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Could you eat on $30 a week?

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Corporate Thug said:
Can I? Yes. Would I? No.

I spend about $120 per week on food (including eating out).
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that's about what i spend, excluding my coffee addiction. i find cooking at home is often close in price to restaurants, since the value doesn't scale down to 1 200-pound person until i have leftovers. my friends told me dinner costs them about $100/week for them and 2 boys, so i'm sure i could still be happy with my shopping while cutting the cost.

i only buy tuna at $1/can and pasta at $1/lb
i'm willing to spend up to $3 for tomato sauce i like
i do like expensive milk 😳
i'm a sucker for the sweets at trader joe's 😛
 
IceBergSLiM said:
I don't believe it.
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You don't believe... what? I already told you what she eats.

Rice w/fried egg for breakfast
Slow cooked chicken with beans and veggies for lunch/dinner
Makes her own bread for the sides.

That is what she eats pretty much all the time. She mixes different spices on the chicken to keep it interesting.

Edit: oh, and we live in Seattle, so not the cheapest area in the country for groceries.
 
alkemyst said:
I just cashed out in Albany airport. $35.98 ($10 tip is included in that)...I think my lunch was about $8 with nachos and the ham sandwich special (very good BTW for such a crappy city).
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I ate there a few weeks ago and had an ahi sandwich to DIE for! Wonder if you ate at the same spot I did. I was seriously impressed that an airport chef in podunk was pulling off food that perfectly done.
 
I did about $1.50 a day in college. My first job down in this region I averaged something like $2-$3 a day. I rarely ate meat, but thankfully I was able to get a bunch of 94/6 ground beef for <$1/lb and stocked up. Otherwise it was a bunch of carbs and starches (rice, pastas, breads, oats), some fruit and veggies here and there (usually frozen), some beans, and lots of processed stuff. I also did a lot of my own baking and focused heavily on Asian recipies since I found many that seemed to use several base ingredents in a large variety of flavors. There was also this brand of chicken hot dogs that I got for $1 a pack, and the same brand of chicken bolgna for $0.69/lb. I shopped exclusively at WalMart.

Nowadays I've changed my diet a lot, and eat a lot less processed foods. I still eat some, of course, but not nearly to the extent that I used to. I'm not concerned, though, since my blood pressure and blood work are absolutely ideal, as is my BMI. And, hey, thanks to this medication I'm on for my hypersomnia I eat less anyway 😛

Prices have really gone up around here, though, especially after the WalMart I normally shop at did a remodel. I still avoid shopping at grocery stores since the ones around here remain 2x-5x more than WalMart. Sometimes I save money at Sams/Costco, but more and more things are coming up close to break even in price -- I just get them in bulk instead.

Ironically, I've found that our Trader Joe's has become price competitive if not with Walmart, if not outright cheaper. So we're getting more and more things from there. Mostly fresh stuff like breads, eggs, fruits, and veggies as they're cheaper and higher quality. They also have some good frozen foods like cheesecakes, so long as you avoid some of the meals-ready-to cook packages that are really overpriced. There's a farmers market very close to my house, but their quality can be hit or miss. I'm not sure on their exact prices as I haven't shopped there -- just my girlfriend -- but from what she says they seem to be within the range of Trader Joes. Since TJ's is more consistent with quality, we're buying most of the fresh fruits and veggies from there.

Anywho, I think right now our two-person budget is $300/mo and I don't think we've ever used it up. Now that I eat anywhere from 400-800 calories less in a day (if not more), we save even more 😛
 
IceBergSLiM said:
high in carbs too.
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kinda a mistype, we have meat, veggies, fruit and 1 carb side (potatoes, rice, noodles or bread). not all 4 carb things at once.

carbs are my weakness. a good home made loaf of bread is like crack to me. i'll eat the shit out of it. mmmmm....

plus portion control isnt my strong point. I eat WAY more than i need to.
 
lxskllr said:
Depends on what you get. Green peppers are ridiculously expensive for some reason, so I very seldom buy them. When buying fresh produce, I generally get what's cheap, and adjust my cooking to that, rather than going to the store with a recipe, and filling it regardless of price.
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DING DING DING!!! WINNAR!

my wife is awesome at this. she checks the circular, compares it with her coupons and she menu plans around whats cheap. She'll pick 2 weeks worth of dinners and we can pick something from that list and have it for dinner depend on what sounds good that night. Sometimes nothing sounds good or things are too hectic and we end up throwing on some saussages (default easy quick meal) or grabbing something from somewhere.

Eating out has been our biggest downfall for the past few years. We're finally correcting that problem. That shit adds up fast to your wallet and wasteline.
 
The Boston Dangler said:
i've never had korean. a full report is expected when you get back 🙂
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Yummy! Started off with Tofu soap for her, Miso for me. Then we had the Maki Combination Sushi Special as an appetizer. Then had both Bulgogi and Tofu BBQ. The BBQ comes with side dishes(hopefully, I can remember them all, all you can eat too). Small dishes of Kimchi, seaweed salad, bean sprouts, white radish, mushrooms. fried tofu, cucumber slices, green lettuce salad, green peppers, some green sprout dish, zucchini wedges are placed around the BBQ grill. Everything but the Kimchi are either marinaded or pickled.

The table has a little BBQ grill built into the middle of the table and you cook the Bulgogi, Tofu, onions, mushrooms, garlic, etc in it then wrap the BBQ in large leaves of red leaf lettuce, add white rice, sauces and eat.

Then given a sweet cinnamon spiced tea to finish it off.

$65 plus tip.
 
Ok, just got back from Aldi. Gonna break this down into basic meal choices: (receipt at bottom)

Box of corn flakes (18oz)
Pound of strawberries
~2.5lbs bananas ($0.44/lb)
Gallon of milk

Pancake mix (32 oz)
Syrup
2qt Grapefruit juice

5.13lbs ground beef
Lettuce
Tomato (20 oz)
1lb shredded cheddar cheese
(Have 5lbs left of a 10lb bag of potatoes for baked potato goodness, so🙂
2lbs sour cream
1lb butter

2 cans of cherry pie filling
2 pie crusts
(I make my own crumble topping)

3lbs smoked polish sausage (16 links)
5 packs of macaroni and cheese

2lb package of pasta
5 jars of sauce (Just as good if not better than Prego)
1.24lbs hot Italian sausage
Ranch dressing (make salad out of the lettuce/tomato/cheese above.)
[Aldi Ranch dressing is fantastic. Light but flavorful.]

2.5lbs peanut butter (omg Aldi peanut butter is delicious)
Two 18oz jars of strawberry preserves
3 loaves of white bread
3 loaves of wheat bread
(for burgers and buttered toast w/ spaghetti, too)

Dozen eggs
(make home fries w/ potatoes above)

10lbs sugar
Two 10-packs of Kool-aid

$82.02
Basically a month of food here.

picture003vx.jpg
 
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Capt Caveman said:
Yummy! Started off with Tofu soap for her, Miso for me. Then we had the Maki Combination Sushi Special as an appetizer. Then had both Bulgogi and Tofu BBQ. The BBQ comes with side dishes(hopefully, I can remember them all, all you can eat too). Small dishes of Kimchi, seaweed salad, bean sprouts, white radish, mushrooms. fried tofu, cucumber slices, green lettuce salad, green peppers, some green sprout dish, zucchini wedges are placed around the BBQ grill. Everything but the Kimchi are either marinaded or pickled.

The table has a little BBQ grill built into the middle of the table and you cook the Bulgogi, Tofu, onions, mushrooms, garlic, etc in it then wrap the BBQ in large leaves of red leaf lettuce, add white rice, sauces and eat.

Then given a sweet cinnamon spiced tea to finish it off.

$65 plus tip.
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Costco in our area was doing Bulgogi for a while, it was really well done. However, they stopped even though it was getting harder to find it in stock.
 
A lot of grocery stores are featuring recipe cards with the current 'on-sale' items.

I shop smart (double coupons on 2 for 1's and pick up items on sale even if it's for stock), but generally just the one bag of cat food @ $16 and 70 cans of cat food at $35 is going to crush that $30 per week requirement 🙂. The food is for cats that aren't even mine. In general with beer and my wife's snacks, we hit about $150-200 per week. We get a lot of prepared foods like shrimp salads and the like which cost a premium. With me traveling more, my wife doesn't have a lot of free time unless we offset her kitchen time.
 
darkxshade said:
I live in NYC downtown Manhattan and eat relatively healthy on $30/week. :colbert:

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.
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Even with what you listed, that would be more than $30/week for 3 meals a day. You are basically telling me that you spend $1.50 each for 21 meals in a week? That doesn't include any healthy snacks between meals.
 
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