Cheap Food Staples To Keep On Hand

Keeping cheap food staples on hand is key, especially with the astronomical prices everyone is charging! When it comes to whipping up a frugal meal to feed your family, you need to have some basic staples on hand to help make even the boring pantry staples like rice and beans a flavorful masterpiece your family will be asking for seconds of. Below are some of the cheapest foods staples to have on hand! 

Don’t forget to check out my Pantry Staples Every Baker Should Have! 

These everyday staples will help you create flavorful meals from whatever you happen to have on hand making it easier to put together frugal, money-saving meals.

Cheap Food Staples To Keep On Hand

Herbs and spices

You need a good collection of herbs and spices for your kitchen. This allows you to take advantage of cheaper cooking ingredients like rice and beans without sacrificing flavor. The more flavorful your food is, the less your family will miss the more expensive ingredients they may have grown accustomed to.

I love growing a garden so that I can have fresh ingredients all the time to make my own homemade spices and condiments. 

Broth

Broth is a great ingredient for adding flavor and nutrition to your food. You can stock broth on sale at the store or take the time to make your own homemade bone broth for all of the nutritional benefits. This cooking staple can make it easier to add flavor to things like rice and beans making it a great asset to your pantry.

Instant Pot Bone Broth is a fast and delicious recipe! 

Peppers

While fresh peppers right out of your garden are great for adding flavor to your food in the winter, they are not available. You can use home-canned, frozen, dehydrated, or even cans of peppers right from the grocery store to ensure that your family has peppers on hand so you can make anything flavorful.

I recommend a stock of bell peppers, sweet peppers, and your family’s favorite spicy peppers for plenty of variety. You can even make your own pepper jelly for something different. 

Instant Pot Stuffed Peppers are absolutely divine! 

Canned tomatoes

Canned tomatoes of all varieties can help make your meals more flavorful. From sundried tomatoes that add flavor to meat dishes to classic marinara sauce to create a flavorful plate of pasta, tomatoes are a great flavor base for just about anything. Preserve tomatoes from your garden or stock up on these staples when you find sales to make sure you always have them on hand for adding flavor to meals.

I love having fresh salsa all months of the year with my Salsa Recipe!

Cheese

When it comes to flavorful additions that can make anything taste good, you can’t go wrong with stocking cheese. Cheese has a great shelf life and can even be frozen to make it easier to keep on hand. Keep a variety of cheeses on hand both for the flavoring value and the nutritional value.

Homemade Cottage Cheese in The Instant Pot is totally a thing! 

Cream

While cheese can be a great addition to your meals, simple cream can go a long way also. The cream can be used for making your own butter or used to turn a tomato sauce creamy. The cream can also be used to make a creamy, cheesy sauce for pasta for the perfect comfort food. Heavy cream is one of the most useful dairy ingredients to keep in your refrigerator or freezer if your family likes decedent creamy foods.

Cooking soups

If you want a way to make food flavorful without having to make everything from scratch you can keep cooking soups like cream of mushroom (too bad I can’t personally eat this since I am allergic to shrooms!) or cream of chicken on hand to make it easy to put together flavorful meals or to flavor basic staples like rice. Snag these on sale around the holidays when the price drops and keep them on hand for the year.

 

 

 

Eggs

Eggs can be a great way to add more nutrients, healthy fats, and protein to your diet. They’re also relatively inexpensive and one of the easier to raise animal proteins you can, well, grow yourself. If you’re in an area where you can’t raise chickens, check out your local farmer’s market or chicken farm.

You can often purchase a dozen eggs cheaper than you can at your local grocer. Whether you are buying eggs on sale or taking advantage of your space to raise your own chickens on the homestead, you can use eggs to help make your meals more flavorful, interesting, and healthy while saving money. 

There are so many great recipes that you can make with eggs like my Delicious Shamrock Fried Eggs and my Instant Pot Deviled Eggs!

Potatoes

Potatoes are another versatile and frugal staple you can use to make flavorful and filling meals on a budget. You can often get potatoes for pennies a pound during the holiday sales and growing them at home is so easy anyone can do it. Not only are potatoes frugal and filling, but they also tend to last a long time even over the winter when stored in a cool, dark place. Add an apple to your potato bin to prevent them from sprouting.

You’ll love using potatoes for this Homemade BBQ Baked Potatoes recipe. 

Oil or cooking fat

Oil is essential for a lot of cooking. Oil in a variety of options is available at the grocery store for cheaper than butter. Oil can be used for sautéing and frying making it well worth the money to stock. You can render your own cooking fat from cooking down the fat you trim off of beef and pork. Just remove water and render it. This will leave you with a great oil option that stores well on the countertop for cooking and frying to add flavor and texture to your meals.

 

Do you have any other pantry staples on a budget that you keep and use in your house?