Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Strawbrawry t1_jaccgy9 wrote

What the fuck are you buying/eating? Like a steak every night? Dawg, I spend like $30-50 a week MAX for me and my partner and we get take out/pick up 1-3 times in that week and still come out with less. I'm not a small dude either at 220. I do Costco maybe quarterly for meat, that keeps costs down well. Besides that, I split my food between our giant and Harris teeter, occasionally go to whole paycheck to get an ingredient or two.

You said you don't do meal prep...how are you making a list for the store then? Do you just go and buy foods assuming it will come together? Do you buy a lot of precooked or packaged meals? What's your waste look like? I go in with at least two dinner recipes and an all week lunch in mind then buy extras after.

This week I made a huge ratatouille, pesto pasta, chicken in brown butter sauce, Mediterranean style loaded potatoes for lunch, breakfasts are normally up to the person but I have two eggs and toast damn near every morning. Spent $37 at giant, had the chicken from Costco. I used to make meal plans for folks on food stamps, $50 a week is very doable on nice meals if you take 10 minutes and plan it out. You don't even have to eat rice and beans lol. Budget bytes. com and other similar sites also are a huge help too.

Costco might be a good route for y'all. They deliver in the city via USPS or instakart and membership pays for itself in no time at all, especially if you're buying meat in bulk. Also DC Costco will be the cheapest booze in the city IME

6

mjsarlington t1_jacpq6u wrote

So you are spending an average of $40/week for 2 people so $160/month for a couple. Gonna have to call you out on that one. That’s like $5/day between the 2 of you.

8

Strawbrawry t1_jacsqcl wrote

You might have skipped over that I also eat out decently often. Take out probably totals another $160-200 per month but a cost I can cut easily, a luxury. My Costco costs are maybe another $200 quarterly but still very possible without.

I was making 35k helping out people making under 17k do this up until a few years ago. This is not impossible to do. In fact, I do this without any coupons or deal searching. I use the member cards at Giant and HT, maybe a split decision at the store for the sale cuts or something but I could make this maybe $30 a week if I really got into it.

Just buy in season, in bulk if possible, know what things cost, have meals planned and eat with a purpose. I don't buy chips and soda and premade stuffs. I get treats for my partner all the time but I'm not one to snack. I try to eat healthy, I'm actually trying to lose weight believe it or not. It's just about the set up.

1