No matter how tight your budget is, you can still eat well by making delicious and easy recipes that won’t cost you your paycheck. Below you will find our favorite shoestring budget recipes that taste great even if you aren’t pinching pennies!
The most important part of maintaining a budget is to make sure it doesn’t feel like you’re making a huge sacrifice. If your money-saving recipes make you unhappy or don’t fill you up, it’s not likely that it will be a sustainable way for you and your finances to live. Once you test the recipes below, you will see that budget-friendly recipes don’t have to sacrifice flavor or substance. The only way you’ll be able to tell that these are shoestring budget recipes is by looking at your bank account!
10 Shoestring Budget Recipes
1. 5-Ingredient Layered Tater Tot Casserole (pictured above, left) – The key to making recipes that only use a few ingredients is to choose ingredients that pack a flavorful punch. You can’t go wrong with this casserole recipe that calls for ground beef, cheese, tater tots, and mixed vegetables.
2. Dollar Store Fruit Cocktail Pie – You most likely have all of the ingredients to make this tasty pie already in your pantry. Two cans of fruit cocktail are cooked together with sugar, flour, and cinnamon before getting nestled in a flaky, buttery pie crust. This fruit pie recipe is unlike any other pie out there.
3. Orange Chicken Chinese Casserole (pictured above, right) – If you love Chinese food and wish you could have takeout at home, then you will love this recipe for Orange Chicken Chinese Casserole. Flavorful sauce, crunchy chicken, vegetables, and noodles combine in this impossibly easy casserole.
4. Make-Your-Own Red Velvet Cake Mix – Boxed baking mixes may be a luxury that you can’t afford all the time, but now you can make your own version at home! Use this mix to make all of your red velvet recipes, or give it to a friend as a gift!
5. Budget Taco Chicken Bowls (pictured above, center) – There’s nothing better than an affordable recipe, expect perhaps an affordable recipe that is easy as dumping the ingredients in the slow cooker! Chicken, salsa, corn, and beans cook in the slow cooker all day before getting spooned over rice.
More Shoestring Budget Recipes:
6. No-Bake Chocolate Coconut Cookies
8. Impossibly Easy Breakfast Bake
What is your favorite budget-friendly recipe?
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