Do You Buy Canned Meals To Save Money?

Buying canned meals is not a food item that's ever on my grocery list. I do buy coney sauce and Manwich which may be considered meals in a can I think and only when they are marked down. Canned meals to me are for convenience and take the enjoyment out of preparing a homemade meal.

 

This is not to brag. We have canned goods in our food cabinet. We always have corned beef, spam, sardines, and cooked food like canned pork chop, stewed pork, etc. The corned beef and spam are more for breakfast that includes the sardines. But we keep track of the expiration date. When it is only a month left, we give away the canned goods and replenish the inventory with a new version. Even the fruit cocktail and canned fruits, we give them away to the poor neighbors instead of getting expired.

 

The only canned meat I like is tuna fish or salmon. I do have canned vegetables and fruit in the house. I prefer frozen or fresh meat and when possible and I make my own soup from the left over meat and vegetables to make use of the left overs instead of throwing them out.

 

I refuse to buy canned meatballs, its full of preservatives, taste like meat but its just meat fillers plus the fact that meatballs are items that can be made really easily, it wouldn't even take hours to cook. If you're on a budget, instead of using meat, use flavored tofu or buy a plain tofu and marinade it. If you are so insistent in using meat, add vegetables, potatoes, carrots, bell peppers as fillers (better than fat trimming or flour used in canned meatballs) plus it gives more flavor to your meatball.

Soup and Spaghetti bolognese? sometimes I also buy ready made soup's to add to the one I already made

 

I do not buy meat in a can unless it is tuna and only sometimes. I will buy fresh or frozen meat. I do not like the taste of chicken from for some reason. Might be what they have to put in it to preserve it. I will buy canned soup for cooking with such as cream of mushroom or some other cream soup to use as a base. I do not eat soup much but if I do I will use leftovers especially chicken to make chicken and rice soup. I would rather make my own meatballs and they are really easy to make and I think it is fun to put a bunch of ingredients together and make a meal from it.

 

Depends on what it is. I'll get white meat chicken in a can, along with tuna, clams and crab. Processed red meat or pork is seldom.

 

I wouldn't say that we buy canned meals in order to save money. The only way that we will buy canned meals is because we actually liked them. But I don't actually think that I have ever eaten a canned meal in my life. Frozen microwavable meals, certainly, but not canned meals. It sounds very unhealthy and lacking in nutritional value.

 

Having always prepared everything we eat from scratch - as I can only eat totally natural foods - canned food items - apart from canned tuna in olive oil or plum tomatoes in natural juice - which I do buy occasionally as they do come in handy for making quick inexpensive snacks or meals - are not something that I've ever bought.

However - even though I don't have an exact comparison in terms of price - as home prepared food is generally the most inexpensive - as well as the most cost effective way of feeding a family.

I would just add - that if on a super tight budget - you generally can't go too far wrong - by making sure that you always have dried beans, lentils, chickpeas, rice or pasta along with a few herbs and spices in the store cupboard - as not only are they staples of any healthy diet - but as they're also extremely inexpensive and can easily be transformed into tasty, very substantial, healthy nutritious meals for very little cost - just by combining one or all them with a little bit of almost anything you fancy - which could be anything from small amounts of meat, fish, cheese to seasonal vegetables - it makes them excellent value for money - especially as with their versatility - they virtually guarantee that no one will ever go hungry - however tight the budget is.

 

I don't buy canned food to save money I buy them to save time. The canned foods are necessarily for regular usage, They are mostly reserved fo the times when there is little time and I need to something to eat in quick order.

 

I do buy canned food but more so just for the convenience as I don't really think I'm saving that much money off of them. Usually the price of a canned food is the same I'd pay for at a cheap restaurant and if I had the choice I'd much rather just buy from a restaurant but they aren't as convenient since I'd have to leave the house and sometimes they are also closed by the time I get hungry. Also given that canned food is very unhealthy I try to limit my intake because even if it was cheaper and I did get to save on the short term I have to consider that I'll probably get a lot more expenses in my medical bills in the long run because of it.

 

I never buy canned foods. I've heard too many bad things about the poisons in tins that can leak into the food and contaminate it. Not to mention if a tin has a tiny, invisible air hole somewhere, from falling from a shelf or being handled roughly. All kinds of bacteria can enter and give you food poisoning.
I think one is far better advised to invest in bulk foods, such as rice, noodles, beans, etc. And use them as the basis of a cheap but healthy meal.

 

I used to do so more often. The kids enjoyed a can of Spaghetti O's every now and then, and I would pick up the cheap knock off at Aldi for like 49 cents or something at the time. I mean, it wasn't a "go to" meal or anything. It was only on occasion.

I do buy tuna, and I tried the chicken, but to me it tastes like tuna. I guess I'm tasting the can, so that's probably not a good thing.

Not to mention, a lot of canned foods really aren't that cheap any more. I think people got in the habit of reaching for them when they were the cheapest stuff around, but really, many of them are priced high these days when not on sale (especially for what you get).

Canned spaghetti sauce is something that we use once in a while, if I catch it on sale cheap. My picky eater loves spaghetti, which I make often, but she still sometimes wants more when it's all gone.

I'll make a can of sauce (which I always doctor up for her), and she's happy with that. It's not the best, but I guess it's better for her to at least have something filling rather than skipping a meal or eating total junk food. More often, I just make extra real sauce to freeze for her for later.

 

There was a time last year when we were tittering dangerously close to scraping the very bottom of the barrel, with no jobs in sight! It was a very desperate time for us, and we really had to trim down our spending, and sadly, that included food. I'm not usually a fan of most canned stuff, but it really saved our lives when we were very low on funds. -and it's surprising how creative you can get when you don't have money! As soon as things started looking up however, I told my husband I didn't want to see anything canned for a very, very long time LOL

 

Not often, the only stuff I mainly buy in cans are things like beans or some other vegetables like artichokes, or tomatoes. But I hardly ever buy processed meals in a can, such as Chef Boyardee, or canned chicken and such. Even tuna I prefer to get in the pouches.

They're not really cost effective either if you compare something like Chef Boyardee vs. just simply buying a jar of tomato sauce and box of pasta and making it yourself. You can make a much larger meal that's fresher tasting doing the later for what you would pay for one can of the processed stuff, which is only enough for one person - plus the pasta in it's all mushy.

 

I don't usually prefer to buy canned foods unless it is an emergency. My mom really hates canned foods as she always tells that t hey are bad for health.

 

A few years ago when we were trying to save a lot, we used to buy canned goods instead of fresh meat and vegetables because it's so much cheaper, but unhealthy. I didn't want us to have that eating lifestyle for long since it's unhealthy, I'm afraid that we might get sick so I budget our funds accordingly. Now we don't buy canned goods anymore, only fresh meat and vegetables. The only food that we buy that we can eat instantly is noodles, and we only eat it if we just feel to or if we're too lazy to cook.

 

I use to buy and consume canned foods a lot especially meat until I saw a video in one of the social media sites which didn't put the making in good light. I want to be sure when I buy canned meat it is actually beef I am seeing there not any flesh that could have be gotten from anywhere.

 

I never buy meals in a can other than chili because that stuff is so loaded with preservatives it makes me cringe just thinking about it. I was a kid during the 80s when parents used to stuffed us with Chef Boyarde and Kool Aid. That stuff never enters my home now.

 

I don't buy canned meal at all. Only cheese, jams, pickles etc. Other things I buy fresh and prepare fresh at home. Specially the meat items. I try to get them fresh. They tastes a lot more better when they are fresh than canned.