That is pretty amazing! As someone who was raised on organic and whole foods though, I'd rather spend the additional $$ and get stuff I know my body will thank me for ;)

I don't think it's something that one could do in Canda (or at least in Quebec)... there're very little coupons to be had for pharmacies and grocers, and even the manufacturer coupons won't make you save as much as this guy did. Good for him though!

I fed myself on 20 a week during college, don't know I could do it for less.

There may not be alot of coupons here in Canada or Quebec but I have done the hunger challenge and have eaten and still do...eat on $25 a week budget. So that is 21 meals for $25. Its do able but requires meal planning.

I think that the definition of healthy used here is somewhat different from mine.

More like compiling a list of reasons to commit suicide for $1 a day.

I don't really get why he includes bathroom cleaner in his list of groceries. Granted, you buy it at a grocery store, but he specifically says that this challenge is about eating.

akay, if you read his posts, you'll find that he uses many items (some food, some not) as "moneymakers" so he can get other stuff for really, really cheap. He didn't actually use the bathroom cleaner (looking carefully, you can see that he donated it to the food bank).

I think it's a neat idea (in theory) especially if you live in a big city where A) you have all of these various stores and B) They're close to each other. We just don't have those stores here and there are no coupon dispensers etc. in the stores so my coupon hunting has been restricted to the internet and newspaper (which I have to admit are really inefficient and products I don't actually use).

I'm guessing that this post was meant to stir people up, since what the guy bought is not exactly healthy? For awhile in grad school, I spent less than $20/week on food, and I cooked almost everything. Stuff like rice and beans, chana masala, homemade pasta w/peas and mint, roasted sweet potatoes, rice w/lentils, chard, and caramelized onions, stir fry buckwheat noodles with veggies and egg, quinoa tabouleh, homemade hummus in sandwiches or with veggies, fritattas w/leftover veggies, etc.

@ waywardmedic : I still think that $31 for a whole month of food is far from $100 a month (he basically spent $7 for 21 meals a week!?!). But $25 a week is still very impressive IMO. I plan our meals ahead based on the deals at the grocers during the week but this is as much as I'll do.

While this is a great idea, I hardly find it to be a healthy one. If I was challenging myself to spend only $1 a day on food I would include dry beans, frozen spinach, eggs, brown rice, non-instant oatmeal, bananas, sweet potatoes, and whatever cheap fruits/veggies and yogurt my budget allowed.

I'm just laughing that it was purchased at CVS.

It may be "eating for 31 days on $31," but it certainly isn't living!

While I appreciate a man with a plan--and a thrifty shopper to boot!--I can't consider this grocery shopping. And I have a hard time considering some listed items "food."

huh, I spend $100 a week these days and having been feeling good about my budgeting skills.

If I ate like that...well I just don't want to.

I really like the use of carrots and apples. It might have been a good idea to include one bag each of celery, onions, and potatoes, all of which are fairly cheap. A cabbage would have been a good idea too. It's already corn season in some places so it might be possible now to get it very cheaply as well. Eggs are also a relatively inexpensive way of getting a high quality protein.

Ultimately I find this post depressing. It hurts me to think of anyone subsisting on wheat thins and cream cheese for a month.

I was pretty excited to see something like this posted, since I've spent the entire summer doing an "eating for $10/week" challenge. I've been posting weekly spending updates in my blog, and also posting recipes for most of the things I've been making.

But then I read the sample of what he was buying, and I stopped being excited and instead became disappointed. It was disappointing to see he was buying such a high percentage of premade foods and items with huge amounts of packaging waste. It's great that he was donating things to a food bank, but he didn't donate foods with nutritive substance, which is what people who go to food banks really need.

During my challenge, I've been making my food from scratch and have had FAR more healthy and exciting food every day than I did when I was spending dramatically more money on food.

I don't think I would want to eat like this - I'd find some other compromises in budget first. I budget $37/week for food, and consider that I eat VERY well on that. If I were to give up meat/fish I could probably get it down to $25 or less a week. I cook everything from scratch. Tonight I had Greek yellow split pea soup, carrot/cilantro parathas made by hand, yogurt, pickle and tea. Super cheap and very tasty. I'd take that over pre-packaged mini-muffins any day.

Perhaps the example shown wasn't the best... this guy was hardly subsisting on wheat thins and cream cheese for the whole month. If you check out his website you'll see he bought loads of fresh stuff as well as foraging from apricot trees, etc.

Also, he continued the "experiment" and is still doing it (day 80-something now, I believe?).

It's not what the guy eats, it's how he shops that is unappealing to me. Sheesh. Isn't life complicated enough? This guy reminds me of my ex-husband--take a clever idea to its tedious extreme.

I see nothing fresh.

Waw, quite impressive. I usually spend 100 dollars a week just to feed myself!

Welcome to poverty level living - you begin to see why obesity is rampant among the poor. It's cheaper, far cheaper, to eat crap than it is to eat real food.

Suzee, it is not cheaper to eat crap than real food. I can't afford crap, unless I specifically budget it into my $10/week and give up a significant amount of real food. For $10/week, I feed myself excellent food that's healthful and delicious.

That is one myth I wish people would stop believing.

This is silly.
One, it's all about coupons, and maximizing them. that only works for a tiny amount of food in a few areas.
Two, he hasn't even spent $31.

if I had $31, i'd buy a brick of old cheddar (after a week, shred and freeze the rest, use shreds from frozen) , several loaves of bread (freeze extra), romaine lettuce and spinach, eggs, peanut butter, liver, salad dressing, onions, tomatoes, brown rice, brown sugar, a bag of minute oatmeal, fresh pears and frozen blueberries.

More than enough for many interesting, healthy meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner... and no coupons required.

I always see articles or TV shows from the US about using coupons and getting a tonne of food for cheap/free by using coupons and combining multiple coupons but it always blows my mind that you're allowed to do that.

Here, in Canada, you can't use multiple coupons on top of one another--the coupons state (in my experience, anyways) that they are not combinable with any other coupon or offer; so, at most, you're able to save $1 or $0.50 here and there, and occasionally there might be a buy-1-get-1-free offer. I'm kind of jealous. Honestly, I've never really bothered to clip coupons because it can be a pain to sort through everything for a relatively small savings, and everybody behind you in line would hate you if you brought out a wad of coupons.

It's pretty gross! I agree with the posters who say this isn't healthy or fresh. Unfortunately, it is costly to feed yourself well. While some healthy foods are a great value financially (such as chickpeas or greens), some are darned expensive, like organic, free-range chicken/eggs. To have a balanced diet, you have to choose from both the "naturally cheap" and "naturally expensive" columns!

DH and I always say we can't clip coupons for our food because the food we buy NEVER COMES WITH COUPONS. When was the last time you saw a coupon for "$1 off 2 pounds of tomatoes?" Never. Coupons are largely created to make you buy crap you don't need and otherwise wouldn't dream of feeding yourself.

I feel lucky because our jobs leave us the time to hunt for fresh and cheap food, such as driving out to farms 30 miles away to buy gigantic buckets of tiny cucumbers to pickle, or 10 quarts of cherries to preserve.

In short, budget elsewhere. Don't skimp on food; skimp on cars and electronics.

This is a very unhealthy list of food. It's very high in sugar - the only things that are fresh are the carrots and apples - and they, too, are high in sugar. Pork & beans - sugar (and fat), and - WTF - sour cream & cream cheese?

For the price of that can of beans, you can get a bag of dried beans and have enough for a whole week!

Honestly, I'd rather fast for the month rather than eat that junk. I've received stuff like this from food pantries, and given it away to others, much preferring to whip something up from scratch.

Look, to save money, anyone can first learn how to cook from simple, wholesome ingredients. Find places for fresh ingredients. Plant a few seeds (I have some lettuce and herbs growing in my apt, for instance).

Buy good, unprocessed oatmeal instead. Figure out what grocery stores are the cheapest in your area (and figure in the gas or bus fare for transportation). Consider local farmer's markets, ethnic grocery stores (I buy produce at an Asian store when the farmers markets close down here in the Northeast). Learn how to bake your own bread, buy flour in bulk at a Big Box store & split with friends or neighbors. Get a chicken on sale - cook the whole thing, skim off the fat the next day - throw away the skin & bones, portion off the meat in zip lock bags to freeze for the month, and use that w/the beans & rice for good flavor & nutrition. Skim off the fat from the broth the next day, and use the broth for to make just about anything taste delicious.

Saving money is good - and necessary today. It CAN be done w/food, but please - avoid processed foods like the plague. It's almost as bad for your health...

I started reading this guys blog after I saw this post and I was pretty impressed with his food choices. The sample described here was from his first day on the challenge, and he says that he really didn't know how to cook then. He's now on day 85 (after extending the challenge to 100 days) and his blog documents a really inspiring transformation as he learns to cook and eat his own food. His choices are not the ones I would make, he does use a lot of processed food and miracle whip, but I really enjoyed reading through his process of learning to cook and forage for food. He also donates a lot of the leftover stuff that he buys for his coupon moneymaking schemes (like the bathroom cleaner mentioned in that sample shopping trip) to a local food bank, which has gotten me thinking a lot about how I can incorporate giving into my life. His blog is really worth looking at.

$31 seems a lot to me.
thats not a challenge at all :S thats $961 on food.

There's a blog in which TWO people document spending $30 a week for food (for the both of them): http://thirtyaweek.wordpress.com

This isn't for ALL their food (they go out to eat occasionally), but it's also healthy, not junk.

Alternatively, you could buy a few packets of seeds and live forever without spending another dollar on produce, grains, seeds, nuts and legumes, etc.

@imga that's 31$ for 31 days, so 1$ a day (not 31$ x 31 days!!)

@seidhr totally agree with you. Eating more fruits and vegetables, especially when they are in season, is a whole lot cheaper and obviously healthier than the ready to eat stuff.

I do agree that the poster's selection of food leaves much to be desired in the way of healthy eating. But at least he challenged himself.

Amy has a blog where she took part of the hunger challenge. She created pretty healthy recipes that turned out to cost about $1 a meal. You can search "hunger challenge" on her site http://cookingwithamy.blogspot.com/

I agree with shawnamuffin: we never use coupons because they are for the processed foods we don't eat.

I keep seeing these stories about the intrepid coupon-user who saves hundreds of dollars a month or year on groceries for a family of four (or more). When they list the items they purchased or when images show the pantry, you see nothing but packets of high-sodium or high-sugar artificial food. It's not really food you're paying for, folks.

And all the money you're saving on groceries this year, you'll be spending on health care next year, when you have to buy medication to fix all the problems that the bad food has brought on.

It just goes to show you that, yes, you can save money and eat cheaply. But it's not a healthy diet. It is sad that inner cities have this lifestyle available for low-income families and by posting articles like this you're telling these families that you can survive on a few dollars a month. But as stated, this kills people. Where are the healthy fresh foods? Leafy greens? I can spend at least $40 at the farmer's markets around me. It costs more than what this guy spent, but I'm eating way better.

And they only time I buy a food item at a CVS or other non-grocery store is when I'm having a snack craving at 2 in the morning!

My Hunger Challenge recipes can be found here:

http://cookingwithamy.blogspot.com/search/label/hungerchallenge

Super interesting! Thanks sharing your creative, month-long endeavor with us.

I could eat Peanut Butter & Jelly three meals a day for 31 days.

I wonder how much that would come to in a month.

I always feel like these kinds of challenges are basically easy if you live on your own. Sure, you might get horribly bored by the food, but you only have to deal with yourself.

Cook super cheap food for a month that your *family* will actually eat? Do that, and I'll be impressed. Amy's blog looks a lot more like stuff I could get my husband to eat!

Yikes, he sure shopped very cheaply; that amount of food for 5 bucks is insane... but why bother buying so many crackers only to give them away (aside from the obvious charity benefits...)? Seems like he could do that separately from this challenge, still give stuff to food banks, and buy more fruits and veggies for his own meals, instead. Veg and grains are WAAAYYYY cheaper than processed food, and even meats (other than chicken breasts or steaks...) can be found for very good prices... Interesting exercise, but not really helpful to poor people OR shoppers just wanting to save a buck. Yes, very depressing, though. Anyone can eat great on a budget; no use to torture yourself...

For saucykat in Canada -- I think perhaps you are getting an over-inflated impression of couponing down here in the States. There are so, so many variables that help to diminish the value of coupon use. First, many (maybe even most) coupons issued are for things that you may not even need or want, or for new products that are unproven. Second, depending on where you live, some grocery chains have incredibly strict rules limiting their acceptance of coupons. For example, Publix here in Florida is extremely picky about the type and form of coupons they allow. Then there is the issue of time, gas expense, and, often, availability of the products themselves. So while devoted coupons users can indeed amass darn good savings, it takes all the variables being in their favor to do so, not to mention extreme diligence in menu planning and sticking to one's shopping list. I admire those who can do it well -- although, as mentioned, do not envy whomever happens to be behind them in the checkout line as they rifle through their "coupon-keepers" trying to match paper to product. In short, it's a lot of work and luck has to be on your side to achieve the maximum savings you've heard about in the US. So maybe your situation in Canada isn't as lacking as you may think.

This is one of the worst grocery lists I've ever seen. You can eat far better for $31 dollars a month starting w/ an unprocessed bag of beans for just over or under $1 depending on where you live.

@davidm52

Our coupon-situation is lacking in Canada.
We just watch the flyers for sales. Most people (including my family who is cheap as hell) don't really use coupons.

How about just cutting down on the morning coffee at the gas station or starbucks....and skip going out to eat once a month...that will save you tremendous money. Not only will you be healthier...you can afford to put some produce on that list up there.

I loved this post! He inspires me to look at coupons more closely. There were instances where he was actually paid by the cashier and walked out with stuff!

Holy malnutrition!

Overdramatic much people! He eventually gets a little better and fresher at it.

Eating like this does not make one drop over dead in one bite.

Also, look at this from the perspective of a normal consumer rather than an uppity "All my stuff is organic and grown down the street, rawr!" if you think of it that way then it's pretty cool! Especially since he's no chef and barely knew how to cook.

Still better than the standard issue stuff from my $4000 meal plan at school.

My sister ate chocolate chip pancakes for dinner when she was in college.

For the price of a loaf of bread, you can get enough flour to make about 50 loaves of bread yourself.

Rice and beans, and masa flour to make your own tortillas, are dirt cheap at the Mexican grocer.

Then splurge on organic in-season fruits or vegetables.

So many people are whining about suicide and "I think not", turning their noses up at this plan. What if there isn't enough money? What if that is all there is to live on? "I prefer to eat organic." Yes, I'm sure most of us do. But what if there isn't any money? What if you've been out of work for so long, there is no more savings, you've cut everything to bare bones and trying to survive? I think your body will thank you for living instead of turning your nose up "well, it's not organic." I hope you are never in this situation. I know from experience, it is not fun.

As a Brit, it's very weird hearing everyone talk about coupons -they're hardly used here in the UK except to launch new products. You'd certainly never find anyone with a 'wad' of coupons! I also find it odd to hear of grocery stores that *don't* sell fresh produce, over there there are only five main supermarkets (there are a few other low cost chains and also high end ones too). ALL supermarkets sell fresh produce - even the low cost chains. I guess the best comparison would be 2 for 1 and buy one get one free offers which can be very good value if it's a product you actually use.

Looks like a pretty carby diet. Your triglycerides and blood sugar WON'T thank you.

You can do low carb pretty cheap and live on chicken and eggs for a month without any problems.

After fructose, grains are about the worst thing you can put in your body. They are not worth 2 cents, much less however much they charge for that stuff.

So in a month his only vegetables were 2lb of carrots? BAAAAAAAAD! And 10 apples in a month isn't impressive either.

Although I commend Jeffrey for taking on this challenge, let's face it – produce is pricey and he practically didn't purchase any.

Hooray Sherise!!!

As a retired person on a very limited income, I am FORCED to live on an extremely frugal grocery budget. Can it be done? Yes. Is it fun? No! And more often than not, it's a very boring diet. Sure you can get cheap oatmeal and rice and beans, but after a while you get absolutely sick and tired of eating those same foods. People who do these experiments usually can go back to affording what thy want when their little experiment is over. The reality for many, many people is years of this sort of minimalist eating.