Diet on an extremely minimal budget

Check out your local grocery store ads. Albertson's almost always has killer deals on meat. Recently, they had full racks of ribs, pork chops, and petite sirloin steaks all Buy ONE Get THREE free! For the ribs, we got like $100 worth of ribs for ~$25. Sometimes they have frozen bags of Tilapia for that crazy deal, but as of right now I am the only one who eats fish in my household (staying with my parents temporarily), so that'd be overkill for me.

My 2 favorite meals from when I was a broke college student (still am, but my boyfriend graduated and got a killer job)"

Pasta salad:

A bag of rotini pasta
6-9 sweet peppers
feta cheese
olive oil
vinegar (I like pomegranate)
pepper and garlic powder to taste

Boil noodles, cut up peppers, mix everything. I don't really measure when I cook (though now that I'm counting calories I'm going to have to!) so be sure to taste-test everything. Don't oil/vinegar/seasoning in huge amounts at first.

Vegetable soup:

This one's great, because you can buy whatever vegetables you like, and are on sale. Frozen is okay.
Add a potato or 2 (cut up into little chunks)
A can of tomato paste + water and (it's a little expensive at first, but per use is pretty cheap) Braggs liquid aminos (you could probably use salt instead of this, but I don't know the ratio for that, plus salty soup is high in sodium) for the base. Pepper for taste.

But both of these yield a ton of food, especially for 1-2 people. You can freeze the soup too if you don't feel like eating that.

I'd also recommend the book "I don't know how to cook, book." It's a cook book for newbies, but it has a ton of really good, cheap recipes. The chili is awesome (though I add way more seasoning than it calls for).



ALSO, join consumer testing panels, like BzzAgent. I've gotten so much free food (they have other campaigns too, but the majority of the campaigns I've gotten in are for food) from them. They'll either send coupons, or the actual product. I've gotten free food from: Silk, Food Should Taste Good chips, Kroger Private Selection x2, SkinnyGirl cocktails (not free, but almost, and also not worth it), Filippo Berio olive oil, Campbell's GO soup, Morningstar Farms, Green Mountain Coffee, and UNREAL candy (gross).

Plan meals ahead of time before you grocery shop. No wasted food, no wasted money.

Do you have a crockpot? You can make tons of cheap dishes with very little effort.
Soups, stews and chilis last for days and are easy take along lunches.

Whole wheat pasta is cheap, just remember portion sizes.

Frozen veggies are very quick and can be paired with anything.

Frozen fruit for smoothies in the morning is quick and cheap.

EGGS, EGGS, EGGS.

For breakfast I recommend oatmeal. It's got a good amount of fiber, and even a little bit of protein. Tuna, and tinned salmon are great. You can make salmon burgers or tuna burgers. Eggs and egg whites are something that you can have at any time of the day. I eat a lot of omelettes. Whole grain pasta (just watch the serving size people tend to eat way more than the actual serving), and brown rice. To save money on vegetables buy what's in season. Frozen veggies are awesome too. Chili is pretty cheap to make and very nutritious. I usually make a huge batch with lean meats like turkey, chicken or lean ground beef, eat half for the week and freeze the rest. When I'm in school I find that planning my meals help. Pay attention the flyers of local groceries and plan around the sale items.