Eating on the CHEAP

[Tink]

Since I eat most of my meals alone now, I've had to totally rethink my cooking and menu choices. I try to avoid processed foods for the most part, but cooking single servings often seems a real waste of effort and dirty dishes too. lol My latest "thing" is that I go to town a bit after 1pm when the grocery store deli has just cleaned up and shut down and buy their "left overs" at half price.

Some days I'll get a stuffed green pepper, or homemade soup and a sandwich, others I'll get some form of pasta hotdish or even meat and potatoes. Usually for about $2 I get more than enough food for a meal and don't have to spend time preparing a lot of things that mess up my kitchen. If they happen to have a really good deal on things I like, I buy extra, leave in the plastic deli container which I then stick inside a plastic ziplock bag, and just freeze the extras for another day.

I also go to Dollar General and pick up certain foods that are simple to fix, inexpensive to make and can be frozen in single serving size containers for later use. Right now I have several containers of spaghetti with meat sauce; and chili frozen. I make a big family sized meal, then just divide and freeze for myself.

I'd love some new ideas on money-saving, simple meals for one. What do you do?