Over 3 days what food would you buy for 50 dollars?

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My family was going out of town for vacation for 3 days a few weeks ago. My brother had work (he is 17) so he stayed home. Mom gave him 50 dollars to buy food because there wasn't much food in the house. He has his own vehicle so going to the store would not be an issue. He is nonautistic if that matters for this short anecdote.

He bought donuts, soda (which my parents never buy), oreos, candy, and other junk. The last night he called begging for them to bring home food because he was starving.

I probably would have bought a gallon of milk, canister of oatmeal so I would have breakfast, big pizza that would last me for lunches, and quiznos for dinner each day. I would guess that would cost me around 40 dollars.

What would you have bought? and for the purposes of this you are able to drive the few miles to the store, even if normally you couldn't.

At 17, a case of beer and a hooker.

My parents left me like....a hundred for a whole week, I think at age 19. What I did was I bought a bunch of random little snacky food from the Asian market, and energy drinks and other assorted things like that, and spent like 90 of it basically being dumb like that. HOWEVER, I had no problems with food, as I have like 20 pounds of dried beans, rice, pizza dough, canned tomatoes, and meat in the fridge so I did perfectly fine. For a few days, I made a big thing of black beans and rice, I think that lasted me 3 days. So I was dumb with my money, but I was in zero danger of going hungry, simply due to me being a decent cook, best in my whole family actually.

Sounds he needs more experience budgeting his money.

Looking through my local grocery ad, he could have got:

14.5oz Doritos $2

12 packs of citrus/cola soda $2.50

14oz box of Cheezets $2.49

25oz meringue pie $4.99

6ct apple fritters $3.99

Hostess individual snack cakes $1 (I remember when they were a $.25 each)

4oz 16ct ice cream sandwiches $3.99

a large three topping pizza for $7.99 at Dominos

Multi-vitamin $12.99

Toothpaste- $1.99

Off brand Pepto-Bismol $2.99

Pretty close to budget, but since it's only 3 days, he could probably lose the multivitamin and get another large pizza instead.

I spent $23 two days ago for a week's worth of food:
6 limes
2 heads of cauliflower
1 package of 8 sandwich slims
1 half gallon of almond milk
1 package of mushroom slices
1 box of 6 cereal bars
1 tomato

That's around 300 calories a day. Maybe get some steamable vegetables?
I dunno- I have no idea how people who aren't on diets get by, without buying absolute garbage, especially with families.

Last edited by ValentineWiggin on 11 Apr 2012, 1:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I miss American groceries.

It's crazy, the prices. A huge bag of Cheetos costs less at my grocery than a single bell pepper.
I have a discount card, and I used to go with my BF, where he would get soda and chips, and a cart's worth of crap, and with my card, it would take off probably a quarter of the money, and I'd get a single bag of produce and spend three times what he did, even with the card.

That was the first thing I noticed when I got my appartment and went shopping. It's like you guys have a two tier food system.
It's beginning to go in that direction now, in the UK and Ireland.

It's no shocker why the lower income are disproportionately obese and sick.

"Hm: what should I spend my money on:
a $5 small bag of wilted lettuce, a $6 can of nuts, and a $4 bag of carrots,
or
an entire week's worth of mac and cheese for three bucks?"

I'd have done very well with $50 for a week. Lots of beans, tomatoes, soya and chicken, brown pasta and brown rice, yoghurt, honey and fruit for breakfasts and some home made soup every day for lunch.

Last edited by ZX_SpectrumDisorder on 11 Apr 2012, 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

300 calories a day is not enough for most people. My family eats reasonably well health wise. Chicken or fish with vegetables at dinner most nights. Sometimes hamburger helper.

Breakfast this morning I would guess I ate a minimum of 700 calories. Been going through the quaker oats canister of oatmeal in 7-10 days and it has 30 servings in it, each serving is 150 calories, one serving of milk (8oz) is 130 but I probably used more than that. I had a glass of oj which is 110 calories for 8oz.

I'm not most people- I maintain my weight at around 200 calories a day. I can't even begin to fathom eating what most people would in one meal. That was my point- for everyone else, who doesn't have such a physiology as mine, I have no clue how they:
meet caloric or nutritional requirements
without breaking the bank
and without resorting to a ton of fatty, high calorie, high sodium, processed junk.

Today I had: 1 cup unsweetened almond milk- 35, 1 cereal bar- 90, 1 sandwich slim- 100, w/ onion, tomato, and mushrooms- 14, and 1 lime. Tonight when I get home from my second workout I'll have a third of a head of cauliflower- 48. I'm still trying to get used to eating daily. It's my new thang.

Eggs
Tuna fish
Oat meal
Milk
Olive oil
Fruit

This is what I eat everyday, regardless of how much money I have.

mushroom bacon eggs and patotoes and maybe some soda. maybe flour and pizza topping if i wanted to do something fancy or flour and milk so i could bake pancakes. probably some pretzels or something umm maybe tomatos and a leek some noodles and garlic ow and a peperidge. and all that together probably wouldn't even be 50 dollars O.o

Find a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) near you. My roommates and I split a basket, we get farm-fresh organic fruits and vegetables for about $10 per person per week. Add in some staple foods like rice and dried beans, and you're still well under $50 for the week, maybe enough left over to buy a slow cooker at a yard sale, so you can easily make beans, soup, chili, etc.

If you require junk food to function (I do too!) then the best bang-for-the-buck I've found is bulk popcorn kernels.

I can't wait til the farmers markets open up. I'm getting tired of marked up rubbery produce from supermarkets.