How can I afford meals?

[nun]

@americandeist Pro additon: sugar free pudding mix - it thickens it and adds delicious flavor for minimal extra calories. Seriously try it once and be a convert. Been using this for years. Vanilla sugar free pudding mix, protein powder and throw some blueberries in for a delicious high protein meal

 

[seekeronsaltspring]

@americandeist Add some nuts and it's even better

 

[mozes]

@americandeist Rice and oatmeal are cheat codes for putting on mass while spending very little money. Grains are not necessarily the best for you, but their purpose is to feed whole civilizations at very low cost. Load up on that.

Also why are you paying for a gym membership, use your college gym.

Lastly, most churches around you host food banks on the weekends. Use them, I volunteer at my church’s food bank and we have all types of people coming in to get food. Everyone is hurting right now. Just make sure when you graduate And get a good job you help out or donate to them. I used church foods banks a lot when I was down on my luck. Got a lot of fish, chicken breast, tuna cans, even those quest protein chips. They would give me like 5 boxes of those. Since most people did not want them.

 

[americandeist]

@mozes Mine's only 24/7 in town. she goes to the school gym, I go at 1am on a Monday night. Thanks for the grain recommendation too! That'll be good and reliable on my backpacking breakfast meals.

 

[lifos]

@americandeist Idk where you are rn weight wise but ralise that you're better off bulking than cutting when broke, which might seem counter productive until you realise that it's much easier to get cheaper high calorie carb and fat sources than it is to get high calorie protein sources.

Get rid of the idea that you need 1g of protein per lbs of bodyweight. That idea is a luxury and will burn a hole in your pocket with all the protein you'll be buying.
Stick to fatty deli meats for protein and fat, pasta for carbs and protein, and whole foods for overall diet.
You're still young, active, and in your lifting prime. Domt let anyone fearmonger you into thinking these lower quality meat options are gonna rob you of your gains or kill you sooner. These meats dont affect active individuals like thy do sedentary ones so ignore their comments.
No need for fancy cooking, just take the individual ingredients and mix them together until their palatable enough. Egg fried rice with filler meat option and veggies is a great example of this.

Dont buy granola bars, waste of money.
Buy oatmeal instead and make it your staple breakfast. If you're feeling frivvy make oatmeal protein bars, there are a ton of videos on youtube on how.

 

[americandeist]

@lifos That's awesome! Thank you so much!

 

[elam]

@americandeist Whole milk. Peanut butter. Bread. Pasta. Chicken. Rice. Veggies.

 

[heremiah]

@americandeist Lean beef HEB

 

[onepassionate1]

@americandeist I have had a similar issue before and chicken breast and rice etc was promoted as a go to. What people tend to forget is the price varies depending on where you live. chicken breast is expensive for me at the best of times. There was no way I could to eat like that daily. The other thing people forget is how much money you may or may not have. so what if chicken breast is cheap, it doesn't mean you can afford it because it's cheap.

OP I hope you find a solution because i know this isn't a nice position to be in.

 

[pinetowntree]

@americandeist Can you increase your hours for your work-study job?

SNAP?

Shop at a cheaper grocery store?

Buy cheaper sources of protein and calories? Things like baking bread, etc. are insanely cheap. 5 lbs bag of flour is $2.50. That's 8000 calories of bread.

 

[jason84]

@americandeist Affordable foods high in protein: Lentils, Fetta, Cottage cheese, eggs, milk. And certain brands of Whey, you can find cheaper if you buy in bulk (do the math per* serving)

 

[mackman55]

@americandeist Buy in bulk when possible. It’s a higher upfront cost but a cheaper cost per serving. Over time, you’ll save money and accumulate a bunch of a food. Things like the huge bag of rice, the big dry thing of beans, or the 60ct box of store-brand eggs. It’s even a little more cost effective to buy the bigger packages of fresh chicken breast lol

Find out when your local supermarkets mark down their meats; they usually have a section for it, and if they don’t, they’ll slap a new label on it. It can be anywhere from 30-70% cheaper. Freeze what you don’t use immediately and thaw as needed. Ive gotten the 96/4 ground beef at Walmart for ~$4/lbs and 90/10 at Kroger for $3.49/lbs this way. I tend to see a lot of pork chops and steaks make their way to this section, too.

Speaking of meat, the fattier cuts tend to be cheaper. Get the 80/20 ground beef or the chicken thighs. Ground turkey is pretty cheap in general.

Check out the bakery section. They mark down breads that are close to date just like the meat department does. I’ve gotten huge loaves for $1 a piece, sometimes even $0.49. They’ll mold pretty fast, but good news: you can freeze them too.

Milk’s cool.

Pasta’s inexpensive.

Frozen or canned fruits/veggies are usually cheaper than fresh.

I’ve seen the bags of fresh salad mix, bags of spinach, and little plastic boxes of cut veggies get marked down. There might be others I’m not paying attention to.

Store brand anything is almost always cheaper.

Hope this helps

 

[patchrex]

@americandeist Beans, ground beef, sometimes even ground chicken. Frozen veg or canned vs fresh. Granola bars and cookies are a waste imo

 

[lamporful]

@americandeist Peanut butter and jelly . Cheat code for bulking when I was in college. I was able to move up 4 weight classes when I was doing combat sports. All I hate was chicken broccoli rice and pbjs and I had a great physique based off that. I also drank a shit ton of milk too.

 

[smorganmackay]

@americandeist Pre-cooked rotisserie chickens are often times sold as loss leaders, so grocery stores will sell them at a loss as a means of attracting customers. Also try checking the egg prices at different stores. Last year it was insane. For a while they were 12.00 at my local stop and shop (a middle class grocery store in the northeast US, not something fancy like a whole foods) and 1.75 at the Aldi down the street, so it's worth looking around. Canned food was a big game changer for me. Also, buying protein powder and mixing it into oatmeal instead of drinking it as a shake is actually a very cost effective way to get a filling meal in that has a ton of protein, especially if you just buy one of those big tubes of oatmeal. I don't know how the math works out compared to other standard cheap protein sources like chicken breast, but if I had to guess its pretty close since the protein powder averages like 1.00/33g scoop and oatmeal is pretty cheap too.

 

[alongtime]

@americandeist Soybean and chickpeas varieties

I usually make 3 soft boiled eggs, 2 shakes out of 200grams of raw soybean and chickpeas, soy chunks and make food with rice and chickpeas and sometimes curry for a little bit of flavoring.

Also soy chunks and tofu give solid protein with less kcals. Gives as high as chicken breast, however you need to eat more.

Total kcals I take would be around 1600- 2400 kcals with 140g-180g protein intake depending on the rice chickpeas and tofu/soychunks , I consume. Lol Highly recommend if you are on low budget or not, or if you are vegetarian.

 

[farishta]

@americandeist Skimmed milk = 20g protein

There are cheaper alternatives, just dig and you'll find them.

 

[theimperfectchristian]

@americandeist Some tips I suggest looking into…

1. Buy in bulk- You can buy a 5-10+ bag of rice for 20-$30. Guaranteed that bag will last you atleast 2months or more. Veggies big family bags at Costco. I just found a delivery service that delivered me $85 doll worth of grocery and it gonna be enough to last me a month and a half or so. Enough to not buy for the next 2-3 checks( save). Protein-find ways to go a lil cheaper but still quality. I live in Texas and so we have Mexican grocery stores that have good meat at great prices. Another option is to try WildFork if you have that where your located. I just ordered 18lbs of protein for $100. And trust it’s high as hell quality.(beef sirloin- ground veal-ground pork- ground elk) lol
2. Eat less, but more - if your bulking possibly eat bigger meals less often (2 big meals a day or 3- whatever your intake)

2 things I suggest based on your post

 

[micmic0929]

@americandeist All markets and Costco sell a whole rotisserie chicken for $6-10 and that's a lot of chicken.

I get one sometimes when I'm lazy and I just need a lot of protein.

 

[lovehopejoypeace]

@americandeist Thought in the USA buying food wasn't a probleem, watching all those videos of people buying thousands of stuff for like 100$.