Only have $150 a month for food, help!
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If you buy root vegetables like potatoes or onions you are going to want some old socks and/or panty hose. In a dark and dry space you will want to hang each item individually so that they do not touch and stay perfectly dry. This will extend their "shelf" life. If you can't you will need to cook them a little sooner. Storing vegetables in the fridge means keeping moisture from staying in constant contact with the vegetables too.
I am sure there are plenty of videos with buying guides for fruits and vegetables to avoid over-ripe items that won't keep for long.3 -
In general, carbs and fat are relatively cheap, and protein is more expensive. Dried beans are cheap (and if you have a crock pot, it's pretty easy to cook them). They also freeze well. Eggs, tuna, peanut butter, and frozen chicken may also be affordable. Depending on what's available where you live, tofu may or may not be affordable.
Buy frozen veggies if fresh ones are too expensive or if you won't eat all the fresh produce before it spoils. There's nothing wrong with frozen vegetables.
If you have money for a few spices, they can help a lot with boredom. You can make essentially the same dish taste very different depending on what spices you put in it. Some spices can be expensive, but you can often find generic brands of basic spices.2 -
Hey, you can do this! I budget $200 a month for two adults currently, and at one time I budgeted almost half of that, when times were really tough.
One thing that helps a lot is if you aren't afraid of eating the same thing every day. For example I eat oatmeal (purchased in the big tub) with 2 Tablespoons of peanut butter, every single day for breakfast. Another example, I'll make a big pot of chili and eat it every night for a week. It sounds boring, but as you become better at planning you can learn to incorporate more variety and freeze leftovers.
Another thing that helps me budget is to go to the grocery store no more often than once a week. Yes, sometimes my meals are weird odds and ends, but I don't care.5 -
I've done it, but I'll admit it was hard - can't lie about that. I've lived on less, and that just sucked LOL.
Things I would invest in:
Rice - super cheap carb and goes a long ways, and you prepare it with lots of things in a variety of ways.
Pasta and sauce - $3 of sauce and pasta could easily be turned into 4+ meals with some protein on the side.
Meats - Find your store's clearance section. Bring it home and if you don't cook it right away, freeze it immediately so it doesn't spoil - I often could find screaming deals, but had to learn what days they filled the clearance section
-Also, buy bulk sales, divide into double baggies, and freeze. You can wash and reuse your baggies if you need to for your budget
Veggies - Again, sales, bulk, local produce stands, or just finding which stores have the best deals on veggies. When I was on a super tight budget this was the meal element I felt I had to cut back on the most compared to how much of it I *prefer* to eat. I can easily eat a full bag of frozen veggies in one meal - when I was on a strict budget I had to stretch that through several meals at least.
Finally, dig through your cupboards and freezer once every couple months. Make it a challenge to live on what you have stashed in there for a week! I actually got pretty creative and found some tasty things I would have never thought to throw together doing this.2 -
SaraLynnFiske wrote: »
My 150 budget is from SNAP thank you for the suggestion!
Depending on your area there might be a farmer's market that offers double your dollar, extra credits, etc. for spending SNAP dollars. Of course depending on prices this might not be cheaper than the grocery store, but for in-season produce it might be worth investigating!
ETA I used to use a website called Budget Bytes when my food budget was pretty close to what you have and it helped a lot. For me so much of the challenge in having a small budget was getting bored of eating the same things over and over and Budget Bytes is great for inspiration.2 -
Chopped cabbage (or cauliflower, but cabbage tends to be even cheaper), onions, vegetable oil and the cheapest ground meat can be combined with a variety of spices for different flavorings. While cabbage is cheap, if you need more calories, add rice or serve on the side.
Add ginger, soy sauce and maybe some sweetener for Chinese
Add tomato sauce, salt and pepper for cabbage rolls
Add salt, cumin and red pepper (or hot sauce) for Mexican, bonus if you have some raisins to throw in
Add salt, pepper, oregano and red pepper (or hot sauce) for New Orleans
Add salt, pepper and tumeric or curry powder for South East Asian
Corn tortillas are generally one of the cheapest foods that can hold other foods. Veggie quesadillas make a well rounded meal, serve with beans to make it even more filling. For breakfast, make an egg taco. Bake or fry the tortilla for a crunchy tostada if you need some texture variety.
Add veggies and scrambled eggs to ramen noodles.
Spices seem overwhelming? Buy them one at a time. Cooking for one, they will last and you will gradually add variety to your meals without necessarily changing up the main ingredients.
Go check out your local food pantry. My parents volunteer at one where most people won't try the new things that get donated: you can make out like a bandit by being curious!
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It’s a really great grocery store in MA. I think the furthest west they go is Athol and oxford, so not out by Springfield (if that’s where you are), but if you’re as far west as say....brimfield in the south or greenfield/Deerfield in the north, you could probably do it. You can literally save 20-25% there and the quality is just as good as a stop n shopSaraLynnFiske wrote: »
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Do you have WinCo Foods near you? Their produce section is great and their prices on almost everything are equivalent to Walmart. I often shop at Walmart and find their produce to be just fine most of the time. Buy store brands most of the time. Things like canned tomatoes, canned and dry beans, rice, oatmeal, frozen veggies and potatoes....all exactly the same quality in the store brand, sometimes even better than the big brand name. I've found very few things you need to stick with the brand name on. Another trick I use is to find things in the meat case that are marked down because they have to be sold that day. As long as the color looks okay, they're not leaking, and they smell okay, I take them home and either cook them that day or put them in the freezer. You can save 50% or more on meat this way.2
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a lot of churches, usually larger ones but not always, have certain days of the week or month that have food pantries. Go to that. See what you can get for FREE, then build around it. Start making some calls. If they dont have one, they will know who DOES.
A lot of time, they more or less coordinate with each other so that there is one every week or every two weeks (thats what the ones in my area did).
I had a friend who ran the one for her church (BIG church) and every week she would bring us a box just to be nice. didnt need it (budget wise), but they had more than enough and we certainly appreciated it. I often had fresh veggies and baked goods for the week. Sometimes a random birthday cake LOLOL
Again, see what local resources are out there, and work around that. Then, make what you can in bulk and freeze it and eat on it as you want it. Stew, soup, chili, casseroles.... all that can be made and frozen into smaller servings.
My son and I can eat on a roast chicken for $6 from the grocery store for several days, in various meals.1 -
I only buy non perishables on sale and stock up when I do (nothing crazy, but 1 or 2 extra cans/boxes).
My main sources of protein are chicken breast (I don't pay over $1.99 a lb, means shopping around a little sometimes) and ground turkey. I mostly buy frozen veggies unless there's a great sale or something is in season. We have tacos a couple times a week (counting leftovers), pasta at least once a week... Breakfast can be cereal or eggs and toast.
I often go to 2/3 different stores to find the cheap stuff.3 -
Also there is a food bank near me that has a once a week program with no qualifying or restrictions, where anyone can come and buy a food box for $20 using cash or SNAP. It's guaranteed to be worth $40 if you purchased it at a store. I used it for a couple years when things got bad for us financially but not bad enough that we qualified for anything besides WIC. There was a basic makeup to each box including frozen meats, canned goods, etc and they always had extras like bread, sometimes dairy, extra meats, "fresh" veggies that maybe weren't in the greatest shape but hey, they're free at that point. So check and see if there is anything like that near you.1
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I discovered ALDI and Lidl in my area. For staples they are super cheap - bread, milk, eggs, canned items, crackers, pretzels, tortillas, etc I don’t buy anything name brand and stick to the store brand.
I’m leaning towards ALDI being consistently cheaper than Lidl. I hit Lidl for their loss leaders. For instance sliced cheese was on sale for .71 last week.
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do you have a free farmers market in your community? We do here on the central coast where they have specific days you can get whatever you want, lots of fresh veggis, fruits, canned goods;-)
i Have lived on that for myself and 3 children, of course find out all the sales and build on that, 99cent stores have all the rice, beans, canned tomatoes and fresh veggies and fruit,, helps that most of my kiddos meals they had at school , but evenings and weekends...1 -
Do you have an aldi? You can buy staples from there for very cheap. Well actually everything there is cheap.
Rice and beans
Oatmeal (in the large canister)
Eggs
Frozen or canned veggies
Frozen chicken breasts or find meat that’s close to the expiration date and on sale
Whole chicken. You could cook that in a crock pot and make a few meals with thr meat, and make chicken stock with the bones..
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Most of the advice I would give has been given.
Here are a couple of threads from the debate forum where people give a lot of ideas and menus on eating healthfully for very little money. You might want to give them a glance.
Why is it more expensive to eat healthier?
Is veganism only possible with enough money?
I want to plug beans really quickly. I spent roughly 5 dollars on dried beans and lentils last time I shopped (navy beans, chickpeas, and two bags of lentils) and have thus far eaten a wide variety of dishes built around them. Beans don't have to mean plain beans, or chili, or burritos, not that there's anything wrong with those.
I've eaten a minestrone with a tomato broth, navy beans, potatoes, and frozen kale that was super cheap, a take on chicken piccata made with chickpeas that was delicious, a lentil, lemon, and greens soup, and a lentil and tomato stew. I got multiple meals out of all of them, still have leftovers of them in the fridge AND still have more cooked chickpeas and navy beans. Tomorrow I'm making a chickpea curry and a spiced lentil coconut milk soup. And although I definitely added other ingredients, like the lemons I used in the piccata and the soup, the potatoes that went into the minestrone and the stew, and the frozen greens that went into the soups and under the piccata, it's all based around that 5 dollar bean purchase, and they've all been different, even though I made my ingredients multitask. Beans are incredibly versatile. And incredibly cheap.3 -
Start with making a limited meal plan.
Low budget menu planning and recipes:
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/40dollarmenu.htm
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/70dollarmenu.htm
http://www.budgetbytes.com
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2013/03/35-meatless-meals.html
http://www.meatlessmonday.com/favorite-recipes/
http://www.lentils.org/recipes-cooking/recipes/
Some MFP threads you may find useful:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10518784/healthy-food-choice-on-a-budget/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10500423/costing-a-lot-more-money-to-eat-healthier/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10490067/most-healthy-food-options-are-very-expensive-and-im-on-a-very-poor-budget-what-to-do/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10614805/need-quick-cheap-nutritious-food#latest
Low budget friendly foods where I live are oatmeal, tuna, whole chicken or chicken thighs, dry beans, lentils, rice, pasta, bread, peanut butter, eggs, potatoes, carrots, apples, ground turkey, cabbage, onions, canned tomatoes, canned vegetables, canned fruit, frozen vegetables, flour, powdered milk.
Buy produce in season. Look at what is on sale before you go if you can. Buy store brand or generic versions.
A big pot of bean or lentil soup is very economical.2 -
Also, this cookbook is written for a similar budget and is a free download: https://www.leannebrown.com/cookbooks/1
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I get $35.00 2 week for food for myself.
70% of my diet is Vegtables because they are inexpensive, I make soups/ stews. I get a entire 2weeks worth of food that gives me 2bowls a day of soup/stew. I make my own flatbread, (wheat flour, salt and water). and I can freeze it until I want to eat it. You can replace any of these items with other vegtables. I also do this with Fruits, you can make fruit soups or stews.
1 large onions
2 bell peppers
1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole). I can not have tomatoes so I don't use this.
5 Carrots
1 bunch celery
1 small cabbage
3 medium zucchini (optional). I use Squash~
1 package Lipton Onion Soup mix
Season to taste with pepper, parsley, garlic and onion powder. You can use any spices that you like. Don't limit yourself.
Put water in pan fill it up bring to a boil. place in your veggies you like or soup bones. You can ask the store if they have soup bones most will just give them to you! others will have you pay $3.00.
NOTE: I dice or put my veggies in a food processor to grind up. it makes more soup and I puree' them. The bigger chunks the less food you will get a week. If you dice you get 2 weeks worth.
You can buy dried beans, soak them over night and then make a 16bean soup, add ham hocks, this will give you 2weeks of soups. You can put what ever veggies you want in them. Its all up to you and what you like.
You can go to Wiki and look up Soups find the ones you like, You can do the same with Stew's they use potatoes most of the time.
for storage you can put them in Ziplock bags and place in the freezer until you are ready to eat them, I put them in one cup bags so I can take one out every day and put in the microwave.
Last a Bowl of Oatmeal is inexpensive! This is all I live on. I make all my meals with Veggies/ Fruits and grains, rice, beans. The one thing about the Depression in the 1920' 30's is your grandparents never out grow this kind of food once taught it is a life time eating~
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I get $35.00 2 week for food for myself.
70% of my diet is Vegtables because they are inexpensive, I make soups/ stews. I get a entire 2weeks worth of food that gives me 2bowls a day of soup/stew. I make my own flatbread, (wheat flour, salt and water). and I can freeze it until I want to eat it. You can replace any of these items with other vegtables. I also do this with Fruits, you can make fruit soups or stews.
1 large onions
2 bell peppers
1 or 2 cans of tomatoes (diced or whole). I can not have tomatoes so I don't use this.
5 Carrots
1 bunch celery
1 small cabbage
3 medium zucchini (optional). I use Squash~
1 package Lipton Onion Soup mix
Season to taste with pepper, parsley, garlic and onion powder. You can use any spices that you like. Don't limit yourself.
Put water in pan fill it up bring to a boil. place in your veggies you like or soup bones. You can ask the store if they have soup bones most will just give them to you! others will have you pay $3.00.
NOTE: I dice or put my veggies in a food processor to grind up. it makes more soup and I puree' them. The bigger chunks the less food you will get a week. If you dice you get 2 weeks worth.
You can buy dried beans, soak them over night and then make a 16bean soup, add ham hocks, this will give you 2weeks of soups. You can put what ever veggies you want in them. Its all up to you and what you like.
You can go to Wiki and look up Soups find the ones you like, You can do the same with Stew's they use potatoes most of the time.
for storage you can put them in Ziplock bags and place in the freezer until you are ready to eat them, I put them in one cup bags so I can take one out every day and put in the microwave.
Last a Bowl of Oatmeal is inexpensive! This is all I live on. I make all my meals with Veggies/ Fruits and grains, rice, beans. The one thing about the Depression in the 1920' 30's is your grandparents never out grow this kind of food once taught it is a life time eating~
You are my hero0 -
So many great tips and links in this thread.
With some planning and avoiding wasting any food, that should be a pretty doable target to meet. I spend $140-200 a month on food, but I’m usually in the $140-160 range. I used to spend a lot more. I still buy my fav name brands, spring water, and I don’t even feel like I’m eating cheaply. The main things I’ve changed are buying family packs of meat (saves a lot of money), not letting food go to waste before I can get to it, buying few prepared or frozen meals, and regularly eating several cheap staples that I enjoy (mixed with some more pricey meals during the month too).
For examples of cheap staples, the website budgetbytes has been mentioned. I highly rec checking it out. Her recipes are great!
If you eat meat, what I do for that is buy the family pack, cook it a up with basic seasoning, and then portion the meat out in 3 or 4 oz servings that I freeze. This brings down the cost per serving considerably and also makes life easier having it ready to go for various dishes.
If you like eggs, frittatas and egg bakes are relatively cheap and can be filled with tasty flavors you enjoy.
If you like oatmeal, that’ll help you a lot! So cheap per serving. Various ways that I love to eat it:
-topped with defrosted mixed berries
- half a serving of Nutella stirred in
- a serving of peanut butter stirred in
- salt, butter, and 1 or 2 fried eggs
I eat a lot of beans, but I use canned for convenience. I’ve found that route cheap enough for this budget.
I’m starting a PhD program in the fall, and I’d like to get my food budget even lower then due to expensive rent in my new city. So I’ll probably use dry beans at that point.
I eat pasta more often than rice, although I do LOVE me some rice and beans and burrito bowls. For pasta, it’s a little more expensive but I find the high protein kind worth it bc it fills me up more. A pretty cheap and tasty dinner to me is spaghetti with white beans, Parmigiano reggiano, greens (spinach or kale), and olive oil. It can be done for about $2 a serving, cheaper if using frozen spinach.
I used to regularly buy frozen foods like Kashi and Amy’s etc. Those can take a big bite of a budget. Eliminating those or just getting one very rarely helped me save a lot of money. Nowadays, the only frozen things I regularly buy are fruit and veg and ice cream.
I buy some pricey items where cheaper alternatives are available, like Irish butter, expensive milk, and Eggland’s Best eggs. I strongly prefer these and they fit in the budget. Not all items need to be really inexpensive to meet $150.
Good luck! If you don’t mind updating, I’d love to hear about how things go.
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