How to survive on 40-50 dollars per month on food.

TaniaMcCormick · April 2012

http://www.wikihow.com/Go-Grocery-Shopping-With-Fifty-Dollars-in-the-Bank

check this website

californiansun · April 2012

http://www.wikihow.com/Go-Grocery-Shopping-With-Fifty-Dollars-in-the-Bank

check this website

Thank you!

sweetteacher123 · April 2012

Frozen fruits are cheaper, just make sure there is no sugar added.

RillSoji · April 2012

tag

californiansun · April 2012

Frozen fruits are cheaper, just make sure there is no sugar added.

Good idea!!!

DSCLBD · April 2012

Thanks for that, will check it out! It does get hard with food intolerances in the family and having very young children means that there are some things that are required (like someone mentioning that milk is not necessary ... for some it is very necessary!!!)

As I said earlier, especially about the prices of groceries and wages in different countries, it is all relative. The fact is we all have expenses and work as hard as we can to make the most money we can and I think this is a great thread to collect great ideas from everyone in all different walks of life and with different expenses to try to skim the fat where they can (pun intended :laugh: !)

I cannot get around the intolerances my kids have to some foods, but I'll do my best to find cheaper alternatives of things that are not so much of an issue.

For aussies there is a women doing a blog of feeding her family of four with $120 a week.

http://120dollarsfoodchallenge.com/

I have been checking out the difference between buying chicken at coles and going to a butcher 8.90 kilo for chicken thighs at coles and 5.99 for chicken breast at the butcher. I think its time I changed where I shopped.
The central market in Adelaide has a amazing range of fresh local produce but I have been shopping at coles for convenience. I can see now that "convenience"is costing me alot by the end of the month.
I am now searching for a good place in Adelaide for bulk rice. And found a place http://www.gaganisbros.com.au/go/home does alot of bulk food. Anyone else in South Australia have good money saving tips?

californiansun · April 2012

Thanks for that, will check it out! It does get hard with food intolerances in the family and having very young children means that there are some things that are required (like someone mentioning that milk is not necessary ... for some it is very necessary!!!)

As I said earlier, especially about the prices of groceries and wages in different countries, it is all relative. The fact is we all have expenses and work as hard as we can to make the most money we can and I think this is a great thread to collect great ideas from everyone in all different walks of life and with different expenses to try to skim the fat where they can (pun intended :laugh: !)

I cannot get around the intolerances my kids have to some foods, but I'll do my best to find cheaper alternatives of things that are not so much of an issue.

For aussies there is a women doing a blog of feeding her family of four with $120 a week.

http://120dollarsfoodchallenge.com/

I have been checking out the difference between buying chicken at coles and going to a butcher 8.90 kilo for chicken thighs at coles and 5.99 for chicken breast at the butcher. I think its time I changed where I shopped.
The central market in Adelaide has a amazing range of fresh local produce but I have been shopping at coles for convenience. I can see now that "convenience"is costing me alot by the end of the month.
I am now searching for a good place in Adelaide for bulk rice. And found a place http://www.gaganisbros.com.au/go/home does alot of bulk food. Anyone else in South Australia have good money saving tips?

Agreed!

amberiam · April 2012

Bump so I can look at when it's shopping time!

californiansun · April 2012

Bump so I can look at when it's shopping time!

Any more wonderful ideas?!

jcohio85 · April 2012

There are so many pages that I havent looked at everyone's responses, but I have been able to keep it pretty low by using coupons. I have found lately a lot of coupons for "healthy" food such as whole wheat pasta, bread coupons, egg white's, yogurt and so on. With those I have managed to keep my food budget normal even with changing my diet and even saving even more than I normally would with them. If you have questions let me know! I have gotten pretty good at this in the recent months.

AlbaAngel25 · April 2012

we started to watch how much we were spending weekly on groceries. I think we averaged about 3-400 a month.We are trying to bring our costs down to 170-250.
I know when I lived cheap on my own i bought a lot of eggs, rice( i loveee rice), frozen fruit/veggies(stirfry kinda thing and risotto).
Even if you buy bread freeze or store it in the fridge to preserve and Pasta is fairly cheap as well. Good luck, its totally doable for one person especially if you don't mind cooking.
I remember when i would eat out at nice restaurants and have no less then a $25 dollar meal/drink and my friends and i would go out like 3 times a week, maybe more or less.... how foolish.My dad used to joke around and say I want the kinda salary your making! pshhh.... Such a waste of money when you think about it !

californiansun · April 2012

we started to watch how much we were spending weekly on groceries. I think we averaged about 3-400 a month.We are trying to bring our costs down to 170-250.
I know when I lived cheap on my own i bought a lot of eggs, rice( i loveee rice), frozen fruit/veggies(stirfry kinda thing and risotto).
Even if you buy bread freeze or store it in the fridge to preserve and Pasta is fairly cheap as well. Good luck, its totally doable for one person especially if you don't mind cooking.
I remember when i would eat out at nice restaurants and have no less then a $25 dollar meal/drink and my friends and i would go out like 3 times a week, maybe more or less.... how foolish.My dad used to joke around and say I want the kinda salary your making! pshhh.... Such a waste of money when you think about it !

Storing bread in the fridge actually makes it go staler faster! The freezer works, though!

I don't mind cooking. I go out to eat with friends maybe 2-4 times/month. I've only gone out once this month! I only spend 10-12 dollars though, 25 is pushing it haha.

Thanks for the ideas!

timdad1 · April 2012

Buy in bulk, but only things you are definitely going to use before they go bad. Shop the perimeter of the store -- the outside edge. Plan to make enough of something to use it more than one day. All the best!

SCVSarah · April 2012

Far out! $50/mth I wish I could only spend $100/mth! The kids milk comes in at $4.97 per 2lt and having 3 little ones means a whole heap of milk - they have to drink A2 milk but it is much better than regular (regulat milk is around $3 per $2lt!

Groceries are really expensive in Australia ... 'cheap' apples are when they are $2.95/kg, tomatoes range between $3-$8/kg a single head of lettuce is around $2.80 on a cheap day! Oh, and these are regular prices, not organic or anything. I bought a 1lt of almond milk trying to be a bit healthy and it cost $3.95! Wont be buying that again!!!!! The cheapest cage eggs run around the $3 per dozen.

I will be watching this thread for some ideas ... am down to our last $$$ before our monthly pay day in 5 days ... grrr I hate getting paid monthly!

Oh, and I would love some of your tips for getting down to $100/mth spend

I live in the number one city in California that supplies most of the produce in the world, so produce/groceries are very cheap here.

I can get apples for 59 cents/pound, bananas for 13 cents/pound, etc. We have a lot of Farmers Markets in town that sell organic produce on the cheap and milk is from the company that is in my town, so milk is inexpensive. I buy a dozen eggs for about a 1 dollar to 1.23.

Where in California are you finding this? I'm 30 miles north of LA and I spend minimum $100/month on groceries, but usually closer to $200.

californiansun · April 2012

Far out! $50/mth I wish I could only spend $100/mth! The kids milk comes in at $4.97 per 2lt and having 3 little ones means a whole heap of milk - they have to drink A2 milk but it is much better than regular (regulat milk is around $3 per $2lt!

Groceries are really expensive in Australia ... 'cheap' apples are when they are $2.95/kg, tomatoes range between $3-$8/kg a single head of lettuce is around $2.80 on a cheap day! Oh, and these are regular prices, not organic or anything. I bought a 1lt of almond milk trying to be a bit healthy and it cost $3.95! Wont be buying that again!!!!! The cheapest cage eggs run around the $3 per dozen.

I will be watching this thread for some ideas ... am down to our last $$$ before our monthly pay day in 5 days ... grrr I hate getting paid monthly!

Oh, and I would love some of your tips for getting down to $100/mth spend

I live in the number one city in California that supplies most of the produce in the world, so produce/groceries are very cheap here.

I can get apples for 59 cents/pound, bananas for 13 cents/pound, etc. We have a lot of Farmers Markets in town that sell organic produce on the cheap and milk is from the company that is in my town, so milk is inexpensive. I buy a dozen eggs for about a 1 dollar to 1.23.

Where in California are you finding this? I'm 30 miles north of LA and I spend minimum $100/month on groceries, but usually closer to $200.

Fresno, CA.

AmyRhubarb · May 2012

Where the heck do you live? I want to move there....(In reference to getting all that for such LOW prices!!)

Fresno/Clovis, CA

I live in Fresno/Clovis - where do you shop??? I have not seen bananas or eggs that cheap!

Awkward30 · May 2012

I don't drive, so I'm stuck with an overpriced grocery store and a farmer's market that I've never seen be cheaper than the expensive grocery store except greens.

I have a dehydrator, so I dehydrate or freeze stuff when it is on sale. I don't buy most things unless they are on sale.

that said, I spend ridiculously too much on food. I cut things down a bit by making my own protein bars using whey powder, textured vegetable protein, oats, peanut butter, cottage cheese, and whatever else I have on hand that I think would go well. I think my last one worked out to somewhere under 25 cents/serving

thealphabetpony · May 2012

I'm not sure if anybody posted this because I didn't read all 5 pages but www.budgetbytes.blogspot.com has lots of recipes on a budget and actually breaks down the cost per serving of each meal!

she_who · May 2012

Hi! We spend 250 bucks a month for food for a family of 5. Some things we do are make our own bread from bulk wheat, make our own yogurt, make chicken stock, make beans from dried, and make sure you are not wasting food. Good luck!

I think you just became one of my most admired people! lol.

But seriously this thread is awesome. I'm 2nd the suggestion of a group of cheap/healthy eats. Also, someone mentioned soup earlier. Absolutely super idea! I think the last pot of soup I made used a bag of split peas, a couple stocks of celery, carrots, onions and ham and some broth. If you replace the ham with potatoes since your vegan, total cost would probably probably be about $4-5, and we have gotten about 10-12 servings from ours.

One of the things I've found to be very helpful is to break down food prices to the cost per meal. For example, since you have $50/month to spend on groceries, you want to stay under $1.66/day, or aprox 50 cents/meal.

Also, if you have a Kroger nearby they generally run some pretty decent "manager's specials" in the produce and baking section. The ones near here have a set time of day that they mark items down. If you can find out when that is and make it there you can usually have dibs. But keep an eye out to make sure the "sale price" is actually lower than what you'd normally pay at the farmer's market - creating a price list of your most purchased items takes a couple hours but definitely seems to be worth it since I have a hard time remembering prices.

Stores like the Dollar Tree can be really good on some items, and rather high on others. Keep in mind the size of the container and how many servings you'll get from it.

As far as specific items, oatmeal is wonderful as far as price goes. If you buy one of the large (whole-grain) containers, you can get ~30 servings for about $1-2. Throw in a few nuts/raisins/fruit pieces for variety. Again, rice.. dried beans.. Personally, I would try to ration any non-water beverages as that is generally where a lot of extra $ seems to go for us.

And I may get flamed for this one... but a LOT of stores throw away perfectly good food. Expired produce, day-old bread that didn't sell (as well as other household products), etc. So, if you're not opposed to looking behind the store, that's another option you can experiment with. (Lots of info on Google, check the local laws first.) Also, sometimes you can find people giving away extra food in the free section of Craigslist or on websites like freecycle.org. Keep in mind how much money you spend in gas going to these places to get food as it *may* be more than you would spend if you just bought the food outright.

There are also a few companies (some are charities, some not) that specialize in providing low-cost food in bulk. The only one I'm personally familiar with is Angel Food, which has since been closed... but I'd look into this last as I'm not sure this is your best option as far as cost per meal.

For other money-saving tips in lots of areas check out: www.thesimpledollar.com

Hope this helps. Good luck!

she_who · May 2012

I forgot to mention discount grocery stores and day-old bread stores. They can be much cheaper than your standard grocery stores if you have any in your area. Also, don't be afraid to ask for a discount if you find any damaged items or packages. Sometimes the clerk will give you a major discount, but only if you point it out and ask for it. (Have personally gotten items about 1/2 price this way.)

littlepinkhearts · May 2012

buMP

fromfattofine · May 2012

I wish I could live off of $50 monthly for groceries but I can't. Grocery costs are high and plus I have a teenage son in the house, but if you can and have no one else in the home with you, then good luck with that.

GaiaGirl1992 · May 2012

I like corn beans and rice, with different spices and toppings on it.
canned or frozen corn, canned beans, and bulk rice go pretty cheap in the US, and it doesn't take too much to fill you up! My favorite is to add a little hummus or a small pat of butter and a little red pepper flakes.

unsuspectingfish · May 2012

I wish I could live off of $50 monthly for groceries but I can't. Grocery costs are high and plus I have a teenage son in the house, but if you can and have no one else in the home with you, then good luck with that.

LOL, and I wish I had more than $100 a week for all of my bills and necessities, but that's just not going to happen. Some of us don't actually have a choice in how much we spend, because IT'S ALL WE HAVE.

To the OP: rice, beans, cabbage, potatoes. Also, invest in some garlic and add a clove or two when cooking these to keep stuff from being too bland. Don't chop it up, though. Just peel it, then crush it once with the side of your knife (or your hand) and toss it in. It retains more flavor, that way.