Last month, my roommate declared that one could not eat with only $50 a month. It was a week into the month, and I had already spent $25, but I accepted this challenge.
How I did it:
- No eating out - ever. If my roommates wanted me to go out to eat, they could pay for me : P
- I used up the stock accumulated in my pantry: mostly noodles, rice, and flour. (these ran out the last week @_@;).
- Used up accumulated miso paste (I had two cartons of it >,<) and a few cans of veggies.
- Avoided dairy like the plague (I don't eat meat, but I looove cheese), also avoided my regular purchases of almond milk
- What I bought: (seasonal!!!) produce, lentils, beans
- When I made big dishes, I shared with my roomies! Then if I needed an ingredient (like butter or sugar), they were more than willing to share if they got some noms out of it.
As it turns out- produce is pretty cheap and there are even more competitive options just 2 miles down the road if I wanted to get an even deeper discount than the 1/2 mi grocery offers.
I think I ate pretty well too. Among my meals were miso soup noodles with assorted veggies, and full-up taco night with homemade tortillas (very easy to make, tough to get right consistency), beans, rice and veggies. One evening I even whipped up a batch of halva!
If you combined cheap grocery action with a quarterly trip to the bulk discount store - I think you could eat even more gourmet-like than I did.
