Very tight budget. Can you give me some ideas?

Question

Very tight budget. Can you give me some ideas?
Single dad with custody of my 2 kids. I make too much for assistance but due to me ex-wife, my check is being garnished for over $500 a month. She made a loan after we separated and did not pay it back. I have to go through divorce settlement to get that back. So, I have just under $100 for groceries every 2 weeks. Can you give me some ideas to help make that last? I don't get junk food because we cannot afford it.

Answer 1

That is enough to eat pretty well, only eat food you cook from raw ingredients. Buy a stock pile of cheap carbs like rice and pasta then get some loss leader veggies and meats.
Get a pantry and fill it with foods that are canned or dry when you find sales, know your prices so you know if you have a good deal or not when on sale.
Don't feed the kids cereal or juice boxes instead give the oatmeal, pancakes from scratch, french toast, rice with milk and sugar. Make sandwiches for lunch for yourself and try to get the kids on free breakfast and lunch at school.
Read the ads before shopping then shop with a list. If you can't make it go to a food bank. Apply for WIC if the kids are under 5.

Answer 2

Sorry about your situation. I am not a single parent, but we had 5 children. Always watch for the sales on food. Kids usually love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, it's cheap but good. They sometimes like spaghetti, and macaroni & cheese. Sometimes I would add cooked ground hamburger meat, or tuna to the macaroni too. I made 'poor boy cassarole', cook ground hamburger, drain the grease, add any kind of barbeque sauce. Then put uncooked canned biscuits in the bottom of the cassarole dish. Put a layer of the meat. Top with pork and beans. Next, layer it in the dish. Biscuits, meat, beans, more biscuits. Add another layer of the same way. Try to make biscuits to be the last layer on top. The biscuits will cook while in the oven. Cook in the oven at 350 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes. Just something cheap to try. Good luck with the children and the ex.

Answer 3

Aw man.Have you thought about filing for bankruptcy to get out of having to pay the loan? Buy some hamburger meat, tortilla shells, shredded cheese a can of refried beans and some veggies and make Mexican food for under 20 bucks.TV dinners work too.5lbs. of hamburger meat can go a real long way (spagetti, chilli macoroni) hamburger helper.I spend 100$ a week on groceries but my boyfriend eats alot.If your kids like spagetti os or ravioli in a can its only 1$ per can at Krogers or Wal mart.And when you need to buy things like toothpaste, deoderant, laundry soap or cleaning products go to the dollar store instead of the grocery.

Answer 4

first, I totally understand. I was in your situation: custody of my 2 kids, tight budget, hard times. bf I give you any ideas about food, I want you to know that you might not recover that money when you get divorced. All the courts can do do is tell her she has to pay you back, it doesn't negate the origanal contract with those garnishing your wages. 2nd, your most important coarse of action right now is to look up daveramsey.com He gives great financial advice, very practical, very do-able. now to the food situation. When I was in your shoes(luckily I married a man who rescued us), I bought hamburger meat, sandwich bread, mac and cheese, canned fruit (bc the fresh fruit is too expensive and could go bad bf you eat it), rice, pasta, KoolAid, tea, sugar, chicken legs, potatoes, milk, eggs, Top Romian noodles, sliced cheese,HamburgerHelper, and canned biscuits ($1 each at the Super Walmart). That usually lasted us about 10-12 days. Sometimes we would just eat grilled cheese sandwiches and canned fruit for dinner. Sometimes we would eat soup and sandwiches. sometimes we'd go all out and eat hamburger meat and mac and cheese. The thing youre looking to do is to get things that are filling, such as carbs, so that you don't have to use so much meat, it's expensive. I totally understand where you are coming from. You might have to cut off your cable or start finding things to ebay for extra money. i will pray for you I know this is hard for you and your kids

Answer 5

Plan your food menus ahead of time, Look for specials just about every week they will have some kind of meat on sale. Pork Chops 99 cents a pound, chicken etc.... Buy the meat on sale and separate the packages into dinner size servings. Don't buy convenience items they are very expensive. be creative with your menus. Have the kids help you plan meals and help you save by clipping coupons and looking at the sale ads.

Answer 6

well my mom always made things from scratch. Or bought things that you could get alote of for very little money.
Beans,Rice, Potatoes,Eggs,Bread. She even had a garden were she grew our tomatoes, cucumbers,carrots,peppers,corn. You can always buy noodles and make home made mac and cheese or home made hamburger helper. We get our hamburger meat from Sams Club here in Wisconsin, you can get a 10lb tube of 10% for about $20 to$ 23 which if you have a freezer you can store it that way (seperated of course into pounds in freezer bags). If you dont most states have a yahoogroup called freecycles were you can get free stuff that people are just looking to get ride of for free. You can also put in things you are looking for, and alote of times someone has it and will give it to you. Just punch in the name of the town you are in and then freecycles in the yahoo groups and see what happens. I hope this helped. Good luck!

Answer 7

make chili...alot of one meal dishes.
spaghetti...grilled cheese and bowl of soup.
you can get at walmart..peanut butter crackers that only cost 1.74 a pack made by Great Value.
sloppy joes and chips..... .99 bags
pinto beans and jiffy cornbread
potatoe soup---homemade by you
meatloaf..baked potatoe (in micro-wave) corn
tomatoes and macaroni...with a baked potatoe
jello is a very cheap dessert...
If all of this fails...go to McDonald's and eat from the dollar menu...buy can pop before you get there and eat outside in the car or at a park......God bless and bless you for caring enough about the kids to get some ideas...hope this helped....

Answer 8

See if your town has a food pantry that you can use to supplement your food allowance. Also, clip coupons and buy things on sale. It will take more effort, but you can save quite a bit of money a month.

Answer 9

i recommend to buy white rice and pasta.

you can make fried rice with a little meat and vegetables.

you also make a lot of kinds of pasta with a little meat and vegetables.
i.e. carbonara. peperoncino,

you should learn how to make tomato sauce and white sauce.
especially white sauce is easy. you just need to mix flour and butter and milk.
add anything you want in the sauce.

Answer 10

caseerols like chicken or tuna you just need a can of cream soup noddles and tuna or chicken you can eat that for a few days even add some veggies