How To Live (Comfortably) on $36 A Month For Food

I was having a nice lunch with my friend Chris the other day.  The bill came, and I laughed, it was around $40 with tip, which was more than my entire food budget for a month in college.  I told this to Chris how I did it, and  he said I should write about the process of living off of next to nothing.

This isn’t a post that resembles a call to action.  It is a (poor) diary of how I lived off of a $36 food budget for a month.  One of the most humbling experiences I have ever had was shopping for two weeks worth of food with a twenty dollar bill.  I learned to get by with some tricks.  I was in college for this, and was deathly fearful of graduating with debt, so I did all I could to stick to my budget I earned on a 20 hour a week university job.

Try Eating

Hacking your food budget is one of those things that I am surprised more people don’t do. My current budget is around $380/m (it was $180/m until I started training for half Ironman distance triathlons), with my favorite recipes coming from when I didn’t have the money to splurge.

So if you are interested in lowering your monthly food budget, but still eat good food, remember these as a starter:

  • If you are $ poor you might not be time poor.  Use this to your advantage.
  • Everything you buy should be at least 50% off retail.  Every. Single. Thing.
  • Realize that if you are really sticking to a budget, you have to change your whole thought process on food.  It is a staple of survival.  Lard is the highest calorie per cent food you can buy.  Disturbing, but if you are going to be scientific about it, makes the most sense (I’ve never had to go there).
  • You can do this by ramen, but that isn’t healthy, or tasty.

Alright, so if you want to do $36 a month for food, you are going to have to break that down to about .33 a meal.  Sounds like pennies.  It isn’t as tough as you think.

Cook Every Meal At Home:

No question about it, except if you can find a bag of day old bagels.

Sales and Shopping:

The hardest part to start.  You need to shift your habits to load up on foods that are deep discounted.   Figure out the stores cycle of coupons, sales and clearance.  When I lived in Rhode Island, Sunday was the big sale day and also the day when the clearance stickers went on.  In Boulder, the grocery store I go to has the best bang for your buck day on Wednesday (they honor last week and the next weeks deals).  Ground beef might be on a super deal (sale plus a manager special), grab a months worth.  That week, other items won’t be on sale, pass on them.  Your pantry, and your ability to not have anything spoil will be a great way to cut costs.

Breakfasts:

Cheapest meal of the day, also my favorite.  Oats with raisins or a banana works out to be about $.12 a serving.  Milk or soy brings it up to about $.20.  Lipton tea bags cost $.02 a piece.  If you are on the run the oatmeal packets (the flavored ones) run around $.15 a piece.  Eggs can run as low as .09, so a 3 egg omelet with peppers and cheese goes for $.38.   I used to see english muffins go for $1  a pack of 8 on Sundays.

Lunch:

Sandwiches are the cheapest route.  PB+J can be priced at $.25, so doing two plus a banana ($.10) makes a pretty filling lunch for $.60.  Leftovers from dinner are also an option.  Rice cakes and cheese was a favorite.  Bagels, fruit and salads are staples.  Lunch was always my wild card.  Leftovers were the norm.

Dinner:

Rice and beans extravaganza is my favorite meal (still to this day I make it once a week).  Rice can be found in 10lb bags for $5 at a specialty store.  You can soak your own beans, add ground beef (a pound of 85% can be as low as $1.25) cheese and an avocado.  You can make 3 dinners for around $.44 a serving.  A big pot of soup can be ultra cheap (chicken broth, veggies, spices) with bread.  Homemade bread can be time consuming, but can bring costs down to around $.80 a loaf.

Salads are cheap, buy from the bins and bag your own.  Spaghetti can cost out to $1.50 with enough for three meals.   Repeating meals saves money because you can share ingredients.   Also, if you are really hurting to make due, ask your friends to cook for you.  Bring what you can and help clean up.

Snacks:

The bulk section (generally the biggest rip off) can have some great snacks (granola ~$.15 a handful).  Carrots or produce can be cheap, shop the deals.

I'm too cheap for food...

Hacks

Drink tons of water 20-30 min before your meal.  Your brain will think you are full when you start eating, and you won’t feel bad about not having a feast.  Find as much free snacks as you can (during this time I would take a small bag of peanuts from the admissions office every other day).  The smaller your stomach is, the easier this is going to be.  There are tons of ways to get free food by just asking.  Waiters that happen to be friends are a good source.  Dumpster diving (a favorite of my neighbor) is surprisingly clean with most of the good stuff set in a box on top of the garbage.

Coupons:

There are a ton of no frills coupons on items.  I remember buying a flat of spaghetti sauce for $.1o a can.  If you have the time, you can cut your bill in half, if not more.  A friend still sends fan mail to companies in hopes of getting coupons back.  There is room here if you have the time!

Closing:

Please list some of your favorite ultra bootstrappy meals in the comments.  This is a case of a little extremism.  I could have gone cheaper, but instead had a pretty good amount of food, both quality and quantity.

I’m going to go eat something that doesn’t remotely resemble a $.33 meal.


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404 responses to “How To Live (Comfortably) on $36 A Month For Food”

  1. Fergix Avatar
    Fergix

    One of my favorite options. Luckily I've never been a big eater. And hot food isn't necessary every day too, skip a day once in a few days.

  2. Taytayb Avatar
    Taytayb

    Rice and beans extravaganza!

    I think I make a similar version of this… microwave style.

  3. danrogersblog Avatar

    This is a fantastic post – for the UK conscious I have noticed that ASDA, particularly the 24 hour opening stores mark down all of the baked goods heavily late in the evening from 10pm onwards. You can get some ridiculous bargains. Morrisons are also the only major retailer I know that has a marked down wine and beer section – literally end of line, or odd bottles and cans – nothing wrong with it and often placed in the corner or the aisle out of immediate view.

  4. Name Avatar
    Name

    I do Ramen, a can of soup(mushroom or asperigus), a can of milk, and a can of veggies (corn, tomato, or green beans depending on the soup). Good for at least two meals.

    I get a tub of vogurt(four serving, but good for six) add off brand grape nuts and fruit. Frozen fruit isn't as expensive as fresh.

  5. Justin Avatar
    Justin

    with a wok (my roommate's) i used to dine regularly on a stir-fry i made with ramen, frozen mixed veggies, and soy sauce. and you can save the seasoning packets to make stock for soup.

  6. Tyler Willis Avatar

    Has anyone hacked together a pricing benchmark based on type of food and city yet? A simple version could probably be done by scraping major supermarkets online order sites. I know Safeway has one, bet Costco and 1 or 2 other ones do.

    At most basic you could get a range for the staples (rice, canned food, meat, fish, oatmeal/cereal, frozen veggies, etc.), at a more complex level you could create something similar to farecaster.

    Great post Andrew!

  7. Edvard Avatar
    Edvard

    Also, depending on your income and area it can be very easy to get food stamps. First of the month feels like a feast- especially if you stick to the great suggestions.

  8. KKS Avatar
    KKS

    Hmm. I'm not into the half-eaten items. Garbage picking, I'll do, but nothing that's been bitten!

  9. rockylemuel Avatar
    rockylemuel

    Everything will be better with less.

  10. chrisyeh Avatar
    chrisyeh

    Andrew, did you have a girlfriend during this time? I was doing well on my $1/day diet after I graduated, but then I met my wife, and she put an end to my dried-bean-eating, powdered-milk-drinking ways.

  11. andrewhyde Avatar
    andrewhyde

    At the time I was taking 25 credits a term, pretty safe to say no girlfriend 🙂

  12. Chris Yeh Avatar

    I had a couple of quarters where I was taking 27-30 credits…definitely no girlfriend then either.

  13. Jackie D Avatar

    Fried cabbage and onions is an eastern European staple that I grew up eating and that's still on my all-time favorite meals list. My parents often mixed it with cooked pasta (egg noodles, but you can use anything) to stretch it even further. This is crazy good – make sure to add salt and lots of pepper.

    Rotisserie chickens are great deals; you can get them for as little as $5.50 in the Bay Area, and can get a number of meals from one bird.

    Buy hot dogs on sale, chop and mix with cooked yellow peas or lentils, season and add a bit of nutmeg. This is a ridiculously addictive, cheap meal. (I make a less budget-conscious version, with the best hot dogs I can find, because it's just that delicious.)

    I can't believe the humble potato hasn't been mentioned more. You can do so much here. I still fondly recall my years in Britain, where a baked (“jacket”) potato topped with baked beans and cheese was a lunchtime staple.

    Mix eggs with cottage cheese or yogurt (ratio is completely up to you) and whatever vegetables, meat, and seasonings you have. Bake in a brownie pan or 9×13 baking dish at 350 until firm. Some of my favorite variations include Greek (peas with feta and mint), pizza-style (cheese and mushrooms mixed in, pepperoni on top), and kitchen sink (all the vegetables I need to use up before they go off, salt and pepper).

    If you find apples, pears, or berries on sale, you can make a cheap dessert by topping with a mixture of oats, butter, and sugar/Splenda and baking. I'm also a big fan of frozen berries, thawed and mixed with a bit of Splenda for a cheap and healthy sweet.

  14. m1t0s1s Avatar

    I've found that seeds are good at staving off hunger. Probably not as calorie-rich as Lard, but still….

  15. Cindy C. Avatar

    Great post. We also raise our own laying hens, sheep, meat chickens and beef. May not be quite as cheap as store bought (especially the chickens) but no hormones, etc. I guess if you compared it to organic, hormone free, antibiotic free, it is much cheaper, though.

    We also shop at a Mennonite store near us. Spices are amazing and steel cut oats (better for you, even, than rolled) are the same price as rolled oats…67 cents/lb.

  16. Lorelei Avatar
    Lorelei

    I always stock up on pasta. It's cheap and lasts for ages.

  17. Jonathan Butterworth Avatar

    Great post! You blew me out of the water. I did an experiment called the $20 experiment where I ate for $20/week. So not quite as good as you. I wrote about it on my website if you want to check it out.

    Anyways, I think you have challenged me. Haha!

  18. Cindy C. Avatar

    Oh, another thing. I never turn up my nose at friends saying “we're going to be out of town for a week, would you mind picking the raspberries and garden product? You can have whatever you pick.” 🙂

    We also have a garden about 60' x 80'.

  19. m1t0s1s Avatar

    further, the one drawback is that a mono-diet containing the same foods all the time is not healthy. But oh well. It's about surviving.

  20. Chris Avatar

    3 Fishfingers + Toast + Mayo + Pickles = McFish Burger
    Always have some noodles, milk, cheese, butter and flour at home. adding some condiments does a great cheap pasta plate.

  21. toni_jean Avatar
    toni_jean

    Just three things to add,
    1. Find out where your USDA grocery distribution point is. They will give you two good bags of staple foods, and often the distribution point will supplement the groceries with there own food pantry items. There is no shame in using these programs, they exist to help people who have no money for food.
    2. Sign up for food stamps, another USDA program designed to help people who have no money for food. I think most people would agree that feeding a college student with our tax dollars is a good idea.
    3. If you live in a warmer climate like I do, check out your neighborhood for fruit trees. In the Bay Area I lived next door to an older woman who had several citrus trees in her yard. When I asked her if I could pick some, she was more than happy to share. This is probably the only thing that kept me from getting scurvy.

    The best thing to do is swallow your pride and ask people for help. Nutrition in IMPORTANT.

  22. helpful tip Avatar
    helpful tip

    Thanks for the article, for it was a very interesting read; however, I would like to throw this out there as a word of warning. Being a nutritionist (as well as being a certified trainer for years) I must say that, though cheap, this is a very unhealthy way to live. I mean no offense to your methods but one should certainly consult their an authority on health before taking such risk.

  23. CL Avatar
    CL

    I could be wrong, or maybe I'm not searching hard enough, but I am pretty sure I have never seen ANY of these foods at even CLOSE to this price per unit in NYC. And I make a point to shop at the most inexpensive spots- Fairway, Associated, Trader Joe's, Produce Stands, etc. I don't think this is realistic whatsoever for my area, even when “deep discounts” are applied. That being said, I suppose there is also much more opportunity for freebies here than in other areas. Hmm . . .

  24. travelingbaker Avatar
    travelingbaker

    Best thing ever? Get a recipe for the basic bread recipe in “Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day” and never buy bread again. It's so simple and cheap to make, you'll never buy bread again. Seriously.

  25. startupcfo Avatar

    This brings me back. In my 1st job I had a $ 35/ week budget. Cereal for dinner was a favorite. And noodles – lots of noodles. Would add a can of tuna (well, 1/2 a can) if I felt like splurging.

  26. Ilya Avatar

    Excellent point. Berkeley had a food mailing list and an email would appear any time there were leftovers from some research group's meeting. You had to be fast of course to get there, but that was usually some quality stuff to be had for free. More than enough of it too since there was at least one research group meeting every weekday, so your chances were pretty good to cover 2-3 meals a week.

  27. […] a Nickel and Dimed-esque blog post that details the budget meals meals he ate in college, Andrew Hyde claims you can eat healthily for no more than $36 for a month, or around 33 cents a […]

  28. Emily Avatar
    Emily

    I knew a guy in college who had sleep for supper… meaning if he was hungry, he went to sleep instead of eating. 🙁 I am a person who uses food like currency; I use my excellent culinary skills to trade for goods and services. If you know such a person, see what you can barter. You might be surprised how easy it is to mow the lawn for a free, home-cooked meal.

  29. Eric Avatar

    I took this post seriously until the part about dumpster diving. Don't think I'm being a prude when I say thx but no thx

  30. Eryn Avatar

    My husband sent me this link, probably because I'm ridiculously food-shopping wise. Like I can tell you how many more weeks before the grocery stores in our area put spaghetti sauce on sale again, and “no, don't buy those canned peaches, they're 10 cents a can cheaper at XZY.”

    For many years, we were a family of 4, living below the poverty line, getting no assistance, eating more healthfully than 9/10ths of the people around us.

    I didn't see a lot of mentions of potatoes. My friends in the UK eat potatoes and beans on/with/in everything.

    Tip: Soak your own beans, and freeze them in single serving size containers. Then you can just microwave them when you need them for a meal later. The time involved in soaking beans isn't so bad if you soak 4 times what you normally do and parcel it up.

    The other day, I brought home 2 gallons of milk, 32 ounces of organic (plain) yogurt, and 4 6-packs of Jello pudding (something I would never buy) for 75 cents. I was tickled pink. The kids eat them so fast they'll never go bad.

    Now, we get 99% of our produce from our garden. We're slowly expanding what we can/put up.

    My parents would eat pasta with a different kind of condensed soup for a sauce EVERY night when they were just starting out.

    To the nutritionists warning about how this isn't a healthful way to live. Well, no duh. People don't live like this for years for fun. Obviously they didn't cover the very real hunger problem in class.

    (Has anyone else noticed how expensive condensed soups/tuna has gotten in the last year? The staples of the low-budget diet.)

    Biggest tip? Don't move too far from your parents. Your mom is always good for a free meal, especially when she sees how skinny you're getting!! thanks for this post, I enjoyed it a lot! 🙂

  31. phitches Avatar
    phitches

    Love the post! As a fitness Nutrition “aholic”, where I preach time and again that meal preparation is the key and that eating healthy is actually cheaper than our typical habits… This article was right on point! Thanks for the post Andrew…

  32. Nyx Avatar

    What was the email list? I go to Cal currently.

  33. Ilya Avatar

    cs-grads-food I believe it's grad students only.

  34. Franklin Piens Avatar

    Great Post that reminds me a bit of my schooldays!! AAhh the memories 🙂 retwweting it now and looking forward for more.

  35. Franklin Piens Avatar

    Great Post that reminds me a bit of my schooldays!! AAhh the memories 🙂 retwweting it now and looking forward for more.

  36. Tim Avatar
    Tim

    I hate wal-mart, but they carry 1 lb tubes of frozen ground turkey for just over a dollar and they even have taco flavored and italian flavored (for spaghetti)

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  38. Meow Avatar
    Meow

    Great post! I'd like to add several of my own rules:

    1. Costo membership might be totally worth it. Some items really are a steal there, but they must be non-perishable if you are single and don't have a roommate or neighbor to split the large bulk items with. But many non-perisheables are worth it even if you are single.

    2. Think very long and hard before buying any single food item that is over $5. This rule alone has saved me tons of money.

    3. Rice, frozen veggies, and Trader Joe's Masala Simmer Sauce make for the most delicious cheap meal ever. I make that every other week.

    4. Soups are cheap to make and very filling and delicious. Kind of like the water rule but better.

  39. Meow Avatar
    Meow

    Great post! I'd like to add several of my own rules:

    1. Costo membership might be totally worth it. Some items really are a steal there, but they must be non-perishable if you are single and don't have a roommate or neighbor to split the large bulk items with. But many non-perisheables are worth it even if you are single.

    2. Think very long and hard before buying any single food item that is over $5. This rule alone has saved me tons of money.

    3. Rice, frozen veggies, and Trader Joe's Masala Simmer Sauce make for the most delicious cheap meal ever. I make that every other week.

    4. Soups are cheap to make and very filling and delicious. Kind of like the water rule but better.

  40. Sasak3 Avatar
    Sasak3

    Can I add: Get over being bored and embrace spices.
    I eat rice and beans or lentils and beans for about 80% of my meals. I just add different spices each batch.
    Took about a month to get over being sick of beans and now I’d rather eat that than most of the stuff I eat when I’m not paying for it.

  41. Sasak3 Avatar
    Sasak3

    Can I add: Get over being bored and embrace spices.
    I eat rice and beans or lentils and beans for about 80% of my meals. I just add different spices each batch.
    Took about a month to get over being sick of beans and now I’d rather eat that than most of the stuff I eat when I’m not paying for it.

  42. Derringforth Avatar
    Derringforth

    Wow, have you been paying attention to the news?  because jobs are seriously hard to come by right now, no matter how hard you look.

  43. creari_crokdam Avatar
    creari_crokdam

    I don’t think $36 a month would work today, Except maybe living off ramen noodles. I’m currently averaging about $25-30 a week on my budget. That’s as low as I can get it while still being able to maintain a semblance of healthy. I mostly eat cereal and milk for breakfast, pb for lunch, and frozen burritoes and fries for dinner. I can get the burritoes 3 for a dollar, the fries a dollar a bag. Cereal and milk together is around $5. PB sandwhiches, I’m not sure. The cereal can be sugary but it has lots of vitamins, The PB offers some protein, as do the burritoes which is good. I used to buy some bananas or oranges but it seemed they always went bad before I could eat them all. Mostly I just drink water, I’ve got a filter so it saves lots of money there. Mostly I’m concerned about minimizing the fat and sodium in my food, as those things can really destroy your health. I’m not a vegetarian but meat just costs more.

  44. Strikelive Avatar
    Strikelive

    This is a waste of time, vague mathematics, with little regard for food, just eat less and less, till you are the golden child, then Eddie Murphy will come save you. Happily ever after

  45. NULL Avatar
    NULL

    Amazing prose.

  46. Marisa Miller Avatar
    Marisa Miller

    Whenever i’m in a pinch, I always make a ton of rice, and buy a few cans of soup that are on sale. I always keep my eyes out for the 10 for $5 deal my local store has on their brand of condensed soup. I mix the soup with the rice and it lasts quite a while for my family of 3 🙂 Very filling too, especially if you fill up on water with it!

  47. Mmashopper Avatar
    Mmashopper

    Don’t forget you can always visit your groceries on sample day. I go to Sam’s Club sometimes and after eating all the samples I skip lunch.

     

  48. Free India Classifieds Avatar

    really nice article thanks for sharing 

  49. Mattbaron14 Avatar
    Mattbaron14

    Love cocoa and saw energy drink w/it and rare tropical stuff. 1.50 for one serving. Just drink.

  50. HollyAnne Giffin Avatar

    I’m surprised that lentils aren’t on here. I know that they are “expensive” (I get them for $0.85 a pound) but they are so nutrient rich–especially compared to rice–that I’m willing to splurge. 

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