Step One:
First and foremost: make a money Budget. How much do you want to spend on food? How much do you spend currently? Do you just want to cut your expenditures in half, or do you want to shoot for a hard number. What luxuries do you prioritize? Go look at your bank statement and write down all your comestible expenditures. Shit, if you're going this far may as well make an actual budget. Step Two:
Make a nutrition budget. Estimate your daily calorie needs first, here is an online calculator to help. Next, figure out how much protein you need. Vitamins and minerals you may have to worry about on the lower end of the budget spectrum but in general, a western diet is not going to have many vitamin deficiencies if you're eating a somewhat diverse diet. Step Three:
Figure out your grocery sources. For most people this will mean finding a few grocery stores, but do not discount the cost savings and nutritional benefits that can be made from alternative food sources such as: community supported agriculture clubs/ grocer co-ops, food banks, local charity/churches often receive donations of slightly old produce and sell it in bundles for cheap, etc. Key things to look for: mexican and asian markets in major cities typically make the majority of their money off raw ingredients and so sell ethnic food staples and produce quite cheaply. Step Four:
Plan your meals. You know how much food you need now, you know how much money you have to spend. Plan your meals out weekly. Make a Meal chart, breakfast lunch and dinner for a week. Remember that this is a guideline: you will want to be able to take advantage of specials at stores and such, so you want to leave a little room in your budget for deals as they come up, and to build up your stock of staples, but you want to have a plan you can stick to and eat somewhat regularly. I find a weekly schedule to be nice because it's hard to get too bored if you're just eating something weekly. Common Pitfalls:
Buying baked goods, of any sort. The markup on these is huge. 12 dollars in raw materials will make you delicious homemade breads for months. Tortillas can be made in less time than it takes to go the store and buy them for pennies. Even pasta can be made cheaply and easily and frozen: ravioli is stupid easy to make. Buying most herbs: 10$ can get you potted herbs that will keep in your window and keep you going for long periods of time. Buying hotdogs, bologna: pork shoulder is roughly the same cost, is ten times as delicious, and containes 100% less animal asshole. Eating out/convenience food shopping: prepare your convenience foods ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate them.
Buying prepared foods of any sort really: the most important thing really is to learn to cook. You have the internet, there are recipes of every skill level out there for you to cut your teeth on. There are three tricks to becoming a good cook: try new things to find out what you like, learn how raw ingredients behave when heated so you can mix things you like in new ways without making an inedible mess, and stay the fuck away from "high" heat unless you are boiling water or trying intentionally to burn something. ** Food Planning (with examples)**
These assume a caloric need of: 2500 calories a day/17500 a week.. As I have mentioned before: Supercook will give you some ideas of what you can make with whatever you happened to pick up on sale or that strange vegetable that got dropped off with your CSA load. Budget: 0$ per week.
Hopefully you're not just frugaljerking and you're actually just in a hard spot and need to get by for awhile. You're in luck: you will eat. First, get yourself to a salvation army, bring an ID, and ask for an emergency food box. This will include roughly 6000 calories of food. If you're feeling unscrupulous tell them you're feeding a family of four, and it will include roughly 12000 calories. This service can be used once a month. Next get yourself to your community food bank. Another food box. These tend to be a little richer. 23699 Calories in this example food box for instance.
You've now met almost half your food requirements for the month without spending a dime, and you'll have enough calories to get through the next ordeal: waiting in line for the civil servant who will approve your food stamps: food stamps are hard to get for people who make even small amounts of money. Emergency food stamps on the other hand, much easier to get. You'll only be approved for 60-90 days, but you go into that office wearing your rattiest clothing and tell them you are HOMELESS and JOBLESS (even if it's a lie, if you don't say this you'll spend two weeks traveling to and from their office and still likely be disqualified for something stupid), searching for a job, have explored other food options, and are just trying to get back on your feet. You will jump through some hoops, They will grant you an emergency boon, usually about 200/month$ for one or two months. Spend according to the advice below and you'll be back on your feet in no time. Budget: 25$ a week:
Staples territory. In order to cook almost anything you're going to need something to grease a pan. Oil, get it from an asian grocer, lard gets a bad rap but it's cheap, flavorful and shelf stable. Rice: 25 lbs long grain brown rice + 25 Lbs black beans = roughly 55$ and equates to 75000 calories which will feed you for a month, and it's a complete protein freeing up your nutrition budget for whatever cheap veggies you can find. Eggs are 13 cents apiece, buy them five dozen at a time. Flour: 25lbs is about 9$ and 40000 calories, making it the cheapest nutrition source I know of. Get sugar, yeast, and dry milk to make noodles, gravy, puff pastry, and tortillas. Spend the remaining 20$ a month on the cheapest produce you can find: apples, oranges, cauliflower, onions, bunches of greens, save some money to buy yourself the odd live herb plant to spice up your food. This is about enough food to feed 2 people, but you will get real tired of it. This tiredness is a good thing: it will drive you to become really really good at cooking with a handful of ingredients.
Example meals (all roughly 1$ a meal): scrambled eggs and pancakes with an orange, lentil soup and home-made bread, bean burritos, brothy beans and rice with corn. Egg noodles with homemade alfredo. Homemade roasted tomato soup. Budget: 40$ a week:
It's time to talk meat and bountiful fresh produce! Assume the above staples have been met: cut your rice and beans intake to about 1/4 of your diet, roughly 20$ a month. You're now looking at about 30$ a week to play with for the stuff you've been missing so sorely: produce and meat! Steak is still a ways off, but you can now afford some of the most delicious foods in the world: pork shoulder, cheap greasy whitefishes, chicken thighs.
At this point you can begin eating a simple salad a day without worrying about your budget if you buy non premixed veggies and stick with your cheap ones (a spinach or romaine bundles, 2 cheap tomatoes, 2 apples, 1 onions is enough to make four salads and will run about 3-4 dollars).
A pork roast which is made then turned into pot pies costs me roughly 25$ for 16000 calories. It is far less efficient than rice and beans, but it adds much needed flair to the diet and once a month it is a nice treat. Other cheap meats provide similar utility: swai in nugget form is 2$/lb and makes delicious fish tacos. Bulk coconut milk, cheap chicken, and whatever cheap veggies and fruits are on hand mixed with quality curry paste makes for another food that can feed you for days on less than 20$.
Remember to leave a little headroom and continue to build your portfolio of herbs, spices, and staples. If you have a community supported agriculture project in you area, buy a share or go in on a share with a friend and watch your fridge bloom with all kinds of delicious foods.
Example meals (roughly 2-3$ a meal): Omelettes, Yellow Curry over rice with chicken and pineapple. Pork pot roast or pot pie with creamed leeks, pulled pork sandwiches and bananas. Fish tacos with shredded cabbage and habaneros. Fucking AMAZING authentic spaghetti. Whole roasted chickens with wilted spinach salad. Broccoli and cauliflower soup. hamburgers or tacos. Chicken noodle soup. Budget: 60$ a week:
Now you don't have to worry about the cost of produce and meat as much: rice and beans becomes an occasional side. Cheaper cuts of steak are in your range. Of course you have to mix it up with stuff from above to keep it frugal, but you can splurge once or twice a week and now now tastier fruits are within your grasp. Avocados, bell peppers, artichokes, beef, cheese, green beans! If your CSA does a meat share you can probably afford it. Your spice cabinet should be well stocked.
Example meals: (roughly 3-4$ a meal): eggs benedict, beef and broccoli stir fry, Beer braised sausage with pesto pasta, lush black bean and potato burritos with guacamole and homemade salsa. Chicken breast with mushroom and fontina cheese, roast turkey breast sandwiches loaded with veggies, chiles rellenos.
Budget 80$ a week:
Fatcat! What are you doing here? You can eat like 2 subway sandwiches a day and still have enough to fund your rice and beans habit. Prime cuts of meat are well within your budget. You can buy fresh produce on the fly and pre-mixed salads and such. In truth at this point most of us start buying more convenient foods (like those 7$ 2 lb rotisserie chickens at the grocery store) but if you still insist on cooking you are now eating like a king.
Example meals (roughly 5-6$ a meal). Seabass and shrimp over angelhair with sauteed greens. New york strip steak and creamed leeks. Amazing salads that keep you full for half the day. Waffles with strawberries and champagne sabayon. Cashews as a regular snack. You are living the dream, my friend.
First and foremost: make a money Budget. How much do you want to spend on food? How much do you spend currently? Do you just want to cut your expenditures in half, or do you want to shoot for a hard number. What luxuries do you prioritize? Go look at your bank statement and write down all your comestible expenditures. Shit, if you're going this far may as well make an actual budget. Step Two:
Make a nutrition budget. Estimate your daily calorie needs first, here is an online calculator to help. Next, figure out how much protein you need. Vitamins and minerals you may have to worry about on the lower end of the budget spectrum but in general, a western diet is not going to have many vitamin deficiencies if you're eating a somewhat diverse diet. Step Three:
Figure out your grocery sources. For most people this will mean finding a few grocery stores, but do not discount the cost savings and nutritional benefits that can be made from alternative food sources such as: community supported agriculture clubs/ grocer co-ops, food banks, local charity/churches often receive donations of slightly old produce and sell it in bundles for cheap, etc. Key things to look for: mexican and asian markets in major cities typically make the majority of their money off raw ingredients and so sell ethnic food staples and produce quite cheaply. Step Four:
Plan your meals. You know how much food you need now, you know how much money you have to spend. Plan your meals out weekly. Make a Meal chart, breakfast lunch and dinner for a week. Remember that this is a guideline: you will want to be able to take advantage of specials at stores and such, so you want to leave a little room in your budget for deals as they come up, and to build up your stock of staples, but you want to have a plan you can stick to and eat somewhat regularly. I find a weekly schedule to be nice because it's hard to get too bored if you're just eating something weekly. Common Pitfalls:
Buying baked goods, of any sort. The markup on these is huge. 12 dollars in raw materials will make you delicious homemade breads for months. Tortillas can be made in less time than it takes to go the store and buy them for pennies. Even pasta can be made cheaply and easily and frozen: ravioli is stupid easy to make. Buying most herbs: 10$ can get you potted herbs that will keep in your window and keep you going for long periods of time. Buying hotdogs, bologna: pork shoulder is roughly the same cost, is ten times as delicious, and containes 100% less animal asshole. Eating out/convenience food shopping: prepare your convenience foods ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate them.
Buying prepared foods of any sort really: the most important thing really is to learn to cook. You have the internet, there are recipes of every skill level out there for you to cut your teeth on. There are three tricks to becoming a good cook: try new things to find out what you like, learn how raw ingredients behave when heated so you can mix things you like in new ways without making an inedible mess, and stay the fuck away from "high" heat unless you are boiling water or trying intentionally to burn something. ** Food Planning (with examples)**
These assume a caloric need of: 2500 calories a day/17500 a week.. As I have mentioned before: Supercook will give you some ideas of what you can make with whatever you happened to pick up on sale or that strange vegetable that got dropped off with your CSA load. Budget: 0$ per week.
Hopefully you're not just frugaljerking and you're actually just in a hard spot and need to get by for awhile. You're in luck: you will eat. First, get yourself to a salvation army, bring an ID, and ask for an emergency food box. This will include roughly 6000 calories of food. If you're feeling unscrupulous tell them you're feeding a family of four, and it will include roughly 12000 calories. This service can be used once a month. Next get yourself to your community food bank. Another food box. These tend to be a little richer. 23699 Calories in this example food box for instance.
You've now met almost half your food requirements for the month without spending a dime, and you'll have enough calories to get through the next ordeal: waiting in line for the civil servant who will approve your food stamps: food stamps are hard to get for people who make even small amounts of money. Emergency food stamps on the other hand, much easier to get. You'll only be approved for 60-90 days, but you go into that office wearing your rattiest clothing and tell them you are HOMELESS and JOBLESS (even if it's a lie, if you don't say this you'll spend two weeks traveling to and from their office and still likely be disqualified for something stupid), searching for a job, have explored other food options, and are just trying to get back on your feet. You will jump through some hoops, They will grant you an emergency boon, usually about 200/month$ for one or two months. Spend according to the advice below and you'll be back on your feet in no time. Budget: 25$ a week:
Staples territory. In order to cook almost anything you're going to need something to grease a pan. Oil, get it from an asian grocer, lard gets a bad rap but it's cheap, flavorful and shelf stable. Rice: 25 lbs long grain brown rice + 25 Lbs black beans = roughly 55$ and equates to 75000 calories which will feed you for a month, and it's a complete protein freeing up your nutrition budget for whatever cheap veggies you can find. Eggs are 13 cents apiece, buy them five dozen at a time. Flour: 25lbs is about 9$ and 40000 calories, making it the cheapest nutrition source I know of. Get sugar, yeast, and dry milk to make noodles, gravy, puff pastry, and tortillas. Spend the remaining 20$ a month on the cheapest produce you can find: apples, oranges, cauliflower, onions, bunches of greens, save some money to buy yourself the odd live herb plant to spice up your food. This is about enough food to feed 2 people, but you will get real tired of it. This tiredness is a good thing: it will drive you to become really really good at cooking with a handful of ingredients.
Example meals (all roughly 1$ a meal): scrambled eggs and pancakes with an orange, lentil soup and home-made bread, bean burritos, brothy beans and rice with corn. Egg noodles with homemade alfredo. Homemade roasted tomato soup. Budget: 40$ a week:
It's time to talk meat and bountiful fresh produce! Assume the above staples have been met: cut your rice and beans intake to about 1/4 of your diet, roughly 20$ a month. You're now looking at about 30$ a week to play with for the stuff you've been missing so sorely: produce and meat! Steak is still a ways off, but you can now afford some of the most delicious foods in the world: pork shoulder, cheap greasy whitefishes, chicken thighs.
At this point you can begin eating a simple salad a day without worrying about your budget if you buy non premixed veggies and stick with your cheap ones (a spinach or romaine bundles, 2 cheap tomatoes, 2 apples, 1 onions is enough to make four salads and will run about 3-4 dollars).
A pork roast which is made then turned into pot pies costs me roughly 25$ for 16000 calories. It is far less efficient than rice and beans, but it adds much needed flair to the diet and once a month it is a nice treat. Other cheap meats provide similar utility: swai in nugget form is 2$/lb and makes delicious fish tacos. Bulk coconut milk, cheap chicken, and whatever cheap veggies and fruits are on hand mixed with quality curry paste makes for another food that can feed you for days on less than 20$.
Remember to leave a little headroom and continue to build your portfolio of herbs, spices, and staples. If you have a community supported agriculture project in you area, buy a share or go in on a share with a friend and watch your fridge bloom with all kinds of delicious foods.
Example meals (roughly 2-3$ a meal): Omelettes, Yellow Curry over rice with chicken and pineapple. Pork pot roast or pot pie with creamed leeks, pulled pork sandwiches and bananas. Fish tacos with shredded cabbage and habaneros. Fucking AMAZING authentic spaghetti. Whole roasted chickens with wilted spinach salad. Broccoli and cauliflower soup. hamburgers or tacos. Chicken noodle soup. Budget: 60$ a week:
Now you don't have to worry about the cost of produce and meat as much: rice and beans becomes an occasional side. Cheaper cuts of steak are in your range. Of course you have to mix it up with stuff from above to keep it frugal, but you can splurge once or twice a week and now now tastier fruits are within your grasp. Avocados, bell peppers, artichokes, beef, cheese, green beans! If your CSA does a meat share you can probably afford it. Your spice cabinet should be well stocked.
Example meals: (roughly 3-4$ a meal): eggs benedict, beef and broccoli stir fry, Beer braised sausage with pesto pasta, lush black bean and potato burritos with guacamole and homemade salsa. Chicken breast with mushroom and fontina cheese, roast turkey breast sandwiches loaded with veggies, chiles rellenos.
Budget 80$ a week:
Fatcat! What are you doing here? You can eat like 2 subway sandwiches a day and still have enough to fund your rice and beans habit. Prime cuts of meat are well within your budget. You can buy fresh produce on the fly and pre-mixed salads and such. In truth at this point most of us start buying more convenient foods (like those 7$ 2 lb rotisserie chickens at the grocery store) but if you still insist on cooking you are now eating like a king.
Example meals (roughly 5-6$ a meal). Seabass and shrimp over angelhair with sauteed greens. New york strip steak and creamed leeks. Amazing salads that keep you full for half the day. Waffles with strawberries and champagne sabayon. Cashews as a regular snack. You are living the dream, my friend.
