Darth Lefty 

Christ, where do YOU live? Potatoes are the cheapest staple food in the store.

stay away from the junk food aisles, buy bone in meat and staples in bulk, you’ll be ok. Costco prices help especially for expensive but storable things like nuts.

BUT Cooking cheap costs time, too, so if you are working full time and riding far that’s a factor.

ridingfool

I'm in New Jersey and shop at the local supermarket one block from where I live . Can buy a little cheaper at a farmers market but as u said between work and trying to ride upwards of 300 miles a week not much time to shop .

ThermionicScott 

I'm sure that 4 years later, the OP's metabolism has started to slow a bit, and so this "problem" is less of one.

Trakhak

Agree, except he said cheap. Bulk old-fashioned or quick oats are a much better buy. Despite what many seem to believe, non-steel-cut oats are no less nutritious than steel-cut oats and cost considerably less.

LesterOfPuppets

Or that armed with a degree he's now shopping at Whole Foods all the time!

berner

This is very good advice. I don't hike or backpack these days but in the past spent considerable time and effort in the mountains. At that time I read trail journals regularly. I learned then that some Appalachian Trail (2300 miles) through hikers traveling 20 to 30 miles per day would feel starved of calories and could eat a pizza or two at a sitting. Some of those same people would suffer stress fractures after walking 1500 miles or so which ended their adventure. This is attributable to poor and unbalanced diet lacking protein, micro nutrients and calcium. When putting an extraordinary stress on the body, nutritional needs need to match.

Sentionc

white rice is the best for me, and chicken

adamrice 

There's a lot of good advice in this thread on specific food items, but in case it's not already clear (and you're not already doing it) the way to save money is to cook your own food, rather than buying prepared food. This is also healthier and is a useful life skill in general.

Getting a Costco membership is tough if your broke, but can pay off over time. You can buy chicken thighs for $2/lb, which is very cheap (of course, you need to have room in your freezer for the 6-pack). My Costco membership pays for itself just in the money I save on coffee. It's the same on a smaller scale when you go to a regular grocery store. A small container of whatever will cost you more per unit than a big container.

Fresh vegetables are terrible on a calories-per-dollar basis, but are still worth eating.

DaveLeeNC

This comes from information gained in 1966. A couple of friends in the summer between their junior and senior years in HS went to Florida to bum around on the beaches and they didn't have much money. According to 'Steve' the most volume of food per dollar that you could buy at that time was unpopped popcorn.

Not calories exactly, but according to "Steve"...

dave