I have $50 to spend on food for the coming week. Please advise me on what to purchase.

[Anonymous]

A bag of tortilla chips, a can of refried beans, a can of Ro-tel and a block of cheap Cheddar cheese=enough to have nachos several times. You could use flour tortillas and make quesadillas instead.

Stir-fried rice with tofu ,frozen mixed vegetables, plus an onion and a bit of soy sauce.

Lentil chili: lentils, ground turkey, garlic, fire roasted tomatoes, onion and chili powder.

[Anonymous]

My first thought was the McDonald's dollar menu

[Anonymous]

Dozen eggs for breakfasts
One loaf of bread for toast/sandwiches
Peanut butter or cheese to make peanut butter or grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch
One bag of rice
One bag of beans
One box of spaghetti
One lb ground beef
One jar spaghetti sauce
Whatever fruit is on sale
Whatever veggies are on sale
Bag of mini cookies

Breakfasts- eggs, toast
Lunches- fruit and sandwich
Dinners: beans and rice (at least 3 dinners out of this) and spaghetti (another 2-3)
Supplement dinners with veggies- zucchini and squash are pretty cheap right now.
And the bag of mini cookies because I'd be dying for something sweet at the end of each day.

This should easily cost under $50.

[Anonymous]

$50 for one person and this is a dilemma? On aveage I spend $35 per person for our family and I don't even consider shopping for economy.

$50 for one person hardly warrants resorting to a menu of rice and beans!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$50 for one person and this is a dilemma? On aveage I spend $35 per person for our family and I don't even consider shopping for economy.

$50 for one person hardly warrants resorting to a menu of rice and beans!

But, there are economies of scale when you're cooking for more people, and it sounds like OP is used to shopping at whole foods, and I'm just assuming that OP doesn't have the pantry full of food that many of us who are cooking for families have. $50 for 1 is definitely doable, but if someone isn't used to having a food budget, she would need to be careful not buy a couple expensive ingredients that will blow the budget (or a couple lbs of cherries that end up costing $!2).

[Anonymous]

Yeah I'm a Pp and I agree $50 is totally doable for one adult but if I did that, I would have to be mindful while shipping in a way I'm normally not. I.e. picking the cheaper apples over the Pink Ladies I like, maybe regular white rice instead of the Basmati I prefer, grabbing extra sweetener packets from restaurants instead of buying the expensive Stevia sweetener I use for my morning coffee. It can be done, you'd just have to plan and could easily go over if you weren't used to having to be strict with the food budget.

[Anonymous]

Tjs here is cheaper in general than Safeway, so:

2 bags tjs spinach---$4
3 doz eggs----$5.40
2 boxes pasta---$3
1 jar super cheap pasta sauce---$1.79
1 lb cheap ground beef---$2.70
2 bags frz broccoli---$3
1 jar peanut butter. $3
1loaf bread---$3, and you can get it cheaper at Safeway, but this is real bread and tastes much better
1 gallon milk---$3
1 can cheap coffee, here or Safeway. I think the ground stuff is cheaper there but you can get a pound of beans for $4 here.
A bag of carrots. If you like carrot sticks, buy 2

Then you go to Safeway.
Whatever yogurts are on super cheap sale, buy one for each day: I got them for 50 cents at Kroger.
Buy a roasting chicken. You might hit the jackpot and get a short dated one, if not, they're $1.69 cents a pound.
Buy rice here. It's way cheaper
Also buy 2 onions.
If you have money, buy Parmesan cheese and something chocolate in individual pieces.

Now: put the chicken in a pan and roast it. Sprinkle it with garlic salt or salt and pepper, roast at 350 for 18 min a pound. Put a cup or so of water in the bottom of the pan so it doesn't burn. Save the giblets.

Divide the hamburger in half. Dice an onion fine, mix about a quarter of it in with half the hamburg, a crumbled slice of bread, salt pepper and an egg. Makes 2-3 patties. Freeze.
Brown the onion and the other half the hamburg. This goes in the cheap pasta sauce for two nights of spaghetti.

When the chicken is done, have a thigh and a wing for dinner. Eat the skin, it's crispy and delicious. Put the rest of the chicken in the frig til it's cold, add water to the land and get all that goodness out. Pour it into a stockpot and put it in the frig. Tomorrow, you are going to slice the chicken breast thin for sandwiches, carve the wing, 2 legs and thigh off for 2 more meals, and put the rest of the carcass in the stockpot with all the skin and the wingtips and some carrots to make soup. You will add the giblets to this and cook for several hours, let cool and pick the meat off the carcass and add to the soup.

Breakfast is eggs and toast, lunches either chicken or pb&j sandwiches with yogurt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$50 for one person and this is a dilemma? On aveage I spend $35 per person for our family and I don't even consider shopping for economy.

$50 for one person hardly warrants resorting to a menu of rice and beans!

But, there are economies of scale when you're cooking for more people, and it sounds like OP is used to shopping at whole foods, and I'm just assuming that OP doesn't have the pantry full of food that many of us who are cooking for families have. $50 for 1 is definitely doable, but if someone isn't used to having a food budget, she would need to be careful not buy a couple expensive ingredients that will blow the budget (or a couple lbs of cherries that end up costing $!2).

You can till take advantage of economies of scale by eating some leftovers. No need to resorr to stealing condiment packets and buying $1 cheaper rice.

[Anonymous]

These suggestions make me laugh. You do not need to cook that much for one adult.

1lb of ground beef???? Why, just why? If you really need ground beef, get a half a pound and plan on eating it a couple times.

Want chicken? $5 rotisserie or buy fresh chicken strips - $7 a package - plenty for several meals quickly heated up.

Bagged salad or fresh.

A couple pieces of fruit

Bag of chips or something for when you need a snack.

I feed myself and school age child on $50 with no problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I'm a Pp and I agree $50 is totally doable for one adult but if I did that, I would have to be mindful while shipping in a way I'm normally not. I.e. picking the cheaper apples over the Pink Ladies I like, maybe regular white rice instead of the Basmati I prefer, grabbing extra sweetener packets from restaurants instead of buying the expensive Stevia sweetener I use for my morning coffee. It can be done, you'd just have to plan and could easily go over if you weren't used to having to be strict with the food budget.

Hey, why not take the ketchup, salt and pepper and silverware too?

[Anonymous]

Well, I'm seriously active and I need calories. Sorry if you have a desk job, but I don't. And I like to cook. A pound of ground beef is four or five servings: that chicken gives you lunches, dinners, a nice pot of soup and takes almost no effort. Spinach omelettes give you greens and are filling. Take almost no time to cook.

[Anonymous]

TJ often has things cheaper than Safeway and other stores, and so does WF. Compare prices. I actually get my peanut butter and walnuts at WF because it is cheapest.

[Anonymous]

Blech! I would never buy ground beef from a Safeway or Giant. Makes my skin crawl just thinking of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blech! I would never buy ground beef from a Safeway or Giant. Makes my skin crawl just thinking of it.

Not everyone lives in your rarefied world. Do you have anything useful to contribute to this conversation?

Wow I wish you could be instantly transported to a Syrian refugee camp. You'd be begging to receive a bowl of mush.

[Anonymous]

Love this thread. Thank you, OP.