healthy grocery shopping with no money

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  • philharris1984
    philharris1984 Posts: 6
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    Buy some frozen chicken fillets, Cheap courgettes, mushrooms, red onions, yellow red & green peppers, cherry mushrooms.
    Grill the chicken, and chop the veg up roughly, stick it in an oven dish, drizzle with olive oil and dust with mixed herbs. then cook in oven for about 20 min. Absolutely lovely, and very cheap.

    Oatmeal.
    Also look into buying ingredients for home-made lentil soup. My Mrs just made some for me, and its very cheap, easy, and so good for you.
  • AngelRobbie
    AngelRobbie Posts: 153 Member
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    Bump!
  • monty619
    monty619 Posts: 1,308 Member
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    u can buy a 50lb bag of rice at costco for $15.... 50lb of rice!!
  • MizzDoc
    MizzDoc Posts: 493 Member
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    Frozen foods (try your local dollar store to see if they have a food or refrigerated section)
    Sales/ Coupons
    Bulk Buying, esp. with meats
    Dried beans
    Brown rice
    Frozen meats
    Pasta


    If you have a crock pot, please start to use it. You can make whole meals for your family that lasts two days, minimum.
  • oldmansdarlin
    oldmansdarlin Posts: 2
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    I don't know if you have a HEB grocery store near you but I went there today and bought 40 Hormel Compleats meals and they had a special = buy 1 get a can of spaghetti & meatballs, ravioli, or beefy mac free. My grandchildren eat the canned stuff and I eat the Hormel compleats. 1 compleat has under 300 calories, is filling, and tastes like home made. The compleats cost $1.97 each. Under $100 and 80 meals
  • BrainOnAStick
    BrainOnAStick Posts: 126 Member
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    My husband and I eat mostly vegetables of varying sorts, rice, noodles, and fruit. We used to shop for veggies at Whole Foods. While the idea of organic produce appeals to me, it's cost prohibitive for us at this point. I was *astounded* at how much less expensive produce is at the local farmer's market. (We go to a state-run one, rather than the hoity-toity downtown farmer's market, where everything is overpriced and picked over.) We bought about 2 weeks of veggies for $25.

    Others have mentioned Asian grocers as a good option for rice, veggies, and spices. Don't forget the mercado! We discovered a local Mexican grocer that has *fabulous* produce, along with a tortillera that sells freshly made corn tortillas. They have any kind of chili pepper, tomatillos, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro, cactus, avocados, etc. Get a bunch of fresh veggies, sautee them, slap 'em in a corn tortilla with some black beans... YUM! You can always freeze leftover tortillas and reheat them in a skillet.

    This was a really great question. Thank you for asking it. This is the first month that we're working hard to stick to a food budget. Your post was good timing.
  • Peaches516
    Peaches516 Posts: 104 Member
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    Where do you live? I usually spend about $60 per week on groceries to feed two people (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), and that's without using any coupons or really budgeting. I always buy the generic brand, and I tend to make a lot of stuff from scratch. Good thing I like to cook! Check out www.allrecipes.com. Making your own pancake batter is really cheap and tastes way better than the stuff out of a box. Same thing for spaghetti sauce - I buy cans of plain tomato sauce for $0.89 each, and add sausages and extra spices. One batch of spaghetti sauce will probably cost me around $10, including the meat, and it provides around 8 servings. I also make naan from scratch, and sometimes I'll bake a loaf of Jim Lahey's no-knead bread. You can also make curries for pretty cheap.
  • wackyfunster
    wackyfunster Posts: 944 Member
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    rice, lentils, beans, whatever spices you prefer. You can combine that stuff+ a slow cooker to make delicious, nutritious food for very little money. You could easily feed a family on $100/month that way.
  • JLjmckesson
    JLjmckesson Posts: 31 Member
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    bump - this is great information for me as well. :smile:
  • daisiemae123
    daisiemae123 Posts: 277 Member
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    Lots of great ideas here that I plan on taking advantage of. Biggest thing I have found that saves money is making my own and scratch cooking. I make a huge batch of yogurt in my slow cooker for us for a fraction of the cost and add frozen fruit. I make granola bars for my hubby to bring for snack too. I can make a big batch of spaghetti sauce with lots of veggies for about the cost of a single jar. I was amazed at the changes when I started. Our grocery budget has decreased and we feel better because we are eating better.
  • Verity1111
    Verity1111 Posts: 3,309 Member
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    Your story touches my heart and I wish I had more ideas, but I just know it is possible because we only make $400 or so per two weeks for four people and we have a few bills, so we usually have like $400 per month for all 4 of us. Since two are babies it can be worse because formula is expensive.
  • magj0y
    magj0y Posts: 1,911 Member
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    i need some grocery shopping advice. weve been super low on cash, and the money we do have, we spend in all the wrong places. if you have zero food (very limited condiments) and only $100, how would you spend it? (obviously we are dieting) bad food is always the cheapest food. semi vegetarian, low sugar, low sodium, high potasium diet. $100 has to last at least a week to feed 2 people.

    crockpot chili
    baked penne pasta
    spinach and cheese tavioli
    large low sodium ragu
    I can buy 12 frozen salmon patties at cost-co for $13
    recipe for black bean burgers
    breakfast for dinner
    stir fry
    double all these and you have 2 weeks of meals.
    raw oats. large container of yogurts
    bananas and skin-on potatoes will take care of your potassium
    1 head of lettuce can be used on burgers, cut down for a salad, and the fine chopped for tacos

    frozen veggies will get you far, especially frozen stir fry veggies

    **frozen fish at cost-co is super cheap
  • scrapfrfun
    scrapfrfun Posts: 47
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    Produce stand is always a great way to get lots of veggies and fruit for a low price. If you have a Winco they also have reasonable prices for their veggies, fruit, bulk items (beans, rice, flour), deli meat and dairy. HTH
  • HealthyBodySickMind
    HealthyBodySickMind Posts: 1,207 Member
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    Basically all you need to know on this subject can be found here, including recipes and her famous $25 shopping carts:

    http://www.poorgirleatswell.com/
  • magj0y
    magj0y Posts: 1,911 Member
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    Everyone else has already posted my tricks for stretching my dollar at the grocery store. One thing that also really saves is buying whole meats (i.e. bone in, skin on, etc) and doing the butchering yourself.

    This sounds great in theory, but as a butcher, once you're done cutting it all down, it's cheaper to buy it in piece parts.
    but especially cheaper to buy bulk chicken breasts.
    Unless you're a butcher _and_ make chicken/turkey stock.
  • whitneysaenz
    whitneysaenz Posts: 125 Member
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    Bulk up your food with LOTS of veggies... carrots, onion, peppers, zuchinni, etc.... I've found that that can make one meal go a lot further. I'd say buy fresh & spend the time to chop and freeze if you need to. You're going to pay more for frozen because of it being prepared and packaged already. Also, ask your grocery store when they mark down their meats and you can go on those days and buy and freeze the meats at much lower prices!
  • Treece68
    Treece68 Posts: 780 Member
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    I am on a low budget so this is what I do. Buy meat at a butcher shop lower prices & better meat. If not possible check out the sale ads every day. For fruit & veg, milk, eggs, cheese ect I shop at Aldi they have a good selection (but you have to look over it) and a lot of times things are on sale.
  • TONYAGOOCH
    TONYAGOOCH Posts: 470 Member
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    I just spent $150 last night on 7 meals for 4 people and each meal will have left overs. Check the internet for recipes. Pinterest is great for that. Plan you meals and only buy what you need for those. You can do that on $100 for 2 people.

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