The better solution to avoid eating unhealthy food is to stop bringing it home. Out of sight out of mind. When you have nutritious food in your pantry, you’ll eat healthy. Frugal foods are nutritious and easy on your wallet.
Cooking at home gets easier with meal planning. And, meal planning becomes painless when there’s a list of ingredients to refer to.
This list can benefit you in 4 ways:
- It’ll save hundreds of dollars on your groceries.
- It’ll enable you to build a frugal pantry.
- To refer to while making a grocery list.
- It can remind you of recipes your family loves while reviewing the list.
This list is my attempt to assist you in building a frugal pantry and make meal planning effortless.
70 Frugal Foods To Build Your Pantry On A Budget
Rice
Flour
Pasta
Oats
Cornmeal
Dried Beans
Chickpeas
Peanuts
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Spinach
Carrots
Tomatoes
Green beans
Green peas
Onions
Garlic
Ginger
Lemons
Sweet Corns
Mushrooms
Bananas
Apples
Seasonal Fruits
Seasonal Vegetables
Sugar
Salt
Herbs
Green chilies
Cilantro
Pepper
Onion Powder
Garlic powder
Oil
Butter
Milk
Yogurt
cheese
Peanut Butter
Fruit Jam
Tomato Sauce/Puree
Indian food List:
Flattened rice (Poha)
Semolina
Sago (Sabudana)
Vermicelli (Seviyaan)
Beans:
kidney beans
black-eyed beans
white-eyed beans
black beans
white beans
white peas
green peas
Lentils:
Split Green Gram (Moong Dal)
Split Red Lentil (Masur Dal)
Black gram (Urad Dal)
Split Bengal Gram (Chana Dal)
Split Red Gram (Tuvar Dal)
Wheat flour
Rice flour
Maize flour
Sorghum flour
Ragi flour
Besan
Ghee
Oil
Puffed rice
Fox nut
Peanuts
jaggery
Dried Coconut
Coconut
Kokam
Tamarind
Spices (Khada masala, garam masala powder)
Final Words:
These are some core ingredients you need to nourish your family. Frugal meals are a sustainable way to put wholesome food on the table while staying within the budget. It is good for your family and the environment.Â
What would you like to add to the list? Share with us your frugal food suggestions in the comment section below. Thank you so much for reading. Happy Cooking!
2 replies on “70 Frugal Foods To Build Your Pantry On A Budget”
I love how you did this list with native India ingredients. My husband is Korean so I try and make at least one or two Korean dishes for him every month even better when I can do it once a week. Definitely going to take some inspiration from what you have put together here.
Thank you for your kind words, Brittany! I was hesitant to put the Indian ingredients list in here as I never wanted it to restrict to certain readers only. But your words gave me a new perspective. I’ll now try to make free printables for these lists soon. Thank you again!