It looks like you're new to The Community. If you'd like to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookOkay, I am worried about how much $ I will be spending next year. I plan on being at least 95% raw (right now, I am at maybe 65%).
I am going to have a special meal plan with my university (I’m a student) where I get two meals at the cafeteria per week and I can use my own money to buy the rest of my food. The cafeteria provides all you can eat bananas, apples, oranges, a salad bar, and even raw sweet potatoes (at my request). I can also take out the food and store it in my room. Knowing that I could stock up on a limtless amount of fruits and veggies twice a week, I was wondering, is it realistic to aim for spending $20 per week on my own groceries? I’m really cheap…. What’s the most you think I could get away with spending?
I also don’t want to be stressed with ordering a lot online, searching for bargains and special markets since I will be busy with school, so the majority of my shopping will be done at the local grocery store.
By the way, I eat about 1200-1500 calories per day.
Thanks!
Comments
Hi Rawsiki. Can you get away with taking food out of the cafeteria? I know when I was in college, we often would grab a couple extra apples or bananas to eat later…not that we were allowed to. Anyway, you could score an extra meal or two that way.
As far as buying food, the best way to cut costs is to avoid buying ‘superfoods.’ Don’t worry—regular old fruits and veggies are full of nutrients and antioxidants and all kinds of things (as you know, I’m sure). So, where does 20/week leave you? Based on prices here, you could get TONS of bananas, which are dirt cheap, then maybe a jar of nut butter or a bag of nuts (this will be your most expensive purchase probably but they’re super calorie-dense so a little goes a long ways, or should at least), and some greens (I usually find them for around $2/bunch). If you bought those foods in sufficient quantity for a week, I bet you could survive. But you wouldn’t have much variety and might get bored…
To make things cheaper, there’s always foraging and buying produce that’s been marked down because it’s getting old. Your school cafeteria sounds really accommodating—you might ask them whether you could take older produce of their hands so they don’t have to throw it out.
Honestly I think you could pretty easily do $50/week but 20/week might be a challenge. Good luck!