Eating on $3 a day
If you really must cut your food costs, check out this guide for how to eat on just $21 per week, which is about how much the average food stamp recipient lives on, according to the Food Stamp Challenge.
Last year four members of Congress took on the challenge. So did 12 senior executives of Grocery Outlets, which created this menu guide to share recipes that fit their drastically reduced food budget.
The recipes are simple but reading them made me hungry. Is a tiny breakfast burrito, tuna pita, carrot sticks and penne pasta all I would get to eat on day one? I would recommend supplementing their recipes with additional veggies, fruit, and snacks.
Grocery Outlets has only two locations in the LA area, in Buena Park and Fountain Valley. Their business model is similar to the dollar stores. They buy overstock, package changes, inventory closeouts, promotional and out-of-season items from manufacturers and sell them at steep discounts. Many items are names.
Grocery Outlets is based in Berkeley, Calif and has 133 independently operated stores in CA, AZ, NV, ID, OR and WA. To find a Grocery Outlet near you call 1-877-GR8-BUYS or click here.
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About The Bargain Hunter
Daily News staff writer Julia Scott loves to find bargains on everything from groceries to Gucci. Her tips will help keep your hard earned cash where it belongs - in your pocket.
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It would be interesting to see how cheap people can eat for. You would probably end up healthier as it would be essential to forgo most processed foods. As far as food goes we're lucky living in LA with all the ethnic markets that are so much cheaper for produce than vons, ralphs, etc. The only thing I buy at the major markets is meat when it's on sale. I'm having pot roast tonight and here's the cost.
Chuck roast-was on sale last week at vons--$1:49 a lb. I'm using 3 lbs. so total for the meat $4.47
All the rest of the ingedients are from the super king market.
Celery-1 bunch $.35
Carrots-1 lb $.35
Onion--1 lb $.25
Mushrooms-8 oz. $1.00
Parsely-1 bunch $.20
Add a few cents for a little extra virgin olive oil which was on sale there for $10.99 for a gallon (think how long that'll last) and $.50 for a half a bottle of red wine from the 99 cent store for cooking it in and you get a total of about $7.25. Add another $.50 for a huge pot of rice and lentils and you have a healthy dinner for at least 4 nights. Oh yeah, I forgot dessert. How about a baked apple (3 lbs for a $1.00) with some ground up peanuts on top.
Because I've been on a very limited pension since my retirement, I've managed to shop very frugally. I also did this in the early years of my marriage when I had to feed 5 people on very little money. Beans are a cheap and nutritious option, and offer a variety of ways to prepare meals. Combine 3 or 4 of your favorites with a can of no-salt-added diced tomatoes (with or without green chiles), and a can of no-salt-added corn kernels. Use as the basis of an entree salad, topping for brown rice or other healthy grain or pasta, a between-meals snack (1/4 cup), etc. Use your imagination. Look for "manager's specials" on meats (sometimes 50% savings), buy produce at Jons or other markets that keep prices low, use coupons, and watch the weekly ads. Keep staples in your pantry, so you're not tempted to buy what you really don't need. Buy wine in reclosable large bottles (I like Almaden for cooking, both chardonnay and cabernet).
For the last 6 years, I have fed 2 adults and 2 large dogs on $400/m. This year we cut it to $300 ( $200 for food and groc. and $100 for dining out).
I shop at ethnic stores for produce ($10-15/wk). Sams for bulk items and meat ($60/3 wk), the 99 cent store for misc ($20/2wk) and Trader Joes or Ralphs for beer or wine ($10/m). I rarely use coupons.
We eat out 3-4x/m, brown bag it the rest and feed our dogs home made food ($60/m included). We eat well by anyone's standards.
Everyone could do this but change is difficult, especially for busy working adults. Try it, you may find you can save a boatload of money by changing your habits :)
Sounds like you really have a good routine for saving money on groceries! Just curious, do you set a limit for how much you can spend at each store? And how do you keep a running tab? I'm curious, and I bet others are too! ~Julia
I keep a running total of what I spend by using checkbook registers (got a bunch I no longer use). I start with my goal number at the top and deduct as I spend. This way I know exactly how much is left in each catagory throughout the month. The general catagories are Food and Groc., Dining Out, Gasoline, Business, Special Items.
Having done this for years, I know how much to start with for each month. For someone who is just starting to monitor their expenses I suggest adding up all you spend on food and groceries over the last 3-4 months (use bank statements) and reduce it by 10-15%. Use that as your target amount and do whatever you need to do to stay within it. If that means eating out of the pantry the last few days of the month, so be it. Most of us have a ton of pasta and canned food anyway :)
The limits at each store have evolved over time. I know what the general costs are for the items I buy and can predict with a lot of accuracy how much I spend at each store. This was more challeging when prices jumped over the summer but we figured out how to stay within our budget.
I work in the financial services sector and I teach people how to handle their money. When it comes to a budget, most people think a budget is a reflection of your spending. Not true, your spending should be a reflection of your budget. Big Difference! Hope that helps!
Thanks for the extra details. I rarely use checks these days so I have an extra checkbook register to track my spending as you suggest. And it is small enough to fit into my wallet! Thanks for the tip! ~Julia