Family dinners for $1 per person

ok you guys dont know how to read or shop they are not saying go to the store with $4.00 and buy a meal for $4.00 are you guys retarted you can go to wallmart and buy a 10lb bag of chicken quarters for less then $6.00 and a 10lb bag of potatoes for less than $5.00 if you cook 4 pieces of chicken and 4 potatoes and divide how many pieces of chicken is in a bag and potatoes chicken about $.58 a quarter you can make a healthy dinner for 4 for about $4.00 a person but i you guys youd rather go to taco hell.learn to read and shop

None of these are $1 per meal. The recipes may be $1 per portion, but the portions are small and are not an entire meal. Plus where I live, food is much more expensive. I agree with the person who said that some of these articles are out and out lies. The ideas are good, but they shouldn't mislead on the cost.

People, nowhere does this article state "boneless, skinless chicken thighs" You buy thighs, take off the skin, and leave the bone in. An eight pack costs about 2 bucks, Voila.

hell i can feed four for under $4.00 four banquet pot pies and a glass of water each,quick too

OMG, you must be some sort of thickened brains, because healthy, cheap and delicious foods are cooked in my slow cooker all winter.

Although Albertson's is the most ridiculously priced supermarket in my area, I have been able to get meats cheaper than normal. I get Rib eye steak, my favorite, after it has been marked down and instead of paying $8 or $9 for it, I have paid as little as $2.30 for almost a 3/4 lb cut of steak. Bacon scraps to add to some recipies like omlets, etc is less than $2 and can last quite a few meals. They also have 2 for 1 chicken packs~ 6 thighs, already seasoned for about $4 and then goet one free so for $4 I can get enough chicken to many meals. Stew meat to add to my crock pot for stew can cost as little as $3 for a batch that can last at least 4 meals. Its just too bad they charge over $6 for ONE pound of butter, $4 ONE gallon of milk and almost $2 for ONE dozen eggs !

Active time: 30 minutes | Total: 2 1/4 hours
cook dried bean for 2 hours? what do you want hard beans?

I have 8 in my family. Many of our meals are around $5. Beans are often mixed with meat in the main dishes.

There are many sites and blogs that offer recipes and advice. Five Dollar Dinners and The Prudent Homemaker are good places to start. MoneySavingMom is another.

Thanksgiving is coming and turkeys can be the most frugal per pound, of all meats. Buy up and stuff your freezers this year.

Buy half a cow- grow as much food as you can- learn to can and freeze foods. Take, with gratitude, any food offered to you. Offer to pick up fruits for people who have fruit trees and don't eat them.

Thanks to my listening to the Phil Hendrie radio show I discovered a great money saver, the Peenman Enterprises human waste chili maker! You just crap into the device, add your favorite chili spices, turn it on and presto! You have delicious chili! I am literally recycling my own crap, and because I make it, I know it's good for me and my family to eat! It's also goes great with their survival cookbook on how to eat your own children because when the revolution begins food will be very scarce. Just tell them Phil Hendrie sent you!

Boneless skinless breasts are about $2.00/lb if you shop carefully (bulk bags, butcher sales) - no bones and no waste can make it an equal or better deal than bone-in chicken. Boil the breasts for chicken broth/soup base to make them stretch even further. You only need to think creative to eat creative.

I'm confused. Is each of those entrees above supposed to be the whole dinner? Last time I checked one item does not equal an entire dinner. This is not helpful.

Where are you buying food? Who writes your recipes?

If you make the pizza dough yourself, use less cheese, frozen corn and buy whole broccoli (using the stalks for soup, maybe), the calzones will probably squeak by under $1. If you raise herbs on the patio or sill, that helps the price.

Ditch the leeks for the torte. They can be replaced by shredding an onion or two (1 and 1/2 cup total) and adding to 1/2 cup very hot milk. Do not scald. When milk reduces by half, add thyme (definitely dried), salt and pepper plus splurge with a tablespoon of butter. Use a fork to remove the onions to layer as you would have the leeks. Pour the last of the flavored milk over the torte before covering to bake. This version is tasty and probably saves your price challenge $.75 a plate, letting you meet the challenge.

While beans are cheap, few people I know cook beans like this. It is far too inefficient. Choose one kind, sorting and washing thoroughly. Soak overnight or pre-cook (simmer 10 minutes and let soak 1 hour) before draining and coivering with water and cooking off till tender. Reserve half for another dish. (You will expend the same energy anyway.)

Make your soup's flavor base as stated (with less water, of course), but leave the beans out of it till the barley has cooked a solid half hour. Add the beans and cook briskly till flavors blend and the barley is as done as you like. You can meet your price goal. and be a leg up on another dish!

The real ringer in your list is, of course, the chicken dish. The price (with bone and skin intact) at our local club store, even in bulk (5 lb or so per pack of premium-size thighs) is never better than $1.67/lb. Using your weight amount (3.5 lb chicken thighs), the recipe is at best $2/plate.

Now, I realize you are feeding adults, but does each guest need all that meat? You are saying that each serving starts out at 14 ounces! Allowing for skin and bone at 30%, you are still serving 10 ounces a plate.

If I forgo the premium bulk batches to buy 'snack' thighs, even allowing 40% loss, and use two per person, I put about 6 ounces of chicken per plate for a touch over 2 lbs or a cost of $3.50 for the dish or $0.85/plate! Healthier and inside your limit.

I know prices vary regionally. I do not want to live on twigs and wild oats, either. I enjoy reading recipes for flavorful, healthy food. That said, the writers need to understand that, for most of us, budgets are real things. We may splurge on a dish one night and have to serve beans, a frittata, and noodles to pay for it for a couple of days afterward.

Don't tease us like this.

Did you really save anything on that pair of "slightly used" fungal, bed bug and body lice carrier? Seriously, used socks?
And the skinless chicken thighs are usually much more pricey than the breasts because they are much more difficult to prepare and take the butcher more time to handle. I do save money on chicken for soups and dumplings and such by buying chicken parts in bulk (usually leg with thigh pieces) and then stewing them down, pulling them from the bone and packing them in freezer containers with the broth. They are then perfectly ready to be zap-thawed and turned into one of many delectable dishes. Some of the broth I pack separately and use it instead of buying it or relying on powdered boullion. Low sodium and much tastier.
I do love using my crock pot, but I'm just not comfortable leaving it on when I'm not able to keep half-an-eye on it. I realize that was their original purpose, but I knew someone who had a crock pot catch on fire once. Fortunately, she was right there, but it could have been disastrous.

in the winter try roadkill ,mainly rabbit,squirel and sometimes chicken. opossum, a little greasy but white meat.

I am not comfortable either with a crock pot on all day when I'm not at home, but I still do it & make sure I set it on the stove top, not touching anything but the metal of the stove. Just make sure you have a newer crock pot & that the temp is set very low. If they are that dangerous people wouldn't be using them!

I think this article is good food for thought, and can be very useful. Why jump on someone just for trying to make good, inexpensive meals?

I don't know how much this comes out to, per person, per meal, but at my house we make a "base" soup (more like a stew or casserole) in our very large crock pot. Whoever makes it, first puts in the water (about 1/2-2/3 full), then beans, brown rice, lentils, dried green peas---that is, any combination of such things. No salt (it can be added, to taste, by those who still use it.) Paprika, chili powder, onion powder (NOT onion salt!), dried minced onions (about $1 a jar/bottle at dollar stores or Aldis), Liquid Smoke, hot sauce, chopped bell peppers, chopped "warmer" peppers if desired, chopped onions, celery, potato chunks, carrots (cut to desired size) or anything else that's in your kitchen and suits your tastes, can be added. After it's cooked, individuals can add other things, such as butter, Smart Balance, olive oil, etc., to their servings as they wish. Cooked chicken meat or other meat can be added, but then it has to go right to the fridge and NEVER kept at "low" or "warm."

This is the basis of our diet, here, with garden veggies either on the side or in the pot. Low sodium V-8 and at least a couple pieces of fruit each day help balance our nutrition. One whole egg about every-other day adds protein and helps prevent Macular Degeneration (a disease that causes blindness, mostly in older folks.) Home-made whole wheat bread taste nummy (especially if toasted) with the basic dish.

We do not restrict ourselves to this diet. Several serious studies have proven that people who are very rigid about diet or other things, tend not to live as long as those who are more relaxed about it all. So when someone invites one or more of us out to a more lavish, sophisticated, more indulgent meal, no prob!

Holly Helmstetter

There's no way that the "tips" they provided in that article equal meals for 4 people at the cost of $4. I buy a lot of my frozen veggies, canned goods, bread, and snack-type food at our local dollar store, and even there it costs me more than $4 to feed 4 people! (Coincidentally, there are 4 of us who live here and so I have 4 people to cook for every evening.)

I would LOVE to know where these Contributors shop that they can make $4 cover enough to feed 4 people... so please, Matthew Thompson, do tell!!!!

There's no way that the "tips" they provided in that article equal meals for 4 people at the cost of $4. I buy a lot of my frozen veggies, canned goods, bread, and snack-type food at our local dollar store, and even there it costs me more than $4 to feed 4 people! (Coincidentally, there are 4 of us who live here and so I have 4 people to cook for every evening.)

I would LOVE to know where these Contributors shop that they can make $4 cover enough to feed 4 people... so please, Matthew Thompson, do tell!!!!

Soup's not a dinner... Didn't they see that Seinfeld episode?

I'm agreeing with others here. Sounds like a lot of lazy people that do not know how o be creative. BTW, just spent $11 today for the ingredients for the huge pot of chicken noodle soup I'm going to make tomorrow that will make 20-25 big bowls of soup.