The Going Broke Blog

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A man’s gotta eat. Women too, I hear, but they don’t like to admit it.

One of the fastest ways to watch what little finds you may have slip from your bank account is to eat out a lot.

Food is a dangerous temptress. It’s immediate, it’s inexpensive on a meal-by-meal basis, and it makes you feel so much better about life when you’re stressed out about your finances.

The irony there is that it’s very easy to eat out once, twice, three times a day, and over the course of a month, flush hundreds of dollars down the toilet – literally.

A five dollar meal seems pretty inexpensive. But add it up – thrice times daily, times 30 days in a month, you’re looking at $450 to chow on food you probably shouldn’t have been eating anyway.

Here are some of my tips for eating right and eating cheap when you’re going broke:

• Visit the grocery store and think vegan. You don’t have to be a vegan to eat like one. For less cost than a grilled chicken salad at Sonic or the least expensive salad at Subway, you can buy a whole bag of salad mix in the produce isle. I like to buy the big four-veggie salad bags, which run around $4. This will last you a week at two meals a day if you like a light salad, or if you like to enjoy a big bowl of salad like me, two bags will get you through a week. Add light salad dressing and some fruit (I love nectarines and plums) and you have a super healthy, low-calorie, $0.50 or $1 meal. [Soup is another option here, but I'll be honest: I hate making soup and I don't like eating it all that much. Your mileage may vary.] Just replacing one $5 meal each day with a $1 salad will save you $120 a month. I don’t know about you, but that’s my family cell phone plan, or two months of Dish Network, or at least a week’s gas to and from work. You’ll feel better and more energetic from avoiding lethargy-inducing heavy meals and you’ll see an improvement at the bathroom scale as well.
• If salad’s not on the plate for my palette on a given day, I try to take aim at Subway next. Can’t beat $5 footlongs for value, and they’re a healthy option. One footlong feeds me for two meals at $2.50 a meal. Or go for a packed veggie delight wrap, easily equivalent to a footlong sub in substance, for $3.50 – split over two meals at $1.75 each. With some chipotle or sweet onion sauce, these are great, inexpensive, healthy meals. Just don’t go overboard and down a whole footlong or wrap in one sitting. Make two meals of it and pass on the chips and drink – you’ll just double your cost per meal, and your calorie intake.
• There’s no shame in hitting your local fast food dollar menu when the need arises. We life fast-paced lives and it’s realistic to admit you’re going to have to get food when and where you can sometimes. But instead of getting the four-piece chicken tender meal at Church’s, go for the strip and a biscuit for $1.29. It’s not much of a meal, but if you use the tricks I outline below for eating light and feeling full, it will satiate you through dinnertime. You can get a junior burger, two-piece chicken strip wrap, or a junior breakfast burrito at Sonic for only a buck. McDoland’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, all have great, robust, filling dollar menu options. They aren’t healthy by any means, but they’re cheap and serve their purpose. Consider it inexpensive and easy portion control.
• Sick of salads and dollar menu options? Upgrade to a nice meal from Chili’s, TGIFriday’s, Red Robin, Applebee’s, or your diner/restaurant of choice. Lower-priced entrees run $6-$8. The secret to eating inexpensively here is splitting that oversized meal into several smaller meals. At most Italian restaurants, one order of spaghetti and breadsticks is enough for four honest, smaller meals. You can break one gluttonous meal into four reasonable ones and end up paying $1.50 or $2 per meal. I for one would rather have Olive Garden leftovers for two days, with salads and fruit mixed in to keep things fresh, at an extra $0.50 per meal than four separate meals off the dollar menu at Sonic. There are some great guides to safely storing and reheating leftovers over at O Chef, eHow, Real Simple, What’s Cooking America, and even Winn Dixie.
• If you have a significant other or kids, these same ideas apply. Reduce portions, replace one or two meals a day with a good meatless salad, split entrees with your mate and/or kids, etc.
• Pay attention to eating a balanced diet. Quite often, people get the nutrients they need to function purely by accident – by sheer influence of the large amount of food they eat. When eating vegan, make sure each meal has balanced contents and a wide variety of colors – carrots, cucumbers, spinach, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, and so on. If you normally have a Dairy Queen chicken strip basket for lunch every day, don’t worry – you didn’t have many nutrients to lose there.
• Replace expensive, calorie-heavy snacks with healthy, inexpensive ones. You can eat any three pieces of fresh fruit for less cost than one candy bar. String cheese is one of my favorites – it’s easy to peel and eat slowly and has great texture.

Eating less overall and differently than your body is used to will cause some transitional pains – cravings, hunger, maybe even some emotional influence making you tense, easily agitated, or obsessive over wanting certain foods.

Here are my two big tips for beating those demons:

Drink lots of water. People just don’t drink enough of this stuff on a daily basis. Take aim at four pints at least, roughly eight regular glasses of water or eight regular bottles of water. Many, many times, your brain misinterprets a lack of water for a lack of food and you get hungry as a response. Drink a bottle of water before bed so you stay hydrated through the night, drink a bottle in the morning to replenish yourself (go for room temp water instead of cold so you don’t tick off your stomach), and then try to drink a bottle of water with every meal and between each meal. Every time you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated, so instead of just taking a sip to wet your lips, drink a lot in that moment. If I don’t pay attention and end up thirsty, I’ll drink a half a bottle of water immediately whether I feel that much need or not. If you stay hydrated, you’ll have far few issues with random hunger pains.

To stretch out those small-portion meals (off the dollar menu or split from a large entree), drink lots of water with your meal and eat s – l – o – w – l – y. Take your time and pay attention to your food, really taste and enjoy it. When you eat, remove all other distractions – no TV, no book, no newspaper. When you take a bite, take a small bite, enough to really taste what you’re eating, and chew it extensively. If you can’t stop yourself, put your fork down, sit on your hands, and count up to 20 as you chew for every grind – 1, 2, 3, 4… You can train yourself to stop shoveling food down your throat. When you take your time and pay attention to your meal, you appreciate it more, you better taste the flavors and textures, and your brain really experiences the act of eating. If you eat while you’re distracted by TV or something else, your brain doesn’t fully appreciate what you’ve consumed and an hour later it will have forgotten that you ate. You’re paying for this meal – and it’s what will give you fuel for the next three or four hours; take the time and attention to enjoy and appreciate it.

If you don’t think you spend all that much on food, do the whole 30 day budgeting program of tracking every penny that comes out of your pocket or bank account to see where it goes. I promise you, you will be surprised. Good advice at Art of Manliness, Mighty Bargain Hunter, About.com, and Medscape.

And for more good reading on the subject of eating cheap (and trying to stay healthy in the process), check out Cheap Healthy Good (which has an awesome logo and site design), Slashfood, Get Rich Slowly, and a funny take on the topic at the Financial Times.

- James

What’s your favorite meal to eat on the cheap? What tricks have you used to control the amount you spend on food and the amount you eat at a meal?