Maybe. Actually, yes, although it wouldn't exactly be that great. Granola or oatmeal for breakfast, tunafish sandwiches for lunch, and a bag of boneless skinless chicken breasts to carry the week. It would get pretty dull, but that's not that far away from my diet plan right now.

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Now you know why people eat the frozen dinners that go on sale for $1 each. For a meal with meat, a starch, and a veg, that's cheaper than buying the ingredients to cook the same meal in a more healthful way.

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I live on less than that now actually. $100 - $125/month for 2 people. It's low frills, lots of canned/frozen vegetables, rice, canned tuna, eggs (lifesaver for cheap protein), creativity and time. I guess I'm fortunate enough that being disabled I've got the time and a freezer to put up leftovers for the days when I don't have the energy.

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I did about 2yrs. ago after I had 2 wisdom teeth pulled and one of them got a dry socket. It was so painful all I could eat was Roman Noodles, that was about a dollar a day. So it can be done if you have to.

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I never knew that was the poverty line. My family has survived on less than a hundred dollars a week growing up, and there were four of us. There were times when we barely had enough money for food. We mostly had ate cheap easy stuff and made our meals stretch out. And we eat little to no meat. Sometimes I wouldn't eat meat for up to two weeks unless it was tuna or something like that. That stil happens sometimes. I guess that's why, we overcompensate when we do have money.

But two people could live on that, if they budget everything down and forgo a lot more healthy or natural foods. There is some food that can be stretched awhile like oatmeal and canned goods.

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College student, I'm doing it ;) If you don't eat red meat, and appreciate canned fish, it's relatively doable. Eggs are obviously a lifesaver: cheap, easy to cook source of good proteins. However, if you're a real vegetarian, like my girlfriend, it gets surprisingly more expensive to get your full set of proteins and micronutrients.

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I'm a student, and I can live off $30(canadian) a week easily. And that's not eating premade garbage but real food like fresh veggies and meat. A well stocked spice cupboard is the key to variety.

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My roommate and I were able to go an entire year spending about that every week for food and groceries. We're resourceful college students who ate real food pretty much every night of the week. When we cook, we're actually cooking for four -- that way we have lunch the next day. Even breakfast was easy.

Sure, we would splurge now and then, but we always had food in the house (except for finals week!).

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You can eat really well on that budget, if what you buy are ingredients. Flour and yeast in bulk, versus bread products. Sugar and butter versus dessert products. Vegetables, both fresh and frozen. Beans and pulses of all types. We don't spend much more than that ourselves. (Fruit does get expensive fast, though.) If your choices are consistently towards real ingredients rather than towards cheapo prepared foods, you can eat better on that budget than a lot of people do spending a lot more.

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Cooking is the key. However, the problem is if people are working multiple jobs, the time allowed for cooking really takes a hit. I'm single and spend a 30min-1hr cooking every other night. I work 8-9 hours and after cooking, I'm completely drained. If I had kids and working 10-12 hours a day at a low paying job, I would have no energy to cook at the end of the day. =

Budgeting for $60/week is do able and in order to make tasty food on that budget, you'd have to spend some time in preparation or enjoy eating spaghetti every other night. :(

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I actually did something similar in July due to certain circumstances that severely limited our budget. Me and my brother spent about $120 worth of bulk foods at Sam's Club that actually lasted us the entire month. Granted, we ate similar meals every day but it was varied enough that it was not boring yet still nutritionally balanced.

You just need to buy the basic ingredients in bulk as well as frozen vegetables and fruits for longer storage life and cheapness. Then, be creative!

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In order to have a good diet at $31 per week per person, I think the key is to live near one or more good grocery stores. It would be much more difficult in some inner city or rural areas that have little more than a convenience store nearby, and getting to a grocery store requires a car or public transportation and the time needed to get there and back.

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I do not understand you people who think living off packaged meals is such a cheap solution. For one, they're too tiny to actually fill you up and two, they're not your cheapest option, even aside from the health issue. Lentils and rice are cheap and can be bought bulk. They provide the basics to which you can add whatever produce or meat or tofu is on sale. No, a restricted budget it not fun, but it's also not that hard unless you're an idiot.

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Here's a lady who can feed a family of 4 on $70 a week, and in a pinch for $45 a week. This includes desserts! http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/

So yes it can be done, no it is not fun, it requires thinking about what is a balanced meal, and it does involve some cooking and effort.

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A member of the Vogue Forums - Australia was managing on $20AU per week, as she was saving for an overseas trip. Sadly the thread is now lost, but it definitely is do-able.

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in college, my roommate and i spent at the most $30 a week on groceries for the both of us, and we didn't eat like birds (my roommate was 6'2", 250 lbs). i think the key was we only bought what was on sale (meats, vegetables), and we never bought anything prepared or even semi-prepared. it worked out fine, and we ate well, none of this "ramen everyday" stuff like most college kids did.

even now, living by myself, i easily live off probably at most $20. if a person doesn't like to cook, then they probably wouldn't be as successful at it. i love cooking, and i love figuring out what to make. for me, it's not work, it's something i enjoy and look forward to.

as for my old roommate, he's married now, and he tells me that on average, he and his wife spend upwards of $200 a week on groceries. i always remind him about our college days, and he responds with "yeah, well we didn't have to buy the "good" orange juice, lean cuisines, and diet coke every week."

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I agree that packaged foods aren't really the best option to go. Cheap? Yes. Healthy? No. Life-sustaining? No way. Seriously, despite what Metal Gear 3 says, instant noodles suck. First, it's not real ramen, second, it's loaded with unhealthy flavoring additives, third, it has little to no nutritional value, fourth, it hardly fills you up, and fifth, it takes more energy to eat, digest, and execrate instant noodles than you get back from it! You're LOSING energy consuming instant noodles!

TV dinners are similarly bad. The cheaper, the worse they are. Sure, those Banquet TV dinners and pot pies are dirt cheap, only because even dirt has more beneficial nutrients in it than god knows what's Banquet is churning out.

99¢ items on fast food joints' menus are a step up somewhat but odds are, you'll spend at least $5 a meal just to be satisfied, yet you are still robbing yourself of needed nutrients while injecting yourself with harmful junk.

Some people think it's hard to eat healthy without breaking the bank. You don't have to buy organic foods at a local food co-op to eat healthy, you know. Just buy a wide variety of healthy foods And yes, you can buy them cheap.

While comparitive shopping can reveal good bargains, it's still hard to beat just buying wholesale. Seriously, I was amazed at how much $100 can get you at wholesale and how much they last.

Seriously, you can get your basics covered easily:

Carbs from grains can be obtained from rice, beans, pastas, noodles that can be bought cheaply in bulk. In addition to carbs, you got your fiber, and really fills you up good. These types of foods last very long if properly stored and are easy to prepare. They come in a wide variety and can be added to meals virtually limitless ways.

For fruits and vegetables, you can buy both fresh and frozen varieties. Either way, they're equally nutrious provided you eat a variety of them. Frozen vegetables such as broccoli medleys, go great as a side dish or added to other dishes. They are cheap in bulk and can last a while frozen. Same for frozen fruits.

Meats are a bit tougher in that red meats are out if you wanna eat cheap. But you can certainly try to squeeze some bulk red meats such as hot dogs, burger patties/ground beef, etc. You don't have to use hot dogs for hot dogs! Put them in soups, or something. I do. I cook them, slice them, then put them in my little noodle soup along with other things like bean sprout, parsley, and cooked eggs and turn a pain ol' asian instant noodle soup from dangerously unhealthy and waste of digestion into something decent.

You can buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts in bulk for cheap and add those to your meals. Other meats include fish like salmon, depending on market price can be a bit pricey, but at whole sale, you get a week's worth for two people. Just alternate between fish, chicken, and red meats. Lunch meats are great too not just in sandwiches but salads and snack toppings as well. And finally, do not forget eggs. Awesome cheap meat "substitute" as sides or ingredients and packed with nutrients.

Other items in bulk are just crazy cheap too. 35 granola bars that go for 30¢ each? C'mon man.

So, once you grab the basics, you can make things like:

Fruit smoothie from frozen fruits, milk, and breakfast shake mix that can be purchased in bulk.

Kraft Mac n Cheese with added chicken strips and steamed vegetable medley.

All kinds of sandwiches. Grilled cheese sandwiches, home made egg mcmuffin!

Grilled Salmon with wild rice and steamed vegetables.

Omelettes!

Lemon chicken with rice pilaf and grilled vegetables

Crackers with toppings like meat and cheese.

Soups!

Fruit parfaits!

I mean, you're not making fancy presentable meals here. just tasty and healthy for cheap!

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Been there still there sometimes. It can be done as long as you stick to basics. No fresh meats or fruits or veggies. I would make alot of breakfast foods. And homemade soup and chilli and sandwiches. Lots of rice dishes and cassoroles.Still love tuna casssarole. My children missed hamburger helper and I came up with my own using breakfast sausage for a $1 and maccaroni and spaghetti sauce it made a big pot that lasted 3 meals for 4 people. Wish I had figured that out years ago. Hamburger helper is expensive and I had to buy 4 boxes for my family with no leftovers!!! LOL.......

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It can get dull and boring at times. However, it is possible to actually get by with less than $62 a week. I have learned many ways to make rice noodles, pinto beans and brown rice stretch. Cornbread and biscuits are also relatively inexpensive additions.

The point is that if you really put your mind to it you can sruvive on very little without starving yourself to death. You can also make your daily diet healthy as well as cheap.

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Up until two years ago, I fed my family of four (one construction worker, two teenage girls with voracious appetites, and me) for $50 a week -- 7 days a week, 3 meals a day. I could make one chicken feed us for three meals. We ate lots of grains (I would buy rice by the 25-pound bags), a small amount of meat. I would buy frozen beans and we would frequently have meals of beans and rice and a tossed salad. I bought everything on sale. We ate primarily carbohydrates (brown rice, beans, pasta, oats [did you know you can make a salad out of oatmeal?], millet), always one or two vegetables (preferably fresh and in season, but in the winter, frozen). We never had beer, wine, or soda in the house, but I bought 3 gallons of milk each week.

The unfortunate, but true, part of this story is that after eating like this for four years, I was diagnosed with diabetes. Too many carbohydrates, too much stress. Carbs are cheap. Carbs are low fat. Carbs can be dangerous ...

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