Tricky Budget, can you do it?

I'm not sure about $30... I've gone round and round with a $50 budget in mind, but even that was very unhealthy. Let me see, though... 5 pounds of flour: $2.00 1 pound salt 50 cents 5 pounds potatoes $3.00 1 pound cheap margarine $1.00 1 small head of cabbage (@ 50 cents a pound) $1.50 2 cans of tuna: $1.50 4 pounds sugar: $2.50 2 dozen eggs: $3.00 Small box of cheap tea: $2 5 cans vegetables: $5.00 1 pound carrots $1.00 1 pound chicken drumsticks $1.00 1 pound rice: $1.00 These prices aren't exact, but close to what they are here. I come up with $25 so that would give you a little leeway or allow a small treat. 5 pounds of flour would make about 5 loaves of bread. Boil one of the potatoes and eat half of it, then put the other half back with a little flour and sugar and in two or three days you'll have sourdough. You won't need yeast. Some ideas: Mix tuna with boiled eggs and eat on homemade bread. Bread and butter, of course. Toast with eggs. Boiled cabbage with half a can of tuna added. Potatoes fried in margarine. Baked potatoes with margarine. Bread dipped in beaten egg and baked. Oven bake a couple of drumsticks by putting flour and salt on them, then a dot of margarine. Boil rice and mix it into the pan drippings after the chicken is done. When you boil potatoes, save the potato water to make gravy (instead of milk). Boil eggs and chop them up into gravy, eat over toast. If it was in the summer, I'd be out gathering wild food to supplement. I think it could be done, but it would be hard.

The best way to save money on groceries is to combine coupons with items that are on sale. If you do not want to coupon, your best bet is to make foods ahead and freeze them. One of the cheapest and healthiest meals you can make are beans, and peas. If you add some spices or even just salt and pepper you can really add some flavor to these meals. Bean soup or pea soup can be put in a crock pot, put on low and then cook it all day. Beans are full of protein and fiber! You can also buy apples and bananas. You can get a 3# bag of apples for around $4, a bag of beans or peas for $1. Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches are also very good, and cheap on the budget. Peanut butter is your protein source and bread can be bought at the discounted bakery. You can purchase bananas for around 50cents a pound, and put them in the fridg to keep them fresher longer. There are so many meals that you can create to get that food budget down. Ramen noodles of course are pretty cheap, but full of sodium. Good luck.

That would be really hard but lets give it a try. I would put about 5 dollars of gas in my car so I can get to work, this I have to do. I don't work far and I might be able to stretch it out for a month, it would be close. Groceries would be next. Since we already have some at home i would only buy what we needed, milk bread and types of foods that would go far but yet do not cost alot. With the cost of groceries I am not confident I could do this on $30 for the month.

Well My fiance and I do not have jobs, so I hope that my response will help you figure something out. Now, we don't live like this, because we live with his parents and they feed us. My fiance is a very picky person, so he won't eat just anything. I think though that I would do the following, I don't have prices for each because I've not really had to buy food for a meal before, I've picked up things here and there, and for a meal but hadn't paid attention to the cost, plus it's surely gone up by now. First of all, I would think, what lasts the longest around here? Spaghetti is one of the things, actually we're having that tomorrow. Spaghetti usually lasts about four days if not longer, and we eat it for about every meal. Shopping List for Spaghetti Spaghetti Noodles Sauce Beef Possibly Bag of Salad. Now on most occasions his mom already has the noodles, or some noodles, maybe even the sauce, she sometimes buys these things beforehand. Right now we have a big thing of ranch that we bought when we went to the closes Warehouse Store which is in another county. Should I count for gas? 20 minutes plus isn't that much gas. Edit: Now that I think about it, they may use green peppers in their spaghetti. Taco's don't last as long but if we had to be frugal we could make them last a few days. Besides, most of the time I'll eat the meat, lettuce, and tomato with out the shell to make a taco salad. Shopping List for Taco's 4 Taco Kits 2 Tomatoes (maybe more, maybe less) Lettuce Head 1 or 2 Bags of cheese Possibly Mild Sauce I'd also buy some snack food, pizza bites are my fiance's favorite, and I like them sometimes as well. I'd stock up on kool aid too. So not sure if this is what you were looking for but those are two meals that my fiance will eat, that doesn't take that much to make, and parts of the meals can be reused.

Theoretically speaking, if I were living in the US: For my first meal: I'd get cup noodles or whatever instant stuff there is that costs less than a dollar. Or maybe one of those hotdog in a bun stuff that they put on sale at a certain time. For the next 2 meals a day: Subway :D I wouldn't even change the dressing. I'd always choose sweet onion and just put everything in it. I'd buy a foot long and have it cut into two. I'd keep the other half for later :D Thanks for the response on my discussion!

I think the only way to survive on that much food money for the whole month would be to cook all foods using raw ingredients. My shopping list would therefore consist of rice, wheat flour, pasta and I would include lots of vegetables too! I think it is also a lot cheaper to buy vegetarian foods rather than consuming lots of meat products

If I had only $30.00 to spend for groceries I would start with a big jar of peanut butter and real butter. I would get a 5 lbs of flour a small bag of sugar and salt. with this I would make a sourdough starter and make sour dough pancakes for breakfast topped with the peanut butter. I cook these at least once a week and we warm them up at least twice a week. one batch makes at least 8 pancakes 6 inches in diameter and they are filling. Then get a box of rolled oats for variety for breakfast. I like butter on mine instead of milk. Then I would find a store that sells dry beans in bulk. They are full of nutrition. For every pond of dry beans you get 2 pounds of cooked beans. My folks lived on dry beans during the depression of the 30s If I had any thing left I would get a small jar of chopped garlic for flavoring the beans. My mom used to mash up beans to make a sandwich when I was little. I still like a bean sandwich now and then.

If I absolutely had to eat for a full month on only $30, I think I would mostly just buy tons of Ramen noodles! Those are so cheap, and they don't taste too bad, plus they have several different flavors for a little variety. I would probably also get macaroni and cheese, and also just boxes of spaghetti or other plain pasta. Pasta seems to be one of the cheapest foods to buy. I might also try getting some really cheap bread and a jar of peanut butter for protein. I think it would be possible to do it, but it would really take some serious planning and it would be definitely tricky!!

$30 wouldn't last that long since we're a family of 5! But Give me $150 and I would do pretty good *lol* Tomato soup - made with caned tomatoes is one thing that is cheap - you could make soup for at least 5-6 servings for $1. Just add some salt,pepper, some garlic and onion! Noodles are a way of getting cheap food as well (even if it has no nutrition in it ;-) ) I know I would buy carrots, onion and potatoes - you can get it very cheap here now and than - like $1 for 8 pounds - that would help a lot ;-) if it's the ordinary prices it would be about 2,5 pounds for $1 I would go for dry beans and vegetables and bake my own bread (I do that a lot as it is) and perhaps some tuna .

A food stamp budget is #25 per person per week. I've been trying to do t.hat with a Spark People group and it's so hard to do that I really can't imagine living on $30 for a month. Even on #25 per week it's hard to stick to that budget and eat healthy.