You guys are parents, so I’m asking for your wisdom born of life experience. I’m living in a university townhouse in San Francisco while I attend university. I have a stove, an oven, and a freezer/fridge combo. I live between wedged between the university and a shopping mall. Trader Joe’s is within ten minutes walking distance, so that’d be my grocery store. If I decide to cook my own meals and shop at the grocery store instead of purchasing the optional student meal plan, how much money should I be budgeting for food on a monthly basis?
It really depends on what you plan on eating. I would guess $75 per week would give you a good variety of fresh fruits/veggies and meats, but you could probably scrimp and get by with $50. Keep in mind that although it may be cheaper to buy and cook rather than purchasing the food plan, you may not want to prepare all your meals. I suggesting considering buying the cheapest student meal plan you can. That way you get at least one hot meal a day that you do not need to worry about preparing when it is crunch time and you have tests and papers due.
What’s stopping you from walking 10 minutes to take an onsite price survey?
I started to shop and cook for myself in the last year. I buy whatever I want to eat, which includes a lot of seafood and fresh salad and fruit. I think I am averaging around $300/mon. In the beginning I would end up throwing some food out because I wasn’t used to buying grocery, but now I am much better.
Make sure you have some tupperware or other storage containers.
- Allows you to cut down on waste, which saves money
- You can save time by making large batches -- pasta dishes, chili, tex-mex burrito/taco filling, casseroles, etc. -- and saving some in the fridge or freezer for another day.
What is Tex-Mex burrito/taco filling? Glad you asked! (lol)
- Drain/wash a couple cans of pinto beans, add some salsa, and cook that in a skillet. Add some salt, pepper, cumin, garlic, and chili powder. Once cooked, you can either mash the beans with a potato masher, or you can leave the beans whole.
- Cook some rice and mix it in with the beans.
- Add cooked & chopped beef, chicken or pork as you see fit
- Taste and re-season as necessary
Put that in a large tortilla (burrito…) or taco with your favorite toppings. Put the leftovers in a storage container and into the freezer for a meal next week (or in a month…), or into the fridge if you’ll finish it in the next few days.
@mamom I went through the university food plan prices today, and it comes out to about $1250 up front for a month and a half of meals. I’m looking for a part job right now, and until I find one I have a little over 2K to split between textbooks (which I intend to rent or buy used, whichever is cheaper), cookware, dishes and utensils (don’t need anything fancy or expensive here, just functional), and food (I’ve already paid rent and utilities for the entire semester, so I don’t have to pay those bills again until January). Now that I’ve looked depper into the meal plan, I am probably not going to buy it, because I know I can do much cheaper cooking my meals, and if my job hut runs into roadblocks that could be vital.
One thing I am thinking is that I want to rely on rice and beans moreso than bread and meat. I am seriously considering not eating meat, poultry or seafood every day. I could never be a vegetarian, but I have a weight problem, and I’m thinking eating substantially less meat could help me deal with that while saving me a good bit of money.
@GMTplus7 I’ve never grocery shopped for my entire food consumption before, so I don’t know realistically how much of everything I should be buying.
@oldfort If I could do $300 a month, I’d be saving a ton compared to the university meal plan.
@prezbucky I do like the idea of cooking in batches quite a bit. Seems a great way to save money and not have to cook during a hectic class week.
yep – cooking in large batches saves both time and money
You can go to Goodwill to get your pots and pans, sometimes they are of better quality than from Macy’s or Walmart.
I am cooking for myself now, so I will get a nice piece of steak (1lb) and cut it in half, instead of eating a whole steak. I get my craving for meat and not eat a big portion.
I also get a packet of chicken breast and divide them into 3-4 packets. I like to stir fry chicken with fresh vegetable, like broccoli or bokchoy, with a bit of garlic salt and soy sauce.
A good way of keeping weight down is portion control, not necessary cutting certain food out of your diet. I like to eat freshly cooked food, so I don’t care for cooking in batches. Most meals I make take less than 15 minutes.
I know my son does better eating out at cheap places than he would being on The meal plan at his school. If you average out the meals, at some colleges they are over 10 or 12 bucks a meal, and many go unused.
If you have some time to spare, you could really lower your budget and get high quality food in San Francisco. Obviously, the tradeoff is that it takes a bit more time than walking to Trader’s Joe. Let google be your friend and start searching for “food waste” and you will find articles about how people are finding great items at the wholesale level that HAVE to be thrown away because of demand for perfect food or strict health codes. Wholesalers cannot sell fish that were “started” for a customer or unpacked. They routinely throw it away. Some people are pushing the exercise to include diving in the trash, but that is not necessary. Look for EXPENSIVE retailers and find out what happens to the leftovers.
Another option is to search for ideas such as http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/to-cut-down-on-food-waste-san-francisco-startup-is-selling-ugly-fruits-and-vegetables-180955404/?no-ist
The bottom line is that it takes a bit more work and requires to be creative. Also look for the markets to replace the high priced groceries stores.
One good thing about TJ’s is that there are lots of pre-pepared main dishes available in the refrigerator section and in the freezer. Many of those are two to four servings in size, so a frozen $6 lasagne could be the main dish for four meals for you. Just pick up some salad makings as well and you have a quick, healthy dinner.
I’d also like to second the suggestion for shopping the thrift stores for cooking supplies and kitchen tools. The price and quality can only be beaten if you raid your mom’s and grandmom’s kitchens.
Are you familiar with Trader Joe’s?? If not, posters here could suggest how to be economical with your purchases there. We have lots of TJ Lovers here!
I always thought fresh food -fruit ,veggies, nuts, breads, was easy to wash off and eat. but I am a small eater. D liked to have a toaster oven rather than a microwave for trader joes food.
I don’t know about the prices at your Trader Joes but I think our local TJs is a bit on the expensive side.
I don’t know if there is a farmers market near you but that should help with fresh food.
We gave our dd $100 per week, and we gave her a Costco card. She buys her meat at Costco and divides it into smaller ziplock packages. Sometimes her friends will go in half-sies to split the costs of paper towels, TP, meats, etc. she always has money leftover at then end of the month.
I also agree that you can find some good cookware items at a local thrift shop. Just scrub the things clean and heat boiling water in them. If you can find a good crockpot, it will work well and may reduce your overall utilities. You can make soups and stews.
For make ahead meals:
I buy a chunk of pork shoulder butt. I cut it in half and stick it in the crock pot with chopped green and white onions, celery, Rosemary, oregano, basil, garlic salt, pepper, and a large green pepper. The cheap Mexican spices are less than $.99 cents. Turn on the crock pot; Keep it on all day-medium. When you come back home. You’ll have carnitas meat for tacos, or pull the pork, add barbecue sauce and you’ll have pulled pork for sandwiches. Stick the meat in ziplocks and freeze. Learn how to make re fried beans from scratch. Easy and very cheap!
Buy a container of oatmeal for breakfast variety and to keep yourself full. Keep some Bisquick in the cupboard for pancakes and quick biscuit meals. Keep some long grain rice in the cupboard in a plastic sealed container.
Eggs for breakfast are cheap. Add vegetables and a little cheese.
Get a crock pot, cook pintos, garbanzos. If you like lentils or split peas, they are a great vegetarian cheap protein source, and can be made into soups. Bags of carrots and onions are cheap. Black bean soup.
As a mostly vegetarian, ideally I’d cook one big dish per week based on beans or tofu, and supplement with fresh vegetables.
My Ds both went through phases of cooking and avoiding or minimizing the meal plan. Yes, it is cost effective and more nutritious. The issue is that friends after class are running off to eat together, and you’re going back to your own place to cook and eat alone. Not much fun.
When I was in college, we lived in group houses, and each person cooked one night a week. The food was great, We learned to cook and explored healthy eating together. I haven’t heard of anyone doing this in years however.
What is your other grocery store near you?
Trader Joes is great for many things. But buying a family pack of pork chops or steak and seperating and freezing is cheap. I did this back in the early 70’s before becoming a vegetarian for 35 years. While I still prefer a fully veggie meal they take lots more produce and prep time than a simple meat/fish based meal.
Also, think of slow cooking (get at goodwlll) and freezing in small containers. Your freezer will become your best friend.
Learn how to store your produce properly. You can clean a big bunch of lettuce such as leaf lettuce, use a salad spinner, wrap in scott toweling and put in a freezer bag. It will last a week and you just pull out what you need.I do this with butter lettuce also. Do not ever put tomatoes in the frig. But apples keep well there.
I use to make 5 sandwiches on Sunday. Wrap and freeze and pull one every day as I left for classes. delicious? not bad but fast and basically OK and again fast. but then we did not have microwaves so now would pull a frozen leftover the night before or even the morning of and there you have your lunch.
OP, with planning, I do believe you can eat for less than the meal plan, but will take some commitment from you. For lunch and possibly dinner, you may not want to leave campus and run back to your apartment to cook for every meal, so you may want to find good “lunchbox” friendly foods (those that can be transported and will not spoil in your backpack). Sandwiches, fruit, veggies, cheese sticks, pretzels, nuts, etc. You may want to invest in an insulated carrier, as well as ziploc bags and containers. Possibly also a microwaveable thermos, as I’m assuming your campus will have a microwave for heating soup, chili, leftovers. The internet is your friend and right now there are numerous back to school menus/food suggestions. You’ve received a lot of good ideas in the previous posts.
(@greatlakesmom, I wish eggs for breakfast were cheap. Today at my local Bay area store, $4.99-$5.99 per dozen was the norm. Ouch! The drought is really taking it’s toll on many things, chickens and egg production included…and a new cage law at Jan. 1 also added costs to eggs…)
Eggs are a cheap source of protein. Visit the Eureka! thread in the Parent Cafe to learn more ways to cook and peel boiled eggs than you’ll ever wish you knew! 
Seriously though, it depends on how much you like to eat but my child who isn’t on a meal plan budgets $75/week.
We gave both of our kids about $50/week for food when they lived in apartments. I think they supplemented that with some $ from part-time jobs so that they could eat out.
We always gave our kids the amount for the minimum meal plan they could purchase at their U when they lived in an apartment and they never complained about running out of money. They were quite careful about making sure their food $ lasted, but I don’t believe they really had much trouble and ended up pocketing the savings. They would sometimes eat with friends and make a big batch of stew, chili, curry, or soup they could share. They could eat out with the money they saved or use it for things they preferred.
In the years since they graduated from college, they still like making big batches of things they enjoy eating and saving leftovers for future meals–frozen or just reheated in the next few days.