Grocery budget

If you take advantage of square foot gardening you can avoid the high cost of salad and fresh veggies. It takes such a little bit of space to grow an abundance and it's the perfect time to start.

If you practice the pyramid approach to eating and learn how to make bread I think you could eat on very little and still be healthy. Bread seems to be the biggest cost around here which is why I make most of it, I can buy whole wheat flour, rye flour and add wheatgerm to all of it to make it as healthy as possible without adding a lot to my food bill.

Remember to eat meats in moderation, buy your meat in as whole pieces as possible. Buy a whole chicken and remember to use the bones and tidbits you wouldn't eat to make soup. When you buy beef buy it with the bone in and make soup. Don't shop the freezer isle because most everything that is frozen will cost you more then it's worth.

Cook in smaller portions so that left over don't get wasted and you're not tempted to over eat which is a big killer when it comes to budgeting. I've learned to use a small bread pan for making lasagna and casseroles in.

Grow herbs in your kitchen so you can cheaply season your food. No reason to go without taste just because you're living on a budget.

If you really can only afford $25/wk for groceries you might look at local food banks. Nothing wrong with asking for help when you need it. If you're just trying to budget out all the extras then I'm sure you can manage and still be healthy. Just use a little creativity.

Good luck!

Exactly. My $100 budget is only for DH & I. The exception would be when our teenage grandsons come to visit. They could eat $20 worth of food in one day, if we let them. They want to eat constantly.

But for 2 adults, it doable.

Actually, it can be done quite easily.
There are some trade offs.... you will use meat primarily for flavoring (an purchase hamburger, cheap cuts and sale meat(, and eat lots of pasta, potatoes, etc. You may not be able to invest in a wide variety of fresh or frozen fruits or vegetables. You will mostly be buying canned fruits and vegetables. Dried beans are a good source of protein and quite inexpensive, and one can make a lot more than "ham and beans" with them.

This kind of diet is not unhealthy if you do a lot of physical work... but is quite unhealthy if you are sedentary.

One final thing.... we have been keeping tabs on all that we spend at the grocery-store and/or wally world. As it turns out, a major part of our bill is "toiletries" not food. Just think...... Laundry detergent, fabric softener, bleach, dish-washing detergent, lime away, brillo pads, furniture polish, 409, toilet cleaner, hand soap, hand lotion, toothpaste, mouth wash, dental floss, q-tips, Visine, Off, band-aids, chiggerrid, iodine, hydrogen peroxide, shampoo, hair conditioner, paper towels, etc, etc, and I haven't even started to mention the products a woman might use, and things like aspirin and sinus medication.....

I'll go with the local area thing. Small town, no big cities for 50 miles either way. Very little price competition.
Prices were high here before Obama..

I know I couldn't do it but plenty here do. I want to add that if you already have the equipment - freezer, canner, jars, crock pot, etc you might- if you are really attentive; grow a garden and sock it away. If you have a fulltime cook around and if your family loves veggies and can get by with very little meat, maybe. But without the garden, I just don't see how you can get the calories on $25 a week. I but $ 15 worth of MILK a week - and there are just three of us. (milk is $2.99 a gallon here usually). You really won't know what you can do until you give it a try.

Holy lightning, you go through five gallons of milk a week for THREE people? I thought our milk consumption was high!

Milk here is at least $2.99 for a HALF gallon. We go through about three gallons a week for four people, two of whom are growing teen-aged boys with bottomless pits for stomachs.

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If you cant afford "fresh" fruits and veggies (commercial stuff isnt necessarily that fresh, they have all kinds of chemical and cold storage tricks), then consider sprouting. Sprouting seeds increases their nutrive availablity greatly. There are lot varieties seed that can be sprouted, not just the ubiquitous alfalfa sprout.

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Hey, I have a nice bunch of mung beans sprouting right now for our Good Friday supper (shrimp fried rice)

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$100 a month?
Unless you grow your own food I don't know how it could be done.
Aldi's is probably the cheapest place around to buy groceries. Once I bought groceries for 3 that lasted a week for $13 at Aldi's

Are you eligible for food stamps? I think you'd probably have to get frozen vegetables, potatoes, and fresh carrots. I doubt you could often afford fruits.

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You're only eligible for foodstamps if you're too poor to get to the store.

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If you spent your food money as suggested here you could perhaps get by on $100 a month. I hardly ever bother with food coupons because mostly they are for prepared foods I wouldn't eat, anyway. You can get a lot of the fruits, potatoes and veggies if you can find the right dumpster. Or barter or find a job (preferably in a restaurant) or baby sit to make money for food. $100 is cutting it too close to eat healthily. Don't forget, some months have five weeks.

Thanks for all the tips. I don't qualify for food stamps and it's more of wanting to keep my budget that low than a need. We do eat healthy and include lots of fruits and veggies. I'm not sure I can stay below $100 but I think with sales, coupons, and good planning I can cut it fairly close and still eat healthy. Can't wait til the garden starts coming in!

An outside of the box item. Look to see if there is a crop share in your area. Some will let you get a free share for labor (and if your stepson, doesn't mind working outside a couple hours) it will give you tons of food. Enough to easily make headway on storing some for the winter.

Billco, it sounds like the stepson is only three years old, probably a little bit too young to make him start working in a crop share!!!

My adult DD and I lived on $100/month for quite some time, and that included gas, toiletries, and some animal food (cat and two dogs). We did have a garden, dairy goats, and chickens, so weren't buying dairy products, fresh veggies, or eggs. But it was about ten years ago; prices have gone up a bit. (And if you are going to add livestock to your equation, make sure you can grow all, or almost all, of the food for them, because buying feed can be very expensive.)

Kathleen

I spend about $250 a month for our family of 4 (DS-11 DD-7). BUT that includes the $ increase our pantry stores, not just what we eat. If just doing DH and I and not adding to the pantry each month, yep $100 would do it, assuming I'm buying sale items, staples, no packaged foods and gardening, which is our normal (might still be able to put back some food in the pantry with $100 - but not regularly). The one item we buy that is not in that $ is DH's soda....he MUST have it and since he's the breadwinner, he get's it - about 4-5 cases a month.

My parents spend the winters in AZ and are amazed at how cheap the produce and meat is there compared to here....so location is a big factor.

Edited to add: After reading more the responses I thought I better mention that I make most of our bread. I start with the wheat-berries I get for $6 for 25#..so that's a little money that goes a long way. Scratch cooking and planning is the key to in-expensive nutritious meals.

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look for recipes online, like hillybilly housewife site, for one. oh, then dorothy ainsworth site is another, she has good ideas.

can you hunt? that would also help. but i can't add much that hasn't been said, these folks know what they speak of!

It's just DH and myself and we come pretty close to that same budget for food only. One thing that helps is having several freezers. Also we eat lots of fish and frog legs caught locally. DH also goes to the butcher shop and buys ground beef in large quantities, usually 10 lbs or more, and uses this to make multiple recipes to freeze. He typically spends an entire weekend cooking up big pots of chili, spaghetti sauce w/meat, sloppy joes, small individual meatloafs, and Italian meatballs. Another freezer food that he makes is his grandma's recipe for oven baked dressing. I wish I could share the recipes, but he never uses recipes that are written down anywhere. His grandma taught him to cook when he was just a little fella.

We buy eggs from a neighbor of ours and if we need milk we buy that from the grocery. Neither of us drinks milk and just use it for cooking. We also buy beef from the butcher and get it cut mostly into steaks and small roasts. We do buy polish sausage and hotdogs from the grocery when these are on sale and we have coupons to use. We eat mostly cornbread, but sometimes buy bread either at the grocery or from the Amish. We also buy Amish made butter at a local grocery. We grow a garden and trade veggies with our local family so we all can have a good variety of fresh food. We also freeze a lot of our vegetables and produce. We don't make jams/jellies because we don't eat those. We also don't make wines/cider for same reason. We have apple and pear trees and a pitiful nectarine tree.

Aside from this we have a years supply of shelf stable commercially can/dry food for emergencies. We do eat some of this and replace, such as the pasta, soups, and canned fruit. But while we have a choice, we'll usually choose fresh food over commercial.

Absolutely, it can be done.

Look at other cultures for low cost, healthy foods. For example, Chinese food uses very little meat, but lots of vegies and rice. Same with Mexican or Middle-Eastern cooking. Seasoning makes a big difference, and herbs and spices are not expensive if you buy them in the bulk foods sections or dollar stores, or if you grow your own.

Frozen vegies are not expensive, and have more nutrition than many so-called fresh vegies in the produce department. Hermit John mentioned sprouts - great source of nutrition. A little patch of cut and come again salad greens can provide year-round greens - plant in a pot and bring them inside with a light over them in the winter, take them outside in the sunshine the rest of the year

Canned applesauce is inexpensive, and if you buy your canned fruits in the #10 cans, then either re-can them in smaller jars or freeze them in portions, most all canned fruit is quite affordable. Bananas are usually about the cheapest fruit year-round, but if you watch the sales and eat seasonally, you can eat plenty of fresh fruits and stay within your budget.

Beans are healthy - great source of fiber. Combine them with brown rice and you have a complete, healthy protein. (Wish I liked beans, I really do - sigh.)

Watch for close dated dairy products - you may have to do some searching to find a store that marks them down and will set them aside for you. Dairy items have to be good for 7 days after the sell by date.

Eggs are cheap protein, and studies have been done that refute the old thinking that they raise your cholesterol levels. Farm fresh are going to taste better than store eggs - maybe you can buy a dozen farm fresh and mix them with the storebought eggs to get a little more of the good flavor?

Watch the meat sales in your local paper - shop the loss leaders, and again, watch for mark downs on close dated meats. Take them home and either freeze them or cook them immediately.

There are a ton of different ways to save money on your grocery bill. Check out the tightwad tips thread in CF. Lots of good advice there.

I can feed 2 of us, one a growing teen, on that much per month, and we eat pretty darned well - too well, if my waistline tells you anything.

Now, if you are wanting to spend that much per month on food AND sundries, I am not sure that is as realistic a goal. Maybe if you have a CVS near enough to use their rewards program...

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Hermit John forgot to add that spouted beans and grains are very high in protein and can be used as a meat substitute.
Use the Cornell triple Rich formula for making breads, pizza crust and noodles. I found this in the Joy of Cooking back when I was on food stamps and it helped keep my daughtr healthy since she wouldn't eat beans.
Before you measure your flour, in the bottom of your 1 cup measure add a teaspoon of soy flour, a tablespoon of wheat germ and a tablespoon of dry milk solids. Fill the measure the rest of the way with sifted unbleached white flour.
You don't need a pasta machine to make noodles. Roll very thin dough made with an egg and a spoonful of water in the triple rich Cornell formula flour mix, cut with a butter knife.