I'm planning on living off-campus next semester; so I was wondering how much everyone spends on food per month. My intention is to eat "healthy". :P

Depends, mostly of the country I'm currently at. Belgium is freaking expensive

If you do all your cooking at home and eat healthy in the Midwest of the USA you can eat well for between $150-$250 per month. The range is that large, because I don't know your budget or your tastes. For instance, if you don't eat meat at all and you don't get single-serving yogurts or drink beer every day - you'll be closer to the $150. If you eat beef or fish often (expensive), like convenience foods like boxed cereal and drink beer, you'll be at the higher end.

Notice this figure does not include eating out at all. Your biggest budget concern with food will be how often you eat out. A single meal can easily cost as much as a week of eating at home.

Spending more or less on food depends largely on your ability and willingness to prepare all your food at home. It is time-consuming. You will spend a lot of time per week cooking, cleaning, meal-planning and shopping. Make sure you know where you will do your shopping and what your transportation will be.

I'm going to assume you are a studious and responsible person. The life of a university student is difficult and day-to-day schedule can be very different. So, when budgeting, be realistic. Do you have 2 or 3 days per week when you are in classes all day and will not have time to cook at home? Then budget for eating what you need to eat - at restaurants or convenient grab-n-go. Do you spend much of your time at the library only returning home in the late night? Be realistic about how much time you will have to cook at home.

Count household things like garbage bags, napkins, coffee filters, dish soap, toilet paper and light bulbs in your food budget. Else they will surprise you every time you need them and you will feel like your food money is disappearing.

It's great to live off-campus. have fun!

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsavings/page/what-you-should-spend

For you, it says about $300.

Well I get all my orphans for free so nothing, but I have a 'connection' over at the agency so I'm kind of an exception.

Your best bet is to try it for a month or two - it might reveal some surprises you wouldn't normally account for.

From my experience, I end up spending anywhere between $1.50 to $3.00 on a meal.
The $1.50 - $2.00 range is more typical if I cook for myself, but sometimes special extras will bump it up.

Keep in mind: I don't live in a city where food costs are inflated (like a city, or remote location), 80% of the time I buy in bulk (and freeze things), I'm not afraid to use vegetarian recipes and customize them to my liking (reducing meat %, but keeping the flavor satisfying).

This also doesn't account for going out, or buying alcohol (presuming you drink) at home.

Hope that helps some. Enjoy living off campus, I loved it.


Edit: Curses, misteryo pretty much nailed it and more. I need to learn to type faster. This two-finger monkey typing just isn't as fast as it use to be...

Around $80, sometimes a lot less, rarely more. I buy store brand stuff for the most part (spaghetti noodles are spaghetti noodles), rarely buy junk food and haven't eaten out in well over a year. I make a lot of (simple) pasta and make bowls of white rice mixed with salad dressing (and occasionally cheese), with cans of Chunky Soup or chili (store brand) or ravioli, frozen burritos and chicken nuggets for quick meals. For hydration I usually drink hot tea or water, both of which is fairly cheap if you know where to shop (such as Asian markets for tea).

That is quite the sexual appetite.

I remember setting aside $2-$2.25 for lunches when i worked at a grocery store (when i was really really poor). We also bought beans in bulk and soaked them in water, then cooked them, made for very inexpensive (although fairly samey) meals.

Something to consider is find out what you can work and cook with. If you only have a microwave where you're going, you're going to be a lot more limited than if you have a stove top. On the other hand you might also get your own mini-stove that runs off gas (propane or butane or something similar). I've seen and had a cooker that is intended to be used in the microwave.

Also how big is your fridge going to be? It might be a waste of time to make small meals when you can instead make a larger one that takes slightly more time, and then just leave 2-3 days leftovers to eat until you HAVE to cook again.

A military ration called hard tack was made which involves wheat flour, water and salt, and is effectively a cracker (not bad, made some myself), although i wouldn't want to eat ONLY hard tack, it would definitely help hold you over for one meal if you needed to for a while (a week or two? It's a bit heavy)

All else fails & you have a microwave (or can get boiling water) concentrate on meals that only need to 'add water' to work, they will probably contain a good portion of the nutrients and flavoring you need. Actually there's the emergency rations at walmart i've been getting that's potato soup, quite good for making a cup or two of soup at a time, and not that expensive for how many meals it will provide you.

Mmmm maybe i've drifted too much of HOW to do something rather than answering the question...

I found all of your posts very informative and open-minded. I can't thank you guys enough. I <3 this community!

FTFY :P

Lol tiny, you never fail to amuse me!

2 days ago i wanted to buy some new drinks because i've been drinking coca-cola for months and my parents say that it has caffeine or whatever and it makes me sleep later at night. i didn't even read the ingredients. so ok i bought 5 bottles - 3 nestea and 2 lipton. i drank nestea when i was in university and i clearly remember it had a very good taste. but this time, all drinks i bought were DILUTED! they had water added in them i mean! yes they had a good smell when i opened the bottles but the taste was nearly there.. and it's not only about nestea and lipton - even coca-cola - sometimes the acid is very good and it doesn't irritate my tongue. i don't know how they do it, but it's good to drink. but other times, the acid is bad - it hurts my mouth when i drink. so clearly some bottles are counterfeit. and sprite is crap too because they don't add lemon juice - they just put citric acid which tastes almost the same but is much cheaper! it's only because of romanians they steal and scam and corrupt everything they see. i even saw advertisements on tv for products which were said to cure cancer! seriously! and the poor old people who are sick they even spend their last money on that just for a hope to cure themselves! and when i say that romanians are 100% evil with no exceptions, people just call me RACIST! well guess what - i call you ignorants! you don't even care to find out the truth...

http://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/comments/35drfr/3_weeks_until_my_next_paycheck_and_ive_only_got/cr3k5e9

http://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHealthy/comments/335i2u/actual_poor_students_cookbook_uses_a_lot_of/

hope these links help!

my tips:

buy bulk meat on sale, (go shopping early thurs/friday/sat and you can get half off items) portion it out in zip lock bags and freeze until you are ready to cook it. You can pick up spiral cut hams, the huge ones for 99. per lb and eat off that for weeks if you cook it then freeze it up in portions. Same with turkeys, right after the holidays stock up on these. Of course you have to have freezer large enough to hold it. zip lock bags are your friend to prevent spoilage and ease of use when you buy in bulk.

beans beans beans, cheap, nutritious, filling. dont go bad for ages. buy rice in bulk as well. invest in a crock pot (slow cooker) to cook your beans and bulk meat in while you are at school. come home to delish meals that you can eat for days before having to cook again. invest in good spices to add variety or buy a bag of chili peppers, they last forever and rev up the fun. Every carcass you have left over from whole chickens, hams, turkeys boil with onions, carrots etc to make your own stock for your beans, it means a world of difference in taste and wastes nothing. freeze the stock in ..you guessed it... zip locks bags in cup portions to use at will in recipes.

canned veggies taste great, buy on sale.

frozen fruit (for cerals,yogurts, shakes, recipes) works great rather than the expensive and easily wasted fresh.

if you want to go cheap you are going to have to cook. so reading recipes and modifying them to suit your needs will be very important until you get a feel for cooking and what you like. couponing can be very lucrative if you have the patience to deal with the hassle.

cheers and good luck