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Eating Inexpensively but not Cheaply
Last updated: 2019-11-03 (live prices updated hourly)

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Many people have written about how to eat cheaply. Almost all of them talk about the idea of a "cheap meal" and brag about how little a meal costs. It is rare to see someone ask "But what am I getting for my money?" This blog post will delve into that topic and possibly the simplest means of budgeting for food.

The above calculator is central to the concept. Too many people look at the sticker price and only buy things with a low sticker price. This will get you ripped off. Occasionally people will buy the biggest package and assume it must be the best value. Sometimes smaller packages are a better value. Smarter people will look at the price per unit weight. But even then this will still lead to missing great deals because mass isn't what feeds you: calories feed you.

Plug in the cost of a food item and how many servings are in the package and the calories per serving. It will produce a number that represents "dollars per week." Specifically that is how much money it would cost if someone were to eat nothing but that item every day for an entire week. Or 14000 calories worth. I will abbreviate this as "$/week" throughout the post. This is the only number that I look at when buying food. If you are a fan of my other work and were hoping to find an interactive nutritional database then you should take a look at Outdoor Food Club. It isn't mine but it is excellent.

Variety?

Of course I am not recommending you actually eat just 1 thing for a week at a time! That is a quick way to give yourself all kinds of horrible dietary imbalances. However the number is extremely useful for budgeting purposes:

Let's say you have a family of 4 and the goal is to keep your grocery bill under $100 per week. That is $25 per person per week. Pull up this webpage in the grocery store and start plugging stuff into the calculator. (It doesn't use any data and works offline too.) If something is under $25/week then it goes in the cart. It doesn't matter what specifically you buy. It doesn't even matter what you do with that food. If everything is less expensive than the target budget then basic math says the average total bill must be under the target budget.

Luxury?

I'm also not saying that you should only eat cheap calories. Keep track of what you spend each week. Money that is left over can go towards healthier or more interesting things. For example meat is too expensive by the standards of this budget: beef is around $200/week depending on the cut. Chicken is $70/week. Even fresh vegetarian options like apples and leafy greens are typically $150/week. Spices and seasonings have no calories and are no better than buying bottled water as far as the budget calculator is concerned. You will easily have a few dollars left over to purchase these niceties. When I initially started budgeting this way I had enough left over to get a nice steak every week.

If you only shop once per week then it is pretty easy to deal with "expensive" items. Whatever you buy that week is all you have and don't eat it too fast. Or binge all out for 1 day. It doesn't matter. Just don't go to the store early to buy more. Fruit is expensive and delicious and you'll probably want to pace yourself. Fruit becomes expensive because it is so easy to eat a lot of it. Fresh greens on the other hand take more work to eat. But 1 pound ($1.50 worth) of greens per person per week is reasonable and easy to fit in the budget. It is difficult to eat so many greens that you go over budget.

For a point of reference what do some common McDonalds items actually cost to live off of?

Menu Item $/week
Fries (large) $52
McFlurry $56
McNuggets (40) $72
Hash Browns $102
Big Mac $103
Egg McMuffin $130

Now let's look at a few of the basics that can be found at any grocery store. These are all from reasonable sized (max 10 pounds) low priced generic brands and are averaged from several sources.

Food $/week
flour $2.50
canola oil $3
sugar $4
corn oil $4.50
rice $5
masa flour $5.50
corn meal $6
peanut butter $7
mayo $7
slow oats $8
pasta $9
ramen $9
dry beans $9
butter $12
instant mashed potatoes $13
russet potatoes $16
potato chips $16
quick oats $16
bread $17
soda $17
dry chickpeas $17
couscous $20
nutella $20
whole milk $24
apple juice $24
cream of wheat $25
olive oil $25
ice cream $25
eggs $30
heavy cream $32
molasses $34
cheddar $40
swiss cheese $40
canned beans $40
american cheese $50
grated mozzarella $55
carrots $57
raisins $60
honey $60
hotdogs $60
yogurt cups $60
onions $70
chicken (w/ bones) $70
canned corn $70
bacon $100
tomato paste $100
kale $120
apple sauce $125
apples $150
beef $200
canned green beans $200
frozen cauliflower $250
sweet potatoes $360
celery $380
tomatos $450
lettuce $500

It is remarkable what can be done with flour and oil. The options for low priced meals are endless if you can be creative with a sack of flour.

Of course there are also a lot of interesting foods online. Often times for less than at the grocery store. The deals below are the best values on Amazon at the moment and are automatically computed from more than 1000 products. If you'd like me to add things to the table then please make a post about it.

food and link price $/week
Kirkland Daily Multi Vitamins - 800 tablets $33.97 $0.30/week
Amazon Peanut Butter - 40oz jar $5.30 $11.63/week
Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Flour - 5lb bag $6.68 $12.17/week
Planters Salted Peanuts - 56oz canister $9.49 $13.71/week
Terrasoul Sesame Seeds - 3x 2lb bag $29.99 $17.27/week
Augason Farms Quick Oats - 10lb bucket $20.59 $17.41/week
Great River Semolina Flour - 4x 24oz bag $12.13 $17.47/week
Goya Green Split Peas - 24x 1lb bags $47.66 $18.40/week
Pompeian Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 68oz bottle $22.98 $20.00/week
Bob's Red Mill Millet - 4x 28oz bags $18.76 $21.90/week
SunButter Sunflower Butter - 2x 5lb tubs $43.66 $22.45/week
Sunbest Sunflower Seeds - 5lb bag $19.99 $22.49/week
Spicy World Red Lentils - 8lb bag $19.99 $23.42/week
Happy Belly Walnuts - 40oz bag $12.91 $23.91/week
Cream of Wheat - 12x 28oz box $54.24 $23.92/week
Bob's Red Mill Masa Flour - 4x 24oz bag $18.36 $24.90/week
Sapporo Ichiban Chow Mein Noodles - 30x 3.6oz bag $28.74 $26.30/week
Old El Paso Grande Tortillas - 5x bags of 6 $18.75 $26.52/week
Blue Diamond Almonds - 2.5lb bag $12.98 $26.72/week
Sun Maid Raisins - 2x 32oz box $10.43 $26.83/week
Makfa Buckwheat Groats - 6x 800g bag $29.00 $27.07/week
Ottogi Sesame Oil - 56oz can $28.82 $27.72/week
Kevala Coconut Butter - 8lb tub $48.98 $27.83/week
Bob's Red Mill Muesli - 4x 40oz bag $36.07 $27.83/week
Bob's Red Mill Barley - 4x 30oz bag $24.00 $27.95/week
Kirkland Quinoa - 4.5lb bag $14.90 $29.26/week
BetterBody Chia Seeds - 2lb jar $9.58 $29.80/week
Food to Live Shredded Coconut - 5lb bag $31.20 $30.03/week
Nuts U.S. Pumpkin Seeds - 4lb bag $22.95 $30.37/week
Datrex Ration Bars - 5x case $39.90 $31.03/week
Terrasoul Flaxseed - 2x 2lb bag $21.99 $31.27/week
Asian Best Rice Noodles - 3x 1lb bag $12.00 $33.67/week
Roland White Miso Paste - 2x 1kg bag $10.79 $34.53/week
Nestle Klim Milk Powder - 1.6kg canister $19.98 $34.97/week
Santiago Refried Beans - 6x 844g bag $52.91 $35.28/week
We Got Nuts Banana Chips - 4lb bag $23.49 $35.65/week
Bob's Red Mill Couscous - 4x 24oz bag $26.00 $36.05/week
Planters Cashews - 26oz jar $10.98 $36.50/week
Pure Original Potato Starch - 7lb bucket $27.99 $36.72/week
Libby's Chicken Vienna Sausage - 24x 4.6oz can $23.52 $37.13/week
Spam - 12x 12oz can $35.82 $38.22/week
Anthony's Tapioca Flour - 5lb bag $21.99 $38.55/week
Yupik Dutched Cocoa - 1kg bag $12.99 $40.41/week
Carnation Malted Milk - 40oz canister $14.03 $40.42/week
Nature's Eats Pecans - 1.5lb bag $15.62 $45.56/week
Yupik Teff - 1kg bag $11.99 $46.63/week
Fleischmanns Instant Yeast - 2x 1lb bag $11.98 $49.36/week
We Got Nuts Dates - 5lb bag $28.79 $50.51/week
Nature Nate's Honey - 2lb bottle $10.63 $51.25/week
Sincerely Nuts Dried Pineapple - 5lb bag $29.99 $53.98/week
Augason Farms Shredded Potatoes - 23oz can $8.95 $54.16/week
Kraft Grated Parmesan - 4.5lb jar $30.85 $55.08/week
Old Wisconsin Beef Sticks - 26oz bag $11.68 $55.46/week
Tova Farms Unflavored TVP - 1kg bag $11.97 $57.89/week
Kirkland Prunes - 2x 3.5lb bag $33.96 $62.37/week
Sell's Liver Pate - 24x cans $34.82 $63.47/week
Pride of India Nonfat Milk Powder - 20oz jar $14.99 $65.80/week
Wise Freeze Dried Entree Variety $124.90 $66.44/week
Frontier Co-op Dried Onions - 2x 1lb bag $8.86 $71.19/week
Presto Sales Dried Garlic - 5lb bag $35.99 $71.97/week
We Got Nuts Apricots - 5lb bag $33.99 $72.83/week
NOW Sports Pea Protein Powder - 7lb jar $58.84 $74.29/week
Alma Gourmet Romano - 6lb block $73.00 $78.21/week
Sincerely Nuts Turkish Figs - 3lb bag $21.99 $78.53/week
Bridgford Summer Sausage - 3x 1lb chub $25.00 $78.94/week
Naturebell Xylitol - 5lb bag $29.95 $80.22/week
Mary Kitchen Roast Beef - 12x 14oz can $40.77 $80.81/week
Augason Farms Tomato Powder - 58oz can $28.56 $83.37/week
Soylent Cacao Powder - 3.2lb jar $36.99 $83.59/week
Crown Prince Sardines in Water - 12x 15oz can $39.48 $83.75/week
Anna and Sarah Goji Berries - 3lb bag $27.99 $83.96/week
First Strike Ration - 9x days $159.90 $85.77/week
MW Polar Jack Mackerel in Water - 12x 15oz can $39.99 $86.40/week
Food to Live Orange Powder - 5lb bag $51.99 $88.28/week
Bumble Bee Chub Mackerel in Water - 12x 15oz can $30.47 $88.87/week
Augason Farms Dried Carrots - 38oz can $23.09 $89.79/week
Earthborn Ground Basil - 1.36kg bucket $23.99 $89.80/week
StarKist Tuna in Oil - 48x 5oz cans $52.08 $94.94/week
Food to Live Pineapple Powder - 5lb bag $59.24 $96.06/week
Mario Pimiento Stuffed Olives - 6x 21oz jar $41.82 $98.34/week
Hoosier Hill Cheddar Powder - 1lb jar $14.99 $102.72/week
Food to Live Pomegranate Powder - 5lb bag $68.48 $111.04/week
Pine River Cheddar Spread - 4x 8oz tubs $25.90 $111.91/week
Soylent Strawberry Drink - 12x bottles $39.24 $114.45/week
Food to Live Mulberry Powder - 2lb bag $30.84 $121.72/week
Food to Live Blueberry Powder - 4lb bag $58.99 $125.20/week
Augason Farms Dried Mixed Bell Peppers - 20oz can $16.79 $138.19/week
Spice For Less Spinach Powder - 5lb bag $55.00 $141.41/week
Food to Live Mango Powder - 1lb bag $17.92 $141.46/week
Bar Harbor Smoked Peppered Herring - 12x 6.7oz cans $47.35 $143.48/week
Augason Farms Egg Powder - 33oz can $60.70 $147.61/week
Mori-Nu Soft Tofu - 12x 12.3oz box $23.99 $149.83/week
Bridgford Sweet & Spicy Beef Jerky - 3x 10oz bag $28.95 $150.11/week
Terrasoul Baobab Powder - 2x 12oz bag $26.49 $155.73/week
MW Polar Mussels - 24x 3oz can $44.00 $157.60/week
Natural Foods Cranberry Powder - 1lb bag $19.99 $160.62/week
Rani Mung Bean Sprouts - 8lb bag $23.99 $160.63/week
Augason Farms Dried Celery - 18oz canister $19.97 $170.45/week
Natural Foods Banana Powder - 1lb bag $19.99 $187.39/week
Badia Kale Flakes - 18oz jar $19.64 $188.59/week
Food To Live Alfalfa Sprouts - 5lb bag $52.53 $198.98/week
Indus Foods Papaya Powder - 2lb bag $49.99 $200.83/week
Mushroom House Oyster Mushrooms - 1lb bag $20.50 $203.98/week
Wild Planet Anchovies in Water - 12x 4.4oz cans $30.15 $223.84/week
Shirakiku Bonito Flakes - 1lb bag $28.95 $265.84/week
Kurakon Kelp Seaweed - 500g bag $21.00 $273.49/week


seasoning and link price $/kg
Morton Iodized Salt - 4x 26oz canister $8.85 $3.00/kg
Morton Kosher Salt - 3lb box $7.20 $5.51/kg
Spicy World Citric Acid - 5lb bag $19.49 $8.95/kg
Happy Belly Black Tea - 100x teabags $2.19 $9.69/kg
Bob's Red Mill Baking Powder - 14oz bag $4.49 $11.31/kg
Eight O'Clock Ground Coffee - 2x 42oz bag $27.96 $11.74/kg
CellarScience Malic Acid - 5lb bag $27.43 $12.59/kg
Spice Classics Chili Powder - 16oz jar $6.12 $13.49/kg
Spice Classics Paprika - 16oz jar $6.43 $14.18/kg
Wagh Bakri Black Tea - 2lb bag $12.50 $14.35/kg
Ajinomoto MSG - 16oz bag $7.40 $16.31/kg
Chef's Quality Imitation Vanilla - 32oz bottle $14.99 $16.52/kg
Frontier Co-op Ground Ginger - 2x 1lb bag $16.00 $18.37/kg
Badia Celery Seed - 1lb jar $8.40 $19.28/kg
Maxwell House Instant Coffee - 8oz jar $4.88 $21.52/kg
Bulk Supplements Potassium Chloride - 1kg bag $21.96 $21.96/kg
Spicy World Ground Black Pepper - 16oz bag $9.99 $22.02/kg
NatureBell Psyllium Husk Powder - 3lb bag $28.95 $22.15/kg
MagJo Peppercorns - 1lb bag $9.99 $22.93/kg
Naturevibe Ceylon Cinnamon - 1lb bag $9.99 $22.93/kg
Badia Crushed Red Pepper - 12oz jar $8.85 $26.01/kg
Badia Ground Cloves - 1lb jar $12.00 $27.55/kg
US Farmers Bay Leaves - 1lb bag $12.59 $28.90/kg
Spicy World Ground Allspice - 1lb bag $13.79 $31.66/kg
NatureJam Marjoram - 1lb bag $13.99 $32.12/kg
Better Than Bouillon Ham - 4x 8oz jars $29.28 $32.28/kg
Amazing Chili Pods - 16oz bag $14.99 $33.05/kg
Spicy World Whole Nutmeg - 1lb bag $14.99 $34.41/kg
Spice Classics Parsley - 10oz jug $9.99 $35.24/kg
Its Delish Lemon Peel - 2lb bag $31.99 $36.72/kg
Happy Belly Ground Nutmeg - 3.25oz jar $3.64 $39.51/kg
Hayllo Oregano - 12oz bag $13.99 $41.12/kg
Rodelle Vanilla Extract - 32oz bottle $38.65 $42.60/kg
True Citrus Lemon - 500x 0.8g packets $21.67 $54.18/kg
Xtend Electrolyte Powder - 345g jar $20.02 $58.03/kg
Soeos Szechuan Peppercorns - 1lb bag $25.49 $58.52/kg
NatureJam Chives - 8oz bag $14.99 $66.09/kg
Spicy World Whole Mace - 7oz bag $14.99 $75.54/kg
New England Cheesemaking Vegetable Rennet - 10 tablets $4.94 $608.00/kg

By the way I recommend avoiding Amazon's "subscribe and save" feature. You are not locking in a price by signing up. The price may rise and you will still be automatically billed. It is smarter to check for the best deal whenever it is time to stock up and easy to find a price that beats the 5%-15% that subscribing would have provided.

You might have noticed that this is a lot more dried and preserved food than a person typically eats. There are several downsides to fresh foods that I don't like:

Additionally many shelf stable foods save lots of time. Consider carrots. Normally you need to wash the carrots and peel the carrots and dice the carrots. And then wash the peeler and the knife and the cutting board. And they take up space in the fridge and might go bad if you don't use them fast enough. But with dried carrots.... toss a handful into whatever you are making. Done. No prep and no cleanup.

Of course if you have local vegetable stands in the area you should absolutely buy stuff from them! But overall they are difficult for me to asses on a webpage and provide useful advice.

Refrigeration?

You might be scratching your head about the "refrigeration isn't always an option" part of that list. I had originally started thinking about this because of backpacking. People getting into backpacking and camping always seem to gravitate towards expensive food that isn't very good. Traditionally MREs or freeze dried. Recently some people have even been asking about taking meal drinks like Soylent out on the trail. These can easily end up costing $30/person for a single weekend trip! I felt there had to be a better way so I started looking into designing affordable backpacking menus.

In the process of experimenting with menus I had to cook and eat them. Backpacking also requires food that is easy to prepare and has minimal clean up. I worked those factors into the recipes along with the affordable ingredients. Now I had economic food that was quick and easy. Why would I want to eat difficult and expensive food normally? It didn't taste any better. So I began buying in bulk (saving more!) and cooking these types of meals every day.

And finally I came across a number of communities on reddit who had a different background as me but had the same problems. The many backpacking communities of course. Less obvious was /r/preppers. People talked about having a 3 month supply of food as a serious financial burden. I did it by accident with bulk purchases. Or /r/32dollars. If I have a vegetarian week I am usually spending under $10. Food desert? USPS delivers everywhere. Lack of refrigeration is a concern when prepping for power outages or for /r/overlanding.

Weight?

Even though I came at this from the background of backpacking I have never really worried about food weight. Most of these food are dry or dehydrated. Most of them are very calorically dense. For example a diet of nuts weighs half as much as typical "ultralight" freeze dried meals. The weight of pure carbs/protein/fat is unbeatable. When actually backpacking I will pre-measure dry ingredients into ziplocks. DIY soup mixes will be dumped into a pot of water. Doughs/batters will have a little water added and be kneaded inside the bag. More about these in an upcoming post about recipes however.

Storage?

In the prepping community a frequent concern is all the space food takes up. This really depends on the food. Food can use hardly any space but you need to avoid the "standard prep" of canned goods and MREs and freeze dried. Stick with dry goods and 1 month of food for a person can easily fit inside a small rolling suitcase.

Seasonings?

While dry goods are very calorically dense they do tend to be bland. Spices and seasonings are essential. However the spices at the grocery store are all massive ripoffs. It is vastly more economical to buy seasonings in bulk. "Spend $20 to save $200" levels of economical. The best value for seasonings is typically 1 pound bags meant for restaurants. At first this seems like an absurd amount of seasoning. But they will last forever when stored in a cool dry place and you can use them liberally. Save your empty spice containers and refill them from the bulk bags. You'll find that some of the bulk bags are not made to be resealed. For that I recommend purchasing an impulse sealer but that is a topic for another post.

Nutrition?

Dehydrated foods retain most of their nutrition. The macronutrients (carbs/protein/fat) are preserved. Minerals are preserved. Iron or calcium or potassium isn't going anywhere. Most vitamins survive but some are damaged. Vitamins A and C are probably the most easily lost. You can examine nutrition labels and scale the vitamins to the calories. Different preservation methods will cause different nutrients to be lost. Adding a daily multivitamin is an inexpensive safeguard. Here are some good articles on the topic: How Dehydrated Food Works, Nutrient loss in dried foods, Dehydrated Food vs. Canned Food vs. Frozen Food.

Be wary of the claims that dried produce is more nutritionally dense than fresh produce. It is absolutely true but misleading. Pound for pound it is in fact more nutritionally dense. But pounds don't feed people. Calories feed people and only so many calories can be eaten. After eating your fill you will have roughly the same nutrition from dried or fresh. But do be aware that the concentrating effects of drying can lead to surprising situations. For example common raisins have more potassium than fresh bananas.

Personally I don't worry about it. I eat a variety of things and get fresh produce when I can. Humans are omnivores because there is no balanced and complete natural food.

Further information

This post will be part of a series. Future posts will cover what I feel is the most essential cooking equipment as well as how to get it. And finally there will be some recipes to help you get started.

Purchases through Amazon use an affiliate link and this site is part of the Amazon Associates program. These commisions support the site and let me devote more time to keeping information as complete and accurate as possible. Thank you for visiting and hopefully I've helped you find some good deals.