Two Dollars a Day

[email hidden] wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Friends,

I have decided to live the month of July spending just two
dollars a day on food.
*Eggs - fried, scrambled, and boiled.
*Potatoes - fried, baked
*Pasta - 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, garlic,
onions, herbs, 1lb pasta
*Tuna salad
*Home baked bread - loaves, rolls, cornbread, pita, soda
crackers

Quoted message said:

*Veggies - potatoes, carrots, onions (not much else looks
affordable on my self imposed budget)
*Fruit - bananas, melons (also, lemons and oranges from trees
in the yard, though I don't think many, if any, oranges will
be available) *Grains, beans, pasta - rice, beans (red,
garbanzo, pinto), peas, lentils, barley, pasta
*Meat - Not much looks particularly affordable. I may be able
to squeeze some chicken in, maybe even some ground beef, and I
plan on splurging on a pound of bacon.
*Dairy - no milk, cheese, or butter. But margarine is
surprisingly cheap. Eggs, or course.

What other food items to you think I can add to the list?

What interesting menu items would you recommend?

thanks,

b.
misanthropia dot com

Peanut butter.

said...

Quoted message said:

That's pretty much the list I've come up with. I really need some help
coming up with more menu items.

The 4th of July at your house sounds like a real downer, if you celebrate it.

Bulk purchase everything and clip lots of coupons. Not that I could do it
successfully myself!

Good luck,

Andy

Quoted message said:

Friends,

I have decided to live the month of July spending just two dollars a
day on food. Other than vague notions of pasta, rice, beans, and
raman, I have little idea what I'm gonna eat.

That being said, there are a few things I have in mind:

*Eggs - fried, scrambled, and boiled.
*Potatoes - fried, baked
*Pasta - 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, garlic, onions,
herbs, 1lb pasta
*Tuna salad
*Home baked bread - loaves, rolls, cornbread, pita, soda crackers

That's pretty much the list I've come up with. I really need some help
coming up with more menu items.

We're always on a really tight budget, so I've learned some tricks to get us
by when we're in a serious pinch.

1. Homemade soups. For instance, bean soup is probably one of the cheapest.
It may cost more than $2.00 initially, but you get a week's worth and you
can always freeze some.
2. Frozen, non-breaded, fish filets - I get mine at a place called
Sav-a-Lot. For about $3.50 I get 5 frozen pollock fillets. Yes, it comes
to about $.70 a fillet, which is about 65% of your daily allowance, but if
you eat ramen for lunch ($.15), 2 eggs for breakfast ($.40) that allows you
about $.75 cents of veggies to go with the fish for dinner. And, if you
haven't finished all the ramen (I never do), you can stir-fry the veggies
and place them on the bed of left-over ramen.
3. Buy off-brand canned goods at surplus stores like Dollar General. The
sell-by-date is usually expired, but that's not important for canned goods.
Spaghetti sauce can be had for under $1.00 and again, you can get at least
3 - 4 meals out of a jar. These kind of places are also good for cheap,
dried pasta.
4. You mentioned rice. Fried rice is cheap and it's a great way to use up
any veggies. I make a batch and it lasts me all week. What I don't end up
eating (because I can never eat it all), I end up feeding to my pet rats.
They love it, too!
5. It's summer - think tuna salad. Go to the Dollar store to get your
tuna, pasta, mayo and whatever else you want to add. That's another one
that lasts me a week.
6. Casseroles. Filling, cheap and they go a long way. A casserole can be
as simple as frozen broccoli and mushroom soup (or broccoli cheese soup),
baked, with breadcrumbs on the top. Again, if you go to the Dollar store,
you can get frozen broccoli and canned mushroom soup for cheap.

I could write a book on this and to all the foodies out there, yes, I know
most of this is processed food. I like to eat as fresh and healthy as I
can, but sometimes you have to cut corners.

Anyway, I hope this helped!

kili

Andy said:

said...

Quoted message said:

That's pretty much the list I've come up with. I really need some
help coming up with more menu items.

The 4th of July at your house sounds like a real downer, if you
celebrate it.

Bulk purchase everything and clip lots of coupons. Not that I could
do it successfully myself!

Good luck,

Andy

You *can* do it successfully, but unfortunately, you eat a lot of canned
goods and pasta. Not something you can do right now.

kili

Quoted message said:

Friends,

I have decided to live the month of July spending just two dollars a
day on food. Other than vague notions of pasta, rice, beans, and
raman, I have little idea what I'm gonna eat.

I'm surprised you say you can only squeeze in chicken. I find chicken
to be uniformly cheap and available. We could live in different parts
of the world.

For fresh produce: cabbage, potatoes, sweet potatoes, the winter
squashes that are on the shelves all summer. Zucchini should be coming
down in price soon, and a little after that, you should be able to find
melons for not much money.

For other vegetables: canned for the least expensive, then frozen after
that.

Milk, while the price is going up, is still a nutritional bargain.

--Lia

kilikini said...

Quoted message said:

Andy said:

said...

Quoted message said:

That's pretty much the list I've come up with. I really need some
help coming up with more menu items.

The 4th of July at your house sounds like a real downer, if you
celebrate it.

Bulk purchase everything and clip lots of coupons. Not that I could
do it successfully myself!

Good luck,

Andy

You *can* do it successfully, but unfortunately, you eat a lot of canned
goods and pasta. Not something you can do right now.

kili

I'm already about sick and tired of my vegelaya! Even as easy as it is to
make, overdoing a good thing gets old quick. Same thing happened with
gumbo. I'm a little reluctant when it comes to freezing stuff, in favor of
breakfast, lunch and dinner of leftovers.

Andy

mcbrag said:

I have decided to live the month of July spending just two dollars a
day on food. Other than vague notions of pasta, rice, beans, and
raman, I have little idea what I'm gonna eat.

That being said, there are a few things I have in mind:

*Eggs - fried, scrambled, and boiled.
*Potatoes - fried, baked
*Pasta - 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, garlic, onions,
herbs, 1lb pasta
*Tuna salad
*Home baked bread - loaves, rolls, cornbread, pita, soda crackers

That's pretty much the list I've come up with. I really need some help
coming up with more menu items.

Checking prices at the supermarket, I've come up with a list of some
food stuffs I can afford:

*Veggies - potatoes, carrots, onions (not much else looks affordable
on my self imposed budget)
*Fruit - bananas, melons (also, lemons and oranges from trees in the
yard, though I don't think many, if any, oranges will be available)
*Grains, beans, pasta - rice, beans (red, garbanzo, pinto), peas,
lentils, barley, pasta
*Meat - Not much looks particularly affordable. I may be able to
squeeze some chicken in, maybe even some ground beef, and I plan on
splurging on a pound of bacon.
*Dairy - no milk, cheese, or butter. But margarine is surprisingly
cheap. Eggs, or course.

I have an ample supply of herbs, spices, oils, vinegar, soy sauce, and
some rather esoteric condiments (fish sauce, black bean and garlic
sauce, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce).

Anyways, your help is greatly appreciated.

What other food items to you think I can add to the list?

What interesting menu items would you recommend?

You should be able to squeeze a lot of chicken in... 5-7 lb roasting
chickens are almost always on sale at some stupidmarket for less than
80 cts/lb... one large chicken will supply at least six portions..
and the carcass enough stock to greatly enhance a few portions of your
ramen.

If you live near water (ocean, river, lake, stream, etc.) you can
catch fish. A walk along the roadside near woods and fields should
produce plenty of berries in July. There are also lots of wild greens
that not only are very edible but also very tasty... check the
library, many survival books have been written that identify edible
plants. Had you thought of your experiment as little as two months
ago you could have with just $2 worth of seeds planted a vegetable
garden that all through July (and beyond) would have enabled you to
eat better than a king.

And remember, tube steak is your friend! hehe

A can of baked beans, a handful of macaroni, a couple sliced tube
steak and a little water and you have big bowl of nutritious and
filling soup.

Sheldon

"kilikini" <[email hidden]> dropped this turd
news:[email hidden]: in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

I could write a book on this and to all the foodies out there, yes, I
know most of this is processed food. I like to eat as fresh and
healthy as I can, but sometimes you have to cut corners.

Anyway, I hope this helped!

kili

Why don't you write a book? Say, the month of August go on a $2 a day
budget and really stick to it. No fudging and journal everything.
Viola... you got a book.

Michael

--
Due to recent cutbacks - The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned
off.
~unknow author

Sheldon wrote:
Had you thought of your experiment as little as two months

Quoted message said:

ago you could have with just $2 worth of seeds planted a vegetable
garden that all through July (and beyond) would have enabled you to
eat better than a king.

I thought of suggesting a garden, but, while the seeds are inexpensive,
the place to plant them can run up a pretty penny.

I love putting in a garden each year. Mostly we concentrate on
vegetables, but we put a few flowers in too. We start with seedlings
from the garden center. Where I live, some people start with seeds, but
we decided we were better off with seedlings from the garden center.
That's more expensive but yields more reliable results. As we were
paying, I realized that the snap dragons were being taxed while the
green bean seeds, tomato, eggplant, celeriac, parsley, basil, and pepper
plants, weren't. That makes sense since, in a supermarket, vegetables
wouldn't be taxed while cut flowers would be. Still, it got me thinking
about planting a garden as a way of saving money.

I'm sure we're not the smartest gardeners in the world, but even so, we
spend plenty on that fresh produce. We invest in dirt, peat, manure,
tomato cages, sprinklers, hoses, shovels, and, this last year, a clever
rototiller from a garage sale which made the labor part of it go faster.
I'm not counting the work since that's mostly fun and meditation. The
yield is not guaranteed. If we do get a good crop, we get it when the
prices are least at the supermarket. I mean, I've had good luck with
fresh green beans, but they don't cost much when they're in season anyway.

For the original poster-- If you do decide to go the garden route, you
still have time to plant green beans, and they're a pretty sure thing.
If you don't have a dedicated garden plot, you'll need plastic tubs
filled with dirt, a place to put them (a balcony that gets sun or a
walkway or porch). Look at the packet of seeds and get the bush variety
as opposed to the pole variety. That way you won't need to build a
trellis for them to climb on. If you do decide on the pole variety,
they'll grow up pretty much anything so some wooden stakes stuck in the
buckets tied together with string should do fine.

--Lia

Michael 'Dog3' Lonergan said:

"kilikini" <[email hidden]> dropped this turd
news:[email hidden]: in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

I could write a book on this and to all the foodies out there, yes, I
know most of this is processed food. I like to eat as fresh and
healthy as I can, but sometimes you have to cut corners.

Anyway, I hope this helped!

kili

Why don't you write a book? Say, the month of August go on a $2 a day
budget and really stick to it. No fudging and journal everything.
Viola... you got a book.

Michael

That's something to think about, isn't it? Not too bad of an idea! I could
easily do it, though, because I only eat once a day. :~)

kili

Sheldon <[email hidden]> dropped this turd news:1183035101.335247.259170
@w5g2000hsg.googlegroups.com: in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

And remember, tube steak is your friend! hehe

I've seen packages of hot dogs on sale for $1.00 for 8 weiners. That's 8
lunches. I *think* you can still get burger and hot dog buns at Aldi's
here for 49 cents a package for 8 buns. I've also seen meat case cold cuts
and braunschweiger for $1 per pound (maybe it's 12 oz., I forget). Watching
the sales would be the best bet.

Quoted message said:

A can of baked beans, a handful of macaroni, a couple sliced tube
steak and a little water and you have big bowl of nutritious and
filling soup.

Sheldon

The roasting hen was a good idea. I've gotten 4-5 pounders dirt cheap when
on sale. A fat, plump bird will go a long way and left overs can be
readily frozen for other uses.

Michael

--
Due to recent cutbacks - The light at the end of the tunnel has been turned
off.
~unknow author

"kilikini" <[email hidden]> dropped this turd
news:[email hidden]: in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

Michael 'Dog3' Lonergan said:

"kilikini" <[email hidden]> dropped this turd
news:[email hidden]: in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

I could write a book on this and to all the foodies out there, yes,
I know most of this is processed food. I like to eat as fresh and
healthy as I can, but sometimes you have to cut corners.

Anyway, I hope this helped!

kili

Why don't you write a book? Say, the month of August go on a $2 a
day budget and really stick to it. No fudging and journal
everything. Viola... you got a book.

Michael

That's something to think about, isn't it? Not too bad of an idea! I
could easily do it, though, because I only eat once a day. :~)

It would have to be 3 meals a day and maybe a snack. Nutrition and
calories would be a big issue too. I say go for it. Experiment on TFM.

Michael

--
Due to recent cutbacks - The light at the end of the tunnel has been
turned off.
~unknow author

Quoted message said:

Friends,

I have decided to live the month of July spending just two dollars a
day on food. Other than vague notions of pasta, rice, beans, and
raman, I have little idea what I'm gonna eat.

That being said, there are a few things I have in mind:

*Eggs - fried, scrambled, and boiled.
*Potatoes - fried, baked
*Pasta - 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, garlic, onions,
herbs, 1lb pasta
*Tuna salad
*Home baked bread - loaves, rolls, cornbread, pita, soda crackers

That's pretty much the list I've come up with. I really need some help
coming up with more menu items.

Checking prices at the supermarket, I've come up with a list of some
food stuffs I can afford:

*Veggies - potatoes, carrots, onions (not much else looks affordable
on my self imposed budget)
*Fruit - bananas, melons (also, lemons and oranges from trees in the
yard, though I don't think many, if any, oranges will be available)
*Grains, beans, pasta - rice, beans (red, garbanzo, pinto), peas,
lentils, barley, pasta
*Meat - Not much looks particularly affordable. I may be able to
squeeze some chicken in, maybe even some ground beef, and I plan on
splurging on a pound of bacon.
*Dairy - no milk, cheese, or butter. But margarine is surprisingly
cheap. Eggs, or course.

If I were doing a month, I'd probably be as close to vegan as I could.
It looks like you are including meat, but probably just the tuna would
suffice. Splurge on some type of milk, be in powdered or fresh to add
some protein. I'd give up margarine, period, forever. If you feel you
need something on your bread, use a little peanut butter or jelly. I
would 'splurge' on milk for extra protein. You are lucky that it is
vegetable season, cabbage goes a long way; make fresh soup (as another
poster suggested). If you feel hungry, eat loads of it, and add some
red beans and a little pasta.

Myself, I could eat any combination of beans and grains 4-5 x a week,
but my husband can't get by hardly a day without meat. I think a lot
of it depends on your own body's needs. Listen to what you need while
you are on this diet. Some days I feel hungry all day, others I feel
full; there's your own reason for this.
Dee Dee

Quoted message said:

Friends,

I have decided to live the month of July spending just two dollars a
day on food. Other than vague notions of pasta, rice, beans, and
raman, I have little idea what I'm gonna eat.

That being said, there are a few things I have in mind:

*Eggs - fried, scrambled, and boiled.
*Potatoes - fried, baked
*Pasta - 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, garlic, onions,
herbs, 1lb pasta
*Tuna salad
*Home baked bread - loaves, rolls, cornbread, pita, soda crackers

That's pretty much the list I've come up with. I really need some help
coming up with more menu items.

Checking prices at the supermarket, I've come up with a list of some
food stuffs I can afford:

*Veggies - potatoes, carrots, onions (not much else looks affordable
on my self imposed budget)
*Fruit - bananas, melons (also, lemons and oranges from trees in the
yard, though I don't think many, if any, oranges will be available)
*Grains, beans, pasta - rice, beans (red, garbanzo, pinto), peas,
lentils, barley, pasta
*Meat - Not much looks particularly affordable. I may be able to
squeeze some chicken in, maybe even some ground beef, and I plan on
splurging on a pound of bacon.
*Dairy - no milk, cheese, or butter. But margarine is surprisingly
cheap. Eggs, or course.

I have an ample supply of herbs, spices, oils, vinegar, soy sauce, and
some rather esoteric condiments (fish sauce, black bean and garlic
sauce, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce).

Anyways, your help is greatly appreciated.

What other food items to you think I can add to the list?

What interesting menu items would you recommend?

thanks,

b.
misanthropia dot com

The big secret to carrying out this idea is careful planning and use
of leftovers, preferably in a different form. The other is to buy
things that are on sale each week. Read the circulars from each store
and plan meals from that. Canned and frozen vegetables are a good
deal. Some stores mark down vegetables, meats and dairy products that
are almost at their expiration date. If you can use them immediately
they can be very good bargains.

The other thing to think about is proper nutrition. If this is just a
"do it for the heck of it " I doubt that you will end up
mal-nourished. But if you are planning on doing it longer term you
had better think carefully about where the minerals and vitamins are
coming from.
--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral,
48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted message said:

What other food items to you think I can add to the list?

What interesting menu items would you recommend?

Cheap chicken.

At an average of $.79 per lb. one chicken can easily feed me for 3 days
with sides.

Beans
Rice
Corn Tortillas
Ramen noodles
Other pastas
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a [censored]" -- Jack Nicholson

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Friends,

I have decided to live the month of July spending just two dollars a
day on food. Other than vague notions of pasta, rice, beans, and
raman, I have little idea what I'm gonna eat.

That being said, there are a few things I have in mind:

*Eggs - fried, scrambled, and boiled.
*Potatoes - fried, baked
*Pasta - 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, garlic, onions,
herbs, 1lb pasta
*Tuna salad
*Home baked bread - loaves, rolls, cornbread, pita, soda crackers

That's pretty much the list I've come up with. I really need some help
coming up with more menu items.

Checking prices at the supermarket, I've come up with a list of some
food stuffs I can afford:

*Veggies - potatoes, carrots, onions (not much else looks affordable
on my self imposed budget)
*Fruit - bananas, melons (also, lemons and oranges from trees in the
yard, though I don't think many, if any, oranges will be available)
*Grains, beans, pasta - rice, beans (red, garbanzo, pinto), peas,
lentils, barley, pasta
*Meat - Not much looks particularly affordable. I may be able to
squeeze some chicken in, maybe even some ground beef, and I plan on
splurging on a pound of bacon.
*Dairy - no milk, cheese, or butter. But margarine is surprisingly
cheap. Eggs, or course.

I have an ample supply of herbs, spices, oils, vinegar, soy sauce, and
some rather esoteric condiments (fish sauce, black bean and garlic
sauce, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce).

Anyways, your help is greatly appreciated.

What other food items to you think I can add to the list?

What interesting menu items would you recommend?

thanks,

b.
misanthropia dot com

Get familiar with your local markets and what they do with food that is
getting too ripe to sell or too close to the expiration date. Markets in my
area discount these heavily. If you just buy the veggies and fruit you will
use that day or buy meat and freeze what you don't use you can save quite a
bit of money.

Jon

Julia Altshuler said:

Sheldon wrote:

Had you thought of your experiment as little as two months

Quoted message said:

ago you could have with just $2 worth of seeds planted a vegetable
garden that all through July (and beyond) would have enabled you to
eat better than a king.

I thought of suggesting a garden, but, while the seeds are inexpensive,
the place to plant them can run up a pretty penny.

Assuming a piece of sunny ground is already available then nothing
other than labor needs to be invested. And most people can find a
suitable piece of ground somewhere even if they don't have their own
(really don't need a lot of space, veggies can be planted amongst
foundation shrubbery, in utility company right of ways, even in large
cites there are community gardens where one can sign up on a first
come first serve basis... they're almost always free. And quite a
crop can be harvested from planters... many nurserys will give away
those cheap plastic pots that sapling trees are grown in for free...
at most any construction sites one can get all the free 5 gallon used
contractors buckets they can carry for the asking... you don't need
tony planters from the Front Gate catalog to grow veggies. Yes, one
can get really fancy schmancy with gardening but if all one wants is
basic vegetables to feed one person no money is involved, and for such
a small amount not even much labor... we're talking like about 30-40
sq ft of ground, not a farm.

Sheldon said:

mcbrag said:

I have decided to live the month of July spending just two dollars a
day on food. Other than vague notions of pasta, rice, beans, and
raman, I have little idea what I'm gonna eat.

Quoted message said:

You should be able to squeeze a lot of chicken in... 5-7 lb roasting
chickens are almost always on sale at some stupidmarket for less than
80 cts/lb... one large chicken will supply at least six portions..
and the carcass enough stock to greatly enhance a few portions of your
ramen.

Now that you mention it, I have seen whole chickens on sale once at my
local Stater Bros for .64 per pound. That's been a while, though. My
estimations were based on prices I've seen over the last couple weeks
of shopping.

Oh, and I'm a big guy...a whole chicken is more like 4 meals, not 6.
Two meals when I'm not on a budget 🙂

(minus the stock afterwords, of course)

Quoted message said:

If you live near water (ocean, river, lake, stream, etc.) you can
catch fish. A walk along the roadside near woods and fields should
produce plenty of berries in July. There are also lots of wild greens
that not only are very edible but also very tasty... check the
library, many survival books have been written that identify edible
plants. Had you thought of your experiment as little as two months
ago you could have with just $2 worth of seeds planted a vegetable
garden that all through July (and beyond) would have enabled you to
eat better than a king.

Actually, I did start a garden, but I got a rather late start this
year - last week of May if memory serves.

Anyways, it looks like I'll probably have some green beans the second
half of the month, and maybe even some swiss chard and spinach. I've
already had one harvest of radishes.

Quoted message said:

And remember, tube steak is your friend! hehe

Thanks for the offer, Sheldon, but I gag easily 🙂

Seriously though, hot dogs have never done it for me. One of my goals
is to eat as healthily as possible. I can do better than hot dogs.

Quoted message said:

A can of baked beans, a handful of macaroni, a couple sliced tube
steak and a little water and you have big bowl of nutritious and
filling soup.

Sheldon

Thank you, Sheldon, that was very helpful.

b.

Omelet said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted message said:

What other food items to you think I can add to the list?

Quoted message said:

What interesting menu items would you recommend?

Cheap chicken.

At an average of $.79 per lb. one chicken can easily feed me for 3 days
with sides.

I have seen whole chickens on the cheap on sale at the local market,
but not the last few forrays through. I figure any meat has got to be
$1 per pound or less to be feasible. I'd be willing to go a little
higher on chicken simply because I can get so much out of it.

Quoted message said:

Beans
Rice
Corn Tortillas
Ramen noodles
Other pastas

Ah, tortillas. Great idea! thanks.

b.

Quoted message said:

--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a [censored]" -- Jack Nicholson