Help BK budget! How can I live on $200/month for food?

[Cassius]

As you mentioned, sandwiches are life, and you can skimp by having no filling other than butter/margarine/whatever, which is something I've often done. Also, it kind of sounds a bit grim, but (if you don't already) learn to enjoy stale but edible food - doing so can make bread last a lot longer than I would if you can afford to chuck away half eaten loaves.

[Classic Conservative]

Jesus how do you people live off that budget. My family spends like $200 a week at a minimum.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Jesus how do you people live off that budget. My family spends like $200 a week at a minimum.

You better get used to college life (if you get there) and beyond then because that should change pretty quickly I'd imagine. Also, this is 2 people rather than a family of 4, say, so this would be about half as much...you just get creative. It's actually a worthwhile challenge even if you aren't in that situation. Wouldn't you want an extra $2400 a year? I sure do.

[I might add, I sincerely look forward to seeing your economic opinions change with time if this is shocking to you]

[Ebowed]

The thing that will save you the most money in the long run is learning a few extra recipes that are healthy and tasty.

Pasta is very easy, and you don't have to be pretentious about the ingredients.  Do you buy pasta sauce?  Don't.  Tinned tomatoes are cheaper and they are the same thing after you add some garlic and herbs.  Throw in some frozen vegetables, or fresh vegetables, whichever is cheaper.  Beans are great.  Canned beans are cheap and last forever.  If you really want to go the extra mile, it's even cheaper to buy dried beans.  Then you soak them and boil them before adding them to food.  It does take more time, but you really just have to be organized.  Set aside a few extra minutes to soak the beans in the morning - boil a large amount all at once so that you only have to do it once a week.

Lentils.  Sunflower seeds.

Once you get confident with cooking, you should look for discounted vegetables.  A big bag of peppers that is about to go bad can go straight in the oven with oil and herbs for 20 minutes.  Take them out and preserve them in a used jar with water, salt, and white vinegar.  Now you've got roast peppers, super cheap and a great addition to sandwiches, sauces, or anything else.

Vegetables really aren't that intimidating.  Pumpkin, carrots, beets, sweet potato, etc are often cheap and are pretty good roasted.  You can even roast things like cauliflower and brussel sprouts.

If you are trying to move away from unhealthy foods, I recommend transitioning rather than doing it cold turkey.  The key is to make healthier choices in the supermarket.  But buy a couple comfort foods and give yourself some wiggle room.  As long as you remain conscious of slowly reducing the frequency of how often you eat these sorts of foods, you should be OK.  Even something as simple as 'I had five very unhealthy meals this week, and next week I will have four.'  If you stick to it for long enough, your body will start to crave different things.  I would get sick if I ate bad food now.  A good snack, to me, is a fresh carrot and some almonds.  But it took a long time to get there.

I do worry about your options given that they seem so lacking.  Would you have time to drive a further distance to do a "stock up" of things like nuts, seeds, dried beans, or other stuff you could buy in bulk?  Are there small businesses or farms nearby?  They often have better prices on fresh produce.  When you have the ability, stock up on big ticket things like potatoes and onions.  If you find them for a good price, don't hesitate to buy plenty of them because these vegetables usually last in your cupboard for a long time.

Re: fruit, in my experience, citrus will last the longest.  If you like oranges, and you find them at a good price, buy them.

Many fruits can be frozen for long-term storage.  There is often a better solution than throwing out food - the trick is to preserve it before it goes bad.

It may be appealing to purchase soft drinks because they are so affordable, but you will likely do yourself a lot of favors if you don't.  That's probably the single easiest, most positive change that you can draw a firm psychological line with yourself on.  If you already don't drink or buy much soda, choose something else that you think is causing you harm.

Good luck, and if you have any questions about recipes or food storage tips, I'd love to try and help you.

[DC Al Fine]

Another step in this project will be sticking to it. It will be tempting to lapse and buy expensive food or eat out, especially as the semester wears on. I hugely recommend batch cooking to help stave the temptation.

Each Saturday or Sunday, commit a couple hours to making a meal or thwo in bulk and freeze them in individual portions. There are going to be days where you'll oversleep and not have time to make lunch, or be so tired from studying/working that you won't want to cook. It's a lifesaver to come home exhausted and you just have to heat up your frozen stew or whatever instead of cooking.

[Ebowed]

Another step in this project will be sticking to it. It will be tempting to lapse and buy expensive food or eat out, especially as the semester wears on. I hugely recommend batch cooking to help stave the temptation.

Each Saturday or Sunday, commit a couple hours to making a meal or thwo in bulk and freeze them in individual portions. There are going to be days where you'll oversleep and not have time to make lunch, or be so tired from studying/working that you won't want to cook. It's a lifesaver to come home exhausted and you just have to heat up your frozen stew or whatever instead of cooking.

Definitely.  Unless you have spare time to cook fresh everyday, it's essential to cook in bulk.  And there are other little ways to cut corners.  It's become second nature to me to chop up vegetables in the morning when I have time, and just cover them in foil so that they are ready to go straight in the oven as soon as I get home.  Little ways of working around your schedule make it much easier to keep eating healthily.  So often, the reason we lapse into take-out or bad food options is because of time pressure.  Fight the problem at the source.

Another thing that comes to mind is that you can save money and help begin the transition in your food buds by cooking a few unhealthy things directly rather than buying processed food.  An example is cabbage.  Very cheap, but many people don't like it.  Try pan frying it in oil with plenty of salt, and garlic, if you like it.  This is not the most healthy way to consume cabbage, but it will begin to give you a taste for it, while meeting your cravings for salt and fat that will be inevitable as you try to alter your habits.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Anyway, what I do is that I usually have only one meal a day (usually from fast food, since my cooking abilities are very limited), plus a snack (usually Oreos or ice cream). That still amounts to about $15-20 a day from what I've seen, but again hopefully prices are lower for you. Of course that's not a very mainstream choice.

sweetie that is a large amount of fast food! Even $15 worth of McDonalds is an obscene amount of food for one sitting. Like you can get 48 chicken nuggets for roughly $15, or 2 large big mac meals. Pretty much same levels of food at other well-known fast food places. I can only hope you aren't eating out at Checkers a lot, whose food is probably unmatched in its generous helpings of grease.

Get those arteries checked

Nah, I can't stand McDonald's. The one I go to most often is Subway, which is a bit more expensive but not quite as unhealthy - otherwise Rubio's and Sbarro's. I take the standard meal, with a bottle of water and occasionally a side. That generally amounts to $10-15. I'm assuming it might cost more in LA than elsewhere. $5 for snacks is a rough and probably exaggerated estimate - must probably be more like $3.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Jesus how do you people live off that budget. My family spends like $200 a week at a minimum.

It's just me and my wife, no kids, so that's how. I could live on even less than that when it was just me. I was dirt poor for about a year right after I graduated college. We have plenty of money but don't really need to spend any more than that.

My family also used to spend $200/wk on food because my dad, my brother, and I used to eat a ton of food. They're both big guys, and I grew nearly a foot in high school to go from about 5'5" to 6'3".

[Mr. Smith]

Jesus how do you people live off that budget. My family spends like $200 a week at a minimum.

Better question, how the hell do you spend that much on food. I never needed more than $25 a week during college or during the brief time in Lynchburg.

[Joe Republic]

Breakfast


  $2.18... can just about stretch across a week, so $0.31/day


  About $0.26 each


Scoop a couple large tablespoons of yogurt into a bowl.
Slice up the banana and throw it in.
Stir.
Eat.

Breakfast cost per day: $0.57




Lunch


  $2.98 each ... there's about a half dozen varieties of these in the refrigerated produce section.  Honestly they're all pretty good, and I'd advise rotating a variety each day.


  $6.14 for 20 packs, so $0.31 each


  $4.19 for 22 packs, so $0.19 each


Lunch cost per day: $3.74




Dinner


  $2.48 each.  Sodium content in frozen meals is always the killer, but this brand has by far the lowest I've found, for a decent price.  Look out for their 'Cafe Steamers' as well.


Dinner cost per day: $2.48




TOTAL meal cost per day: $6.53

Multiplied by 30.5 average days in a month: $199.17

[DC Al Fine]

That's for one person though. BK needs to make that budget work for two people, and that requires cooking.

[DC Al Fine]

Bacon, without knowing the cost of living in rural Georgia, it sounds like what you're attempting is difficult but doable. Are there any other costs that you could cut to get more breathing room? You mentioned gasoline. Is it possible to just walk around your college town? Quitting smoking?

[Mr. Reactionary]

Pasta. Wal-Mart sells all types for $1 a box. Mix in shredded meat of your choice and maybe a handful of canned nuts or some frozen broccoli.  You can eat it with soy sauce and sesame oil. You can eat it with red pepper. You can eat it with olive oil and black pepper. You can add it to $1 canned soup. You can melt packaged cheese over it. You can eat it with tomato sauce.

Each box should last at least 2 meals with 2 people. You spend $15 and get a staple for a full months worth of dinners.