What to eat... what to eat...

First things first, you have to eat. There's no getting around it. If you don't eat, there's no point in have $25 a week. Cause you'd be dead. Simple as that. And you can't let your husband or wife go hungry either, right? Ok, maybe some of you are shrugging thinking "to each their own," but trust me it's possible.

$25. Times that by 4 and you get $100 a month. You have to break that up into what it's used for. Figure up what percentage of it you want to go to food, household supplies, cleaning supplies, animal food, and whatever else. If you don't have animals, maybe you can get more household & cleaning supplies instead, of whatever else category. Either way about it, I have found that at LEAST 75% of the money has to go to food. You do not have to be a crazy coupon lady (though coupons are a poor person's best friend). You just have to know how.

SO we're going with 75% of $100- $75 a month for food. Now divide that back out into 4 weeks. $18.75. NOW divide that into daily (divide by 7). That's $2.68 a day. Whew, don't pass out on me here! Stay with me. Grab a paper bag if you want, I know I felt like I needed one at times! If that's not crazy enough, now divide it by 3 meals a day and 2 people. $0.89 a meal, $0.45 each. Trust me, it's do-able. You may not be able to eat like kings and queens, but it's possible, even without coupons.

So I bet you're wondering what the heck you can eat for this little amount. You can't even eat a frozen Banquet dinner, shared between two people, for $0.45 a person! So what is the trick? Go by these simple rules:

1. Repeat after me... BULK. When you go to the store, ask yourself how... how many meals will this make? Ditch the $1-4 frozen meals. They're not worth it.
2. Off-brands are now you're best friends! Get the Great Value if it's cheaper than name brand. By the way, it's not always cheaper!
3. Go to savings grocery stores, such as Aldi's, Save-A-Lot, and Food Lion.
4. Shop sales! Look at the ads before you go shopping.
5. Be prepared with a shopping list, organized by MEALS. Leave a space to write down how much each product costs, then do the math right there in the store. If it's not around budget, don't get it.
6. Coupon! But beware of couponing. There is a horrible mistake so many people, including myself, make. Look at the end price of the product after the coupon, the compare it to the other brands. If it's not cheaper than the other brands, the coupon isn't worth it.

For example:
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
peanut butter- $3
jelly-               $1
loaf of bread-  $1
Total- $5
# Meals- 11 (22 slices in a regular loaf of bread)
$ per meal-     $0.45

But you do not always have to buy sandwiches to meet your budget. Of course Roman Noodles and sandwiches are usually the go-to cheap meal. Remember, it's all in how you look at it: how much is EACH meal? Here are a few other things you could eat that equal to your budget:

Pancakes:
Pancake mix-    $3.00
Pancake syrup- $3.00
Total-               $6.00
# Meals-           15
$ per meal-       $0.40    

Easy-Mac:
Easy Mac-       $1.00
Butter-             $0.05 (about average per box)
Milk-               $0.10 (about average per box)
Total-               $1.15
# Meals-          2
$ per meal-      $0.58

Spaghetti:
Sauce-            $2.00 (2 cans of Hunts, usually $1.00 each)
Noodles-        $1.00
Total-             $3
# Meals-         8
$ per meal-     $0.50   *if you do really good with a few others meals, you can add $3.00 for meat and it will
                                   be $0.75 a meal.

Tuna sandwiches:
5 Cans Tuna- $1.00
Bread-           $1.00
Mayo-           $0.75 (about average for 5 cans of tuna)
Relish-           $0.50 (about average for 5 cans of tuna)
Total-            $3.25
# Meals-       10
$ per meal-    $0.33

Homemade Chili:
Hamburger-                     $3.00
1 can pintos beans-          $0.50
1 can dark kidney beans- $0.50
1 can light kidney beans-  $0.50
1 onion-                           $0.25 (buy them in a bag, they're cheaper)
1 green pepper-               $0.75
Seasoning-                       $0.00 (practically nothing)
Total-                              $5.50
# Meals-                         10
$ per meal-                      $0.55 (a little over, but still pretty good)

You get the point. This can work with any budget, for any number of family members. Just remember, 75% of your budget to food. The rest can be figured out later.

Also, you may be saying "There's no WAY I can get that stuff for that price!" You can! Remember the rules. Value stores, coupons, sales!

Hello there!

Hello and welcome to my blog, Surviving on $25 a Week. My name is Carrie and I'll give you a run-down on how I survive on $25 a week, and maybe you can too. So before I get started, I want to let you know more about me, what I do, and what the $25 pertains to.

I am a stay-at-home wife, soon to be mother. My husband barely makes enough to pay the bills and get gas. After we pay those pesky bills and put gas money aside for the week, we have about $25 left over for food, household supplies, cleaning supplies, dog food, cat food, and whatever else we may need for the week.

Yes, it's only my husband and I living in the house, however $25 is still not enough! Especially with 4 cats, a pitbull, and a collie. But sometimes, you have to make it be enough, and I refused to let my animals go because of money issues. Sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and bare it. You have to make it happen.