I finally cracked a $40 grocery week, and it wasn't fun at all

Last week in Denver, I fed two adults for $42.17 by eating lentils, rice, eggs, and whatever root veggies were on sale. It took me 4 hours of planning and two store trips, plus I had to cook every single meal from scratch. I honestly hated the first two days, but by Friday my wallet and my gut felt lighter. The trick was skipping anything pre-made, even a $2 jar of pasta sauce adds up fast. Why do we pretend budget meals have to taste like a punishment instead of just admitting convenience costs double? Anyone else got a week under $50 that actually made them feel good?

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pat78116d ago

Gotta push back on this one, because I think you're selling yourself short. Yeah, $40 weeks can feel like a grind, but the part about hating those first two days says more about the shock of it than the food itself. I've done similar stretches where I lean on beans and whatever's cheap, and honestly after a week my taste buds reset and I stop craving the convenience stuff. The real issue is that we're trained to think cooking from scratch is a punishment when it's really just a skill you build up, like anything else. And let's be real, that $2 jar of sauce adds up, but it also saves you an hour of chopping tomatoes, so there's a tradeoff there that's not all bad.

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