Watching Your Pennies? Use our List: 50 Foods for a Dollar

Groceries consistently rank among my top three monthly expenses. Many of us who are trying to cut our food bills are dining out less and eating in more, so it’s hard not to notice that the cost of many things has risen while package sizes have shrunk.

Shopping sales and using coupons help, but even if you lack the time to do that, there are still many foods that can be had for a dollar. Granted, some aren’t the healthiest (soda and candy bars), but others (dried legumes) offer superior nutritional value if you have the time to cook from scratch.

I set out to build a list of 50 food items you can still buy for a dollar. My “research” consisted of scanning the online sales circulars from four local supermarkets – Stop & Shop, Big Y, Caraluzzi’s and Shop Rite. (Shop Rite, by the way, had the most items for $1 or less while Big Y had the fewest – only one item.)

Confirming what most of us know, most protein sources, like nuts, fish, meats and cheeses, were among the priciest food items, although a few, like chicken, tuna and legumes, were more affordable. Frozen and canned vegetables tend to be cheaper than fresh (which makes a good case for a home garden if you like crunchy veggies), although in-season produce remains reasonably priced.

If you want to get the biggest bang for the buck, prepared frozen meals and deli counter salads and cold cuts are a relatively poor value and also score low in nutritional terms. (Of course, there’s an exception to every rule. If you wait for cyclical sales, you can stock up on frozen Lean Cuisines, for instance, and spend as little as $1.88 for one; you can’t beat that price for a weekday lunch.)

I haven’t included on my list those items that must be bought in bulk to obtain a price of $1 per pound or less. Fresh chicken, for instance, sometimes goes on sale for as little as 58 cents a pound, but you can’t buy just one pound. In the same vein, many supermarkets offer sales where you can buy 10 cans of corn for $10, but the $1 per can price won’t apply unless you buy all 10 cans.

Below is the list I came up with for those interested in saving money on groceries. The items in bold represent, to me, the most superior value in terms of both nutrition and price.

1. A candy bar
2. A can of soda (or an on-sale liter)
3. A variety of canned vegetables
4. A pound of Barilla pasta
5. A 20-ounce bottle of ketchup
6. French’s mustard
7. One pound of red or golden delicious apples
8. Fresh vegetables, albeit in very small quantities
9. A box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese
10. A bag of dried peas, lentils or barley
11. A small bag of rice or couscous
12. Salt
13. A can of evaporated milk
14. A pack of gum
15. A bag of egg noodles
16. A pound of store-brand, frozen vegetables, on sale
17. Ramen noodles
18. StarKist solid white tuna
19. A can of soup, on sale
20. Tomato sauce
21. Shop Rite pitted black olives
22. Chicken broth
23. Hormel chili
24. Canned corned beef hash
25. A dozen eggs
26. Mushrooms
27. A half-gallon of apple juice
28. Friendship sour cream
29. Lipton dried soup mix
30. Lipton Cup-a-Soup
31. Shop Rite white bread
32. A 32-ounce bottle of Powerade sports drink
33. A pound of fresh broccoli crowns
34. Two navel oranges
35. Two tangelos
36. Three Royal Mandarin oranges
37. Two kiwis
38. One pink grapefruit
39. 9 ounces of “fresh-baked” French bread
40. A pound of Bosc or Anjou pears
41. A bag of celery stalks
42. A 14-ounce bag of Dole coleslaw
43. A 10-ounce package of fresh spinach
44. Two 6-ounce cups of Colombo yogurt
45. A granola bar
46. A small can of tomato paste
47. A box of chocolate pudding mix
48. A box of Jello mix
49. A bottle of iced tea, on sale
50. ?

If worse comes to worst, you can always order a burger off the Dollar Menu at McDonald’s.

Can you come up with item #50?

Tags: cheap food, cheap groceries, food for $1, food for a dollar, list of cheap food

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