Thank you everyone, for such kind support.
My question is: How do you budget for food? How much of your income do you set aside? How do you ration the money to make sure you have groceries all throughout the month?
Everything is so expensive these days. I had a hard time, even with the food stamps, being able to stretch that money past the middle of the month. So I would buy pantry staples, that would last, and are versatile for many different kinds of meals.
For two people, how much should I be budgeting?
What helps you?
Please, I would like that kind of advice.
Without the money or means to buy food because of limited funds they only thing you can really do is spend your time as a resource. You've proven yourself as a capable cook. Is your daughter into the idea of cooking as well? Either way, you might have to go for the econo foods and make as many of your own meals as possible.
Legumes are cheap, filling, healthy and they go a long way. Refried pinto beans can be made in an instant pot or cooked on the stove. Lentils! Beautiful lentils. Curried Lentils are amazing over rice or quinoa (always rinse quinoa thoroughly before cooking it to wash off the saponins that make it bitter otherwise) and generous amounts of hot sauce. Lentil burger patties....I'd eat the ones I make on a bun equally as much as having a good hamburger.
Cabbage: So many things can be done with this vegetable. I like using it to make veggie patties (shredded cabbage, boiled then drained and pressed, beaten egg, flour, onions and spices fried in a little oil or butter are divine with whatever sauce you make with them (e.g. yogurt/dill sauce, tartar sauce, mayo, sour cream or...plain). You could even put one on a bun and eat them like a burger.
If you're fine with conventionally grown food then eggs, while more expensive than they used to be, are still a cheap protein source. I'd think of eggs long before buying meat if I was on a limited budget. The possibilities are endless.
Meats: If you're fine with conventionally grown food, then buying things like fresh turkey necks to simmer at length to make great broth and then use the meat for whatever you want. If you can buy chicken feet you can usually get them very cheap. Chicken feet make outstanding broth. Yes I've cooked with them quite a few times. If you can find a store that sells chicken backs inexpensively, then you've hit the jackpot since they make the best broth ever and have a bunch of meat on them to separate from the bones. You could even ask at meat counters as to whether or not they have chicken backs available and how much they are per pound. I'm not exaggerating when I say that a few chicken backs can be the foundation to a huge pot of chicken vegetable soup with noodles, dumplings, rice, barley, etc. Even though I think dumplings are tasty and so easy to make, I haven't made them in years ever since I made a big pot and was backed up horribly for a week. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary on that front...
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Making/baking your own bread from scratch. There are many different ways to do this including "no-knead" breads that are more like "quick-breads" even though they're yeasted.
Whole grains. Brown rice is cheap and easy to make. I read some scare-mongering article recently that brown rice has a lot of arsenic and cadmium in it but I don't see how such a statement could be made for all brown rice regardless of origin. There is California grown brown rice for example and asking the manufacturer about arsenic and cadmium levels seems like it's a reasonable pursuit if desired.
I'm not a Dietician, but I would venture that a combination of the above types of foods including some fruit now and again, a few other assorted vegetables including leafy such as kale, etc and healthy fats (e.g. unrefined oils, butter, ghee, nuts, seeds) would be a diet a person could live on and be healthy doing it. A note on nuts: I've read that sunflower can be inflammatory.
The only challenge in the above for those who can cook is...time. If a person has the time to cook their own food, make meals to freeze, etc then they can live without spending much on food.
