Maintenance Seems Too Low?
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It also sounds like you don't get much protein if you are limiting meat to once a week or so and chickens aren't producing eggs. Again, if you can fish or hunt for you meat, it will really help stretch your budget. I grew up in Louisiana where they eat anything that moves, so really your options are limitless if you live rurally. Some may be grossed out, but my dad even cooks squirrel.2
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deannalaverty wrote: »My regular exercise comes from work around the farm, so some days are more active than others. I'd like to be able to maintain at sedentary level, so that I can adjust according to my activity that day instead of overshooting my calorie intake and then trying to make it up at the end of the day.
Thank you all for your suggestions.
I took some notes, and here is my takeaway from this discussion (in no particular order):
-Cut out or minimize peanut butter entirely
-Put the bread in the freezer so I do not feel pressured to eat it as quickly
-(when eggs are available) Use eggs to help feel fuller in lieu of more bread
-Buy frozen fruits/veggies for the freezer when I have a little extra money, and use these to bulk up meals (not just dinner)
-Transition to black coffee
-BEANS & TATERS (thanks guys!)
-Introduce more fiber
Was there anything else super important that I missed?
Also: I completely get what you mean, Doreena. When I made a batch of meringue cookies with some extra egg whites I had, for example, I was shocked at how often I could treat myself with a cookie, since the calories per cookie were something like only 30 apiece.
EDIT: Oh, duh! The dehydrator! I could totally dehydrate some of the apple drops to eat later, and dehydrate other fruits/veggies when they are on sale to use as snacks! (doh!)
So in reality, 1560 isn't maintenance...that's just what MFP is giving you if you truly are sitting around doing nothing. If you're working around the farm you are not remotely sedentary.
If it were me personally, I'd start tracking the data from my fitbit over the course of the next several weeks and just kind of figure out how many calories on average I'm eating on a weekly basis and then just go from there and dump the screens and machines.4 -
I want to echo the idea to purchase frozen veggies and bulk foods like dried beans when the grocery money allows for it. I know what it's like to be on a tight budget, without a lot of wiggle room for food, and those things are a lifesaver for me. The dried beans/peas/lentils are much cheaper per pound than canned ones, and there doesn't have to be a whole lot of effort involved in preparing them (plus leftovers freeze really well). I also agree with the fiber comments: getting a bigger amount of fiber in your diet is going to help you feel full longer, not to mention help keep your digestive system happy. Just pick up what you can when you can, dried goods will be safe in your pantry for a while, and get creative with what seasonings you have on hand to use to keep meals interesting.3
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So many good ideas here.
My big AHA! moment came when I realized I was eating ALL calorie-dense foods. I think you are as well. These are great if you are camping, or chopping wood all day and only have 10 minutes to wolf down enough food to fuel you for the rest of the day. But for the rest of us, we really need fewer calories and larger volume, and food that takes us a while to eat. I can eat a PB&J sandwich in like 3 minutes and easily eat a second one. But I can't afford those calories.
For me, the solution is a giant salad every day. I use a whole head of romaine lettuce and some protein: 300-400 calories.
Some people like soup (I'm not a huge fan, but I have it sometimes). With frozen veggies and homemade stock and some dried beans, you can make a giant pot of soup very inexpensively. Have a cup of homemade soup to start every meal, and you won't be as hungry for the calorie dense and expensive food, like meats and processed foods.
Do you have a slow cooker? I save all my vegetable scraps and make stock with chicken bones overnight in mine. It's made a big difference in my cooking.3 -
I am not sure that a farmer could be sedentary could they?
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Okay so first off - your life sounds interesting and fascinating and I really love that you live off the land so much! I bet you're getting all kinds of health benefits of homegrown foods and not eating chemical-laden pre-packaged stuff that can't be accurately documented by MFP!
I'm going to echo what others have said - buy bulk frozen Veggies and given beans and rice a try. It's honestly so filling, full of fibre and inexpensive. That might help. Do you have any friends who live in the city and have a Costco membership? Bulk bags of Kirkland mixed veggies are about $10, and will literally last you and your family weeks (they're really huge bags). The quality of the veggies is very high.
How do you feel about soup? Are there other farmers near by that you could trade with? Maybe a couple hours of labor for some fresh veggies? Squash and beets make amazing soups that would be low calorie and keep you feeling like you ate a full meal. Keep your animal bones (Roast bones or chicken carcass) to make broth to make your soups even cheaper.
Good luck!
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Thank you for your further suggestions. I am definitely going to put it to good use (especially the fiber and veggies part!). With all of you echoing each other about the fiber, I can see that it is definitely important, and dried beans are a good staple food. Maybe it will also help to alleviate my consistently inconsistent digestive issues. I wouldn't need to buy frozen veggies, but what with the major drought this year, even watering on a nearly-daily basis my garden suffered. The nightshades did swimmingly, but everything else was quite sad. Dairy will hopefully be introduced next year when the two goats are bred, but right now it's pretty tight overall. I truly, honestly appreciate everyone's level of understanding. You guys are the best community ever.
Hunting is not in the cards for me at this time, as I don't know how to shoot yet, though I really need to learn if I'm going to protect this flock of chickens better than the last ones. We have a serious number of mink around here.
I do like the idea of soup, and I've always heard making your own stock from bones and veggie scraps is pretty easy and very tasty. I can make a simple cracker to go with it using whole grains and dried herbs.3 -
Based on the example meals you gave:
- Can you slice your bread thinner? If it'll go off, put it in the freezer. Alternatively, mix it more and let it rise more so that you get more air in it and each slice is fewer calories.
- How big is a serving size of peanut butter? The "everyday value" (cheapest) version at my local shop is 94 calories for a serving, which is one tablespoon.
- Can you drink your coffee black, or with either sugar or creamer instead of both? If not, can you substitute sugar with sweetener (there are some really inexpensive versions out there, but you can also just snag a few packets for free anytime you're near a coffee shop or fast food place) or creamer with skimmed milk (especially if you can milk your own goats or sheep and skim the milk yourself)?
- Can you divide the roast into 8 servings instead of 6? If you need the larger serving size to feed your family, can you divide 2/3 of it into 4 regular-sized servings, and the remaining third into 3 or 4 smaller ones?
- Can you trim the fat from your meats to reduce calories?
In a more general sense, people in this thread have given you more good advice than I possibly could about ways to add volume, fullness and nutrients without breaking the bank. I'd just like to add a couple more resources:
The Reddit "Eat Cheap and Healthy" forum:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/
The "Good and Cheap Cookbook" (designed for food-stamp budgets):
https://cookbooks.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf2 -
Well, you're very light. So yes of course your maintenance calories are going to be low.
But yeah, people gave you options. I mean, heck, my maintenance is 2200 (counting activity) and I still end up hungry most days if I have too much bread, so... You're going to have to be more active if you want to stick to your current diet.1 -
Bag the pbj sandwich.. eat an egg white omelet with a 100 calorie thomas bagel. Or buy 35 calorie bread and have two slices. You could also fry one egg add an egg white and eat the low calorie bread.. cut those morning calories.0
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Spliner1969 wrote: »deannalaverty wrote: »-Cut out or minimize peanut butter entirely
-Put the bread in the freezer so I do not feel pressured to eat it as quickly
-(when eggs are available) Use eggs to help feel fuller in lieu of more bread
-Buy frozen fruits/veggies for the freezer when I have a little extra money, and use these to bulk up meals (not just dinner)
-Transition to black coffee
-BEANS & TATERS
-Introduce more fiber
Was there anything else super important that I missed?
I would miss peanut butter, do try PB2 sometime though. Peanut Butter would be great on a day when you've burned extra calories. PB2 on other days when you have a craving (there are other brands of peanut powder, Jiff, etc.).
I also tried to transition to black coffee with no luck. I just don't like it, it's bitter and sucks. So now I drink it black (no creamer most of the time, or maybe 1 tsp dry non-dairy @ 10 cals, plus I use Stevia Packets. They cost me carbs but are 0 calorie. I do drink it less than I used to, but it's still good with Stevia and lighter creamer options. Hell if you can skip the creamer and just use the Stevia, it's 0 calories.
Taters are good. Try other veggies too, I like cauliflower. Always hated it as a kid, and still dislike it raw, but take about 300g of it, toss it with salt pepper and about a tbsp of olive oil, then bake it at 375 for about 30-45 minutes until it gets a little brown around the edges. It makes a very filling 2 serving dish @ about 100 calories each and has a good amount of fiber. Add that recipe to MFP's recipe calculator and you'll see what I mean.
For breakfast I learned to like Bran Cereal. So now I generally eat .5 cups of original Fiber One Bran with half a banana chopped up in it with .5 cup of vanilla almond milk, then I drink a protein shake after it. What I do is take bananas, let them ripen, then chop them up into slices and freeze them in the freezer, store them in zip lock bags, and simply chop up about 63g of them to add to my cereal in the morning. It's not bad at all with the vanilla almond milk.
.5 cup Fiber One Original Bran Cereal = 60 cal, 25 carbs (complex carbs!), 14g fiber!!, 2g protein
.5 cup Silk Light Vanilla Almond Milk = 30 cal, 6 carbs, 1g protein
63g Dole banana (half a medium) = 55 cal, 15 carbs, 2g fiber, 1g protein
Total for the cereal is 145 cal, 46 carbs, 16g fiber!, 4g protein
I then drink a 2 scoop Body Fortress Vanilla or Chocolate When Isolate shake = 280 cal, 60g protein, 6 carbs, 2g fiber mixed with nothing but water
It's a pretty filling breakfast at about 425 calories, 64g protein, 18g fiber, and 52 carbs. It may sound like it tastes bad but it doesn't, I enjoy it and it's simple and quick. On weekends I work out more and eat a bigger breakfast but that's my go-to M-F breakfast.
Just ideas, you can mix in any fruit you want into the cereal, and it'll help you get your fiber up quickly.
Lol... while all of your suggestions are good, and are all things I eat myself, OP has made it clear she is on a limited budget and none of these products are cheap!
Do you have to wait for the chickens to lay eggs? Where I live, eggs have been pretty cheap in recent weeks- .79/dozen- and we even use them for dinner a lot. Do you have an Aldi or other discount grocery chain nearby? You could stock up on some off-brand high fiber cereal and their Greek yogurt & other dairy is the cheapest you'll find. Love a PP's suggestion about soup- a big pot with beans, barley, & cheap vegetables would go a long way and the volume helps keep you full. I also think you are probably underestimating your activity level.8 -
Okay so the homemade bread seems pretty calorie dense. Suppose you make an open-faced sandwich (one slice of toast, of this bread, 138 cals) and put on one tablespoon of peanut butter (95 cals) instead of two, then one tablespoon of jam/jelly is 50 cals.
Roastwise, measure out 4 oz of meat, about 120 cals of whatever your chosen starch is (pretty much a half portion) and then load up on vegetables such as green beans, spinach, whatever nonstarchy veg you have.
If you haven't got a food scale, shop around for one on sale. I paid 15 bux for mine but I understand money is tight so look for free shipping, google for coupon codes, and such.
Frozen veggies in the big economy sized bags are usually the cheapest. Go for ones without any sauce or whatever added, just the veg. Large bags of mixed veg, green beans, broccoli. I grew up dirt poor and this was always our cheapest way to get vegetables.1 -
deannalaverty wrote: »I am glad to hear that number doesn't seem abnormally low!
Breakfast was 641 calories:
My bread recipe is 276 calories for 2 slices,
Peanut butter is 190 calories for a serving,
Coffee jelly is 32 calories,
and a brewed 12 fl oz mug of coffee w/ 1 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of non-dairy creamer is 143 calories
Lunch was 820 calories:
The leftover pot roast was originally a slow-cooker 3lb roast, which I split up into 6 servings. I ate one serving for lunch, which MFP said was 677 calories.
Coffee was made the same way as this morning.
I am full now, and will not eat dinner until about 8-8:30pm, but I couldn't have gone all the way until tomorrow on this.
EDIT: Hello, cmriverside! Looks like you posted while I was typing. Those foods you describe would be lovely, but planning just 21 dinners for 4 people put me at $100, and that was relying on things I already had preserved, spices I have already stockpiled, and meat purchased on sale. That leaves me with very little I can do for other meals, since dairy needs to be conserved for dinners. I am a breadbaker, so bread is something easy to come by.
Those are high calorie meals. It's been recommended that breakfast bee 300-400 calories, lunch 400 dinner 500 and then the rest for snacks or treats.0 -
Coffee for me is 40 cal.....its 1/3 cup 1% milk and brewed coffee (0 cal) for a total of 40.
Peanut butter is overrated, sorry. Dump the plain PB and use the powdered "PB2" peanut butter. mix 1 serving with a little water until the right consistency and you're all set. Save 145 cal right there. ditch the hi cal bread for 2 slices of 80-calorie bread. And my goodness throw an egg in there somewhere.
A smart PB2 &J should be about 235 calories. Leaving 40 cal for coffee, 80 for an egg. You're up to 355 at that point. Have a dry serving of cheerios with that if you want, still at 455.
(Former ignoramus here....I used to just DUMP cereal in a bowl, and slather on as much peanut butter as would fit onto my English muffins. No more. I got wise.)0 -
I am 5'4 105ish and it gives me the same amount but I eat 2100-2600 and maintain with 4x a week 1h exercise. I think you can definitely eat more you should experiment1
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I found eating only two meals day works for me... brunch and supper. I had to work with timing. My family still eats 3, and has snacks.0
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Personally, for satiation and nutrition, I'd keep the peanut butter (protein & fats) and eat it on one slice of bread instead, but it's your choice. It's good to (nutritionally) to spread protein through the day rather than eat it all at once if you can, and dropping the peanut butter at breakfast takes the breakfast protein (I would think) to a very negligible level. Just my opinion. The rest of your strategies sound good to me.
If you can't shoot, are there rabbits about at all? Can you snare them? (Google for instructions.) Fish from streams or lakes? Protein is important nutritionally, and satiating.0 -
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Peanut butter is very calorie dense. Bread is too. I NET 1270 but I eat around 1600. I have a lot of meals that come in around 300-400 and that gives me calories for snacks or for a bigger meal if I'm hungry. I drink coffee, tea, and water so that uses very few calories. I love to eat but put all my calories into things that have lots of flavor. And things that are calorie dense, I eat in small portions.0
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Op you sound like your handy in the kitchen, have you tried making yogurt? It's super easy, doesn't require any equipment, and you can make a gallon for the cost of a gallon of milk and a starter cup of yogurt. Might help you bulk up your protein in the morning until your eggs come in.4
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On budget cooking, one word.
BEANS.
Dried beans can be bought in bulk and saved in plastic sealed pails and are a very affordable source of protein and fiber and are so incredibly versatile. When we were very low on funds, this was our way to feed the kids a nutritious diet without spending much.
My dollars mainly went to:
Dry beans
Rice
Canned Tomatoes
Onions
Spices
Eggs unless we had laying chickens.
Some vegetables, different each week.
Milk and cheese if there is extra $ because I love cheese!
Potatoes aren't cheap down here, and buying flour and electricity to make bread costs me more than buying bread (still do it sometimes because I like it but it doesn't save us $).
Spanish bean soup is garbanzos, potatoes, broth, some sausage if you have it.
Curried garbanzos is beans, canned tomatoes, spices.
Veggie chili is pintos, tomatoes, spices, and whatever veg you have on hand.
Lentil Soup
Lentil Salad
Pinto Bean burritos
Pinto Beans on rice
Black Beans on rice
Black beans and rice inside green peppers
Black eyed peas and greens
Curried Black eyed peas
Split Pea soup
All sorts of bean dishes can be made for under $1 per serving.7 -
beans for sure to bulk out meals
I wouldn't have all that stuff in coffee, which would save a heap of calories
as for the bread - nothing like the taste of homemade bread, but what about sourdough? I find sourdough bread fills me up more than 'white' breads, even home-made white bread.
If you are going down the sustainable home-producing route, you might want to have a look at cook-book such as 'more-with-less' or others from the Mennonite community. Lots of ideas for eating and cooking on little money, although a lot are very calorie dense foods so you may need to be picky. I also have a copy of 'simply in season' which uses fresher foods and alternatives as well.
oh and soups.0 -
While you are waiting for your hens to start laying you can just buy eggs. Over the past year they've been exceedingly cheap and (between $0.39-$0.89 per dozen in my area). I also use a lot of canned vegetables that usually go on sale for less than $0.40/can (I'll buy a couple cases when that happens). I'm not on a limited budget fortunately, but I still usually spend well under $75/week to feed me and my two growing boys (only $40 last week). But I do hunt a lot of my meat and process it myself, which helps.0
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I'll just reiterate what everyone has said about beans. The last couple of weeks I've been buying dried beans & legumes and cooking crockpot meals. A bag of chick peas costs very little, a dollar , maybe. I made Indian chickpea dishes that make 12-14 servings. Make some rice and it's very filling and healthy. Chili made with beans and canned tomatoes. You can add ground turkey and the beans stretch the meal out and add more fiber and protein. Black eye peas & greens, rice & beans-all cheap and healthy and tasty, too. If you like Indian food I recommend The Indian Slow Cooker cookbook. Every recipe makes a lot of food.0
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While you are waiting for your hens to start laying you can just buy eggs. Over the past year they've been exceedingly cheap and (between $0.39-$0.89 per dozen in my area). I also use a lot of canned vegetables that usually go on sale for less than $0.40/can (I'll buy a couple cases when that happens). I'm not on a limited budget fortunately, but I still usually spend well under $75/week to feed me and my two growing boys (only $40 last week). But I do hunt a lot of my meat and process it myself, which helps.
Wow! Eggs here are closer to $2/dozen, sometimes $1/dozen on sale. There's been an egg shortage in the US, I am surprised you are getting retail prices like that.0 -
While you are waiting for your hens to start laying you can just buy eggs. Over the past year they've been exceedingly cheap and (between $0.39-$0.89 per dozen in my area). I also use a lot of canned vegetables that usually go on sale for less than $0.40/can (I'll buy a couple cases when that happens). I'm not on a limited budget fortunately, but I still usually spend well under $75/week to feed me and my two growing boys (only $40 last week). But I do hunt a lot of my meat and process it myself, which helps.
Wow! Eggs here are closer to $2/dozen, sometimes $1/dozen on sale. There's been an egg shortage in the US, I am surprised you are getting retail prices like that.
I was telling a friend the other day who wanted to know ideas for cheap dinners that she needed to get eggs, when im broke ill live off of them (they are exactly $0.99 in my area per dozen) and she looked at me like I was CRAZY. She lives in Iowa and they are running like 3-4 dollars a dozen right now, blew my mind.1 -
My maintenance is only 1300 since I'm crazy short. It does suck but my Fitbit always adds calories for me unless I just lie around and don't do crap all day. I usually eat eggs or greek yogurt for breakfast and for dinner always a grilled meat of some sort and vegetables. Almost always have a half a peanut butter and honey sandwich after work. I know it isn't healthy but diet soda helps me in the afternoons. I'm not giving up on that. I love it.2
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Wow! Eggs here are closer to $2/dozen, sometimes $1/dozen on sale. There's been an egg shortage in the US, I am surprised you are getting retail prices like that.
Supersaver had them for $0.99 per 18 pack last week (that's $0.66/dozen) and Trader Joes has them at $0.79/dozen as their current price. Around a month or two ago they were $0.39/dozen, but I don't know why they were that cheap. It must be regional that the prices are so low over here.0 -
My maintenance is only 1300 since I'm crazy short. It does suck but my Fitbit always adds calories for me unless I just lie around and don't do crap all day. I usually eat eggs or greek yogurt for breakfast and for dinner always a grilled meat of some sort and vegetables. Almost always have a half a peanut butter and honey sandwich after work. I know it isn't healthy but diet soda helps me in the afternoons. I'm not giving up on that. I love it.
Your TDEE is 1300? Out of interest how tall are you and what is your weight?0
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