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Could you eat on $30 a week?

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Agree on aldi. Love that place. Another thing to do would be trolling the grocery subforum on slickdeals. You can get all kinds of stuff for cheap at shoppers/cvs. Or use the grocery game for like 3 months to stock up and then cancel the service.
 
Everyone suggesting costco is good. Slightly less than $1 a week on the budget for the 50 a year membership.
You can hang out there all day and fillup on samples too.
 
My roommate is a professional musician, and she lives on $25 a week. Quite well, I might add.

She buys a whole chicken, debones it, and slow cooks it with beans and veggies.
The chicken bones make a nice soup with veggies.
She buys a big bag of flour and makes her own bread.
She eats rice with a fried egg for breakfast.

Stuff like that. We have Grocery Outlet and a lot of Asian stores that are way cheaper than the regular supermarket, so basic ingredients don't cost that much when purchased in bulk.
 
I used to spend about $90 every two weeks, and that was with the purchase of quite a bit of alcohol. I probably spent about $70 every on everything else, and I wasn't even trying to save money. So yes, I believe I could.
 
Curious, those of you eating "ultra cheap" <$50 a week......how much of that food isn't processed not including minimally processed(flash frozen veggies etc)? What percentage? 1&#37;-5%?
 
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$30 a week is too easy for 1 or 2 person.

How about $30 a month for a family of 4? 2 adults, 2 kids, 3 meals a day, no Costco membership, no backyard for homegrown garden. Now, that would be a challenge.
 
IceBergSLiM said:
Curious, those of you eating "ultra cheap" <$50 a week......how much of that food isn't processed or minimally processed(flash frozen veggies etc)? What percentage? 1%-5%?
Click to expand...

I eat a lot of canned vegetables, and canned food in general. I also eat very little meat aside from fish. Spam and Italian sausage is about all the meat I buy.
 
IceBergSLiM said:
Curious, those of you eating "ultra cheap" <$50 a week......how much of that food isn't processed not including minimally processed(flash frozen veggies etc)? What percentage? 1&#37;-5%?
Click to expand...

Typical items for me would be milk, flour, rice, non-frozen ground beef, non-frozen ground turkey, eggs, fresh fruits and veges, pasta, tomato sauce, cheeses of various types, orange juice, other juice, frozen veges, frozen chicken (chicken breast strips, orange chicken), frozen waffle fries or tater tots, some diet soda.

I would say about 50-75% is unprocessed or minimally processed depending on how you define it.
 
blinblue said:
Typical items for me would be milk, flour, rice, non-frozen ground beef, non-frozen ground turkey, eggs, fresh fruits and veges, pasta, tomato sauce, cheeses of various types, orange juice, other juice, frozen veges, frozen chicken (chicken breast strips, orange chicken), frozen waffle fries or tater tots, some diet soda.

I would say about 50-75% is unprocessed or minimally processed depending on how you define it.
Click to expand...

You aren't buying all that on 30 a week....show me a reciept
 
IceBergSLiM said:
Curious, those of you eating "ultra cheap" <$50 a week......how much of that food isn't processed not including minimally processed(flash frozen veggies etc)? What percentage? 1%-5%?
Click to expand...

You get more if it's less processed from my personal experience. A cup of oats is 300 calories, takes 1.5 minutes to heat up, keeps you full. I usually mix in a scoop of whey (and blueberries if I'm trying to gain weight). Tastes awesome.

Milk, chicken breasts, lean ground turkey/beef, lean steaks, beans, eggs, cottage cheese are cheap protein.

Oats, frozen veggies, bread, rice, pasta are cheap carbs.

Olive oil, almonds, peanuts, natty pb are cheap fats.
 
Capt Caveman said:
Those prices are so expensive. You can buy a gallon of milk for $2.49. Pasta sauce for $0.99 a bottle. Pasta for $0.99 per pound. Ground meat for $1.99 per pound. Smarter shopping would allow you to buy additional food items including vegetables.
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Man I wish, at the grocers around here (Food Lion, Giant, Weis) even a gallon of store-brand milk runs nearly $4 most of the time.
 
IceBergSLiM said:
Curious, those of you eating "ultra cheap" <$50 a week......how much of that food isn't processed not including minimally processed(flash frozen veggies etc)? What percentage? 1&#37;-5%?
Click to expand...

Aldi has fresh fruits and vegetables on the cheap.

Strips of home-cooked rotisserie chicken with roasted pepper, lettuce, diced tomato, shredded cheddar, and gobs of sour cream in a warm flour tortilla.

Yummmmmm.
 
IceBergSLiM said:
so like i said 95%+ of your food intake is processed crap.
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How do you figure? The Spam and sausage are, but there's nothing wrong with canned vegetables, or canned fish. I'd say 50% of my food is processed, and that's largely due to cereal consumption. That's me default snack/dessert.
 
Probably. I'm probably at around $50/wk right now, and I'm not really trying to keep costs down.

Changes might be:
1) Shop at Walmart instead (I primarily shop at Giant Eagle - nicer store, closer, and always a shorter wait at the checkouts, though usually there's one open right away.)
2) Cheap hamburger
3) Ultra-generic bread-like hamburger buns
4) More pasta-based meals
5) For a soft-drink that's much cheaper than soda: Kool-Aid. Yeah there's no Coca-Cola flavors, but some are acceptable. The sugar + tap water are terribly cheap.
Or generic fruit concentrates.
6) Bring a calculator and figure out the unit price on stuff that doesn't provide it, to make sure that you're really getting the best deal. And sometimes the stuff in the larger package isn't actually cheaper.



M0oG0oGaiPan said:
You get more if it's less processed from my personal experience. A cup of oats is 300 calories, takes 1.5 minutes to heat up, keeps you full. I usually mix in a scoop of whey (and blueberries if I'm trying to gain weight). Tastes awesome.

Milk, chicken breasts, lean ground turkey/beef, lean steaks, beans, eggs, cottage cheese are cheap protein.

Oats, frozen veggies, bread, rice, pasta are cheap carbs.

Olive oil, almonds, peanuts, natty pb are cheap fats.
Click to expand...
Good stuff too.
 
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IceBergSLiM said:
You aren't buying all that on 30 a week....show me a reciept
Click to expand...

Of course not in one week. For example I buy a 4 pack of ground turkey (about 6lbs total) and that lasts me about a month (use two within the first week and a bit, freeze the other two for use later in the month). The frozen items are usually a once a month type of purchase (or even less frequently). Weekly purchases usually would include milk, fruits and veggies (bananas, oranges, strawberries, apples, avocados, peppers, etc), ground beef.

A few other things I forgot, cereal, frozen waffles, yogurt, pulled pork, organic tortilla chips, olive oil.
So yeah, I'd stick to my 50% or so. If you want receipts I can dig them up for you 🙂
 
lxskllr said:
How do you figure? The Spam and sausage are, but there's nothing wrong with canned vegetables, or canned fish. I'd say 50% of my food is processed, and that's largely due to cereal consumption. That's me default snack/dessert.
Click to expand...

Canned veggies have a fraction of the nutrition found in fresh produce not to mention they have very little "calories" to "fill you up" so I think your low balling your number.

But 50% is scary figure anyways....50% of your diet is nutritionally empty
 
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