How We Ate for $30 a Week in 2018

Eating for less is something we’re really, really good at.

We lowered our grocery budget to $37 a week when Allison was born, to help pay for her formula. And in 2016, when John was unemployed for 4 months, we cut our budget down to $30 a week.

Then in 2018, he lost his job again and we did the exact same thing.

I wrote this blog post to document how exactly we’d eat for $30 a week. Even though prices have changed since then, the strategies I learned are still 100% relevant today!

Whether you’re going through a hard season, trying to save money, or just curious about how much you can lower your budget, these tips will help stretch your money further.

Why We Cut Our Grocery Budget to $30 a Week

Back in 2018, our regular grocery budget was $75-$85 a week for a family of 3. And then I chose $30 as a starting point with the job losses.

It sounds very extreme, but also sort of challenging in a fun way. Have you ever sat down to think about what you really buy? Do you buy a lot of “fun” foods, or just the necessities?

Having to drastically cut down your budget can open your eyes to what you buy on a weekly basis.

Utilize Your Pantry

Luckily, I was pretty smart and kept a good supply of essentials in the house- pasta, rice, peanut butter, baking supplies, and some frozen meat and vegetables.

I used some of this to create basic meals, and just bought some fresh produce to go with it.

Grab a sheet of paper and make two columns. The first one is a list of all the items in your pantry. The second is a list of meals you can make from those items.

For example: A bag of rice and canned beans can be used toward a simple burrito bowl. Then fill it in with either foods from your fridge, or add what you need to your grocery list.

Prioritize Your Food Needs

With such a low budget, you need to be careful when you run out of something.

For example, one week I was out of vanilla extract. At that time, it was $3.55 at Aldi, which was 10% of our new weekly budget.

If I bought that, I knew I couldn’t buy much else to replenish my stock, because that would cut into our actual food.

So my plan was to buy one, maybe two items per week that I run out of. And once the money’s out, I’d have to wait until the next week.

Stretch Your Meat Further

Some of my favorite meals include a big piece of chicken breast with multiple side items. The budget used to allow that, but I had to make some changes.

Instead of making meat the main part of the meal, I just added it in with everything else and used as little as possible.

A good example of this is casseroles! I can chop up chicken into really little pieces so it seems like there’s more; and I can probably get away with only using a half pound of ground beef and turn one pound into two meals.

See: 4 Ways to Stretch Your Meat

Make Everything From Scratch

One of my big weaknesses is buying snack bars by the truckload. They’re super convenient to throw in my purse to take to church or to outings.

You can typically find snack bars for around $.50 per bar, but the more premium ones cost more, like Clif Bars. I had to get creative and start making my own.

Here are some of the types of foods I made from scratch:

• Granola bars
• Granola
• Biscuits
• Cookies
• Sandwich bread

Yes, this does take time. When I typically plan meals, I ask myself whether I want to save time or money on what I buy.

But when you’re on a super tight budget, a lot of times saving money wins out.

My suggestion: cook these in bulk. Make a huge batch at once, and freeze them. That way you’ll do all the work up front and not have to worry about it.

Use Whole Foods As Much As Possible

More than ever, I’m focusing a lot on my family’s health. I truly believe that a good, balanced diet will keep us healthy; and with us being fairly active, we need good food to fuel us.

Now, I’m not one of those only-buy-organic people or the “*Gasp* CHEMICALS!” types; I buy whatever’s cheapest most of the time, and I have no problem buying boxed macaroni and cheese (The horror!).

But I do try to focus on buying as many fruits and vegetables as possible, as well as whole grains and lots of Greek yogurt/cheese.

This meant paying attention to the weekly sales ads and buying what was cheapest. If sweet potatoes were super cheap that week, then most of our meals involved sweet potatoes.

I tried really hard not to sacrifice our healthy lifestyle for “easier, more processed” foods just because they’re a bit cheaper. I was definitely not perfect! But I gave myself grace, and hopefully you will too.

Supplement With Gift Cards

We’ve been super blessed with Swagbucks and getting Sam’s Club gift cards. When Allison was a baby, we used them a couple times when we ate for $37 a week and were paying for her formula out of our grocery budget.

Then again in 2016, when John was out of work for 4 months, we used those gift cards to help pay for those big purchases.

I did it again here pretty hard-core. Going back to the above point about trying to stick with whole foods, I rely on Sam’s Club for a lot of our more expensive foods.

Note: These were 2018 prices.

• String cheese ($9.00 for 48 pieces isn’t bad!)
• Maple syrup ($10.48 for 32 ounces)
• Dannon Light and Fit yogurts ($13 for 18 cups)- These are great protein-filled snacks and I don’t really want to give them up.
• Chocolate chips ($7.98 for a 30-oz bag of Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips)- Is this a necessity? Nah, but I like adding them to things so Allison will actually eat what I cook.
• Chicken breasts– They’re usually $1.88/lb but sometimes I can find marked down chicken to stock up on.
• Canned tuna– $9.48 for 12 cans. I haven’t bought this yet, but I plan to on our next gift card Sam’s run. It’s cheap protein and currently cheaper than Aldi.
• Paper products (Paper towels, toilet paper, tissues)- Not food, but I only use my gift cards when buying these because they range from $12-$18.

Would these be considered luxury items? To some, yes. But I liked to keep these in the house because they’re healthy additions to our diet.

Of course, you could redeem your Swagbucks for other grocery store gift cards. We just preferred Sam’s Club for the reasons above.

Keep it Simple

More than ever, I liked to keep things as simple as possible when it comes to making meals. Some of my dinners tend to have a lot of ingredients; and I also had a habit of making 3 different breakfasts for my family because we each like different things.

Things just had to be a little simpler for awhile. Instead of baking 2 different breakfast casseroles, I kept easy ingredients on hand to make oatmeal or cereal; or I’d make a huge batch of pancakes that we could eat from all week.

As far as dinners go, we had a lot of pasta dishes, sandwiches, rice, beans, and breakfast for dinner. It might sound boring, but we’re okay with eating a lot of the same things over and over.

Although eating for less can be difficult at times, we made it through, just like we did last time. It’s a huge test in creativity and some sacrifice, but we trusted that God has something bigger in store for us!

Need some inspiration? Check out these other posts:

• How to Eat When You Have No Income
• Meals to Make When You Have No Money
• How We Ate For $37 a Week for a Year