24 year old guy here who is married, going to be starting tech school soon while working full time, and is going to be pretty broke having to pay for school on top of paying bills. What does anyone advocate for cheap but healthy meal ideas, and some ways to spice it up so it doesn’t become monotonous? I train power lifting 3 times a week and may have to scale it back to 2 times a week due to my schedule
1 Like
Slow cooker. Those are super cheap, and you can make a lot of good, flavorful food in it. Put the food in during the morning and come home to dinner.
3 Likes
How much do you have to spend per week? And do you have money for a bulk buy?
1 Like
Lots of generic soups. Different flavors.
Add lean ground beef to some, chicken to others.
Every dollar of junk you cut out is a dollar of meat you can buy.
2 Likes
Big bags of stuff like rice, beans, barley, potatos, etc. The bigger the bag the cheaper per lb.
Root veggies make everything more interesting.
Get good with a variety of herbs and spices. You can bring out all kinds of flavors with different blends and quantities of herbs and spices. And one typical bottle or canister lasts for ever.
Learn to manipulate different levels of hot, sweet, tart, savory, and salty with juices and vinegars.
Even simple stuff can be great, like a flat iron round steak with spg, then a few splashes of malt vinegar over rice with some broccoli on the side.
1 Like
75-100$ a week tops. I have BJs membership which is a whole sale store similar to Costco or Sams Club. I have some room to spend more to buy in bulk if it will last me longer
1 Like
You can eat 1lbs of beef per day, some eggs, bacon plus potato, rice , oats etc plus olive oil/butter and greek yoghurt for that. Easily. You should be able to fit in herbs, other veggies and stock for flavor as well.
1 Like
It’s super simple to eat cheap and healthy, it just takes some discipline. Pick protein sources (chicken, beef, tuna, eggs), carb sources (white rice, potatoes, oats), and get some good fats in there, and you’ll be golden. What this comes down to, on your budget - and this is coming from a 28 year old father of 2 with a stay at home wife - is that one meal you get at a fast food joint or a deli, or the takeout you get from time to time. Or the beer, or weed, or whatever it is. You can do amazing things on a tiny budget, but it’s the small stuff that adds up that we never account for. In the same way that the mini snacks or nibbles throughout the day throw off an otherwise stellar diet, one or two takeout meals a week can put you over your money amount. My wife and I are honest with each other about everything we spend. She texts me at work to let me know she’s getting a 99 cent tin of bread crumbs from the dollar store. We’re more comfortable now, but I had rough times where I worked 80+ hours a week and still had to take change from my kids piggy bank to get milk, and when we budgeted things out we realized that those tiny little seemingly insignificant things that we would buy - a dollar here, a dollar there - those were what was burying us. I’ve since doubled my income and we’re doing well now, but I’ve been where you’re at, and you’ll be fine if you do the right thing.
4 Likes
Instead of buying fresh veggies get them frozen. Alot cheaper
2 Likes
The first thing I would do if I was trying to cut costs is buy the biggest “chunks” of meat I could. Whole chickens are far cheaper than all the parts together . A leg or side of an animal is muuuuuch cheaper than a few cuts of steak.
BTW, I don’t know what they do to chicken when the segment it but whole chicken cut up and then fried is significantly more tender and tasty than bought body parts.
2 Likes
I think my biggest unnecessary expenses that add up are eating out 2-3 times a week and getting iced coffee 5-6 times a week. That adds up
That’s HUGE. You can add 50+ dollars to your budget, at a minimum. Depending on where you eat, it could be twice that.
Eating out and iced coffee that often really adds up. I can relate.
Pastas with meat sauce - I like to pre cook burger patties, and when I heat up the sauce, I break up the cooked but cold burger patty and then stir in the pasta. I used to do this with Ramen noodles, but that’s clearly not healthy.
Tilapia I’ve seen 8-10 bucks for 10-12 4oz filets. THey cook really fast too. I don’t really like fish, but if you do this could be a good item.
Canned chicken, canned salmon, canned tuna are options too. But I wouldn’t do this too often. Maybe a good call if you wanna do a tuna/chicken/salmon sandwich - see also ezekiel bread for this. I would also add this to ramen but not healthy.
If you’re looking to keep your carbs up, I’d do PB&J often. Mad economical.
Egg scrambles with cheese and cut up tortilla. Fry up the cut up tortilla first, then add eggs, and then add cheese in the very end. Great with salsa or rotel. Rotel or store brand diced tomatoes are great.
Maximize your rotisserie chicken. Usually 5 bucks for a pre-cooked whole one. But it’s bland as hell, so I’ve made chicken soup with it. Add celery, carrots, onion, ginger, jalapeno/habanero, and just put the chicken pieces and boil it more.
Or you can take that chicken, take it off the bones, and then stir fry with vegetables.
If you’re busy, pre cook all your ground beef in 4-6oz burger patties, that way you know you’re getting 20-30g protein per patty.
1 Like
yeah its probably 50-70 dollars a week at a restaurant and then 20 on coffee
You can make your own cold brew at home for cheap
EDIT: I personally don’t because I like Nitro Cold Brew.
2 Likes