Eat Cheap

Hey everyone! The topic of conversation today is about food (more specifically how to eat cheap, but well). By the end of this post, I’m going to tell you how I was able to eat lunch and dinner for less than $2 a day!

Most of us have been on food budgets at some point (or are currently on budgets), right? College kids will know what I’m talking about:

• Sprite with Doritos for breakfast…
• Some greasy $2-per-slice pizza for lunch…
• The world’s thinnest PB&J sandwich…
• The McDonald’s dollar menu…Spicy McChicken anyone?
• And if you’re feeling extra fancy, some cheap $1 ramen with an egg!

Eating cheap doesn’t mean you have to eat junk (although I have to admit I do crave a Spicy McChicken once in a while…).

When I first moved to Southern California for my first job after college, my mom took me aside and taught me some basic cooking skills. A few years later, I still use them on a daily basis to survive!

It is easy to see why millennials don’t know how to cook these days. Given the rise of fast casual restaurants and food delivery services, eating out/in has never been easier. In fact, I know grown men in their mid 30s who don’t even know how to boil an egg.

In the age of the internet, learning to cook is easier than ever! Check out YouTube for many great tutorials. Even Gordon Ramsay, one of the best chefs in the world (his restaurants have collectively earned 16 Michelin Stars!) has his own YouTube channel.

You can check it out to see how one of the best minds in the industry works and learn some great techniques. I highly recommend checking out Gordon’s video on basic cooking skills:

3 Reasons Why You Should Learn How To Cook!

1. Save a ton of money: The average cost of a good lunch in the U.S. is about $10. Let’s assume a good dinner will cost the same. If you eat out for lunch and dinner every single day, you would be spending $20 * 365 = $7,300 on food every year!

You can easily make a great home cooked meal for less than $5/day. Let’s you cooked lunch/dinner half the time and ate out the other half (at $10/meal). Through the course of the year, you would save $2,738 a year on food! By investing those savings in a mutual fund earning 7% and letting compound interest work its magic, you could have a small fortune of $40K in 10 years!

2. You control the ingredients: Let’s face it, it is hard to know how fresh or well prepared food is at many restaurants. Chipotle boasted a brand image of high quality ingredients and safety until  recent health issues plagued the mighty company.

Plus, you never know if the waiter/waitress spat in your food when you weren’t looking…

When you cook, you control all the ingredients. You can choose to go organic or not. You can easily make substitutions to match your diet/needs!

3. Ladies/men love someone who can take care of himself/herself: Being independent is sexy. It’s even sexier when you can take your date home and execute a medium-rare steak on the fly. If you want to get to someone’s heart, start with the stomach! Learning to cook will significantly help your love life!

How I Ate For Less Than $2/day For A Week

During the work week, I typically cook dinner and bring lunch the next day. My signature meal typically consists of a protein, one veggie side, and rice. It typically only takes me 20 – 25 minutes to make a meal, which is comparable to what it would take to eat out.

When I have more time, I also like to make like chili, fried rice, or curry. During the weekend and occasionally during the week, I eat out to try new restaurants, hang out with friends, or network with people.

Last week, I cooked lunch and dinner for the work week (Monday – Friday) and kept track of the expenses to see how much it cost me to eat per-day.

Here was my receipt for groceries for the entire week:

I spent $22.32 for the week. There were a few items I didn’t really use to cook my meals including:

• Basil pesto pasta ($4.18) from the deli—so good!
• Red Licorice ($1.14), and
• Russet potatoes ($0.48)

Most of those ingredients were eaten over the weekend or bought to try new recipes.

Here is the list of the items I used to make my 10 meals for the workweek:

For each of my meals, I pan-seared the protein on the stove and finished it off in the oven. The veggies were all cooked in a pan as well. I used a rice-cooker to cook my rice to save time.

Here were my 10 meals for the week:

Day 1: 

Day 2:

Day 3:

(Forgot to take the picture this day haha!)

Day 4:

Day 5:

Based on my calculations, the total cost of lunch and dinner for the work week was $15.03 for 10 meals or $1.50/meal!

As you can see, it is entirely possible to eat lunch and dinner for less than $2 a day, but only if you cook it yourself!

Here are a two more tips to help you save even more money!

• Buy cheap meat in bulk: The price of meat fluctuates heavily on a week-to-week basis depending on local supply/demand conditions. Sometimes the price of chicken breasts at my local store drops to $1.99/lb…other times it inflates to $4.99/lb! If you see low prices on meat, bulk up. You can always freeze leftovers for future use.

• Eat more veggies: When I cook, I like to have one protein and one vegetable side. Now if you’re trying to save even more money, skip meat once or twice a week. Meat can cost $2.99/lb+ vs. vegetables that typically cost less than $1.50/lb (half as expensive).

Conclusion

Cooking is an amazing life skill to have. It is entirely possible to each cheap, but well. If you start cooking your own meals, I guarantee that you’ll save a decent amount of money every year. Invest those savings so you can be closer to financial independence! I recommend using Motif Investing to buy a portfolio of 30 stocks for one low commission of $9.95.

So readers, do any of you have a food budget for the week? And what are some other tips you have to save money, but still keeping your belly full? Let me know in the comments below!

P.S. if you’re thinking about learning to cook your own meals, I highly recommend this Cuisinart large skillet. It’s large enough so you can cook a lot of meat together if you’re meal prepping. It is an awesome kitchen tool for searing meat, cooking veggies, or making sauces. I’ve had mine for over a year with no issues.