One Dollar A Day Diet.

[okpondlady]

Originally Posted by NCyank

You're absolutely right about this. We eat for less than $1 per day/per person and it isn't ramen noodles and PB&J. Last night we had all beef hot dogs, homemade macaroni and cheese (with whole grain pasta) and steamed broccoli.


Now this couple could do much better with a little more know-how. I feel bad they ate PB&J every day for lunch!! I had a steaming hot bowl of turkey vegetable soup (made from scratch) for lunch yesterday....I'd be happy to give them some pointers if they really want to learn.

They don't. They are Not Making A Statement. I would bet my mother cooks for less than a dollar a day a person and it is good for you food. I would like to think I do also but I know it is less nutritionally sound. The girls get free lunch and breakfast at school (most do here) but we still usually feed them Cream O Wheat or Oatmeal and maybe an egg. I think the key to most of this is smart shopping and cooking from scratch. NCYank could you post us some sites and tips?
Thanks

[cdc3217]

Originally Posted by NCyank

You're absolutely right about this. We eat for less than $1 per day/per person and it isn't ramen noodles and PB&J. Last night we had all beef hot dogs, homemade macaroni and cheese (with whole grain pasta) and steamed broccoli. Yum!!! The kids usually eat grits and eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, have fruit & veggies in lunch every day (if they don't pack it for lunch it is their after school snack) and veggies with dinner every night. We eat very well on a very small budget.

You have to be a smart shopper. I got milk for $0.89 cents per gallon this week because it was near expiration. I only bought 5 gallons to put in the freezer. I would have gotten more (like 15) if I had more room but I recently got a bunch of FREE frozen veggies and didn't have room for more.

Now this couple could do much better with a little more know-how. I feel bad they ate PB&J every day for lunch!! I had a steaming hot bowl of turkey vegetable soup (made from scratch) for lunch yesterday....I'd be happy to give them some pointers if they really want to learn.

You're right too, cooking from scratch saves a lot of $$ and with a little practice you can do it efficiently. Soups, stews, casseroles all can be done cheaply and are great for sneaking wholes grains and veggies into the diet.

I make a really hi-protein and healthy spagetti sauce that uses 1/2 lb of ground turkey, carrots, zucchini (which you can grate and freeze in the summer, then use later) along with tomatoes, onions, garlic, spices and red wine - critical to improving the flavor of the turkey. Then I upgrade our pasta to Barilla Plus (high protein - my one son doesn't like tomato sauce very much so we know he's getting protein this way) and use coupons and sales to get the price down.

This batch of sauce makes enought for two four person meals - and the final cost with the sale pricing is about $1 per meal per person.

Sale shopping, gardening and canning/freezing, and cooking from scratch all work wonders on the food budget. You can get really amazing deals on staple ingredients at stores like Walgreens and CVS if you watch their flyers. A really helpful website I have found is:

Money Saving Mom

[eevee]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

SO unhealthy... Way too many simple carbs and not nearly enough vegetables and fruit.

so true! it doesn't look like they had ANY fruit in those 30 days! ANYONE can eat at $1/day if you don't have to strive for healthy foods! just load up on Ramen, Wonder bread, cheap white rice, potatoes and other produce w/ high GI numbers (I could feel my PCOS threatening to resurface just from reading all the recipes that involved white potatoes!), powder juice drinks, cheap cookies, and canned meats. hell, really poor people already do something similar to what that couple is doing (I survived off of PB&J sandwiches in elementary school!), but then again, those poor people aren't really eating the healthiest stuff either. IDK, that couple isn't really all that inspiring. if I had known that a diet like that would get you interviews w/ multiple news shows (they sure are getting tons of publicity; the first page is all just about what show they'll be on next!), I would have put out a blog AGES ago and cashed in!

IDK, maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but I've giving up on coupon clipping, at least for food. seems like 90% of the coupons are for packaged, processed foods. I still dig around for coupons for toiletries, I check out store flyers for good sales, and I can snag some awesome coupons from Whole Foods Market, but I honestly think coupon clipping is overrated if you're trying to avoid processed foods

I honestly think I'm going to start dumpster diving soon. having worked in supermarkets, I know how much perfectly good food just gets tossed in the trash. I have a classmate that is religious about diving, and she always tells use the deals she's found (entire bags of fresh bread and bagels, crates of bruised, but edible produce, etc). and I know that if you work up a relationship w/ a store, you may be able to regularly get cheap foods that may be about to spoil (ie, discount meats and dairy, bad produce). in one store I worked in, we had a customer who came in often for cheap meats and produce for herself and her pets. there are some people that just don't realize you can do this however, that you can haggle for cheaper price for this type of stuff (and if you don't haggle for it, supermarkets WON'T HESITATE to sell their bruised produce, dented cans, and about to spoil dairy and meats at full price!)

now, if someone wants to create a blog where you can eat for $1/day and still have a healthy diet that doesn't include instant noodles, white flour, Tang (nasty stuff! ), and includes lots of healthy stuff like whole grains and produce, can be geared towards occasional meat eaters (yes, a diet w/ meat is more expensive than one w/o, but some people, like me, aren't willing to give it up cold turkey (no pun intended!). I for one can't survive off of wheat gluten!), doesn't rely 100% on farmers markets and garden grown produce (yeah, my backyard is under several inches of snow and ice!) AND can market this diet in a way people of lessor means can do it (ie, no pointing out great sales at Whole Foods, since this market only tends to be in middle class-upper class areas!), then I'd freaking subscribe to it.

sadly, this blog seems to underline the point that some nutrition will have to be sacrificed when you're eating that cheaply. I'm sure that's not the case w/ everyone, and there are ways, but it's just not a goal everyone can accomplish

[pitt_transplant]

Uh..if you are in Chicago I am sure there are places where the grocery and restaurants get their supplies. Shop there before picking through trash. Shopping at whole foods is a rip off and a half. They take produce from the main shipper and mark it up. I know here a mango at the store is over two dollars. At the depot where the stores get their stuff (which is also open to public) you can get mangoes for under a dollar (usually under 75 cents).

You really shouldn't get stuff out of a trash bin because you don't know what was also in there.
People who are actually really poor (homeless) should be left that food that are truly in a do or die situation. Not people looking for a bargain.

And if you get salmonella from a roach walking across whatever that can affect you later in life. It can lead to kidney failure. (all food poisoning can)But hep and bed bugs and vomit...I'd rather starve or eat white flour.

[eevee]

Originally Posted by pitt_transplant

Uh..if you are in Chicago I am sure there are places where the grocery and restaurants get their supplies. Shop there before picking through trash. Shopping at whole foods is a rip off and a half. They take produce from the main shipper and mark it up. I know here a mango at the store is over two dollars. At the depot where the stores get their stuff (which is also open to public) you can get mangoes for under a dollar (usually under 75 cents).

You really shouldn't get stuff out of a trash bin because you don't know what was also in there.
People who are actually really poor (homeless) should be left that food that are truly in a do or die situation. Not people looking for a bargain.

And if you get salmonella from a roach walking across whatever that can affect you later in life. It can lead to kidney failure. (all food poisoning can)But hep and bed bugs and vomit...I'd rather starve or eat white flour.

well, the key to dumpster diving is to get the food BEFORE it actually hits the dumpster. trust me, I've worked in plenty of supermarkets and the huge amounts of foods that get tossed is baffling. my classmate has worked up a schedule and relationship w/ certain stores where workers hand her the bags of food they were about to toss. again, it's amazing the stuff she ends up with (more bread products then she could ever eat alone, so she gives it out, bags of bruised apples and pears, etc). plus, I can afford to feed myself for the most part, I just figure, why let free food go to waste?

and buying from suppliers would likely involve buying in bulk, something that I can't do (no car, no license). sadly, I don't have the luxury of buying in bulk, so I have to make multiple trips to the store (at least 3x a month)

[pitt_transplant]

I dont buy bulk either and dont have a either. You dont need to buy giant things and resturaunt supplies. Like for example they had this frozen box of ravioli that was about the size of 3 phonebooks. Under 20 bucks and FILLED to the brim with pasta. You can walk that home easily and it fit in a standard freezer with room to spare.You buy fruit/veggies by the piece just like the stores too. Damaged repacks of fancy and whole grain pasta thats usually 8-12 dollars/lb...99 cents.
We shop for food freshly on about every 2-3 days.

[pitt_transplant]

I dont buy bulk either and dont have a either. You dont need to buy giant things and resturaunt supplies. Like for example they had this frozen box of ravioli that was about the size of 3 phonebooks. Under 20 bucks and FILLED to the brim with pasta. You can walk that home easily and it fit in a standard freezer with room to spare.You buy fruit/veggies by the piece just like the stores too. Damaged repacks of fancy and whole grain pasta thats usually 8-12 dollars/lb...99 cents.
We shop for food freshly on about every 2-3 days.