How can I feed my family of four for a week on $75-$100, eating as healthy

[Vanilla23]

as possible? Which means, I do not want to stock up on ramen noodles and frozen pizza.
We need breakfast, lunch, dinner, and hopefully a snack, plus drinks for everyday.
What would you buy if you only had this much $

Thanks!

[Sharonc]

I suggest shopping sales and clipping coupons. I often stock up on meat when it's on sale and just fill my freezer. That way one of the more expensive bits of grocery bill is already taken care of. Also stock up on paper goods (tissues, napkins, toilet paper...) at a big box store like Sam's club or BJ's. This saves a lot of money and again more big cost items are already stocked in the house which leaves more wiggle room for fresh veggies and breads.

[MillieC]

That's tough. We eat heathy and a family of three...we spend anywhere from $180-$250 a week. I guess lots of salads, apples and bananas.

[JustDaD]

You'll be able to come up with a good solution. I know you can because for me, my daughter and my son, we are lucky if we have that much for a 2 week period. You can do it.

[JJ]

No those people buy crap food that do that.

We have 4 people, and to get a good amount so that we aren't completely out of everything at the end of the week we spend about $150 per week. This does include diapers, wipes, paper goods (towels, t.p, mop pads), personal hygeine products, cat food, litter, house cleansers.

We eat pretty healthy , lots of fresh fruit and veggies, NO soda! No Chips! One dessert per week (bag of cookies or poptarts, or sometimes just a box of cocoa puffs). We buy two cans of frozen juice (when they run out thats it), Two gallons of milk, the kids only get two 8 oz glasses per day, my spouse and I have one. We all eat plenty of cheese and yogurt though. We also get a box of juice pouches each week that are only for my daughter to take to school. And we just drink water the rest of the time.

We snack on Crackers, and fruit.

We buy two loafs of bread a week, (Whole grain only).

We buy only natural meats.

Most of the time we can do 3/maybe 4 dinners a week at best. The other nights we do leftovers or just scrounge around in the fridge and make something work.

My sister claims she only spends $120 a week for her family of 3 plus food for her home daycare (4 extra kids 4 days a week).

I think she is lying and doesn't count all the running in to get a few things.

[JustMyOpinion]

A big help for me is to check out the marked-down meat at the grocery store. I've found whole chickens, ground beef, ground chicken breast and much more marked down because the date is about the run out. As long as you either cook it or freeze it the day you buy it, it's perfectly fine. We're a family of 3 and we can get 2-3 meals out of a whole chicken. First day- roast the chicken, serve with potatoes and a salad or veggies. The next day, I'll take the left-over meat and make soup (maybe chicken noodle or chicken tortilla soup). That pot of soup will usually feed us for dinner that night, lunch for my husband to take to work and dinner the following night (if I've made tortilla soup and there's not much left, I'll make it stretch by adding rice to it). A pound of ground beef (I always buy the lowest fat content pack) will feed us for 2 meals as well. A big pot of homemade chili is delicious. I avoid the packaged chili seasoning. It tastes so much better to use chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes- plus if you've ever looked at the nutrition facts on a pack of chili seasoning, you know it's more salt than anything. I use kidney beans and sometimes black beans in my chili. I also use chopped green peppers, onions and low-sodium chicken stock to give it lots of flavor.

For breakfast, oatmeal is delicious and affordable. Salads, tuna salad, turkey sandwiches are all really yummy for the kids' lunches. That and an apple, carrot sticks and water make a good lunch.

If you buy a lot of sodas/soft drinks, stop! They're expensive and offer little nutritional value. My family and I drink iced water from the tap. You can buy plastic, re-usable water bottles for taking out of the house. Fill with water the night before and freeze for a few hours. It'll stay cold for a while, and if you drink all of it, you can always re-fill it out of the water fountain.

Clip coupons, look for good deals- and avoid impulse buys. (I'm saying this to myself, too! I'm horrible about being sucked into buying the latest thing...lol)

[tsmilet]

I spend about $125 per week, but really I think it's that high because I'm a vegetarian and I often have to buy extra ingredients to make veggie versions on the side. Plus, that's adding in toiletries and such.

Basic foods we buy:

Big bag of skinless Chicken breasts
can of cream of mushroom, can of cream of celery
egg noodles, milk, parmesan cheese, 2 bags of frozen veggies (saving one bag for side dishes)

* that makes a chicken casserole.
Now get some Italian breadcrumbs to do baked chicken one night that week. a can of that is huge (about $2.00) and lasts a month.
Then get a bottle of barbucue sauce and do fried barbucue chicken chunks one night

There is three main course meals.

Get a large bag of potatoes. You can do mashed potoatoes one night, baked potatoes another and fried another.
Corn on the cob, salad items

Get some hamburger meat and buns and a can of sloppy joe mix.
You can do spagetti with meat sauce one night, cheeseburgers another and sloppy joes the next.

That's 6 meals, leaving room for leftovers 1 night.

Extras: milk, eggs, cheese, spagetti and sauce, fresh fruit and some cookie dough or cup cake mix for snacks, bread and a big box of generic gronola bars for a quick fix on the run.

Breakfast items are cheap. Bag of muffin mix, box of pancake mix, oatmeal.

You can make the meals I mentioned, plus grilled cheese, breaded nuggets, fruit cups, chicken sandwiches, egg omelets etc.

We actually buy a lot more than that, I think. especially more healthy snacks but that is only because my kids pack a lunch daily. With just the things I listed that shouldn't come to more than $80 if you buy generic and shop Wal-Mart.

[JohnZ]

it's really not that hard. IF you are only talking about that money being used on food, not toiletries and such. Plan on making bigger meals and have 1 night where you have a buffet of leftovers. Watch where and when you shop. Using coupons is always a good idea, especially on double coupon days. Shop and eat smart.
Some cheap dinner ideas:

Spaghetti, chili, mac-n-cheese casserole, hamburgers (u use any leftover hamburgers for chili), breakfast (pancakes), etc

[ZeZe]

That's easy! I spend $100 every TWO weeks on groceries for my family of four. The way I do it is, I plan meals ahead, I decide what I'll cook every night for two weeks, write down everything I need to buy for those meals, then I do the same for lunch and breakfast. When you're at the store, buy ONLY the stuff on your list. Nothing else! This will help enormously, those impulsive buys really add up the grocery bill. Also, I've found that if you only buy the generic brand you can save a lot! Another thing I do is clip coupons. You can save a lot with coupons! Good luck, it is possible!

[JohnZ]

it's really not that hard. IF you are only talking about that money being used on food, not toiletries and such. Plan on making bigger meals and have 1 night where you have a buffet of leftovers. Watch where and when you shop. Using coupons is always a good idea, especially on double coupon days. Shop and eat smart.
Some cheap dinner ideas:

Spaghetti, chili, mac-n-cheese casserole, hamburgers (u use any leftover hamburgers for chili), breakfast (pancakes), etc