https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004NRLAVY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
Literally the base of every single meal I eat. Add canned chicken, Rotel, and Valentina hot sauce and you have a Mexican meal. Do tuna, kimchi, and sriracha and you have a Southeast Asian meal.
Both options are a million times better if you already have a spice stash handy. If not, you can buy those premade seasoning packets on Amazon in something like taco or chow mein flavor or something.
I know this is a relatively new addition, but you can order rice and beans (and probably other stuff) on Amazon now. That could certainly address a number of the ancillary obstacles that disproportionately effect the poor
Spaghetti costs $0.50 for a box, sauce costs $0.65/can. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cost around $0.45 to make. Rice near me costs $11 for a 10lb bag, even on amazon you can find 15lbs for $22 ($1.47/lb). Make some rice and pour a $0.50 can of soup over it and you've got a meal. Or hell, black beans and rice with a little salt on it is delicious.
Just because you suck at shopping doesn't mean it can't be done.
Also, even if rice did cost $4/lb (which is stupid expensive), you can make almost 3 cups of rice from it, that's really close to 2k calories by itself.
For less messy amazon links you can extract the part after "/dp/" in
and make it:
BEEP BOP
Plz send any recommendations via PM
I have to agree w/everyone on the whole Apartment being out of your budget...but you didn't ask for that advice, so I'll try to help you out as best I can.
The way I like to help is by giving you one tool. Hardest thing about eating on a budget is you often eat the same thing, so a little variety is nice. I would suggest eating this one week, and finding other recipes next week, then coming back to this when you feel it. It won't be the cheapest, but it will taste solid and fill your belly (and more importantly be in your budget). Key is to buy in bulk.
Same thing with the beans.
Also learn HOW to debone a chicken . Now you can buy the whole chicken and give me more options.
Eggs - My local store sells Eggs for about $1.20-1.99 for a dozen and from my experience is the cheapest at trader joes. I think it's worth the buy.
Produce - Key is to wait for the sales. It's hard to bulk up on produce cause they go bad in a few days. But I generally buy green bell peppers, onions, and whatever is on sale.
Spices - This is a going to a cheap way to make your food taste good. Salt/Pepper is a must. Bulk red chili pepper flakes (7oz) if you like spice. Garlic Powder Bulk (I get 13oz). And other spices that you personally like. Generally I tend to spend maybe $7 a month on spices.
Ok now, just gotta cook. Cook the rice and beans together. While that's cooking, cook the meat. For Chicken Breasts, depending on the thickness, I suggest cooking it 5 mins each side and then letting it sit for about 3 mins after you are done. I then cook any produce I have, then add the rice and meat. I then push all the food to the sides of the pan put some oil in the middle and drop my egg (sometimes i drop 2 if im hungry). I personally break the egg and after about 1-2 mins i then mix everything together. I add my spices. Put in soy sauce, or a bit of ketchup, or hot sauce if I have it (Cheap tip: take a lot of condiments from fastfood joints, hahaha).
Cost (Per/Month) assuming you eat this the entire month * Rice/Beans: $17-24 * Meat: $20-30 * Eggs: $6-10 * Produce: $15 * Spices: $7 Total: $86
I hope this helps a bit. I think the best thing is to learn how to cook. Utilize reddit, youtube, etc to find cheap foods that are semi-healthy and are within your budget. You don't have financial capital, but you do have your own labor and skills that you can grow to compensate for your current lack of $$$. I personally ended up loving cooking cause I went through the same thing, had no money in college and lived off Ramen, Rice, Chicken, and Beans. Slowly I learned how to cook and now although I spend a lot more on food I feel I can cook a great meal on whatever budget im on.
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>you're going to try and tell me you fed 4 people on $7 a day? did you grow/raise/catch/kill any of your own food? barter?
Cooking, baking, and buying in reasonable bulk. Rice, beans, pasta, frozen/canned vegetables, and a crockpot can do it. I'm not talking 500-pound bags of military surplus war beans or anything, just actually cooking them yourself. If you build a diet around cheap-to-obtain staples, the costs drop rapidly. For example:
So at about $150 you have about 6 months worth of base staples. And these are just random quick Amazon searches - most of these things can be found with more variety, healthier (depending on your dietary needs), and/or cheaper if you are looking. You can hit farmer's markets, but in my area they aren't really that much better as far as deals go unless you are looking for specific foods. Food banks certainly exist, and they are pretty laid back about who gets food, but I've never hit the point of wanting to use one up here.
You don't eat out, drink alcohol, and treats end up being the most cost-effective ones possible. I ended up going with the cheapest fresh stuff I could find in stores for the number of services, to supplement frozen and canned. Fresh veggies really are the cheapest way to eat healthy. Cheaper the better: my usual "spaghetti sauce" was mostly carrots. Potatoes are literally cheaper than dirt here (Washington state: less than $2 per ten pound bag, not sure if it's that way anywhere else). Homemade salsa, mustard, and cost-effective heat seasonings are the condiments of choice - they stretch the furthest.
If you don't want to cook a great deal, you can live on a crock pot or rice cooker. They are essentially $10-$20 investments these days. Dump everything in before leaving, come home to cooked food. It's not amazing, but it's sustenance on days where you are too lazy to cook for yourself. You can also cook and freeze, which is cheaper than buying frozen meals. Or, cook and refrigerate if you are someone like me who can eat the same leftovers for days at a time. Crockpot also means homemade soups, another great use for cheap veggies and potatoes. And acorn squash adds a great creaminess to chili (a great penny-stretching food). Sliced bread can be purchased relatively cheap, but almost any other baked good needs to be made at home.
If you are a carnivorous family then chicken and tuna are your friend, but they are still not going to be cheap enough to be eaten regularly. Chicken does well with rice and beans, making it the natural choice for crockpot meat. Pork, and even beef, can be had when really good sales roll around - but that often makes them holiday meals (which I'm okay with). Cheese and fresh dairy in my experience is never cheap enough, and the only regular dairy we did was powdered milk. The trick with all of these is creating meals that use them sparingly, such as chicken in a crockpot giving flavor to everything else.
I do grow greens in the warm months here (because I've got the greatest cheap AND lazy way to ever do it), but other than that I don't hunt or garden.
Ultimately, it's doable, but it requires a complete disconnection from the "Murican Diet" of fast food and brand names. You work with healthier foods, smaller portion sizes, and less pre-packaged/pre-made products.
Are you saying you eat more than 15 dry pounds of rice every week? I think I found your problem...
For those interested: I tried using Wal-Mart eGift cards, they were delayed as Wal-Mart elected to call me to verify the purchase.
I recommend hungry redditors use an amazon wishlist and add the following cheap, healthy bulk items to their list:
White Rice -http://www.amazon.com/Nishiki-Premium-Medium-Grain-15-Pound/dp/B004NRLAVY/
Brown Rice (available starting 1.18.2013) - http://www.amazon.com/Nishiki-Premium-Brown-Rice-15-Pounds/dp/B004NRHAZO/
Beans - http://www.amazon.com/Garbanzo-Beans-Grown-Identity-Preserved/dp/B001PEWJWC/
They're Prime elligible (you get them in 2 days) and I personally feel better helping others eat when I know I'm getting the best calorie/nutrition/dollar ratio for them.
> The problem is healthier food is way more expensive than the other options, so its asking people on food stamps, in essence, to get less. The real push should be in making healthy options more affordable.
Frozen veggies are cheap, frozen meats are cheap, potatoes are cheap, onions are cheap.
Luckily you can eat healthily and not spend a ton of money doing it.