low budget and food shelf tips

echastee92

It seems like I eat more carbs than I'd like because carbs are generally cheaper to buy for me and the food shelf gives me a lot of carbs. I'd like suggestions on cheap healthy foods or even a grocery list that I could use next time I go shopping. I am on a budget of $100 per month or even less for food. Poverty sucks. But I want to make the best of it. So any tips are really appreciated.

Edit: Also, I am allergic to soy to some degree. I can have some forms, but not all. I can't always tell what's going to cause a reaction but it's never life threatening. I just thought I'd add that.

kommodevaran

You can't be picky - more carbs than you like is a concept you have to lose. A healthy diet is balanced and varied, and the biggest saving you can do, is to not buy anything you're not going to eat, don't throw anything edible out, and make sure nothing edible becomes inedible. So this means that you have to do a lot yourself: learn how to spot a cheap food, how to compose a balanced diet, how to cook - look at what you get for your dollar, and plan meals you like and want to eat, plan to use up everything in time after it's opened, prepare it correctly, and eat it up.

Look for this: Frozen vegetables, frozen berries, fresh fruit like apples, oranges, bananas. Low-perishable vegetables like potatoes, onions and carrots. Depending on what you receive, make sure you have a selection of dry goods like beans, pasta, rice, flour, oatmeal, canned goods like beans and tomatoes. Eggs and cheaper cuts of meat like chicken and pork. Canned tuna, sardines. Milk, butter, yoghurt, oil. Nuts and nut butters. Marked down items.

Avoid or be skeptical to this: Organic, health food, kids' foods, precut, preportioned, readymeals, soda, juice, supplements.

NoxeemaJackson

Dry beans are a nutrient powerhouse and so cheap.
Eggs for your protein - again, they are cheap $$$wise, and great protein.

Check out this cookbook! It's eating healthy on SNAP.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/08/01/337141837/cheap-eats-cookbook-shows-how-to-eat-well-on-a-food-stamp-budget

TeaBea

Cheap sources of protein - canned tuna, whole eggs, ground turkey, chicken, cottage cheese, yogurt or milk.

Lentils & beans are great sources too. Soak your own, and save money.

RodaRose

Frozen and canned fruits and veggies. Dried beans: pinto beans, black beans, chickpeas, lentils

Sample grocery list:
http://www.frugalfarmwife.com/article/our-40-weekly-grocery-budget-for-a-family-of-four/

NoxeemaJackson

What do they have at the food shelf?
And actually any canned fish is really good protein, like sardines and anchovies.
My husband LOVES them (in water or mustard) there's a thread actually where people are singing the praises of canned fish.
It's great nutrition for the $$, and, apparently, people LOVE the stuff.
My husband buys it all the time.
Here's some info on canned fish:
https://oldwayspt.org/blog/holy-mackerel-why-you-should-be-eating-more-canned-seafood

NoxeemaJackson

Oh and when you do get meats, you can save $ mby getting the cheaper cuts and making them into stew in the crockpot - you can look those recipes up - all sorts of them out there for making cheap, nutritious, and easy meals in a crockpot

Hearts_2015

Food banks, food pantries, if you go to University they often offer help to students. Google and see what comes up, there's lot of help out there for low income/no income. A person just needs to know where to look in their area.

Buy in bulk, prepare your own food rather than buying them prepared, as some of shared, soak your beans and cook them yourself in a crock pot or stove top. Someone mentioned eggs they are so cheap right now...Super Target has them at .32 cents for a dozen. I thought it was a sale but they are that price every week. I ask and that's the regular price for the store. Which makes me wonder why other stores have been selling them for $2.99?

There's been a number of other threads that are on this topic that have ended up having lots of great ideas shared. If you get a chance you might want to look over those as well. One can never get to many tips and ideas on saving money.

FireOpalCO

Hearts_2015 wrote: »

Food banks, food pantries, if you go to University they often offer help to students. Google and see what comes up, there's lot of help out there for low income/no income. A person just needs to know where to look in their area.

Buy in bulk, prepare your own food rather than buying them prepared, as some of shared, soak your beans and cook them yourself in a crock pot or stove top. Someone mentioned eggs they are so cheap right now...Super Target has them at .32 cents for a dozen. I thought it was a sale but they are that price every week. I ask and that's the regular price for the store. Which makes me wonder why other stores have been selling them for $2.99?

Ask yourself what they are feeding the chickens that they can afford to sell the eggs that cheap.

FireOpalCO

Frozen will definitely give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to produce. Eggs are awesome and can be dressed a lot of different ways: scrambled with cheese, omelet with mushrooms and onions, etc. Ground beef or turkey. Definitely do dried beans and not canned. It will save you a fortune to cook them yourself and will taste better.

sgt1372

Do you have a Dollar Store in your area?

My Dollar Store sells a 7 oz (4oz net) can of sardines (twice as large as the standard tin for just $1 which will provide about 26g of protein. Can't beat that anywhere.

They also sell canned salmon and mackersl but the price to protein ratio isn't as good. Lots of staples, like pasta, soups, condiments, bleach, dish soap, etc are also sold for just $1@.

The price is so low I often buy certain items that I know I'll use by the dozen. Also help that there's no sales tax charged on "food" sales in my state.

Janice6543

Dried beans and lentils. Buy bulk chicken and ground beef when on sale at Costco, put into individual servings and freeze.

gkirbyw

Buy a whole chicken, roast it and it will serve 4-6 portions AT LEAST. Alternatively frozen chicken breasts can come quite cheap.

Make huge meals and portion them out and freeze them. You can easily get 4-6 portions out of one pan-ful.

Stew x 4 -Tinned/carton tomatoes, tinned beans(kidney, canneloni etc), chickpeas. Make stews and change up ingredients. one day have chicken and carrot and chickpea, another day make it spicier and have kidney beans and sausages. serve with rice or potatoes

Homemade curry x 4 - packet of rice, chicken, tin of coconut milk, tin of tomatoes, various spices/curry powder.

Jacket potato with beans.

Richmond frozen sausages are cheaper than fresh.

Frozen vegetables/fruit - peas, carrots, sweetcorn, berries, mango, garlic.

Bulk up meals with chopped onion/potato.

Cook up a big omelette/tortilla and freeze portions.

deannalfisher

i make a barley and sweet potato dish - https://www.forksoverknives.com/recipes/barley-and-sweet-potato-pilaf/

i think when all is said and done - i feed myself for close to a week at work on it for about $4 (barley is less than $2 a box, sweet potatos are about $1/lb; I dont' use the tarragon)

I find barley to be filling - i'll grab some kind of protein (depending what is on sale for a given week) and add that for a boost

echastee92

Thanks for all the suggestions everybody. I've got better ideas for my next grocery trip.

svel713

Microwave Eggs

Get microwave egg poacher for $4. Put in 2 eggs. Throw seasoning on. Microwave 1min 30s. 140 cal and delicious. I season with McCormick's Bacon Chipotle but you can use any salty seasoning.

White Rice

Cheapest starch. Make in a rice cooker. Turn on and forget. It pops when done.

Chicken Breast and Boneless Pork Loin

Get both $2/lb or under. Chicken can be bland, season properly. Pork loin fries in its light amount of fat and is easy to season, but on sale less often.

Chicken drumsticks and thighs are often 99c. Bake either with seasoning. Thighs taste better than drumsticks.

Protein Bars

At your income, they may not be a good idea. But if you want one, look for Simple Truth, Pure Protein, Premier Protein, and Luna bars. Get them $1 or less. Lenny and Larry's for $1.26/piece at Walmart if you're vegan. Good for emergency situations when you know you won't be able to get food during a long day. You can eat one before being surprised drug to an expensive dinner so that you don't give in from hunger and regrettably buy something expensive.

Beans

Chick peas (garbanzo beans) canned and dried lentils are the true bean gods.

Canned chick peas are already cooked when canned. You can eat them straight and they're pretty decent.

There are recipes to bake and/or fry them and season them to make them as snacks. Usually bake 20m, fry 2 min, season, eat.

Dry lentils are amazing because they don't have to be presoaked. Small red beans dried also cook pretty fast. Dried beans in general are 3x cheaper than canned. Just be sure to presoak the night before.

Read about dried kidney beans in specific before using them. They have a toxin that appears when slow cooked from dry. You can avoid this by buying them canned if this scares you, since canned beans are already cooked.

Beans need a lot of salt if cooked from dried. Try cheap cubed beef, chicken, and veg boullion cubes until you find ones you like. I recommend Edward and Sons Veg and chicken cubes for vegans. I use the veg one with fake chicken broth cubes or real beef broth cubes often even though I'm not vegan.

Fast Food

My #1 is Taco Bell. Their dollar menu has 180-440 cal stuff on it. Get the app to learn which add ins are free at your local Taco Bell.

Best values:

Beefy fritos burrito. Ask for it grilled. $1 for 440 cals.

Cheesy bean and rice burrito. Ask them to swap the refried beans for black beans. The swap is free. $1 for around 440 cals.

Coffee

Look for Frozen Bean coffee at Walmart. They have grande (16oz) size frappucino single serve mixes for around $1.25. Mix with milk and ice for a $1.50 grande frap. Cookies and Cream is the best.

Their other coffee mixes work good with hot water and amazing with milk. Good iced too if you just mix a bit of hot water with the powder, then add cold water and ice. I've even mixed the powder with hot tap water and it mixed well. I don't know of any other brand that is satisfying in water, however. Others are fine in just milk, though.

Veggies

There are $1 bags of mixed veg in the frozen area. Try them until you find some you like. Try to keep fresh white onion on hand if all else fails. Its good in a lot of things.

Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Cheap and portable. Throw in a ziploc bag and go. Can also be carried around with some of those snack fried chickpeas if you need to carry a lunch for up to 6 hours without refrigeration.


These are my basics. Hope they help.

dsboohead

I have eaten garbanzo bean sandwiches with mayo and love them but keeping them from rolling out of the 2 slices of bread was a challenge

dsboohead

You can do it on a budget oh yes you can!!!

stephensfmfp

Big Avocado pears (220gm) at lidl Exmouth Devon 69p