How low could you get your food bill if you seriously tried? I've managed under £15 before, but these was sourced using raw ingredient like potatoes eggs and some ground beef, largely. So I was cooking most of my own meals from scratch. A bit of a boring week to be fair but the cost was miniscule.
I guess that probably depends on what other requirements I wanted to keep. For example, I could certainly survive on simply rice for the entire month, but I'd hate myself after the first week and it wouldn't really be nutritionally balanced either. And if it were during the summertime, I could get fresh produce a lot cheaper than in the winter because of farmer's markets and whatnot, so that would make a difference, too.
I did a one month experiment to look into how little I could shell out for a month for food. The reason for the experiment was a follow up on one done by a politician to see if he could survive on a Welfare budget. The total amount had to be $120 (Canadian) for a month. The politician failed and has used his failure to campaign for more money for welfare. He lost about 16 pounds (supposedly) and wasn't able to eat healthy. My experiment went a little better. I was able to stay within the budget and ate a lot of rice and beans. The food was boring but, unlike my competition, I wasn't trying to eat fast food. My budget killer was actually coffee which, if I really had to live for an extended period of time without funds, I would forgo. I tracked my weight and my nutrients and found that I was eating enough and was eating healthy. Your question makes one think that perhaps our food budgets are a lot larger than they need to be.
Oats are cheap too. I've actually had to live off £20 food per week for a month before and seriously struggled with that. I mean I can do it for £14, but I wouldn't want to do it again. Ideally I'd need £30, and if money was no object I would probably spend about £40 per week.
I guess it really does depend on what we're talking about. If we really HAD to for one reason or another, we could probably get by with things like rice, beans and pasta, which are all very cheap. We probably wouldn't enjoy it very much though. To eat reasonably well while still sticking to a budget, you would probably have to spend at least about $50 a week.
I know for a fact I can feed 3 people on $35 a week. I could probably knock a few dollars off that total. I cook everything from scratch anyway, so we don't have high grocery bills. Not that $35 is the norm, it isn't.
Food is something that I would never save on. I really need the best and freshest ingredients in all my meals to function properly. Whenever I am not able to eat well for a few days, I immediately feel it. I have a delicate digestive system. But I don't find it all that hard to get quality ingredients if I am low on cash. I got by in the past with around $50 a week. Mind you, the food prices in this country are exorbitant.
So if I understand this correctly, that's about the equivalent of $25 per week roughly. I have gotten pretty close to this at times, when I got hit with some major unexpected expenses at a really bad time. Believe it or not, I actually ate pretty well rounded meals. The trick to it all is not practical for everyone though, because it's based on where you live. There was a Stouffer's outlet store near me that sold frozen meals dirt cheap. You could get them even cheaper if you bought them by the case. To give you an idea of how cheap some of these were, I bought a case of Lean Cuisine Rigatoni & Turkey Meatball dinners (12 count) for about $14. And these were the dinner size entrees, not the smaller lunch size meals. Even better, I got a case of Stouffers Flat Bread Pizza's (12 count) for like $8 (it had been marked down several times by that point). So we're talking around $1, sometimes less, and dinner is covered for the week. So if I say like $9 for dinner for the week that leaves me still with $16 for breakfast and lunch. For lunch, I could also find similar deals at the Stouffer's store, so let's say $7 for lunches - done. Or I could go to Burger King each day and get a Whopper Jr (no mayo) for $1.That still leaves me $9 for breakfast, which is more than enough. So I will get a carton of jumbo eggs and a loaf of bread, and maybe a bag of potatoes and some Orange Juice. Breakfast - Scrambled Eggs, Toast, Home Fries and OJ Lunch - Lean Cuisine Frozen Lunch or a $1 Menu Burger Dinner - Lean Cuisine Frozen Dinner I was getting all the free coffee I wanted at work all day, so I didn't need to buy my own coffee. Otherwise I would simply drink home brewed iced tea - which a box of teabags is only a $1.50 and will easily last a week if not longer. I know it's a lot of processed food. But I look at it this way, at least I am getting balanced low fat meals with lots of veggies in them. The toughest thing is eating the same things every day. The only workaround would be if I were to split cases with one or two other people and we trade each other some meals so we all have more variety. Only one of my friends was interested in doing that at the time, and even then it was tough because we could seldom agree on which meals we both liked.
The lowest I've spent on food for 2 people was probably around $100 a month. I would go to the store and spend $25 max a week... This was in college keep in mind. I was working full time waitressing, going to school, and paying my half (lived with now husband) of rent as well as my bills, including my car payment. There are ways to cut down your food bill! I will say I wasn't eating the healthiest at the time, but I was 20, 21 years old.
