A Basic Grocery List for a Small Budget (What to Buy if You are Poor)

Do you know how impossible it is to buy food on super low grocery budget? No? Good, then you have come to right place. Yes? Keep reading anyway. 😄

A little over a year ago, I found myself moving to Lehi, Utah from Springfield, Missouri with my husband, a toddler and whatever we could force into our little Nissan Versa. It was an unexpected moved for us, so we had not been saving up for this change. Only through divine help were we able to make it. But something I did not see happening was being compelled to go from spending money like it grew on trees, to living on a  small budget with no wiggle room, because my husband worked 4 part time jobs, and we still were barely covering the bills.

Guess what that meant? I had $100 a month for food and other needs that were not listed under a bill for 3 people! Do you know how impossible that is? If you do, I am so sorry. This is probably one of the worse financial challenges one can ever go through. 

Anyway, so although we are out of this stage now (finally!), I still use the same basic food list! It is so helpful to help me stick to our budget, because believe me, after a year this is still a challenge! 

A few disclaimers: 1) This first disclaimer may come off as unkind, but I need to make a point. You know what is one of my pet-peeves? When I am reading other low-budget grocery list posts, and someone has the guts to comment all in a huff because they don't know how the blogger in Antelope, Texas can buy eggs for $1.64 because they can only find a dozen for over $4 in New York, New York! Or even worse, the price is so much more expensive in Canada! Seriously? Prices are different all over the country, or in some cases, out of the country. So please. No comments on how my post isn't accurate because a cheap food item in Lehi, Utah is expensive where you live. Or vice versa. I am just trying to help you make it through financial stress. I am NOT saying that my list can be used wherever you live and still be only $100 a month.

2) This list is NOT the most healthy one you will find. I once read about how someone was able to live off of just $20 for a week, using mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, but then found out that that was only for 1 person! If I followed their plan, I would need $60 a week, which I didn't have. So if you are hoping to keep a high amount of fresh food in your diet, plan on having a garden, or spending more money for food.

3) For my family of 3 to live off of $25 a week, we had to eat the same thing over and over again. It was boring. Some things I got tired of. But it was how we were able to make it.
Sometimes we had extra money, so guess what we used it for? Not starting a savings account, but to get some extra things to break up our normal meal plan.Other times we didn't have enough money to get what we wanted, so we had to go without. It was hard, but we made it. 

4) And finally, I had to make most of our food from scratch. A 10 lb bag of flour can be used to tortillas, bread, pancakes, biscuits, and cookies. It takes a lot more of your time to make these things, but WAY cheaper. I became so use to making everything from scratch that I still do it! Why? Because it still saves us money, and now I find store bought tortillas and bread really yucky. 😝

Now that those are all out of the way, on to the list! After the list I will include a basic meal plan that we followed.

Grocery List

Pantry

• Flour
• Sugar*
• Brown Sugar*
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Dried Beans
• Rice
• Oats
• Vanilla
  
• Chocolate Chips*
• Crackers and Snacks for baby
• Canola Oil
• Shortening

Meat and Dairy 

• Milk
• Eggs
• Margarine*
• Frozen Taco-Seasoned Ground Turkey (here in Lehi, I can get it for $1.50 a lb at Walmart. Plain ground turkey was $2. Since we only used meat for  tacos, this was a good option for us.)
• Shredded Cheese*
• Hotdogs*

Condiments and Other Stuff

• Salsa*
• Peanut Butter
• Jelly

Fruits and Vegetables 

• Bananas
• Spinach
• Celery
• Frozen Veggies
• Canned Fruit
• Whatever was in season and cheap

*Foods we went without frequently. 

This was our basic list. We added and took away things based off of how much money we had, and what we needed.  It doesn't seem like a lot, and it wasn't. We never overate, and thoroughly enjoyed anytime we got a treat.

Basic Menu Plan 

Breakfast

• Pancakes 
• Biscuits
• Eggs
• Oatmeal

Lunch

• Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
• Fruit
• Celery 
• Leftovers

Dinner 

• Tacos (homemade tortillas, rice, beans, taco meat, cheese, salsa, spinach)

Dessert

• Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Wacky Cake

I am not going to lie. This isn't easy. And thankfully we only had to eat this way for a couple months. BUT, it is probably the accomplishment I am most proud of. We did what we had to, and we made it. 

I hope this is helpful for anyone not even knowing where to start. I was there a year ago, and I totally get how hard it is to find realistic grocery lists. This is what worked for us, and I can honestly say I am grateful we went through the experience. We learned a lot about budgeting and don't take for granted how blessed we are now.