Food Budget: Eating on a Shoestring
‘œWorries go down better with soup.’ ‘“ Jewish Proverb
Back in May, Ben McGrath at The New Yorker wrote about Eric Gioia, a city councilman from Queens and his Food Stamp Challenge. What’s the Food Stamp Challenge? According to McGrath, it’s eating only what someone could afford on a week’s worth of food stamps, or the equivalent of twenty-eight dollars.
He writes, ‘œHere are the groceries that Gioia brought home from a Food Dynasty in Woodside: two loaves of white bread, six ears of corn, five oranges, six bananas, three cucumbers, three cans of tuna, four packets of ramen, five boxes of Ronzoni pasta, one jar of tomato sauce, one bag of carrots (organic), one stick of butter, processed-cheese slices, one tub of pre-mixed peanut butter and jelly (Smucker’s Goober). Total cost: $24.44.’
He gained 2 pounds that week but in doing so raised the awareness of the food-stamp program. He also proved how difficult it is to eat healthy when forced to economize.
Evan Steiner did something similar at Hungry for a Month where he spent only $30 on food for the entire month of November last year.
Those are extreme examples but yesterday in the LA Times, Liz Pulliam Weston answered a reader’s question about how someone could reduce the money they spent on food each month. She’s suggesting that a single person can survive on $100-$150 per month for their food purchases.
She writes, ‘œIs it tough to get by on so little? Good heavens, yes, but it’s not impossible.’
Here’s how she suggested that someone could do it:
- Make dried beans, rice and ramen noodles your staples. Meat and fish will make occasional cameos, rather than daily appearances.
- Eliminate prepackaged foods as well as sodas, alcohol, candy and snacks from your grocery list. The closer to nature the food is, the better, and there’s no room in your budget for empty calories.
- Choose fresh fruits and vegetables in season, and haunt farmers’ markets toward the end of the day to bargain for unsold goods.
- Double or triple recipes when you cook and freeze the excess for later. Having meals you can quickly heat up in the microwave will reduce the temptation to order in or eat out.
She finished the segment by noting one cookbook/how-to guide to try is ‘˜Dining on a Dime,’ available at Living on a Dime.
Jeanine and I spend about $100 a week on groceries. That’s $400 a month ‘“ a far cry from the above. We typically eat out one night on the weekend and then maybe one other night during the week ‘“ either something inexpensive or take-out. The rest of the time, we eat in. We like to cook.
I actually thought this was pretty good until I read the comments in this post over at Frugal Hacks where families of four and five people were eating on $100 or less a week. The writer asked the question, ‘œWhat is your idea of a comfortable grocery budget?’
So what is your weekly / monthly food budget and how do you stay within those limits?
Hmm, well we don’t budget, at all, for food. We buy good food and enjoy it, and we eat out whenever we feel like it (usually about once or twice a week). We don’t eat fast food at all, so we eat out at decent places and we get subsidised sandwiches at work for lunches. I guess we just never felt the need to set a budget since we don’t feel like we’re spending too much.
Ours was about $250 but we overspent by $25 or so. That includes things like multivitamins, which we ran out of and probably accounted for $14.
One way I stretch meat is by either doubling the recipe or cutting the meat in half and making it up with lentils or black beans. We love both and it doesn’t seem to make a difference. Plus, we appreciate the meat more.
I think the biggest thing that saves me money on food is being a vegetarian. We only buy non-perishables every 2-3 months at Costco. Otherwise, we shop at our local indian grocery store, trader joes when we are lazy and want pre-packaged food, and receive a farm share of organic produce.
The farm share at first seems expensive ($35 every two weeks) but it means we always have fresh produce available (delivered!) and it’s a lot of produce, it’s local, and it’s organic. The farm decides what will be in our box each week depending on what’s in season locally and available and we get to cook creatively. I figure the extra cost of this organic produce comes out of what would be the extra cost to eat meat.
Interesting post…I seem to spend about the $150 a month figure.
I’ve noticed that as I’ve gotten older I eat less…(though I’m still a Chubby….HEY CHASERS….HERE I AM!!!!!!}:~D)
Lets see here…I tend to eat out frequently…though how much you spend is dependent on the type of Restaurant you frequent.
I take things to prepare at work but all we have is a Fridge and Nuclear Oven….but that doesn’t mean I don’t eat well even though its a lot of Pre-Packaged foods.
I usually only eat one or two meals a day anyway so this works for me.
For example…..a 5 ounce can of Chicken, Ham, or Turkey is about $1.50
Half a can (1 Cup) of Veggies….always bought on sale or 2 for 1 might be 50 cents…same for a portion of Stuffing (or Instant Potatoes)….all it needs is Butter and Hot Water to reconstitute…Say two servings…thats $1… And a couple of slices of Bread or a Biscuit or Two…say 40 cents.
Brewed Ice Tea from Home….OH….MAYBE 10 cents a glass. A few Spices and some Butter Pats…another 25 cents.
Dessert maybe a Biscuit or a slice of Pound Cake with a Shmear of Jelly or Jam…say another 50 cents.
Grand Total $3.75….and probably more than I need to eat.
One of the Tricks is to go to Sams and buy the 4 lb. box of Butter Chips (200 each foil wrapped) and keep them sealed in a Zip Lock in the bottom of the fridge….good Portion Control and makes taking them with you easier.
Another is having lots of Spices around…Thats what makes Simple Food into something Special….and they can be gotten pretty cheaply at Wal-Mart or Latin Markets…look for “Badia” brand in small cellophane bags…usually they run 50 Cents a bag and are quite good….Beats $5 for a glass jar with barely twice as much product inside.
Another Trick….Buy one of Wal-Marts giant Foot Long Subs for $6….Pull the Sandwich apart…it has enough Meat and Cheese to make 4 regular sandwiches using Regular Bread…the Sub Bread you can use to make Garlic Bread (enough for 4 at least) to have with Pasta or make Croutons out of.
Lots of other things you can do you just have to be Creative.
~ Roland
Well, I feed a family of four on about $400 a month. I’ve found that if I’m willing to make things myself, I can save a lot of money. Rather than buying bread, I buy whole wheat flour, some ten grain mix and some flax seeds and make my own bread (I have a bread maker). It costs about the same as a loaf of white bread, but it’s so much healthier. I also shred my own cheese rather that buying pre-shredded and buy whole veggies and cut them up rather than buying pre-cut.
If your time is really valuable then this might not be the solution for you, but I stay home so I have plenty of time to do take care of things. I also use cloth diapers and wipes, and I breastfeed, all of which are cheap ways to take care of babies!
For a family of 6 we spend ~$600 a month. My daughters have celiac so that pushes our cost up as a result, otherwise we could trim that down another $50-$100 depending on the month.
We don’t eat out much, I kept track one month when we ate out about 4 times and it was a half months worth of food at the grocery store. Even McDonalds which is cheaper still costs to much for us when I can do the same at home for 1/4 the price.
We are a family of four. I do all of the shopping as well as the lion’s share of the cooking. An average month for us is right arond $400-$450. 2-3 times a month we eat fast food but more for me to have the break (my wife works until after dinner) from the cook and serve routine than for any other reason. I shop usually at at least three crefully planned stores for our weeks worth of groceries. The trick for me was to figure out who was going to sell me what for the best price and find an efficient way of getting there.Between the dollar store (pantry stuff-foil plastic wrap) and the discount store and 2 Local supermarkets I have reallocated alot of money in our budget. Always trying to save another few pennies though.
It is not much more effort to eat well for less.
Well I’m kind of surprised that Liz suggested one person can “survive” on $100-150/mth. Just for the sake of comparison, I live by myself and spend $70-80/mth, and I don’t even try very hard. And of course there are families who do even better. I don’t really budget now, but I did challenge myself for a few months to spend less and less, and I think my starting point was about $140/mth.
My groceries consist mainly of some staple foods like bread/bagels, yogurt, and oatmeal, and then lots of produce, which I buy according to price the day I’m in the store. For example, grapes keep showing up for $.99/lb so I’ve been eating a lot of grapes, but when they’re $2.99/lb I’ll pass and go for different fruits. Bananas are always $.29/lb at my store so those are a staple fruit.
I also don’t buy much prepackaged food, and definitely don’t buy ready-made meals. I’ve been making more stuff myself, like bread, and recently, crackers. Took me 20 minutes to make about 2 boxes worth of wheat crackers. Cost me the price of 3 cups of flour, some oil, and a bit of salt–Less than $1, I’m sure.
Oh, I guess I also don’t buy meat. This isn’t something I ever think about because I grew up without meat in the house, but I guess it does make a difference in my grocery budget. I do buy fish, but frozen, and in a store brand “club pack.”
I have a family of 3, but soon to be 4, and my groceries usually run about $200-$250 monthly. I budget for about $50 weekly, but sometimes (depending on meat or if there’s a special event we’re planning for) I’ll go a little over. I’m a SAHM and we only have one income. We rarely go out and I love to cook so that helps a ton. When my son was younger I would make his babyfood too.
When buying food, I never sacrifice quality, and I typically buy what I want. Food is not something on which I’m willing to economize. Even so, I do follow the following rules:
1. I always shop the outside isles of the supermarket, which allows me to avoid purchasing processed foods. I make exceptions for tuna, sardines, baking supplies, vinegar, oils, and canned beans (kidney, black, etc), or frozen vegetables.
If the budget is tight, I substitute dry-aged, organic ground beef for more expensive cuts, and bluefish and haddock for swordfish or halibut. I rarely if ever buy soda, candy, cookies, store bakery junk, frozen dinners, canned meals, or similar. I think I spend around $200 / week to feed myself.
We really make every thing we buy stretch…making multiple meals & freezing leftovers for lunch, etc. However I can’t say we come close to this whole $100 a week thing. Kim is the grocery maven in the house, but we try to buy a lot of organic & local organic which gets pricey. Especially the meats and seafood (obviously not local seafood in Phila)…. She’s thrilled if we can scratch by around $150 or so a week. That being said we do make a lot of interesting and involved recipes.
I budget $40 a week for groceries, but due to a temporary financial crunch I limited myself to $20 for the past month or so. It wasn’t too hard because I know how much things tend to cost, and because I’ve been planning my meals for long enough that I can easily pick out the things that are cheap for me to make. So I can keep buying a lot of organic ingredients and free-range/sustainably raised meat even in tight times.
I was surprised to learn that I was spending less on food than I would get from food stamps! Even when I am budgeting $40 a week for myself, I often find that my groceries end up being a little above or below $30. Before I made weekly meal plans, I had a much higher food budget and I tended to buy more food than I needed because I didn’t have clarity about how long it would take to eat it all. And before that, I didn’t even have a budget and I spent even more and yet I ate very unhealthily because I didn’t really have a sense of what was going on with my money or my food!
Now I’ve started a blog, $40 a Week, where I write about weekly meal planning and how to eat well (even lavishly) for $40. It seems weird to me (living in the Bay Area, where there is a lot of great food but also a very high cost of living) that Eric Gioia had trouble eating healthily on $28 a week. But when you only have that much to feed your whole family….
I’ve been on $25/week for years now (I’m a single household), and in grad school it was $80 a month for a while. It means memorizing sale periods and prices (anyone in the mid-Atlantic share my joy about the Can-Can sale at SHop-Rite?) and a little careful planning, but I enjoy knowing I can cook well and save money! (On second read, that sounds a little sad)