Buying food on Food Stamps

hesn92

Buy a bunch of frozen chicken in bulk. I buy a 3lb bag for somewhere between $5 and $10..

rcthale

Wow, that's a tight budget! My list is probably the same as others':

Dry beans, rice, oats, pasta enriched with fiber with plain canned tomato sauce (salt and olive oil is all the flavoring you need on a budget), eggs, and frozen vegetables to avoid wasteful spoilage.

If you want treats, get yourself a good cookie recipe. Brownies are also easy to make once you know the ingredients.

Animal protein is the most expensive healthy food. If you can swing by the store every few days, get whatever clearance meat you can use and get it into your freezer.

brainfreeze72

I just recently started buying the dry beans, they are cheaper and go further AND have less sodium. I make a big pot of vegetarian chili and portion some out for now and some out for freezing for later. I also buy whole chickens and cook them in a rotisserie oven. You could also roast it in a regular oven. It serves my family of 3 and I have leftovers to make chicken salad, soup and/or chicken pot pie for another couple of meals. I know fresh fruits and veggies can get expensive, a better alternative to canned is frozen. If you must get canned then rinse the veggies to reduce the sodium. Canned veggies usually use extra salt as a preservative.

tinamwaits

It has already been said, but crockpots are GREAT! I use mine three or four times a week. I am also single with no kids and I can put 3 frozen chicken breasts (I buy the 5 pound bag at walmart for around 10 bucks) in the crockpot with some chicken stock and opion soup mix for 6-8 hours and then shred and chicken and add brown rice. I have it with some frozen veggies. It's really cheap to make and it makes four meals usually.

brainfreeze72

Oh my gosh, and how could I forget, Oatmeal! I get the regular old Quaker Oats type that you have to cook. I boil a cup of water and add it to 1/2 cup of oats, a tablespoon of brown sugar and a 1/4 cup of raisins, cover and let it sit for 5 minutes. A nice filling breakfast for cheap AND it's good for you. My husband is diabetic so he skips the raisins and we use Splenda brown sugar blend but that's a bit pricey on a budget.

If you like Fettuccine Alfredo you can make a great Alfredo yourself sauce using skim milk, flour and garlic powder. I found it via google but you can inbox me for the recipe. We have that with a garden salad once in a while.

cheekylemur

In addition to the farmer's market suggestions, for next year you might want to check in your area for a CSA (community supported agriculture). I belong to one of the larger/older farm share programs in my area, and mine and some others also accept food stamps.

They vary a lot in what they offer, but boxes of fresh fruit and vegetables are standard. Mine also has organic pasture-raised local cheese and meat available (both tend to be healthier than the grocery store versions). They also tend to offer recipes or cooking suggestions for some of the odder produce, but it definitely encourages me to try a variety of healthy things without being tempted to fall back on processed food at the store because I'm feeling uninspired.

I split a share with another household, which is plenty for me.

bms34b

I've never been on food stamps, but I'm a student and money is very, very tight.

Breakfast foods:
aldi cottage cheese
aldi eggs
aldi skim milk
aldi bread + aldi slice of american cheese + egg + salsa, DELICIOUS
instant oatmeal, best choice
produce = try to get on sale from flyers, or Trader Joe's if there is one close. shop seasonally. right now gourds, things like spaghetti squash, and apples are pretty cheap

Lunch/Dinner: If you have to pack, the bread and lunch meat and cheese from aldi is pretty cheap. I do that plus cheap aldi granola bars, fruit snacks, and seasonal fruit, and I'm good to go.

If you get to eat and cook for yourself, go with brown rice! brown rice plus chicken (frozen breasts bought in bulk), plus pasta sauce or cheapish stew that comes in cans is a delicious and cheap and nutritious meal. I recently bought 5 cans, 24oz, of beef stew for 1.40 each at Aldi.


You can do this! Good for you!!

MrsDrk

I don't have a ton to add to this except, I totally understand the small freezer situation! You can freeze soup in freezer baggies- they freeze completely flat and you can stack many this way. You can thaw them by just plopping the frozen baggie into a pot of rolling boiling water and give it a few min to finish.

If you haven't yet, try Skinnyms.com and http://www.skinnytaste.com/ for recipes. I have made a lot of the soups on skinnytaste and omit spices if I do not have them on hand because those can be VERY pricey. I have 3 kids and a husband to feed and we ate for a week just doubling one of those soup recipes. They loved the potato stews, anything with cheese, and the chicken pot pie soup. All the recipes are low cal, low fat, and some are gluten free- if that is what you need.

The key to eating healthy on a tight budget is just plan, plan, plan and take one day a week to cook for the rest of the week (or two!). It is VERY possible to eat well and at a lower price tag than eating junk.

MyPaperBleedsInk

Coupon, coupon, coupon.
It'll make your food stamps go further. As a cashier, I see soo many people on food stamps buying unhealthy junk, and if I know the people personally and know that they're trying to be healthy, I hear the main excuse being that healthy food is expensive. And no, not all of it is. And if you coupon, it definitely helps.

anemoneprose

All the advice is good - just want to say, you can make a little meat go a long way, and it can help make bean dishes, soups and salads more filling. Stews (curries, etc) are beloved by people everywhere for this reason.

Eg - 200 grams of ham (about 7 oz) can be put into 4 meals (50g each). With that, I threw 1 portion into a mushroom soup. Another portion went on top of pasta with asparagus. Got a sandwich and omelette out of the other two; could have thrown it on top of a salad.

If you make a (chicken, beef, pork) roast on Sunday, you can have it in sandwiches, salads etc for a couple of days. (Or freeze a bit and do the same, so you're not sick of the taste, and have more ready-made options later.)

A crock pot isn't essential, I've never used one.

Second freezing single-serving soup in baggies - takes up hardly any space.

For vegetables, I think frozen's cheapest, usually, but check coupons.

redheaddee

If you have a yard, a garden is both cheap and exercise. Seed packets are $1-1.50, but if you are in an apartment, pots and dirt will cost you a wee bit more. Worth the initial investment by far! I have planted kohlrabi for example, which is easily $2-3 or more per root. ME = $1.25 for a seed packet from Lowe's, which will easily produce a dozen roots.

lilacsun

I didn't see this yet, but Oatmeal for breakfast is a great stable. Filling and healthy.

I add a tablespoon peanut butter and it gives me a lot of protein and keeps me full until lunch. I like to shop at walmart for produce. I do price matches with store ads from stores within 50 miles. They even match Aldi and Save a Lot prices for vegies and fruits. Anything on sale in the other stores weekly ads. Just look up walmarts price match and coupon guidelines and follow them. I write my price matches on paper: store, product, price. Separate my matches tell the cashier I have price matches and read them off one by one as they ring them in. Weekly ads for most stores can quickly be found on line just type in store name weekly ad. You can clip coupons and use them with price matches also. Good luck:-)

meshashesha2012

most stores accept ebt cards (regular grocery stores, Trader joes and whole foods included) and unfortunately i've seen that some fast food places do as well

many farmers markets do as well and you can buy things like seeds

i primarily shop at Trader joe so back when i was unemployed and getting help it was perfect because the price is pretty cheap. their frozen chicken thigh for $7 is a great deal.

Jazmyn28

Food stamps or not its all about working with a $200 budget doesn't matter how you pay for it

My favorite grocery store is Kroger every $100 you spend you get 10¢ off gas

I get the store brand because its usually cheaper and they do a lot of 10 for 10

They have Purdue chicken breast with different seasonings individually packaged so you can thaw what you need its about $6
If I were you I'd just look around and think of "Meals"

I hope this helps a bit

HockeyFan1987

I don't know anything about how food stamps work, since I'm canadian, but this might help:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/healthy-eating-on-a-budget/package/index.html

It's just a set amount of money you get to spend on food every month. For me it's $200.00 every month

HockeyFan1987

Food stamps or not its all about working with a $200 budget doesn't matter how you pay for it

My favorite grocery store is Kroger every $100 you spend you get 10¢ off gas

I get the store brand because its usually cheaper and they do a lot of 10 for 10

They have Purdue chicken breast with different seasonings individually packaged so you can thaw what you need its about $6
If I were you I'd just look around and think of "Meals"

I hope this helps a bit

Jazmyn, I love Kroeger, sadly I don't have one near me. I live in Pennsylvania. When I worked at Cedar Point in 2008, I shopped there nearly every week

HockeyFan1987

To everyone:

Thank you so far for all of your suggestions. As I have been busy doing other things this evening I have not been able to keep up with all the posts, but I will go through them. Keep them coming!

Again, it is a $200.00 budget for just myself (no girlfriend, no kids) every month.

Thanks again,
Adam

maremare312

mfpcopine, I'm perfectly content asking people on here. I'd rather get information from those that are or have been in this situation and are using this site instead of relying on google. If I wanted to rely on Google for all of my information about weight loss, I wouldn't have joined this site.

I made a reasonable suggestion; I'm not going to apologize for it.

Honestly, any question on this website could be answered by telling the OP to google it, so that's never very helpful.

weepingwillowtrees

I love nuts and seeds. If you do not have a health food store near you, then you can always buy the bags at the local grocery store. 1/4 a cup would be a good serving size and while it may not seem like much, it fills you up fast and stays with you. If the sodium is too much for your daily intake, then simply wash off with water. works for me anyway

VelociMama

Dry beans and rice go a LONG way and are nutritious and cheap. Try to shop sales as much as possible (buy one-get one deals and stock up on non-perishable foods). You can even stock up on perishables that you can freeze or can for later use (bread, veggies, fruit, and meat). Bread can be refrigerated or frozen then used later. It lasts much longer this way. To defrost, just let it sit on your countertop until room temp.

I second the suggestion of investing in a slow cooker. You can make a lot of food without a lot of effort and either freeze or refrigerate the leftovers for meals later in the week.

When I was in college, I was living on a pauper's budget for food too.