Low-budget meals for large family gatherings

Potlucks, family get-togethers, and holidays are a time of warmth, laughter, memories, and…. good food. What do you do if your budget is pennies to spare? Y’all can’t afford to eat out. You can’t afford to buy something. Groceries are increasingly expensive. Do you skip the gathering? Not host this time? Or do you think about what tasty homemade meals you can whip up without having to empty your wallet? Here are some ideas for low-budget meals with the large family gathering in mind.
 
Make sure you get your copy of my book, Happily Frugal: a wise money management workbook. It has over 700 ways to save money. If this topic is something you need, there is a chapter on feeding a family frugally.
 
BEVERAGES
So, what about drinks? Buying juice or soda for a big group is a bit pricey.

• Water – iced water from the tap or bottled water from a pack
• Tea from tea bags – buy a big box of black tea and make your own tea
• Coffee – buy the big container of your main coffee and get the coffee pot going
• Hot chocolate from a container

 
BREAKFAST
Is your crew staying over? Breakfast is the cheapest meal of the day.

• Eggs are a healthy food that is very low-cost.
• Oatmeal from steel cut oats or packaged instant oatmeal
• Cream of wheat
• Pancakes – buy the store brand of boxed pancakes and bake your pancakes in a 13X9 dish for just a few dollars
• Waffles
• French toast
• Biscuits and gravy
• Breakfast potato dish
• Sides
  • Toast and butter, jelly, or jam
  • Biscuits
  • Hash browns  
  • Muffins
  • Bagels  
  • Hard boiled eggs

 
LUNCH OR DINNER
Need to cook for a crowd, but not spend much?
Tips:

1. Go vegetarian.
2. Cook from scratch.
3. Come together and assign different dishes to each household attending.

 
These are super cheap meals that will feed a large group.

• Soups
• Vegetarian chili in the slow cooker
• Goulash (use kidney beans instead of meat)
• Spaghetti with kidney beans instead of meat
• Any pasta that is noodles and sauce with veggies or beans
• Slow cooker veggie stew with potatoes, carrots, green beans, and cabbage (top with sour cream)
• Chicken and dumplings  
• Soup casserole – cans of cream of ____ soup (I prefer celery), cans of veggies (green beans, carrots, you can add corn), and top with biscuit batter. It’s like a big pot pie. Instead of biscuit batter, you can also top this dish with Hawaiian sweet rolls.
• Pantry dump casserole – This is where you get creative and make it work with what you’ve got
• Spanish rice casserole  
• Fried rice with veggies
• Green peppers stuffed with Spanish rice and ketchup
• Burritos
• Fish fillets as the main dish
• You can buy a large bag of chicken for not too much. One person buy that and have other people contribute the sides.  

 
Side dishes

• Vegetables from the garden
• Bread and butter is a classic budget side dish
• Rolls
• Stuffing from the box is one of the cheapest side dishes
• Rice – white rice, Spanish rice, flavored rice
• Beans – baked beans, refried beans, lima beans, there are so many kinds of beans that are very cheap
• Mashed potatoes
• Baked potatoes
• Tater tots
• Corn
• Green beans
• Carrots
• Fried pickles
• Fried tomatoes
• Cornbread
• Applesauce
• Baked apples

 
DESSERT

• A box of popcorn goes a long way for a few dollars.
• Bake a cake from scratch. Even from a box mix, cake is cheap and feeds a lot.
• Brownies are a good option too.
• Apple crumble
• Homemade pie is affordable. Apple pie and pumpkin pie are some of the cheapest.
• Bake cookies from scratch.
• Make pudding.
• Fudge  
• Bread – There are so many types of bread you can make from scratch for little money. Apple cinnamon bread, banana bread, blueberries, strawberries, pumpkin bread, zucchini bread, and more. You can also make mini bread loafs from muffin mix.

 
Whether you’re getting ready for the holidays when finances have been tough this year or you’ve been blessed with many children and have a lot of mouths to feed every day, I hope this blog helps you get more food with the money you have.

Don’t forget to grab your print copy of Happily Frugal.