One reader, Luckygrin, asked:
I’m interested in your food budget. My first thought is that $200 per month is quite low. How are you managing that? Do you make all your meals at home? Even just groceries for 1 person would seem to be more.
“Make all my meals at home?” Ha! My way of trying to keep down my food budget is probably not the healthiest, and I definitely have help from my family (leftovers & goodies that Mom packs for me every time I go home help A LOT).
Basically, I spend no money on food on the weekdays. For dinners, I usually eat noodles w/ chicken soup, canned soups, frozen chicken breasts, frozen veggies from Trader Joe’s during week nights. Some dinners are just scrambled eggs with ketchup (until I run out of eggs). Most of the time I bring food to work, either leftovers or, you guessed it, noodles. Sometimes I break down at lunch and buy a bagel for $2.
On the weekends, I splurge. I go out to brunch. I usually eat 80%-100% of my meals out on the weekends. Not expensive places – I frequent taco joints, In-n-Out, Chipotle, etc. Sometimes I pay for two people. This adds up to around $30-$60 a weekend.
But I’m trying to cut back on eating out so much, and trying to make some brunch at home. But I can’t lie… I love the process of getting up, slipping on some cute shoes, and finding the next breakfast bistro where I can indulge in my love of smoked salmon, omelets, french toast, crepes, etc. I like the atmosphere.
So.. my food spending habits? Not a shining example of what to do if you’re trying to be healthy and save money. But it (sort of) works for me, for now. I’m trying to eat healthier (more fresh, less frozen), but it takes time.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Eww, ketchup on your eggs? My mom does that and it grosses me out!
Interesting way to keep your food budget low!
That’s funny that she thought $200 a month for one person was low. My husband and I don’t spend $200 a month on groceries for the two of us. Even adding on the money we spend to eat out wouldn’t put us over $200!
Heh, I do the ketchup on my eggs whenever they’re scrambled. They just don’t seem right without it. I used to do a lot of chicken and rice, with some ketchup. If I throw salads in at least one meal a day, as my lunches are usually cobbled together as well, I feel like I’m doing pretty well.
I try to limit my food spending to $125 each month. $200 would be great if I had the money, but I do just fine with what I have. I do limit my meat purchases to achieve this goal each month.
I give myself a $300 food budget each month, split evenly between groceries and restaurants – however I come under every time! (Maybe I need to re-evaluated that soon.) If I could dine out all the time, I would! But I don’t, I am learning to cook and it’s fun – and it’s definitely cheaper!
But it’s whatever works for everyone individually. We all have different eating habits!
I’m shooting for $200 for my and my husband’s food each month. That’s not including a once-a-week small splurge for takeout or dine-in.
But it’s harder for us to be frugal because he has certain foods he can’t eat because he has dentures (inherited calcium deficiency plus years of steroids for eczema & asthma) and I am something of a picky eater.
A lot of it seems to be about doing research. We’re going to start looking up crockpot recipes on the web. You can make everything from soups to baked potatoes to a whole pot roast in those things! And whenever we see an offer for a free recipe book, I sign up. Merck was giving away a Light & Easy recipes book that should help open up my husband’s cooking repetoire.
I think the big thing is to also have backups. You have noodles. I have PBJ/frozen pizza; my husband has hot dogs/frozen pizza. So if we can’t bring ourselves to bother with cooking, we have plausible reasons not to eat out, either.
Its tour body! You only have one. You shouldn’t be having so much junk and processed foods. That’s why there’s so much obesity, and health problems. Plus all those chemicals in processed foods. Can we say cancer?
I highly recommend this strategy: On the weekend, make a giant pot of soup or stew (from scratch!). There are plenty of great recipes for soups that don’t call for expensive ingredients… chili, chicken soup, potato leek, carrot soup, etc. Let the soup cool and the portion it into strong freezer bags or reusable tupperware. Throughout the following weeks if you don’t have time to make a proper meal, you can just defrost one of the soups, saving both time and money.
Ha, sounds a lot like what I usually eat!
Except I am a sucker for fine dining so it usually ends up being MUCH higher than $200. On the bright side, I will definitely make a more concerted effort to cook from scratch more after I move next month and have a better kitchen at my disposal.
I’m curious though, how does your weekday food cost “no money”? Surely Trader Joe’s isn’t giving away “noodles w/ chicken soup, canned soups, frozen chicken breasts, frozen veggies” for free?
Squally Reach – that’s a great idea, but you do have to anticipate getting tired of eating the same thing over and over! I made a huge pot of chili this past weekend, and now I find myself looking for excuses to eat out, just to avoid looking the 85% pot I have left…
I try to keep hubby and I’s grocery bill under $200 for the month and it is HARD. We make a list of items and go once a week, aiming to only spend about $35-50 each trip. I always take lunch to work, usually toss in some fruit, nuts, leftovers… I try to eat as healthy as possible for the least cost possible, and it’s very difficult/frustrating because “healthy” items/versions of products are twice the cost… ugh.
Our food budget(dining out and grocery shopping) is way more than $200 and we don’t even have dinner most weekdays. We’re hoping to eventually cut down our budget to about $200-$300 but that means pretty much eating home or bringing lunch to work everyday, which is not always possible.
We are a family of 5 and our food budget is $200 a month. We eat very well. I cook all the food from scratch, make my own bread, cereals, etc. We can make three meals out of one whole chicken. I am surprised that you think $200 for one person is low. That’s crazy.