.