That is my weekly grocery budget, and I usually don't use more than that.
Helps that I know how to cook.

I can eat for $40 a week, Chuck.

Hell, I get by on $40/week and could cut more if I really had to. That amount also included pet food/paper products/cleaning supplies.

Wow, I'll go all the way down to $20, but only if alcohol isn't included. $50/week I could do by going out to eat for two meals a day. There's a lot of cheap food carts here, I can easily get Asian or Mexican for 14 meals a week for under $3.50/meal. I know where to get a huge slice of good pizza for $3, fairly healthy huge burritos for $3.25, happy hour deals for $2, so $50 doesn't sound like the slightest challenge.

Especially counting happy hour deals, I could easily eat out for $50/week.

How to Eat Well on $50 a Week:

Step 1: Learn how to cook.

This has been "How to Eat Well on $50 a Week"

Cheap food tip: Ground turkey dark meat is virtually indistinguishable from ground beef in sauces, but only costs $2 a pound.

The Icelander 2009-11-03 08:32:16 PM How to Eat Well on $50 a Week: Step 1: Learn how to cook. This has been "How to Eat Well on $50 a Week"
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Heh. Pretty much.


Or some cool alternatives: Buy a dominoes medium pizza for $4 on Wednesdays. There's 3 meals for ya, $4 total.

$50 sounds about right if you don't have kids. I would imagine having a kid would increase that.

The fiance and I get paid twice a month, and contribute about $100 every two weeks for food. The key is buying bulk and learning to cook your own stuff. It's really not that tough.

We still eat out, just not nearly as often as we used to.

Step 1: Get Food Stamps

Anyone else have the article constantly jump back to the top of the page when scrolling? Annoying.

Anyway...

...salads, chili, soups, etc. Whey protein/frozen fruit/yogurt/milk smoothies every morning. $50/week is easy.

seriously? since when is $50 a budget? That's my groceries budget, WITHOUT trying to save money.

I'll admit that if you add in eating out and coffee/snacks I'm over that, but those are because I have money to do so.

I spend about $20 every two weeks and that includes dog food. Well, actually that only includes dog food. Iams is pretty tasty kibble...

www.grocerygame.com

I spend about $40 a week on a family of three. Yes, there is some processed foods in there but hey my wife and I both work and get tired some times.

Let me guess, buying non-prepared food at the grocery store and cooking it yourself is involved in this radical new approach.

Keywork99: $50 sounds about right if you don't have kids. I would imagine having a kid would increase that.

Kids don't eat that much until they're teenagers. I've got two of them. I just spent $50 on four large cans of formula that will last our three-month-old for at least two months, and my two-year-old usually eats whatever we eat.

The only way it gets expensive is if you insist on feeding your kids "child" food, which isn't really necessary. And I've found that kids who grow up eating "grown up" food are less picky eaters when they're older.

\My two year old loves california rolls

If you are eating on $50 a week you are really missing out on life.

Is this just a Canadian thing?

Steezy: If you are eating on $50 a week you are really missing out on life.

If you can't eat well on $50 a week you are really a moron.

If I don't include alcohol, I could easily spend far less than $50/week on food. You can make a HUGE pot of nearly any soup you can think of for under $10, and if 6 gallons of soup doesn't last you more than 2 days, you're doing it wrong. Supplement it with some salad or pasta, or maybe a good casserole, then a couple of times a week you can "splurge" on something "expensive". Eggs can fall under that budget easily, as can steak if you buy it before it's cut into "steaks". A bonus to buying steak in bulk is you can make your chili with cubed tenderloin. A whole tenderloin can be as cheap as $20, and even a $20 beef tenderloin will have 7-10 steaks in it.

People that think it's a big deal to eat for a week on $50 go out to eat too much, and this is coming from someone who goes out to eat to much.

The Icelander: f you can't eat well on $50 a week you are really a moron.

Can I get the details on what your $50/week diet consists of? Honestly just curious.

Steezy: Can I get the details on what your $50/week diet consists of? Honestly just curious.

Whole wheat spaghetti with Italian sausage, onions, mushrooms and green peppers.

Stuffed pork chops, steamed snap peas and red potatoes.

Chicken Tikka Masala from scratch.

Kielbasa in a tomato sauce with peppers, onions and celery over rice.

Roasted pork loin with garlic mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts.

Homemade chicken marsala.

Granted, I make big meals about every other day and eat leftovers a lot, but it's good food.

Steezy: The Icelander: f you can't eat well on $50 a week you are really a moron.

Can I get the details on what your $50/week diet consists of? Honestly just curious.

3lbs of store brand pasta: $5 on sale
4 cans of Hunts canned pasta sauce: $4
Frozen vegetables: $15
Bulk chicken(3ish lbs): $10 on sale

That is what I survive off of at school. It may not be terribly healthy but it's damn cheap.

Steezy: The Icelander: f you can't eat well on $50 a week you are really a moron.

Can I get the details on what your $50/week diet consists of? Honestly just curious.

Right now I'm in a household with 3 adults, and excluding random meals out (about 1 dinner a week with friends), and coffee/candy at the snack bar, we eat for about $50 a week.

here's how it goes:

CSA for our veggies. We get a variety, though we're thinking about dropping it after this year because of the abundance of leafy greens (there's only so much). so, we get squash, swiss chard, spinach, green peppers, potatoes, onions, garlic, rosemary, cauliflower, lettuce, etc.
We also sometimes got a watermelon or other melon.

For fruit, my parents have plum and apple trees, so we get a lot from that. Over the winter we get our fruits and veggies from the local asian market. Bananas, melons, yellow squash, sugar peas, cherry tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries, lettuce, just got some mangos, um, mushrooms, bean sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, etc etc.

We do our primary shopping at Sams Club: potatoes, ground beef, ground turkey, boneless skinless chicken breasts, frozen veggies/fruit, pasta (white or whole wheat blend), whole wheat bread, rice (basmati and jasmine), tomatos. Orange juice, juice (grape right now), milk, eggs, butter, etc.

I like Trader Joe's- often get cookies, chocolate, pasta sauces (including pizza sauce), and a few other prepared foods.

Safeway, Giant, Weis and such for on-the-spot shopping. Milk, bread, butter, whipped cream, tea, coffee, other on the spot things that Sams doesn't carry.

What else would you like to know?

FTFA: "I'm sure you could survive on $10 of rice, groats, and mung beans a week"

Why don't you lay off the Asians, Lou?



My method for paying less (way less than $50/week, for as many as three people): Shopping at authentic, no-English Hispanic and Asian markets. Prices are a fraction of what I see anywhere else, and I regularly get about four to five bags of groceries for about $20-something.

Steezy: The Icelander: f you can't eat well on $50 a week you are really a moron.

Can I get the details on what your $50/week diet consists of? Honestly just curious.

Saturday I'll make a large meal, ham or chicken or roast or something. Sunday, I'll make soup of some sort, using leftovers from preparing the meal on Saturday if possible. Monday-Friday I'll have a small breakfast and take several sandwiches or maybe a bowl of soup and some sandwiches to work. I don't eat when I get home at night. There's a $20-$30 food budget for 1-2. I spend the extra cash on beer snack food, buying steaks a couple of times a month. I do prefer to cut my own steaks, but that isn't always feasible since the butcher shop closed, causing me to deal with whatever whole cuts are on the rack when I go through at midnight.

I also go out several times a month, but that breaks the budget. I reserve the cash for dining out as separate from the food budget, that's pleasure.