The following post is not really intended for everyone and you can feel free to skip over it as it’s not very interesting at all.
This is a modification of a shopping list I made last week, but I consider this the first one as I’m actually cataloging this for a specific purpose and challenge. The challenge is to get enough food for cheap but also for the food to last (it needs to fit my lifestyle). It also needs to be somewhat healthy. Last time I got a bigger jug of milk. Bad idea, as it spoiled, and I only drank 1/3 of it. Getting large packages of raw pork or turkey sausages is also not a good idea for me unless I’m willing to separate it out everyday and defrost it every morning (I’m not). I also already had a few other items in stock, including ziplock bags, plastic cannisters, a huge bag of rice (a real money saver),cheese slices, a loaf of wheat bread, and 2 cans of spam (I’m very gourmet, unlike my sister– that girl liked to hog all the spam when we were growing up). I also have softdrinks, water and various other drinks. I also had 3 cups of fruit yogurt (it should become more apparent as time goes by what variety of food is both healthy and cheap). I plan to keep track for about 3 months on a weekly basis to see just how long the food I got lasts and what spoiled, etc.
Some meal ideas are sliced fruit salad (I got addicted to this in India, as you can get a large fruit bowl for around $0.50) with yogurt on top (perhaps with some cereal spread over it). Grilled cheese sandwhich. Grilled salami and cheese sandwhichHeavier breakfast ideas include eggs, toast, cheese, and sausages. Dinner maybe a salad, some fruit, and some kind of pasta dish. Cereal (I tend to eat cereal in a CUP–a trick I learned from my mother, as you can drink the milk and the crumbly aftereffects without scraping the bottom of your bowl)I fully plan to do more grocery shopping and such. Rice is the great equalizer, and 3 cups of rice will last 2 meals– takes about 20 minutes to make with a rice-cooker, and can go with anything salty and meaty. you can even put a slice of cheese on top and some butter and maybe soy sauce. But that’s not the healthiest option of course. The ultimate goal is a healthy and hearty meal option that is cheap, lasts long (hard to spoil if I forget about an item), and goes under a budget of $300 a month (it should be easy– this will also allow me on occasion to purchase brand name products and frivolous convenience type food items– microwaveable foods, prepackaged meals, etc). For this grocery list I focused on mostly generic basics. Also, I will modify and change the list upon reflection (I can already see that I’m missing a lot of vegetables and also a “main meal” type dish). My uber-super-duper-ultimate goal is to perhaps hit around $200-$250 a month in food costs once I streamline everything I tend to not eat every day or I don’t like enough to eat so that’ll go bad. My goal is to have zero spoilage and food waste.
- Jumbo Sized Eggs 12 count – (should last 2 weeks) $2.99
- Milk 0.5 gallon – (should last 2 weeks.. also expires in 2 weeks. better make sure to drink it all) $2.39
- Smart Start Cereal . Two of them because they are on sale. This is also my favorite cereal brand, next to Kashii. Should last at least a month $3.00 x 2 = $7.00
- Butter. 1 pound. Two of them. Should last for a long time. Maybe 2 months, maybe even longer. I use it to cook, flavor rice, etc. $3.50 x 2 = $7.00
- Challenge Butter. The whipped kind in a tub for those days when i’m lazy as hell. $2.29
- Salami. Salami is good because it keeps for a long long time. This is presliced with maybe 32 slices or so. I put it into a ziplock bag after I couldn’t resist taking a few slices. $4.79
- Pork Sausage patties (about an inch and half in diameter). 8 count. $4.49
- 1.72 pounds of banana (extremely green. This is 5 bananas) at $0.50 a pound…. $0.86 (hrm, very very cheap for all that fruit. This is also about 2x much volume as the other fruit items, so in all about 4x cheaper for the volume than pineapple)
- 2.44 pounds of cantaloupe (one) @ $0.79 = $1.93
- 1.24 pounds of Fuji apples @ $1.79 (3 small ones, very hard and not ripe– yet) = $2.22
- 1 large pineapple = $3.99 (also note that the pineapple, cantaloupe, and the apples produce the same amount of fruit in terms of volume).
- 2 prepackaged salad (cobb) = $3.99 x 2 (hrm, maybe I should prepare this myself– but this is very convenient as it comes with dressing and a fork, along with bacon bits and crumbled hard boiled egg) = $8.00
- Roasted, smoked almonds in a large plastic container (to go with my salad or just as a snack) $6.99
Total cost: ~$55.93
As soon I got home, I sliced up all the fruit and put them in plastic containers. I also ate the little fruit pieces along the way, killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Lucky me, as the amount I ate was just enough so that the fruit could comfortably fit into the containers. I think I have enough fruit for around 5-6 real big bowls of fruit (If I add a piece of bread and some cheese, it’s a nice, healthy early meal).
