$20 a Week? What would you buy?

[OhioTom76]

This topic came up on another forum I visit, that's generally unrelated to cooking, but the forum member raised the question anyhow. If you were stuck with $20 a week for groceries, what would you purchase? I am assuming the poster meant this was just for one person and not meant to feed an entire family.

Personally I think the first week would be the toughest since you would need to get some staple/pantry items if you didn't already have them - yet these would not be typical weekly expenses, more like once a month if that. I'm talking items such as rice, pasta, dried beans, peanut butter, jelly, vegetable oil, etc...

On a weekly basis, I would probably be buying crushed tomatoes, frozen veggies, canned tuna, eggs, orange juice, any already cheap cuts of meat that are marked down even further since they are about to go past their due date, stuff like small pork roasts or packs of chicken thighs. Either a bag of potatoes, or a large bag of frozen fries. I might mix some fresh veggies in there too if I had some leftover money permitting it.

Breakfast would likely be eggs and toast, lunch peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or tuna fish sandwiches, then dinner I would stick with pasta with tomato sauce, maybe cut the roast into chops and do pork chops and steamed veggies, chicken fried rice using the chicken thighs and eggs, bbq pulled pork sandwiches, or chicken tacos...

You?

 

[ChanellG]

As a matter of fact, the produce share box at one of our local farmer's markets is $25 and is designed to provide food for two people for one week. I have had stuff leftover that I didn't use in the week. If I only had $20 to spend on groceries for myself, assuming I already had pantry staples, I would buy 1 lb of rice, 1 lb of carrots, 2 cans of black beans, a bag of mixed greens, 1 tomato, 1 package of tortillas, onion, garlic, fruit, and probably another vegetable.

 

[DIna00]

Twenty dollars a week is quite doable if you are not concerned about variety and carbs.

As you some you already mentioned - eggs, rice, pasta, beans, lentils, bouillon cubes, onions, potatoes, bananas... Or just a crate of ramen noodles works too

 

[Caribbean girl]

Twenty dollars a week for me would be a real stretch. I would probably have to go on a meat-free diet, since meat is a very expensive item where I live. I would go for staple items like bread, milk, eggs, butter, rice and noodles. A few oranges and a couple vegetables which would include onions, would also be a part of the grocery list. I do not like to omit my breakfast cereal, so oatmeal or oat flakes would also have to be considered. I am not too sure that 20 dollars would cover everything mentioned here, but these are the items I would consider first of all.

 

[missbishi]

I'd probably just get potatoes, bread, eggs and cheese. Granted, there wouldn't be much variety but at least I could fill up. If I already had stuff like tinned tomatoes and pasta in, I'd do just fine, I think.

 

[Rosyrain]

It would be tough to do, but I imagine I could do it if I had to. I would buy a bag of potatoes, bread, milk, eggs, carrots, onions, noodles, canned tomatoes, and lots of beans. I would like to throw some meat in there, but that probably would not happen for the first few weeks until I had enough of the other foods saved up.

 

[Arch]

I don't know how £20 dollars equates to the UK, but I lived quite easily on £10 to £15 a week for myself. I reckon I could stretch £20 to cover both of us. It might mean very few treats, but I'd make full use of reductions and value ranges.

 

[Night Train]

Tinned tomatoes, baked beans, eggs, onions, mixed dried herbs, pasta, oats, milk, tea bags, bread cooking oil, salt, pepper.
Occasional additional reduced veg, and other items, as available.

 

[JoanMcWench]

Absolutely rice, beans, & potatoes. Other than that you have options depending on sales. Making things from scratch takes up time but saves you money. I think what would hurt me the most is not having my spice collection. With that I can turn any cheap date into a prince charming.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Most of the Indian meals I make from scratch are amazingly cheap to make.

For instance 4 potatoes, 2 onions, 2 tins of tomatoes (or cheaper still 1 large tin) plus the spices will serve 2 of us for 3 nights served over rice.

Another which is basically onions, potatoes, red lentils, garlic and ginger plus some spices is a complete meal and again serves both of us for 3 (and often more) nights.

Lunches would be more interesting, but we routinely make a homemade pate that is butter bean (great northern bean) based with some tahini and herbs and spices to flavour.

I'm guessing variety would be harder but many pulses and brands are stunningly cheap in Asian supermarkets and large sacks of potatoes are really cheap where I live locally because it is a major growing centre for them.

$20 equates to £13 at the moment, BTW.

I think the biggest issue for me would be that dairy free alternatives (I suffer from anaphylactic shock from proteins found in all dairy products) are so expensive. 1l of dairy free milk is typically £1.50. Dairy free marg again is roughly the same... I know you can buy very cheap soya milk, but I don't like the flavour by itself and only tolerate it in things, so porridge for breakfast would be a problem...

 

[Food4thought]

I don't spend more than that amount on a week's food for myself and I have three good meals a day. What you buy will depend on where you live as prices and availability will vary in different locations.

If you want to eat meat you can buy ground beef, cheap bacon pieces or cans of hot dog frankfurters. I don't buy meat but I do eat fish, and canned sardines are much cheaper than tuna.

Mostly I focus on buying vegetables that are on offer and reduced in price. Buying loose vegetables costs a lot less than in packs and you only buy as much as you need.

For canned and packaged ingredients I never buy big name brands. Value packs are much less expensive. For example a pack of Uncle Ben's rice would cost at least 3 times as much as a basic bag of rice.

 

[Pat]

I also don't spend much than $20 a week for food just for myself. I would get a large case of yogurt, beans black and red beans, rice and cheese. A loaf of bread can last me a month, and what I have left I would and usually do get fruit and vegetables. I don't eat alot of meat so if I got meat it would be a whole chicken that I would probably eat for two weeks. I would make soup out of the parts I don't eat

 

[isabbbela]

I have actually been EXACTLY at this situation before... when I went for a trainee program in California I lived on my own and made minimum wage, so I literally had to count my grocery money for the week. Between paying a high rent (Silicon Valley is quite expensive) and not getting any other benefits from work like transportation and lunch money, one week before the next payment I was running so low on money I actually had 20 or 30 bucks for the week. I often bought eggs, milk and bread which are affordable and ate those for breakfast and dinner those. As for lunch I only had one hour to eat in the middle of the day, so I sometimes had a Subway sandwich (the ones that cost $3,50) or I went to Walgreens which was close by and got something cheap from there. Hard times!

 

[Arch]

The budget tip I've been doing since I've been catering for myself is to limit the value of the meat (or fish) in any one portion to 50p worth, or less. I do it by either buying reduced meat, buy buying bulk that I can split and freeze (like a pack of mince beef or sausages) or tinned stuff and spreading it over as many portions as necessary. As the meat is usually the most expensive part of a meal, it keeps the total costs down. I still try to stick to it for the two of us - so the meat part of a meal for two is around a pound. It might meal restricting the amount of meat in the meal, but that's a good thing.

And of course sometimes we have a meat free meal anyway.

 

[Night Train]

I was chatting to an internet friend in Canada a few years back and she told me that her money saving food when she was broke was to buy oats from the pet store. Loads cheaper then human food and no different.

She is now a CEO for a large company and has two penthouses in Vancouver so it didn't do her any harm.