$50 per week food budget

@ Deb Rebel, I do some of what you do too!

Here are my money saving ideas;

I have a soy machine and make dairy products, tofu and okara. The machine makes great soup!

I call our grocery store manager a few days ahead of the truck to order cases. We pay $2.00/case over store cost.

We buy 40-50# cases of mixed mature produce for $20. This is the produce that would normally go on discount. We also get the cases of free stuff that's too far gone to sell. I just cut out the spots and blemishes.

We go to town once a month. Every month I order one or two things to bulk up on. So our (my husband and myself) budget stays nearly the same, I just change up what I get.

I dehydrate cases of frozen spinach to save room in the freezer. Cases of bananas (we get a case every month) are pureed then frozen. Dry goods (rice, beans, oats, etc.) are stored in 5-gallon buckets or canning jars.  

Last month I bought a case of bok choy and planted the ends, that will last me all winter. Onions, garlic, lettuce, etc., I replant lots of produce.

I buy cheap dog, cat, and chicken food, then supplement. Dogs and cats get eggs, chickens free range, then if anyone is looking off I just get whatever is needed.

I buy online a good bit. I compare online prices with what I can get in town.

I'm currently making sourdough starter to dehydrate and jar. We shall see how that works out.

I make seitan from all purpose flour.

I use Cronometer to watch that our nutrition is on track.

I buy black oil sunflower seeds (bird food) and grow them for sprouts.

I don't soak beans. (I do soak soybeans headed to the machine.)

I don't blanch anything. I rotate the freezer foods every few months.

My husband's not a fan of lentils so I make them into burgers and meat-less loaves.

I cook on a rocket stove and use a haybox as much as possible.

I reuse water as much as possible. Fresh water is for ingesting or bathing, rinse water goes to be washing water (biocompatible soap, and I only use soap as needed), then when I've done everything I can think of with the water, it goes to the garden.

I use baking soda and vinegar for most body cleaning, hands get soap as needed (like for cooking). I shave with the turn of the seasons. My husband doesn't shave, and we don't cut out hair. No makeup or anything like that.

I make vinegar.

I use family cloths and a bucket toilet.

I think that's everything, from one end to the other! LOL

I have greatly reduced our small family food expenses in the start of winter here by checking out the dumpsters of our local small town grocery store. We mostly get a box of veggies and fruits mostly pineapples apples strawberry bunching onions potatoes asparagus butternut and spaghetti squash. I think we have a stockpile of 100 lbs of potatoes and apples each in the cellar. There's also the addition of baby foods, yogurt, juice, chips and cereals. The best times to pick are right before noon and the day or morning of the dumpster being dumped. We are friends with the owner of the garbage company that dumps it and here it is not illegal to dumpster dive unless there's a no trespassing sign. hope this help

quote=Belinda Roadley]And even though they say that you shouldn't use old razor blades, I've been using the same ultra cheap razor for pits and legs for nigh over a year now..... that sounds kinda gross, but if that sucker isn't rusty and clogged with gunk, and it still shaves, why replace it??

Amen to this! I only shave my armpits (I've never shaved my legs!), and I've used the same Venus razor since I got married 9 years ago! I tried using a new one, and that worked better for a few shaves, but it seems they flatline after a few uses. The new one and the 9 year old one now work almost exactly the same! Now,granted, I am only shaving a small area and I have to go over it a few times to get all the hairs. But, it works, so I don't worry about it!

Though, my husband also tries to stretch the life of his razors, with less success. The older the razor, the loooooooonger it takes him to shave. Like, twice as long. So, he gets new razors every month or two, when he's shaving every day or two.

I learned a neat trick from a book about food budgeting years ago and it really helps. Start a log of everything you buy, where you bought it, the date, and the price. I kept one for a whole year, but I think 3 months should do. Once you compile the log, you can look at it to see where the items that you buy the most are the cheapest. You might be surprised. Also, you can predict sales by using this method. I noticed that I paid $2.36 a can for my dog food at the beginning of the months, but they would go on sale at the end for $1.15.
Using this method, you can pass on certain items when prices are high, and stock up when they go on sale. Paying more attention to detail really helped me save a bunch at the store.

I was looking into something like this a while back when a friend and his son were new to food stamps and horrible at adulting. It turns out there is a great cookbook geared at $4 per person per meal. You can buy the book, which in turn donates toward  others getting this, or download the free PDF. The food is simple, nutritious and cheap. I started experimenting with the recipes in this book to get my food budget under control. Having a garden makes it even more cost effective.  You might want to give it a look through. If nothing else I think it will get you thinking in the right direction.

good and cheap

$50/wk = $216/month

$25= 30lbs box of chicken
$10= 60 egg
$35= 30lbs of dried beans
$10= 20lbs of rice and or pasta
$10= 30lbs of flour
$10= 20lbs of sugar
$10= 30lbs of milk (3gal)
Sub-Total = $100
You can use the above to make alot of fermented food (kefir soda/milk/yogurt/amakaze/tempeh/etc), and you can bake, fry, steam, boil, broil, etc, etc, salt/sweeten

$30 Vegetable (squash, white potatoes, carrots, cabbage, etc)
$30 Greens (Spinach, Kale, Collard, etc)
$20 bag of dog food
$20 bag of cat food

$16 for Tiolet Paper, baking soda, etc

Su Ba wrote: I ended up buying chicken necks from the local mini slaughterhouse/butcher for the cats. They were incredibly cheap. I had to buy them in a 100 pound frozen block, so I had to learn to can them....

Wow... up here, thighs and drums are cheaper than necks, backs, and gizzards/hearts.  Wings are MORE than breast.

Crazy!
and totally backwards from when I was a meatcutter.

Brad Hengen wrote:

Su Ba wrote: I ended up buying chicken necks from the local mini slaughterhouse/butcher for the cats. They were incredibly cheap. I had to buy them in a 100 pound frozen block, so I had to learn to can them....

Wow... up here, thighs and drums are cheaper than necks, backs, and gizzards/hearts.  Wings are MORE than breast.

Crazy!
and totally backwards from when I was a meatcutter.

It seems strange doesn't it?! But here breast meat can go on sale to 40dkk a kg,(1 usd is 6.3dkk) a whole chicken frozen (1.1kg) is 21DKK a kg it is possible to get whole leg quarters with backbone for 13.33DKK a kg but hearts and livers are 50dkk a kg and are never on sale. It's the same with pork, choice cuts, here that's loin and belly are often at 30DKK a kg, ribs will set you back 60, tails again 60 and cheeks 80!

For us there is no such thing as cheap cuts, cheap cuts get minced or sold at a premium for some silly reason. I have never seen wings for sale here alone, processed yes but not plain. Oh and mince costs the same as loin.. go figure.

We have two dogs and two cats, cats get cheapo lidl dried food and all the mice they can catch/eat and the dogs get raw, which is the cheap chicken legs and then the pluck from the slaughterhouse (out the back door at closing)

Carrie Nicole wrote:
The healthiest and most long lived dog ate a diet of rice, lentils, potatoes and whatever garden veggies were avail at the time. Dogs are actually not obligate carnivores, they are scavengers, omnivores. Travel to tropical countries where stray dogs are numerous will show that they, like humans, will go for fruit.

Was looking over this excellent old thread and wanted to share an anecdote about one of my dogs.  She goes out into the woods and gets dropped Kieffer pears from under the ancient pear tree on this property, brings them home and gnaws on them as if they are a great treasure.  We call them her "pear bones" because she guards and protects them just like they were a fresh meaty beef bone.

plant lots of fruits, nuts, herbs, veggies, secure those chickens and expand on critters.
real homesteading

Anne Miller wrote:Usually women do not eat soy due to it messing up their estrogen. The below article doesn't mention that although it gives other reason for not eating soy.

Men shouldn't either, unless they like turning into soyboys (low testosterone). In particular, neither should anyone pregnant with a male infant; high phytoestrogen intake can cause deformities.

This is probably the best compendium of research on the effects of phytoestrogens and related compounds (eg. lignins). Ignore the hypey tone and read the linked studies.
http://web.archive.org/web/20110812014148/http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/

If you chart obesity levels vs the switch from lard to soybean oil, there's a perfect correlation. It only takes about 5% thyroid inhibition to cause insidious weight gain and a host of other health issues. (Obesity is not a cause, it's a co-symptom of all the problems associated with it; the research makes this abundantly clear, if you read ALL of it and not just for one specialty.)

Note: Flaxseed is 4x worse than soy (almost 4x as much phytoestrogen AND far more is absorbed). When I was feeding my kennel dog food that was high in flaxseed, fertility was reduced by half, and I had one or two deformed puppies in every litter (major issues like open skulls, open midlines, and missing genitals). Switched to a product free of soy and flax, and the problem stopped. Same bloodline, same dogs.

Soy-based dog food gave rise to the myth that breeding is hard on bitches. No, being starved for protein is hard on bitches. (Soy protein is mostly used by gut bacteria and not absorbed by the intestines, plus can inhibit absorption of other nutrients, notably iron and calcium. Also causes mucus production, which protects parasites.) Put nursing bitches on a soy-free diet even with lower nominal protein content, and instead of turning into a bag of bones like they do on soy-based diets, they'll gain weight.

My sister's allergist says soy-based baby formula is the main cause of plant and pollen allergies later in life, since soy protein is a broad-spectrum allergen. (Gee, I'm so surprised... I've been saying this for decades.)

So nope... soy is not a miracle food; rather, it's suitable for making plastic and growing pigs, but not for eating by humans or dogs.

So glad to stumble across this old thread. Great advice in here!

One observation on bulk buying, you do not have to be mormon to buy from the lds canneries. They sell at cost in bulk. 50 lbs at a time dry goods like rice/beans/sugar/dried apples.

J Davis wrote:So glad to stumble across this old thread. Great advice in here!

One observation on bulk buying, you do not have to be mormon to buy from the lds canneries. They sell at cost in bulk. 50 lbs at a time dry goods like rice/beans/sugar/dried apples.

Wow, I didn't know that. Unfortunately no LDS stores near me, but the best tip of the day!

So I looked 'em up:
Locations:
https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/self-reliance/food-storage/home-storage-center-locations?lang=eng
Products:
https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/food-storage/home-storage-center-locations-map?lang=eng

A site with a whole bunch of general info:
http://prepared-housewives.com/lds-cannery-locations-questions-answers/

For the last 2 plus years, if averaged out, I doubt that I spent $50.00 a week.

Monday. I went to the grocery store and came out without spending any money.

The eggs were $9.36 for 18 eggs which are 52 cents an egg.  Cheap really for a meal though that seems too high for eggs.

When I got home I looked at Sam's Club which was out of eggs online though the selling price was 3.99 for a dozen.

How much is everyone spending on eggs?

Dear hubby wants to get back into raising chicken though I am just not sure if our raccoon, etc presence would just be too much of a problem.

Inflation sure has increased the cost of everything, could the below for $100 last you 2weeks?

Meat/Beans/Dairy
$12 Ground Beef 5lbs
$12 Tilapia 4lbs
$12 Chicken 15lbs
$5 Eggs 1doz
$3 Dry Beans 2lbs
$2.50 Milk 1/2gallon
$2.50 Cheese 1/2lbs
subtotal = $49

Grains/Roots
$3 Irish Potatoes 5lbs
$3 Sweet Potatoes 5lbs
$3 Oats
$3 Rice 2lbs
$3 Flour/Fried Dough/Bread-Baked Dough 5lbs
$3 Sugar 3lbs
$3 Pasta/Noodles/Ramen
subtotal = $21

Vegetables
$7 Onion 7lbs
$7 Cabbage 20lbs (and or Kale/Collard/etc)
$7 Chard/Spinach 5lbs
subtotal = $21

Seasoning/Oil
$4 Oil half-gallon
$4 Salt/Pepper/Misc

Last fall I seriously went after our food budget.  Judging by how it has dropped each month, my wife and I expect to hit that $50 a week mark in Feb.

S Bengi wrote:Inflation sure has increased the cost of everything, could the below for $100 last you 2weeks?

Well, it's hard to say, given that this forum has a wide and international component.

And yet, if you were to publish a weekly and reliable local list of these items, and where to obtain them at that price, you would have the foundation of a lucrative home based business. Nice!

I probably missed it, but are we talking $50 per person, couple, family of 4 or something else?

Tyler who started the thread said, "Looks like our food budget will be about $50 per week, including all toiletries, and food for 5 cats and a dog.  How would you choose to spend your $ in the grocery store if this were your budget?

Tyler doesn't have kids or at least none at home so when she says "our" that would be two people.

This is one of my favorite threads.

Since 2020, I am pretty sure I have spent way less than $50 a week on food.

S Benji’s list appears good but completely foreign to me.   I am trying to break out my use so that it translates more normally, but the fact is  I raise pigs, chickens, bees, and goats. I have a large stocked pond.  And, I have  hundreds of quarts, pints, and half pints of vegetables and fruit in my basement.   I buy coffee sugar, flour, beans, etc in bulk.  It is difficult at best to get this to align with trips to the grocery store.

I am rebuilding my high tunnel this winter, so I do have some need for the grocery store for fresh vegetables.

I know that this thread is at least nine years old, but it is timely now and lots of people have food insecurity.
My first bit of advice: Embrace intermittent fasting.  We, as a culture, eat too much and would be healthier if we cut out all snacks and ate only one or two meals a day.  My eating window is usually between noon and seven pm.

I second the idea of incorporating legumes more.  Cook a large batch and freeze a goodly amount for times when you don't want to start from scratch.
Home cooking is essential. I buy a gallon of milk and make my own yogurt.  When I used to eat bread, I'd make my own. I grow basil like a crop, buy the walnuts, and make and freeze pesto all summer long, which feeds me through the other seasons. (I clip the plants about once a week, which helps them bush out and grow more.) I love it on rice with a can of tomatoes tossed in.  Sometimes, I'll add chicken, but not very often. Buying the raw ingredients will be less expensive than buying the finished product every time, and you don't have to worry about the extra stuff like preservatives, added in.

As you're able, buy fruit and nut trees and learn to can and preserve your own food. Granted, it won't be instant gratification, but before you know it and then for the rest of your life, you can have more than you can use--you can then barter for stuff that you don't have. Fruit bushes and perennial vegetables also really pay.  Strawberries will produce quickly, are vitamin-packed and easy.  They send out runners and make an excellent groundcover. I bought 50 2 year old asparagus crowns a few years back, and now I have so much that I eat my fill for months while it's fresh, and then pickle and can the extra to feed me through the winter.  There are many people who stop canning for one reason or another, and are willing to give away their jars and equipment.  Maybe place a notice on line that you're interested and looking for the materials.  Most of my jars were free.  I still get a thrill every time I open a can of peach salsa or applesauce!

I now can, freeze, pickle and ferment along with dehydrate and freeze-dry food because of all of the fruit that is coming in. I make my own wine.  I have so many strawberries that every year I make strawberry wine along with drying, freezing and canning them. I have blueberry, rhubarb, dandelion, peach and other fruit wines.  I'm not big on jams and jellies, but you could make those and barter or sell it at a farmer's market.  

Find a local farmer who grows things and is willing to sell in bulk.  This past year, I found someone who sells tomatoes, and I was able to can 36 quarts. It's true that there is an initial investment that needs to be made for some of these ideas, but they each will pay you back one thousand%!

I'm glad to see this thread bumped!! Yes, there are great ideas here. Some details may be old but things don't generally change.
I hope in the next few weeks to get together a Super Big Thread About Budget Eats, but right now paid work is kicking my butt so it's got to wait (someone's got to pay for the feed for all these animals!!).

I can tell you the main ideas are the usual suspects:
-what you save in money you spend in time (growing, preserving, canning)
-make your own!
-the more processed the food, the more you often spend (and your health may be affected)
-knowing what things cost, and knowing when to spring for things and when to wait til next time, can save you $$$$. Have a plan, know the sales (if you have the luxury of multiple stores where you live) and have a backup plan so you don't feel pushed into spending money that's not in your budget.

Hopefully I'll have some better contributions soon.

Waste not. Want not.

This thread is well worth taking the time to read. There are so many helpful tips from every angle and to suit so many circumstances.
As I only have work for 4 months of the year, budget is very important to me.

I am married to someone who's country  and culture has a very high meat portion allowance. Every evening meal had to contain meat. I come from a family of 7 which meant I learned how little we actually need to eat to stay healthy. One chicken would do 2 meals for a family of 7-thats 14 servings.  If I roast a chicken in my house (2 people), it wouldn't last 2 days. Yes, I get a soup out of it after, but it's taken me years to get my spouse accustomed to "carcass soup". For fussy eaters I recomend involuntary fasting- it sharpens your appetite no end! So I abandoned the roast, cut meat into smaller pieces. I used less and padded out with beans or grains. I have slowly weaned him off beef mince (ground beef) by adding lentils- to the point where he will now happily tuck into a lentil bologneise, lasagne, curry, baked potato with chilli or spicy cottage pie and enjoy it.

I see lentils have taken a bashing here. Lentils are the easiest of the pulses to prepare and digest - taking less time to cook and reduce GOS and the anti nutrient- Phytic acid. I have learned several ways to make make them more edible, save on long cooking times and improve texture. Too often lentils turn to a grainy, grey/brown mush because we have to boil to reduce the flatulence causing enzymes (GOS) and phytic acid.
Quick soaking in boiling water with ACV or lemon  and discarding the water helps reduce the GOS, so you can shorten the cooking time and lentils retain more of a ground beef texture. You can also add a bit more ACV or lemon juice to the cooking liquid. But I like to sprout my lentils as I find this subtly changes the taste and means you can cook them in so many different ways for a much shorter time, you also reduce the GOS and PA through the repeated rinsing. Just sprouted, they are great for mince replacements- I've even made sausage from them. Sprouted at varying degrees of shoot length and you can add them raw to salads, or cooked in veg stir frys, fried rice dishes, vegetable curries and soups. They only take 5-10 to cook through and add a "fresh veg" aspect to meals. I try to have 2 sprouting jars spaced 3 days apart on the go at all times. I also have a "multimince" recipe so I can make a giant pot, freeze in portions then change the seasoning for italian, indian, chilli, or pie. From 1kg of dried lentils, I can get at least 16 porions- if necessary, we can eat lentils 5 times a week without eating the same thing twice.

If you haven't cooked /eaten lentils before, or you've bought lentils and don't like the taste, try using them in smaller portions over a period to adjust to their flavor profile and fibre. They really are the budget consious cook's best friend.

I am at less than $50 a week.  

Sarah Joubert wrote:If you haven't cooked /eaten lentils before, or you've bought lentils and don't like the taste, try using them in smaller portions over a period to adjust to their flavor profile and fibre. They really are the budget consious cook's best friend.

Actually tried a new idea last night and going to try another new one tonight. I had been doing lentils or oats(flour) with bananas and other veggies, cooked up kinda like pancakes/fritters. Last night I decided to leave the water out complete, 1 cup of lentil flour and 2 medium to large bananas. Mix it together and put it on the stove and it finally turned out more than 'slop'. Is that how I was doing lentil burgers a couple of years ago when I first tried lentils. Gonna try it with oats tonight and see how that goes. Got a couple of other ideas which I have been trying but haven't worked out, now I think I just need to rethink how I'm doing it. The next few days should be interesting.

This would feed me But I am one person who likes potatoes, pea soups and pasta or rice with garlic, salt and butter/olive oil... Pasta, rice, potatoes and dried peas can be bought in bulk.

Yes, and making your own pasta is incredibly inexpensive and you can control the flour that you use: glyphosate-free! So, some good flour, and some water will do it; you can also add an egg for more protein.

Barbara Simoes wrote:Yes, and making your own pasta is incredibly inexpensive and you can control the flour that you use: glyphosate-free! So, some good flour, and some water will do it; you can also add an egg for more protein.

I would add... Everyone I know is like OMG MAKING YOUR OWN PASTA IS INSANE but...it ain't all that. Making your own tiny pasta or tortellini or whatever might be, but you can whack together gnocchi or a long noodle without huge effort (udon is surprisingly easy!), and if you have the equipment spatzle is essentially almost instant.

I can't digest the synthetic "enrichments" and other additives added to conventional wheat or dairy, so any pasta (or breads, cakes, etc) that we want, but can't find in an organic form, we have to make, ourselves. In general, European wheat products are safe, because all those things that make me sick are banned. Weirdly, those imported things and organics are typically substantially less expensive (and have better flavor and texture) than the 'gluten free' options I had previously been relying on, until we figured out exactly what my wheat problem was.

But, some things, like ravioli and lasagna, specifically, I've never found in an organic/ imported version, so we make those. It's so much cheaper and offers versatility and flavor/ filling options limited only by our own imaginations. Duck & butternut or acorn squash ravioli? Sounds crazy expensive & fancy, but we raise our own ducks for meat & eggs,  (primarily only putting extra drakes into the freezer). Butternut squash has been volunteering in our back yard...

John buys full muscle cuts of meat, and cures our bacon and makes all our sausages, so the average price we end up paying for both the meats and seasonings ends up being in the neighborhood of $3.50/lb. I grow tomatoes & am trying to figure out why basil hasn't worked for me, and John is (now that we've also figured out what my dairy issues are🙄),  will be making as many of our fresh cheeses as possible,  from raw milk that we get for $6/gal - particularly mozzarella, ricotta, cottage cheese, cream cheese) So, lasagna with Italian sausage, ricotta, mozzarella, tomato based sauce, will cost less than 50% of the cost of buying all of those components.

We do buy a lot of things - like tree nuts, coffee, berries... that take our food bills well above that $50/week budget, but if we didn't do so much of our own processing, even spending what we do allow ourselves, we couldn't even manage coffee, as an extra.

Here are a few ideas... sorry for repetitions!

For my pup, I found that making him dog food to supplement his kibble was much less expensive than buying canned. I tend to buy chicken when it's on special and I cook it up in a big pot with rice (brown and/or white depending on what I have on hand) and sweet potatoes or butternut squash, then shred it all up and make sure to remove any bones. Sometimes I add a bit of liquid smoke and he loves it! I freeze the extra and defrost as needed.

For shopping purposes, sales and seasonal deals are where it's at, so if you are flexible with what you eat you can save a lot of money.

For meals, soups and stews stretch out seasonal and pantry staple ingredients and can be made in so many different tasty variations. Making your own broths and stocks are also a good way to save money - whether from vegetables or from meat, fish and/or bone scraps.

We're vegetarians who also eat fish and eggs,  we tend to eat a lot of beans and tofu which have endless possibilities and are so much cheaper to buy than meat. I also use tvp (textured vegetable protein) as a ground meat substitute - it's high protein, cheap, easily flavoured, and you won't really notice much of a difference if you sub it in for ground meat in things like pasta sauce, chili, stuffed vegetables, casseroles etc.

I also buy canned fish when it's on special (tuna, salmon, sardines, mackerel, crab, smoked mussels etc.) and they are tasty cooked into pastas, chowders, made into fish cakes, or just on toast or crackers with a bit of butter or cream cheese and maybe some fresh herbs and pickles.

If you're able to preserve things that's a great money saver and can make your meals much more interesting. I'm not very good at it myself tbh (though slowly learning) but some of my family members make the most delicious pickles, jams, and various condiments with produce they grow themselves or buy in bulk when it's in season and cheap.

I agree with the other comments that there are lots of cultures where inexpensive but delicious meals are standard fare in the local cuisine - there are lots of really delicious recipes to be found out there. One I've been making on repeat is a type of Italian potato casserole that's really versatile and inexpensive - essentially you make up a batch of mashed potatoes (usually I add a few cloves of garlic to the water when I cooking and mash them in), blend in an egg or two and a bit of cheese once its cooled down a bit, add some herbs if you have them, press half the potatoes into the bottom of an oiled or buttered casserole, add a layer of cooked vegetables - sometimes I use cooked green beans with cooked tomatoes and peppers, just tomatoes and peppers, or cooked greens like spinach, kale or broccoli, and sprinkle in a bit of cheese (or not) - basically you can include anything that you like to eat and that you've cooked in a way that you enjoy - then add the other half of the mashed potato mixture on top, sprinkle with a bit more cheese and breadcrumbs if you have them, drizzle with a bit of oil or butter, then bake until the top is crispy. So good and filling! I'm sure you could add some cooked meat (sausage or bacon?) to the mix and it would be very delicious.  Here's a sample version with a proper recipe (I've never added flour to mine fyi):

https://www.pastagrannies.com/recipe/lauras-pitta-di-patate-saletina/

Carla, that's an impressive list of things that you'll make!  I don't know your situation--how much land or your age, but I'm 65, and I planted four hazelnuts back 2021.  A few years back, I planted two heartnuts.  The heartnuts have not started to produce yet, but each year they grow a bit.  They are smaller trees than walnuts, and the nuts are supposed to be less biting than walnuts, although they are related.  They also put out much less juglone, and I've been careful to only plant things that are tolerant nearby: persimmons, elderberries, currants and paw paws are some that I know will be fine. Last year, I got my first few cups of hazelnuts from two of the four shrubs, and that was pretty exciting.  This year, I'm seeing more blooms.  Missouri's climate is probably a bit warmer than here in Vermont where I'm at 5A, and you might even be able to grow pistachios and almonds.

I grow a lot of berries here, but I'll be the first to admit they aren't the same after canning, freezing or any other preservation method. I use them mainly to add into the yogurt I make.  I'm not sure if your ducks wouldn't gobble them all up!  There used to be a chicken house on the property here, but it was probably 150 years old, built as part of the homestead, and had to finally come down.  That was before I had gained an interest in raising birds, but replacing it with a garage was probably the right move for me.  I suppose someday I may want to build on an ell for that purpose.  The thought of hauling water in the winter stops me from going on with any kind of real plan!  It would be lovely to have eggs.  I have a freeze dryer, so even if birds stopped producing in the winter months, I would have plenty through the year.

I also want to say that I used to make a sweet potato gnocchi that was amazing, served with just a little sage butter. I rolled the dough into 1" wide strips and froze them for easy meals throughout the winter.  I was never a fan of plain potato gnocchi, but the sweet potato ones are delicious.  I used to make ravioli and it was so rewarding.  Again, something that would freeze beautifully.  Since being diagnosed with diabetes, I really have stopped eating all simple carbs, and have even cut back a lot with complex carbs, although I do miss them terribly, and do indulge every once in a while!

Hi, Barbara! We're on a little over 29 acres, in zone 6b - in an area of the Ozarks with lots of caves, so everything is heavy clay and rocks, ravines & ridges, and very rough terrain. I've tried a couple times to grow hazelnuts, but haven't gotten it right - yet. We have tons of oak, a couple black walnuts(but the worms, chipmunks, &squirrels get them before I can), and tons of wild blackberries, several sumac trees (not the poisonous white ones, but the deep red, lovely ones), and several persimmon trees. There's a lot growing wild here, including mushrooms and several medicinal herbs, plus a beautiful little peach tree (the squirrels destroy 95%before they're even ripe), and a couple of black walnuts, but they're not producing enough that the squirrels are willing to share - yet.

The difficulty is that in many of these, when it's time to harvest these things, I can't get to them - largely because of the terrain, but also the weather. For example, there are at least 2 acres of those blackberries - but almost invariably, it's 95 - 105° when they're ripe, and between the density of them, their vicious thorns, and my sun sensitivity & other physical difficulties (lupus +),  I rarely manage to bring in more than enough for adding to yogurt a few times, or a dessert or two. Only once have I managed to make a batch of jam - but it was AMAZING!

The persimmons, being 'edge' trees all grow precariously on the precipice of steep ridges, making them dangerous on at least 1/2 the tree, to reach. So, I do get more of those than the berries and peaches, and have come to honestly enjoy them, and freeze as much as Will fit in the freezer.  

I've finally found a heat tolerant rhubarb, that is going into the garden, tomorrow. My asparagus is starting to come up - still small quantities, but they're only a few years old - and they're amazing! I have baby goji plants and baby fig trees - all too young to produce, yet, and I'm bringing them inside, during the winter, as a precaution, because I've already had to start over with figs, after killing my first ones, by leaving them out, 2yrs ago.

The medicinal herbs are my real saving grace. I'm an herbalist. I finally have yarrow growing, and if it comes up again, comfy. But in wild abundance, there is mullein, plantain, mimosa, rose of Sharon and more, plus the oaks and peach tree are also medicinal.

Oh. And I have perilla. So. MUCH. PERILLA. We have too much for culinary & medicinal used, combined. How I wish it were kudzu - then, I could turn my goats loose on it! (Perilla is toxic to goats).

It's a wild land - we're in the woods. It's harsh, and often difficult, but it provides pretty well, when I can get to it. I love this place.

Carla, I have never had to work with clay soil or rocky soil.  It sounds terribly difficult beside the rough terrain.  I am very blessed with wonderful sandy  soil that I annually add leaves and wood chips to in order to make it less sand and more loam.  If anything, things almost grow too well here.  I get what you're saying about the blackberries.  My neighbor had a patch that just overtook their back yard, and still, 50 years later, the birds are always "planting" seeds here in the most inaccessible spots.  I don't see them until they're 5' high and full of thorns.  I wouldn't plant raspberries for that very reason, but then I discovered "Raspberry Shortcake", a variety that stays small (2-3' mound) and is thornless. )  It fruited last year, not prolifically, but it did send runners, so I'll have more plants. I got them at Stark Bros. but I think a lot of places carry them.  They also have blackberries that are thornless without those huge canes, so much more manageable.

Heartnuts might just work for you.  From what I've read, the nuts are MUCH easier to crack than black walnuts, but if those grow in your area, then heartnuts should, too.  They should only get to be 30-50' tall.  The canopy might be wider than its height, so a nice shade tree.  My plan with the persimmons is to put down a tarp and just shake the tree to collect the fruit!  Supposedly, they drop when ripe.  We'll see how easy that all is when they actually start producing!  My blueberries are over 40 years old now--I have 40 bushes which is way too many!  I have friends over to pick; I donate to the food shelf and I make wine with them, and I still have more than I can manage!  I don't know how they would do in your soil, but maybe if you really mixed in some compost and woodchips, they might be great.  I have a little stool that I sit on while picking.  It can take hours a day at the height of the season...I thought I was being clever when I planted early, mid and late ones, so I'm picking from late June through September, along with all of the other fruit.  I remember watching a video when I first started with permaculture, and the woman warned to be prepared for how long just the harvesting  and preserving takes; it's much more than all of the other care combined!

I only have one acre, but I have 50+ kinds of fruit growing.  I use strawberries as my groundcover out front, and they have produced like crazy.  My freezer is still full with them.  I let the leaves fall on them as winter cover and I don't clean them out come spring.  They manage to come back and fill in any empty spots. One side of the front garden has the June bearing and the other side has the day neutral.  Those are the ones that go crazy and I find I can still find berries growing in November--just a cup a day at that point, but still pretty amazing when it's that cold and dark out!  I have Regent serviceberries as a hedge by the sidewalk--I only pick the higher ones because who knows what dogs have peed on!  The birds can have their way with those.  My goumi started to produce a few fruits last year, as did the bush cherries and mulberries.  It's very exciting as new things come "online".  I, too, have a peach tree that finally produced for the first time last year.  I canned 36 quarts, made peach salsa, wine and peach mustard, gave a lot away  and ate a bunch of fresh fruit.  What a treat.  The tree is seven or eight years old, and I was ready to cut it down.  So glad I stuck with it.

Actually, have you tried mulberries?  I was sent one Gerardi (what I wanted) and three "dwarf mulberries" (that were supposed to also be Gerardi) by accident.  The Gerardi is the way to go. They won't get much higher than 6' and can be pruned if need be. The fruits are 2" long and sweet and the plant is very manageable.  The "dwarfs" are not.  They will grow ten feet a year if you let them.  I just cut them down to the ground (again) and now have them covered in Epsom Salt and black plastic, hoping that they die.  They had tasty fruit, but they had very small fruit (3/8") and not worth all of the work.  They also had started to send out runners and were starting to pop up elsewhere.  Not good.  The Gerardi taste similar but better than blackberries and the leaves are medicinal--I am using them to lower blood sugar very successfully in concert with intermittent fasting. They are a largish shrub form, and yes, the birds do like them, but my thought is that if you plant enough of something, there will be enough for all. I hope to start rooting more once the others perish!

I planted asparagus behind the serviceberries out front, and they're now 7 years old if you count that the crowns were two years old when planted.  They run the length of the front yard, so 120'+.  Needless to say, I have plenty.  My friends are very happy, too!  I eat it every day in season, and I started to pickle it--amazing!  Perennials are the best.  Buy once; eat forever! I planted wine cap mushrooms out back by the hazels and goumis.  They had two main flushes but those were all day affairs of cutting them, cleaning, slicing, sauteing and then either freezing or freeze-drying. Mushroom quiche or mushroom soup throughout the winter, though. Hard work to put so much food aside, but winter is easy in that regard!  Not having to go anywhere, but especially grocery shopping when it's snowing is quite lovely!

I, have a few fig trees--six were started from the original; they root very easily!  They die to the ground each winter, but then in spring I just cut them at ground level.  They grow to be about 4-5' each season; last year, they did not have time to ripen, but the year before they had.  If nothing else, they're a pretty plant, although I'm not crazy about their smell!  I'm very ambivalent about them.  For now, they'll stay.  I'm eager for the persimmons and paw paws to start fruiting.  Two years ago, I had a nice crop of quince, but this past year, I didn't have enough to can.  I'm hoping that she produces more this year again!  My Concord grapes didn't really have any fruit either; we had a many month drought last year.  Hopefully, we don't have another.  The grapes are probably 50 years old at this point, and I do need to get out there and prune them hard...along with the kiwi.  Everything else has been done.  Maybe tomorrow will be pleasant enough for that job.  I know that having grape juice is so well worth it!  As a general rule, I don't have fruit juice because of the sugar without fiber, but I do love some grape juice once in a while.

All this to say - the more you grow (particularly perennials!) &/or forage, the easier it gets to keep that weekly food budget low.

We grow alot of our own food now days and our financial situation has improved alot over 9 years. I think its why inflation hasn't effected us as much as others since we have always operated underbudget and trying to live below our means to save for various reasons. I also grew up financially poor so a 50$ budget a week is pretty standard even in todays economy. We also have a 50$ feed and garden budget each month that should be included in that as our pets are family and the livestock feeds us. So il admit our budget probably comes out to about 100$ a week with those cost included.  We have 3 adults, a growing 10 year old, 7 cats (I foster) 2 dogs, 40 chickens, and 8 pigs to feed. Everyone here has wonderful ideas already! Heres hopefully a helpful ramble on how we get by on our budget. It works for our family but every year it changes.

Our feed gets delivered from a Purina feed mill by the ton for a fraction that it cost by the bag. I order a ton and a half and store it in two plastic IBC totes. This will last us 8 months or so with supplements from the garden for the pigs and chickens. We live in Iowa and it was a hell of a time to find a feed mill let alone one that we could use. They dont always have a online site and work by word of mouth. Until I talked to our hog supplier who gave me a couple leads and with some calling around we found one that works for us. Make friends with the other farmers. We may not agree on the practices they use but we can all learn something from each other and we do better united then divided. Plus they may make great food and might share there recipe's with you!

The dogs get high quality kibble supplemented with food scraps, eggs. bones, chicken and pig bits we don't eat and same with the cats. I buy there kibble from Fleet Farm in about 300$ bulk purchases. When you hit this magic number they then give a 50$ free credit to your next purchase if your a member. Yay! A membership that dose something! Dont bother buying dog treats. Making them is so much more affordable and easier then thinking about it. In a pinch we have even bought a day old Walmart rotisserie chicken to use! Cost us 3$ for limited ingredient easy treats when we ran out in the middle of a busy day out!

Then we have the pantry for us that Iv been building for years! And the skills to cook with it! There is more food in our house then just 50$ worth of grocery's every week. The 50$ just maintains the supply and adds to it bit by bit. I bought 100lbs of oat meal one year for 20$. I had no idea how to cook with it and we hated traditional hot cereal oatmeal. It took me a year to finally find a way to cook with it and then use all of that oatmeal! Bread and baked oatmeal bars are what we use it for in case anyone's in a similar situation. We go thru it alot faster now. But the point of the matter is if you are starting from nothing don't try to get everything at once. Buy stuff you know how to make and one new thing. Only know how to microwave your food? Buy a rice cooker for 30$ and make rice and add bagged steamed veggies to it. Now next week you have rice and a easy way to cook it. Get a 4$ skillet from the second hand store and maybe a protein of your choice with some seasonings. Get comfortable with that and add some tortillas to the mix and you really have some options! The lack of new ingredients will help inspire you to look at food in new ways to make new flavors. And get comfortable with repetition. Cut out the processed junk and build up your skills and equipment slowly. Otherwise you wont use them and then you might as well have just thrown away your money.  
 
Not everyone can produce there own food getting creative with your resources is important. Maybe you cant have chickens. That's okay, use that 20 minutes a day you'd have used to care for them to make bread instead.  It will probably save you more money then chickens anyways. Cant raise pigs? Look into hunting and foraging. We use our pedal bikes to take to the trails and forage greens, mushrooms and fire wood. Then learn how to can, cook and keep your harvest. Maybe fishing is more accessible for you. You dont need fancy gear to do that. A stick with a bit of line tied to it and a hook and worm off the end of the dock will get you supper! And as I posted 9 years ago foraging your local dumpsters is a art and a skill that Im glad to have today and helped us thur hard times. There's also your local food pantry's and churches that can help you out. If it feels to much like a hand out, volunteer! Our local pantry gives the volunteers double portions and the leftover items at the end of a drive. They get thrown out if no one takes them anyways.
Once again start one new thing at a time. Get comfortable with it then move onto the next thing. Food cost are what brought me to permaculture as a young parent trying to feed her new family. I was not good at it and Im still not good at it. But I am better and food looks different to me after being on this journey for awhile.