So, truth is, I am flat broke. Due to past debt and student loans, every last penny is going towards rent/bills/minimum payments. I'm not even exagerating a little! I've totally eliminated coffee from my life, I don't eat out, I don't go out. I have no social life (none of my friends will do free stuff, like walk with me). I ride my bike to work rain or shine to save on gas. I don't even buy things for my kittens (other than food and vet bills). I can barely afford food the way it is. And face it, top ramen is WAY cheaper then veggies or lean meats . I'm at such a loss. There's nothing I can really cut out. I've looked at every aspect of my budget. Any help?
Also I can't get any government help, because I make like $20 over the income limit... Just my luck.
Hard as it is... maybe the pets need to go? That would free up food money for you. Kittens place much faster than grown cats do and if your budget is shaky you have to think about what is best for your animals.
Are you at a place where you can grow any veggies? That could also help a bit. Even some containers on a balcony can help.
www.localharvest.org might point you to farm stores or produces stands that may be cheaper.
Do a google search for food co-operatives in your area. I subscribe to something called "bountiful baskets." I pay $15 each week and every Saturday I go to the pick-up site and get a huge, laundry sized, basket of fresh fruit and vegetables. I use the produce as my primary source of food and fill-in my meals with canned beans, rice, whole wheat bread, canned tuna and maybe cheese or salad dressing, all of which adds another $10 or so each week at the grocery store. Good luck!
Just a few cheap suggestions coming from a college student
Eggs
Cereal
Oatmeal
Yogurt (You can buy a bigger size instead of the single servings to save more money)
Sandwiches (In the long run, they can be pretty cheap if you think of how much you're splitting up that loaf of bread and package of turkey)
Brown rice
You can also go for cheaper veggies! Carrots are not too expensive. Neither is broccoli or cabbage or lettuce.. I love grapefruit but I try to limit myself because they can be almost a dollar each at times!
It seems like healthier food can be more expensive.. but if you consider how far it can stretch if you keep up with eating it and not letting it spoil, it doesn't have to be too expensive! Good luck
I also like to buy trader joes soups and eat one for lunch with a piece of bread. The soups are like 1.99 each, so you might consider them pretty expensive, but pair it with one piece of bread and that's a pretty good lunch!
It's summer, could you help with gardening or do chores in exchange for garden stuff?
Have you checked out food pantries? Our local food pantry gave away a bunch or watermelon that they got from Wal-mart cuz it was a bust for them.
YOu may have to get a bit creative, but I bet for a bit of labor, you can score not only fresh veggies, but veggies you can blanche and freeze for later.
Heck, if you were in my neck of the woods, I would let you weed my garden for a share of the produce, IF the HAIL doesn't destroy the whole darn garden!
buying in season from smaller veggie shops, rather than big chain supermarkets, works for me. I dont know what the price of ramen is where you are, but here at the moment since it is autumn/winter things that are in season are super cheap- NZ25c for a large bag of kiwi fruit, 29c for a butternut pumpkin- its hard to believe that ramen can compete! So my advice would be to get away from the supermarkets, check out the smaller veggie shops that are around
Check out the shoestring meals forum, there are tons of tips for eathing healthy on a tight budget.
Check out local food pantries Most (at least in the places I've lived in the midwest) work on an honor system - There are no income guidelines or restrictions, but you are limited as to how many times you can visit that particular pantry (usually once per month).
SHARE is another good program, in which you get a boxful of food every month for 30-50% grocery store prices (you can buy multiple boxes, and some individual prices). I think the full package runs something like $25.
If you don't have the time or interest in being or becoming a creative and resourceful shopper and cook, it's a great deal.
The food in the box is far healthier than ramen (fresh fruits and veggies are always included, and in many areas an organic package is also available. The savings on the organic package is tremendous).
After reading "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" and similar books, I learned all sorts of really good money saving tips, and my husband and I pay a ridiculously low cost for our groceries (we don't go to food pantries, because we don't need to). It's hard to estimate how much we pay per month for groceries, because we stock up when we find sales. So we might spend $400 one month and then $15 another month.
One good strategy is to buy the Sunday paper (it has the most grocery store flyers) then look for the "loss leaders," these are foods that the grocery store is actually losing money on, with the hopes of getting you in the door. You can spot them, because they're a food with a "too good to be true" price.
Rather than doing all your grocery shopping in one trip and one day, you write down the cheapest, best sales in a notebook (with each store getting it's own page or half-page) and mark the date the sale ends. Then throughout the week, stop by to a different store each day (ideally when the store is on your way to somewhere you have to go anyway and ideally at a time when the store isn't going to be busy - you eventually learn which day/times to avoid), and stop in the store just for the super-cheap items on your list.
I could list hundreds of other tips, but I've already shared them in the shoestring forum (or in threads that were moved to the shoestring forum), so I'd just suggest brosing there. My tvp/ground meat mixture recipe is there too (which I've shared in so many threads, I've lost count).
Essentially I brown ground beef with dry tvp which is textured vegetable (soy) protein. TVP is usually about 1/4 the price of cheap hamburger and has no fat. By browning it with cheap ground beef or pork, I get a browned ground meat mixture that is cheaper per serving than super cheap, fatty ground beef, but is as lean as 85-90% lean.
I freeze into crumbles (how is in the recipe) so that I can scoop out what I need for any recipe that calls for ground beef or any other ground meat. Or even cheap not-quite-recipes. For example, I'll put a scoopful of the ground meat crumbles into tomato soup. Or to make chili I'll also add a can of diced tomatoes and a can of pinto beans.
Another great source of bargains is discount and salvage grocery stores (they buy stock from grocery stores going out of business or discontinued items...)
Not every salvage/liquidator store is listed, so get to know your community.
Many bread companies have outlet stores, and you can get bread for a fraction of the grocery store price.
I really recommend browsing amazon.com for books on cheap living and eating cheaply. You'll find tons listed. Write down the ones that look interesting and then go to your library looking for them and similar titles (order through interlibrary loan, if you need to).
The tips are really amazing, not just for eating on a budget, but on saving money on practically everything.
Thank you guys for all your suggestions! Sadly, many of them won't work. I couldn't give up my kittens in a million years. They are half the reason I haven't lost hope entirely. Having them helps my current depression tremendously.
I live in a 1 bedroom house with my boyfriend (the only other reason I haven't sunk deeper into depression), so roommate probably wouldn't go over well. Rent is only $275/month, but he isn't any better off financially than I am at the moment.
Also, I live in a tiny, tiny town in NE Montana. I Googled food co-operatives, and came up with nothing. There are no veggie shops, just 2 small grocery stores. I don't believe there is a food pantry, but I will look into it. I hate feeling so isolated!
I don't have any social contacts here, but I will ask around if anyone needs help gardening. As it's been severely flooding this spring, I'm not sure how many people are even attempting gardens this year.
Thanks for the ideas. Now I have somewhere to at least start! Keep any more suggestions rolling though!
I'm not sure what town you are in but lots of farms and others would probably be happy to have you help in return for a share of produce. Are there any elderly people who have garden space but not the ability to manage them? Learn about edibles such as berries, etc that grow on BLM land and check it out. It is not too late to grow stuff here. I have successfully grown lettuce in pots as well as tomatoes. Good luck
I can empathize with a tight financial situation. It sucks.
If you can't tighten any more, is it possible to increase your income? I know you already work, but if you're willing to tackle other jobs, gardening is just one to consider. How about offering your services as a pet-sitter or dog-walker? You can also look online; you'd be surprised what kinds of financial windfalls you can earn online if you're talented at a craft (Etsy), willing to part with a collection of things (Ebay), or good at expressing yourself in text (Associated Content, Skyword, Helium, HubPages to name a few).
As for cat toys, I find that my cats prefer playing with drinking straws to just about any cat toy I ever bought them. They're totally free if you ask a co-worker to give you his/hers in the lunchroom.
I don't know what it's like where you are, but hear me out.
1) Usually at supermarkets they reduce their food near closing time - 8:30pm. You can stock up on some cheap meat, bread.
Check out the discount area, usually they have can's that are tented of ripped - the foods just ok!
2) Most fruit&veg stores also have a discount section - I always managed to find bags of fruit and veg that may be a little damaged, but still fresh and edible for less than half the price.
Also try rolled oats in porridge as breakfast - much cheaper than boxed cereal.
Always look out for specials and stock up!
Go shopping with a friend(s) to buy in bulk and split it up between you for even cheaper!!!!
The truth is that no matter who and where you are, most of the ways to save money won't work for you. For every fifty tips you read, you'll find only a few that work for you, but if you're persistant, you can still find hundreds of tips that will work for you (but you'll only find them, if you keep looking).
And if you develop a bargain hunter's mindset, you'll be astonished at how many tips you'll discover and invent on your own.
I started reading absolutely everything I could get my hands on, on the topic of living cheaply. Two of the most memorable books were:
How to Survive Without a Salary: Learning How to Live the Conserver Lifestyle - Paperback (Sept. 1996) by Charles Long
The Art & Science Of Dumpster Diving by John Hoffman (Paperback - Jan 1, 1993)
These books didn't give me tips I could use, as much as they taught me to "think outside the box." They also made some of the "out there" suggestions I'd read in the Tightwad Gazette seem mundane in comparison (and even inspired me to try some of the wackier ones).
Saving money on groceries (or anything else) unfortunately isn't a matter of using one or two strategies - it's about using hundreds of strategies, that you learn by reading about thousands of strategies (maybe even tens of thousands).
There are thousands of websites devoted to saving money.
Hillbillyhousewife.com is just one, and has a lot of information on dieting on a budget.
That and other sites are also mentioned a lot in the Shoestring Meals forum.
The truth is that no matter who and where you are, most of the ways to save money won't work for you. For every fifty tips you read, you'll find only a few that work for you, but if you're persistant, you can still find hundreds of tips that will work for you (but you'll only find them, if you keep looking).
We've lived in a few different countries and tips on saving money have been really hit or miss with me. For instance, we lived in the NE USA for awhile and there shopping at Trader Joe's was the best solution for a tight budget but that certainly wouldn't apply everywhere.
Anyways, one thing that we do when $$ is tight is we basically cut out all processed foods because you can normally make it cheaper yourself. There was a time I was even baking my own bread.
Soup is something that you can make a lot of for cheap! You normally can buy a whole frozen for relatively cheap and some cheaper veggies (onions, carrots, broccoli etc) and some noodles an viola you have chicken noodle soup that will last for days!
We also cut out pretty much all extras: coke, desserts, cheese (we cut back significantly, that's expensive!), etc
We had in a lot of beans. Dried beans are normally really cheap and if you just soak them the night before they are relatively easy to make and can be a good source of veggies/protein. When we eat meat we normally cut the meat in recipes in half and add in half beans.
Look for deals on frozen veggies too, many times they can be cheaper than fresh ones.
How are you buying stuff like toilet paper? Cleaning products etc? Check online, like amazon subscribe and save because depending on where you live it might be a lot cheaper online.
Is this a temporary situation? Would you and your bf consider moving if not? It sounds like you're in a really difficult situation and if you don't have any contacts... maybe you could move somewhere where you have more friends? Ok, that's more a long term solution but I thought I'd just throw it out there.
I can see you are trying so hard and are in such a tight spot! I really feel for you. I agree with kaplods that to find some money saving tips that work for you you will have to search through thousands, probably. I also try to live frugally and there is a very low hit rate for tips I read vs. ones we can implement. If that's the route you want to go you have to be very persistent in searching.
However, I really don't think you're going to get anywhere with cutting your food budget when it seems so limited already. I think the approach Nola Celeste suggested - or moving to another city/state - is the only way out. If you are only paying the minimums on your debt it is going to take you forever to get out from under it without income increases. The minimum payments are designed to keep you on the line for decades and suck you dry. I think you should look into finding a part-time or odd jobs locally or put time into trying to make money through online ventures (writing? editing?).
If you haven't already studied personal finance, I recommend you delve into that now. You may be able to find some good strategies for ordering your overall financial life that will help you spend less or at least give you a game plan. Have you tried seeing a personal financial planner or coach? Or writing into a news organization or podcast or something for free help?
SAME BOAT here, I used to live off of pasta...so cheap and delicious! Know what I live off of every day now? Oatmeal, eggs (I eat like 6 egg whites a day), turkey cold cuts, tuna and BEANS. All of those, except for the turkey, are very cheap. I also buy about 6 cucumbers per week, since they're my go-to snack, and frozen veggies that I keep for side dishes.
You might be surprised but you can mix and match a lot of those things. Breakfast for me is pretty much the same every day, but you can do a lot with beans while changing up other side pieces. Buy a can of Rotel (tomatoes and chile peppers) to mix with the beans as a substitute for high-sodium salsa (or just get a better, organic salsa if it's cheap) or try covering the beans in a low-calorie dressing. I also buy chicken when it's on sale and freeze it...I have like 10 chicken breasts in the freezer right now that I've accumulated from various market sales. Again, use a low-calorie dressing (italian, raspberry vinaigrette) as a marinade to change up the taste. For a sandwich, I'll usually eat mine more like a pizza with one slice of whole-wheat bread, and the meat and lettuce loaded on top of it.
You should invest in a crock pot if you like soup. Soup noodles from a can are VERY high GI, so I make homemade soups with no noodles, just veggies and meat. That's 2-3 dinners in your pot ready-made!
Any tips on affording to eat healthy?
. I'm at such a loss. There's nothing I can really cut out. I've looked at every aspect of my budget. Any help?
We've lived in a few different countries and tips on saving money have been really hit or miss with me. For instance, we lived in the NE USA for awhile and there shopping at Trader Joe's was the best solution for a tight budget but that certainly wouldn't apply everywhere. 
