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

I think the biggest obstacle to eating healthy on a budget is just time/preparation.
So, what you cut out in money, you'll have to make up for in time.
No eating out, not even for snacks, Buy some tupperware and a cooler and store all your meals/snacks in your car each day--that way, you'll never be caught in a bind where you have to buy an expensive fast-food/cafeteria snack or salad .

I've found that foods are much higher in price if they are "convenient"--meaning some preparation has been done for you.
So bagged lettuce vs. a head of lettuce,
baby/cut carrots vs. raw untouched carrots,
frozen meals vs. individual food items,
ect...
So my suggestion is to buy produce and cut it all up/prepare it yourself...

another good whole grain option is couscous--not too expensive, although a little more than rice.
For PROTEIN go for big tuna cans, black beans, canned chicken...
go to the supermarket early in the morning and they often have cuts of meat that must be sold that day on sale. There's nothing wrong with the meat, you just need to cook it that day.
Also, places like Costco and Winco have great deals since they sell in bulk,
and places like the 99cents Store have begun selling produce for dirt cheap!

It's difficult, but eating healthy on a budget is possible. Good luck!

All the things you listed are great already. I am not sure though if 40 or 50 a month is really realistic. I have been shopping for a family of four for a long time so maybe I am wrong, but often we spent 200 a week If I cut that to 100 I feel great. So if I divide that in 4 that would still be 100 a month. I am not sure it can be done especially if you are eating healthy and not just living on ramen noodles.

$50 a month.. that's crazy! My boyfriend and I spend at least 350-500 a month.

When I was in grad school, one of my diet staples was a bean & cheese (refried beans smeared on a whole wheat tortilla with salsa and cheese -- & zapped in the microwave to melt the cheese). Fast, cheap, & delish. Also vegetarian (which I'm not).

Also, my grad school friends & I formed a Costco co-op -- one person bought the membership and we shopped together splitting up the produce, cheese, meat, cereal, eggs, milk, etc. I mean those $5 bags of baby carrots (I think there are 5 lbs of them in the bag) -- they would probably spoil if one person bought them. But split 5 ways, it worked! You have to be a bit organized when shopping with your friends (impulse purchases were no-nos), but it was a big $$$ saver for us.

Also, one of my best buys was a bread machine at a garage sale (they seem to be a favorite wedding shower gift that people are always getting rid of at garage/yard sales). I bought one for $5 and would make fresh bread for all my friends (again, flour, yeast, milk, butter/oil are super cheap when bought in bulk at stores like Costco). I still have that bread machine and use it. Obviously, you can make your own bread without the machine, but in grad school (for me, at least) time was as precious as $$.

Anyway, great thread! And I'm super impressed with your $50/month budget!

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.

Wow, that seriously blows me away!!!!! Even the farmers markets here are not much off what you pay at the supermarket, sometimes they actually charge more!!! Bananas can range from 99c/kg in the high season right up to $22/kg (although this has only happened a couple of times in the past 10 years when cyclones wiped out the banana farms in QLD) the average price for bananas would be around $3/kg

And I know that a kg is 2.2 x a pound but there is such a big difference still! And my family are big meat eaters ... probably the cheapest half descent meat runs at about $18/kg a little cheaper when on special. I have tried buying the cheaper stuff but it isn't worth it, too fatty or tough, only really fit for the slow cooker!

Thanks for starting this thread, like I said, I will be watching it for some ideas ... I think if I can get our bill down below $500/mth for the whole family I would be really happy!

Don't feel too bad. It's much the same here so I understand. For the month of may I spent a little over 800$ on food(6 people) :-/ feeding one person for only 50$ just isn't possible here, even eating the cheapest-crapiest stuff available.