Running short of money but your paycheck is still days away? And now you are looking for ideas on cheap food to buy when broke?
Don’t worry, I wrote this list with you in mind.
We’ve all experienced running short of cash. Maybe you had unexpected expenses and now you are left with a $30 food budget to get by until the next money comes in.
Perhaps, you are not really broke, but you got inspired to save by stories such as this one, and you want to do the same.
You figured reducing your food expenses one week per month could help you save a good $200 a month and help boost your savings.
No worries! If money is tight right now or you just want to reduce your grocery bills, create delicious but dirt-cheap meals around some of these inexpensive ingredients. These are also my go-to foods for when I want to cut back on our spending but still want to make healthy food that my family enjoys.
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23 Healthy Cheap Foods to Buy When Broke
Table of Contents
1. Lentils
Apart from being cheap, lentils can make filling and nutritious meals for your family. You can make soups and chilis out of lentils, and they are also excellent substitutes for meat.
Price: These organic lentils cost $2.99 per pack/ $0.19 per oz
Recipes: Curried Lentils (this recipe only costs $0.87 per serving!)
2. Oats
Whether you prefer steel cut, instant, or rolled, oats are undeniably one of the most inexpensive yet healthy ingredients every household should have (broke or not!) You can have oats for breakfast along with fruits in season or make your own oat bars. The best thing is that oats are rich in vitamins and fiber and help to manage sugar and cholesterol levels.
Price: These organic oats cost $5.29 per box or $0.13 per oz.
Recipes: Classic Overnight Oats Recipes – Basic oatmeal with just milk and a few pieces of fruit should only cost $0.50 or less.
3. Frozen vegetables
If you don’t have the time and/or money to buy fresh vegetables, opt for frozen ones. They can be just as nutritious as their fresh counterparts, but they’ll last longer in your fridge. Frozen vegetables are also just as flexible ; you can use them in soups, stir-fry, pies, and other dishes.
Price: Great Value steamable mixed veggies only costs $0.07 per oz at Walmart.
Recipes: This Garlic Butter Mixed Vegetables with Parmesan Cheese costs $0.50 or less per serving
4. Potatoes
Potatoes have a long shelf life compared to other vegetables and crops, so you can purchase them in bulk to save more money. Potatoes are easy to cook and flexible to use: you can fry, mash, bake, or use them in various recipes.
I usually just cook them in a pan with garlic, onion, and olive oil; add salt and pepper to taste and garnish with herbs from my garden.
5. Canned Tuna
When you need to get your dose of protein but can’t spend on meat, there’s canned tuna to the rescue. You can eat tuna straight from the can or use it in salads, pasta, casseroles, and more!
Price: 5 oz canned tuna costs around $0.99 at Walmart.
Recipes: Breadless Tuna Melt in a Tomato, Easy Canned Tuna Pasta
6. Ground meat
Ground meat is one of the cheapest ways to eat your protein! Whether you want ground beef, pork, or chicken, having a stash of ground meat in your lean days allows you to make filling yet nutritious meals in a jiffy. You can easily turn ground meat into burger patties or meatballs, or stir fry with vegetables you have at hand.
Price: Around $4 per lb
Recipes: I usually just saute a whole pound of ground beef with olive oil, garlic, and soy sauce; and add it to our salads, stir-fried veggies, rice, or pasta! If you are looking for ideas, check out What To Do with a Pound of Ground Beef.
7. Dried Beans
Dried beans also make excellent meat substitutes, but cost only a fraction of the price. Plus, dried beans have a long life shelf, so you can store them and use them when needed. Filled with a variety of vitamins, phosphorus, and folic acid, dried beans are easily some of the cheapest yet healthiest ingredients you can keep in your pantry.
Price: varies per type. Great Value dried black beans, for example, are only $0.09 per oz at Walmart.
Recipes: Black Bean Recipe
8. Eggs
Eggs aren’t just cheap; they’re also an excellent source of protein.
They’re also very versatile because they can be made in many ways and feed you throughout the day. You can make scrambled eggs for breakfast, hard-boil them for a salad, and even turn them into muffins for mid-day meals.
Price: $0.23 each / $2.67 per dozen at Walmart.
9. Apples
One of the best ways to get your dose of fruit without splurging is to have a handy stock of apples.
Apples have a longer lifespan than other fruits, so you can purchase a bagand they’d still be good for the next several days or a couple of weeks. You can eat apples as they are, use them in smoothies, turn them into apple sauce, and so much more.
10. Pasta
Pasta is definitely healthier than ramen, especially if you prefer the whole wheat kind. Although you don’t want to be eating pasta every day, it’s a very filling cheap food to buy when you’re broke.
It usually costs a little over a dollar per box and it’s easy to throw into a meal. Simply add in some canned sauce or chop up some vegetables, sliced chicken, and light oil and you have a hearty, filling lunch or dinner.
Price: This whole grain pasta only costs $0.10 per oz.
Recipes:
11. Brown Rice
Brown rice is another great source of carbohydrates that can fill you up but with added benefits. Brown rice is more satisfying than white rice, aids in digestion, it’s great for the nervous system, and helps in managing cholesterol levels. The best part is brown rice is cheap and easy to find. You can use simple brown rice as your main source of carbs, stir-fry it with veggies, or use it in a burrito.
12. Tofu
Can’t squeeze meat into your budget? Tofu makes an excellent substitute! Tofu is a good source of protein, as well as other vitamins and minerals like calcium and iron. It’s also known to bring down bad cholesterol. There are a variety of ways to cook tofu, such as scrambled tofu, in tacos in place of ground meat, filling frittatas with it, or adding it to quiches and salads.
13. Pumpkin
Pumpkins are easy to grow so there’s always a good supply of cheap pumpkins all year round.
This is a staple in our house because pumpkin is cheap and we love to make a pumpkin soup such as this one which is so filling, delicious, and nutritious, yet only costs about $0.60 per serving!
14. Peanut butter
Peanut butter is definitely on my list of cheap food to buy when broke. Peanut butter has a long shelf life, so they’re perfect to stock up in your pantry when they go on sale. Also, peanut butter is not just cheap but offers numerous health benefits, such as regulating your blood sugar levels, weight loss, and building muscles.
So the next time you go grocery shopping, don’t forget to buy peanut butter. Apart from sandwiches, you can also add peanut butter to cakes, smoothies, and even savory meals. Certainly, one of the best cheap foods to buy if you want to save money.
Price: This peanut butter at Walmart costs only $4.94 for a 64-oz jar.
Recipes: Easy Peanut Butter Chicken
14. Sweet potatoes
Sweet potatoes are also some of the cheapest foods to buy when you’re on a tight budget. You can save money with sweet potatoes because these root crops are extremely versatile.
You can turn them into sweet potato fries, mash, bake and boil them. You could also use sweet potatoes in your cheap meal ideas, such as by adding them to your chicken stew. These root crops are so cheap, that they deserve a spot on your grocery list.
Price: Sweet potatoes are indeed one of the best cheap foods to buy when you have limited cash. A 3-lb bag on Walmart only costs $3.97.
Recipes: Chicken and sweet potato stew
15. Ramen noodles
Ramen noodles always come to mind if you’re looking for the cheapest foods to buy when you’re broke. Ramen is some of the cheapest food you can buy when you have a tight grocery budget as they have a long shelf life, and you can even buy in bulk.
Sure, ramen noodles aren’t exactly the healthiest, so you should not overeat them no matter how cheap they are. But, they could at least tide you over while you’re waiting for your next paycheck. Also, you can add some nutritional value to your ramen with upgrades like these and come up with these incredible cheap meal ideas.
Price: This 12-pack ramen noodle is just $4.44.
16. Tomato sauce
Tomato sauce is one of the most flexible pantry staples because there are so many cheap meal ideas you can make, easily making it one of the top cheap foods to buy to save money. If you’re looking for cheap healthy foods, you could easily make soups with tomato sauce and some frozen vegetables.
Obviously, you need tomato sauce for spaghetti and other pasta dishes, but you can also use it in homemade pizza, casseroles, and stews — really, the healthy meal ideas are endless. If you want a less expensive alternative, you could opt for canned tomatoes instead, which you could buy cheap at your favorite grocery store.
Price: This 5-oz can of tomato sauce is only $0.44.
17. Canned fruit
Fresh fruit is not exactly the cheapest food to buy when you’re broke, and it would be a waste if you cannot consume them before they go bad. A good way to save money is to choose canned fruit, which you could buy with a small grocery budget.
You can use canned fruit for a wide variety of cheap meal ideas and desserts, such as fruit cocktails served over toast, salads, and drinks. So if you’re working with a tight food budget, it’s good to purchase a few of these canned fruits.
Price: This 15-0z can of fruit cocktail is only $1.
18. Frozen berries
Fresh berries are great for smoothies and cereals, but they can get expensive, too, especially during the wintertime. It’s good to know that buying frozen berries is one of the best ways to save money.
Frozen berries are not just cheap foods to buy when on a tight budget, but they also last longer than fresh ones. The nutritional value of fresh and frozen berries is practically the same, so they’re great to put on your grocery list.
Price: This frozen berry medley is only $3.48 for a 16-oz pack.
19. Frozen pizza
When you want to enjoy pizza, but you’re short on cash, then you should consider getting frozen pizza, which also happens to be one of the best cheap foods your money can buy. Frozen pizza is just almost as good as fresh pizza, allowing you to save money on groceries.
All you have to do is heat the pizza in an oven, and you’ve got a piping hot, filling meal in minutes. Frozen pizzas abound in most grocery stores, so consider buying them when you’re on a tight budget and want to save money.
Price: This frozen family-sized pizza is only $4.98.
20. Whole chicken
If you want to stretch your food budget further and still get your daily source of protein, then consider buying whole chicken instead of boneless chicken parts.
A whole chicken is one of the cheap food to buy as it only costs around $1.28 per pound. There are plenty of cheap meal ideas you can make with a whole chicken. You can roast or bake it, even cook it in your crockpot to save time and money.
To save money on groceries, you could also pair whole chicken with carbs like brown rice and your daily dose of vitamin C from frozen vegetables and fruits.
21. Chicken thighs
Apart from a whole chicken, you’d also want to get chicken things, which also made it on my list of cheap foods to buy when you’re broke.
Bone in chicken thighs is some of the cheapest parts of a chicken. If you need to buy on a budget and still eat healthy meals, chicken thighs are always good options. They’re a great source of protein, there are plenty of cheap meals you can make with them.
Price: These bone-in chicken thighs cost around $1.74 per pound.
Recipe: Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs
22. Saltine crackers
Saltine crackers or soda crackers are so cheap they won’t make much of an impact on your grocery bill. They’re literally one of the cheapest foods you can buy on a budget, and they’re accessible in any grocery store.
You can eat saltine crackers as they are, or you can level them up by pairing them with your favorite canned tuna, spread some peanut butter on top, or eat with some cottage cheese. These crackers may be cheap food, but you can play around with them to make amazing meal ideas come to life.
Price: A pack of these original Premium Saltine Crackers is less than $7.
23. Sausages
If you think ground beef or ground turkey is out of your budget, consider buying sausages instead if you want to save money on groceries. You could use ground sausages instead of expensive ground meat, and your grocery bill should thank you later.
Sausages are not just some of the best cheap foods, but they’re also very flexible. You could use them in soups and pasta, casseroles and stews, or just cook them as is for breakfast. Indeed, sausages are money-saving food staples to buy on a budget.
Price: This pack of breakfast sausages costs only $1.94.
24. Hot dogs
I know hot dogs aren’t the healthiest, but when you’re on a hunt for cheap groceries, then you’ll see that hot dogs make sense when buying cheap foods.
It’s good to have some hot dogs handy because they freeze well and they’re quick to cook. Apart from your typical breakfast, there are plenty of meal ideas that use hot dogs. You could add them to fried brown rice for an easy chow fan, top them over homemade pizza, or turn them into sandwiches or Korean-inspired corn dogs.
Price: This pack of uncured hot dogs costs around $2.48 per pound.
25. Yogurt
Yogurt is one of the healthy and cheap foods you can buy when you’re broke. Yogurt is high in fiber, probiotics, calcium, and zinc, so it boosts your overall immune system and helps prevents a wide array of diseases.
Apart from being one of the healthy foods that you can buy cheap at grocery stores, you can also enjoy yogurt in a variety of ways. You can use yogurt in a parfait, as an alternative for sour cream, and as a topping and dressing. You can work around with yogurt in plenty of meal ideas, so you should really consider adding yogurt to your list of cheap foods to buy.
Price: This can of 32-oz Greek Vanilla Yogurt costs $3.98.
26. Cottage cheese
If you’re into saving money at a discount grocery, then you should be looking at cottage cheese, easily one of the most flexible yet cheapest foods you could buy.
Why is cottage cheese one of the best cheap foods to buy? Easy. You can eat it straight from the packaging or use it in a wide array of cheap meals. You can add cottage cheese to your breakfast bowl and some fresh fruit, spread it over avocado toast, and even use it in your pancakes. Seriously, you should put cottage cheese on your grocery list to make tasty yet inexpensive meals.
Price: This low-fat 24-oz cottage cheese costs $2.58.
27. Chuck roast
If you’re into meaty meal ideas, but can only afford some of the cheapest foods, then chuck roast is always a good option.
You don’t need much of this meat to feel full, especially when you eat it alongside some carbs like potatoes or brown rice. Also, you can whip up plenty of cheap meals with it, essentially helping you save money on your grocery budget.
Price: Beef chuck roast costs around $6 per pound.
Recipes: Pot Roast
28. Bananas
Bananas are some of the cheap foods to buy in the grocery store. They contain a lot of vitamin c and potassium. Bananas are so handy you can eat them any time of the day. But if you want to level up, you could use bananas in smoothies, top them over cereals or pancakes, or even turn ripe bananas into banana bread. I don’t recommend buying in bulk when you go grocery shopping unless you have a huge family or if you plan to freeze them.
Ready to buy healthy but cheap food when broke?
When you find yourself in the last few stretches of your cash, you should learn how to save on groceries and still come up with delicious nutritious meals without sacrificing quality.
Meal budgeting is an important life skill we all need to learn, whether you are on a tight budget with little money or not. Stocking up on these healthy, cheap, and filling ingredients should help you get through the tight days.
I would love to hear from you! How do you save money on food?