<p>After living in my own apartment for a few weeks, I can attest to being able to comfortably live off of $20 groceries per week. If you abstain from meat and vegetables like me (either from laziness to cook or the sheer cost), you could easily survive off of $15/week.</p>
<p>Here’s how I do it. What a typical week’s off food looks like for me:
- two 6 pk of bagels ($2 each, $4 total)
- four or five 18 oz. pack of spaghetti noodles ($1 each, $5 total)
- two jars of spaghetti sauce ($2 each, $4 total)
- half 15 oz. box of cereal ($2 each, $1 total)
$14 total</p>
<p>That leaves $6 in between for fruits, vegetables, eggs, or other items. For protein, a dozen eggs is only like $3 or $4 and can last a person 2 weeks if they didn’t go bad. If you’re rooming with a lot of people, eggs could be really cheap (like $1 a week). </p>
<p>$5 can buy you some vegetables and fruit.</p>
<p>You could also substitute spaghetti noodles for rice or other cheap foods. Note that I do splurge on bagels. A loaf of Van De Kamp bread would be even cheaper. Buying only 1 bag of bagels would open up $2 which would give you a more comfortable fruits and vegetables budget.</p>
<p>DON’T BUY: CHIPS, SODA, CANDY, SNACKS, etc. I’ve found the only truly affordable snack is microwave popcorn ($2 per 3-pack) and I wouldn’t even advise wasting your hard earned money on that. </p>
<p>All this was from Costco or Ralph’s. You don’t even have to drive to the Chinese supermarket!</p>
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Ramen noodles and canned foods actually turn out to be pretty expensive if you eat it every day. I can’t touch that stuff without going over budget!</p>