Say you have 25 bucks to live on for food each week.
Seven days.
You can’t live on Ramen…not long term.
I already figured the food value of protein. Eggs and chicken are the most inexpensive…but can get boring.
Carbs have to be complex—with as little gluten as possible…making rice an obvious choice.
So…you have 25 dollars to work with.
What will you get?
No cheating…that’s it.
What do you absolutely NEED? Is it coffee? (Made yourself—one Starbucks could kill your budget for two days!)
And I DO appreciate the replies…
Comments (19)
Tofu! And whatever veggies are on sale.
@TiredSoVeryTired - Veggies…excellent.
Tofu…almost forgot…Soy intolerant. I lived seriously cheap in college, but you can’t do that past a certain age.
i really don’t know today. years ago i lived two towns away from a bulk organic store. i rode my bike there and bought brown rice, whole wheat flour to make bread. bought yeast, fruit and veggies elsewhere. i bought cheese to melt over the rice for full protein. i don’t remember if all of that came to under $25 back then and i ate that way by choice. today where i live there are almost always one or another brand of frozen dinners on sale, 4 for $10 dollars. 7 would come to $17.50 but that would only cover one meal per day. for a while i lived on one meal per day and kept my stomach from being empty and complaining with popcorn. my one meal a day during that time was a slice of pizza or a bagel with cream cheese with veggies or olives. fortunately it was temporary but i went like that for nearly a year.
My grocery store sells frozen chicken breasts for $8. That should last a week if you don’t eat animal protein everyday. Beans are cheap if you like them.
Sometimes my market has frozen dinners on sale for about $1 each, those would be cheap lunches. Eggs for breakfast with toast, pancake mix is cheap and will last more than a week if you measure out enough for 2/3 pancakes right. Hamburger and Tuna helper can be cheap too, if temporary since they aren’t the healthiest food out there.
I like several of the the Pasta Roni and Rice-A-Roni. And spaghetti with sauce is always cheap.
@TiredSoVeryTired - i like your ideas.
@TiredSoVeryTired - there goes my answer!
i absolutely need coffee but i am not a picky eater. i can eat rice a lot. i love veggies and beans and fruit. soup is great for the waist and great value. my favorite, cheap to make, split-pea
rice is good and can be bought in bulk and mixed with a lot of vegies and protein.
peanutbutter is a good source of protein and fat.you can get frozen shrimp in bulk. and then use a few.i really do shop the “sale” items and use whatever discount card the store uses.hard to pass up mac& cheese.may have to bust the budget one week to get bulk items that can be used for several weeks.look for 2 for 1 sales.make sure you are not hungry when you go shopping and take a list and stick to it.the unfancy stores like food for less and other “bulk” stores can be cheaper that the name stores (safeway, ralphs etc)
I have no idea but I am very interested in what could be chosen. It seems we ate a lot of soup beans and pancakes when i was a child but we raised our own chickens and eggs.
@TiredSoVeryTired - I like these ideas. You can make your own pancakes using flour, eggs, and powdered milk. The flour and milk can be stored long term and you would not have to buy them every week. If you are brave, you can try a vegetarian egg substitute and make your own mix to just add water. I say brave because I think the egg mixture has a taste others don’t.
Ramen noodles aren’t the best on their own, but you can use them to make the noodles for a stir fry when you get bored with spaghetti.
Any soy products.
@reckless_eagle - Soy intolerance…but we’re making a list!
I’m throwing a burrito bash for my dad and sister this afternoon.
I am furnishing the beans and hot sauce (home made with garden fresh cilantro) and my sister is furnishing the tortillas and avocados.
Teaming up for meals can reduce cost, improve variety and increase the quantity of food and left overs.
I totally know what it’s like to have to eat on a budget. For me it’s sometimes about $60 for a little over a month.
assuming you already have salt and pepper and garlic etc. . .
You can usually get a store brand noodle like spaghetti for about .99, bouilion cubes are usually around .99-$1.99, pancake mix can be used to thicken the broth you use with the bouilion, and it’s about $5.00 but can go a long way. You can also make dumplings with it or pancakes. A lot of the time, there are frozen vegetables for a dollar if you go with the store brand. These can be made in a soup as well. Beans can be around .70 a can, and rice goes a long way, too . . .things to keep in mind:
-It is a good idea to check out smaller delis because they can have some items that would be cheaper than at a larger store. I’ve found white unsalted cheese for about .99 at a Russian deli near my house and being able to change up the texture of the same meals every day really helped.-There are usually “manager’s special” breads to be eaten immediately. It’s sometimes better quality bread, sometimes hamburger buns or whatever but we’re not being picky, right? -Cheap tea is much more likely to taste good than cheap coffee and you can make iced tea. Both are a good appetite suppressant.
-Stores like Aldi have produce for a lot cheaper and things like hummus (1.60) and fake crab meat (~$2) because it’s a very bare-bones operation. What you see is what you get. There isn’t a lot of variety but again, we’re not being picky. -Dollar stores sometimes have food and frozen food sections where you can get frozen fruit, cheese, and french fries. Things like that.
Avocados and tomatoes for sandwiches. Bananas for breakfast. Tea (must have for me at least
). Potatoes for baking. Rice and pasta for fillers. And I have my salad garden until it gets really really hot out, but hopefully as that’s dying out the peppers, zucchini, and pole beans will be coming in for stir fry. Need balsamic and rice vinegars, and different oils and wines to spice the cooked foods with, but you don’t really need to purchase them every week so that’s minimal. And of course eggs and honey are a must have around here. Maybe some chicken and beef bullion, carrots, and celery, for soups, but soups kind of suck in the summer time unless you do cold soups. But hot soups can also use up any leftover pasta or rice from the day before. Oh and oatmeal! You can add just about any fruit to that and get a different dish each morning. Or you can add chopped apples, and half and half water/honey mixed, and a pinch of salt, and bake it into a granola cereal! I guess then I’d have to put some kind of milk on my shopping list too. Humm, $25 a week is kinda hard. 
Hope some of these ideas help though.
OK…you people ROCK…A lot of the posts are innovative…and also demonstrate that I am not the only one who lived on the cheap once upon a time!
http://www.emeals.com is a lifesaver!
Coffee, multigrain bread, olive spread, Vegemite, tomatoes, lettuce, eggs, rice.
I am also gluten free so here is what I bought when I was very poor: cheapest eggs with highest count, large rice bag (if you can get month long supply; also boring but filling), cheapest beans for protein , frozen mixed veggies that are obviously gluten and soy free (or whatever else you need-free), bean-sprouts if affordable (check local asian markets and healthy food store), fresh/frozen fruits that are special and cheap that week (bananas are always cheap). Also clip coupons and get to know your frequented stores coupon policy along with double coupon/sale days (where you can use the sales for two weeks at the same time on a specific day). I also volunteered, when I was healthy enough to do so, to get free meals to help stretch my food budget. It can help to get to know the butchers and fruit/veggie workers at your frequented stores to find out about lower prices for food that needs to cooked/eaten/frozen that day.
I used all of those measures and purchasing a bulk food store for some items (eggs, milk, cheese*very rarely*, frozen veggies, a month’s worth of meat, various sale items that added to the redundant meals.) But I made it work for me, my then fiancé and his free-loading brother and brother’s girlfriend (who didn’t help pay bills or for food).