There’s actually no real secret to eating well for less than $5 per day. Food is pretty cheap if you just buy generics and wait for sales.
You’ve seen the meal costs on this website. Most are non-sale prices. You don’t need to super-coupon. You don’t need to join a buyer’s club like Sam’s or Costco. You don’t need to drive to three or four different stores, wasting time and gas.
If you join a buyer’s club and sign up for loyalty programs, you’ll get more discounts, coupons and freebies, but it’s not necessary to eat affordably.
As you’ll see from the sample meals provided here, even without coupons or sales, you can create many breakfasts, lunches and dinners for less than $1.
If you want to eat some of your more-expensive, favorite brand name products and eat more beef and fish, then you need to practice Smart Shopping so that you consistently pay the lowest prices for most of the rest of the food you buy.
You also have to be able to cook well enough to use a can opener, “just add water,” bake some things in your oven, and be able to use a microwave. You don’t need to be a great cook to create meals you like every day.
You also need to know that fresh fruits and vegetables aren’t really more nutritious (in terms of vitamins and minerals) than canned or frozen vegetables. Think about it – when you put green beans in a can, the vitamins don’t fall out. If there’s a difference in the amount of grams of nutrients in fresh, frozen or canned peas, it’s not a big difference.
And if you buy canned instead of fresh, you might be able to get two to three times the amount of vegetables.
You should also know that if you’re struggling to feed yourself and your family, the benefits of organics may not be worth it.