Make a $16 shopping list

[Codie]

Say you had a $16 food budget per week (just for yourself), it's not that much, what would you buy with it?

[PistolShrimp]

I spend $40-50 on food each week and I'm still hungry; not sure I could live on that without wasting away. Maybe a bag of rice or potatoes, eggs, a few pounds of meat (including liver for vitamins), and butter.

[Saberstorm]

Is somebody posting on this thread because they are stuck with only $16 in their account?

get a credit card!

[Codie]

No, Saberstorm it's just a hypothetical question, for fun.

[mu4]

I'm assuming at $16 bucks you will be willing to eat the same food every day and that oil/salt/pepper is available.

Mexican Style(sorry no cheese)

Package of 30 corn tortillas (~1 buck, usually 66cents)
$1
1 dozen eggs
$2
2 lb ground beef
$4
2 cans of beans
$1
2 lb rice
$2
head of lettuce
$2
Onions
50 cents
Spring onions
50 cents
Garlic
50 cents

Taco seasoning/spices
Whatever you got left

If you could eat for like say 4 weeks, you got more options. $64 dollars a month is easier than $16 bucks a week.

But spices would be a big part of the costs.

Beans, rice, corn for staples

Some sort of aromatic veggie like onion/spring onion/garlic

Eggs

Meat with rest of $$$

Also for low cost you can add/switch things like
Veggies!
Pasta
Tomato sauce
Cheese instead of meat

Unfortunately fresh veggies are imo hard to do with such a limited budget.

[Roro]

I would go to the Dollar Tree, where everything is only a dollar.

First week of the month:
Two boxes of saltine crackers ($2 - I basically live off of these things anyways)
Three loaves of bread ($3)
1 jar of peanut butter ($1)
1 jar of strawberry jelly ($1)
1 bag of potatoes (May not have this at the Dollar Tree, but I could find it for $2-3 at a cheap grocery store)


That would pretty much be my budget for week one, but I could make the potatoes last me almost the entire month, the jar of peanut butter would last the entire month, and the bread I could make last me all month.

The following three weeks would be used to stock up on canned vegetables, oatmeal, apples, pasta, tomato sauce, and whatever else.


I could definitely make $16 work somehow, it would just mean surviving off of pretty much the same thing day after day.

[Absurd]

Say you had a $16 food budget per week (just for yourself), it's not that much, what would you buy with it?

Food.

[Saberstorm]

Why 16 dollars? Not 17. Not 15. No, 16 dollars. Why exactly 16 and not roughly 16?

[Slacker]

Holy crap. I think I pay more than that for a meal of groceries.

[Creepy-pokeball]

A machete. Neighbors are free

[fen]

Why 16 dollars? Not 17. Not 15. No, 16 dollars. Why exactly 16 and not roughly 16?

Because it's the 16types.

[woofwoofl]

$6 - 9 pound container of raw oats
$2 - 2 pounds of dry lentils
$8 - various fresh fruits/veggies

[Saberstorm]

There are food banks. The salvation army and many others. Sometimes you buy it at a lower price, sometimes you get it free. ( I have never used assitance...)

[ashlesha]

quaker oats - 4
apples - 3
peanut butter - 4
bread - 2
broccoli - 3

= 16


lol, this thread. i was like "fun?" how the hell is budgeting for hypothetically being broke "fun?" and then i couldn't get it out of my head.

for real though when ive been broke i just ate a lot of oatmeal and ramen noodles.

[redbaron]

4 bananas, citrus fruit or apples (whatever's cheapest)--$5
uncooked oats $3
dozen eggs--$3
pasta--$2
cottage cheese--$3

[mu4]

This thread needs more prepared dishes. Also some of these, a man would starve.

Garlic
Olive oil
Pasta
Small amount of cheese
= pasta oli olio

Probably under 50 cent a serving.

Bacon, eggs, pepper, pasta = Carbonara, ~ 1 buck a serving

2 lb Peas, 4 oz ham, garlic = ~ $3.00 for a good side dish that'll feed 6

It's really hard to do 16 bucks a week since that's ~21 400-650 calorie meals a week for under 1 buck a meal. What I listed only has 9000 calories total without oil, which would be ~140 a meal. So total would be about 1600 calories a day. A laborer on this diet would start having malnutrition and lose considerable weight.

I would say with 2 buck a meal, you could actually make very nutricious and good food which has some variety.

That would be ~40 dollars a week.

[Capitalist Pig]

A case of bottled water and the rest TV dinners.

[Creepy-pokeball]

You'd need the water from shitting yourself to death from eating that, lol.

[Gilly]

Hkkmr your prices are very low...

Mine:
Big bag of whole grain rice
Cheap meat
Bottle of multivitamins

Could probably make it a month on $20 this way. Veggies can be substituted for multivitamins if we decrease quantities of rice and meat, and don't have too big of stomachs.

[mu4]

Hkkmr your prices are very low...

Mine:
Big bag of whole grain rice
Cheap meat
Bottle of multivitamins

Could probably make it a month on $20 this way. Veggies can be substituted for multivitamins if we decrease quantities of rice and meat, and don't have too big of stomachs.

Prices I gave are average to high at the mexican/asian/ethnic store.

[Gilly]

Hm. I guess you live in the south. Much more expensive here up north...

[mu4]

I can imagine, last time I was in NY then grocery prices were pretty crazy.

[Gilly]

Yeah I think it would be easily twice that here.

[munenori2]

Why 16 dollars? Not 17. Not 15. No, 16 dollars. Why exactly 16 and not roughly 16?

$1 for every type of course.

[munenori2]

9 6-packs of ramen noodles, variety
1 knife to slit my wrists

Seriously, though I've lived on a budget like that and the below is pretty much what I did. It really made me appreciate meals, since the only time I ate anything else was when my mom had the family over for dinner or my brother wanted to do lunch somewhere (he'd always pay). It brings a certain sort of perspective to food, learning to savor the simple flavors, the substance of sustenance.

$2 bread
$3 deli meat
$3 deli cheese
$2 5lbs potatoes
$3 gallon milk
$2 cereal

Maybe the only thing else I'd add is that I probably overall spent more than that on long lasting stuff, like bulk rice or peanut butter or tuna.

[anndelise]

$16/week

Each week I would choose one from each category, and buy in bulk. There are 4 categories to purchase from, which averages to ~$4/category. But some items will cost significantly less (eg butter) for a little over a week's worth. Which items I choose each week would depend on what kind of bargains I can find. If possible, I would try to save at least some items for storage, for better tastier meal options in time.

$ Starch (brown rice, oatmeal, frozen corn, root crops, other grains, or yams/potatoes)
$ Protein (lentils/beans, canned tuna, 1lb meat, quality peanut butter, or 1dozen eggs)
$ Fat (butter, olive oil, flax seeds)
$ Sweetener (honey, fruit, dried fruit) and/or $ Seasoning (too expensive for most, but salt a must, and something spicy eg black pepper, chili seeds; also ask gardening neighbor for seasoning seeds/plants)

Produce (Ask a gardening neighbor for a few gardening seeds (kale/spinach, zucchini, beets/carrots, and whatever else s/he's willing to offer; or maybe make a trade for doing garden work in exchange for fresh produce; start an ingarden worm farm for composting garden waste and feeding garden plants); and/or check a book out from library on finding wild edibles)


I'd probably eat one meal a day, and probably at lunch time. This way, by evening is when I'd feel hungry again, but can go to bed. Waking up and getting started on day takes up time and distracts mind until between 11am-1pm. Eat full satisfying meal. Return to day.


Edited to add: I would avoid pastas and other refined foods due to their lack of nutrient density as well as their increase in blood sugars leading to sudden drops in blood sugars, leading to intense hunger signals.

I allow a tiny amount of sweetener each day to help give a sense of satiety at the end of the one meal. This helps feel satisfied with the meal, even hours later.

Edited again to add: if I had the full $64 for four weeks, i would still buy in terms of the categories, but could get a variety for each category, and thus be able to make a more varied meal selection than the once a week purchasing initially allows.

[Beautiful sky]

A machete. Neighbors are free

ROFL

On the topic:
Go to the dollar store, you can get food for cheap there with your budget.

[Aquagraph]

Can I add food I get for free? If so, I don't need to use all of the 16$.

[munenori2]

well, that's for alcohol and smokes then, isn't it? The joys of being under budget!

[silke]

a crossbow and some arrows, then head to where there is significant population of wild rabbits, which are common around where I live, and hunt myself an unlimited supply of food

[Aquagraph]

well, that's for alcohol and smokes then, isn't it? The joys of being under budget!

I don't know whether you were joking or not, but yeah, those too. Local, legal and illegal, drugs are expensive and the latter are usually poor quality too. Rolling your own cigarettes is about 45% cheaper. And it's kind of a a social sign. 90% of those people are either drunks, poor people or weed smokers. With poorer people it is more likely to be many of them. I just find those kind of people more suitable company for myself. It's my/our sort of hipster, and it also covers not using a rolling machine. Using one brings eat's up street cred.

Food is very easy to acquire if you are liked, socially natural and a dashing rogue drunk in a jovial company. At best.
That's how I feel but lately I've been hearing it's because I'm easy to approach to. Anyways, my illusion is better.

I'm also very inventive of acquiring food in some morally questionable ways. Most of these include getting fresh food about to be disposed off.

I'm pretty high. And a bit off-topic.

Btw, 12 euros per week is a very small sum for a average Finn. The price of the food is higher here.

[Kogoro Akechi]

I buy something I can swallow.

[Codie]

Can I add food I get for free? If so, I don't need to use all of the 16$.

Yh. and tap water's free

[Codie]

a crossbow and some arrows, then head to where there is significant population of wild rabbits, which are common around where I live, and hunt myself an unlimited supply of food

[Codie]

lol, this thread. i was like "fun?" how the hell is budgeting for hypothetically being broke "fun?" and then i couldn't get it out of my head.

I make "what would I do if" situations related to survival in my head... I know it's odd. The possible explanation is having boring e1 sp/sx in first or second place my tritype. But, if I was on a $16 budget I might turn to shoplifting and hunting wildlife...then I might go prison and get a proper meal or two

[Slacker]

actually, since giving up animal products i've been spending less on food. If you got a bunch of whole grains in bulk and a bunch of legumes in bulk, and then some veggies in whatever is the cheapest way (maybe frozen) you might get by. But you'd have to soak the legumes overnight before you cook them.

[Korpsy Knievel]

actually, since giving up animal products i've been spending less on food. If you got a bunch of whole grains in bulk and a bunch of legumes in bulk, and then some veggies in whatever is the cheapest way (maybe frozen) you might get by. But you'd have to soak the legumes overnight before you cook them.

Or just simmer them for a couple hours like I do, no soaking required.

[Gilly]

a crossbow and some arrows, then head to where there is significant population of wild rabbits, which are common around where I live, and hunt myself an unlimited supply of food

Most productive post yet

[Korpsy Knievel]

a crossbow and some arrows, then head to where there is significant population of wild rabbits, which are common around where I live, and hunt myself an unlimited supply of food

Try loading bolts into that crossbow instead of arrows, you'll probably have better success. And wild rabbit is so lean that it's possible to stuff oneself on them and still die from lack of necessary fat. You'd better aim that thing at squirrels, fish, and birds, too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_starvation

[Saberstorm]

a crossbow and some arrows, then head to where there is significant population of wild rabbits, which are common around where I live, and hunt myself an unlimited supply of food

I went crossbow shopping this week. The cheapest one was $299 and the most expensive one is $1249.99.

Link to Cabela's

THE CHEAP CROSSBOW: http://www.cabelas.com/product/Hunti...3Bcat103854780

THE HIGH DOLLAR CROSSBOW: http://www.cabelas.com/product/Hunti...3Bcat104235480