What I was listing was my work week food. Weekends are different in that I eat much more protein portions throughout the day. For example 1/2 lb salmon rolled in crushed almonds, then a few hours later 3 oz of steak and a cup of white rice. Then dinner of broccoli, salad and chicken breast. Those meals don't translate to a microwave at work very well.

Just a sweet potato, microwaved with two pats of butter can be a very satisfying meal though. Not in the sense of a sunday dinner meal but it is sufficient vitamin and calories to keep me alive to get to the next meal in 4 hours or so of chicken soup. My soup has corn, onion, celery, rice, string beans, peas and lots of chicken. I'd put that closer to 500-600 calories. The 2 sausage patties on my breakfast sandwich are 460 all by themselves before I add a slice of cheese, english muffin and an egg.

I'm sort of back to my point about balancing a day not a meal. Or perhaps in my case balancing a week instead of a day. A few days with under 1500 calories is easily offset by a Saturday at my boyfriend BBQ grill.

Cady, honey your body doesn't work like that.

Imagine if you said instead of sleeping 8 hrs a day you said you spent the week getting 2 hours and then on the weekends slept for 20 hrs. That's not healthy. Please do try to get at least 1500 calories per day. Shorting yourself slows your metabolism and in turn will be counterproductive to any weight loss. But kudos to you for giving your food some thought, that's way more than most people do.

I agree. That kind of eating does more damage than good. There are lots of good nutrient/calorie dense foods that don't cost much. Use whole grain rice instead of noodles for your chicken soup. Add lentils and beans to meals as filler or substitue for meat. Peanut butter is high cal and cheap and isn't bad for you in smaller amounts. I love it on an apple or with jelly rolled in a tortilla.

I agree. That kind of eating does more damage than good. There are lots of good nutrient/calorie dense foods that don't cost much. Clear broth soup are good but they don't provide much in the way of calories. Use whole grain rice instead of noodles for your chicken soup. Add lentils and beans to meals as filler or substitue for meat. Peanut butter is high cal and cheap and isn't bad for you in smaller amounts. I love it on an apple or with jelly rolled in a tortilla.

beans and rice are a perfect meal together and are cheap and easy to make. use brown rice instead of white or barley instead of either for a bit more flavor. I can make a huge pot of black beans and barley which will last me easily 8-10 meals and will cost about $5 total.

I'm ok. I promise!

I keep writing (and then deleting but y'all are so concerned that I'll post it,) that I'm a 5'4" 197lb powerlifter.

I've set two state records: 335lb deadlift and 200lb bench press. I lift very very heavy and have not seen any slide in my strength or energy since April 15th. (www.wabdl.org if any one here lifts and is looking for a great organization.) My current personal best is a 350lb deadlift and I'm hoping to gear up and take a new record of a 245 bench press in May '08. I know my body and I work closely with my doctor and I've been lifting since 2002. I'm ok with some body fat disappearing and if I see any decrease in strength then I'll add some money to the food budget but so far I've noticed no change.

Y'all are nice to worry about me though. Thanks!

(And who said anything about a clear broth soup? I wrote my soup has corn, onion, celery, rice, string beans, peas and lots of chicken. I'd put that closer to 500-600 calories. On top of my breakfasts, lunches and snacks I'm around 1400 a day to my way of thinking. My body burns 1650 a day, so my doc says, so I'm dropping some body fat. Again 17 pounds in 18 weeks is 1/2 of what most diets recommend you lose. 2 pounds of week is the rule of thumb for a reasonable diet.)

Ok Cady, it's your body so I won't keep bugging you but I'm worried about you. That 1650 calories/day that your body burns is the base number if you just sit in one spot and breathe. If you do more than that, you need more calories. Anything less than 1650 means you aren't even consuming enough calories to do basic body functions which means that your body is eating itself in order to give you energy.

As an athelete, you probably need at least 2500 calories/day. As someone in training you probably need even more than that since you can't build muscle if you're not bringing in calories.

I'd seriously suggest you talk to a nutritionist about your diet because I think you're only taking in about half of what you probably really need. Most joe schmoes can manage their diet ok on their own but as an athelete you have special requirements that need to be met if you don't want to damage yourself.

My ex used to be a power lifter and he wasn't even competitive. But he was on a 4500 cal/day diet just to maintain.

As far as the contents of your soup, they're good, but clear broth soups (which is what yours is, no matter what the content) generally have less calories because of a lower fat content.

Just be careful and really think about talking to a nutritionist.

Thanks lady... duly noted. Concern is appreciated.

Sorry to be a nag.

no specific budget...

but searched for "food" in Mint and from June 6 to August 28, I have spent $534 on food ($190 of those on fast food) for myself.

yes yes, I should stop eating fast food. but alas, no time during the past few months.

which isn't too bad because that rounds out to about $6 per day or about $186 per month.

I usually spend about $125 per month. I'm a single male 20-something. My diet is largely meatless, although I am not a vegetarian. I typically eat a lot of whole grains, beans, vegetables, cheese, etc.

We just started tracking last month and were blown away to see it at about $600 a month for the two of us! Hopefully this month will be better. Looking over the amounts posted here I think we are on the high end of what is possible.

I have no idea how you guys are living off of 120-150 a month for food. Either the groceries around here are extremely expensive or our eating out once or twice a week inflates our budget by 200%. My current food budget is 350 a month, my girlfriend is the same. So total, that's 700 a month for two. This month, I've spent 199 on groceries and 161 on eating out. Yes, I know it's a little over budget.

I don't have access to a bulk supermarket around here, but we do have a farmer's market twice a week. Can you guys list the things you buy over the course of a month? I want to figure out what you guys are eating for a month to see what I'm doing differently.

I don't buy any instant or frozen things, I'm a very healthy eater, and I almost never buy chicken or beef. I am asian, so I make a lot of meals with rice (which is dirt cheap). The most expensive thing that I buy per meal is salmon, I love salmon. But even that costs about 6 dollars a meal to feed two. Aside from that, I make a lot of pasta (various kinds) averaging about 3 dollars a person as well plus leftovers. Stir fried veggies, cheap veggie omelets, veggie soup (costs about 30 dollars to make, lasts about 4 dinners for two. We are going to try to make it cheaper by not using stock and just adding water.), tofu dishes, salads, fried rice, cereal, sandwiches from deli meats and sliced bread, pbj sandwiches, and a few new dishes a month.

I see that some people who posted have roughly the same numbers as me, but most of you guys spend about half! If it means going down in the quality of ingredients that I use, I probably won't do it. It might just be because I live in a fairly expensive area (Davis, CA).

How do you guys do it?

I'm renting, no debt, no car, and live on about 50% of what I make.

I generally spend $3-8 on a meal for a family of three, often with leftovers. For dinner, we might eat:

- tortellini with homemade veggie spaghetti sauce and cheese
- baked wild salmon with rice/potatoes and veggies
- baked chicken with salad
- beef/chicken curry with rice
- homemade soup (lasts several meals and costs under $5)
- stew
- homemade mac and cheese with veggies

$30 for veggie soup?!? What in the world to you include? I'm making a pot of chicken and wild rice soup today which will cost me about $10 total (the chicken was $6 of that) and last for 10-12 meals. Throw in some rice ($.50 from bulk), half a bag of carrots ($.50), a head of celery ($1), 5-6 onions ($1.50) and 1/2 a head of garlic ($.33) and it's done. I'll use the chicken bones and all of the ends from those veggies and others to make the stock.

My hint on making stock: I save, in the freezer, all of the odds and ends of veggies that I make for other meals. The onion and garlic peels, the tips of green beans, leek ends, cauliflower core, celery and carrot ends, etc. Just throw everything in the bag. Then, when you're ready to make soup you can pull it out and add some herbs and you're ready to go.

For herbs, growing them on your own is a great, economical way to have fresh stuff. However, many times we don't use them as quickly as we need them. So, if you make a lot of soups and sauces and things, one thing you can do is chop the herbs, add some water and freeze them in ice trays. Then you can just pop a couple of the "ice" cubes into the pot. Or, you can lay them flat and freeze them whole.

Baked wild salmon with rice/potatoes and veggies? How does that come out to under $8?? The CHEAPEST wild salmon we can buy here (and I wouldn't settle for it, it's definitely not fresh) is $14/lb and we usually buy half a pound.

My homemade pasta sauce takes 3-4 vine-ripe tomatoes (about $1.5), squash/zucchini, basil, mushrooms, one brown onion, garlic, and maybe various other veggies + pasta. All of it still comes out to over 8 dollars and has only one serving leftover.

For the veggie soup I use this recipe: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/0 ... _basil.php , I guess the ingredients don't really add up to $30, more like $20 including two cartons of stock. If we take out the stock, it will be more like $10. EDIT: Nah.. it will still be around $15 I think.

Good tip on the saving veggies for stock, I heard it before but I keep forgetting to do it! You even save the onion and garlic skins? Interesting. Aren't ends of things usually dirty? Do you wash them thoroughly before you freeze them?

We used to have a growbed and grew our own herbs, but our new place doesn't have a yard so we can't grow anything
We will try growing basil in pots until winter though.