Could you eat on $30 a week?

[SunnyD]

Yes. I could easily eat on $30 a week. My entire family on the other hand, would be a stretch.

 

[zoiks]

I think I spend around $40/day on food. I should cut that back.

 

[zoiks]

I highly recommend you try it.

We're going to - http://www.koreanaboston.com/

Probably start-off with some sushi then Galbi(BBQ) which comes with lots of side dishes then Dolsot Bibimbop.

For the North End, I'm a fan of Giacomo's but we'll see, I may not have a choice.

I read that as www.koreanabortion.com. Yikes.

 

[nanette1985]

Yes, I do eat for <$30/week. I'm diabetic and I do a lot of testing, so I know I can only eat a tiny amount of carbs before glucose levels go haywire, it's mostly veggies and protein. Cheap as possible or whatever's on sale. Where the heck are you guys getting cheap salad? That's almost always out of my budget.

Cheapest drink I know of is tea - regular store brand or whatever there's a coupon for. Dollar store coffee is drinkable if I'm desperate.

No rice, potatoes, pasta, beans - ramen is a rare and delicious luxury, which I add to chicken soup. Mmmm. Food banks are no good for me, at least around here - they only provide starchy food, which fills people up and stores well (but pushes my numbers way up, not healthy).

Who gets hundreds in food stamps - where are you located? Just curious. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2160032&highlight=food+stamps It took a long time to get social services to stop the food stamps - i don't really need them.

 

[BladeVenom]

$30 a week is no problem; most poor people in America are obese.

 

[lxskllr]

Cheapest drink I know of is tea - regular store brand or whatever there's a coupon for. Dollar store coffee is drinkable if I'm desperate.

If you have a BigLots near you, go there for tea bags. The tea comes and goes, but they get some really interesting stuff on occasion. 4 tea bags makes 2 liters of iced tea. You can also get full priced flavored tea(Celestial Seasonings) at a regular store, and use 2 bags of that with 2 bags of black or green tea. That gives it a good flavor at a decent cost.

Aldi house brand coffee in the big cans is about $5.30 for ~2#. It isn't exceptional, but I'd rate it as good diner quality coffee, and is better than any bottom end coffee I've had before.

 

[nanette1985]

If you have a BigLots near you, go there for tea bags. The tea comes and goes, but they get some really interesting stuff on occasion. 4 tea bags makes 2 liters of iced tea. You can also get full priced flavored tea(Celestial Seasonings) at a regular store, and use 2 bags of that with 2 bags of black or green tea. That gives it a good flavor at a decent cost.

Aldi house brand coffee in the big cans is about $5.30 for ~2#. It isn't exceptional, but I'd rate it as good diner quality coffee, and is better than any bottom end coffee I've had before.

Thanks! Last time I checked there was no BigLots or Aldi nearby but I checked again and aha! both are now open about 10 miles away. Will visit them soon and get some tea and coffee, and as many other impulse purchases as I can easily afford.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Can I? Yes. Would I? No.

I spend about $120 per week on food (including eating out).

 

[lxskllr]

Thanks! Last time I checked there was no BigLots or Aldi nearby but I checked again and aha! both are now open about 10 miles away. Will visit them soon and get some tea and coffee, and as many other impulse purchases as I can easily afford.

If you aren't paranoid about privacy, get BigLots frequent shopper card. Make 10 purchases of $20 or more, and you get 20% off a future purchase. Keep your 10 preliminaries right around $20, then stock up when you get 20% off ;^)

 

[HamburgerBoy]

The last seven days I've consumed (approximately) 3 protein bars (~$7), a few energy bars (~$3), several slices of cheap Costco bread (~$1), maybe a quarter of a jar of almond butter (~$4), a quarter of a bag of Doritos (~$1), a couple pounds of beans (~$2), a couple pills of Beano (~$0.20), a couple glasses of Great Value juice (~$1), and a few dinosaur-shaped vitamins (~$0.20). So, I'm already living on a two-thirds of the limit set.

 

[HeXen]

i've eaten on $35 a day before, only spent no more than $5 a day. i did that for quite a while

 

[Svnla]

I can eat decently at home for about $150/month easily.

$30/week or $120 is doable but pushing it (tastewise and variety speaking).

Some of you guy are eating $30 to $40 a day? Yike, must be nice to eat out everyday.

 

[xanis]

Right now it would be pretty easy. Where I work has a kick-ass cafeteria with all kinds of good stuff (healthy and otherwise)... and it's completely free to employees. I'm eating two meals a day there, so I'm only really buying enough food for dinners.

 

[Fritzo]

If it was just myself, then yes, I could easily eat for $30 a week.

 

[darkxshade]

I'm currently pretty much at about $30/week but then again I don't eat a whole lot of food.

 

[Eos]

Most grocery stores around here price-gouge on spices

Check your store's bulk section. It should have everything that you need. You can buy 2 tbs of chili powder for a batch of chili.

 

[KentState]

Only could get by on $30 if I wanted to eat poorly. A good balanced diet is expense and the main reason why poor people are over weight. Buying apples, fresh fish and so on is rather expensive. We typically spend $80/person a week and make all dinners at home and most lunches.

 

[darkxshade]

Only could get by on $30 if I wanted to eat poorly. A good balanced diet is expense and the main reason why poor people are over weight. Buying apples, fresh fish and so on is rather expensive. We typically spend $80/person a week and make all dinners at home and most lunches.

I live in NYC downtown Manhattan and eat relatively healthy on $30/week.

Fruits: I get them in Chinatown, and whatever is on sale/fotw. Med Fuji apples are often 3/$1. I can get bananas @ 2-3lbs/$1. Strawberries & blueberries during the summer 16oz/1pt goes for $1-2.

Meats: Chicken breast goes on sale often at $1.75/lb and when they do I buy several lbs and store it in the freezer. Pork & fish for about the same or less.

Veggies: green leafy stuff is cheap.



The thing is that if given $30 and asked to last on it for a week without what's already available to me at the moment then it may not work. If told I can spend up to $30/week, then with say $120 for the month, one can easily make due and in a healthy way. You just have limited choices and with whatever is on sale for the week.


edit: I also have a breadmaker so I make my own bread. This is tougher to debate about since I spent $100 to buy the breadmaker but the more I use it, the more the cost of bread goes down. With a 4lb pack of whole wheat flour and 16oz package of instant yeast for about $6, I can make about 8 medium loaves of bread with a ton of yeast left.

 

[Imported]

Easily..

 

[bfdd]

Kind of wish I had food stamps now. I could spend that extra 120 I have on bud.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Eat what? Lunch?

 

[oogabooga]

If it means I get to be a college student again and have a ton of free time, possibly...

 

[blinblue]

edit: I also have a breadmaker so I make my own bread. This is tougher to debate about since I spent $100 to buy the breadmaker but the more I use it, the more the cost of bread goes down. With a 4lb pack of whole wheat flour and 16oz package of instant yeast for about $6, I can make about 8 medium loaves of bread with a ton of yeast left.

If you do a lot of bread making, get your yeast in bigger bulk. Costco (and I assume Sams Club does too) has 2lb of yeast for like $4. If you don't have a membership or there isn't one nearby, you can get it on amazon for $9, not as good of a deal, but still cheaper.

The price of yeast in "regular" grocery stores is horrendous, I find it amazing that they sell it for so much there.

 

[DominionSeraph]

ok that makes sense your in the heart of farm country. Take your prices and multiple 2x-3x and that is realistically what they charge around here. Average Salary for my job is probably higher here though I wouldn't say its 2x-3x higher. (not even clsoe)....my state sucks fuck CT.:biggrin:

http://www.yellowmap.de/partners/Al...sionGuid=ab07d226-445e-4707-8044-b874afdede1e

 

[SparkyJJO]

Yes I could. I'd have to cut out some extra stuff I tend to do but I could do it without any real issue. And really, I probably should cut back on some of the other stuff because it would save money and I could put it towards something else.

But I don't want to cut the nicer lunches or the beer So I probably won't change anything