Hey guys, so I'm 19 and I don't have nearly as much money as my parents did to feed the adult family of 4 I'm living with.
Right now most of what we're buying is rice and pasta, but one of them is on a meat-only diet and I have to buy for them too.
We spend about $300, usually get stuff like sandwich meat, bread, cheese, pasta and sauces, milk and eggs, as well as frozen and fresh chicken and occasionally beef. I was wondering if there was anyway anybody knew how to stretch food? Since I don't have it in budget with work and my car to just... Buy more?
I work full time and don't have time to buy bulk items and meal prep, and I figured somebody smarter would have some good advice.
Thank you all in advance <33
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You can freeze most items. Lean on cheap fillers like pasta, rice, and beans to stretch your meals farther. When I was young and broke I would cook food in batches and freeze some for later.
You need complete proteins. Try lentils. If you can open a can, you can make lentil soup. What are the ages of the household?
Dried lentils are even cheaper
Lentils are pretty cheap and can be used as a ground beef or pork meat substitute or to stretch them. For example the other day I made spaghetti with ground pork and added lentils to make more “meat” for the sauce. You just have to soak them for a few hours or overnight so they cook faster. If it’s something saucy like spaghetti you could add it straight in, just give a about 10-15 minutes to cook. Or if it’s something dry like taco meat you pre cook it in a pot with water to cover for about 10-15 minutes again making sure they don’t get mushy. Then cook like normal meat and season to taste.
Lentils already cook in under 30 minutes, and by putting lentils and either rice or cubed potatoes in the pot at the same time, along with some spices, the end result is a complete one-pot meal, especially if one adds some veggies toward the end.
Tell the person on a meat only diet they can pay for their own food or be grateful for what is placed before them.
this. and why are you buying all the food? do the others not work? are they unable to work/disabled? if so they should be able to get some type of assistance ie SNAP. theres got to be more to the story here.
Yeah. Eating less meat is generally a good way to cut the budget. I assume it's a choice/preference and not a medical reason for special treatment compared to the rest.
If you could make time to meal plan and cook a few things ahead - marinara sauce (garlic, onion, can tomatoes), lentil or meat bolognese (not many more ingredients than marinara), soups, stews - meals you can cook a big pot of and eat from all week. Making your own sandwich fillings, slicing your own cheese, washing your own veggies. It's a trade off between time and money, unfortunately. If you don't have money, you spend more time. At least look at the weekly grocery sales and plan your meals around the cheapest proteins - often these are tough cuts (suitable for a slow cooker or other low and slow cooking method), and bone-in (gives flavour, can use bones in cooking), but every 4-6 weeks, almost everything goes on sale. Add beans, lentils, eggs. Use whole grains if you can (they take longer to cook but they add variety and nutrition). Stretching meats with mushrooms, oats, breadcrumbs, lentils, etc works in many recipes. I don't know why you have someone with a meat only diet - if it's diabetes or allergies, done mess with recipes without consulting them. Also bread and sides - serving stew or chili on toast, over a baked potato, or alongside a big pile of veggies. Portioning is important too - really important to manage food costs. I hope your household comes together to tackle this, rather than making it your job alone. Everyone needs to help, and to respect the plans.
Thank you so much for this, I really appreciate all your time and how judgement free this sounded. I admit, I should know this all already but again I learned something and it has genuinely helped me tons. Thank you so so much <33
Meat only diet person should provide the meat. Dried beans with rice and a sausage link diced up for flavor is very filling.
Bingo Beans and rice are delicious and comforting done right.
Same as i was thinking, but I would replace the sausage with a ham hock. Its generally cheaper, goes a long way, keeps forever in the cupboard and generally tastes better with beans (depending on seasonings). Also, add diced tomatoes
I don't think you'll be able to get much lower than $300/month for a family of 4. Would it be an option to get some assistance?
if you can afford the upfront cost, go to a restaurant supply store and buy 50lb bags of rice and lentils. you’ll find that you save massive amounts this way. downside is they don’t accept food assistance usually.
Frankly, sandwhich meat is a rip off and isn't good for you either (causes cancer). Same goes for bread, pasta, and sauces. Fatty beef is pretty cheap, for example at ALDI, frozen 75/25 beef is $4.76 a pound. One pound of 75/25 beef has 1,330 calories, so if someone eats 3000 calories a day, you could feed them for $10.74 a day. For many reasons, a beef only diet is not good for you. Using milk, fruit, eggs, and butter, you can upgrade the diet and stay at $11 a day, eating a pound of grass fed beef per day. If you eat chicken instead of beef, you could get down to 7 or 8 dollars a day.
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You guys need to utilize the big slow cooker crock pot and make huge batches of food
Is there a food pantry near you? How old is everyone else? Dietary needs will vary by age. So will the ability to help meal prep. There are a lot of cheap vegetables that are far more filling than rice and pasta. Meat is expensive- what’s the deal with the meat only person? It’s hard to make recommendations with so little info.
Meat is what's killing your budget. Its very expensive right now. So maybe ask the person that's on the meat only diet to either chip in more because its expensive or you buy less of it. Shop sales. Buy in bulk, rice, beans, pasta, potatoes, eggs and frozen veggies. Buy lentils, ground beef because you can stretch it into several meals. Chicken thighs and canned tuna are also items that can be used for several meals. Only buy store brand items, shop the clearance meat (half off or a percentage off) and freeze it. Shop Managers Special items. Always do frozen over fresh to save money. With your budget NEVER buy soda, snacks or juice or single serve items. It's a waste of money you don't have. For meals, keep it simple, pots of chili, spaghetti, chicken and rice. Its filling and can last for days. If no one knows how to cook, look up youtube videos online.
Thank you so much for this!! I really appreciate all the time and detail you put into this. I know it might seem common sense to other people, but it really did help me. Thank you :))
Are you hitting up food banks?
How old are the others?
Keto diet ain’t for people on a budget. Make meat person pay for their own groceries
Beans can replace some of the meat in those diets it'll introduce them to a plant based protein and help ensure that meat you buy stretches even further, or like the other suggestions, lentils.
Meat only is a wild diet to support when times are tight. Tell them they can eat the neighbourhood squirrels if they don't like what everyone else is getting for dinner.
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You may already know this but for pasta sauce look in the powder spice packet section. You can get pasta sauce there for around $0.50. It says to use tomato paste with it but you don’t have to and it still tastes good. A packet of sauce is usually cheaper than a jar even if you do combine with tomato paste.
I'm having a hard time taking this seriously due to the "on a meat-only diet" I really can't get past that.
Yes, or take him fishing 🤣🤣
Food banks are the answer unless someone can work more.
The meat only person needs to fend for himself/herself. That's ridiculous that that person gets such a large portion of your food budget.
Learn to make more from scratch and to eat more beans. It sounds like the person on the meat only diet needs to fund their own meals.
r/povertykitchen
Do you have someone in your life who regularly goes to Costco? If so, you could give them $5 to pick up a rotisserie chicken every week. Costco's are huge and by far the cheapest meat I can find. $5 for a fully cooked and seasoned 6lb bird is unheard of.
Unless the meat only person is doing it for a legitimate, doctor directed, medical reason, they have to let it go for now. Sandwich meat is ridiculously expensive, also. Are you going to food pantries? You'll get some good staples there, a few surprises, and then can use your money to buy the extra ingredients to make excellent meals. Some things I do to cut cost: Aldi has amazing deals if you have one near you. Cup of noodles and add a fried egg for extra protein. (Sparingly, it is too much sodium to eat tons of it) Toast and eggs for breakfast. Cereal when it is on sale. Take photos of the food you have at home so you can more accurately plan meals based on what you find on sale at the store.
No legitimate medical doctor would ever prescribe a meat only diet. I'm guessing this is some TikTok carnivore diet BS.
Ounce for ounce, lunch meat is crazy-expensive compared to other protein sources, and a lot less good for you. And bad health is even more expensive than lunch meat. Just sayin'. On the website for the grocery store nearest me, I'm seeing frozen ground turkey for as little as $2.08 for 16 oz, so maybe look for deals like that. Ethnic grocery stores can sometimes have better prices, too. But as others have noted, unless a meat-only diet is a medical necessity for that one family member, they should either get over it or buy their own so they have a realistic understanding of what prices are like. For everyone else, I see no mention of beans, lentils or potatoes in your post. They're cheap and versatile.
4 adults, why are you the one buying all the food? Is that your only bill or something
A 19 year old should not be feeding 4 adults. The 4 adults should be feeding themselves.
The edit makes this even more confusing and doesn’t explain any of it. They said the mom and brother make more per hour than OP and fiancée combined and they all work full time. Why is one person paying for all of their food??
✅ Have the person with the meat only diet pay for his own meat or at least most of it ✅ Food Bank ✅ Dollar store 🔹 Jam 🔹 Peanut Butter 🔹 Pasta sauce 🔹 Canned fruit & veggies 🔹 Chili 🔹 Frozen meat 🔹 Cereal 🔹 Oatmeal 🔹 Mayo, mustard, ketchup 🔹 Tuna ✅ Buy meat in the marked down area where they are usually 50-70% off ✅ I buy fully cooked grilled chicken strips (cut like fajita meat) and then dice it to make Chicken Alfredo, Butter Chicken or Chicken and rice so only need chicken, sauce & pasta plus seasoning so 3 ingredient meals ✅ Cream of Mushroom soup I buy in a 4 pack and use it for Tuna Casserole, Beef Stroganoff, Smothered Chicken & Smothered Pork chops or can just have over rice...Most are 3-4 ingredients ✅ Spaghetti you can make with or without meat so 2-3 ingredients ( meat, pasta & sauce)
Sauces can be made at home for cheap. And try cutting down on all the meat
If there's somehow no way the meat person will provide for themselves, just provide trashy meat like almost all fat. It will give that person the calories and if they want lean meat they can get it themselves.
Ain't nobody that isn't a feline needs a meat only diet. But if they insist, go to a Mexican butcher and buy the cheapest offal you can. Pig snouts and turkey tails chicken feet are all meat and they are all delicious.
Find meat on sale. Get a vacuum sealer. Buy as much as you can when it’s on sale and vacuum seal it and freeze it so it doesn’t freezer burn. This is the only way I afford beef anymore.
Meat is the most expensive and the guy who's earning more only pays for it SOMETIMES? Ridiculous. He can pay for his own diet.
Meat flavored dishes are great for stretching your dollar. A simple Mapo tofu can be made with tofu, ground beef or pork, soy sauce, garlic, chilie paste and black pepper. Serve over rice. Chili Mac can stretch chili by adding pasta and extra water. Top with cheese or yogurt. Other favorites of mine are red beans and rice with sausage or split pea soup with a ham bone. Buy in bulk if you can. Cut cooking time (and therefore energy) by soaking beans and pasta before cooking. Cook in bulk and freeze portions for later. Also check out local food banks or pantries. They often give out free food even if you don't qualify. And if you are not squimish, you can always dumpster dive...
Pork and turkey is cheaper per lb where I live than chicken and def cheaper than beef. What is the brother paying for if not his own food?
Stop buying meat. If you figure out how much it is costing compared to the rest of your food, I think you’ll see the reason why. You don’t say why he’s on a meat only diet but i suspect he’s trying to bulk up. There’s zero reason for you to support that. He can eat frugal foods like the rest of you unless there is a medical reason, not a made up reason, for it. And why is he not paying his share of the common expenses?
You can get large roasts (shoulder, butt) of pork on sale for \~$2/lbs. that’s pretty economical. It will keep you meat eater fed for less. If his deal he needs high protein? Or is he picky? If it’s protein, he can add more rice and beans (a complete protein if eaten together and an add more eggs.
Thank you so much for this!! I will keep an eye out for what cuts we have at the store :)) His thing is weight loss, I think? Which is strange to me but I try hard not to question it. He is a very particular person. Again thank you so much for the advice :))
Please stop paying for the meat only person.
The meat only person needs to buy his own food! A bit of meat with a lot of veggies is a good diet. Lunch meat is expensive! Eggs are a good substitute
Mr. Keto Farts should pay for his own diet
And his daily dose of laxatives.
So is the brother contributing any money? He sounds like he's not contributing at all for the cost of living and is creating the most expense by being on an all-meat diet (which is actually pretty unhealthy).
Try to get ahold of those penny lists at dollar general or the dollar tree! They have food for 1 cent all the time.
Leave.
Shop at Costco.Prices approximately and may vary. Costco Membership- $60 a year 2 loaves bread- $6 Block of cheese- $5(shred/slice at home) Spaghetti 8lbs- $12 60 Eggs- $12 Milk 2 gal- $7 2 whole chicken-$12(fabricate them at home) Ground beef 5lbs- $35(beef is expensive)
Walk away, there using you!
I think cook fo the 3 normal eaters making enough for the meat eater, if he chooses not to eat the veges and carbs thats on him. I would try and find a vege market near you. Buying direct from the grower can help save on $$. Is a nice activity and makes you eat more seasonally. Whrn i am tight on cash we fall back on pantry staples. Think corn fritters with salad and bacon. Or Pasta or rice salad or meals with chick peas or lentils to stretch the meat. Mince goes further if you add a tin of lentils and some mushrooms snd must wont notice the swap if your making pasta, nachos, cottage pie etc. I have plenty of recipes as does the internet but most people eat ghe same thing week in and week out. What meals do you alk make now and maybe we can suggests someways of strecthing then or droping the $$
I agree with everyone else, the meat only person can fund their own diet. But cheap meat options can include ground chicken & turkey. Make protein bowels with beans, rice, and frozen veggies with a favorite dressing (store brand) or sauce. You can add meat to this twice a week to try and stretch the meat budget as far as possible. Make soups as well with the beans, meat, etc in a crockpot and eat off that for a week. Get frozen veggies and fruit to save. Bananas are also cheap-ish fruit. Store brand white bread is also additional calories for extra cheap. You can make sandwiches or just eat them plain with your meal. This is still gonna be pretty hard to do on your budget without the aid of food banks or other people helping. All you guys can do is to try and portion food correctly and live off beans and rice/potatoes for the most part. Yeah, it will suck but it's calories.
Where do you live that your mother's debts automatically fall to you? How is that legal, unless you volunteered to pay or co-signed on a loan?
As far as the meat thing goes, some meats are more expensive than others (duh.) Lunch meats, as others have pointed out, are expensive. So is beef, as you seem to know already. Pork chops are usually inexpensive and grill really well. Pork (except bacon) and turkey in general are usually much less expensive than beef. Chicken is somewhere in the middle usually, depending on what cuts you buy. Tougher cuts of beef are less expensive, but you'll need to cook them longer to make them palatable. Do you have a crockpot or something? Barbecue can be made in big batches for relatively cheap
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I listen to a lot of true crime, and a grown man making more money than you forcing a 19-year-old to fund his all-meat diet is absolute daylight robbery. Cut off his meat supply and watch your grocery budget magically fix itself.
Humans aren't obligate carnivores. There's absolutely no reason this person needs to strictly eat meat. Tell them to get off of the internet, talk to a real doctor/dietitian, or pay for it (and the resulting medical issues that will come) out of their own pocket. Hope they like colon cancer 🤗
“Meat” comes in all sorts of shades and grades. There is really cheap meat out there like chicken leg quarters, chicken hot dogs, pork butt, and frozen turkeys
There is no such thing as a an "all meat" diet.
I think you’re fully being taken advantage of, but you did not ask for advice. No one working with a budget should plan on a specific diet, if someone wants to eat all meat they need to purchase it themselves. Look into food pantries and see what you might be able to stock-hold, soup and stews go a long way. Rotisserie chickens are also helpful and although will last 4 people one day, it’s a quick $5. If I was you, I’d gather a list and budget of what I can afford that in REALITY will keep people fed and healthy, if they need something outside of that, they have to purchase it themselves.
Consider getting groceries delivered so you don’t have to worry about going out and sparing time for it. Sometimes they have in-app and members only deals too. Also beef is expensive, maybe try getting a different type of meat?
I mean, it sounds expensive but Costco, you could get an entire thing of ham & cut it at home $13 for that, rice, buy in bulk from Costco or Asian markets, I can get a whole giant 20 pound bag of rice for $10 at my local Korean market, & don’t forget rotisserie chicken, you can pull that apart and make chicken salad for sandwiches & eggs, bacon, cheese, & make some breakfast burritos for later & put them in the freezer, so cheap & just hard boiled eggs are great. I also like chopping up sausage with white rice, green onions, little soy sauce, & some red chili sauce on the side, easy rice dish.
Maybe you all need to discuss how to divide the expenses better. Seems like the brother is paying almost nothing toward household expenses compared to everyone else even though he also works and wants the most expensive groceries. I pay about $200 a week to buy groceries to feed 3 adults. We eat meat but not only meat and our cupboards aren’t bare after a few days. A meat only diet is missing a bunch of nutrients. If he is doing Keto/ low carb he should still be able to eat lower carb vegetables. If he is trying to lose weight vegetables are lower calorie. Look up keto vegetables. Cheaper meat options where I live are- ground turkey, chicken drumsticks, bone in skin on chicken thighs, store brand sausage, hot dogs, canned tuna. Sometimes buying a larger piece of meat and cutting it up for several meals is budget friendly. Some other less expensive foods are usually - Beans, lentils, tofu, eggs, yogurt, pasta, rice, oatmeal, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, celery, bananas, frozen vegetables, canned vegetables. Store brand versions of cereals. Milk. Bread. Peanut butter. Buy generic store brand items where you can. Making a meal plan and a grocery list before you shop. Look at what is on sale or in season when you plan. Buy stuff you will use. A big pot of soup is economical for feeding a group. Chili. Bean or lentils and rice. Eggs and rice. Tuna noodle casserole. Cottage pie. Baked oatmeal. Spaghetti and meatballs. Burritos. Budget Bytes has a lot of cost conscious recipes that my family has enjoyed if you need some recipe ideas.
Dang that is a hard job OP. I think the four of you are doing a great job living with each other, but I also share concern about your all-meat roommate. That’s quite the burden for the other three of you to absorb. Ideally an all-meat eater would have some type of resources they lean on to support their all-meat-journey; hunting and fishing and small animal husbandry, things of that nature. While I do not know or understand that persons rationale of one-type of food consumption, I also know food issues are stressful and challenging. Do you know of anyone that has a Costco card? A bulk purchase of frozen meat could close the gap for your roommate and give them time to find additional work or ways to support their own needs. I wish I had more suggestions for you. I wish the best for your household.
This popped in my head, I remember reading it a few weeks ago: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/lentils-ground-meat-ingredient-substitute/ Maybe this type of addition/substitution can help the three of you stretch your meals and get additional nutrients for very little money
Food bank
Is the "mostly meat" diet a preference or a medical dietary requirement?
Good question. You can’t always be picky if your pocket doesn’t allow it..
Carnivore can eat a nit cheaper than many people think. I would recommendbeef be a rare luxury for a budget tho. Buy in bulk if possible. Search for a meat market where you can buy chicken by the case or buy the 10 lb bags of chicken leg quarters. Buy whole pork loins, whole turkeys, and hams or pork roasts. Buy eggs in bulk as well. My local walmart sells it for $7.61 for 60 eggs. For everyone else, supplement the meat with rice, beans, potatoes, and veg. Dairy is a bit pricey, so on tight weeks, I skip things like cheese. I make a lot of soups to stretch things out and casseroles or fried rice work well to stretch a budget too!
Find Chef Moe he has TickTock channel $5 meals
Precooked chicken is usually a good deal. Its cheaper than fresh chicken since shops use chickens that almost passed the sell by date. That way they can still sell them and prevent making a loss. Eat the chicken and make soup from the leftover carcass and any vegg in season. You can add some broken spaghetti or small pasta to make it more filing. Also if you are not to worried about privacy, you could drop your finances in an ai to help budget and get tips on where to save. Also a all meat diet is really really unhealthy. In the long run your body will lose the ability to digest fruit and vegetables.
The two places I can see that could change are the meat only diet and your Mother’s bills. I have never heard of a meat only diet that was recommended by a doctor. So, I am assuming it is his idea. So, he should buy his own food. I don’t think you mentioned what he does with his money. Nobody can hold you responsible for your Mother’s debts, so unless she is incapacitated and cannot get government help, I would recommend stopping the gravy train. It sounds like things might be better for you and your fiancé if you just ran away. 🤔
Pork loin and whole chickens
OP, in my opinion, I think you are too young to be shouldering this much of the burden in this household. (I also think 19 is too young for marriage but that's a separate discussion). Why is the mom only paying for utilities? Why is the brother on this unusual diet?
We stretch the meat by making stews and adding some veg in it. Carrots celery. Is the person on a keto type diet? Is it required medically? For the others u can cook rice, fry the rice using whatever spices u have. Add eggs for protein. U can stretch the rice. U can also make soupy rice like canjee, add extra water to rice, add spices, onions chillies. If u leave it overnight in fridge it actually becomes a good food for thr gut. We buy lentils and flour at home and frozen veg. Ramen. Flour we use to make flatbreads, or rolls or flour tacos. Batch making them makes week meals a bit easier. Make Ramen and add frozen veg to make healthier. Bulk make lentils and other things, freeze or portion so over the week u can warm up and eat.
If i was covering groceries and someone had a meat only diet, I would laugh in their face and tell them groceries is officially not your problem.
I'm exhausted just reading this. You cannot budget your way out of funding an all-meat diet for a grown man who makes more money than you—tell him to buy his own food.
The guy who wants the meat needs to be aware of the price of meat. It’s tripled/quadrupled and way more than that on some cases (like primo cuts of steak) . Use flyer apps and let him see the prices and take him shopping or take a pic of the meat item and send it to him. The actual sticker prices are shocking, not to mention the sizes or Smallness of them now. Tell him you can’t afford this, and if he wants it, he needs to send you the money right away or better, he cam\\n just pick it up himself.