In college I did pretty well with Top Ramen and Tomato soup.
Mmmmm. Those were the days…
Flour can be quite cheap and bread (flat breads don’t need special flour) is really easy to make.
I remember reading some stuff on a self-sufficiency website a while back about a guy who cooked food in a thermos flask (saving a lot of money on fuel) - you just make sure the food/broth is a boiling point when you put it in and it cooks just as well as a slow-cooker/crockpot apparently.
He also bought huge sacks of wheat for next to nothing and boiled it, serving it like rice.
I was pretty poor back in college too and when my husband and I first got married. It’s not six people but it fed us on sometimes as little as $20. a week. With inflation, that’s probably $40. Now. Most everything has been mentioned but I’ll add a few that were missed.
Buy in bulk when you can it’s cheaper rice, whole chickens and cut them up, store brands, scratchand dent you name it. Also Ramen noodles are cheap and will fill the belly although not all that nutritios. Same goes for baked potatoes. a little butter and salt and pepper and you have high carb meal for under a dollar.
Chicken livers are usually around a buck for a pound too. Beans and hamhocks, and that really cheap soup in a bag, I think it is in the kosher aisle is about .78 cents a bag…
The garden depends on where you live (in the southwest water could be an expensive factor) and what you grow. I’ve had great luck with tomatoes, they are easy to grow and string beans too.
Also depending on where you live, you can actually forage food. I’ve picked berries and mushrooms (be CAREFUL there) from the woods.
Just visit a church, they give free food. As a matter of fact visit several churches on the same day, get a lot of free food. Some of it comes from the US dept of agriculture & it’s okay.
Eat at other people’s houses, more free food …
Of course, buying things on sale works for me.
I know the sugesstion of food banks usually illicites AW MY God’s -especially from the kids if they are forced to be involved in the public pick up phase of the adventure…But in this little slice of Appalachia food banks are viewed as a vital supplement, and not necessarily the last resort…And you can always volunteer your labor when you have time so it becomes nearly a cooperative…I do this at the soup line in my community(and they serve way more than soup). Second Harvest is a really great national food distribution cooperative, and I see many middle class - especially the elderly - on a daily basis at the church in my community were Second Harvest distributes.
Yes, all but the smallest stores do, although here they are in price per pound, quart etc.
This is my hobby. It’s fun and allows me to play math games and win fabulous prizes.
Well, I buy in bulk- 25 lbs flour, 20 lbs rice, 5 lbs sugar, 5-10 lbs pasta, etc., avoid prepared foods, and make most stuff myself. Comparative shopping is very important (price per ounce, etc). Loss leaders and end caps have or are bargain specials. Coupons!-my all time high was saving 65.00 on my grocery bill through buy-one-get- one-frees, loss leaders, end caps, and coupons, and using the "Kroger Card’ for extra discounts. The total bill was around 100.00. Never pay retail. Back in the old days, another lady and I shared our buy-one-get-one-frees and split the tab. Now I keep them all.
I make bread (it’s not hard) and I think I figured it cost between .25 and .50 a loaf compared to .89 to 1.59 pre made.
Shop at ‘crummy’ grocery stores.
I love those giant chickens- the 5-6 pounders. We eat it twice, then use the leftovers in another recipe. That’s three meals (sometimes 4), so getting them buy-one-get-one- free gives me at least 6 to 8 dinners (24 to 32 meals!) for the price of one big chicken. Also, chop meats into serving size or smaller. For example, 4 chicken breasts serve four people, but used in a stir fry or casserole and they magically extended to 6 or 8 servings. Cut stew meat smaller. People generally eat too much meat anyway. A serving should be 4 to 6 ounces- about the size of a deck of cards at the most (my rule).
I also check the frozen food section to see what freezes well and copy it.
Use the crock pot or other slow cook method for lesser cuts- they become tender and tasty.
Use spices for more variety.
Finally, shop for better meats two to three days after a holiday and check the ‘getting old’ meat section. Think of it as ‘aged’. Tomorrow seafood and steaks will be on an after Valentines Day sale. This is true of every major holiday, especially the “BBQ holidays” such as Fathers Day and Memorial Day.
Personally, I spend alot of time on this, but I don’t really need to. It just makes me feel good!
Sorry, I missed the gardening part. I do this, too. Anyone can grow tomatos in a pot at the very least, and they taste so good. I got one of those kitchen window herb kits and planted it in the yard instead. I put the cilantro in a pot because the bugs like it so much. I even tried to grow carrots and corn in a pot, but it didn’t work out. Now I have a house and I’m planning on putting the yard to work for me. I got an apple, lemon. and peach tree last year. I plan to get 3 blueberry bushes this year. I planted a garden last year but you really need a couple of years to get it in shape unless you can afford to prep the plot all at once. I’ve had houses where I grew potatos and watermelon in the front garden bed.
Look for deals in your normal market. Sometimes you can find chicken of beef for extremely cheap. Always check for these or ask around. If you stumble on these deals, you can stock up big time and save by freezing them and eating for weeks on them.
Don’t feel like you have to have a lot of meat at every meal or even at every dinner. While protein is important, expecially to youn’uns, a little meat goes a long way. Save by using animal products sparingly… use this money to buy fruit instead. Protein requirements can be met with things like natural peanut butter, beans and pasta, along with some meat here and there (1 serving a day minimum I would say).
Debunked? Cite? I’d really like to know this because I have a 10 year old daughter that will not eat meat. She’s skinny as a rail and I worry about lack of protein in her diet. **
[/QUOTE]
Pro combo: http://mydietbuddy.com/food-combination.htm
Con combo: http://michaelbluejay.com/veg/history.html
Quote from second site:
Diet for a Small Planet was a runaway best-seller, and made Lappé famous. It was therefore surprising – and commendable – that Lappé owned up to making a mistake about the very thing which made her a household name. In the 1981 edition of Diet for a Small Planet, Lappé recanted and explained that: "In 1971 I stressed protein complementarity because I assumed that the only way to get enough protein … was to create a protein as usable by the body as animal protein. In combating the myth that meat is the only way to get high-quality protein, I reinforced another myth. I gave the impression that in order to get enough protein without meat, considerable care was needed in choosing foods. Actually, it is much easier than I thought.
Don’t worry, my brother is a very very strict vegan bordering on fruititarian. Rants about genetically altered food. Won’t even use a microwave to heat water. He is thin as a rail. Yet doesn’t suffer from a family health problem as my sister and I do. I predict he will live twice as long as I.
[/hijack]
flex727
Here is the American Dietetic Association’s position on vegetarianism, which includes a lot of nutritional information as well as some sensible guidelines- none of which involve combineing protein. Apparently in a 1988 position paper (that I don’t have a link to) they debunked it altogether.
I was skinny as a stick at ten, too. Mostly thats because I hated meat, and that was what most of my family’s meals were based around. I just plain didn’t get enough to eat. My mom made me do research and make a convinceing case that I would be able to have a healthy vegetarian diet. She bought me a variety of diet books and cookbooks. When I did that and finally embraced vegetarianism, I gained a good twenty pounds and stopped being so sickly because I was finally making an effort to eat a real diet that suited my needs instead of picking around my family’s diet.
7-Day Menu Planner offers quick, healthful meals for budget-minded families. The author Susan Nicholson is a registered dietitian.
Another tip. Only go shopping after you have eaten. If you are feeling hungry when going round the supermarket you will be tempted into buying more stuff than you realy need especially neer the hot food counters.
This really sounds familiar. She doesn’t eat meat because she doesn’t like it, not for philosophical reasons. However, she loves bacon and pepperoni and, sometimes, turkey. Other than the turkey, not very healthy. She also doesn’t like most vegetables with the exception of potatoes. We’re really struggling.
Slight hijack - but when I’ve gone to ‘crummy’ grocery stores, it’s always seemed that the prices for basic items (not specialty items, but basics) is always higher, and the quality is very much lower than at the more ‘ritzy’ grocery stores.
Is it just the ones in my area that are like that?
Since this is about advice and tips more than facts, I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
At Sam’s you can get a 7+ pound package of lean ground beef for about $11. The same quality and amount at the grocery store is almost double. ALWAYS by leaner ground beef, it cost a little more, but you don’t cook half of it away.
Most recipes that call for 1 lb. of ground beef only need 1/2 lb, even Hamburger Helper.
Also at Sams and Walmart, you can get a bag of fozen hamburger patties at a reasonable price. You can take 4 patties, thaw in the microwave, chop them up, and use them in recipes that don’t require the meat to be crumbly.
Serve bread with every meal to make it more filling, toast it and be creative with stuff to put on it so you don’t get tired of it.
Go to grocery stores that have discount cards. Every week the sale items will be even cheaper with the card, and a lot of it is “buy one, get one free”.
porridge oats.
cheapest breakfast there is.
my childhood was made miserable with lentil casseroles and leftover quiches.
my mother can take any piece of offal or a cheap cut of meat and do something edible with it.
mince and kidney pie was another staple.
fish is often cheaper than meat if you live near the coast.
and apparently, cabbage is cheap.
we had it in coleslaws, sauerkrauts, boiled as a side and mixed into EVERYTHING.
yuck.
One way to add extra nutrition to a low budget diet is to leave the skin on whatever you can. When I make mashed potatoes I leave the skins on. It’s faster and most on the vitamins and minerals are actually in the skin if I remember correctly. I also do this with apples, cucumbers, and carrots.
Also, when you buy jelly, get the kind with the seeds still in. The seeds are loaded with fiber.
A head of garlic lasts forever and is so good for you.
Another thing to think about getting is a jar of wheat germ. It’s basicly the part of the wheat that they take off when making white flour and is a natural sorce of unsaturated fats, potassium, fiber, protein, vitamin E, folic acid, magnesium, thiamin, phosphorus, and zinc. It can be added to may dishes such as pasta sauce, meatloaf, mac and cheese, and salad.
One thing I also do when produce shopping is I pay attention to how the items are priced. For instance, Romain lettuce is like $1.50 a head so I pick out the biggest one. But bananas are 88 cents a pound so I pick out the bunches with the smallest bananas.
Another thing to think about is frozen veggies are just as good for you as fresh ones. Plus they are a lot cheeper. I keep my freezer stocked with frozen veggies and they come in handy all the time.
Learn when the sales start. At a store near me the cereal sales start on Wednesday and by Friday night the cereal on sale is sold out.
Make baby food with a blender. It’s simple - insert carrot or whatever, puree, serve carrot mush. It’s almost 100% cheaper.
Write your favorite manufacturers and tell them WHY you like their product. Many times you’ll get coupons as a thank you. I got $80 in hotel coupons once after holding a company meeting there and getting great treatment. I wrote the chain home office and praised the local manager and they sent me discount coupons.
Day old bread shops are another thing. There’s a Wonder bakery near me where everything is near the expire date but is on the cheap. Buy a little and eat it quick.