The cost of food seems to go up in price every trip to the grocery store. Shopping the ads, using coupons and stocking up on the loss leaders is a great way to save money but what do you do with all that food once you get home.   There are many ways to make those ingredients go even further.

1.  Tuna Melt: The classic go-to inexpensive dinner of a tuna sandwich with American cheese, toasted under the broiler.
2.  Eggs: Cheaper by the dozen. A dinner of eggs is not only cheap but also quick and easy. From scrambled, poached, over-easy or hard boiled, eggs never disappoint.
3.  French Toast/Pancakes: What’s not to love about breakfast for dinner? It’s cheap, easy and fast to the table. Oh, and it tastes great.
4.  Baked Ziti: This dish always satisfies. Mix equal parts spaghetti sauce, Alfredo sauce and cooked ziti. The stuff from the jar is just fine here. Stir in as much mozzarella as you like and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Enjoy.
5.  Pasta Salad: Make up a batch of your favorite pasta salad, from scratch or from a box, and add leftover chicken or steak. This is a great way to extend leftovers when there isn’t quite enough for everyone.
6.  Chuck Roast: A chuck roast is an inexpensive cut of meat that, when purchased on sale, can go a long way to feed a family.
7.  Fried Rice: Jazz up a box of fried rice with leftover chicken (finely diced), frozen peas, shredded carrots and scrambled eggs.
8.  Ramen Noodles: The ubiquitous meal of college students can be augmented nicely with leftover chicken, steak or fish and stir fry vegetables for the budget-conscious family.
9.  Tacos: These are always a cheap way to feed a lot of people inexpensively because they really only require a tablespoon or two of beef.
10.  Soup: Vegetable, potato, cauliflower, tomato, you name it. Soup is a great way to warm bellies up without spending a lot of money per serving.
11.  Chicken Legs: Always a popular loss leader with grocery store chains, chicken legs can be bought cheaply and cooked over a dozen different ways.
12.  Nachos: Just ¼ pound of ground beef, some veggies, some beans and a ton of cheese make this a cheap and fun meal for a family movie night.
13. Stuffed Peppers: A great way to extend ground beef and make it go further is to mix it with rice, which is exactly why stuffed peppers is a great meal for dinner on the cheap.
14. Peroigis:  These little potato filled Polish dumplings are best sautéed in butter with green peppers and onions. Serve with sour cream and a side of applesauce.
15. Stir Fry: Every frugal mom (and dad) knows that a stir fry is a great way to use up all the cook-me-now vegetables in the fridge.
16. Whole Chicken: Another popular loss leader, a roasted chicken with mashed potatoes is a great meal on the cheap.
17. Chili: Another easy way to stretch a pound of ground beef is to make a batch of stick-to-your-ribs chili.
18. Baked Potato: Find the biggest Russet potatoes you can, bake them and fill them with all sorts of good stuff, from broccoli and cheese to leftover pot roast.
19. Pasta: Noodles are cheap. If you spend the time to make a pot of homemade sauce, you not only transform noodles into a great meal but also have extra sauce to stash away in the freezer.
20. Hamburgers with a Twist: Last but not least, you can stretch a pound of ground beef by mixing in bread crumbs, beans or vegetables and create flavorful burgers, too.

How do you make dinner on the cheap?

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