$10 Grocery List for when you're Broke

Has this happened to you? Following several harrowing hours of balancing the checkbook, making payment agreements with various creditors, you sit back and look at the balance in your checkbook and realize you have about $20 left for the entire week.

Somehow, with that measly $20, you have to put gas in your car for work… and still buy groceries to feed the family.

NOTICE: This article was Originally Published on Budget101.com in 2001

So how do you do it?

Surviving on a Budget, $10 Grocery List

You put $10 in your car & spend the other $10 on groceries… and you eat for the entire week. How can someone eat on $10 a week?
Here is a list of groceries that can be purchased for approximately $10. This list assumes you have a very bare pantry.

1. Baking Powder (MYO!)
2. Eggs
3. Flour
4. Fruits (on sale)
5. Hamburger
6. Rice or Ramen Noodles
7. Margarine
8. Milk
9. Potatoes
10. Salt
11. Vegetables (on sale)
12. Tuna (1 or 2 cans)

What’s For Breakfast?

* Scrambled eggs in a Biscuit
* Fruit Smoothie, Hash Browns
* Muffins, many kinds…
* Pancakes, Fruit
* Potato Pancakes
* Tortilla with scrambled or fried eggs inside
* Donut Muffins
* Rice Pudding

What’s For Lunch/Dinner?

* Tortilla with anything you have on hand in it.
* Tomatoes/onions/hamburg etc.
* Shepherds Pie (Hamburger/gravy over mashed potatoes/corn)
* Veggies in gravy over rice
* Baked Potato and Vegetables
* Scalloped Potatoes and Vegetables
* Oven Baked French Fries & Salad
* Vegetable Soup w/ or w/o Rice
* Tuna/ Pea Wiggle (serve over toast or biscuits or saltine crackers)
* Scalloped Potato/Tuna Casserole
* Popovers fill with: tuna pea wiggle recipe or gravy/veggie mix
* Chicken Pot Pie
* Pizza Pasta, Tomato Basil Pasta, Cinnamon Pasta (great for making dessert!)

Although the above menu is very limited, this grocery list is for extremely tough times and is meant to help you get through the week, not to base your diet on for any length of time! ~Liss