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Eat like Foodie on a Food-Stamp Budget: January 2010 grocery prices
February 6, 2010 — You can eat healthy, delicious food for an average of $1.12 cents a meal per person, based on grocery prices from January 2010. Every lunch includes a snack to be eaten when you like. Every day includes at least one dessert, two servings of fruit, and plenty of fresh vegetables. You can take this same menu and cooking plan green for just $1.89 a meal: less than six bucks a day per person using mostly organic, sustainably grown, and kindly raised ingredients. The Cook for Good ebooks show you how to save money on groceries while eating amazing, seasonal food.
As the chart shows, the Cook for Good thrifty plan costs much less than the USDA thrifty plan. The Cook for Good green plan is between the USDA thrifty and low-cost plans. Both Cook for Good plans are less than the food-stamp allowance in North Carolina of $1.99 per meal per person for a family of four with no other means.
Cook for Good average meal prices
| meal plan | average meal |
| Thrifty | $1.12 |
| Green | $1.89 |
These figures are for the average meal cost per person using the Cook for Good winter menu plan.
Cook for Good cart costs for a family of four in January 2010
| meal plan | week | month |
| Thrifty | $96 | $423 |
| Green | $159 | $704 |
Note: the cart cost is what you actually pay to get the food you need, starting almost from scratch. For example, you have to buy a whole bottle of corn oil to get any corn oil, but you will have some left at the end of the month. Even the cart cost for the green ingredients averages just $2.09 per meal, only a dime more than the food-stamp allowance in the dead of winter!
January to January costs per week.
A thrifty week's worth of meals cost $94 last month, down 10% from last January's cost of $105. For the green meals, the cost went up 6% from $150 to $159. Both Cook for Good meal plans cost less that the food-stamp allowance of $167 a week.
Both plans are up slightly from November, when we took advantage of the big Thanksgiving sales on baking products and before winter set in. Bad weather closed most farmers' markets in the area last weekend, so I was not able to price organic produce at a farmers' market. Think of it as a chance to see how bad weather affects those who don't have the resources to shop often or stock up.
About the Weekly Food Cost Graph
The Cook for Good grocery price use the winter menu. The graph also shows the most recent USDA prices, in this case from December 2009. It also shows the the food-stamp allowance for a family of four with no other means in North Carolina.
Since months vary in the number of days they have, the Cook for Good plan is based on four weeks (28 days) worth of menus, plus three "extra" days. The ingredients for the extra days comes from food purchased in the cart but not used during the first 28 days. Use the meals in these extra days for longer months, to share with friends or family, or just as backup just in case you drop a pizza or put way too much hot pepper in the chili. See the menu plan for details.
Cook at home vs. eating out
Of course, cooking at home is vastly less expensive than eating out. For example, the U.S. government allows its employees to spend $51 a day to eat out a day in my town: $10 for breakfast, $15 for lunch, and $26 for dinner. Knowing the area, I'd say that's quite a reasonable rate for good but not fancy restaurant meals.
... but using the Cook for Good way, that $51 would be enough for more than two weeks worth of meals!
Tip: To get a feel for how the grocery prices in your area compare the grocery prices shown here, compare the U.S. Government per diem allowance in your area to the one here in Raleigh, North Carolina. But whether your area is more expensive or less than mine, I'm sure that if you Cook for Good, you will save money and enjoy wonderful meals.
Where do the savings come from?
- Almost all the food is cooked from scratch, with the exception of packaged burritos, canned tomatoes, and hot sauce.
- The recipes and menu plans use low-cost foods in season.
- The beverages are tap water or home-brewed tea. It's a very easy change to make if you are drinking bottled drinks of any kind. See the Good Drinks page for more about the savings.
- Time is your friend. For example, by starting bread dough the night before your bake it, you can use just half as much yeast, cutting the cost of the most expensive ingredient in bread.
- It's vegetarian. Of course, you can choose to add some meat or fish and still keep your costs very low. For example, roast a chicken on Sunday and then make chicken and rice later in the week, top your red beans and rice with some sausage, or have a tuna-salad sandwich on Friday.
You could save even more!
- Shop the sales. Buy only what you need plus the rest of the month's worth for anything that is on sale. For example, if you need three cans of tomatoes a week, buy three the first week if they aren't on sale. If they go on sale the next week, buy nine more to get you through the rest of the month. The Cook for Good prices show any sales that were happening at the target stores on price-check day, but they don't show the sales that happen over a whole month.
- Use coupons. The Cook for Good prices show the discounts from the free loyalty cards, but no savings from coupons. Just make sure that the time and money you spend to get, find, and use coupons is worth it. You might get better and more certain savings by just making some bread or making peach ice-cream base to use in the winter when fruit is scarce.
- Stock up. I also bought only the food I could use that month, while you could stock up on sales if you have the money and space. For example, yeast is usually on sale in December since that's such a big baking month. It keeps for months.
- Grow your own. At least grow lettuce, radishes, summer squash, basil, and chard. You can grow these in containers on a balcony. Green beans, peppers, cucumbers, and kale are also very easy to grow. Lemon balm, rosemary, and chives will come back year after year with little or no effort. Of course, home-grown tomatoes are more trouble but oh so rewarding!