|
I feel totally insane right now. My fiance and I live off of 100/month for food. For both of us. Every month we buy, minimum, the following: 5 pieces of fruit a week A bag of grapes to freeze 2 1lb bags of dried black beans 2 1lb bags of dried pinto beans 1 small tub of sour cream--about 16 oz 1 brick of cheddar cheese--whatever is on sale 1 yellow onion 1 head of garlic Two loaves of bread, to freeze Two boxes of cereal because the fiance loves him some cereal--whatever is less than $3 One 1/2 gallon of milk 1 dozen eggs Granola bars, whatever is on sale Every other month we stock up on things that are on sale, like rice, frozen veggies, spices, and small corn tortillas (the corn ones are way more filling than the flour ones, for some reason)--sometimes pasta. We also buy veggies to cook with the week we are going to cook with them, so they don't go bad too soon. On Saturday or Sunday I make a massive batch of beans, and we just... eat a lot of tacos. Sometimes I make rice, eggs and veggies. Sometimes we'll make oven nachos. We eat a lot of grapes, apples, and bananas. I'm a pretty decent cook, so I can make leftovers feel new each night by adding eggs to the beans, or some different spices. Fiance doesn't seem to get bored with it, and I love loving tacos so who the hell cares if we eat the same thing every night? We allot $15 each to go out to dinner or lunch or whatever every month, too. That and budgeting with our two cats, we're able to set aside about $200 every month for fiance to pay off his student loans and credit card debt. It's hard because he works 12 hour days most days, but at least he's got something decent to eat when he gets home  I can't wait to be out of school and contribute more money to our household so we can have, like, different meals sometimes, but I gotta say... leftovers every night, re-fried in a pan or heated in the oven, not as bad as eating ramen all the time.The way we figured out our budget was a lot of compromising, but the big one was the leftovers. It seriously helps. We're not having to cook something new every night, so we get a break. Yeah, we're poor and we can't eat a lot of different kinds of stuff like wealthier people do. And yeah, not everyone wants to eat leftovers every night. But we're able to do it so we might as well.
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2013 21:31
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 11:51 |
|
|
Fo3 posted:Are you feeling insane due to lack of vegetables? I know I would. Haha, no! We buy veggies: "We also buy veggies to cook with the week we are going to cook with them, so they don't go bad too soon." Also, yes, frozen grapes are pretty much the best thing ever. We are extremely fortunate to live in an area with a lot of access to fresh food for cheap, because we have a Farmer's Market, and lots of other stuff. We are not typical, but I thought I could at least share what we buy to give the OP and idea of what two people are capable of living off of. We are not going hungry, and both of us eat fairly healthy. We have a rule: every meal beyond breakfast has to have a protein and a veggie. Breakfast is a crapshoot because we have not perfected it yet. We also stockpile stuff, so we aren't buying a lot of spices and stuff every month or anything. My mom fed my sister and I on about... >$5 a day when she was a single mom. I would never say our situation is possible for everyone, though. We're fortunate. edit: Huxley posted:I wish my wife could eat like that, because I definitely can. It's a gift, really. You are correct, sir! Fresh vegetables are a huge part of our budget. They are the most expensive thing to get on our monthly list. More explanation of our stupid budget poo poo We also have the advantage of being functional vegetarians--meaning, we never purchase meat, but if our friend catches a fish... eh I'll eat that poo poo  Like I said, our situation is unique and my fiance and I are fortunate. (I wouldn't want anyone thinking I was assuming everyone could do this, because I am painfully aware not everyone can. I went hungry a lot as a kid.)Fiance is cool with eating whatever, so that's also a big help. Holidays are loving hard, though. That is when we definitely go over our budget. I love Halloween and Thanksgiving, and we just accept that we are going to go over $100. It's gonna happen, so we just prepare for it by not eating out for two months and using that money to buy holiday stuff. Normally we get $15/person to eat out every month, or to go to the movies or something (so $30 spending money, total), but again, poo poo happens. Birthdays, Holidays, etc. I like to think of having a budget as the same as outlining a paper: stick to your outline until something changes. Stick to the budget until there's a change in your situation, then revise your budget. It's ridiculous to expect that you can have the same budget for the entirety of your life. In the immortal words of Nathan Explosion, "We can't be hunger Nazis to our stomachs." Again, fortunate, different than a lot of people, etc, etc, etc. I also like how lazy I get to be with leftovers, so that's a bonus! don longjohns fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Oct 17, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2013 21:12
|
|
|
Breaky posted:I've found a good, cheap and filling breakfast (besides oatmeal with some honey and cinnamon) to be baking a few sweet potatoes ahead of time and having half of one of those with 2 fried eggs on it and some salt. Decent complex carbs, fat, protein, fast and tasty and very cheap. I find I can eat this every day and not get tired of it like I do with oatmeal. Holy poo poo that sounds fantastic. See, that's my problem. I love to cook, have an awesome little recipe book, but I am not very imaginative because my budget has always been small, my whole life. I wasn't able to experience a lot of different foods growing up. For instance, I just started eating brussel sprouts in the last year. I totally am going to make this, it sounds amazing and potatoes last a good while.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2013 21:21
|
|
|
Huxley posted:Giant cardboard tubs of oatmeal. Infinite things you can do to them. When our daughter outgrew frozen baby food, we kept pureeing and freezing bananas. Two banana cubes and a shake of cinnamon in prepared oatmeal is (very roughly) Bananas Foster with no added sugar. We did oat groats for a long time, but fiance really does not like oatmeal. One of the key things about eating on a budget is that pretty much everyone has to eat the same things, which is unfortunate and sounds kind of creepy when you tell people about it. Like, "My fiance and I are on a budget, that we designed together, and we eat all the same things." But it's really, really hard to eat on a budget with someone who is eating other stuff, because then you have to buy more things. So we've had to make a lot of compromises. Good thing we both love Mexican and Chinese food, because that is the bulk of our diet. I'm starting to wish there was a dedicated "Eating well on a budget" thread, because I would love to know what other people do.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2013 21:54
|
|
|
Fo3 posted:It always works best if you have some type of understanding of budget cooking, stock up on staples (beans, rice, sauces), spices, and things that last a long time. I learned budget cooking from my mom. Feeding two kids is way harder than feeding to fully-grown adults. It'd just be nice to learn new stuff. I'll have to check those other threads out. I haven't been vegan for a few years, might be neat to see what's changed in terms of options.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 18, 2013 16:38
|
|
|
jhorphear posted:This thread has been an amazing help for me. I have been lurking through it for a couple months and have managed to cut my grocery bill down quite a bit, and have improved the quality of food I am eating. My normal grocery bill was running around $60-$100, i have that down to around $40 now( except when i need coffee and soda ). I feel so much better about myself when mt cart is filled with fresh raw ingredients and not processed crap food. On top of that my cooking skills have improved significantly. Thanks you guys/gals so much! Awesome! Yes! Details! I inspired my friend to stop buying shampoo and wash her hair with a mix of baking soda and water, and vinegar and water for conditioner. I sound like a hippie.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 18, 2013 20:09
|
|
|
Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:I will say though that when I roast a chicken, the wings never make it to the table. That's because as soon as I pull it out of the pan, I pull off the wings and eat them myself. Because dammit I deserve them. Before I went vegetarian as a teenager, the wings were my favorite part. I also like the giblets, and anyone's skin they didn't want. I was the worst kind of meat eater. Chicken giblets wrapped in bacon... delicious. I never knew which organ I was eating and I didn't care.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 25, 2013 18:41
|
|
|
neogeo0823 posted:These are all good suggestions. Last night we just didn't have the time to make anything, so the fiance bought samosas and chicken tikka masala from Trader Joes, and we had that. This was good, because it was relatively cheap, decently tasty, and it worked for us, but bad in that now she wants more indian food. So this weekend, I'll be buying all the spices and such that we're missing to make this stuff. This might sound really dumb and obvious, but coconut milk. If you can find it cheap, coconut milk. It's delicious and absolutely essential for that authentic flavor. I kept cooking poo poo with regular milk like a loving idiot and it is not the same. I am so white it's not even funny-- I had no idea Indian food had coconut milk in it.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2013 19:24
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 11:51 |
|
|
a dozen swans posted:Bleach works for nonporous surfaces. Baking soda might get it out-- leave it on as a paste for a couple hours then scrub it off. Worked for my counter.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2013 17:38
|
|