I'm in my mid 20s and trying to build muscle. Even with my main job being sedentary, my daily energy needs are high. My weekend job burns a lot of calories (retail), I strength train 3x a week, swim once a week, and walk or ebike to all my destinations (about 40-50 miles a week).
Right now my goal is 3,000 calories a day; the scale stays stable at 2,700-2,800 and I weigh 145lb.
I am a pescetarian but only eat canned fish 3ish times a week (averages $4-$6 a week); the rest of my diet is lacto-ovo vegetarian. And I spend around $350-$400 a month combining groceries (including nonfood household items) and the occasional takeout.
I say all this because I see so many posts about feeding families for the same amount or less. It makes me wonder if I'm doing frugal shopping wrong despite cutting out almost all of the most expensive food groups.
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$350-400 a month doesn't sound that crazy for 3,000 calories a day, especially if you're eating plenty of dairy, eggs and produce. hitting calorie goals with mostly whole foods gets expensive faster than people think
Yeah, I feel like a great bulk of your costs are probably going towards produce (feel free to contradict me). Have you tried categorizing a month of grocery costs to see what's most expensive? Most of your calories are probably coming from the cheapest terms (legumes and grains) and the fewest of your calories from the most expensive items (fresh produce).
Have you tried any forms of chickpea flour (also called besan, gram flour, garbanzo bean flour)? It is high in protein, calories and carbs and you can use it to make really tasty breads, wraps, pancakes and fritters, which make a good high protein but low cost addition to meals, especially if you eat them with something that includes Greek yogurt. Recommend purchasing either the besan or gram flour versions from the international section of your grocery store or an Indian grocers as you can get big bags for a fraction of the price of trendier brands catering to the gluten free market.
It depends on where you live, and you included non-food household items in your accounting, which not everyone will do. As for getting your spending down, are you buying larger sizes? A big jar of peanut butter is more money but cheaper per ounce than a small one. Same goes for yogurt, oils, aluminum foil, paper towels, most things really (though not always, so check it out and don’t assume).