Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have a 23 year old guy living at my house and he has a big appetite. How do I cook for him on a budget?
By Rachael from Lodi, CA
My grandmother raised 4 sons during the depression. I remember her always having a large plate of buttered bread on the table with every meal. This way, instead of asking for seconds, we would take a piece of bread & butter. It's all about the starches (being they are the cheapest food to serve). So always make a starch/carbohydrate a large part of your meal, be it Rice, Bread, Biscuits, Potatoes, Spaghetti, Stuffing, Noodles or even Pancakes, Grits or other more exotic grains like couscous, etc sold in bulk-bins or at your local health food store.
If you can make it from scratch, it'll be even cheaper! You can save time by making "drop" biscuits instead of the kind you have to roll out & hand stamp. Biscuits can be served with gravy, honey, jam, butter or cut in half & spread with a little tuna salad, lunch meat or melted cheese.
As a small child, I remember asking my mother why my grandmother added spaghetti to her chili & oatmeal flakes to her hamburger patties & she told me that Grandmother had raised her family during the depression. With each meal, serve a side dish or main dish of carbohydrates like biscuits, rolls or potatoes.
Don't throw anything away & use up all your leftovers! You can buy a small freezer at Sears for $249 & this way you can shop the sales, freeze your food & save even more money. The freezer will pay for itself in no time!
I am a vegetarian for the last 30+ years, so I eat no meat, but since your friend likely does, make dishes where you add only a little meat, like fried rice, casseroles, soups, etc. I heard yesterday on the news that all food is going up this year, especially meat, poultry & eggs, so the less of these you use, obviously the better!
To get your protein, there's nothing like dried-then-cooked beans over rice! Just soak the beans overnight, drain the water & add new water & simmer all day long over low heat (or in a crock pot) with a little onion & garlic powder, salt & pepper. YUMMY!
I would suggest homemade vegetable soup served with saltines or grilled cheese or peanut butter sandwiches. You can buy a couple frozen bags of mixed vegetables and use a can of tomato juice or V8 as the broth. Add your choice of browned ground beef, pulled beef/pork roast, or even cooked chicken whatever is on sale at the time.
Chili is also not that expensive to make and can get several servings from the pot. Do you own a break maker? That's a good way to serve bread with any soup or chili fixins.
Bean-based meals are usually cheap and super filling. Lots of budget-minded recipes at feastonthecheap.net. Everything is also broken out by cost.
The best way is to have him contribute to the budget. He doesn't need steak. He can eat chicken, tuna and hamburgers. Who fed him before you got him? What did they feed him. Is he a boarder or do you have a future together.
If you click on 'find' in the orange bar at the top of this page and type in 'cheap meals' and also 'inexpensive meals' you will find oodles of recipe ideas!
Rachael Ray also has a section on her recipe site for $10.00 and under meals that serve up to four people:
www.rachaelray.com/
And here's the link for her budget meals:
www.rachaelray.com/
I also have the same questions as Lilac. ;-)
Do lots of homemade soups. They can be meatless, using beans/lentils or all veggies. As stressed previous, if he is a keeper or just passing through makes a difference. If he consumes 50%-75% of the food budget, then he kicks in that much. I don't get guys who find a girl to play house with and then expect her to pay the bills too. They were looking for a mama, not a honey. This is not independent for either one. If he does not eat portion controlled meals like any one else does, then he can get a job with more wage to pay that part of it.
I have all big kids (6-4, 6-3, etc) and they don't consume a quantity of food beyond healthy portions. They learned to cook, bake and roast as well as shop carefully. All 3 of my kids started at age 16 at the local grocery store and knew what food costs. The youngest is now a manager at that very store. I would make my children make grocery lists, go shopping with me. Decisions of fruit/veggies or a bag of chips, fruit/vegies won. My thing was, if my kids thought they needed a special item I would not put on the list, they would watch the ads for it and check the coupons for it. Then they took their money out to buy it. You see how badly it is needed that way.
Oh, forgot, then you plant the garden or join up with a community garden and he gets the hard labor work of the weeding, learning how to hoe, watering, etc.
The 23 year old man should be paying for his fair share. And use as many coupons as possibles and follow all local markets sales.
Good luck.
Hello everyone:
I have a question. We are now down to the two of us.
How much should it cost for food and basic toiletries (toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, etc) for a family of two.
I have a family of 3 people, 3 large dogs, 4 cats and a pig (not counting the chickens or turkey or turtle) and it costs about $75 a week for people food and pet food and everything else we need. We have some kind of meat every nite. I shop at Pic-n-Sav grocery and Wal-Mart. I do not buy meat at Wal-Mart, it has too many preservatives in it.
I noted with interest your question because the title asks how much should it cost to feed a family of two and yet your text asks about food and sundries.
First rule of thumb is NEVER to combine these two costs. If you do, you will shop a grocery store for the non-food items and it will cost you more than what you would pay at a dollar store or discount house.
Other variables that would affect the answer you are seeking:
-- do you have a garden?
-- any dietary restrictions (low sodium, diabetis, etc.)
-- do you include snacks and soda pop or beer as part of your food budget?
-- do you eat lunch at home or brown bag to the work site?
-- are you loyal to name brands or do you use generics or store brands?
-- do you have and use a price book?
-- do you use the grocery circular and then make meal plans built around the sales ads?
All that being said, we are a household of two with moderate dietary restrictions. I will not allow myself to spend more than $150 maximum on groceries, which includes our lunches. I allot $15 a month for personal care products and cleaning supplies.
When our income gets tight, I simply cut the expenditures which includes grocery shopping because I have a large back-up of frozen foods. When money in general is tight, I find I spend a lot more time preparing foods and doing whatever it takes to make it taste and look great.
Lunch today would be a good example: we had delicious cream of broccoli soup, crackers, thinly sliced beef roast (deli style) on assorted crackers, and cake. Three-quarters of this meal was planned leftovers, meaning I had the broccoli frozen from the garden last summer as well as the onion, I substituted celery leaves for the chopped celery, added my own homemade chicken stock; reconstituted dry milk, margarine, flour, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese. The beef was a leftover that I very thinly sliced it such as a deli would. Cake was last night's dessert.
The cost of this substantial lunch for the two of us was minimal, at best. I was very pleased that I was able to use up that many ingredients that I already had.
To my mind, it's not what you spend but how you spend it and further, how you use it up that counts.
I live in Tennessee, and I spend about $150 per month to feed myself and my husband, BUT I try to shop wisely-- using coupons, buying the "loss leaders" featured in weekly ads, using a price book to know what a good price is, stocking up when there is truly a sale, etc. We eat meat nearly every day, but I ONLY buy meat when it is on sale for 1.99/lb or less, I just make sure to stock up. I also do some shopping at a salvage grocery store. I hope that helps!
I have a family of 3 people, 3 large dogs, 4 cats and a pig (not counting the chickens or turkey or turtle) and it costs about $75 a week for people food and pet food and everything else we need. We have some kind of meat every nite. I shop at Pic-n-Sav grocery and Wal-Mart. I do not buy meat at Wal-Mart, it has too many preservatives in it.
I think Two people could live, comfortably, for £30 per week. (food wise)
(Thats about $55,)
I think, by shopping at bargain stores, making sandwiches for packed lunches, buying cheap meat - freezing leftovvers and not having luxurys you'd be ok......
Baked beans on toast, mac and cheese & fish sticks taste great and cost next to nothing, but think about the quality of your life.....
Julie in London
i have a family of 9 and it costs 1,000$ to feed all of us for a month.
I have a family of 3, myself, husband, and teenage son. I spend about $60-$70 a week on food and up to $20 a week at Dollar General for our cleaning supplies and toiletries. However it is hard to please everyone in the food department. There are days when my son refuses to eat what we have on hand and will just chooses to go without. This upsets me but I figure if he's hungry enough he will eat what we have.
You may have to spend a little time on this one. If you cook using a weekly or monthly menu you can very easily see what you realistically eat. If you do not do this (I do not) you may have to try it for a month or so to get an idea of what you actually eat and how much. Keep track of the number of times you eat out or have delivery also, so you can figure that dollar amount into your budget.
Now a couple of things that may seem obvious but I will include them anyway. If you clip coupons and watch the sales and shop the perimeter of the store (the produce, dairy and meat sections) and stay out of the areas that have all the over processed packaged foods you will see a big difference in your grocery bill. There are certainly some good products like canned fruits and vegetables the can be had from the "interior" of the store shelves, but you have to be willing to monitor yourself. I have always had to live on a budget so I know this works.
Depending on the cost of living in your area and how good the sales and coupons are, I would think you could both eat on ten dollars a day or less.
