A report on how this family of 3 ate frugally, for $37 a week, for a full year. If you're looking for cheap meal ideas or cheap dinners, read these tips!
If you're reading this, you may be in the same position I was back in 2013. A new mom, transitioning to stay home with her newborn, and suddenly realizing you can't breastfeed and have to put your baby on formula, an expensive and unexpected expense.
On top of all the emotional aspects of having a new baby, you now have to figure out where the money for the formula will come from and how you'll make it.
This was an unfortunate reality for me and John after we had Allison, and we decided to take the money out of our grocery budget of $60 a week. We were left with $37 to live on for food and household items, and I wondered how we'd do it.
It wasn't perfect, but we survived, and I want to outline exactly what we did for that entire year in hopes that I can encourage someone who might be in the same situation.
A few things to note before you read on:
Did we buy organic food? No.
Did we eat “clean”? No.
Did we at least try to eat healthy? Depends on what you call healthy. Keep in mind we were dealing with our first baby and all the hormones and depression that can sometimes go with that, so I ask that you read with an open mind and know that we're much better now and can see what we eat in my grocery hauls on Youtube.
Most of the meals we made can be found in my new "Emergency Meals" e-book, which you can find here at a special discount!
cheap foods we Bought and Ate
The two main stores we shopped at during this time were Meijer and Aldi. Aldi was our heavy-hitter, where we bought most of the essentials, and Meijer was for the great coupon deals.
Here were some of the items that made its way into our grocery list most weeks:
Pasta: I only bought pasta when it was less than $1.00 per box. My stock-up price was 50 cents, and I would buy 4-5 boxes at a time.
Salad dressing: Our main vegetable and side item was salad, with cheese, croutons, and bacon bits (See above question about whether we ate healthy). I could get Kraft salad dressing for less than $1.00 after coupons, so it made for a cheap option.
Lunch meat: I distinctly remember one week where John said, “You have $18 this week for food. Can you do it?” Meijer had a Buy 8 Items, Get $8 off sale so I bought a lot of deli ham and bologna for something like $.69 each, along with boxes of Velveeta shells and cheese for $.99. We had macaroni and cheese, sandwiches, and wraps all week, but I was under budget!
Salsa, sour cream, enchilada sauce, tortilla shells: We ate a LOT of simple Mexican food, which consisted of any/all of the previously mentioned items as well as rice and home-cooked dried black beans. We'd eat them as tacos, burritos, quesadillas, enchiladas, or just a regular burrito bowl.
Kraft macaroni and cheese: Yep, I said it. We ate Kraft macaroni and cheese. It's still one of our favorite brands and we'd eat it as a complete meal, sometimes adding cut-up hot dogs.
DiGiorno pizza: If we could get these for under $5, I’d buy a few for the freezer. These were great cheap meal nights!
Fruits/veggies and baby food pouches: I made Allison’s baby food, using simple fruits and vegetables, and froze the puree in ice cube trays. When she refused purees on a spoon, I bought the pouches instead and gave her one a day. I found that Beech-Nut is the cheapest at $.88 each at Wal Mart.
Here were some of our staples at Sam's Club:
Chicken breasts: We bought them at $1.88 per pound, in approximately 5-pound packages, and froze some for future use.
Chocolate chips: We'd buy a 4-pound bag and use them in pancakes and waffles.
Pancake mix: I know it's cheaper to make your own, but for $5.00 we got a lot of mix and it lasted us quite awhile.
Ground turkey: I can’t remember when we started to buy this, but we started using this instead of ground beef. $2.59/lb as opposed to $2.99+/lb.
Shredded cheese: We'd buy the 5-pound bags of cheese and froze them into 1-pound bags.
We had to be careful when we bought things at Sam’s. Most things were $10+, so one item would wipe out half our grocery budget for the week. I used Swagbucks when I could, taking surveys here and there to get extra gift cards, but I only got around 2 $25.00 gift cards that entire year.
Cheap meals We Made
Dinner (Lunch was always leftovers)
Slow cooker caesar chicken sandwiches
Crock pot chicken and stuffing
Three cheese macaroni with tomatoes
Cheese quesadillas
Burrito bowls (rice, black beans, salsa, sour cream, cheese, jalapenos)
Nachos (Same as above but with tortilla chips)
Breakfast
Cereal (from Aldi, or large bags at Meijer)
Piece of sausage on toast
Chocolate peanut butter overnight oats
Pancakes/Waffles (Bought a bulk bag of mix at Sam's, made big batches and froze the leftovers)
How We Finished Out Strong
Allison was born in October 2013, and in April 2014 we got enough money from our tax return to make a big GFS (Gordon Food Services, like Sam’s but mostly restaurant quality food/items) and Sam’s Club run.
We bought household essentials: paper towels, tissues, toilet paper, freezer bags, etc. We also bought food for a month’s worth of meals.
I used this $5 Dinner’s monthly menu for Sam’s Club. (Note: It looks like this menu is now only for purchase and no longer free.)
All the paper goods lasted us almost 6 months, which was when we were able to finally up our grocery budget!
Frequently Asked Questions
Didn't you qualify for food stamps?
To be honest, we didn't check. We were still navigating the basics of budgeting and probably COULD have kept our grocery budget the way it was and found the money for the formula.
I think a lot of this situation was just trying to see if we could actually do it. If we were in dire straights, we definitely would have taken advantage of food stamps and the local food bank.
By the way, there is no shame in accepting assistance. That's why it's there! If you need it, take full advantage.
How did you figure out the cheapest store?
Because I'd done most of my grocery shopping at Aldi already, I knew that was cheapest for a lot of my pantry staples.
There were a few items I knew I could buy cheaper elsewhere when on sale. I'd check the Meijer and Kroger ad for sale prices, and their apps to see if there was a free item to clip. Kroger had a freebie Friday during that time, and I took advantage!
I also found a couple discount stores in my area- mainly bread outlets. I could buy loaves of bread and other bread items for 50 cents each. It was a great way to stock up my freezer.
Are you eating healthier now?
Our weekly budget has increased significantly since then, which has allowed us to buy more whole foods.
We're not perfect (Nobody is), but now I try to include fruits and vegetables in our everyday meals. I still search for the best deals to get the most out of our money!
How important is planning your meals?
SO important! Meal planning has saved my family so much money in the long haul. You need to know what you're eating for the next few days/week, and that means making a shopping list and sticking to it.
Even when John lost his job and we lowered our budget to $30 a week, we still did weekly meal plans because it meant we saved money.
How we survived
I prayed constantly. I didn't think we could continue this for a full year, but little things happened that I just knew was God at work.
If we needed to buy something we were almost out of, it would magically be on sale the next week, or it would be the off week that we didn’t need to buy formula, or I somehow had enough Swagbucks to get a gift card to use at Sam’s!
We were never in need, and we got through it, and we were still faithful.
If you're in a similar situation, remember that you WILL get through this. Times will be tough. You'll probably cry because you just want a little extra money for groceries.
I've been there, multiple times, and there's always a light at the end of the tunnel. Keep praying, keep doing your best with what you have, and you'll make it through your situation with an inspiring story to share and a better understanding of how you can survive on a shoestring budget.
Jaime is a Nutrition Coach through the ISSA and professional writer. She has 4 years experience coaching and 9 years experience in writing. She enjoys cooking easy meals, running, and learning more about food.
Jaime specializes in helping women with ADHD learn to meal plan and cook healthier meals without getting overwhelmed.
This is, hands-down, the most practical cheap eating guide I have ever seen. I have chronic pain, I can't stand long enough to cook an elaborate meal. I don't want to be shamed for eating a salad with cheese and croutons. I just want a guide to something basic, something easy, something cheap. And this...this is it.
Thank you, Jennifer! You have to do whatever you can, and don't let others try to tell you you're doing it wrong.
Back when I was in college (almost 30 years ago), my food budget for the month was $30. I ate a lot of cheap, tasty meals. I'll list them in case they are helpful to someone. Breakfast tacos (potatoes and onions cooked in oil, with scrambled eggs, and sometimes cheese, wrapped in a flour or corn tortilla), baked potatoes with margarine and cheese, mac and cheese with cut-up hot dogs or tuna (use the cooking water instead of milk), ramen noodles with some frozen veggies (usually green beans) thrown in and sometimes an egg swirled in like egg drop soup. I would buy potatoes, onions, and carrots in bulk, can snack on carrots and they make a good side. Bananas and apples are usually cheap and last awhile, you can turn into banana bread and apples into applesauce to sub for oil in baking. Canned frozen orange juice, just mix as you go and it stays good longer. Fried rice with eggs and frozen peas and carrots, can add any leftover ham from lunch meat for a nice change. Grilled cheese sandwiches, peanut butter toast, grilled peanut butter sandwiches, grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and quesadillas. I know there was more, but this was what I mainly ate.
Thank you for sharing this, Joy! That's really inspiring and I know someone needs to hear this. =)
Unless someone has lived through such hard times they have no clue how many challenges there are to getting food on the table. In 2010, with seven children, my young niece and nephew and my teenage daughter's friend, my husband and I had a $100 per week food budget to feed our household of 12. The two things that made life easier was the deep freezer we owned and learning the sales cycles of the local grocers. *Price matching at Walmart meant having to shop at less stores.
I didn't create menus first and then shop the sales. Instead I shopped the sales and created menus from what was available in my own cupboards and freezer. Learning the sales cycle meant knowing how often an item would go on sale at each retailer. When peanut butter was on sale, I'd purchase enough jars to get me through till the next time peanut butter would be on sale again. That might mean I bought 15 of them. Rice on sale meant 10 packages were coming home with me and rolls of breakfast sausage were on sale for $1, I'd buy 20 and use it in spaghetti, chili, casseroles and for breakfast tacos(which we often ate for dinner). Pork shoulder/butt was on sale and I was buying three. Learning to cook a ten pounder "low and slow" meant several meals for a big family at a reasonable price. Shopping in this manner allowed me a lot of freedom in planning my low-cost meals.
I'd watch for frozen veggies or fruit to go on sale and stock up like crazy. Frozen produce is flash frozen within hours of being picked and is fresher when frozen than what you get from the produce aisles at the market. It's also significantly cheaper to eat frozen veggies that are not in season than it is to eat fresh vegetables out of season. That $1 bag of frozen red peppers in your deep freezer will cost considerably more if you're purchasing red peppers from the produce section in December and the frozen tastes just as good sauteed and added to an omelet as the fresh ones do. Frozen fruit makes great smoothies, popsicles, muffins, pies, pancakes, and so on. Of course not all of the produce I purchased was frozen, but it definitely was on sale.
Organic was out of the question as it was absolutely out of the budget. When the choice is to fill our stomachs with the best we can afford that'll get us through the week or buy an organic chicken (or two in my case), whole wheat organic pasta, organic cheese, organic butter, and organic milk to make an all organic mac and cheese and only have enough money to cover one meal, we do without the organic. It's as simple as that.
*This method of sale cycle shopping and stocking up also works well for household products and health and beauty products.
Cat, this is really inspiring! Thank you for sharing your story. You really made your budget stretch and I admire you for that.
Hey Jamie,
We went through much the same thing after we both lost our jobs. I found having a stocked pantry (from the better days) really saved us. Buying in bulk where you can and stockpiling those door crasher deals. There were months where we just shopped from our stores in the workshop. Now, I have a huge $200 a week for four of us but, as we have now decided to become mortgage free in five years, the challenge is for me to find another $500 per month so.... Grocery budget... get ready to be halved!
That's awesome, Anna!!! Crush that goal! It's going to feel so great in 5 years when you have no payments in the world. =)
Jamie,
This popped up on my pinterest feed this evening. Today, I resigned from my job rather than going back to work after my maternity leave (I had my second in November). I truly thought that there was no way for us to afford for me to stay home, but things kept pointing to this being what God was leading me to do. I am looking for ways to save money and budget; specifically for meal planning and couponing and figuring out where to get good deals on what, even if I need to shop a few different places.
I clicked on the pin for grocery shopping for $37/week for a year and read your blog and felt like it was meant for me. Thank you for the encouragement. Reading this post felt like a confirmation that I am doing the right thing and that things will work out.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Lauren! I know that God will bless you for your decisions.
I post my weekly shopping trips every Monday, and hopefully those will give you some ideas as you start your new journey. I also wrote a post on Meal Planning for Beginners that I think might help you! Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help!
Thanks for the story.I've been there.Once bought $20 worth of groceries for me and my husband for a week.(This was before my kids were born.) He used to be a carpenter so rain caused a small paycheck.But we made it.
Thanks for sharing this, Cathy! It's amazing how little we can live on when the need arises.
When my husband was hospitalized, the first thing I did was purchase a good pressure cooker. Homemade this and that, cooking on it's own steam with the burner turned off...that's how we rolled. I dug up my grassy lawn (no chemical fertilizers were ever used) and planted a small garden and ate whatever dandelion greens appeared, with delight and gratitude. We also attend a church that has homegroups which eat covered dish meals together. Amazing how offering up your own "loaf and fish" with others doing the same, will multiply and fill your own plate to capacity, with leftovers a-plenty for several days. Same for holiday meals with our extended family. Blessings to all of you and thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing this, Joanne! That's really inspiring! =)
Your welcome, Jaime.
I have another story: before I was married, I had fulltime work, but I still needed to supplement it. I never turned down overtime if it became available. Additionally, my co-worker told me about selling blood plasma. My doctor said it was safe, so I did it! -- twice a week for a couple of years. Also, the newspaper advertised housing foreign students thru the school term, so I did this too, for 10 students thru the years to help make ends meet. I scrambled for freelance music gigs, adjusting my fee to people's ability to pay. No sense in turning down a paying job. Maybe life compelled me to be creatively proactive to survive, but I don't remember suffering at all or indebtedness beyond an affordable mortgage or affordable car payment, which are both in the past. It's all a good memory, now that I look back on it.
In 2010 is when I got married well my husband has a pretty good job I am a pre k teacher so I do not make much well that year about a week before thanksgiving my husband got hurt he snapped his Achilles’ tendon he was helping our son move and he fell off the tail gate of his truck
. So I was left the only one working plus our house had to be required luckily it wasn’t to cold out well I had two propane camp stove I would cook chicken then I would make bone broth then the next day we would have dumplings well I worked with a lady whose husband was a preacher and she brought me a voucher for a thanksgiving dinner
My husband got 58.00 dollars for temp disability a week . We sometimes had broth and dumplings with no chicken then his two sisters brought us some food we just prayed a lot when he got to go back to work which was after 6 weeks and we got back to having two full checks we took money to the pastor and we said buy food for the pantry then we brought a full thanksgiving meal and we said give this to a family in need
Bev, that's a beautiful story and a testimony to God's provision!! Thank you for sharing this. I'm sure this will encourage someone who needs it today.
I too can relate to all the stories. My husband and i were both laid off within few months of each other. The good news is that we have both found new jobs. We currently earn about a 6th of what we earned previously and in order to survive we had make some quick decisions. We are a family of 6, two of which are grand children that we are helping to raise. We sold newer cars and replaced them with vehicles that are 10 years old. This lowered our auto insurance and we have a small payment on only one vehicle. The car payments and insurance savings has made it possible for us to stay in our 40 odd year old home but paying for things like utilities and food was a challenge. So like most of you the food bill was the only other go to for savings. I had a small veggie garden so planted the left over seeds and as luck would have it my tomatoes reseeded themselves. We have a store here called Luckys so during winter i have been able to buy tomatoes for 49c lb, oranges for 33c lb, potatoes for 99c for 10 lbs, apples 44c lb and chicken leg quarters for 39c lb etc. We have grilled cheese sandw sometimes with toms, i buy whole chicken when they are on sale for 69c lb and break down into breasts, thighs and legs. I slice the breast into cutlets so I get 6 servings out of 3 breasts. If i roast a whole chicken then we have sliced breast meat, potatoes and a 50c can of corn or green beans, then i pull the remaining meat off the chicken an divide it in two. one becomes a simple chicken salad for sandw or grilled chick salad sandwiches with fries from those 99c potatoes. The other half i mix with a can of store brand cr of chicken soup, milk some sauted onion and a cup of frozen peas and pour over noodles (49c) or rice. 3 meals 1x 4lb chicken feeding 6. I buy store brand mac and cheese on case lot sale for 39c. make as directed but increase the milk to 1 1/4 cups of milk add two eggs and a cup or more depending on whats available of hand grated cheese. Put it in a greased dish and top it with one diced tomato two slices of diced onion and about half a cup of cheese and bake at 375 for about 30-35 mins. These are a sample of our 'luxury' meals. Otherwise, oatmeal, pj sandw, eggs, hot dogs jam and toast etc. I also found a store that deals in scratch and dent and surplus items including food. Eg 40 lb case of bananas for 10c lb. broken and repackaged chocolate chips = frozen choc bananas and premashed frozen bananas for banana bread. Ramen noodles are a great way to stretch a can of soup. Dollar store is great for toiletries and cleaning supplies etc. and the odd pair of socks or gloves. Other bright spots.. my husband has lost 40 lbs and feels great and the dog is in better shape too and Im loving the food challenge. This week we will be living out of the freezer. Have about $20 for next 2 weeks (had to register my car), gas tank is full so I can get to work. Have 2 gallons of discounted milk (99c)that is good for 9 days and we will get by. May need toilet rolls. Alls well Lots of hugs.
Beverly, this is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing this. Your creativity with making food stretch really shines, and I love your positive outlook.
On the mac and cheese i use 2 boxes.
Thank u!!! These are really recipes with what we always have on hand!! I ve been searching on how to do this for 4 years on fb and u are the 1st to actually give recipes that have simple ingredients. Thank u again! I ve been trying to get our grocery budget down for 4 yrs as well ?
Thank you for your kind words, Holly!! I have a couple posts on dinners that cost 5 dollars or less. If you haven't seen them yet, here they are. I hope they can help!
20 Dinners That Cost 5 Dollars or Less
20 More Dinners That Cost 5 Dollars or Less
You can look in your area for churches that give personal hygiene products. My church has a “Joyful giving” closet. You can find toilet paper, shampoo, soap, dish soap, some food items, and other items as well. We host once a month along with a free lunch.
Thanks for that info, Melissa!!!
Please consider the WIC program when needing to feed babies and children to help supplement tight budgets.
Definitely! It's a good option for parents who need the extra help. =)
Im on disability and my current weekly budget is $12.75 a wk(51 a mo fs). I eat a lot of things id prefer not too. Like pastas, beans after a yr im so sick of beans and ive tried everything in them! Peanut butter...id kill for fresh veggies and fruits...thankfully i get free eggs another thats starting to get old.
Im going to go thru ur recipes to find something "new"...thank you for sharing ur experience.
Oh my goodness Debby, I'm so sorry you have to go through this right now. I can't imagine trying to live on $51 a month. I don't know if you've ever been to Dollar Tree, but they actually have a refrigerated/frozen section with things like frozen veggies/fruit, and a few meats. I'll be praying for you during this time!
I have read your post and all the comments and it inspired me to help a family who is having a tough time this Thanksgiving. I inventoried my pantry this weekend and I am fortunate to have some extras, so I am going to add that to my gift. I am going to try and do a basic stock your pantry shop and find a family who is needing some help.. You just never know what someone is going through and your blog reminded me. God bless you and your family this Thanksgiving. Keep up the good work and ignore the negative comments! Like the old song says from White Christmas, count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings see what God has done!
Leigh, you just made me smile so big! Thank you for your kind heart and wanting to bless others this Thanksgiving. You are awesome!
Ok, so I obviously needed another cup of coffee this morning. Count your blessings is a hymn that I love and somehow I got it crossed up with Bing Crosby singing in White Christmas, “when I’m worried and I can’t sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep, and I fall asleep counting my blessings.” Anyhow, the idea was to count our blessings and be thankful and I think I got close to that mark! Update: I called and got a family’s name and she is a single mom with three kids under seven. I’m going shopping at my Aldi tomorrow and make my budgeted amount go as far as I can and get the most I can get! Glad I made you smile!
Oh, that is amazing!!! I'm so glad you found someone to bless!
Wow...$18 dollars for food a week AND you had meat too? That's not amazing, that's a miracle! God really was on your side. I do want to know how you figured out how to fit in soap, shampoo and toilet paper though...just out of curiousity.
What state were you living in at the time? I live in California and I've never heard of a Meijer. We have Aldi stores though and Winco, and those are great. We also have what my family calls "bang 'n dents", which are grocery outlet-type stores. Basically, it's stores who sell the food that's been banged up or dented by falling off the delivery trucks. The regular stores like Ralph's, Vons, Albertsons, Kroger, Food Lion, etc can't sell anything that doesn't look flawless, so they mark it down in these places for cheap.
Look for the odd "hole-in-the-wall" stores, the lone stores that look slightly shabby on the outside. They all have different names, but they're not chain stores. Those places have great deals most of the time; just make sure you know your prices as not everything is automatically cheaper there.
Some of the food may be outdated or expired, and that's okay. It's usually still okay to eat as long as it hasn't been expired for more than 6 months. The only thing I would never buy if it's expired is salad dressing or milk...those things tend to go bad very quickly.
Hi Cynder, thank you for your kind words!! We lived (and still live) in Ohio, and Meijer stores are mostly in the Ohio/Michigan area. To be honest, I don't remember how I bought the shampoo and soap... it's possible I bought just what we needed to last us through the bottle, so maybe a couple dollars a week for that? We also used Sam's Club gift cards from using Swagbucks to buy the paper goods, and those last us at least 6 months at a time.
We actually just got a grocery outlet about 15 minutes away from us! I love buying their snacks and frozen items. I'm also like you that I won't buy expired dairy, but other shelf-stable items are fine with me!