These staples can help you rustle up some delicious, cheap meals and cut down your supermarket bill. A 'staple' food is an item that is eaten regularly, has a long shelf life, and can be used for lots of different meals. These basics can be kept in your cupboard or frozen in your freezer, meaning they will last longer and help you cut down waste, as well as save money.

There are lots of different items you can stock up on to help save money, depending on your eating habits. For example, if you're a regular cook or baker, it pays to stock up on things like spices, flour, and other essentials.

However, if you're on a tight budget and are looking for basic cheap meals like spaghetti bolognese, for example, then you'll want to stock up on pasta and tinned tomatoes. Fruit and vegetables are key to maintaining a healthy, balanced diet, but they can be expensive when you buy them fresh.

Instead, consider swapping out fresh produce for tinned or even frozen fruit and vegetables. They taste no different but could help you save a small fortune on your shopping bill!

Rice is the perfect food staple, as you can bulk up most meals with it. It's great for batch cooking big meals like chilli con carne and adding to curries. A packet of 1kg rice currently costs around £1, making it a great, budget-friendly cupboard essential.

Pasta is another hero staple product to stock up on at the supermarket if you're on a budget. It's great for making big family meals like pasta bakes, and you can also cook it in advance and freeze it, making it super convenient for mid-week meals. A pack of Fusilli or Penne costs 80p or less in most supermarkets, and spaghetti is also less than £1.

If you're a keen baker, all purpose flour is the perfect cheap cupboard staple for whipping up your favourite sweet and savoury treats like bread, biscuits, pie crusts, pizza dough, and more. Herbs and spices can add some flavour to your dishes and help spruce up those less exciting mid-week meals.

Popular ones include black pepper, coriander, cumin, ginger, and turmeric. Cereal is a cheap and cheerful breakfast option for busy families and offers a healthy way for you to start the day if you're on a tight budget.

Cereals like Branflakes are high in fibre and vitamin D, and will help keep you fuller for longer. Always look for the supermarket own brand, which can work out up to as much as up to £3 cheaper than the branded version. Condiments like ketchup and mustard are also key cupboard essentials for any household.

Again, it's best to pick up own brand versions, which are a lot cheaper than the big popular brands. This may sound like an odd one to include on the list, but peanut butter is a versatile cupboard staple. You can have it on toast, on sandwiches for lunch, pop it in a smoothie, and even use it for baking.

Cooking oil is another cheap essential to keep in your cupboards. You can use it for frying, cooking, baking, and even as a salad dressing or dip for bread. There are different types of cooking oil, including sunflower oil, vegetable oil, and olive oil.

These will vary in price, but generally, cheaper options such as sunflower oil start around £3 for a huge 2L bottle. Similar to tinned vegetables and rice, beans and lentils are also the perfect way to bulk up a meal on a budget.

Canned options such as kidney beans are great for adding to chilli, bean burgers, and curries. Gravy tastes great with pretty much any meat and chicken stock can help add extra flavour to any dish. If you're looking at choosing between the two, gravy is a slightly cheaper option, costing less than £1 for a can of gravy granules, which also last longer.

Whereas chicken stock cubes tend to cost between £1. Similar to fruit and vegetables, buying tinned meat and fish can really help cut costs on your next supermarket shop. You can purchase chicken, steak, hot dogs, tuna, salmon, and even full meals such as an all day breakfast, all in a tin for convenience.

These vary in price, but are most often cheaper than buying these products fresh. Plus, you can store them in your cupboard for longer, helping you to reduce waste. Potatoes go great with most meals like Sunday roasts, and are ideal for whipping up quick meals and sides like jacket potatoes.

It's worth weighing up how many you use throughout the week, and which type you prefer, as you can then adjust your shopping list accordingly. Bread is another essential item on most people's grocery shopping list, so it's no surprise it's made it on our list! Starting at less than 70p a loaf in supermarkets, it's a cheap and tasty carbohydrate, which can be used for sandwiches, toast, baking, and more.

You can pick up bread even cheaper if you visit a supermarket first thing in the morning or last thing at night when yellow stickers offers are available, and can also freeze bread to make it last longer.

If you love to bake or take sugar in your tea or coffee, this is another cupboard must-have. Sugar is super cheap in most supermarkets, costing less than 50p in some stores. So it's definitely worth having a pack, just in case! Speaking of tea and coffee, these are two other essentials to keep stocked up on.

These don't have to be by expensive brands either. Value versions of both tea and coffee can be quite cheap, costing less than £2 for a pack.

What goes better with tea and coffee than biscuits?? Whether you fancy treating yourself or your guests, you can stock up on biscuits like bourbons or custard creams for as little as 50p! Rice pudding may sound like a random thing to keep in your cupboard, but at less than 70p a tin, it's a great, budget-friendly dessert option for both adults and children!

In addition to tinned meat, fruits, and vegetables, tinned soup is also another staple, which can help you hit your five a day target. Soups such as tomato or chicken are around 50p a tin and are perfect for a quick lunch or tea. Buying frozen berries eliminates all the frustrations.

And usually they are cheaper than their fresh counterparts! Whether we are using them for a quick pancake topping, a quick milkshake or smoothie, we always have frozen strawberries on hand with our staple pantry items. This sounds like an odd staple, but we start nearly every dinner with these two items in our crock pot or frying pan.

Choose green peppers because they are your cheapest option over the other colors. Onions add great flavor to every meal, without adding much extra cost for the healthy pantry staples for families. We use lemon juice for cleaning, but there are so many recipes that call for it as well!

Lemon juice has a long shelf life, making it one of the best staple pantry items. This is a great base for making your own homemade salad dressings. Where you aware that half a cup of white vinegar can be used instead of laundry softener or as a replacement for Jet Dry in your dishwasher?

Who knew?! Coconut Oil Coconut oil has about a gazillion uses! It has a higher burn point than butter making it a great choice for frying anything when you cook.

It has become one of our most used staple pantry items. No fresh ones, no frozen ones… then Onion Powder can come to your rescue!

I am constantly using this as a substitute for fresh onion! And I do the same with Garlic Powder! Baking powder is a must for baking from scratch!

It is always on hand in my pantry. Baking soda is an important ingredient that can be used for cleaning and deodorizing around the home. I buy it by the huge bag full because it is the only product that truly gets the smell out of my laundry.

With three boys, all in sports, we have a lot of stinky clothing to use it on! Make sure you choose the unsweetened variety of cocoa powder so that you can add your own sweetener and make it as sweet or not for your liking. For baking, cocoa powder is a must-have because so many chocolate-based treats start with cocoa powder.

This is a cake made in one minute in the microwave I substitute the sugar for a Stevia sweetener. Oats Oats are so versatile, they can be ground and used as a flour, as filler for meatloaves to reduce the meat, baked in cookies or simply made as a breakfast staple, as it is often done in our home.

Flour is always a great staple to have on hand. Most recipes, especially baking ones, will call for some amount of flour. I keep this low-carb, gluten-free one always on hand and ready for my baking needs. Sugar or Sweetener You know I love my coffee super sweet, but besides using it in coffee, sugar is also obviously used in baking as well as beauty and cleaning products.

Rice is a super inexpensive side dish to fill those growing kids! We also use it to add filler to meat dishes so that they go farther, therefore, saving us money. Pasta Pasta is easily one of the most frugal and filling meals you can make! Peanut butter as a staple pantry items can be used to make protein balls, fudge, and even a filling sandwich for lunch.

If you miss the sweet with the salty the jelly , you could pair it with an inexpensive banana, honey, or as my Dad likes to eat it… with butter. Popcorn is an inexpensive snack to keep on hand for those moments when you just want to munch, without it costing an arm and a leg!

We make popcorn on the stove in minutes, or in a brown bag version in the microwave too. Popcorn is our best pantry staples for cheap snacks. We do this all the time! Tortillas are super versatile, and you can even freeze them for later, making them a great pantry staple to stock up on!

Fajitas, quesadillas, and soft tacos are all great inexpensive meal options that use tortillas. As you can see, we keep a number of different staple pantry items in our home at all times to make sure that our home is well stocked for easy meals.

I hope that this list has not only inspired you to stock your pantry as well but that you give it a try! Because I believe everyone has the power to live a life of abundance regardless of their income level.

Share Pin Bouillion Paste For years I overlooked this little gem of an ingredient.

DRIED HERBS | SPICES CHICKEN STOCK | BOUILLON VINEGAR

Bargain-priced kitchen staples - PASTA DRIED HERBS | SPICES CHICKEN STOCK | BOUILLON VINEGAR

Bulk dark chocolate lasts about two years, as long as it's stored away from light and heat. It may turn gray but will be perfectly fine once it's melted into tasty chocolate goodies.

Don't stock up on baking powder or baking soda unless you bake daily or use the latter for other purposes, such as freshening the fridge or brushing teeth.

After about six months, the leavening power starts to wane. Related: 36 Common Substitutes for Cooking and Baking Ingredients. Oils often cost a pretty penny, so stock up when they're on special. Opt for several smaller bottles rather than oversize bottles or cans.

Although unopened oil keeps for two to three years, once the top is popped, it can go rancid more quickly. Keeping olive oil in the fridge can extend the life of an open bottle for at least a year. The oil might become cloudy and thick, but the taste won't be affected.

With nut oils sesame, walnut, grape seed , expect six to eight months before they start to go bad — even in the fridge. Heat and light are the enemies, so if you must keep oil by the stove, put it into small containers that will be emptied quickly.

For more great meal ideas and grocery tips, please sign up for our free newsletters. Nuts contain oil and, like oils, can turn rancid and taste funny. The life expectancy of nuts stored in the pantry is just a few weeks, but they last up to a year in the freezer.

Processed nut butters, such as peanut butter, last longer in the pantry than nuts — up to a year for an unopened jar and a few months after opening. Natural nut butters without preservatives have a shorter shelf life and should be stored in the fridge after opening, for up to six months.

It's sometimes worthwhile to buy those giant containers of herbs and spices when you find a good deal. Dried, whole leaf herbs such as thyme, oregano, and rosemary retain their flavor for up to three years, but anything ground or powdered has a much shorter shelf life. Keep dried herbs far from light, heat, and dampness but never in the fridge, where they might absorb odors.

Salt lasts indefinitely, and whole peppercorns hold their potency for a few years. Keep both away from moisture. Other whole spices, such as cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon sticks, maintain flavor for a long time but rarely go on sale.

Mustard, ketchup, horseradish, sriracha, and other condiments go on sale frequently and stay potent for at least six months after being opened. Although salad dressings and mayonnaise should be used up a little more quickly once the seal is broken, unopened bottles keep for quite a while, so buy several if storage space isn't an issue.

While most dairy products have a short shelf life, there are some you should feel free to buy in bulk and freeze. Hard, semi-hard, and aged cheeses such as cheddar, Monterey Jack, and Parmesan can be frozen successfully for up to four months if you wrap them well.

It's best to grate or cook with cheese that's been frozen, rather than eat it on crackers or a sandwich. Butter freezes well and keeps for up to a year. Eggs can be frozen for up to six months, if they are scrambled lightly with a bit of salt and put into freezer containers.

When a sale hits, fill your shopping basket with frozen fruits and vegetables. Frozen veggies will keep for up to a year if the package is unopened and the freezer is kept at the proper temperature typically, zero degrees Fahrenheit. Most fresh fruit can also be frozen.

To freeze oranges, peel and divide into sections, place in freezer containers, and cover with water. Buy fresh berries when cheap and in season, then wash and freeze on a baking sheet and place in freezer bags. While canned chicken can be used for soups, salads, and, of course, dips.

Combine with a bit of breading, spices, and egg for fast and flavorful cakes or patties. Stock is a common ingredient in soups, sauces, and casseroles. You can also use chicken stock to flavor your rice or other grains and sautéed vegetables. And a bit of stock can help you stretch soups and sauces if you need a bit more for a full meal.

Peanut butter is an inexpensive and versatile ingredient because it can be used in every meal of the day. From smoothies to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to peanut butter noodles , and tons of peanut butter desserts, the jar in your pantry will certainly not go to waste.

And if you have a peanut allergy, you can substitute other nut butters, like almond butter , in many recipes. So many recipes start with oil, and for typical cooking applications, a standard olive oil is all you'll need. But buying a high-quality extra-virgin olive oil is important if you plan to make no-cook dishes, salad dressings, and sauces.

Why's that? Cheap olive oils taste like bad olives. Good oils have a bright, floral flavor that shines through what you're eating. While a higher quality oil may be a bit pricey, remember you're using teaspoons or tablespoons at a time, which stretches the cost out over dozens and dozens of meals.

Have you ever wondered why so many recipes call for garlic? It's because garlic is an aromatic ingredient it has a distinctive smell, and smell is an important factor for taste , and it's an easy way to add a ton of flavor to your meal.

There are so many ways you can add garlic to your dish based on preference and even budget — you can use fresh garlic cloves, store-bought minced garlic, or garlic powder. Fresh garlic is usually preferred, but any garlic will work to pack in the flavor. Ground meat, like beef, turkey, and chicken, is great for making a quick and easy meal.

You can make soups, casseroles, hamburger patties, and tacos with ground meat. Ground meat isn't the most inexpensive meat, especially depending on how lean you want it, but it's a good thing to buy in a bulk package and freeze for later.

And because it's so versatile, you can almost always replace one ground meat with what's on sale — like ground beef for ground turkey. Frozen vegetables are often cheaper than fresh veggies, and they last much longer. And because you can buy a bag of mixed vegetables, there are so many ways to add veggies to your meal.

You can add frozen spinach to quiche, mixed vegetables to fried rice, and corn to tortilla soup. Or you can heat up your favorite veggies and eat them as a side dish. Use limited data to select advertising.

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