Can you survive with only $25 a week for groceries?

[fultron]

Great article shows it is possible, but certainly not very nutritious or appealing...

Could You Survive With Only $25.00 a Week for Groceries? » American Consumer News

[cschin4]

Then why do I often see those in my area with food stamps buying things, getting cash back and then purchasing cigarettes or liquor? Most don't like underfed!

[lgslgs]

Well, for our family of two, for the past 365 days, our average weekly spending on groceries was $44.07.

Add on $3.38 per week to account for our total garden spending, and we had a extremely high quality diet for 23.72 per person per week.

If we had not spent on wine, chewing gum, pop, and some occasional non-staples, our expenditures would be 21.47 per person per week.

Of course, we don't buy the sort of junk that's in that article. And anyone who's spending $1.00 for only four bananas can probably improve their shopping skills and do much better.


$25 per week can be nutritious and appealing if you are willing to cook.

Start with a bag of lentils, a bag of carrots, an onion or two, a bag of flour, a $0.19 container of salt, and a packet of yeast. Use your yeast to start your own homemade yeast culture so you never buy it again in your life. Then start baking your own bread instead of buying it.

Round out your week's diet with eggs, a bag of rice, a bag of another kind of dry beans. Plant seeds and grow your own tomatoes, eggplants, and squash.

You'd still have close to half of your budget available to start adding other things to your pantry.

$25 in groceries can be a lot of food if you aren't buying a bunch of pretty boxes full of a tiny bit of air puffed sugared grain, or cans and bottles full of seasoned or flavored water. And if a Lunchable isn't the world's most expensive way to buy a cracker (which you CAN make yourself) I don't know what its!

Lynda

[disneysteve]

Actually, I think they could do even better than the sample list that person came up with.

Eliminate the soda and drink water. That saves $2.50.
Replace the Lunchables, which are horrible for you, and use that money to buy something more nutritious. Maybe a couple of cans of store-brand tuna for about $.69 each plus some fruit or veggies to go with them.
You can probably get the soup cheaper, too. Same for the bananas.

I wouldn't want to live this way either, but I think one could do it

[cschin4]

Yes, lunchables? A truly starving person is going to buy food that fills them up. How about a couple big bags of rice and beans? Cheap!

[Aleta]

I have read on these posts of people who are spending less than $25 a person. What I saw listed mostly was pre-packaged and processed food. For some who don't like powdered milk to cook with can economize with mixing it with 2% milk. Like Steve said earlier, buying tuna fish and adding veggies to it as a filller is more economical.

Having salads and adding either small amounts of meat or nuts is also a nutricious meal. I buy green peppers on sale and freeze them for future cooking needs. There are a ton of ways you can save on your food bill including clipping coupons and comparing circulars.

One tip for those who don't receive sale flyers in the mail or their newspaper; you can go to your grocers website and their flyer in there according to your zipcode. Sometimes my flyer is a couple of days late in the mail and I go to their website to plan my weeks buys.

Also, cooking old-fashioned oatmeal is alot more reasonable, healthy ,and filling than the cold cereal.

[disneysteve]

Yes, lunchables? A truly starving person is going to buy food that fills them up. How about a couple big bags of rice and beans? Cheap!

I work in a pretty poor area and, unfortunately, this isn't how most people I see think. Partly due to lack of education, partly due to limited transportation and partly due to limited shopping choices in the neighborhood, I regularly see or speak to patients about pretty poor diet choices. They eat/drink what is available to them. That might mean lunch will be a bag of chips ($.50) and a fruit punch ($.25) from the little mini-market. It is a bunch of fat, sugar and salt, but it is cheap and easy to get.

[simpleyme]

I could definitely get by on 25 a week but if its just not enough that should help inspire people to find a way to get off food stamps so they are not so limited in their food choices

I wish the state would hand out food instead of food stamps

[disneysteve]

I wish the state would hand out food instead of food stamps

Or at least greatly limit what food stamps can be used to purchase.

[Aleta]

The government used to hand out food subsidies and I think that that was a help to those who needed it and it also helped the businesses that produced it. Yes, my family used to work for a church that had the set-up and it was great. It certainly was alot more nutritious than what people are eating today. They were given peanut butter, butter, flour, beans, rice, and I don't remember all but it was pretty decent food. I remember my widowed grandmother receiving that food when there was a flood.

Of course, in reality, it is probably cheaper for the government to print checks, or cards, than to hire people to work and to store the food.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I do not budget and I do not normally track spending after the fact. But recently I used my credit card records too see what we'd spent on food at the grocery. (All food charged.) Turned out in a month's billing period, we'd spent $168 for 2 people. That would be $21 /person/week.

We follow the advice of lgslgs and look how similar our expenses came out!

Some months we spend much more, I'm sure. We do indulge in some pricey and exotic foods, sometimes. If I were budgeting, I would probably put that food into the entertainment category!

[My English Castle]

short term problems

I agree with everybody here that this could be made better. But it's a long process for most people: learning to cook, training your family and kids to eat cheap and nutrious food, finding specials, accumulating enough disposable income to be able to stock up when there are sales.

While we can all get all self-righteous about poor people and food stamps, I see an awful lot of people, frequently women with small kids, hauling groceries home on the bus, The kid is crying, the mom is tired after working a long day at a low wage job. If they need a little treat to cheer them up, who am I to blame them?

In this week before Thanksgiving, I guess I just feel blessed that I don't have to survive on $25 a week. Some of it is my so-called brilliant choices, but some of it is just dumb luck to have been born in the right time and right place.

[snafu]

1st food prices are likely different in S Dakota than NYC for example. If food stamp users are in an urban area they likely have access to a food store. Unfortunately, most receipients are seeking the 'easy' way. If you want to stretch your food dollar shop the perimeter of the store where they keep the 'real' food. It is incredibly easy to make your own soup, just a few bones a handful of root veggies, and whatever spices you like. Pasta, rice, beans, lentils, tofu, oatmeal are cheap and easy. There will be money for canned fish, cheese, some meat and seasonal fruit.

All this 'convenience' processed food is full of chemicals, salt and often products from China that have no quality control. When you buy frozen , breaded chicken fingers you are paying meat prices for re-processed stuff. Do you know where the chicken came from? the breading? the fat it was fried in? This stuff could be dangerous!

[getforfree]

I don't see any rice, beans, potatoes or raw meat in this menu.

If we would be spending $25/ person/week, then it would be $125/ week, That's way too much. We spend $60/ week and get much more food than that, plus toiletries and paper products, some diapers for my dd,( she needs only for overnight, about 20 diapers/month) Plus we feed 2 cats with our leftovers and buy some cat food, when I get coupons for it and it's really cheap.

[disneysteve]

If we would be spending $25/ person/week, then it would be $125/ week, That's way too much.

Fortunately, it doesn't work that way. There are economies of scale when shopping for a family. You are able to buy in bulk, making your unit cost much lower.