Budget Food

[SAD]

Recently Rein posted up that he spent roughly $300 dollars a month on food, and I almost choked on my beef/cous cous/broccoli salad. Not because it sounded like a lot of money, but exactly the opposite. I cook the vast majority of my meals and take them to work with me. This includes 7 meals on work days and 5 or 6 on off days. My grocery bill, NOT including a few date nights per month with my wife, is between $700 and $900 a month, depending on the ratio of red meats to white meats. This includes my wife, but she is 5'2" 98lbs, so her 4 meals per day are probably 1/10th of our grocery bill. We're pretty good with our money in most aspects, and I'm not willing to sacrifice my diet and eat ramen noodles and PB&Js to save money, but I do want to know if anybody else has some go-to meals that are both nutritious AND thrifty.

Keep in mind that I'm 6'2" 251lbs right now and I'm eating roughly 5000 calories a day which is a mini bulker for me. This winter I'll be running an all-out bulker and be shooting for 6000 cals per day to start and finish with 7000+ depending on how much weight I put on during the bulk. I'll be following AJs bulking diet method as I think it makes a shit-ton of sense, but I would like to figure out how to eat well on a slightly smaller budget, if possible. Thanks.

 

[Ogre717]

Great idea for a thread bro. Grocery shopping for the wife, the boy, and myself easily topps $200 a week and that was not on any type of bulking diet. Rein has it a little better in that part of the world though. We lived in Italy for 7 years and spent maybe half what we do now, and the quality of the fresh produce was much better.

 

[Rein]

That was my bad bro. I meant 400-500$ I made a mistake on the ratio between the euro and the us dollar. None the less i still find this to be a lot money. 700-900$ is insane for someone that is not professional IMO. If you can afford it, then good for you. I am jealous!

As I mentioned on my thread, my protein mostly comes from skinless chicken breasts, dairy products, tuna and protein shakes. If I were to pay for beef and salmon for example then I would pay the same money as you do man.

If you actually think about it, the only thing that is actually expensive in an athletes diet is the protein. Carbs and fats don't cost anything. Meat is ridiculously expensive though.

 

[PillarofBalance]

I spend about 150 a week on groceries for myself. probably one of the cheaper meals that I make is 93% ground beef cooked in a pan with low sodium taco spice and some baked sweet potato with whatever kind of veg. I like chard or collard greens.

I read every stores circular and look for things on sale especially chicken breasts. Occasionally I will find breasts for 1.49/lb and I will by 40 or 50 pounds and keep in the freezer.

Like you though I don't have other vices and with the quantity of food we eat i don't mind paying the extra for organic stuff when I can. Only my daughter comes before my groceries lol

 

[ketsugo]

Wow i feel for you. Ive always felt that it cost money to eat good lol. Im fortunate to live in an area where i get several circulars and i may go to one place to get my chicken breast for 1.49$ pound , then i go to a meat outlet and get the markdowns . Also i found that if i shop at an ethnic market where all the people in the projects shop i save a few bucks. Stop n shop had a deal on nearly expired. Greek lowfat yogurt normally over dollar per cup for quarter cuz they expired in 7 days. Of course when you eat seven times day love greek yogurt was good deal. Also do the same at gnc. Normally the most expensive. I got metrx whey and gaspari myofusion near expiration (4 months) for $8.99 per cannister vs.25- 30 bucks. No one can beat that. Shop clearance protien dont last more than two weeks so another great deal.

 

[NutNut]

I spend $600-800 a month on myself and my lil guy, 7k cals at the moment. Food prices are higher in Canada especially milk at over $4 per gallon. I shop at the local butcher and take advantage of the farmers market, but a full cow when I can afford to. I keep a logbook of food price trends just as a good grocery store manager would so I know what sales are legit and which aren't. I also cut coupons if I find any that are for items I use, usually toilet paper and such.

Rein even having a variety of good fats is expensive, avocados, almonds and mac nut oil aren't real cheap here though walnuts aren't too badly priced. Carbs are the cheap thing and most ppl don't need a ton of them.

My goto cheap meals are things I make in bulk and usually ground beef based though turkey can be used if it's on sale or you have the $, chili is a good 1, tacos, taco salad.

Tuna or canned chicken can work for all kinds of things from wraps to burgers. My main cost is steak which I eat daily if not 2x daily.

 

[Wolf]

Three things my brothers, buy in bulk, use coupons, talk to the store manager about a discount if you buy in bulk from the butcher.

The coupon thing really helps a lot there are some sites where you basically can walk in a store with 20 bucks and leave with 100 or more dollars worth of food.

 

[Growinboy]

Kill your own! I try to get a couple deer each winter for pennies (just cost of tag) and get well over 100lbs of lean red meat... Also have a meat plant nearby I can buy 1/2 cows at...

 

[acon83]

I HATE groceries. I wish I could have a cow, chickens, and a huge garden. Id grow that shit all summer, and spend weeks canning/freezing and vacuum sealing.... But I don't and can't. So, instead we spend 200+ every 2 weeks at the grocery store, plus 100+ every 2 weeks at Sam's (you know...the places where you can only buy bulk stuff), and still end up hitting the market about 3 or 4 times per week to stock up on those odds and ends that you don't know you need until they're not there.

I even shop around for the best prices, and will go to multiple stores if I have to. We're at about 800 per month or more when it's all said and done (not including protein supps)

thinking of taking up extreme couponing. Problem is, usually the coupons are for CRAP!

 

[goldy]

I spend about 300-400 a week for my family of four.

 

[Rottenrogue]

One thing I found recently is the local butcher shop is actually cheaper than Winco/Walmart when you buy in bigger packages.

 

[ajdos]

Over the years I have done this I have found ways to get drugs and supplements for next to nothing or even for free...but food torpedos me.
Even eating the low end shit, and using some decent coupons I spend roughly $245.00 per week!
I eat a shit ton, always have, and even when I diet its a lot of food, all I can tell you is I have been learning the coupon game, and its very useful.
I have seen some very savvy couponers get $300 of groceries for like $50, as a bber with much more specific food neads I would be happy to get 245.00 down to 175.00 or 150.00 that would be a hyuge difference.
What we need are some UGL food sources lol!