Here’s what we ate on a $25 a week grocery budget – trying to eat as healthy as we could!
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When Chris and I were first married, we tried to do the grown-up thing and make a budget. At the time, we were broke, living off not quite full-time entry-level jobs that paid just enough to cover our monthly expenses without dipping into the savings account we built from wedding gifts.
We had $25 a week for groceries.
I also loved healthy eating, and I didn’t want to live off of just Ramen Noodles.
It seemed impossible. But if we were going to survive without bleeding out our savings, we had to find a way.
How to Eat on a Grocery Budget of $25 per Week
Making a grocery budget was the easy part. Keeping it was the hard part. First, we pinky-swore each other we would do everything we possibly could to keep this budget – even if it meant eating peanut butter sandwiches every day for lunch.
Next, I made it my part-time job to learn how to save money and eat well. I learned so much those first few months, and today I want to share some of those tips with you.
Eating well on a tight budget is totally possible! I’ll never say it’s easy or even fun all of the time, but you can do it. Stay focused, get creative, and trust that you CAN save money and eat healthy.
Here’s what you can do to spend just $25 a week on groceries:
Make a list of your favorite budget-friendly meals and eat those.
Pack lunches for work or school instead of eating out.
Make your grocery list and menu plan focused on the food that is on sale and what you already have in your kitchen.
Use allrecipes.com to find recipes that use random food you have in your kitchen.
Keep a broth bag in your freezer and collect the odds and ends of vegetable to make rich soup bases for basically free.
Make meals that center around a healthy carb, like potatoes, rice, and pasta.
Use meat like a condiment, not like a main course.
Focus on the really budget-friendly vegetables where you live and only supplement with the expensive ones.
Learn how to cook some basic foods from scratch.
Learn how to substitute expensive or special ingredients with basic kitchen staples.
Buy a few things in bulk and use them sparingly to make them last or split them with a friend so you can get a good price but you don’t waste any food.
Stretch ground beef with ground turkey, lentils, riced cauliflower, or beans.
First of all, I want to clarify that this grocery budget was for two people, and it was several years ago. $25/week for two people was a crazy tight budget, and most people thought we couldn’t do it. But $25 was also a little different than it is now. Saving money and eating healthy is not a competition. Just do your best with what you have.
Our healthy food plan for $25 a week was only possible because of three things. They made all the difference, and they will help you save the most money possible in this season.
1. We thought creatively and didn’t have a pity party.
Eating on this tight a budget was hard, but sometimes life is hard and we can do hard things.It wasn’t forever. We worked hard, got out of that season, and were eventually able to increase our grocery budget. We still keep it pretty tight for how well we eat and how many meals we eat at home (nearly all of them). But during those really tight years, we approached our budget like a challenge, not like a burden. Attitude makes all the difference.
2. We kept our menu super flexible.
This was not the season to eat what we were craving. This was not the season for steak or even hamburgers. Rather, we made a list a frugal recipes we could afford to eat regularly, and we stuck to those.
3. We cooked from scratch.
Because I wanted to eat healthy and I didn’t like coupons, I cooked a lot from scratch. I wasn’t an amazing cook. I won’t even say I’m amazing now. Rather, I’m an enthusiastic cook with a can-do attitude. So I tried a lot of things, substituted a lot of ingredients, and made decent food. It worked for us.
How to Eat Healthy on a Tight Budget
It’s easy to think that if we’re on a tight budget, we can’t eat healthy. Even though we couldn’t do everything I wanted to on our tight budget, I knew we could eat well while still being realistic.
Here are some great ways to save money and eat healthy on a tight budget:
Cook whole chickens and use the bones and skin to make a rich broth.
Instead of trying to buy all organic, learn about the dirty dozen and clean fifteen and use that to prioritize your shopping.
Use ground beef instead of expensive cuts of meat.
Use chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts – they’re cheaper and more flavorful!
Use ground turkey instead of ground beef – quite often, it’s cheaper and leaner.
Eat lots of budget-friendly fruits and vegetables (for example, where I live, those are carrots, lettuce, cabbage, and apples).
Find meals that use vegetarian protein, like quinoa, lentils, and beans (many of my recipes use those!).
Try frozen fruits and veggies instead of canned – they taste better and aren’t cooked with so much salt.
Build your meals around healthy carbs like potatoes, rice, quinoa, and other whole grains.
Keep your meals simple and make ahead if you can – this saves you time during the week and after work days.
Instead of buying expensive organic versions of processed food, try making your own! You can find a recipe for almost anything online. I’ll share our favorite staples below.
We focused a lot on meatless or mostly meatless meals. Since we didn’t love beans, we ate a lot of lentils and lentil-based dishes. Lentils are easy to cook (you don’t need to soak them like beans), delicious, and very budget-friendly.
I would buy a whole chicken, cook it in the slow cooker, then take all the meat off and use that in several meals (fried rice, parmesan pasta, salad, etc.), then make broth in the slow cooker with veggie scraps and chicken bones and skin. I used the broth to make a big pot of vegetable soup with lentils.
How to Stretch 1 Pound of Ground Beef Across Several Meals
We exclusively bought ground beef, and when I cooked it, I added cooked lentils (or riced cauliflower or just beans), seasoned everything really well with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and I used that for tacos, sloppy joes, Nacho Dip, etc.
We also stretched ground beef by using ground turkey instead (or adding the turkey to the ground beef).
Altogether, we used a combination of all these tips and recipes to stick to our budget.
Was this a completely balanced diet? Probably not. But we never eat perfectly, do we? My goal is to keep a balanced approach to our eating, health, and grocery budget. Even though our grocery budget has increased over the years (especially as we added a few kids to our family), we still don’t eat perfectly, and that’s okay.
In the end, we didn’t starve, we didn’t go into debt, and I am proud of how much clean, real food we managed to eat during those really lean years. It worked for us, and I don’t think we would do it differently if we could.
I hope this list and meal plan inspire you to save money and eat healthy!
For a low-cost budget for a family of four, you can plan on spending $241.70 a week or about $1,047.10 a month. Moderate-cost plan. For a moderate budget for a family of four, you would spend $301.20 a week for groceries or $1,304.70 a month. Liberal budget.
What's a reasonable food budget? Many financial advisors and gurus recommend spending no more than 10%-15% of take-home pay on food, a figure that includes restaurant dining and takeout. By this measure, a couple with $70,000 in adjusted income should keep an annual food budget in the $7,000 to $10,500 range.
The average food budget for a single person is between $250 and $300 a month, but that's just a guideline. If you can buy meals at a discount or visit family and eat with them, you might be able to spend less.
Whether you own your own home or pay rent, the cost of housing is likely your biggest monthly expense. In addition to a mortgage or rent payment, costs may include insurance, maintenance and property taxes.
What does the average U.S. household spend on groceries per month? According to 2021 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is the most recent available, the average spending on food at home is $5,259 annually, or about $438 per month for U.S. households.
I basically lived off $20 of groceries per week for a long time. If you can handle eating the same thing all the time and keeping it simple, it's quite possible to eat healthy and be eating enough with $20/week and not be spending too much time cooking either.
The average two-person household can expect to spend between $510-$820 per month on groceries. The average moderate cost between these two figures is around $655 per month.
If you're a single adult, depending on your age and sex (the USDA estimates are higher for men and lower for both women and men 71 and older), look to spend between $229 and $419 each month on groceries.
One of the most common types of percentage-based budgets is the 50/30/20 rule. The idea is to divide your income into three categories, spending 50% on needs, 30% on wants, and 20% on savings. Learn more about the 50/30/20 budget rule and if it's right for you.
Indeed, the largest non-mortgage expenses for all borrowers are utilities, property taxes, and home improvement expenses. Transaction costs at purchase and sale comprise roughly 20 percent of total costs, with the broker fees at sale standing out as the largest such expense.
Buying a house is likely one of the biggest expenses you'll make in your life and usually requires years of planning and budgeting. In many cases, putting a down payment on a house consists of paying tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege of becoming a new homeowner.
Taxes are likely the biggest expense you will have throughout your entire life, and the key to properly managing them is to balance your income and your investments. The second biggest expense is probably what you spend on yourself and your significant other in order to maintain your current lifestyle.
Is $20/day and $603/month (USD) a lot, average or little for one person's "food and related" costs? $15–20 per day is a good ballpark allowing you to afford a healthy diet. .
The USDA puts the average weekly cost of food at home for a family of two at $150 a week, or $600 per month (and that's on their moderate cost food plan!).
Try increasing your use of eggs, beans, seeds, frozen fruits and vegetables, cheaper cuts of meat, and whole grains. These all taste great, are cheap (especially in bulk), and are very nutritious. Incorporating more inexpensive yet nutrient-rich foods into your daily routine will help you save money and eat well.
If you have no money for food, seek help at one or more of the following: Local churches. Meal pantries and food banks. A local social services department.
If you're looking for a rule of thumb, I'd say if your grocery spending is under $1,000 per month for a family of 4 with older kids you're doing ok. Based upon the data, you could also say that food shouldn't be more than 10% of your income unless you're earning less than median household income.
To stick to a budget of $100 a month, or $25 a week, you'll have to eat for less than $4 each day. For breakfast, try a bowl of oatmeal with half a banana and a scrambled egg, which should cost less than a dollar. Get into the habit of repackaging ingredients from dinner for lunches the next day.
Food prices are expected to grow more slowly in 2023 than in 2022 but still at above historical-average rates. In 2023, all food prices are predicted to increase 6.2 percent, with a prediction interval of 4.9 to 7.5 percent.
The average commercially-prepared meal costs around $13. Even if you rarely spend this much money at one time when you eat out, consider frequency. Two meals for $6.50 will add up to the same price. By contrast, the average meal prepared at home costs around $4 for groceries – a $9 savings per person per meal.
By buying in bulk, trying store brands, using coupons, and some planning and preparation, I am able to feed my family on a budget for an entire month using no more than $300! You might ask, “is $300 a month enough for food?” With pre-planning and small kids, the answer is YES.
Here are the USDA weekly grocery spending guidelines for households with one adult female and one adult male: Thrifty: $119.40. Low-cost: $122.90. Moderate-cost: $152.30.
If you haven't already been shopping for yourself and don't know where to begin, try a weekly budget of $50. This is half of what many frugal families with children spend, so it should be high enough for a single person to eat nutritiously even if you don't make every single meal from scratch.
To stick to a budget of $100 a month, or $25 a week, you'll have to eat for less than $4 each day. For breakfast, try a bowl of oatmeal with half a banana and a scrambled egg, which should cost less than a dollar. Get into the habit of repackaging ingredients from dinner for lunches the next day.
Bottom Line. Living on $1,000 per month is a challenge. From the high costs of housing, transportation and food, plus trying to keep your bills to a minimum, it would be difficult for anyone living alone to make this work. But with some creativity, roommates and strategy, you might be able to pull it off.
Although living on $10 a day to cover your discretionary expenses is absolutely possible, it will likely be a challenge. Without a strong sense of willpower and a plan, it can be even more difficult. But luckily, there is a solution to help you stay on track: budgeting apps.
The average cost of food per month for one person ranges from $150 to $300, depending on age. However, these national averages vary based on where you live and the quality of your food purchases.
The average food budget for a single person is between $250 and $300 a month, but that's just a guideline. If you can buy meals at a discount or visit family and eat with them, you might be able to spend less. Figure out the budget that works for you.
And broken up into weekly costs, here is what the average two-person household might expect to spend: Thrifty: $119.40 per week. Low-cost: $122.90 per week. Moderate-cost: $152.30 per week.
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