Cheap, Easy Dinners

I know I've mentioned soups as being a cheap dinner on here before, but this time I thought I'd give you the price breakdown of one that is also SUPER easy to make, Chicken Noodle Soup:

 

It depends on the recipe that you use, but the traditional, main ingredients are all really inexpensive and there are ways to make it even cheaper. This is a perfect use for left over rotisserie chicken or from a whole chicken that you have roasted or boiled. Usually you can get a whole chicken for under $1 a pound. Bags of celery and carrots (I just saw an ad today for $0.88/lb for organic ones) are also easily found for under $1/lb as well. Then you add a pound of pasta for about $1 too! Chicken broth depends on your brand of choice, but lately I've been using the chicken base or bouillon cubes and water. It seems to be cheaper to me and also less wasteful if you don't end up using all of the container for your current meal. This is also a great meal to actually make your one broth with. You boil the chicken in the pot you'll be using for the soup and add the seasonings you like and that'll give you a good flavor base to work with for the soup. So lets add this all up shall we? 

2lbs of chicken (I'm going to use $0.80/lb for a whole chicken since I've seen that price) $1.60

1/2 lb (estimating on these) of carrots $0.50

1/4 lb (estimate too) of celery $0.25

2 lbs (this will make a large pot!) of noodles $2.00

Chicken broth $1 (depends on your brand, this is for 2 cans of cheapest brand, but you may need to add more water for an extra large pot or make your own! :))

Total: $5.35

This should get you a pretty large pot of soup too, of course the price is an estimate, but I believe it can be done for pretty close to this price if you find the sales and cheapest brands. Add some seasonings that you have on hand and possibly some bread on the side and you have a healthy dinner for easy and cheap! :)