It even has a permanent spot on my weekly grocery shopping list. Frozen Veggies Frozen veggies are so much cheaper than fresh produce, and they allow you the flexibility of always having them on hand.

Broccoli, Green Beans, and Brussel Sprouts are three things you should keep stocked in your freezer to make it easy to add some healthy veggies to your meals without breaking the bank.

I also like to keep several bags of mixed veggies in there too. I can easily make a quick Instapot Chicken Pot Pie with them along with a few other ingredients I always have on hand.

Or when you buy some delicious looking strawberries and you go to eat them only to discover that there was a moldy, rotten one in the middle ruining the whole batch?! I hate that! Buying frozen berries eliminates all the frustrations.

And usually they are cheaper than their fresh counterparts! Whether we are using them for a quick pancake topping, a quick milkshake or smoothie, we always have frozen strawberries on hand with our staple pantry items.

This sounds like an odd staple, but we start nearly every dinner with these two items in our crock pot or frying pan. Choose green peppers because they are your cheapest option over the other colors. Onions add great flavor to every meal, without adding much extra cost for the healthy pantry staples for families.

We use lemon juice for cleaning, but there are so many recipes that call for it as well! Lemon juice has a long shelf life, making it one of the best staple pantry items. This is a great base for making your own homemade salad dressings.

Where you aware that half a cup of white vinegar can be used instead of laundry softener or as a replacement for Jet Dry in your dishwasher? Who knew?! Coconut Oil Coconut oil has about a gazillion uses!

It has a higher burn point than butter making it a great choice for frying anything when you cook. It has become one of our most used staple pantry items.

No fresh ones, no frozen ones… then Onion Powder can come to your rescue! I am constantly using this as a substitute for fresh onion! And I do the same with Garlic Powder! Baking powder is a must for baking from scratch!

It is always on hand in my pantry. Baking soda is an important ingredient that can be used for cleaning and deodorizing around the home. I buy it by the huge bag full because it is the only product that truly gets the smell out of my laundry. With three boys, all in sports, we have a lot of stinky clothing to use it on!

Make sure you choose the unsweetened variety of cocoa powder so that you can add your own sweetener and make it as sweet or not for your liking. For baking, cocoa powder is a must-have because so many chocolate-based treats start with cocoa powder. Ground meat isn't the most inexpensive meat, especially depending on how lean you want it, but it's a good thing to buy in a bulk package and freeze for later.

And because it's so versatile, you can almost always replace one ground meat with what's on sale — like ground beef for ground turkey. Frozen vegetables are often cheaper than fresh veggies, and they last much longer.

And because you can buy a bag of mixed vegetables, there are so many ways to add veggies to your meal. You can add frozen spinach to quiche, mixed vegetables to fried rice, and corn to tortilla soup. Or you can heat up your favorite veggies and eat them as a side dish.

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Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance. Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources.

Develop and improve services. Use limited data to select content. List of Partners vendors. Kitchen Tips How To Buying. By Bailey Fink. Bailey Fink. Bailey Fink is a devout home cook and assistant editor at Allrecipes. She has written over stories covering everything from cooking methods and storage techniques to grocery shopping on a budget, how-to guides, product reviews, and important food-related news.

Allrecipes' editorial guidelines. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! You cringe with each blip at the checkout line. However, there are probably things you could be doing to shop smarter. Peanut butter is not only incredibly affordable, but also versatile.

From spreading it on bread to making savory Thai peanut noodles or a rich peanut sauce for your stir-fries, peanut butter is a must-have in your budget arsenal.

The ultimate pantry MVP, rice is a blank canvas for flavor. You can also get a variety of rice for low prices. From black beans to chickpeas, beans are a cheap source of protein.

Try making a flavorful chili, creamy hummus, or even a hearty bean soup with spices and veggies. Canned beans are also a powerhouse of nutrients, and they are easy to cook. Pasta is the hero of quick, budget-friendly meals. Create classic spaghetti with a homemade tomato sauce or try something more exotic like a garlic and olive oil-based aglio e olio.

While fresh herbs can be pricey, dried herbs are a budget-friendly alternative. Plus, they have a long shelf life. Dried herbs also pack more flavor than their fresh counterparts, so you can use less of them. Flour or corn tortillas are the foundation of many cost-effective and scrumptious dishes.

You can make quesadillas, tacos, or even burritos with leftover ingredients. Just fill them up with whatever you have in your fridge. Our tip? Combine the chicken, cheese, herbs, and beans on this list with sun-dried tomato tortillas to make one killer quesadilla.

A good pasta sauce can turn your humble pasta dish into a gourmet meal. Keep a jar of marinara sauce in your pantry and elevate it with sautéed garlic, onions, and a dash of red pepper flakes.

Voilà — a restaurant-worthy meal! While some gourmet cheeses can be expensive, there are budget-friendly options that can add oodles of flavor to your dishes.

DRIED HERBS | SPICES CHICKEN STOCK | BOUILLON VINEGAR

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Bargain-priced kitchen staples - PASTA DRIED HERBS | SPICES CHICKEN STOCK | BOUILLON VINEGAR

Whether they're canned or whole, beans are good for so many things! Eat them plain, add them to meat to bulk up the meal, add them to a soup…. Those are just a few of the reasons that beans are one of the top pantry staples for the Freebs!

You can even use your leftover canned beans in easy peasy dishes like my tamale casserole! Beans are a delicious filler and add protein and other nutrients! These soups are so good to have on hand.

They go with pretty much anything and can really help to take a few ingredients from being a random assortment of items to a casserole in no time! Pro Tip: It is beyond easy to make your own cream of chicken soup if you keep broth on hand — just add milk, flour , and a little seasoning! Genius, right!?

These are an obvious pantry staple! They're great to have by themselves as a side or added to a recipe. Pro Tip: To improve the flavor of canned vegetables, first rinse them in a colander under cold water.

Then add to your recipes as usual. Whether it's beef, chicken, or vegetable, broth and stock are great pantry staples to keep on hand!

Just buy the biggest carton or whatever is cheapest that you can find if you use it a lot. Be sure to refrigerate it after opening so it doesn't go bad! Pro Tip: I like to buy Better Than Bouillon from Costco. It's amazing and lasts a while! Oatmeal is such a versatile pantry staple!

It can either be eaten on its own or easily goes into so many kinds of recipes, from early morning breakfast to dessert.

Did you know that an ounce package of Old Fashioned Quaker Oats contains roughly 26, rolled oats? That's a lot of oats! Canned chicken, tuna, salmon, ham, and beef are all great ways to keep meat on hand without having to worry about the electricity going out and your meat ruining!

These pantry staples are so versatile and work in a lot of different meals. Pro Tip: If you're cooking the canned meats in a recipe, make sure you don't add it in until the very end. If you miss the sweet with the salty the jelly , you could pair it with an inexpensive banana, honey, or as my Dad likes to eat it… with butter.

Popcorn is an inexpensive snack to keep on hand for those moments when you just want to munch, without it costing an arm and a leg!

We make popcorn on the stove in minutes, or in a brown bag version in the microwave too. Popcorn is our best pantry staples for cheap snacks. We do this all the time!

Tortillas are super versatile, and you can even freeze them for later, making them a great pantry staple to stock up on!

Fajitas, quesadillas, and soft tacos are all great inexpensive meal options that use tortillas. As you can see, we keep a number of different staple pantry items in our home at all times to make sure that our home is well stocked for easy meals.

I hope that this list has not only inspired you to stock your pantry as well but that you give it a try! Because I believe everyone has the power to live a life of abundance regardless of their income level. Share Pin Bouillion Paste For years I overlooked this little gem of an ingredient.

Canned Beans Want to reduce the money you spend on meat? Use Beans! BONUS FREE DOWNLOAD. Create A Plan For Your Money These FREE Budgeting Spreadsheets will help you keep a pulse on your money from the palm of your hand. Cheese This item is probably the most expensive one on this list.

Eggs We eat a lot of eggs in our home, especially because they are one of the cheapest breakfast foods you can feed your family!

Vinegar This is a great base for making your own homemade salad dressings. Baking Powder Baking powder is a must for baking from scratch! Baking Soda Baking soda is an important ingredient that can be used for cleaning and deodorizing around the home.

Cocoa Powder Make sure you choose the unsweetened variety of cocoa powder so that you can add your own sweetener and make it as sweet or not for your liking.

Oats are a super healthy pantry staples for families! Flour Flour is always a great staple to have on hand. Rice Rice is a super inexpensive side dish to fill those growing kids! Popcorn Kernels Popcorn is an inexpensive snack to keep on hand for those moments when you just want to munch, without it costing an arm and a leg!

Tortillas Tortillas are super versatile, and you can even freeze them for later, making them a great pantry staple to stock up on! Your Turn: What other staple pantry items do you keep on hand that are not mentioned here? Share with me below! More Fun Articles To Read:. You can use condensed soups to make a huge array of cheap pantry meals.

Another one of the best budget pantry staples is tortillas. They have a much longer shelf life than a loaf of bread, but can be used for anything from tacos to individual pizzas.

A spaghetti dinner can come together super quickly with the use of a jar of pasta sauce. You can always doctor it up with more spices or fresh ingredients if you want. Believe it or not, you can make more than just mashed potatoes with these. Try using them to make gnocchi, as a binder for meatloaf or a thickener for sauces and gravy, or even as a crispy coating for onion rings.

Having a canister of breadcrumbs in the pantry can be used to:. Russet, red, and sweet potatoes all have an incredibly long shelf-life when kept in a dark, cool place like your pantry.

Onions also stay good for a long time, and add an incredible amount of flavor to any savory dish. Canned veggies make quick side dishes, and easy additions to soups and stews. No kitchen is complete without olive oil for flavor and sauteing, and canola oil for higher temperature cooking and baking.

If you really want a quick and cheap meal, make something with eggs. From omelettes to breakfast burritos to scrambled in a hash, there is no less expensive source of good protein.

Both as a topping for breads and baked potatoes, to an ingredient in sauces and baked goods, butter is an ideal ingredient to keep in your kitchen. Much like butter, plain yogurt and sour cream can be used as a topping or ingredient. Pro-tip: Greek yogurt has a lot of protein, which makes the the perfect healthy alternative to sour cream.

Both parmesan and cheddar cheese pack a flavorful punch to many quick meals. Read next: 95 Pizza Toppings to Jazz up Homemade Pizza Night. How to Use a Foodsaver Save Tons of Money on Meat and Produce.