I'm Running Out of Food

... and the whole wheat bread only touched by virgins on a full moon, my cart is full.

I'm sorry, I can't offer any advice at the moment, but this did make me LOL! :flowerforyou:

Frozen vegetables, in season fruit only, rice, beans, eggs.

uuuuuuum where I shop it costs me over 450.00 weekly to buy enough food to feed my family of 4 ! I don`t know how people just getting a job and living on their own are suppose to make it in life !!

I actually plan my meals on Sunday in front of the computer with the sale ads up. The store I go to (Meijer) can do an online shopping list, so if it's on sale, it's an ingredient in meals for the week. I get together with a friend Monday nights and we prep breakfasts and lunches for the rest of the week (sometimes I do some stuff Sunday instead). Portioned out baked egg muffins or fritattas, hard boiled eggs, and yogurt for breakfasts. Salad in a jar for lunches or leftovers from a big pot of whatever I decide to make from what's on sale. Between the 2 of us we get 5 days of breakfasts and lunches, along with at least a dinner or 2, for ~$50. Sign up for coupons or offers through your stores, too. I actually like having the stuff on sale being what I end up making much less stressful than trying to come up with ideas completely out of thin air.

Buy what is in season regarding fruits and vegetables. Artichoke hearts are not in season and thus more expensive.
Lentils are great for adding a "meat" component to dishes either when you don't want to add meat or want to extend what you have (ie add lentils and use less meat)
When I cook vegetables I always cook onions, garlic and ginger first as they are good for you and inexpensive.
Eggs make a great meal -omelets, Fritata, etc
Home made soups (lentil is one of my favs) are easy to make and stretch your $$ far

Do you own a slow cooker? There are so many meals you can make in that with inexpensive meats for example

$100 can feed four for two weeks, if used very carefully. A few general principles:

1. Beans and Grains
These can be full of calories since they are primary carbs, so you don't need much. Buy in bulk, and never buy canned. Buy beans dried and then just soak them overnight - they taste better and are much cheaper. Buy rice and couscous in bulk. Don't buy israeli (pearl) couscouse, but buy regular couscous (israeli couscous is delicious, but kinda expensive and not very nutritious)

2. Eggs
Buy Grade B unbleached eggs. Aside from being much better for the environment, they are so cheap as to be almost free. Of course, monitor your intake since they tend to have a fair bit of cholesterol. There is no taste difference between grades or colors of egg, simply size.

3. Local vegetables
It's expensive to buy imported kale, but it's really cheap to get whatever is grown down the street. Chances are you can get a ton of great vegetables for very cheap.

4. If you buy meat, buy unpopular cuts
Beef Tongue, Chicken Livers, etc. These are often the best tasting portion of the animal, but frequently people aren't quite sure how to cook it.

5. Don't buy premade stock, buy bullion.
Stock can be really overpriced for no good reason. You get literally the same thing when you buy bullion, and it takes 40 seconds to convert it to stock. You can also more easily thin the stock out and cut down on your sodium intake.

Finally, a last few major points:
6. Buy bulk
7. Don't buy what is "cheap" in terms of direct cost. You want the best price per weight, not simply the lowest direct cost.
8. Offbrand is not only cheaper, it's usually the exact same product. This isn't always true (pizza crust, tortillas) but it often is (tissues, baking mixes).
9. Membership only places are almost always worth the little bit of money upfront, as long as you go on a regular basis.
10. Compare, compare, compare. Sometimes places like Target are really cheap for some things (Yogurt) and really expensive for others (bread). Don't be shy about going to a few stores to get the best deals.

If you have a Target near you, get their Target Debit Card, it saves you 5% each time you shop, plus they have a free app called Cartwheel where you can get "Coupons" for percentages off certain products, plus then if you go to their website you can print off coupons, then of course regular newspaper coupons. I went from 196 w/tax before any coupons to 161 w/tax and coupons and target debit card discount. It def. starts to add up.

I totally feel you though on having to scrounge for food right before payday, it gets frustrating because i try and eat healthy all week and then by the end of the pay period i am having to eat the unhealthy options just so i dont go hungry lol.

If the desire is to lose weight, buying super special food won't help. Regular stuff can provide a balanced, healthy diet at affordable prices.

If you're lucky enough to have an Asian or other ethnic market in town, veggies there are usually less expensive. And you can get some cool new veggies to try that you'll never see in the chain groceries. Some markets also have fish & various meats. And the spices...oh, the spices! So much fun! :-)

Your spending $100 for the week for how many people?? Not just yourself????

I spend about $15.00-25.00 on fruits and vegetables for the week from our farmers market and then spend $60.00 every 2 weeks for eggs and farm raised meats from a local meat market..........

So my average grocery bill for 2 adults and 2 dogs ranges from $45.00 - 55.00 a week.

:0

Where do you live??

Me and my husband, minus dog and cat supplies spent about $30 at the farmers market for two weeks, running out so didn't plan that well...not good.

We spent about $150 on groceries if not more at the store. :frown:

Mind you, we had nothing in the house before we went so, it was a stock up run too on toiletries and such too.

I spend around $150/week for my husband and I. I plan meals for the week then create a shopping list and stick to it. I waste very little food since I have a plan for how to use it. I am horrible at shopping the sales but I do stock up on meats when they are on sale and freeze.

I spend about $150 a week for 5 people. I meal plan ahead of time.

Definitely buy a crock pot, you can get them cheap and they are so worth it!

And I haven't tried Asian markets, but our hispanic markets are the best for cheap meats and veggies, oh, and spices in the hispanic food sections of all grocery stores and about half the price of the actual spice section (seriously, check it out, before you go buy a $6 bottle of cumin, go to the hispanic section, it's half the price there).

We spend $100/week for a family of 4 (one is a baby so doesn't eat, but the $100 does include her diapers).

1.) Make a menu and a shopping list ahead of time. Base your menu on sales.
2.) Stock up when things are on sale. I just bought 6 boxes of whole wheat pasta because it was on sale. There were no good meat sales this week so I didn't buy any, I had enough in my freezer from shopping the sales.
3.) Do you have an Aldi's? I buy a lot there. It isn't all cheaper, but a lot of it is.
4.) Frozen veggies, dried beans, canned salmon, eggs, brown rice are staples in our house. I eat fresh fruit and a big salad (whatever is on sale/in season) every day, but other than that.. we eat mostly frozen veggies.
5.) If you have to pack lunches (I do for husband), use leftovers instead of buying special foods just for that. I'm a good cook so he doesn't mind at all.
6.) We always buy offbrand unless the name brand is cheaper.
7.) We make almost everything from scratch.