How to Diet with no Money

I eat a lot of beans, rice and pasta and I'm doing great! Just don't overeat those things and choose whole grain, high fiber versions when you can. As for produce, buy frozen fruits and vegetables. They are just as good for you but super cheap.

Tips:
Buy only what is on sale then figure out different ways to put it together as a meal.

Buy the meat that is marked 50% or 75% off then cut it down to single portions and freeze or cook it right away, portion, then freeze it. One lb of meat divided into 3oz portion sizes = 5 servings.

Ramen noodles are fine but make sure you add a little protein and veggies. Don't use the spice packet that comes with it because thats where the majority of the sodium is.

Fresh veggies can sometimes be frozen, like corn on the cob.

Buying in bulk is hard to do when you've only got $20 to last a month. Don't worry about trying it right now.

Stay away from stores like Costco. They are expensive unless you're shopping with someone who has a club card and is willing to sell you a single jar of spaghetti sauce or whatever from what they are buying. The savings just aren't there from what I have seen at the nearest one to me - you're better off buying a single jar of $1 spaghetti sauce from your regular store and stretching it out.

The biggest exception to the bulk store is going somewhere like WinCo. You can get things like beans, cereals, and oats in bulk for cheaper than anywhere else.

You can always go to fast food places for condiments. Ketchup, BBQ sauce, ranch dressing, even butter and syrup from wherever sells breakfast.

You can often find bags of frozen veggies and other staples at places like the dollar store. If it's just you, one bag will stretch out a day or more. When money gets tight I start shopping almost exclusively at dollar stores. Real dollar stores where everything is $1 or less.

A sample:

You were able to find 3lbs of chicken breast for $6 marked down 50%. That's $3.00
12 pack of Ramen noodles for $2.12
8 bags frozen veggies for $1 each (usually 3.5 servings each bag =28 servings), $8.00
1 jar Hunt's 25oz spaghetti sauce (6 servings) $1
1 can chicken broth $1
Eggs on sale 12/.99 $1
1 can black beans $1
1 loaf bread (22 slices) $1
1 jar peanut butter $1
$19.12

1lb chicken (cooked with salt and pepper then shredded), 1 can chicken broth, 1 can rinsed black beans, 1 bag frozen mixed veggies + water to cover = chicken soup
Throw it all in the crockpot in the morning or simmer it in a pot. Portion it out into 10 meals and freeze (seriously, my family of 4 can eat this twice and still have a bowl or 2 left over. My husband usually eats 1 1/2-2 portions at a meal so you may even have more).

1/2 pack of ramen noodles = 1 serving. So 12 packs is 24 servings. 1/2 cup Spaghetti sauce is normal serving but if you drop it to 1/3 or 1/4 cup, you can stretch it that much further. 1/4 cup = 12 servings in that one can. Set aside 6 packs of ramen noodles and the can of sauce to make 12 individual servings of spaghetti. Add an ounce of chicken and a 1/2 serving of veggies to each one.

There's 22 meals so far.

This still leaves you with 12 eggs, 20 ounces of chicken breast, 18.5 servings of vegetables, 12 servings of noodles, 22 slices of bread, and a jar of peanut butter to make up the other 68 meals in a month plus whatever you have on hand at this time.

Toast with peanut butter. Egg with veggies = frittata. Veggies and noodles with a packet of sweet and sour sauce from Jack in the Box = vegetarian stirfry. Take one of the portions of frozen chicken soup, split it in half and add a serving of noodles for chicken noodle soup. Get a BBQ sauce packet from McDonalds and baste 2oz of chicken. Bake it and serve with a serving of noodles and veggies. Chicken sandwich with veggies. Sweet & sour sauce + peanut butter blended together = poor man's peanut satay sauce for your noodles. Add a soy sauce packet to taste from Panda Express.

Cheap? Yep. Will it keep you under calories? Yep. I personally think that with your money situation being what it is, you need to concentrate more on getting enough food than with hitting macros. As long as you stay under calories you will be fine in the short term.

I'm sorry you are in this situation. I have been on a tight food budget as well for my family of 5. If you know how to bake or cook that will help you a lot. You can get a bag of flour pretty cheap and you can make your own pancakes or waffles if you have a waffle iron and freeze leftovers. Just lay them out on wax paper on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer, when frozen put them in freezer bags. Then when you want one you can just pop them in the microwave or toaster oven. Eggs are super cheap and they are great for any meal. Peanut butter & jelly is cheap and good for lunch. PB toast, eggs or oatmeal is good & cheap. Beans & rice like everyone else has said, but really rice is soo cheap and healthy. Try not to buy bottles water drink tap it's too much money for your budget. I would buy a whole chicken if you can work it into your budget, and cook it then freeze it in 1 cup portions so you can just pull out what you want or need. Allrecipes is also a good website to look for recipes, you can input what you have in your cabinets and it will pull up recipes that go along with those ingredients that you enter. Coupons would really help if you have the time or engery to do that. There are a ton of websites to print coupons from. Coupons.com, smartsource.com, are a few that I can think of and of course you can always get the paper ones. If you can't afford the paper ask family or friends to give you their unwanted coupons. Good luck & best wishes to you.

Buy frozen vegetables. They're not as nutrient-packed as fresh produce, but they are healthy, cheaper, and they last a lot longer than the fresh stuff!

This is actually a myth when it comes to frozen fruit in veggies, in a sense. The longer that a vegetable and fruit is off the vine, the less nutrients it will have. Frozen veggies & fruit are frozen just after being picked, so they are just as, if not more, nutrition packed. As long as they aren't filled with a crap ton of sodium, frozen fruit and veggies are a good solution.

Veggies are cheap. And actually trying to eat clean is much cheaper than the processed crap thats out there. But I'd say if your are very low on money, try to lean on your veggies, and rice.