Coupon Budget Meals

Actually, you can plan some meals by using store coupons. I have made a list of different meals that my husband and I enjoy and when I find some of the ingredients on sale, I will match them up with coupons I have. This serves as duel purpose- I save money on the biggest part of the meal and I create the meal even cheaper (saving even more money).

For a very long time now, one of the things I love to do is plan meals that are healthy, filling and cheap. I love to challenge myself to see how much I can save per person with each meal that I cook.

Having to choose my foods carefully I am still able to put things together that do not interfere with my High Blood Pressure, yet they are tasty enough that even my husband enjoys them.

Here are few of my own ideas, I hope you will find something useful. Please be sure to leave a comment or link for a page of budget meals that you may have written.

I have to admit that is one of my favorite meals also especially served with a salad. Let me begin by saying: many times your local grocery store will have manager specials in the produce section. I have personally purchased a tub of cut up salad mixture for less than $2.00. Using this mixture as a salad will give you a couple different meal side dishes.

When I grocery shop and find Boneless, Skinless Chicken on sale, I ended up buying several packs and bulk cook them in a large crock-pot. I wrote an article about it at: Chicken Recipes I will freeze individual containers with enough chicken for one full meal.

Often my grocery store will have pillsbury can biscuits on sale for 4/$5.00 I try to keep a stock of Grand Biscuits (jr.) which have five to a pack. If I purchase two at the sale price that is $2.50 with my coupon $0.50 off doubled at my grocery store (saving $1.00) I got 2 cans of biscuits for $1.50 (enough for two meals).

Since my husband loves Italian Sausage, I will purchase it when I have a coupon-I usually get the pack that has five links in it and will divide the pack into two separate meals-each having 2 1/2 links in each package. A pack of sausage will cost $4.99 and my coupon is for $0.75 off that makes my total $4.24. Divide that by two and the cost is: $2.12 for each package. What made this deal especially great was at one time SavingStar had the ecoupon that I could activate and I saved an additional $1.00 on the product that was paid to my PayPal account.

Last week, I had a couple of Muir Glen Tomato sauce coupons and Muir Glen was on sale for 5/$5.00. I had two coupons for $0.60 off. So I purchased two cans and ended up paying $0.40 cents a can for the sauce.

I purchased an onion for $0.89 and the shredded cheese (store brand) was on sale for 3/$2.00 so I purchased 2 bags for $1.34 (and used a half bag for 5 mini pizzas)

So let's see how this formula worked out:

$0.75 for a can of Grand Biscuit Jrs.

$2.12 for Italian Sausage

$0.20 for Muir Glen Sauce (I only used 1/2 can and froze the rest)

$0.44 Onion (I only used 1/2 and saved the rest)

$0.34 Shredded Cheese (I only used 1/2 bag per meal)

$1.00 for a Chicken Breast that I cooked and froze before hand

That totals out to be $4.85 (for my husband and I, he will eat 1 1/2 pizzas and I will eat one along with a salad) So for two meals I spent $2.43 which averages out to be $1.22 per person.

Ingredients:

1-can of Grand Biscuits (either Jr. or regular)

2 1/2 Italian Sausage links (spread out on three of the mini pizza's, I know that is a lot of meat on one pizza but my husband enjoys it)

1 Chicken Breast (optional-because the sausage has too much sodium for me so I use chicken)

1/2 of onion

1/2 can or less tomato sauce

1/2 bag of Shredded Cheese

Flatten out each biscuit and add a little olive oil ontop and spread it around-sprinkle with fresh ground pepper.

Saute 1/2 onion in a little butter and olive oil and add the sausage, I remove the casing so it looks like hamburger once it is cooked. Drain on paper towel to absorb the extra grease.

Add a tablespoon or two of sauce on each flattened biscuits and sprinkle with spices of your choice. Add the cooked meat. I personally am never without fresh parsley so I chop some of that up and sprinkle it over the meat (s). Top with the shredded cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with a side salad and you have one good meal that was not expensive. This is not the only meal I make on a budget, I try to do it often especially with my coupons. I cook this other dish that cost very little money. I cook egg noodles and add butter and parma cheese, add cooked broccoli and a package of the frozen I have and serve with rolls. I stock up on the egg noodles when I have coupons, they are on sale and SavingStar have them on the site to activate. I believe I end up spending about $0.10 per pack of No-Yoke egg noodles.