$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.