Extremely low food budget plan ideas for a $20 a week?

[arakboss]

If you had to eat on $20 a week what would you buy? Assume roughly 2500 calories a day for calorie requirement.

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[spookshack]

Raman noodles.

 

[Certaindeaf]

A 50 pack of .22.

 

[Certaindeaf]

OK, I take it back. A 50 lb sack of potatoes and with the remaining $18, whores and blow.

 

[JustSomeGuy]

Did you mean 2500 calories per day? I take in around 3600 a day and can't imagine an activity level (or lack thereof) that 2500 calories per week would support short of being comatose.

 

[Starsky]

You are gonna get skinny!

 

[arakboss]

Did you mean 2500 calories per day? I take in around 3600 a day and can't imagine an activity level (or lack thereof) that 2500 calories per week would support short of being comatose.

Yes sorry, fixed it.

 

[P7M13]

You can go to Winco, buy 20 energy bars for $20 and beat your calorie requirement.
Assuming you want to eat >1,200 calories per day, eat healthy, (can still cook over something)....
Bulk Section:

Ingredient	Cost
Dried Oatmeal 4# @ 68¢/lb	$ 2.72
Chick peas, 8# @ 67¢/lb	$ 5.36
Lentils, 7# @ 79¢/lb	$ 5.53
Nutritional Yeast, 1# @ $1.70	$ 1.70
1 bag carrots @ 98¢ (or whatever other veggie you prefer, onions?)	$ 0.98
1 block cheese @ $2.50	$ 2.50
1 jar coconut oil	$0.88​
Kale	$ 0.33
	$ 20.00

For flavor, you can pick up pepper, salt, sugar, hot sauce and red peppers at fast food joints & pizzarias.
This time of year, you can find lots of fennel and dill growing wild, fig trees and tons of apples. If you're lucky, you'll happen upon a gravenstein apple tree.

 

[arakboss]

You can go to Winco, buy 20 energy bars for $20 and beat your calorie requirement.
Assuming you want to eat >1,200 calories per day, eat healthy, (can still cook over something)....
Bulk Section:

Ingredient	Cost
Dried Oatmeal 4# @ 68¢/lb	$ 2.72
Chick peas, 8# @ 67¢/lb	$ 5.36
Lentils, 7# @ 79¢/lb	$ 5.53
Nutritional Yeast, 1# @ $1.70	$ 1.70
1 bag carrots @ 98¢ (or whatever other veggie you prefer, onions?)	$ 0.98
1 block cheese @ $2.50	$ 2.50
1 jar coconut oil	$0.88​
Kale	$ 0.33
	$ 20.00

For flavor, you can pick up pepper, salt, sugar, hot sauce and red peppers at fast food joints & pizzarias.

That is a pretty detailed list, are you living on that now?

 

[s1xty7]

One thing is for sure, you add a wife and a couple of kids, ain't no way you are keeping it under $20 a week. I feel like it's a win every time I keep it under $20 a meal!

 

[P7M13]

That is a pretty detailed list, are you living on that now?

Nope. Company went belly-up in 2007, then cc13, paid everything back, ~38¢ of what was owed. Did some hard living for four years digging out of that mess, and practiced what I preached above, though it was more like $60/week. A lot more detail to that story, my kids and their mother were covered by Oregon Trail (divorce too....).

Some of the happiest times I remember.

 

[EHJ]

In critical times, these are worth their weight in gold.

lol. Good times.

 

[American123]

Around here you can get eggs pretty regularly for $1 a dozen. I would eat a lot of egg based things for protein, and I would take a daily multivitamin for the nutrients I would be missing.

$20 for an entire week seems unreasonable though. That budget is only about $1000 a year on food and that's just not realistic.

 

[P7M13]

That is a pretty detailed list, are you living on that now?

Up until Covid, I traveled a lot. Depending on the city, would get $45-65/day meal stipend, tax free. Learned to keep my meals < $10/day. When I found a induction heater for $20, started taking that and a fry pan. Fried eggs, toast, kielbasa and sauerkraut, curry. Just had to make sure to cook in the bathroom to keep the smells from permeating the room. Colleagues would say, "how the F do you do it?" Easy.
Upshot - I have a safe full of guns, and >$5K in loading gear & components that never hit a line in the budget.

 

[Stomper]

Did you mean 2500 calories per day? I take in around 3600 a day and can't imagine an activity level (or lack thereof) that 2500 calories per week would support short of being comatose.

3600 calories a day?!

WTH are you doing, wrestling gators and bears, then pushing boulders uphill all day?

 

[Stomper]

Up until Covid, I traveled a lot. Depending on the city, would get $45-65/day meal stipend, tax free. Learned to keep my meals < $10/day. When I found a induction heater for $20, started taking that and a fry pan. Fried eggs, toast, kielbasa and sauerkraut, curry. Just had to make sure to cook in the bathroom to keep the smells from permeating the room. Colleagues would say, "how the F do you do it?" Easy.
Upshot - I have a safe full of guns, and >$5K in loading gear & components that never hit a line in the budget.

I'm not a fussy eater AT ALL.... I'll eat food meant to be served hot, cold... and vice-versa... don't care if I eat the same thing over and over, will even eat food raw (or still alive) that should be cooked (if no other choice).

We had a saying in my Army unit... "fussy boys go hungry."

 

[arakboss]

I'm not a fussy eater AT ALL.... I'll eat food meant to be served hot, cold... and vice-versa... don't care if I eat the same thing over and over, will even eat food raw (or still alive) that should be cooked (if no other choice).

We had a saying in my Army unit... "fussy boys go hungry."

I am 6ft and pushing 250lbs again, I could afford to be fussy for quite a while.

 

[JustSomeGuy]

3600 calories a day?!

WTH are you doing, wrestling gators and bears, then pushing boulders uphill all day?

Some days it feels like it. At sunup I dole out the daily assignments to the hands then spend the rest of the day running around the ranch taking care of the things I assigned to myself, helping the hands with their assignments and taking care of the unassigned things that inevitably crop up. I get plenty of cardio and strength training daily.

 

[Jonnyuma]

Meat soup:
Ground beef and/or pork, canned tomatoes, garlic, onions.
Use it as a base...
Add beans and chili powder/cumin for chili one day.
Add $.99 spaghetti sauce, oregano and pasta of choice another day.
Add veggies to make stew.
Add rice to make a goulash-y thing.
Add beans and rice, and spice it up for a jambalaya thing... put in some smoked sausage if you're flush.
Lots of ways to go... hell, you got a whole WEEK to think of add-ins.

Also, peanut butter.

 

[PaulB47]

1) rice
2) beans

Not very exciting, but you can go a long way with these two staples.