Extremely Low Cost Meals for Lean Times

Last week I talked about what you should try to have on hand, or try to buy, to eat real food on a very (VERY!) limited budget.  Today, I’ve got a couple of hundred ideas of what to do with very inexpensive ingredients.

• Meals for Hard Times — from Menus 4 Moms: Although there are some things I don’t agree with (the Ramen noodles, for one, and drinking anything other than water when you’re that cash-strapped for another), there is some excellent information in this article. It shows, step-by-step, how to cook a week’s worth of meals for a family of six on a very small budget (about $30 a week). Use it as a starting point if you’re in a really tough situation.
• Document from the Department of Health and Human Services about the least expensive fruits and vegetables by region.
• The 20 healthiest foods for less than $1 — from Divine Caroline
• Cheapest Emergency Survival Foods/Storage Plan — by Simply Gail: the Creative Cheapskate
• 63 Budget-friendly meals, meal stretchers, and desserts — from Eat At Home Cooks
• 65 Cheap, Healthy, One-Dish Meals with Good Leftover Potential — from Cheap, Healthy, Good
• Budget Bytes — Lots of great recipes that are broken down by cost per recipe and cost per serving.

When you have to try to figure out how to survive on an extremely limited budget, it’s worth it to try to figure out how to serve some of your favorite comfort foods.  For example, if your family is used to eating pizza every Friday, it might be worth it for morale to make pizza dough and pizza sauce from scratch and splurge on some cheese to keep up your family tradition.

What other tips or resources do you have for eating real food on an extremely limited budget?