Papa Joe Aviance Lost 250 Pounds on the '99-Cent Diet'

Yahoo Health ^ | 6/4/13 | Jenna Bergen

[Kartographer]

Only $50 Per Week for Food While he was determined to eat better, Aviance had to find a way to do it on a shoestring budget. “A friend told me I should check out the 99-Cent Store. Since I couldn’t afford Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, I decided to see what they had.” Aviance was pleasantly surprised to find that the 99-Cent Store in his neighborhood had plenty of healthy foods to choose from. “Oatmeal, raisins, nuts, bananas, apples, oranges, bell peppers, spinach, salad dressing, tuna fish, eggs… I was shocked. I was blown away,” recalls Aviance. “It was a huge savings. I literally spent no more than $50 a week on food.” (Feeding a family? You can still do it on the (healthy) cheap—here are 20 ways to feed your family for $100 a week.)

[djf]

My neck of the woods we have “Grocery Outlet”, a chain that carries discontinued items/ overstocks from the main supermarket chains.

One time I was in there and they had the same kind of thing, canned roast beef in gravy, so I got about 4 cans.

Had a meal with it served over noodles about a week later and it was DELISH!!, so I went back, it was all gone.

So next time when I saw something, almost the same, canned chicken in gravy with dumplings, I bought a couple cans, took them home, and tried it that very night. Excellent stuff. Good, cheap canned meats are hard to find.

So I made a point to go back the next day and bought a case of it!

Haven’t been in there for a while, I should check it out.

[reformed_dem]

It’s amazing what you can find at the .99 store. I’m gluten intolerant and found Gluten Free Pantry items which normally sell for around $5-$6 box. A lot of their canned goods are actually less than .99.

[Kartographer]

"Within three to four weeks, Aviance started to see changes. “And within 3 months, I was like ‘Hey, this is working!” he laughs. “I started to take all of my clothes to a seamstress so she could take everything in. I was still too broke to go out and buy new clothes, but I didn’t care. I was on a mission.”

Aviance’s morning walks become so regular, that people in his neighborhood started to take notice. “Since I walk every morning, people have started giving me high fives. I felt like a mini rock star in my community. I’ve even had people stop me and tell them I motivated and inspired them to start walking.”

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Yes, but when you call it polenta, you can sell it for a lot more. );-)

[foxpro2]

Did you know there is no Trader Joe’s, Costco or 7-11’s in Fort Wayne, Indiana?

Which means no blue Stilton cheese, no decent $2 slices of pizza and no Slurpee’s.

It is really all quite sad, when you really think about it.

[Iron Munro]

I’ll trust vegetables and fruit, but would be iffy on buying meat products. There’s the discount beef frozen meals that are actually horse, and the Icelandic meat pie found by DNA testing to have no meat in it.

Good points.

It pays not only be informed, but to be wary as well.

We only purchase meat where we have some confidence in the store.

And who knows for sure what is in prepared foods?
Even well known brands are an unknown.

[yldstrk]

yuck I hate WalMart “meat”

[MarkL]

BFL - This broke, fat guy REALLY needs to read this!

[DuncanWaring]

I thought it was “fiddycent”.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Probably. I just knew it wasn’t spelled “fifty.”

[Vendome]

Lust post the guy’s pic already.

I’m on my phone and can’t get to it right now.

LOL

[Rebelbase]

80% of the canned food at the Dollar Tree in my town is made in China. No thank-you.

A few things here and there are made in India, Turkey or Spain. I’ll take a chance on those.

[greeneyes]

We don’t have a 99cent store here either. And I don’t think 50 dollars a week is cheap for one person. We spend about 30.00 dollars per week for 2 people and grand daughter’s breakfast, lunch and snacks.

If it wasn’t for sales and growing a lot of our own food we couldn’t get by that cheap.

[Jack Hammer]

Then he died of malnutrition.

[gattaca]

I think they are building a Costco soon.