Week 1:
First things first, eat a good meal right now. Yes! Right now! Eating before grocery shopping, or meal planning in general will help you keep to your goal of eating healthily. While you are eating, pay attention to how much food you need to be full. This is different for everybody. One of my dear friends eats a slice of toast and half an apple and she is comfortably full for several hours. Another friend needs two large platefuls before he he begins to feel satisfied. Figure how much volume of food you need to eat to be full and record it. An easy way to do this is to use the size of your fist as your measuring tool. Is the food you just ate equal in size to two of your fists? Maybe five of them? However many it is, record this somewhere you can reach for easily. I recommend starting a notebook or collection of paper just for meal planning and recording it near the front on your notebook.
Great! Now you have eaten your fill and you know how much food it takes for you to be full. Next time you feel hungry record the amount of time you need to have between meals. Some people need five meals a day, some only need one or two. It is all up to what your body needs.
Now for the rest of your meals:
Well you are planning on eating more than once this week right? Haha
These first couple weeks may be a little hard financially, maybe you have already spent the money for the whole week in just a few meals. So lets get you through this difficult time without going malnourished.
I personally live on about a $6 a day, or $200/month grocery budget which includes all food, all shampoo, all detergent of any kind. Basically anything that I need for my basic functions goes in this category. That is easy to spend really, really, really quickly.
But I am guessing that you might need an even tighter budget, and it is POSSIBLE.
Steps to take for your first few weeks of food:
1. SIGN UP FOR EBATES: This will make more sense after reading step two, but basically you will get a percent of cash back for things you buy online. Also install the google chrome extension that goes along with Ebates because then when you see the little symbol flashing while you are on a website you can click on the symbol and activate your cash back for the site. It is super easy. I'll be making a post about Ebates in a few weeks but for now explore for yourself. If you follow the links I've provided to get there you will also automatically receive $10 cash back after your first purchase through their site in addition to whatever else you earned from that purchase. This little extra cash flow can mean a big difference later on.
2. Now that you have done all of step 1, SIGN UP FOR HELLOFRESH: This is a wonderful service that plans your meals for you and sends all of the ingredients (besides water, butter, sugar, and oil) to your door! Which saves you a lot of time and stress. I will be doing a review of HelloFresh within the next few weeks. I do not necessarily recommend that you always use this service, but if you follow the links I provide, you will get $40 off your first order, which is a great deal. If you are only buying meals for yourself, I recommend purchasing one of the meals plans which are labeled as "three meals for two people." You will only have to cook three times that week two have plenty of food for your main meals of the day. For the first week, you will be getting 6 meals for $24 and if you split the meal in half again and replace the other half with your own mixed salad you will have 12 meals for for $26. That's almost all of the food you are going to need that week. Add a gallon of milk and a cereal box to that and you are at around $32 for the WHOLE WEEK! That is $1.53 per meal. That is an excellent week. Plus you will likely still have cereal, milk, and salad leftover for the next week.
Unfortunately, the delivery won't come for at least a week, possibly two. So let's get you safely to that point without breaking any budgets. : )
3. WHAT SALES ARE HAPPENING IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD:
This is SUPER easy to see. Simply search in your favorite search engine "[store name] weekly ad" or "[store name] specials." If you don't know what stores are in your area simply type "Grocery stores near [your zipcode]" and take a look. I personally prefer google for this because the map tool is very user-friendly. This week we aren't going to go crazy, so just pick one store that is convenient for you and do all of your shopping there for these first couple weeks. My personal favorite grocery store is Ridley's.
4. SIMPLE MEAL PLANNING:
So now you know what is for sale, and you know how much and how often you need to eat. So let's create a week of meals budgeting on only spending $20 on food for the whole week. This gives us about $18 to spend pre-tax. That might seem a little crazy to you, but for your first week in your new place you are probably going to want to eat out a couple times spontaneously so saving money on your planned meal budget is the way to go. Let's do this by going through the Ridley's ad and planning what we can buy. Right away I see that General Mill's Cereal is on sale so I'll get one of those. I also see that a bundle of Spinach is on sale so I'll plan on salad being a main part of meals this week. So based on that we should buy:
- Cereal 13oz 1.78
- Milk 2.50
- Ranch Dressing 2.83
- Bundle of Spinach 1.18
- Estimated total thus far without tax 8.29
That leaves us about $9.71 to spend so that with tax we still come in under $20. I recommend doing something along the lines of the following.
- six packets ramen noodles, various flavors 1.20
- two green bell peppers 1.00
- head of lettuce or kale 1.50
- two medium onions 0.80
- handful of bulk carrots 1.25
- One bunch of cilantro or green onions 0.40
- New estimated total thus far pre-tax $14.44
I would use the remaining $3.46 on whatever fruit I felt like eating that week or maybe some meat.
Prepare the salad all at once, washing and drying the leaves before you put it all together. Only put the leaves together. If you bought other toppings for the salad add them right before you intend to eat it. Using this method has kept my salad good for over a month in the fridge. Also there will be enough salad from this shopping trip to last you AT LEAST a full week, but I'm guessing more like two weeks.
When you prepare the ramen cook the meat, onions, and carrots on medium heat in the pot before adding water. Then put in the water and the seasoning packet. Once the water has come to a boil add the noodles, some salad greens, cilantro, green onions, and some bell pepper slices.
The menu for the week will be pretty basic, but you will have a balanced diet so long as you stay away from salty cereals. To mix things up try using the fruit you bought as cereal. Simply cut it into bite sizes and and either poor milk over it or eat it with milk.
Going without meat for a week doesn't hurt you unless you are severely anemic, in which case maybe buy two bundles of kale. However, I understand it is hard for some people, but trust me, it is really good for your wallet to have meat less frequently and vegetables more frequently.
So that's it for Week 1! You can do this. Next week we will concentrate more on how to start loading on basics for a great price so you can spend less overall each week but still eat well and healthily.
