Alright, I need some tightwads up in here

I just started grad school, and am on a SERIOUSLY strict budget. And of course, to make matters interesting, I had to spend about $25 on a class project, which had to come out of my food budget. So I need some help here. I have exactly $50 (USD) for groceries until November 1. I'm a vegetarian--I will occasionally eat hard-boiled eggs though (don't know why only hard-boiled, some oddity of mine). I don't drink milk. I do have some things left in my kitchen, though I know many of the items are things I won't be able to replenish as some are expensive when trying to keep on a budget.

Here's what I have left-over from last month:
Several cans of corn and green beans
About 4 cans of Slim-Fast
Brown rice
White rice
A bag of Baked Lays chips
Peanut butter
Saltines crackers
a bag of potatoes
and I think that's about all folks.

Typically, I get up, take a granola bar, a baggie of dry cereal, or something of that sort with me to class. I then either have another class or graduate assistantship hours where I typically eat a peanut butter sandwich. I have to take something that doesn't need refrigeration/heating up. Then I usually have been getting a pop-tart or crackers out of the vending machine when I head to the library around 4 or 5, and then have dinner around 8 or 9 when I get home.

So, making that a little healthier wouldn't kill anything either, but right now, it also needs to be really, really CHEAP.

What are your suggestions?

Well, the first thing to think about is where do you shop and do you use coupons. If you're at the point where every nickel needs to be spent correctly, you should look at 'cheaper' places like Aldi (or similar)...as well as getting coupons.

I don't have a ton of experience with precise budgeting, so I'm not sure how much help I could be there: other than eat before you go to the store, and go with the intention of taking your time. Be logical and methodical-- Look for store brands, if applicable: some stores will even give a discount if you bring your own bags.

What I would do is team up with a group of girls. There is no way you guys would all eat a whole loaf of bread each. If you split it with 3 other people, you can cut the cost.

Frozen vegetables are pretty cheap. What I do is I buy canned soup and put in some mixed vegetables in it. Then I heat it up on the stove. I personally add meat but you are a vegetarian. I just buy the bag with a mix of carrots, beans, peas etc.

Go get some cheese and put that on the potatoes that you already have.

Go to the website of your local grocery store and see what's on sale, a lot of them have online coupons now. Beyond that, here are just some cheap options I learned from being a beyond poor college student:

-Cans of beans (making a bean soup is one of the easiest things in the world)

-Tuna (I don't know if you're a pesco...the type of vegetarian who also eats fish)

-Peanut butter

-Pasta. A big box of pasta and store brand sauce made a pot of pasta that fed me for a few days once.

-Potatoes. They keep and keep, and are super filling.

-Store brand cereal

-Store brand frozen vegetables. I've gotten deals as good as five bags for $5.

-Basically store brand whatever else you might need. Giant is my local store and its store brand options are pretty good. I've had to make groceries for the month on about $50 many times, and it definitely can be done, just buy what's cheap, coupon clip, and ration/budget carefully.

Generic products are usually cheaper than brand names even with a coupon, but check it out first and do the math.

Get some dried beans for protein. You can make beans and rice and eat on that for days. Slow cook the beans in a crockpot while you are gone.

If you have any kind of pasta, you can make a pasta and simple marinara sauce using cheap tomato sauce and some basil. If you have no pasta, get the store brand of whatever is cheapest.

Oatmeal would be a better breakfast choice than granola bars and cheaper, too. Generic label oatmeal is super cheap. It only takes a few minutes to fix and you can add honey or whatever you have on hand to flavor it.

kk~

Ramen noodles, soy sauce, and some spices. you can make all sorts of randomness out of some packs of ramen

^ Good call!

kk~

amichelle523 wrote:

Here's what I have left-over from last month:
Several cans of corn and green beans
About 4 cans of Slim-Fast
Brown rice
White rice
A bag of Baked Lays chips
Peanut butter
Saltines crackers
a bag of potatoes
and I think that's about all folks.

How many potatoes are in the bag? How many serving of rice is there?

For one person a can of corn can last at least two meals. Say you have 10 potatoes and 4 cans of veggies. You can have a baked potato and a side of veggies for 8 dinners out of 31.

Get coupons and buy the store brand food.

Plan out your meals in advance. Drink wise - water. It comes out of a facet. Just fill up a water bottle and take it with you.

Where do you, as a vegetarian, get your protien? Be sure to budget that in there.

Find out if your local bakery's mark things down that are a day old. The bakery section in our Sobeys will mark down all loafs of bread that a day old by 50 percent. Also Saturday mornings (or is it Sunday?) at Superstore they mark down a bunch of stuff. We get the super healthy whole grain bread for super cheap all the time.

Also check around to see if your grocery store marks down damaged food. You can get cans of soup here for 0.25 because they have a dent in it.

Also coupons are awesome especially if you live in the States (Canada not so much) and they will save you a ton of money.

I second ramen noodles

Soups are good too (add some rice in there or some pasta

Pasta is pretty cheap

Dinner Kraft

Join a club for the free food
Go to a conference for the free food
Give blood for the free food

Ok I'm exagerrating but keep an eye open for free food opportunity.

If your family lives close by it's time to call saying you miss them.

^ Lol, that's funny, but so true. Often the student church groups have free food. It may just be spaghetti but hey, it's still free food. It might be a good time to ask mom for a care package. I love, love sending my son care packages!

kk~

Wow guys, thanks so much for all the replies already. Let's see...

I totally wish I had some people to go in on with bulk food, but my schedule is so crazy, I really only know the other 10 people in my program, and they're all equally busy with internships and GAs...I used to do this living in dorms and when I had roommates and it worked so well, but the craziness just won't allow for it right now

I'm not currently a pesco, but I have thought about eating a bit of fish here and there, but honestly, I was never one to eat fish and wouldn't even know where to start, other than I know I don't like tuna, haha. I sure wish I did. Are there any other fish/fish recipes that are cheap that you guys recommend? I seriously am pesco-incompetent, haha.

I was definitely thinking about the plain oatmeal because it's so good for you and whatnot, it just tastes so awful to me. I do have some honey I think, and maybe I could get some cinnamon-sugar or something to spice it up too. Anything else you guys do to make it taste better? Or will I just get used to it over time?

There is an Aldi's the next town over (about 15 minutes away) and a Save-a-Lot, and a Wal-Mart, and a County Market. I also believe there may be an Asian foods store also in the next town over.

And luckily, mom and boyfriend are only about an hour away. I'm going home either tonight or tomorrow, and I've already told mom how delish a HUGE pot of vegetarian chili sounds and bf is an excellent cook, or takes me out to eat, so, huge YAY for that

Ok, I'm feeling a lot less stressed. What I'm finding is good about this, is that I'm going to HAVE to buy cheap, healthy food, and I'm going to have no choice but to eat it. Goodbye, 5 pounds?

Show up at people's houses at 5:30pm for a visit. Bonus if they have a garden with extra produce! People are trying to give away their tomatoes right now where I live.
Don't forget the local food bank as well if you find you aren't going to make it to November.

This probably sounds kind if obvious but try to plan in advance what you're going to eat every day, rather than going to the store and picking up a load of random things that don't make a meal. My boyfriend and I have cut our weekly food bill in half by spending half an hour sitting down at the weekend and writing down what we're going to have for dinner every night. Then we avoid buying things just because they look good.

I don't have time to type up a long reply right now, but I just saw this and I wanted to chime in because I am a big coupon user (I have a blog about it, and I've saved nearly $4,000 in coupons since April 2009) and I get a lot of my info here: www.hotcouponworld.com . . .

One thing to add to oatmeal is brown sugar. It is a different kind of sweetness then white or honey, but it is so delicious.

Make sure yous stop buying food from the vending machine. That is way too costly. If you want pop tarts, try to buy it in bulk.

On that note, but everything in bulk. You might get sick of what you made, but a lot of stuff can be frozen and will last the whole month.

If you buy in bulk though, make sure you are actually getting a good deal. Do the math and compare to the no name brands.

Lentils. For real, they're protein packed, 1/4 of a cup (dry) makes 3 big servings, and it's like...$1.05 for a bag. I personally LOVE cooking up some red lentils with just water, onion and taco seasoning. Wrap in a tortilla and you're good to go!

I'd caution against ramen noodles. The only place you can buy vegetarian ones are at health food stores, and they're expensive.

^ even if she doesn't use the packet of flavoring (or uses the shrimp one) its still non vegetarian?

If we're talking basic ramen, Manchen or whatever it is? Nope. None of their products are vegetarian. I don't eat them, but if the noddles are pre-seasoned, they're definitely not vegetarian. If they're seperate, I imagine you could just eat the noodles but not the seasoning, but at that point it'd be smarter to just pick up a box of whole wheat cheap-o noodles.

On the oatmeal dilemma--brown sugar, honey, and any kind of dried fruit is really good. Raisins, apricots, blueberries, cherries, whatever you find. Plus it keeps longer than fresh fruit. I eat cereal for breakfast until winter, and then I switch to oatmeal and raisins...yum.

Many churches operate food pantries and so does the Salvation Army. Bring your social security card and your photo I. D. Some churches have a "drop in anytime" croc pot going in the kitchen. Look for "Word" churches, especially.

Items like peanut butter and bread, eggs, cheese, and dry milk (I know you don't love it, but it's protein and can be hidden in other food)are usually available for "take home" at soup kitchens.

Also, the produce department usually has a "reduced" rack. It isn't unusual to buy a big bag of fruit, or peppers, or zucchini, which has some brown spots on it that can be pared off for just a small fraction of their actual value. Bananas that are "overripe" usually go for 10 cents a pound and they make excellent smoothies when combined with some fruit juice.

You can also make great stir fry with rusty lettuce. It is practically free on the reduced rack. Heat some oil in a pan, add some chopped onions, peppers,carrotts ...what ever you found scrounging the "reduced rack" and heat until soft. Add a bag, or a head (chopped) of lettuce, sprinkle with soy sauce (you can grab a handful for free in the cafeteria or the chineese take out or bum some from a friend...everyone has half a bottle of soy sauce going stale...)and perhaps some garlic, if you have it. Cover it and let it steam for about 3 minutes. You will have a trough of food. Perfect to go with your rice.

As for the oatmeal...yes, brown sugar or raisins make it taste 100% better...almost like a cookie!

If you can scrounge some of the other ingredients, here is a recipe I use for home made "breakfast bars"...much cheaper than pre-packaged granola bars..

Breakfast bars....

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, butter or grease (spray is OK...whatever you have...)a 9x13 pan.

I mix mine with a stand mixer, but you can do it by hand.

Combine:

2 sticks of butter or margarine (again, whatever you have or can beg, borrow, or steal)
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 or 2 tsp vanilla (personal choice, depends on the quality of the vanilla)
Mix until creamy.

Gradually add:

1-1/2 cups flour
4 cups of oatmeal
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda

Optional: (it's fine without any of this, but if you have it...)

1 to 2 cups of raisins,craisins or other dried fruit, or even chocolate (I used to chop up chocolate Easter bunnies or left over halloween candy)

Batter will be stiff.

Spread in baking pan and bake for about 35 minutes. (It will look and smell done when it is!)

I cut these into 20 or 24 bars.
My kids love them.

Keep On Dancing*

When my brother was in college he would make trips home to raid our pantry (with Mom's blessing). She always had cabinets downstairs full of more canned good and dry goods than our family was ever going to use up. My college student son does the same thing. Whenever he comes home I load him up with nonperishable groceries to bring back to his apt at school. Ask your mom if you can raid the pantry. Your local food pantry might be a good hit too.

Where do you, as a vegetarian, get your protien? Be sure to budget that in there.

She's not getting any protein. It's all simple carbohydrates and simple sugars. There's a tablespoon or two worth of peanut butter on her sandwich, and that's pretty much it.

I'm famous at my house for making, as my boyfriend calls it, "glop". I make a batch of noodles, and pretty much dump in whatever I can find, and then dress it with whatever I feel is appropriate. Box of noodles, bag of frozen vegetables, and some ranch dressing, and I'm thrilled, for a couple of days. As a matter of fact, I'm fighting the urge to do that right now.

I also do the massive quantities of spaghetti. I made a pot of whole wheat pasta (it reaaaaaaaly sticks to your ribs!) spaghetti. Second night, I added in mushrooms. Third night, cheese. On a similar vein, my aunt will usually make spaghetti one night, the next night, she takes the left overs, puts them in a pan with a ton of cheese over the top, viola, baked spaghetti. And you just ate for at least 4 meals, on about $5.

Theresa wrote:



She's not getting any protein. It's all simple carbohydrates and simple sugars. There's a tablespoon or two worth of peanut butter on her sandwich, and that's pretty much it.

Yup, that was my point Peanut butter won't cut it. Budget in tofu or something.

^The Vegetarian Chilli, if eaten with rice, will complete the protein.

As long as you combine two incomplete proteins, like rice and beans, or pasta and cheese, for example, it's ok.

It would be easier if milk was an option. I have a great corn chowder recipe to go with the canned corn and the potatoes.

Keep On Dancing*