Money managing help

[I-like-food]

Hi,

I come here to hopefully get some help managing my money. I get paid bi-weekly, and after paying my bills I only have $500.00 to last me two weeks. This means that I have to manage to get by for two weeks with only $500.00 for food. Any grocery tips such as buying things in bulk, or some recipe tips using cheap ingredients to make meals to last me two weeks with $500.00? I appreciate all the help I can get. Thanks in advance!

Regards,
I-Like-Food

[mom-from-missouri]

Wow. I feed an entire family of 5 people full time and 2 more who are here part of the time for only $300 for an ENTIRE month........So, your $500 for 2 weeks mean that you alone are eating $1000 a month in food?? Am I reading that right??
Why is your amount so high?? Are you eating out?? Buying high end foods???
I would start with making out a menu. Make sure you include some meatless meals (a budget helper), but still make it a healthy menu. You can get lots of menu guides on line, or even check out the menus published by the local school district or senior centers, as they follow all the nutrion guidelines. This will give you some ideas. Arrange your menu so that leftovers from one day can be used the next day--such as chili on day one, then chili dogs on day two.
Take your lunch, rather than eating out while at work.
Don't let food waste. If you have leftovers, freeze them or make them your lunch the next day.
Foods are often cheaper in bulk or at farmers markets.
Your best food prices usually involve beans, rice and real potatoes (not boxed).
Drink more water, less soda, no junk foods.

[disneysteve]

How many in your family? $500 for two weeks is a LOT of money to spend on food unless you have a very large family.

From the wording of your post, it sounded like you were just feeding yourself for that amount but that would be nearly $36/day. While you could spend that if you ate all of your meals out, you wouldn't be anywhere near that if you were eating at home.

[I-like-food]

Thanks for those advices, I'll try to see if I can do them. I live alone and never really bring my lunch to work. I sometimes bring breakfast to work, or I'll buy breakfast and eat an extra brunch around 10am which I order at the cafe in the office building. After work I mostly buy some meal at a restaurant and bring it home to eat. I guess my problem is that I don't find too much time to buy food to cook or make my home meals. I'm usually worn out by the end of the work day. The brunch I buy at work is about $10, and the meals I bring home after work is about 25-30 dollars. It seems like the healthier foods are cheaper, which is probably good for me anyways since my physician told me that my sugar and cholestrrol levels are quite high. I don't really drink soda, just drinks like lemonade, ice tea and gatorade. I do have a lot of fridge cleaning to do because there's a lot of leftover food that hasn't been eaten. I try to make sure that doesn't happen but forget to eat them later because I'm too busy enjoying another meal that I like better. Thanks for the advice, I'll take them into consideration and see where it goes from here.

Regards,
I-Like-Food

[LuckyRobin]

You could do a lot of prep work on your days off. For example if you like chicken salads, you could grill up some boneless skinless chicken (either breasts or thighs depending on whether you like dark meat or light meat) and cut it into strips on your day off and tear up a bunch of lettuce (or get bagged pre-torn lettuce at the store) and then quickly assemble your salads the night before to take to lunch for work. You could do the same thing with steak. One of my best money-saving gadgets is the George Foreman grill which makes it so easy to grill meat. Freeze anything that won't be eaten in three days time and then you can buy a bag of stir fry veggies to keep in the freezer and on your more rushed days dump the frozen meat in a wok (or saute pan) with some oil, stir it for 3 minutes, dump in some veggies, stir another three minutes, dump in a cup of soy sauce, 1 tsp of powdered ginger, a spoonful of minced garlic and 2 tbsp of honey. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes making sure the sauce gets on everything well. Add a bit of corn starch if you want a thicker sauce, maybe a tsp, I usually just leave it out.

You could put a beef roast in the crockpot on low just before you leave for the day and walk into your house with a deliciously cooked meat all ready for you in the evening. It takes five minutes to cook a potato in the microwave and 2 minutes to make a can of green beans. Dinner on the table with very little effort on your part and lots of leftovers for roast beef sandwiches. Or you could put in a pork roast with some enchilada sauce and have it cook on low all day and then shred the meat with forks when you get home and wrap it in tortillas with some cheese to make some easy burritos. Again, good leftovers the next day and any extras can be frozen for a later time in case you don't want to eat it for days on end. Or instead of enchilada sauce dump in a bottle of barbecue sauce, still shred it and have it on hamburger buns for pulled pork sandwiches.

Tacos are super easy to make. I mean you can even get pre-shredded bagged lettuce these days. And you can make your hamburger in the microwave to save time. A pound cooks in five minutes and then you add your packet of seasoning and some water, stir it up, and cook another couple minutes. The put into taco shells with some lettuce and cheese and you are good. Or do taco meat on top of tortilla chips with a nice layer of cheese to make mega nachos. Spoon a bit of salsa on top.

Spaghetti can be the easiest thing on the planet. You might be too tired when you come home to think about cooking but how hard is it to put on a pot of water to boil? Not hard at all. And if you get Capellini or Angel Hair pasta it's done in less than 10 minutes. Poor on a jar of bottled sauce (Miur Glen organics makes a fantastic one).

I usually cut up all my veggies on the weekends. I'll chop a head of cauliflower, some broccoli, tear my lettuces, cut up celery, peel and cut up carrots, trim radishes, dice an onion, shred a cabbage and make it into coleslaw. Anything that is going to make my week easier.

We have a lot of grab and go fruit like bananas, apples, oranges, grapes to throw into lunches or to eat at breakfast. I'll often make up a couple of batches of Jiffy cornbread muffins and blueberry muffins to have around. Fast simple instructions and fast baking time. All you need is a muffin pan. Each box of Jiffy mix makes about six muffins. Grab a muffin and a banana, fill up your water bottle or coffee mug or whatever and you are out the door. On a more leisurely morning there are pre-boxed frozen waffels and pancakes (or you can make your own ahead of time from scratch using a mix like Krusteaz). It takes exactly 4 minutes to cut a slice of ham off a bigger chunk and throw it in a hot pan cooking on high heat for 1 minute per side. There you are with pancakes and ham.

Mostly eating better at home without too much effort on work nights involves pre-planning your meals for the week, the right kitchen items, a grill, a crock pot, a pot for boiling, a wok or at least a saute pan, a couple good knives, a can opener and a cutting board. And enough time to prep on the weekends, and a bit towards the end of the night after you've already had time to eat and rest.

In your case I would use as much convenience veggies as possible. No time to cut up broccoli, cauliflower and carrots? They have bags of that. Or you can get it off the grocery store salad bar. No time to cut your stir-fry veggies? Bags of that in the freezer. No time to shred your lettuce or cabbage? They have bags of that. You're not ready to be cooking it all from scratch, you need to learn to do it the easy way first.

You should easily be able to cut your grocery bills back using these methods. I feed my family of four, plus often my mother, too, a mostly organic, free range, wild diet on $200 a week. I make most things from scratch, but I do my prep when there is time and when I'm not exhausted. Doing that and having the meal plan in place help me tremendously. I think that would help you a lot, too.

[jpg7n16]

Easy, healthy and cheap quick meals:

Breakfast: bowl of cereal with milk + banana
Lunch: sandwich + apple
Snack: handful mixed nuts + grapes
Dinner: cook some chicken/fish and two can vegetables (green beans and corn, carrots and black eyed peas, etc.) - eat half the vegetables, save half for another meal

Buy a lunch box for like $15. Use it for 1 week and it'll pay for itself.


Or subsitute a healthy choice/ lean cuisine dinner in at one of the meals. They're like $3. Eat with a piece of fruit. I'd recommend the healthy choice steamers.

[bjl584]

Sounds like a simple matter of stopping eating out so much and eating meals that you made yourself.

[I-like-food]

That's going to be extremely difficult for me to change the way I eat. I'm not sure if I can eat that much veggies. And it's almost impossible for me to eat just one tv dinner! My stomach will growl soon after if I eat just a sandwich and an apple for lunch. Is there any way I can eat more and still save money? I do like spaghetti but the way I make it, it takes too much time. I use tomato paste, tomato sauce, san marzano tomatoes with juice, chili flakes, chopped garlic, chopped onions, basil, thyme, pieces of italian sausage, salt and pepper. I'm scared that I might go hungry, so I'm looking for some ways I can eat a lot and still save money. Thanks for all the advice offered, and I look forward for more.

Regards,
I-Like-Food

[maat55]

I think maybe you should seek professional help for a food addiction.

[jpg7n16]

So wait, you said your not sure you could eat that much vegetables, but then say you're afraid of going hungry?

I'm not saying eat two cans a day, just showing a simple way to cook cheaply. Cook two cans of veggies. Eat half one day and save half for another. Cost for two meals, less than $2. The veggies take up about half a plate

Buy a $1 salad bag, and eat the whole thing with a piece of chicken.
Buy a pound of lean sandwich turkey for like $3 and try and eat the whole thing.
Eat an entire honeydew melon or cantaloupe (less than $3)
Drink a protein shake 2 hours before your meal. (milk + protein powder + blender bottle)
Cook rice in bulk. Reheat the extra. Etc.


And if you can't eat just a sandwich and a piece of fruit, you have some options.
1) eat another snack between breakfast and lunch (makes 5 meals for the day, eat every 3-4 hours)
2) buy larger bread and use more sandwich meat, lettuce/baby spinach and tomato slices
3) sandwich + apple + banana
4) healthy choice meal + fruit + piece of chicken


If you're afraid of going hungry, pig out on fruit, veggies and rice. They're super cheap. Or beans and rice for you Dave fans.


And although you say you'd still be hungry, when's the last time you actually gave it a try?

[disneysteve]

The brunch I buy at work is about $10, and the meals I bring home after work is about 25-30 dollars. It seems like the healthier foods are cheaper, which is probably good for me anyways since my physician told me that my sugar and cholestrrol levels are quite high. I don't really drink soda, just drinks like lemonade, ice tea and gatorade.

That's going to be extremely difficult for me to change the way I eat. I'm not sure if I can eat that much veggies. And it's almost impossible for me to eat just one tv dinner!

Sorry but the doctor part of my brain can't help but wondering what is your height and weight. From the way you describe your eating habits, I'm not surprised that you would be diabetic and hyperlipidemic.

Getting back to the financial discussion, though, let me give you a point of comparison. You are spending about $35/day on food for one person. When we go on vacation as a family (3 of us), we average about $20/day/person. And that's a lot higher than what we spend at home where we can cook meals and pack lunches.

Stop drinking anything other than water when you eat out. That alone will save you a ton of money and greatly reduce your sugar intake. Soda, sweetened iced tea, lemonade and gatorade are all horrible for you. They are little more than flavored sugar water.

A healthy meal should be about 450-500 calories and should contain all 4 basic food groups: protein, dairy, whole grain, and fruit/vegetable. Make that your goal and you will find that you don't go hungry, you lose weight, your sugar and cholesterol improve, you have more energy and feel better all around. And for the purposes of this thread, you will save a huge amount of money. Instead of $250/week, you'll spend more like $50/week.

[elessar78]

Thanks for those advices, I'll try to see if I can do them. I live alone and never really bring my lunch to work. I sometimes bring breakfast to work, or I'll buy breakfast and eat an extra brunch around 10am which I order at the cafe in the office building. After work I mostly buy some meal at a restaurant and bring it home to eat. I guess my problem is that I don't find too much time to buy food to cook or make my home meals. I'm usually worn out by the end of the work day. The brunch I buy at work is about $10, and the meals I bring home after work is about 25-30 dollars. It seems like the healthier foods are cheaper, which is probably good for me anyways since my physician told me that my sugar and cholestrrol levels are quite high. I don't really drink soda, just drinks like lemonade, ice tea and gatorade. I do have a lot of fridge cleaning to do because there's a lot of leftover food that hasn't been eaten. I try to make sure that doesn't happen but forget to eat them later because I'm too busy enjoying another meal that I like better. Thanks for the advice, I'll take them into consideration and see where it goes from here.

Regards,
I-Like-Food

Sounds like me. Until I got to the point you are now. Like you're starting to figure out, it's a time management issue, that turns into a money and a health issue. I don't think it's coincidence either.

Some advice I'd like to share, make grocery shopping and meal preparation CENTRAL to your life. Humans evolved to be constantly looking for food, but that was when it was scarce. Now it's abundant and food has become an after thought. We work work work play, then, DING! We're hungry. What's available? Fast and easy food that's loaded with sugar and salt (not coincidentally what your body seeks out when it's hungry). Arrange your schedule so you have time to make meals and eat them in a relaxed manner. Have the cooking utensils and ingredients handy. If you don't know how, learn to cook one or two things well. There's nothing easier than pan grilling or baking something.


Also, look up metabolic syndrome. It doesn't get a lot of press, but seems to affect a lot of people.

Try to have healthy, cheap options you like to eat within arms' reach, so you don't have to dash for less healthy stuff.

[Eleanor]

If you start eating less junk food and sugary drinks and eat more fiber-rich foods, whole grains, etc. you will be less hungry and won't have to eat as much. You don't have to eat like a rabbit, you can still get full, just get those calories from rice, beans, wheat pasta, veggies, and fruits, they're all cheaper than restaurant meals anyway. Plus, with the way it sounds like you eat right now future health care costs should be of greater concern than your food budget.

Start simply, you don't have to make 100% organic gourmet meals starting tomorrow, do tacos, spaghetti (but cut out the meat and use just use tomato sauce + spices), salads with chicken, smoothies with protein powder (put real fruit inside though). You have to think of it as a lifestyle change, not a temporary fix, which makes it difficult, but you can consider it an investment in your budget and your health.

[elessar78]

If you start eating less junk food and sugary drinks and eat more fiber-rich foods, whole grains, etc. you will be less hungry and won't have to eat as much. You don't have to eat like a rabbit, you can still get full, just get those calories from rice, beans, wheat pasta, veggies, and fruits, they're all cheaper than restaurant meals anyway. Plus, with the way it sounds like you eat right now future health care costs should be of greater concern than your food budget.

Start simply, you don't have to make 100% organic gourmet meals starting tomorrow, do tacos, spaghetti (but cut out the meat and use just use tomato sauce + spices), salads with chicken, smoothies with protein powder (put real fruit inside though). You have to think of it as a lifestyle change, not a temporary fix, which makes it difficult, but you can consider it an investment in your budget and your health.

Good advice. To add to the "lifestyle" idea, start exercising.

Some of my truths about money:

1. You need time to spend it. If you have free time then you will spend money. DO SOMETHING with your time and most likely you will not have an opportunity to spend it or think about what to spend it on.

2. Money needs direction. "Investing" (I hate the use of the word in this context) in things (good, healthy food, cook ware, gym membership, etc.) gives money a positive direction. If money doesn't have anything to do, it kinda just evaporates.

[Gailete]

No reason why you can't eat or make your spaghetti sauce with a bit of meat, I do it all the time only I use ground beef. I make a big enough pot of sauce that I can freeze it in portions and have enough for several more meals---you can too! It sounds like you have gotten into some really bad eating habits which is going to make you ill in the long run, but it is hard to change bad habits into good habits, so concentrate on one change every week or two.

For instance:
Week 1-2 -- Start drinking water. If you want ice tea, make it yourself at home and bring it with you. Ice tea can be made incredibly cheap with tea bags. If you want sugar, add your own and get a lemon to add the lemon flavor if you want. Make your own coffee if you drink it. For sure cut out that lemonade (or make your own or drink lemon flavored water--the same lemon you use for your tea) and gatorade. They do nothing for your health. Keep track of what you saved for these two weeks and try to save that money in a seperate account so in six months or so with changes, you should have a lovely amount.

Week 3-4 -- start eating breakfast at home with purchased cereal or at least make your own muffins, freeze them and thaw as needed, add in a banana or piece of fruit to the breakfast and milk if you can tolerate it. But by all means cut out a breakfast buffet at $10 a pop at that time in the morning. Sounds like you have an office job which means you have no way to be exercising the calories back off and they are at this point probably packing themselves on. Think about whether you are getting $10 worth of value for each of those buffets. You can also think about the fact that most retirees can't afford $10 for supper much less that much for brunch. The more you can start saving from breakfast purchases, the more you can put towards retirement. Eat what you need for breakfast to not be hungray. You aren't going on a eating diet, you are going on a spending diet and at the $50-70 a week you are spending on breakfast, You should have plenty of money to buy the cereal, fruit and jouce that you want for breakfast. Continue to keep track of your savings.

Week 5--6 You didn't mention what you do for lunch. Could be part of that brunch you get. Now start instead to bring your dinner leftovers to work with you to heat up so they don't go to waste. Our make yourself salads as the other posters have mentioned. Salads, fruit, yogurt, leftovers, etc. should keep you full up to quiting time. Track what you are saving by not buying lunches.

Week 7-8 You should be seeing by now how much you can be saving with buying your food at the grocery store, making healthier food decisions, etc. Now is time to hit the road if you haven't started already to start making your own dinners. Do internet searches for once a month cooking. No I don't expect you to spend an entire day cooking, but it will give you ideas. Start making dinners that can feed 3-4 and put the extra in individual sized portions in the freezer, Always cook family sized portions and freeze the extra and in no time you will be able to come home and have your choice of your own meals on hectic nights. On ones that aren't so hectic take the time to cook a bigger meal. Track your savings as you slowly switch to not eating out every night.

Your name is I like food which is fine. Currently though you are eating your way through (or throwing out) more food than most families eat in a month or two. So learn to cook and make your own meals as a hobby. Most restaurant meals can be imitated for much cheaper and with less fat and salt and sugars. Since it sounds like you are single you can make what you like and you don't have anyone hanging on you while you try to make a meal after work. Write down a meal chart for what you want to make for the week and be sure you have the ingredients. Don't force yourself to decide what days you are going to eat what unless you need to thaw something out as I understand that some days you just aren't in the mood for sphaghetti and would rather have a chicken ceaser salad and soup.

Plenty of food guides, etc. here on the net. Take it slow as it sounds as if you have let yourself get into really bad eating habits and I'm sure the restaurants love you, but cut back, cut back, cut back on buying from them as you teach yourself how to cook and how to save lots of money on food.

One step at a time!