A young single mom in the U.K. feeds herself and her 3 year old son on next to nothing. She does a lot of cooking from scratch, including breads. I don't think she buys any kind of pre-made foods. Her typical weekly shopping list might look like this: 1kg chopped frozen spinach £1.49 1.5kg self-raising flour 65p 1l skimmed UHT milk 53p 2 onions 22p 6 apples 84p 2 x 75g jars of salmon paste 64p 500g spaghetti 39p 400g tin red kidney beans 21p 411g tin peaches 32p 312g tin broken mandarins 25p 1kg rice 40p 10 chicken stock cubes 20p 670g cooking bacon £1.09 120g sardines in oil 55p 540g tin potatoes 17p 2 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes 70p 400g tin red kidney beans in water 21p 500g natural yogurt 45p 340g crunchy peanut butter 62p Total: £9.94/ USD $15.90 Her blog about her cooking seems to have attracted a lot of attention. Here's the article I found about her:Log In Her blog is at:Log In Could you live on the groceries she buys? Or, could you come close to her budget using your own list?
To be able to feed four people a week for $16 a week is great. I do think that it is possible but it would take a lot of patients. For example depending on where you do your grocery shopping and how much everything cost. There is also the problem of if you don't know what type of meals to prepare. But I really do want to get into something like this. I myself am on a really tight budget and this would be great. I am starting to get into couponing and would like to get into this as well. It is just going to take some patience because I have no idea where to start.
I don't think I would be able to do that. I can't cook, for one, but I also like some comfort in my life when it comes to food, so..
When I've been in a really tight financial spot, I have spent $16 a week on groceries for my kid and I. It mostly entailed eating a lot of pasta, buying the random bags of blemished vegetables at the farmer's market and cutting back on meat. It's possible to do, but it's not fun.
I think I'd go over a bit if it were me, but it's possible, I'd say. I can't imagine just using two onions for a whole week, though, I put those in everything. Also, I'm wondering why she opts to buy canned products instead of raw ones. It's probably because they preserve much better, but if it's just for the week, I don't know why she wouldn't go for the cheaper option of unpackaged produce.
I could live on nothing if you gave me the challenge.. I'd be perfectly happy living off the land if it came down to it lol
I think if this was a game show and a challenge I would definitely try to achieve it, but in regular life the effort is just too much and when you earn enough for a living I don't think you will be trying to lend the least especially on food that you will be making for the people you love. It's just too much effort in the busy lives most of us have. I couldn't be able to do this for more than a few weeks.
I think I could do it. It would require a lot of planning, and you would have to be disciplined about it, but I think it is possible. The trick is to buy smart and make simple foods flavorful and interesting. One sure way to make your money stretch is to make soup. Watch out for that pasta or you'll be putting on extra pounds! However, some pastas are great for those one dish meals where you toss in a vegetable and maybe some cut up pieces of a protein (if you just have to have it). There are so many creative ways to cook and stretch a dollar, we just have to learn to look at restrictions as opportunities.
I don't think I can live on that budget even if I buy only canned goods, since I don't know how to cook. Come to think of it, I just realized that a week's supply of canned goods are more expensive than her menu.
I budget $25 a week for groceries now. I don't think I could go any lower in costs. On her list, you don't see other necessaries like toilet paper and cleaning supplies. She must not buy a lot of meat either. They are higher priced items.
