re: Do you believe it's possible for a family of 4 to live on a $500/month food budget and...

We spend around $500-$600 per month on groceries during the school year, and closer to $750 a month during summer (we grill out a lot more, and the kids/wife are home during the summer, so they aren't eating school lunches).

Our kids are 10 and 7. Older kids eat more.

Doing this requires several things.

1) We make a monthly trip to Sams. We buy snacks, water, and staple canned goods / dry goods here. Enough to last us the entire month.

2) We meal plan and meal prep for dinners, on a weekly basis. We try to do it on Friday or Saturday for the week starting Monday. We try to plan 3-4 meals for the week. We try to cook enough for each meal to last 2 nights, sometimes it will last more and we will take some for lunch. I try to cook at least two of these on Sunday.

3) We use the crock pot a whole lot. Easy to throw together the stuff the night before, stick in fridge, and in the morning before work, turn it on and let it cook all day.

4) We use Walmart Grocery pickup service. We will order as much stuff s we can the day before we pick it up, and order for the week. Exception is meats that we won't use until later in the week, if any. We generally buy chicken on 2.99 Tuesday at Fresh Market and freeze it.

So yes it can be done, but it takes a lot of planning and work.

Make your own bread. Perfect your redbeans and rice recipe. Find a good andouille sausage and use it as seasoning.

Leftovers make soup. Follow the lead of major restaurants and what's left over one night becomes lunch soup the next day. (Learn to use Chicken Base and Beef Base).

Ice tea, use the tea bags twice.

On the weekend make calzones, etc. for lunch the coming week.

Chinese friends of mine started to save for a home and always brought left over stirfries for lunch. Our business microwave smelled great every time HB nuked his lunch.

Meat is a condiment, a seasoning, not a means of gluttony.

Beans and rice
Spaghetti/pasta
Jambalaya
Chicken stew/gumbo
BBQ/baked chicken leg quarters
Eggs
Sandwiches
Potatoes
Bananas
Onions
Celery
Seasonal veggies
Ham
Pot roast
Store brands

Certainly possible, no eating out though.

Not counting alcohol or non-food household items..


For two adults and one toddler, we spend about $80 per week at the grocery store.

It usually looks like this:

1 lb ground beef
3-4 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
1 lb sausage

$14



1 lb mushrooms
3 bell peppers
3 onions

$8


1 lb shredded cheese
5 yogurt/fruit pouches
1 box fruit pouches

$10


1 box bean/rice mix
1 box pasta
1 jar pasta sauce
1 pack of tortillas
1 can black beans
1 can green beans
1 can sliced carrots
1 pound unsalted cashews
1 loaf cheap wheat bread

$20


1 bag frozen all natural chicken nuggets (every other week)
1 box frozen Jimmy Dean egg white and turkey sausage muffins
5 frozen meals wife takes to work

$22



2 gallons milk
1 gallon almond milk
1 12-pack coke zero
2 bottles Bolthouse Farms juice

$16


Meals in the week are usually pasta, chicken tacos, grilled chicken, red beans and rice w/sausage or chicken, and leftovers.


$90 total but we don't always have to get all of that every week. The cheese for example, a pound will usually last longer than a week. The bag of cashews and bag of tortillas usually last longer than a week. It's more like $80 in food. Occassionally you have to re-up on peanut butter or jelly, something you buy every other month.


My kid obviously doesn't eat a whole lot, but what he doesn't eat he damn sure makes up for by drinking his weight in milk. I'm sure he'll eat alot more and the grocery bill will go up as he gets older.

We rarely eat out, but we do drink out. I'm not counting alcohol. I'm pretty sure we spend more on alcohol than food. It's kind of depressing actually. I wish I hadn't typed all this out. Now I feel like we need to go to meetings.


ETA- the squash, pea, and pepper plants are in the ground. Tomatoes going in the ground in two weeks. We'll have lots of free fresh vegetables through the summer.

ETA2- Wife will occassionally blow this up by going to the farmers market on Saturday mornings, spend $50 on 3 pounds of food, but it's a small price to pay to have Saturday mornings by myself with some peace and quiet.

It can be done very healthy for 500 but rotating meals and cooking every night and not with picky eaters.

For protein You would have to use Costco/Sam's club chicken and ground beef or local farmers market. Farmers market for eggs. For seafood, if you are close to the shore and can hit up a boat, you can get shrimp pretty dang cheap.

For carbs, gonna have to do lots of brown rice, quinoa, and beans. Buy in bulk sweet potatoes and baby potatoes. This will limit the need for any type of topping.

For veggies and fruits- buy in season and stuff that's on sale or farmers markets.

As far as compromising health comment, that's laughable. Don't fry your food and eat with in your caloric limits making sure to get lots of protein, your health will be more than fine if you are already in good health.

You are going to have to meal prep to make this work and keep the meals simple. It's the easiest way to stay healthy also.

To make this really work, your wife and you should consider intermittent fasting also especially if you have any fat to lose. One large meal and a large protein shake of 75g or so would more than likely be your best bet for meeting budget and health.

Get protein powder at truenutrition.com.


Now I would not want to do this and not because it will suck for you eating wise, but because my wife and kids are just like yours and I wouldn't want to have to tell them too bad. My wife would prolly punch me and say she is gonna eat what she wants.

I've read all the comments and somehow Aldi's hasn't gotten mentioned.

IF you've a loczl Aldi's, they put their weekly specials on line, and they have their meet specials separate. Makes planning ahead easy. We really like their meet (and stay away from the fish they bring from China). Their produce is about half the cost of our local grocery store and less than Walmart.

I wish there had been an Aldi's when I was in Grad school. Their quantities are smaller and are really good for two adults and I've found there produce lasts a week easily.

Last fall Aldi's prices on eggs were less than 30cents a dozen. So I found more egg recipes and used more eggs in my stir fry rice. (And I buy some bulk items like soy sauce at a local oriental market because I do cook a lot of oriental dishes.

I sort of randomly rotate oriental/thai with Louisiana with French with Mediterranean.

Rice is the cheapest starch in the world
Potatoes are cheap too, sweet potatos add extra flavor.

Onions, bell pepper, tomatoes, garlic can be grown at home.

Iceberg lettuce can help stretch.

Fresh broccoli isn’t expensive.

Frozen sweet peas, carrots, and corn can be bought in bulk.

Beans are cheap easy protein as are eggs

Rotisserie chicken from albertson’s is perfect for a cheap fast meal.

Pork butts on sale are your best friend. You can make roasts in the oven or crock pot, they freeze easily, and can be converted to leftover carnitas easily. They're also a hit on the smoker if you've got one and a little skill at using it.

Pork chops are affordable, high quality meat when they're on sale as well. Chicken can be affordable in bulk, especially if you're willing to buy whole chickens or bone-in cuts.

Avoid shrimp, steak (when not extremely discounted), and fish (even though tilapia is affordable, it's absolute trash fish). If you're really jonesing for cheap seafood, get the premixed, pre-packaged tuna salad from Wal-Mart. It's surprisingly solid and a very good value.

Try substituting a mix of ground turkey and ground pork for expensive ground beef.

When desperate, it’s hard to go wrong with dominos carry out deal or little Caesar hot and ready

Apple sauce can be bought in bulk

Blueberries are cheaper than grapes

Bananas are also cheap fruit.

Where you can really make huge savings is in breakfast. All that processed crap is expensive. Stick to eggs, scratch pancakes/waffles (you can premix batter in bulk once a week), buiscits with jam, french toast, fruit, or generic cereal.

We spend that in our home of 4. Watch meat sales and don't be lazy. Cooking a lot of things from scratch saves you a fortune. We eat hot meals (mostly rice and Gravy) w/ at least one vegi. 5-6 times a week.

I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow, I'll save the receipt and post it.