Buying food on Food Stamps

I can't think of anything else except for coupon shopping. I coupon shop a lot (we are a military family) and I save a lot doing that. I will say compare prices for frozen veggies vs. canned veggies - depending on the sales, you can get all kinds Rice and beans as people say go a long way. Best of luck to you!! (BTW - If you are in need of any more assistance, I will say Catholic Charities are very helpful and are other food assistance programs locally in your area. My parents had to go through that before that's how I know)

Take care!!

I spend a little over $200 a month in groceries shopping for me and my boyfriend sometimes while he is in school. That doesn't including toiletries or my animals.

Things we stock up on: You can get 2 lbs of tilapia for around 7 and bulk salmon. I can find 6oz containers of Greek yogurt for $1. We also stock up on steam in bag frozen veggies. Other things like dried beans and brown rice make quick meals and barley is cheap and you can throw it in soup. We also get things like spinach wraps and throw beans and various other things in there for quick wraps

Also, 1 bag of dried garbanzo beans and a little tahini and garlic will make enough hummus to last us 2 weeks

Uncle bens pouch rice in the rice section
Canned tuna fish
Eggs
Already chopped up assorted fresh fruit
Shrimp! The frozen kind ah gotta love it !
Tyson's grilled and ready chicken breasts or tenderloins
Peppercorn / turkey/ BBQ Holmes pork tenderloin -stick it in the oven with some foil and u can refrigerate e rest.
Packaged and already portioned ceaser salad brand - market street u can add the Purdue grilled short cuts chicken to this yum
Pico -brand market street
Mini digorno pizzas 650 for one entire thing to yourself
Healthy choice topchef frozen TV dinners.. These things are delicious
Stoufers singles example. Stuffed pepper
Almond milk -yummy
Yoplait light yogurts- Boston cream is bomb! I swear lol
^^^all at your local walmart^^
Shoprite
Microwaveable sweet potatoes in the produce section
Hummus shoprite brand - has less calories then be name brands
Fit and easy Purdue raw chicken usually at Walmart or shoprite even a hearts I believe.
Any canned soup by select harvest is delicious

Al I can come up with for now lol - good luck love ❤????

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

If you have a Whole Foods nearby, believe it or not, they do have a program to help people on a budget learn how to afford to eat healthy. Look on their website, or give them a call.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:-)

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

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.

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.