I will help you create a shopping list + loose meal plan using only a stove for free if I have time. Hit me up

[austinmcnally]

BTW: THANK YOU @babymi3 and @michaelas for offering to donate to me. It really helps me to get through these requests.

It kills me when i see people unable to have nutritious and adequate diets because of their financial situation. While I have never been in poverty, I do budget, spending $50/wk or less on food for a family of 4 in New Jersey.

Throw what stores are accessible to you (including food banks) and budget below and I will dm you. Or, even tell me what food you have in the house from a food drive and I will do what I can (oh, and tell me if you want advice or a plan). I can't guarantee responses but I will try.

If anyone else has experience in extreme budgeting, leave a comment

RESOURCES:

• https://www.busybudgeter.com/best-free-meal-plans-budget-friendly/
• week of meals for family of 6, $42
• week of meals $10, 1 person

EDIT: Also wanted to add that See Mindy Mom and Frugal Fit Mom on YT have excellent examples if you don't want to comment. Also also, these will be weekly (with the ads) but feel free to ask questions.

 

[adreno69]

@austinmcnally Just wanted to comment that this was so nice of you to offer!

 

[austinmcnally]

@adreno69 Thank you. hopefully more people see it!

 

[adreno69]

@austinmcnally Looks like they did!

 

[austinmcnally]

@adreno69 haha yeah, I wish I had all the time in the world to get back to all of them!!

 

[austinmcnally]

@sparrowmouse As for general tips:

• if anything is used in only one meal you don't need it
• rice, beans, and cheap veggies (canned/frozen/fresh, under $1 a pound) are your friends.
• Chop up your expensive foods!! makes it last longer and taste more meaty.
• Always compare ads for the best price.
• Cut out pricey things like good cheese, quality chocolate, microwaveable + frozen meals, and fancy produce. They're really pricey per serving typically unless you use them sparingly, and even then they could go to more cheaper food. If you do this, it's also nice to pick some up as a treat if you have extra funds.
• don't throw things out if you can avoid it. for example, veg scraps go to broth and broccoli trunks + leaves go to stir fry and soup.
• Set a "max per pound price" for different things. Mine is $2/lb for meat and $1.50 for vegetables.
• Try to avoid expensive condiments (sweet+sour sauce) when you can make basic ones (soy sauce, sugar, OJ) work just as well. However, spice mixes like Sazon Goya are nice and will elevate any rice bowl
• If possible, BUY IN BULK during good sales, prep, and freeze them/make everything revolve around them. I do this for $0.40/lb sweet potatoes and 0.78/lb broccoli nad $1.99 ground meats.
• Stop by grocery stores whenever you have time and look for clearance items.
• Apps like Ibotta, Fetch, and Coupons.com are your friends for things that you happen to be picking up.
• Where possible, do from scratch - tortillas and tomato sauce are both good choices (use flour +water + oil for tortillas and canned tomatoes for sauce).

 

[hermrolly]

@austinmcnally Also try to stay away from frozen premade meals. It can be a pain, but make them yourself. It's so much cheaper. $10 on a frozen pizza became insane to me once I started making bread, and I can make four pizzas for $2.

 

[resjudicata]

@hermrolly I've never understood how people can make pizza cheaper than they can buy it, so I'd love some tips. Where I live a big pizza from Aldi is $6 and is easily 6 servings. Cheese is fairly expensive - without any other toppings I'd be looking at $5 for a pizza that would make 3, maybe 4 servings.

 

[intellectualdiscussion2]

@resjudicata I really don't think it's possible to do for me. Even if I account for the fact that I usually have flour and yeast around the house, it still costs me more to buy cheese and whatever toppings I would want than it does to buy a freschetta for 4 bucks.

 

[johnsmith08]

@resjudicata I buy balls of frozen pizza dough for $1 each from my local pizza store. You can make it cheaper, I've made up a big batch for using a yeast packet cheap AP flour and water, using a no knead overnight dough recipe, that made 3 pizzas for maybe the same price. . Cheap cheese, bought in a block and grated in my food processer, could also be done by hand if you're feeling for it, you need way less cheese than pizza stores would have you think, maybe a handful for a 12" pizza. A bag of dollar store pepperoni that did 3 pizzas. A tin of sauce from Walmart for like 60c did 3 pizzas 10 times better than anything you can buy, if you only need 1 pizza at a time every single thing that makes a pizza can be frozen. Left over chicken is nice on them with BBQ sauce. Old questionable sandwich meats from the back of the drawer. Look into focaccia toppings and you can skip cheese altogether. Roast pumpkin with some some apple and sage is amazing on a pizza, don't even need sauce that one. I can knock up a Pizza for 2 big eaters for $3 and have left overs from that for lunch the next day, I could do a half sheet tray focaccia with olives, rosemary and garlic for $2, what you have to do is stop thinking the toppings you get at dominos are the only way to do pizza.

 

[austinmcnally]

@resjudicata this is sacreligious but I make a fast and easy pizza using a 3 ingredient greek yogurt pizza dough (more like flat cracker bread ngl), sauce, and cottage cheese + mozzarella mixture. I'm not a big pizza snob and it's sauce and cheese on dough so I'm happy. Also the cottage cheese adds creaminess while costing way less than mozz.

 

[hermrolly]

@resjudicata Look for flour on sale, you can get 5 lbs of flour for a dollar on sale, at most $2.

Same with yeast, I bought a huge bag for $4 on sale and you need 2 1/4 tsp each batch.

Cheese I also buy on sale, our Rayleys has two pound bags for $5 so I stock up. You don't need as much cheese as you think. We use regular tomato sauces 35¢ a can and we grow garlic, basil and all that good stuff to jazz it up.

Toppings would probably be what might set yours over depending on what you like and how much.

 

[lostfamily]

@resjudicata Not just that..it tastes better than the frozen stuff. Cast iron pizza is delicious!

 

[rozer]

@resjudicata Yeah except your homemade pizza will taste better and be healthier, for only a few bucks more