Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I need to budget food somewhere between $10 to $15 a day. I am a terrible cook with little to no cooking experience and have no idea what I should be buying or making to eat comfortably, especially with a limited budget. I would really appreciate any tips or advice or even a recipe or two. I have access to walmart, Trader Joe’s, aldis and Publix. Thank you to anyone who helps!
Need advice on how to eat for very little
byu/thebigvas inFrugal
Posted by thebigvas
14 Comments
What types of food do you like? Do you have access to ample fridge/freezer space?
Totally doable budget for one person! I’m sure you’ll get lots of ideas here!
Also r/budgetmeals might be a good resource too.
You can also supplement with a food bank.
For starters, try to spend little to nothing on drinks. I know some people need the daily coffee/energy drink but honestly if you have access to clean water and coffee at a job then you don’t need to buy that so you entire budget can just be food. If you have any way of going to the Sam’s club or Costco Cafe they have the $1.50 hotdog combo or $2 pizza slices. Both of these are very filling. Rotisserie chicken, rice, potatoes, beans, etc. When I’m in a pinch and I crave it sometimes I’ll just eat cereal tbh and you can get that for bulk pretty cheap at like Aldi. Frozen microwave bag veggies are also pretty cheap plus a good protein source. Hope this helps! Would also suggest going to a local food bank for perishable things like fresh fruits since they good bad fast.
Spam, boiled egg and rice
Beans, rice, vegetables frozen, oatmeal, yogurt, frozen fruit, peanut butter, tuna canned, pasta.
Start with what do you already know how to cook? And what are you willing to learn? You’ve got a good budget.
Key to this is to focus on foods you like. If you cook a buncha stuff thats cheap, but its also stuff you hate – you wont eat it or you will begrudgingly, and start to really hate it.
If you can commit to a couple “meat free” day and a “leftovers/fridge clean out” day you can keep costs down.
Stick to the cook once eat twice mentality. leftovers are your friend – will save you money but also time and effort
Keep a good list of your staples, like spices, and flours, and grains/beans etc so you know you have some of those things waiting in the wings to use when you find produce and meat on sale out in the wild.
Get familiar with potentially other grocery options in your area, like a produce box/community box.
Going out of my direct neighbourhood, i was able to find an asian market that carried all the same produce i was buying at Walmart but it was better quality, and cheaper 95% of the time.
The independant butcher by my house will sell me a smaller amount of really great bacon for way cheaper than the cheapest pound of wiggly, extra fatty bacon sold at walmart or other big box stores.
do you have a pressure cooker? its amazing for soups, making broth from your scraps and bones, and cooking beans and grains quickly. I got mine for free on the buy nothing group in my neighbourhood.
Sometimes people in my neighbourhood clear out their pantry of items they dont use and havent expired and give it away on the buy nothing groups. In this season as people garden start to pop off, there are a few extra options for free/nearly free/barter food
if you are in a larger city, check out TooGoodToGo or other apps like it that help people find deals on food that is being heavily discounted for quick sale.
every paycheck, try and invest in something like a new spice, or a big bag of beans or a whole ass watermelon – these can be things that you eat on for much more than just the week for a bit more of an investment.
Good Luck!
Spaghetti can be filling. Or just some bow tie pasta, boiled, sprinkle salt and pepper on it, and a bit of cheese when pasta is hot so it’ll melt. Stir it all up.
Can you boil an egg? Can you microwave a ramen? Put two together microwave water put in some frozen veg and crack an egg, now you are eating well…enough
I assume it’s just you on this budget?
Quick single budget eating day:
Breakfast: Greek style yogurt with fresh or frozen fruit and cereal, scrambled eggs with spinach and toast
Lunch: Rotisserie chicken portion with a salad, soup and salad, chili and salad, fruit
Dinner: Same as lunch.
You go to Trader Joe’s and Walmart for salad packs, Rotisserie chicken, fruit and cans of chili or soup. Really simple, nutritious and about $ 200- $300/ month or less.
So many protein options from trader Joe’s if you like asian food like mandarin chicken, mushroom chicken, beef stir fry, tikka masala, beef kofta, fried rice, or any pasta. That costs less than $10, for me it’s enough for more than 3 times to eat. In walmart, you can buy egg, realfood nugget (around $8 for 4 times eat), or rotisserie chicken.
For carbs, I don’t know you carbs preferences. If you eat rice, there’s instant rice or instant mash potatoes in trader joes or walmart. Or potatoes.
For breakfast, I usually go easy with just slices of bread with peanut butter or eggs.
For fruit, stick to cheap fruit like banana, apple, orange that has long shelf life. For veggies, just buy microwaveable frozen vegetables as fresh vegetables easy to get spoiled.