Budget Meals

[revelationtrib]

I've decided to forego the college meal plan next year, and instead am allotting myself $50/week for food in hopes that I can save a little more money that would have otherwise been spent on meals in the cafeteria

Comments

[inkpaperglue]

I got by on about $20 a week at the grocery store when I was in college. I cut out a lot of things in order to do so (like ice cream, soda and junk food-I figured I would buy it individually if I really craved it) but I never felt deprived. I would check the local grocery ads and come up with a menu for the week based off what was on sale.

Some of my meals: kielbasa with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetable; pasta with sauce and steamed vegetable; salad; soup. . .

As the previous poster mentioned, making something early in the week and then re-inventing the recipe for the rest of the week is a great way to go. I use leftover stir-fry veggies to make omelettes in the morning.

Not really a recipe-but my favorite cheap/nutritious thing to make is a fruit 'salad' using apples and yogurt with cinnamon and vanilla extract. A little honey is nice in there too and you can add any fruit; grapes and strawberries are really good. It's pretty portable and when my roommates would be pigging out on ice cream I would eat that. It tastes like apple pie ala mode.

[thetaniwha]

The menu thing is a great idea - Decide what you want for the week before you shop, and then you can work around what you still have and shop a lot smarter. You will waste a lot less and save more.

Also, if you can afford it, start buying things like spices now, they'll last ages once you have them but they're expensive to start off when you have nothing.