Grocery List just the basics for $20.00?

Eggs are cheap. Omelets, french toast, boiled eggs for tuna salad. All cheap and good.

Bread from the discount store. Sandwiches, french toast, toast. PB&J all cheap.

Hamburger, find cheap casseroles. I take a pound of hamburger, and half a onion and brown it, a box of mixed veggies and boil and drain them. Mix these, add a can of tomato soup and 4 tablespoons of ketchup, stir, heat, and serve over baking powder biscuits. It is good and cheap.

Tuna casserole is cheap and easy, throw in some frozen peas for nutrition and color.

Mom used to make SOS. She would make white gravy, but you can buy an envelope at the grocery, and cut Buddig corned beef into it. Really, it was good, Dad and I loved it. Stouffers sells it in the frozen food case, I almost passed out when I saw the price tag.

Sausage gravy is cheap and easy, make a roue from the reserved grease after frying the sausage, use milk and black pepper.

I always keep a jar of dehydrated onions in the pantry, not the ones at the grocery in the little jar for $4, the ones at the discount store for $2 in a big jar. Beats wasting onions, and great for emergencies. Throw it in as is, or reconstitute it in a little water. Love it in green beans with a little bacon also bought in an envelope.

Really cheap is green bean and potatoes. Cook the beans, boil the potatoes, put them together with some onion. Can add ham or bacon

Navy beans, soak them overnight, rinse them, and slow cook them with a cheap cut of pork or leftover ham. Mom did not use onions in it, just a few tablespoons of ketchup for color. Corn bread is served with it, and she fried some potatoes to go with it. Cheap.

Noodles. Buy your beef, make a gravy, and put it in noodles. Stretch anything with pasta. Chicken, tuna, beef, all made reasonably priced when served in a casserole.

Spaghetti is your new best friend. with turkey, hamburger, mushrooms whatever in the sauce. Pasta and sauce are a dollar each at the discount grocery. Make garlic bread from stale white bread. Buy the garlic powder and margarine at the discount house too. Mom served green beans with this.

Frozen waffles at are cheap, home made waffles and pancakes are cheaper. Syrup is cheap, buy the cheapest on the shelf, it really does not taste that different form the expensive stuff.

A tip, I know that the boxes of food at the dollar stores look like they are cheaper, and hey, if all you have for food is a dollar, buy them. but do some comparing, check the price per ounce with the grocery. You might find that it is not cheaper.

Bananas are cheap, most stores have them cheap as a loss leader to get you in the store. cereals at the discount grocery are cheap. Yogurt store brand is $.46 here. cheap.

Here is what to do. Make a meal planner for a week of meals, go online and find cheap and good recipes. Make a grocery list of that, and do not buy anything not on your list unless you really did forget an ingredient. Do not forget some healthy snacks like apples. Buy one week's worth of groceries, no more, no less. Do not return to the store for a week.

Set aside some time, and go price compare like I mentioned above.

I go to the discount store first, and get what I can for cheaper there, then go check out the sales and the things I can't get at the discount store.

I go through the ads in the paper, and plan meals around the sales. Pretty soon you learn what is cheaper where, and all this does not take so long. Sometimes, I plan so well, I can get most of what I want at the discount store, and litterally go buy my diet decaf cola at the reduced price store, since that is not available at the discount place.

You will also learn about the brands, and what is comparable in quality and taste to the expensive brands. Eggs are eggs and milk is milk, but brown sugar is not the same, the cheap kind has the molasses sprayed on it. Definite taste and consistancy issues. I don not like the dried onion soup mix form the discount place. this is one thing I buy the national brand name.

good luck, just some common sense and a little time will get you a budget you can follow.

PS: watch the coupons. Even with the marked down price, the stoe generic is often still cheaper. Save the coupons for things you can't get at the discount store, or for gotta have brand names. I had a coupon for the name brand graham crackers, I buy the name brand, so ca-ching, I saved money.

We have a store where I live called Safeway...I know it's not everywhere (unfortunately!), but if it is where you live, that's the place to go. We do a big big trip once a month and I usually spend $300 and save $150, just from shopping their sales.

Any local chain probably has good sales, look for the buy one get one free ads. That could help you out a lot right now.

Here's some cheap meals we like to have sometimes...this is for a family of 4, so you will have left overs.

Hot Dogs and French Fries

Sloppy Joes (one lb of meat!)

fish sticks and rice-a roni

chicken and white rice

tuna sandwiches

breakfast for dinner (eat some cereal, it's inexpensive)

hamburger or tuna helper

boxed macaroni and grilled smoked sausage

and lots of sandwiches...pb&j, meat and cheese, grilled cheese

in the soup section there is soup in a bag that you have to add water to and cook, it's really good, we like potato soup, and it makes a ton.

good luck! hope this helped!

Is a pay period 2 weeks or a month?

I would get

1 gallon of milk. One gallon is a much better deal than a 1/2 gallon when you break it down.

Store brand of bread.

1 doz eggs

As you have3 already stated

Then I would get:

1 small bag frozen mixed veggies

1 bag of dry beans such as pinto beans

1 onion

Some pasta

Maybe a jar of spaghetti sauce

A can or 2 of tuna

And look for reduced for quick sale meats. These meats are still good for a day or 2 but if you arent going to eat them yet then pop them in the freezer with no worries.

Look for ANYTHING reduced in price first. A loaf of bread, meats, pastas etc... even hot dogs and cheese can be found for a Great deal.

If you have mayo it can be a sauce for pasta. Add some mixed veggies and some tuna or hamburger and you have dinner.

When you stop in a gas station and buy gas or soemthing else grab a couple of packets of kethcup, mayo, mustard etc.. If you are already purchasing something I see nothing wrong with it.

In these times its wise there is a lot of people in the same boat!

Look at sale adds and but only the things you need! Try using coupons too!

Start with nesesities! Carton of eggs they do sell them in half dozen too! Milk ,dont buy a gallon by smaller wont waste as much! Bread!Check out price! Pasta noodles low in price,meat such as hamberger,

whole chickens are cheaper than cut up!

Make a menu for the week and do your shopping according to the menu! You just have to compare prices at stores where you live! But is it worth spending the money on gas worth it to get it there!

Good luck!

You can always buy whats on the specials clip coupons out of the paper and so no.....what I been doing when we get in a tigh spot is i got some jarred already cooked pinto beans....and a large sack of potatoes, we had corn mela at home and a jar of seur kraut....if you like southern style meals, we ate beans cornbread and cooked potatoes with a sideof kraut, also I made the kraut with chopped up weenies another day, then you cna use the potatoes for mashed potatoes or to amke potatoe salad another day. Hamburger is also a good thing to buy, you can make, well, burgers, another day you can use it to make lasanga with hamburger helper, you can get a taco kit very cheap and have tacos another day....try to buy things you can make different meals with such as those

Skip the beef for now, or get ground beef and make burgers or meatballs. Buy a whole chicken and trim it yourself. Roast it up, and have some of the meat for dinner. Strip the rest of the meat off the bone and either make chicken salad, or use it as-is to make sandwhiches.

A can of tuna goes a long way - you can usually get two sandwhiches from it.

Pasta's pretty cheap and very fulfilling, as is rice.

Pick up some bananas - they're typically very affordable as well.

If you get to your local grocery store early, there will be manager's specials on meats and I notice they're only there within one hour of the store opening, that might help, buy it and freeze what you won't be using in a day or two.

Buy things like Hamburger helper, mac & cheese, rice etc. at the $$ store

Then add chicken or hamburger to it. If it is just you it will make 2-3 meals if you do a salad or bread also.

Ramen noodles.

U CAN ALSO GO ONLINE AND GET COUPONS FOR SOME FOOD GO RIGHT TO THE WED SITE OF THE BRAND THAT U BUY