“How much does it really cost to eat a healthy diet?” asks Tara Parker-Pope in a recent New York Times article. Among other findings, she notes:
- Nearly a billion people, or about 15% of the world population, live on a dollar a day for food. [Note: Obviously the cost of living varies from country-to-country — spending a dollar a day for food in Portland is different than spending a dollar a day for food in London — or in Mumbai. For more on this stat, see this comment from Christy.]
- The average American consumes about $7 worth of food every day. [Note: Food stamps provide about $3 a day for food.]
- Energy-dense junk food packs more calories and fewer nutrients than nutrient-rich low-calorie foods, but the junk food is less expensive. (“It’s not the food pyramid,” says one researcher, “it’s the budget pyramid.”)
- Junk food prices have been falling, while prices for healthier foods have been rising.
Parker-Pope’s story profiles Christopher Greenslate and Kerri Leonard, a California couple who each lived on a dollar a day for food during the month of September.
[They] bought raw beans, rice, cornmeal and oatmeal in bulk, and made their own bread and tortillas. Fresh fruits and vegetables weren’t an option. Ms. Leonard’s mother was so worried about scurvy, a result of vitamin C deficiency, that they made room in their budget for Tang orange drink mix. (They don’t eat meat — not that they could have afforded it.)
[...]
A few times they found a bag of carrots or lettuce that was within their budget, but produce was usually too expensive. They foraged for lemons on the trees in their neighborhood to squeeze juice into their water.
Some people find these sorts of experiments pointless, but I think they’re interesting and educational. They not only let participants experience how others might live, but they also demonstrate that it is possible to live cheaply in the United States. (Sometimes we forget just how much food we consume, how much we waste, and how much we pay for convenience.)
To read more about Greenslate and Leonard’s “dollar a day” experiment, check out their blog, The One-Dollar Diet Project. They chronicled their food choices for the entire month, starting with the first day. The blog gets more interesting as it goes on, though. On day eleven, for example, the experiment stopped being fun. And on the day after their project ended, they each spent $20 on food.
With supermarket inflation a growing concern recently, processed foods will probably play an even larger role in American diets. Finding inexpensive nutritious food is a very real issue for many people. Here at Get Rich Slowly, we’ve discussed ways to eat healthy while keeping it cheap several times in the past. I’ve also shared others’ experiments in eating well for less. The USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion publishes a 76-page booklet entitled Recipes and Tips for Healthy, Thrifty Meals (PDF).
Many of the tips in this publication will be familiar to frugal cooks:
- Use planned leftovers to save both time and money.
- Do “batch cooking” when your food budget and time allow.
- Shop with a list.
- Use coupons when possible.
- Try store brands.
- Stock up when certain products are on sale.
- Compare unit pricing.
The booklet also includes a list of best buys for cost and nutrition, tips for healthy cooking, and fifty pages of recipes. Recipes and Tips for Healthy, Thrifty Meals is also available in HTML format.
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This article is about Budgeting, Food, Frugality
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I often hear how expensive it is to eat healthy and to buy fruits and vegetables, but I dont really believe it is as expensive as portrayed. While vegetables are not as convenient to prepare as pre-processed and ready to eat meals, squash, carrots, zucchini, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, onions, broccoli, and tomatoes are far less expensive than many of the more convenient foods. Frozen vegetables are even cheaper.
While I have tried and narrowly failed at the “dollar a day for a month plan” several times this year, I can mix in several different vegetables as sides along with some brown rice and beans or pasta at an average $1.50 a day. This is living in the middle of Washington, DC which has a decently high cost of living. I admit fruits arent cheap, but some sort of fruit is almost always on sale for $1 a pound.
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Food is one area I will not skimp on to save money. Heart disease runs in my family, so eating well and eating healthy is a priority.
I shopped at our local farmers markets this year for the first time and was amazed at how much better the produce was in terms of quality and taste. In season produce seems to keep longer, too.
In fact, I had such a positive experience at the farmers markets that I purchased a share in a CSA (community supported agriculture) for 2009. It was $500 for 26 weeks, and it’s enough produce to feed two vegetarians for a week. Plenty for me. I have to pick my own, but I’m fine with that because I enjoy it and it’s good exercise.
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“I dont really believe it is as expensive as portrayed…some sort of fruit is almost always on sale for $1 a pound”
The comparison though is calories per dollar. A dollar’s worth of apples (or whatever) may have less calories than a dollar’s of twinkies, Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers or lard.
If you have only $1 to live on for the day, you need those 2000+ calories. Especially since (and yes, this is a stereotype) you probably have a manual labor job that requires more physical work!
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I had a conversation with my father about our different perspectives of food. What was “fast” food to him at my age is like home gourmet cooking to me. Instant mash potatoes and canned vegetables is a norm in my house, while these foods were like “fast” food to him growing up. In my life, I’ve replaced “fast” food with actual fast-food restaurants, providing a cheap and quick, yet disturbingly unhealthy, substitution to the home-cooked meal. And while, canned vegetables aren’t the most healthiest way to consume the goods, it sure beats burgers and fries. I beg the question of whether or not our upcoming generations could survive without shortcuts. I’ve never even considered making my own bread, like you mentioned, and I really wouldn’t know where to start.
Caleb
http://www.mefinanciallyfree.blogspot.com
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I agree with Deborah Johnson. In our home, we consider nutritional and health first before costs. I have Type 1 diabetes and my wife has fibromyalgia ( neither of these has a cure ). We will pay anything to stay healthy. Like Deborah, we purchase a share in a local organic farm. We have done this for the last three years and sometimes have enought to share with our extended family. The fruit and veggies are always fresh and taste better.
“On day eleven… the experiment stopped being fun.”
I would not have lasted that long. Health before wealth.
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This should be on your list:
Join a CSA. I pay $26/week for enough fresh vegetables for a family of four for a week.
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It’s worth noting that if a person had a garden, eating fresh fruit and veggies within the $1/day budget would be no problem.
Supermarket produce is way overpriced … you pay for the convenience. Whereas home-grown produce is the cheapest food you can eat.
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We eat very well mostly because my wife knows how to prepare excellent, healthy meals. I’d say some of our meals, which usually involve chicken or salmon fish, range from $5-$10 total, usually leaving enough leftover for a better lunch or enjoyable ‘repeat dinner’ a day or so later. We pay a little extra for foods that don’t have HFCS and have low-but-real sugar, if any. We don’t buy chips or cookies or sodas. I only eat Kashi Krunch cereals. I try to have 3 eggs on saturdays and sundays. Our bread and english muffins are usually on sale and are always whole wheat without HFCS. We rarely eat hamburgers or hotdogs, but when we do we get the store-made patties and Hebrew national dogs. I make great use of smart balance peanut butter when I get hungry. The only butter we use is smart balance spread w/o partially hydrogenated oils.
If you have to skimp on chicken or fish, you can still eat beans to get a relatively high dose of protein. I see people that aren’t as well off as us (we both shop together) or that are 30-40 somethings still living w/ mom or with the hand-me-down house loading up their grocery carts with expensive junk foods…which means to me that they actually do have money for better foods.
Its not possible to eat for only $1 a day, but it is possible to use the internet (which is probably part of one’s $100 cable bill) and educate oneself of what to buy and what not to buy at the grocery store.
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The answer for us was yes. My husband and I did this in February ’07. Lately I’ve been thinking that we might redo the experiment again this upcoming February – except this time I’ll blog it more successfully. Well, you can see last times’ sporadically posted blog here: http://56dollars.blogspot.com/
Getting our stomachs accustomed to the new portion sizes was not fun, but I was continually monitoring our caloric intake to make sure we were getting enough. There was a lot of baking, and a lot of beans and rice, but we’re the type of people who don’t mind leftovers, so we think we did pretty well. I have some concerns about repeating the experiment, but I’ll explore those on my own bandwidth. =)
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Oh my gosh. I would never consider on not buying quality food ( fresh fruit and veggies) for my family. My health and my families health come first above the cost. What’s the use of all of this if you don’t have your health? If you don’t thave the money then for goodness sake find some. Get a job, start a blog ( like this one) and make money instead of eating scraps and discovering you have cancer 5 years later. Your health should be #1
http://www.101WaystoMagnetizeMoney.com
Christine Groth
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I distinguish between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’. Ir’s good to be frugal when it comes to ‘wants’, but I’m prepared to pay for quality when it comes to ‘needs’. Food is definitely a ‘need’.
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I also disagree that healthy food is more expensive. Mr Chiot’s and I have been eating farmer’s market produce in season and it’s much cheaper than junk food. Sure I can buy a bag of chips for $2, but I can buy 10 lbs of potatoes for the same price at the farmer’s market. We’re spending much less on food this year and eating much healthier. Beans & rice are cheap & healthy, as is oatmeal. You also have to know where and what to buy to get the most for your produce dollars. Anything that’s in season is much cheaper than out of season produce (I could buy large zucchini’s at the farmer’s market this summer for 3 for $1). I picked a bushel of apples from a local orchard for $2 and canned tons of applesauce for winter fruit eating, we foraged 50 quarts of wild berries for FREE for winter fruit eating. Growing some of your own produce also makes it cheaper, even a few tomatoe plants on a balcony can increase veggie intake for free (this summer I grew over 75lbs of tomatoes on my back deck this summer, and lettuce for salads all spring/fall).
I completely disagree with the cheap food=bad food. That’s just an excuse. Healthy food takes more of a time investment, beans take a while to cook, it takes time to grow food & pick your own apples & forage for berries. But that’s time I’m willing to put in.
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If you have to buy all your food from regular grocery stores, then healthy is not cheap. If you’re in poverty in the UK chances are you live in a deprived urban area.
Without a car there are likely to be only a small number of places where you can buy groceries. In the most deprived areas, these are often likely to be overpriced small stores with little or no fresh produce. Farmer’s markets exist in upmarket areas. You can often add to that general public transport issue relating to schedules, plus full-time work or other responsibilities such as caring for relatives.
I live near the centre of a large-ish city and don’t have a car or a garden. I’d find it impossible to pick my own fruit or veg from a farm, extremely difficult and limited to grow my own (probably a small bag of tomatoes or similar sized plants would work). Fortunately, I can afford to buy fruit and veg if I want, although getting any quantity home on the bus is a bit of a challenge.
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I wonder where you’re finding junk food so cheap. Healthy food is too expensive to eat on $1 per day, but processed food costs even more! Which makes sense because you’re paying for the ingredients AND the processing.
Well, I guess there’s instant ramen. Though with prices going up, that might even start to cost you more than $1 soon if you have a big appetite.
I don’t know why people act like you have to sacrifice money to eat healthy. With food you have these choices: healthy, tasty, easy, cheap… pick three. Pick one to sacrifice. It doesn’t have to be the health or money; it could be one of the other two.
But people are so unhealthy these days due to (among other things) a lack of green leafy veggies. Buy some of those at least, even if you can’t afford to get much calories from them.
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I think the whole point of the experiment is to demonstrate that health is directly proportional to wealth. Yes you can eat on $1/day, but not healthily. As the comments above demonstrate, eating healthy costs money.
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Tang does not replace vitamins. Also, Christopher and Kerri immediately overspent the day after their experiment ended — proving that $1/day lifestyle is not ideal on a long term basis.
I’m with the others — I could not sacrifice my health for saving money. I eat a balanced diet, plenty of healthy food — it’s just a matter of spending wisely and planning ahead. It may not be a dollar a day, but if you have a decent job, you should be able to afford to eat!
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I don’t understand the point. First off, I would never do this because my mom would smack me for wasting my health. She lived on beans and rice growing up and was endlessly sick so we see no point in scrimping on food now. Secondly, yes, it’s hard to eat on $1 a day in America. I don’t think anyone thought otherwise. So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to teach classes to poorer people on nutrition? Are you going to lobby for more food stamps? Are you just going to feel an added dose of pity when you see poor people buying potato chips? And why didn’t they donate the money they saved from doing this experiment, in addition to the donations they solicited?
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I don’t know about a $1/day, I take a multi-vitamin pack that runs $20 for 30/days and that would kill most of my budget, but I’ve really cut down on both the total dollars spent per week and total calorie intake, as I’m dieting.
One of my favorite things to make that is super cheap is lentil soup in a crock pot, here’s the recipe:
1/2 pound lentils
2-3 carrots finely shredded
5-8 cloves of garlic (more or less if you liek)
1 Spanish or yellow onion (finely chopped)
1 tablespoon salt
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
5 cups water
2 bay leaves
Put everything in the crock pot in the morning expect balsamic vinegar, when you get home for the day add in the balsamic and let it go another hour or two. I generally unplug mine at that point because there is enough heat in there to do what it needs to do that last hour or two.
It’s super tastey and costs a few bucks to make, it easily feeds me for lunch and dinner for 4-5 days.
As it sits, it’s also a vegan dish that seriously tastes really good, great if you have friends who are vegan that will be stopping by for dinner, a much nicer option that a salad. On the other hand, the original recipe I had also suggests that you can sustitute the olive oil for a meat of your choice. I’ve done bacon, chopped small before frying, bacon and fat goes in the soup and recently did Polish sausage, again, chopped small and thrown in.
Because I’m both cheap and dieting, I look for foods that provide energy, last a while in the fridge and don’t cost a lot to make. It’s a bonus that this requires only about 10 minutes of prep (shredding the carrots is the longest part). And thanks to GRS, I’m now making no-knead bread (with 1 cup whole wheat, 2 cups regular flour, sesame seeds and flax seeds) to dip into my lentil soup.
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Perhaps we could get closer to eating on a dollar a day if we included yield from a garden project like the one J.D. and Kris have put together. My small square foot garden barely yielded enough to pay for itself this year, but now that the supplies are in place, I suspect we’ll come out further ahead next spring and summer.
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If I had to go on a dollar a day for food I’d probably eat a lot of eggs. You can usually get a dozen for less than a dollar and I would probably eat 3-4 fired every meal. I’d probably see about someone giving me some bacon grease to cook them in. Eating that little I’d need the calories. I might save some money for some canned vegetables so I still got as many vitamins as I could.
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I strongly disagree that eating healthy is more expensive. First of all, if you are on a budget, don’t buy organic. Yes, I am on a budget and I buy organic, but to me that is more important than dinning out, and I have adjusted my budget to reflect that. Also, buy in bulk! Freeze and can goods!! Also, eat lower on the food chain. We are vegetarians (I know that’s not for everyone!) but it’s nice we don’t spend money on fish, mean, poultry, etc.
My mother eats fast food 2-3 out of 4 meals a day. She is also obese. Her Arby’s runs cost her about $5 dollars and I can make dinners for under $6, and with leftovers. My breakfasts on average cost about $3, lunch about $4 and snacks about $3. I could improve on that if I wanted to, but I prefer to pay a higher price for organic. Even if my mom’s meals were substantially cheaper than mine with her junk food diet, we could discuss the hidden costs of a poor diet, including blood pressure medication, surgeries needed on failing joints, and the whole quality of life issue. Yes, I realize these types of “diseases” can occur without a poor diet, but I bet diet has a lot to do with it.
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Want to point out a small issue in your post. As it regards the billion folks who exist on $1/day (or less); that statistic relates directly to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. And that $1/day is always related to the local equivalent of $1/day (i.e.: one peso, rupee, etc.).
I’ve been part of working toward the MDGs for years now, and while it’s an interesting experiment for folks who are rich enough to read this blog to try living on $1 USD/day, it is reality for others in the world every day of the year.
This is not a “shame on you” comment at all. Just a reality check.
Access to proper food, shelter, water, and education are the core of the MDGs.
One other note … those in the US (or the Western countries in general) who give this experiment a go forget one key thing … we have access to choosing from among plethora options in trying to live on $1/day. Most of those in that situation do not.
Just my two cents.
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I confess I didn’t investigate the original site, so I don’t know if they considered that if you do find yourself in a really bad situation, you have some additional options — in my small city those options would include a local free lunch every day, free breakfasts on a different schedule, and a good food bank. The “freegan” movement also suggests doing dumpster diving behind grocery stores for salvagable fruits and vegetables and other goods…
obviously, these are in no way good choices, but desperate conditions require desperate solutions.
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Thanks, Christy, for the clarification. I’ll edit the post to reflect your correction.
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It is a good lesson to see how others in this and other countries have to live. For me, because I certain health issues, I cannot skimp on good food. I cannot eat gluten and other grains, legumes, sugar, soy and corn – but they happen to be cheap! I figure that I will ether pay now or pay much more later with poor health and medical bills.
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One point to make is that when you’re eating healthy, unadulterated foods, you don’t have to eat very much. Eating too much is the biggest problem Westerners have in terms of both spending extra money and, of course, fat. And God help you if you’re some kind of gourmet; you’ll never get there. But the fact is, the human body is capable of living, for the most part, upon breath and light alone; just look at concentration camp survivors. There’s a saying that at the conclusion of a meal, a yogi’s stomach should be half full of food, one-quarter full of water, and one-quarter full of air. What does this mean in practice? It means if your freaking smoothie calls for a banana, put in half a banana … if it calls for a tablespoon of peanut butter, put in a teaspoon … if it calls for, well, you get the idea. Yes, we who read this blog are Westerners, but that doesn’t mean we have to live like a slave to Western conditioning all the time. So eat healthy, but barely eat … make your life an experiment, see what happens.
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It’s an interesting experiment. I agree that it would be quite difficult to live on a $1/day food budget, but eating healthy doesn’t mean $20/day either. So what is a reasonable healthy food budget? To be honest, I don’t know how much I spend per day because it varies so much…maybe I’ll experiment with various amounts per day and see how low I can ‘reasonably’ go.
PS. Mike Panic – thanks for the lentil recipe.
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Did anyone see the episode of “30 Days”, Morgan Spurlock’s documentary series, in which he did something very similar, living on minimum wage for a month? It was really interesting and eye opening — it was basically impossible.
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“It’s worth noting that if a person had a garden, eating fresh fruit and veggies within the $1/day budget would be no problem.”
To everyone who keeps saying that it’s no problem, you might be right IF you have other infrastructure in your life.
If you’re a blue collar worker who lives in a housing project, where are you going to plant enough veggies to get your costs down? How far are you going to have to travel to get food from your CSA?
Me, I’ve got a garden, I’ve got a big enough house to buy beans, rice and flour in bulk. I can fruit and vegetables. I can drive to a U-pick or join a CSA. With a year or two to plan I could even buy a farm and live off the land for $0/day like my ancestors did.
For many of the people who live the reality of $1/day they don’t have any other options because the rest of their life isn’t set up to support the other options.
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I agree with Dave. When you buy as unprocessed as possible it’s much cheaper. I can buy whole oats for .60/lb. I figured it out and it costs us roughly .05-.07 for our breakfasts. We also assume that what we hear about calorie needs are accurate (which I doubt). Also eating less would be good for all of us. Calorie restriction is actually good for your health.
I also second the eggs for cheap protein, I buy local free-range eggs for $2.25 a doz. But that’s still cheap eats compared to other protein, and it’s healthy protein.
I also agree with Krystal, we have to include the hidden costs of bad diets as well.
I do not agree with plonkee about produce being unavailable in poorer neighborhoods. If you live near an ethnic section of town produce is often very important in their diets. They demand fresh produce so it’s available to them. When I want hispanic fruits/veggies I have to travel to the hispanic slums of Cleveland to get it, and it’s plentiful and cheap. Perhaps in some areas it’s not available because it’s not in demand. Around here the farmer’s markets and easily within walking/bike riding distance from most households. I have lived in a few cities and there have always been fresh markets accessible to most neighborhoods.
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I do believe you can feed a family of 4 for $120 a month here in the United States. We have started doing this, and it rocks! Check out our post at http://www.engineeradebtfreelife.com/2008/10/feed-family-of-4-for-only-120-month.html for more info!
Momma
Feature Blogger at Engineer a Debt Free Life (lots of money saving and frugal tips, plus bargains and freebies!)
http://www.engineeradebtfreelife.com
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Cabbage for vitamin C. Chop it up as a salad with cheap apple cider vinegar or saute it and add it to beans and rice. Then you can get rid of the Tang. Compare it with the price of Tang – cabbage is so much cheaper and can be found even in the inner city in the tiny ethnic markets.
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I’m talking about the most deprived council estates in England. Research found that they suffered from extremely poor access to infrastructure, including shops, doctors, hospitals, post office, transport etc, etc.
I’m sure there is low demand for fresh produce, but it’s just forming a vicious circle. Not everywhere is easily accessible by public transport, and not everyone has a car. Plus if you or someone you care for has difficulties getting about…
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All I want to say on this topic is that there is a common misconception that healthy food costs more. It does not cost more TECHNICALLY, it just requires more time and planning. If you are able to buy groceries the night before and prepare a day’s worth of food, then you will ultimateley save money and enjoy your food more.
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Regarding J.D.’s comment about planned leftovers, my husband recently bought a cook book that lays out 6 or 7 days of meals that will save you both time and money each week. The goal of this book was to be able to make healthy meals in less than 10 minutes (not including the first meal which takes longer, since it is setting up for the rest of the week). For instance, we had meat loaf last night. We made a large amount, and half of it will be used for another meal (not meatloaf but just the ground beef “recycled” in another entirely different meal) later on in the week. We also made a double portion of steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes, the other half of which will make a soup on another day.
I can’t remember the name of the book, but I imagine there are several books out there like that that do the work for you in terms of creating cheap and easy meal plans. And overall they were quite healthy as well.
But, no, I don’t think I could eat healthy on $1 a day, and I am pretty frugal and fastidious about only buying sale items or things I have a coupon for. If I had to, I could eat for $1 a day, but it would primarily be a starched based diet. I could get plenty of protein with beans, but vegetables and fruit would be lacking.
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Regarding the one dollar/day issue: Four years ago, in 2004, I had the opportunity to hear Michael Herrmann of UNCTAD speak about this, and he said that even corrected for exchange rates and cost of living, those currently living on one dollar a day would need at least ten dollars a day to achieve the Millenium Development Goals. He made his contribution in response to a report from the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty.
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I started an experiment about 2 years where I kept track of the approximate cost of my home prepared meals versus eating out or prepared foods. The difference was staggering to me. Home prepared was significantly cheaper. Most of my meals average less than $3 for a complete meal with vegetables, starch and protein. I could buy prepared food for the same amount of money, but with a whole lot less nutrition.
A ‘gourmet’ home prepared meal with grass fed steak, gravy, potatoes and a side of green beans sauted with butcher bacon bits is less than $5 a plate. I can’t get a quality steak dinner at Denny’s for the same price. The biggest factor in cutting my costs is not the ingredients itself, but how much I use. I can’t believe I used to eat a whole pound of steak by myself. Not only have I lost 15% of my body weight, but I am saving money and am a lot healthier. My last physical was through the charts, in a good way.
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I think living on about $3 day is the lowest you can go in the United States and still have a healthy diet. However, the rate might go down if you’re feeding a family rather than one or two individuals. It could go up depending on the size and activity of the individuals, too.
I lived at about $3 day for a couple of years, but one of the ways I did it was to work at a small grocery where I got free produce that wasn’t nice enough to sell but not actually rotten and was defintely edible (i.e. I could have served it to my mother). It took a lot of work but I was certainly able to get all the vitamins, minerals and protein a healthy diet requires. Lots of legumes and rice, tofu, eggs, leafy greens, and everything from scratch with few condiments.
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I read their blog, but I’m not sure if it was intended, but they “failed.” They both lost significant percentages of their body weight, were obsessed with food, and ate an unhealthy diet, their diet was practically the same thing every day: oatmeal, pb sandwich, rice and bean burritos. I disagreed with their reasoning where they refused various accessible free food by convuluted reasoning, such as avoiding a teacher’s meeting where lunch was provided for the teachers (she was a teacher). So normally she would have had eaten that free lunch but didn’t this month for a moral point??? Also trying to calculate how much their cherry tomatoes from their garden would cost retail? Excuse me a person who is living near poverty level anywhere in the world would take advantage of free food oppourtunities/barter for food with labor other resources/grow their own produce. That’s how people do get manage to get by on $1 a day because some of the food costs are “outside” the economy. Despite that criticism, I do think it shows as an American one can get by on a whole lot less food than one might imagine.
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I follow a diet with restricted carbohydrates, which has done wonders for my physical and mental health, but makes keeping to a tight food budget far more challenging. That said, our family of three — including a voracious teenager — spends less than $10/day on food total. I buy whatever fruit and veggies are around $1/lb or below, meat that’s been marked down for quick sale, and store-brand dairy products. We have some splurge items, but everyone knows that those won’t be purchased without a sale and/or coupons.
We’ll lower the cost further by growing more. Our small garden was somewhat productive this year, but next year, we’ve agreed to step up our game by mixing flowers and vegetables around the yard. Where I had climbing sweetpeas, I’ll have edible peas in 2009. Herbs will fill in spaces in the shrubbery. A couple rows of carrots will fill in behind some ground-hugging violets. We’re using some old windows rescued from the roadside to build a temporary greenhouse that will get our growing season off to a stronger start in April. We have a small city lot in a heavily-treed section of chilly Michigan — if we can do it, anyone can.
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The worst part of living on processed foods to fit in a budget (as my wife and I did for four years of college) is the hidden costs to your health. I went to the doctor 3-4 times per year in college, usually for sinus infections and other illnesses, and despite taking vitamins. Now, I haven’t eaten junk food in five years, and I haven’t been to the doctor during that time either.
There are also health costs down the road. Looking back, there were healthier alternatives we could have afforded, but we just didn’t take the time to see them.
Produce isn’t as expensive as most people think it is, as long as you’re careful. Sure, buying exotic veggies will run up a bill, but potatoes, onions, and broccoli aren’t that expensive.
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at first I thought $3 a day was pretty easy, but then I realized I was thinking $3 per meal. I can do $3 per meal no problem. I could probably do $3 per day if I really had to. I don’t think I could do $1 a day without skipping a lot of meals or picking from the garbage or eat alot of rice and ramen or something.
I think as it stands now, my wife and I average $5 per day per person, because we only spend about $300/month on groceries give or take, and we don’t really try too hard to be frugal.
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a dollar a day? i’m sorry but that is damn near impossible
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I might be able to get darn close to a healthy $1 per MEAL per day, but I could not do $1 per DAY.
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It sounds like people are saying that eating healthfully on $1 a day may be possible if food is accessible, you’re good at meal planning, have the time and desire to prepare foods from scratch, are willing to eat a limited set of foods, possibly have a garden or other free food available, don’t have any pecularities in their dietary needs, and want to undertake such a project as a personal experiment or hobby. There are a lot of people for whom these factors would not obtain.
I guess I find these experiments somewhat interesting from the perspective of “what is technically possible” but fairly useless as commentary on what other people “can” or “should” be doing. I get this vibe of “hey, a couple of well-educated, reasonably well-off people were able to do this for a month so what’s up with you poor people eating all that fast food” sometimes from the commentary surrounding these projects.
I agree with Richard@29 that having a solid infrastructure in place helps a lot.
It reminds me of how often grad students chime in to explain how “easy” it is to eat cheaply or whatever other frugal thing. But it seems obvious to me that a grad student is going to have a better infrastructure in place (including their own knowledge, intelligence, self-regulation ability, values, etc.) to support that than a person who always has been, is now, and will remain poor because they won’t be hitting a professional jackpot once they finish their degree. (I’m a grad student myself.)
When it comes down to it, doing or reading about an experiment like this doesn’t really do much of anything to help us understand “how others might live.” If nothing else, most of us simply cannot understand at any meaningful level what it is like to do something like this not as a choice that can be given up if it gets too hard or our curiosity is satisfied or some other pressing concern arises, but because it is our life, period.
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Funny, I’ve been thinking of starting a blog with recipes that yield $1/serving meals.
I just made a turkey Meatloaf that comes dang close ($1.01) and is super filling for lunch.
$1/day sounds extreme for an extended period, but I do think that it’s always good to be aware of just how far you are capable of cutting back if you need to. Eating on $1/day for a month won’t hurt you if you’re otherwise healthy, but is could definitely be illuminating.
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It’s interesting that no one picked up on the associated health costs until the 41st post by Dave. Ill health costs way more than good health; good food is necessary to good health. Most of us are unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices in time & lack of variety to achieve good diet/low cost. One turkey-generally one of cheapest meat-based protein sources-can provide many meal ingredients for two people. The meat can be consumed alone, or used as an ingredient in casseroles, the carcass can be used to make soup stock–but who wants to bother? Beans are another nutritional powerhouse, and cabbage is certainly a workhorse vegetable, and cheap also. $1 day is asking a lot, but I’d bet that I could feed several well on $5 day. And think of all the money you save on drs & medications!
I used to volunteer in a local food pantry; the disadvantaged population that we served did not want to be educated on how to cook or can or save. I tried to explain to one mother of six how she could take the dried beans and the commodity pork I was giving her to make a huge pot of soup–she looked at me like I had 3 heads & made it very clear she was not interested in learning or doing that. We used to find the frozen turkeys donated for holiday food baskets in garbage cans in the alley because they had to be thawed & cooked to be eaten–too much trouble. Sorry, I’m ranting–but it was very frustrating! If you are willing to take the time to do it, you can eat very well for very little.
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Fascinating. I’m wondering if some cheap meat might fit in here too in terms of low cost per calorie. I’m starting to track my food expenses and I think I live on about $350 per month, some of which is eaten by friends. Probably I could get that to $250 without too much pain. Lower than that would require some real changes.
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Better nutrition has lowered my health costs considerably. I used to get sinus infections, bronchitis twice a year, and had gingivitis. I haven’t had a sinus infection in years, and I only see my dentist for routine cleanings now. It’s already saved me money with doctor and dentist bills. I’m only paying for preventative care, instead of secondary infections which are much more costly. I attribute it to better nutrition and losing weight. I enjoy eating a well prepared meal with servings of vegetables, fruits, protein and starch much more than a doctor/dentist visit! I suppose it does take more time to prepare, rather than playing World of Warcraft, but I think it is worth it. I love trying new recipes and seeing how I can turn it into a budget gourmet.
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For a short period of time, I think this could be done, but over the course of weeks or months, no thanks. There are things to sacrifice to save money on, and food isn’t really one of them for me. I’m not necessarily talking in quality, but variety, and taste, definitely. I buy generic items, produce at farmers markets, use coupons, etc., but I still don’t come close to eating at $1 per day. To do so would sacrifice a joy of my life (yes eating good food brings me joy), which is not worth saving a marginal amount of money.
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