My boyfriend (20) and I (18) have been living together for 2 years in an urban apartment. For us, it usually goes like this:
- Delivery
- Eating out
- Cooking at home
We visit our parents (and they visit us) often, and they give us lots of home-cooked food. We mostly cook at home just for fun.
I’m curious what it’s like for other people, especially in different age groups or family setups!
Would you be willing to discuss your grocery list on that budget? I recently allotted myself $175 per 2 week pay period for groceries for me, a single man living alone. I find myself going over. I think my biggest weakness is snacks, which are extremely difficult for me to not have on hand.
Cans of soup, microwaved, for the occasional hot meal. Cold meals most of the time. For various reasons, that I won’t get into, I don’t cook.
Breakfast is toast (2 slices) or cereal (1 small bowl). Soy milk. Cow’s milk would be way cheaper, but I’m intolerant. Tea. What can I say, I’m British. I do like a cup of tea.
Lunch is mixed nuts (~30g) - technically a luxury, but I figure they have minerals I need - mixed dried fruit (~50g) and a slice of multi-seed bread. Another luxury, but again, this is mostly about nutrition. Apple juice half and half with hot water (~450ml total). Dilution makes it go further and the heat raises the flavour profile a bit from cold diluted.
Yes, I know apple juice isn’t very nutritious.
Evening meal is usually a sandwich. Plain white bread. A slice of some pre-packaged meat or another. Sometimes processed meat, sometimes an actual slice. Those are more expensive. Salad also in the sandwich. Sometimes I have the aforementioned soup instead. Tea, of course.
An extra cup of tea here and there. I do have biscuits (cookies) in the house and I get through a handful of those a day. I should do without tbh, but they’re pretty much my only food vice. If things get really tight, those would be the first to go. (I’ve already had to stop buying the “budget” chocolate bar I liked because it’s three times the price it was three years ago.)
I have a few other canned goods (beans, meats, fruit) that I buy when I can and then break into occasionally. Sometimes I buy noodles when they’re on offer for a treat.
Most of the above comes in two or three levels of quality versus price, and I get the highest quality I can of each while remaining in budget. If I have to buy toothpaste or toilet paper or whatever, I drop the quality of something else in order to fit it in.
If there’s any general advice I can give here, it’s substitute your snacks with a drink you really like instead. Preferably a cheap, low calorie one that’s mostly water. Yes, it means you pee more, but you’re full for a while, and you’re hydrated.
I should probably also note that my BMI is, and has been, fairly steady around 25, which is the heavy end of healthy on the above diet for a good while now. If I became less sedentary, I’d probably lose weight at first and then level out around 20 or so.
No one should have to do without tea. That would be inhuman. The cooking thing is the serious rub for you I think. Beans and rice would be a terrific addition to this diet. You have your reasons though, as you said, which I’m sure are very valid.
Some thoughts:
I am so used to Aldi that I almost forget branded things exist. Those oats sound really expensive, I get them under £1/kg
Yeah, both prices I gave were for name brand (Quaker). The generic Aldi oats are just as good!
And on buying in bulk - if funds are limited you can ease into this by budgeting for ONE bulk item each weekly shopping trip. It will build your pantry, you don’t have to make a big immediate outlay.
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Snacks are an incredible waste of money and they have some of the largest profit margins of all grocery items. $5 for a bag of chips that isn’t even a pound is disgusting, but they charge it because people pay it. It only makes sense to buy snacks if you’re wealthy from screwing other people over, or you’re on welfare.
If you want to eat cheap, you need to swallow your pride. Probably one of the best meals that just about anyone can make is a microwave meatball sub with raw broccoli and carrots on the side. Extremely easy, very cheap, filling, and it’s always going to be delicious if you’re actually hungry.
Get used to eating the same things over and over again, and stop treating food like entertainment.
You can eat real food cheaply rather than living from a microwave.
It’ll take a lot more effort, but yeah of course you can.
You can eat cheap and still enjoy it, without so much repetition.
I agree with cutting out mindless snacking though, that’s not good for you.
Hmm… It is easy to hate the rich, but are you brave enough to despise the poor
What are you talking about?
If you are asking in earnest. You should really give some thought where the conditioning to repeat this trope is coming from.
I am not even going to dispute that some poors have bad spending habits but that ain’t what this comment is about.
Have you ever been on welfare? They give you enough money to get snacks, too.