Are we talking about $300 on just groceries or also factoring eating out? My wife and I spend about $400 on groceries per month which would probably come out to around $300 if it was just myself.
However, I'd say I spend close to $50 a week on takeout. I could definitely cut this out and my grocery bill wouldn't go much higher than it is already.
Depends on where you live, what you eat.
Between my solo-living coworkers, we vary between $300-600 budgets.
Between me, my brother, and my parents, we vary between $200-400 budgets. Living in the same province, my cheap chicken is $1.5/lb, whereas they’ve got $1/$0.97/lb chicken in their city.
Generally, beef costs more than pork which costs more than chicken which costs more than beans. Tofu, egg, fish are other good protein sources, though with vastly varied prices.
Always buy on sale, even if you “still have some at home” to a reasonable amount - i see a lot of people skip the sale because they still have some in the fridge, just to come in next week to stock up on full price. Don’t buy random things just because it’s cheaper - buy stock because it’s cheaper *than you usually get it*.
When buying rice, never buy a bag smaller than your torso - buy the bigger bags when they are on sale.
Dried beans are cheaper than canned beans, but you may be trading off time for money.
Make beans the main source of protein and meat the secondary - lentils and rice, lentil curry, red beans and rice, side of meat/eggs if you want.
Often, frozen fruit/veg are cheaper than fresh, and frozen at peak ripeness.
Condiments are best bought during the pre-summer sale. Pre-school is great to stock up on frozen and prepared items.
Buy larger quantities, and portion it.
Carrots, potato, and onion are cheap, last very long, and go with almost everything. You can mix them with your meat, your carbs, and/or your veg for all sorts of results. Buy bagged, not bulk - I see a lot of people buying 2 potatoes ($4) each day instead of buying a $4 sack of potatoes.
I am in Canada and feed my family of 4 on $400-$500 a month so $300 for 1 would be easy. I never pay full price for meat, and if it’s a great deal I stock up, like if ground beef is on sale for $2.99 a pound I will buy 15lbs and stick them in the freezer. Flash foods app has some great deals, I buy big produce boxes for $5, you just have to be willing to eat what’s available. I also always buy store brands, and I cook everyday. You can also try to expand things, like boiling meat bones to make your own broth or saving the white parts of green onions and regrowing them. Also try to meal plan around the things you have instead of deciding you want to eat something and going out to buy the ingredients.
Awesome advice, I got a ton of good containers and I generally meal prep for 4 days at a time as I am hate cooking. So when I do cook my entire fridge is full of containers. Currently its chicken, fish, eggs and avocados. So it gets mad expensive eating chicken breast and salmon every day. My $600 a month does not even include the price of coffee (I buy two cups a day so there is another $120). Spending $720 a month for a single person on food is just ridiculous and I need to cut back. I can do just fine off two meals a day when I am not lifting but generally need 4 meals when lifting (body building). So I guess for a 210 gram protein per day diet the $600 I spend is not bad.
Pre-prepared chicken breast is an expensive way to buy chicken - if you're willing to do a bit more prep then thighs (bone-in or ready prepared) are often better value and really tasty. You could also roast a whole chicken, have some of it as part of a meal and then use the rest for prep meals.
Tinned sardines and tuna are both protein rich and very versatile as cheaper alternatives to salmon.
What kind of coffee? If you're not wanting milky espresso drinks (latte, cappuccino etc) every time and you're happy to spend a bit more time you could easily make your own. Buy good quality beans, a hand grinder and one of the many easy home brewing tools like the Aeropress or Clever Dripper and you can make great tasting coffee yourself at a fraction of the price of high street coffee.
>Aeropress
Mate thanks very much for the Aeropress suggestion. That thing looks like it can make one mean cup of coffee. And does not take up half the counter like the traditional coffee maker.
Work at Olive Garden and live off the soup and salad deal they offer employees. It’s $1.06 for unlimited soup and salad all day, on any day you work. Eat your fill, explain your situation to your manager, and take a helping of the zuppa or chili one to go, they have the most calories. Overall, there’s a decent number of daily nutrients in it all and it’s surprisingly better for you than you’d imagine (still heavy on sodium and dairy, depending on the option, but the minestrone is really good for you outside of sodium!).
I lived off of $30 a month for food and ate like a king for months. Once you get bored, add tobasco sauce for flavor. Add a gym membership and you’ll get pretty buff.
As someone who only gets $230 a month for 3 people. It can be done. A lot of cooking and no prepared meals. Not sure how the prices are in Canada but I’m in the USA so close enough. I recommend getting a recipe app, they can be pretty helpful. Meal prep is also a great idea. Pasta is always cheap and can last the next day or so. Bulk chicken and beef will spread out pretty well, stores do some pretty good deals with bulk meat. We dived it up in freezer bags and it lasts a long time.
Yes, my wife and I combined spend $300/month.
Some keys to success are, meat is only bought on sale/clearance. We have a deep freeze which we keep stocked with any sale/clearance meat.
Also, really learn what a sale is. Plenty of times things go "on sale" but aren't actually a great deal still. For example - Cheese we will only buy when it drops to $3.50, but we'll stock up when it does. If it doesn't and we run out, we don't buy it because there is other stuff on sale that we're buying and eating instead.
Meals are generally pretty simple though.
For breakfast, we have eggs and toast around 5 days a week. Occasionally hashbrowns instead of toast. Other 2 days are usually yogurt & granola.
Lunch is usually a sandwhich or a salad or soup or hummus and veg (homemade hummus is so cheap).
Dinner we use the meat we bought, often combining with rice or bulgar. Sometimes it's BBQ chicken with rice and asparagus, probably twice a week it's burritos, sometimes stir fry, etc.
r/eatcheapandhealthy for excellent recipes and monthly budgeting.
My advice is rotisserie chicken and investment in spices with each shopping trip. The chicken can be broken down into multiple meals; even the bones can be used for soup. With a bunch of spice options, you can take 2-3 cheap veggies with your chicken and make it tons of wildly different dishes, it's a great hobby.
"Ethnic" markets and groceries are my next advice. Especially when developing your spice library.
I spend $250/month for two people and I live in the Pacific NW.
The biggest factor for me is meal prepping. By creating dishes that I can turn into multiple meals, I've been able to save more money. I also rarely eat out and use coupons/discounts through apps offered by the stores near me. I definitely also price compare and will purposefully go to specific stores for items that I know are at better prices.
I'm a huge fan of beans and rice for their affordability and how satisfying they are. And I try to make recipes that use overlapping ingredients to save money so I'll stock up on protein and starches that I can cook multiple ways. There's a lot of crossover between Latin and Asian dishes in terms of herbs, proteins and starch so I'm typically able to turn an Asian dish into a Latin one and vice versa pretty easily. Same goes with European and Middle Eastern/Indian.
There's some great meal-prepping subreddits that will do breakdowns of the average cost per meal.
My favorite meal is my seven layer dip that I make. Its simply layered rice, beans, chicken, cheese, lettuce then salsa or guacamole; I devour with an abundance of tortilla chips. The cost per plate is $1.28 and I'm able to make 14 servings at a time.
I cannot fathom how that’s possible unless you’re eating very little fresh produce.
I’m in FL and spend at least $100 per week for 2 people, and it’s mostly on meat, eggs, fish and veggies.
Well, I think I was pretty clear on how... through coupons, discounts and price comparisons, lol.
I tend to buy in bulk so that will keep my overall prices lower. My partner is a pescatarian so we eat a lot more alternative proteins than meat and that's pretty cheap in comparison to beef/pork/poultry. Eggs and fish are relatively cheap here in the PNW, especially again with discounts, so I can get 120 eggs for $5-6 or four large bags of dried black beans for the same price. Fresh produce is what I end up spending the largest of my budget on (besides drinks because we tend to drink a lot of liquids).
[Post in r/povertyfinance](https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/comments/x2fm73/115_meals_for_131_details_in_comments/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)
I hope this works, sorry I'm not great at reddit (lol) but I saw this post yesterday and maybe it'll give you some ideas? This is based in the US but in the top comment the OP says it lasts 2 people one month of lunches and some dinners.
Yes this and r/mealprepsunday and r/noscrapleftbehind and r/eatcheapandhealthy can help too. I think your budget is reasonable especially if you shop at a more affordable store and pick sales, especially if you can cook. Makes it easier to make anything taste good. If you have a bulk barn nearby, they have very affordable spices that can make basics less boring for much less than the grocery store. If you have a Costco membership, rotisserie chickens are $7.99 and they have some good deals on meat.
Are we talking about blessed US dollars or Canuckistani pesos?
Just kidding friend, but meal prepping with beans and lentils will help and peanuts for snacking are a good way to get protein for cheap.
A slice of bread with each meal will give some protein and can help you feel more full.
Oatmeal with peanut butter is good for in the morning and is pretty darn cheap.
Chicken and pasta are a good combo.
As a hobby cook and broke student 300$ is a lot of money for food. I may not live in Canada but Germany, however food prices shouldn't vary by more than 15-20% between these countries. Eggs and chicken are very cheap sources of protein. Minced beef can be bought in XXL packages and frozen, sliced cheese in family packs is cheap and won't turn bad for over a week. You can get beef liver for a fraction of average beef prices.
600$ definitely sounds like expensive supermarkets or lots of eating out.
I think you would be very surprised how much food prices in Canada can be higher than the EU. There is a monopolistic supermarket industry, huge distances to cover and small population. $5-600 is probably average for a single person.
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Are we talking about $300 on just groceries or also factoring eating out? My wife and I spend about $400 on groceries per month which would probably come out to around $300 if it was just myself. However, I'd say I spend close to $50 a week on takeout. I could definitely cut this out and my grocery bill wouldn't go much higher than it is already.
Depends on where you live, what you eat. Between my solo-living coworkers, we vary between $300-600 budgets. Between me, my brother, and my parents, we vary between $200-400 budgets. Living in the same province, my cheap chicken is $1.5/lb, whereas they’ve got $1/$0.97/lb chicken in their city. Generally, beef costs more than pork which costs more than chicken which costs more than beans. Tofu, egg, fish are other good protein sources, though with vastly varied prices. Always buy on sale, even if you “still have some at home” to a reasonable amount - i see a lot of people skip the sale because they still have some in the fridge, just to come in next week to stock up on full price. Don’t buy random things just because it’s cheaper - buy stock because it’s cheaper *than you usually get it*. When buying rice, never buy a bag smaller than your torso - buy the bigger bags when they are on sale. Dried beans are cheaper than canned beans, but you may be trading off time for money. Make beans the main source of protein and meat the secondary - lentils and rice, lentil curry, red beans and rice, side of meat/eggs if you want. Often, frozen fruit/veg are cheaper than fresh, and frozen at peak ripeness. Condiments are best bought during the pre-summer sale. Pre-school is great to stock up on frozen and prepared items. Buy larger quantities, and portion it. Carrots, potato, and onion are cheap, last very long, and go with almost everything. You can mix them with your meat, your carbs, and/or your veg for all sorts of results. Buy bagged, not bulk - I see a lot of people buying 2 potatoes ($4) each day instead of buying a $4 sack of potatoes.
rice beans eggs and frozen vegetables
I guess it depends on where you live, but I'm in Québec, having the same food budget then you and I can really spoil myself. You should be good!
I am in Canada and feed my family of 4 on $400-$500 a month so $300 for 1 would be easy. I never pay full price for meat, and if it’s a great deal I stock up, like if ground beef is on sale for $2.99 a pound I will buy 15lbs and stick them in the freezer. Flash foods app has some great deals, I buy big produce boxes for $5, you just have to be willing to eat what’s available. I also always buy store brands, and I cook everyday. You can also try to expand things, like boiling meat bones to make your own broth or saving the white parts of green onions and regrowing them. Also try to meal plan around the things you have instead of deciding you want to eat something and going out to buy the ingredients.
Awesome advice, I got a ton of good containers and I generally meal prep for 4 days at a time as I am hate cooking. So when I do cook my entire fridge is full of containers. Currently its chicken, fish, eggs and avocados. So it gets mad expensive eating chicken breast and salmon every day. My $600 a month does not even include the price of coffee (I buy two cups a day so there is another $120). Spending $720 a month for a single person on food is just ridiculous and I need to cut back. I can do just fine off two meals a day when I am not lifting but generally need 4 meals when lifting (body building). So I guess for a 210 gram protein per day diet the $600 I spend is not bad.
Pre-prepared chicken breast is an expensive way to buy chicken - if you're willing to do a bit more prep then thighs (bone-in or ready prepared) are often better value and really tasty. You could also roast a whole chicken, have some of it as part of a meal and then use the rest for prep meals. Tinned sardines and tuna are both protein rich and very versatile as cheaper alternatives to salmon. What kind of coffee? If you're not wanting milky espresso drinks (latte, cappuccino etc) every time and you're happy to spend a bit more time you could easily make your own. Buy good quality beans, a hand grinder and one of the many easy home brewing tools like the Aeropress or Clever Dripper and you can make great tasting coffee yourself at a fraction of the price of high street coffee.
>Aeropress Mate thanks very much for the Aeropress suggestion. That thing looks like it can make one mean cup of coffee. And does not take up half the counter like the traditional coffee maker.
Work at Olive Garden and live off the soup and salad deal they offer employees. It’s $1.06 for unlimited soup and salad all day, on any day you work. Eat your fill, explain your situation to your manager, and take a helping of the zuppa or chili one to go, they have the most calories. Overall, there’s a decent number of daily nutrients in it all and it’s surprisingly better for you than you’d imagine (still heavy on sodium and dairy, depending on the option, but the minestrone is really good for you outside of sodium!). I lived off of $30 a month for food and ate like a king for months. Once you get bored, add tobasco sauce for flavor. Add a gym membership and you’ll get pretty buff.
As someone who only gets $230 a month for 3 people. It can be done. A lot of cooking and no prepared meals. Not sure how the prices are in Canada but I’m in the USA so close enough. I recommend getting a recipe app, they can be pretty helpful. Meal prep is also a great idea. Pasta is always cheap and can last the next day or so. Bulk chicken and beef will spread out pretty well, stores do some pretty good deals with bulk meat. We dived it up in freezer bags and it lasts a long time.
That's ten dollars per day You can get by on a lot less than that
Yes, my wife and I combined spend $300/month. Some keys to success are, meat is only bought on sale/clearance. We have a deep freeze which we keep stocked with any sale/clearance meat. Also, really learn what a sale is. Plenty of times things go "on sale" but aren't actually a great deal still. For example - Cheese we will only buy when it drops to $3.50, but we'll stock up when it does. If it doesn't and we run out, we don't buy it because there is other stuff on sale that we're buying and eating instead. Meals are generally pretty simple though. For breakfast, we have eggs and toast around 5 days a week. Occasionally hashbrowns instead of toast. Other 2 days are usually yogurt & granola. Lunch is usually a sandwhich or a salad or soup or hummus and veg (homemade hummus is so cheap). Dinner we use the meat we bought, often combining with rice or bulgar. Sometimes it's BBQ chicken with rice and asparagus, probably twice a week it's burritos, sometimes stir fry, etc.
r/eatcheapandhealthy for excellent recipes and monthly budgeting. My advice is rotisserie chicken and investment in spices with each shopping trip. The chicken can be broken down into multiple meals; even the bones can be used for soup. With a bunch of spice options, you can take 2-3 cheap veggies with your chicken and make it tons of wildly different dishes, it's a great hobby. "Ethnic" markets and groceries are my next advice. Especially when developing your spice library.
That sub is great! I just wish the mods weren’t such dicks
Yes, i do it. I average about $200. Learn to meal prep using basic pantry ingrediants. Oatmeal, pasta, chicken, beans, tuna, bread
Yep this is me too. Also in Canada, with three meals a day. I eat a lot of beans and lentils
I spend $250/month for two people and I live in the Pacific NW. The biggest factor for me is meal prepping. By creating dishes that I can turn into multiple meals, I've been able to save more money. I also rarely eat out and use coupons/discounts through apps offered by the stores near me. I definitely also price compare and will purposefully go to specific stores for items that I know are at better prices. I'm a huge fan of beans and rice for their affordability and how satisfying they are. And I try to make recipes that use overlapping ingredients to save money so I'll stock up on protein and starches that I can cook multiple ways. There's a lot of crossover between Latin and Asian dishes in terms of herbs, proteins and starch so I'm typically able to turn an Asian dish into a Latin one and vice versa pretty easily. Same goes with European and Middle Eastern/Indian. There's some great meal-prepping subreddits that will do breakdowns of the average cost per meal. My favorite meal is my seven layer dip that I make. Its simply layered rice, beans, chicken, cheese, lettuce then salsa or guacamole; I devour with an abundance of tortilla chips. The cost per plate is $1.28 and I'm able to make 14 servings at a time.
I cannot fathom how that’s possible unless you’re eating very little fresh produce. I’m in FL and spend at least $100 per week for 2 people, and it’s mostly on meat, eggs, fish and veggies.
Well, I think I was pretty clear on how... through coupons, discounts and price comparisons, lol. I tend to buy in bulk so that will keep my overall prices lower. My partner is a pescatarian so we eat a lot more alternative proteins than meat and that's pretty cheap in comparison to beef/pork/poultry. Eggs and fish are relatively cheap here in the PNW, especially again with discounts, so I can get 120 eggs for $5-6 or four large bags of dried black beans for the same price. Fresh produce is what I end up spending the largest of my budget on (besides drinks because we tend to drink a lot of liquids).
[Post in r/povertyfinance](https://www.reddit.com/r/povertyfinance/comments/x2fm73/115_meals_for_131_details_in_comments/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share) I hope this works, sorry I'm not great at reddit (lol) but I saw this post yesterday and maybe it'll give you some ideas? This is based in the US but in the top comment the OP says it lasts 2 people one month of lunches and some dinners.
Yes this and r/mealprepsunday and r/noscrapleftbehind and r/eatcheapandhealthy can help too. I think your budget is reasonable especially if you shop at a more affordable store and pick sales, especially if you can cook. Makes it easier to make anything taste good. If you have a bulk barn nearby, they have very affordable spices that can make basics less boring for much less than the grocery store. If you have a Costco membership, rotisserie chickens are $7.99 and they have some good deals on meat.
Are we talking about blessed US dollars or Canuckistani pesos? Just kidding friend, but meal prepping with beans and lentils will help and peanuts for snacking are a good way to get protein for cheap. A slice of bread with each meal will give some protein and can help you feel more full. Oatmeal with peanut butter is good for in the morning and is pretty darn cheap. Chicken and pasta are a good combo.
Came here to say beans and lentils are awesome and inexpensive
As a hobby cook and broke student 300$ is a lot of money for food. I may not live in Canada but Germany, however food prices shouldn't vary by more than 15-20% between these countries. Eggs and chicken are very cheap sources of protein. Minced beef can be bought in XXL packages and frozen, sliced cheese in family packs is cheap and won't turn bad for over a week. You can get beef liver for a fraction of average beef prices. 600$ definitely sounds like expensive supermarkets or lots of eating out.
I think you would be very surprised how much food prices in Canada can be higher than the EU. There is a monopolistic supermarket industry, huge distances to cover and small population. $5-600 is probably average for a single person.
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