Frugal meal ideas for a frugal food budget. Updated 4/06/18

[Kaleva]

19. Looks like a monthly food budget for 1 person is going to be about $120.00

An oatmeal breakfast with a condensed soup with peanut butter sandwich and a ground chicken chili dinner comes out to $3.92 per person. If that's a typical cost per day, then for a month the cost would be around $117.60.

But that's an average as one will not buy just 24 tbsps of soy sauce if the monthly meal plan calls for that amount. The initial cost will be higher then the budget as one acquires such items but if one uses the same meal plan for the following month, the amount actually spent then will be less then the allotted budget. But it will average out over time as one restocks.

Another example is chicken breasts. The American heart Association recommends an average adult eats 3-6 oz. of meat per day. A 10 lb. bag of chicken breasts cost $19.99 at Walmart. If your meal plan calls for you to have 4 oz. of chicken every other day, that 10 lb. bag will last you over 2 months.

Another effective way to stretch the food dollar is too use coupons and combine that with store sales. Another use of coupons and store sales is that one can upgrade to more flavorful name brand products for the same cost of store brand products.