Everyone wants to save money but sometimes it’s easy to get overwhelmed with figuring out just how. Cutting back on your grocery bill is only going to happen if you have some concrete and realistic cheap food ideas as to what to fix for each meal and snack.

Sometimes this means following a particular recipe or instructions for a meal, but often cheap food ideas can mean just getting creative and using some common sense for meals.

Here’s an example of what we’re talking about. You can usually find frozen vegetables that are very affordable at your supermarket; many cheap food ideas involve using these in a soup or stew that you make yourself for just pennies.

A pan or broth or a few jars of prepared gravy are all you need for a vegetable soup or stew. You can also buy a frozen pie crust and make a pot pie with gravy and vegetables as well. These are great cheap food ideas that are very filling and that can be done without a lot of fuss or without following a complicated recipe. For a pot pie you simply follow the directions on the pie crust and for soup you can just add a few herbs such as oregano and basil. While canned soup and canned stew are very affordable themselves, by making up your own as cheap food ideas you’re saving even more money and usually get a meal that’s much tastier than anything you get from a can.

Using leftovers should always be considered when preparing cheap food ideas. You might not think much of those few spoonfuls of mashed potatoes or those few bites of chicken but these can be incorporated into entirely new meals. Mashed potatoes can easily become potato pancakes and any type of leftover meat can be reheated in a small amount of oil to be put over a salad or wrapped up in a rolled sandwich. By using these items until they’re actually used up and gone you have cheap food ideas that really only cost a few pennies for the additional ingredients and don’t need to purchase a new helping of meat or anything else.

When considering cheap food ideas bear in mind the cost of buying prepared and packaged foods as well. Usually anything that is already prepared for you, whether it’s a cooked chicken or cheese that’s already grated or baked goods, is going to be two and even three times the cost of foods you prepare yourself. While you may occasionally need to purchase these things for special occasions you should never make a habit of allowing the supermarket to do your cooking for you! You’re actually paying for the labor needed to prepare these items which goes against the concept of cheap food ideas.

So keep these things in mind when considering cheap food ideas. Get creative with leftovers and don’t let the supermarket do your cooking; this way you’re sure to save as much as you can on your grocery bill.