“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.
SEARCH FOR RECENT ARTICLES
One of the other things is to take your food raw as much as possible, that way you’re absorbing and getting all the nutrients of what little food you are eating. A sparse diet of things like fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, beans is only the first step, but then you gotta surrender the whole cooking trip. Again, this will allow you to eat less, because you’re gettting so much more nutrition from what you’re eating. This may seem hard to do, esp. if you’re in your 30′s or 40′s, because it means you have to slowly reduce your world, just at a time when everybody in your sphere of influence seems to be expanding their palates in all these interesting and sensual ways. But the new lightness in your body (and heaviness in your wallet) will make it worth it.
loading....
Food is, of course, a need. But much of what we eat now isn’t a need, but a “want”.
I met a lady in the grocery store yesterday complaining about how terrible the strawberries were, and I just stood there and stared at her. I just couldn’t form the words fast enough to point out that it is NOVEMBER, and we live in CANADA, and strawberries are a SPRING fruit here.
Strawberries in Canada in November are a “want.” There are other fruits (apples come to mind) that are cheaper, more local, and just as good for you.
Food as a “need” is the cheapest food available that will fulfil the Canada (or US, or where ever) Food Guide requirements for a healthy diet.
Anything after that is a “want”. We loose track of that distinction all the time.
loading....
My wife and I keep our food costs down by keeping things pretty simple: We make a dinner menu for the week, write down any “staple” items we are out of/low on (butter, flour, milk, eggs, etc.), and I take that list and go shopping. My personal preference for breakfast is oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar, topped with a little milk (less than 1/2 cup, I think). Lunches are generally dinner leftovers, which tend to keep pretty well. Poultry is a godsend–soup is no stranger to our table; you can get a lot of mileage out of a single chicken, even more out of a turkey. All we really need to budget for are good, long-lasting dinners, and the rest of our weekly menu is set. We average About $40-$50 a week on food.
loading....
What is up with this word the media seems to love so much now – “healthful”. The word is *healthy*. But I guess all it takes to invent a word nowadays is to get enough people to repeat it.
loading....
Sisook, believe it or not, Kris and I debated the right word for the headline. “Healthy” isn’t correct, in this case. You can’t say: “Could you eat healthy on one dollar a day.” However, now the word I wanted to use has come to me: healthily. Not sure why I couldn’t think of that last night.
loading....
My take is that it’s very difficult to eat healthy with less than $15-20 a day. You have to realize that whether you buy food for yourself or outside for cheap, the companies/restaurants have to make profit. This is where you have to see HOW do they actually make these products or gather it.
You’re eating healthy at some points, but maybe not healthy enough.
-Mike
loading....
as a grad student, i seek out free food as often as possible. in general i don’t pay for lunches. the environment here is driven by grad students seeking free food, so it becomes a currency of sorts.
i make big dinner and freeze any leftovers. if i’m lucky, i have time to do this on a regular basis. if i’m really busy, i either live out of what’s in the freezer or make pasta for dinner.
loading....
Does anybody have any quantifiable data comparing the relative health of a diet consisting of $1/day staples (beans, rice, potatoes, oats, injera, etc.) to a Whole Foods(tm) diet consisting of grass-fed beef, farm-fresh eggs, and organic olive oil? I’m skeptical that there is a big difference, or even that the Whole Food(tm) diet would come ahead. A quick search does in fact indicate that lobster & steak countries do have 5-10 year higher life expectancy rates than the beans & rices countries, but I wonder if that is due more to health care quality, HIV/AIDS rates, civil war, etc. than nutritional quality.
In fact, in a society where food is so abundant and affordable such that obesity is a far public health problem than starvation/malnutrition (which I think has been completely eliminated in the West?), I wonder if limiting Westerners to a $1/day spending wouldn’t be public health net positive.
My main takeaway from JD’s initial data, is that I just feel blessed and fortunate to be able to basically be able to eat whenever I want, wherever I want, and however much I want – whether it be a cup of rice, a large meatlover’s pizza, or three gallons of rocky road ice cream, when the first billion don’t really have any choice at all and need to eat whatever they can get their hands on just to survive.
Next up: I’d love to see an article on what type of dwelling the world’s lowest earning billion live (and the next 2-3 billion for that matter), and how that compares to where Westerners hang their hats.
loading....
Have you ever read “How to Cook a Wolf”? It’s a collection of essays and recipes by MFK Fisher, written during the period of WWII where food rationing was in effect in the US.
loading....
I’d like to point out that the idea of healthy foods being more expensive isn’t just an idea. There is market-based data to back this up (I think TPP’s blog referenced it). Fruits and veggies are more expensive than cheaper processed food, when you talk about caloric density. In fact, it’s one of the reasons it is so easy to eat MORE calories than is needed.
Also, eating rice and beans and nothing else wouldn’t be super healthy, but you could add in some occasional greens (collards are cheap) and sweet potatoes, and yes, you can eat healthily for cheap. It’s just not convenient.
The obstacle in the developed world is not price or health, it’s inconvenience.
loading....
I tried to eat on $1 a day as an experiment, but I couldn’t. However I DO think I proved one of my points- I do not think it is any more expensive to eat healthy. Junk food costs just as much or more. My experiment involved eating healthy while also trying to be cheap.
In fact, my # 1 budget-buster is junk food- usually for my wife and kids. But what the heck, I’m no health-food nazi. I just know when I do the grocery shopping and snacks/convenience food is added in, the “unhealthy” type is usually 3-4 times the cost of an equivalent healthy snack.
Fruits and vegetables ARE cheaper than convenience junk foods, unless you have limited access. If you do your grocery shopping at a 7-11 or live in one of those areas where the zoning fascists hate when poor people have access to affordable food, you may have a different experience.
The biggest issue is not cost, but the time and preparation costs. When it is inconvenient to prepare food, those with little money ( or little desire to spend a lot of money)are going to choose fast food or packaged convenience foods. They are certainly cheaper and less nutritious than a dinner from a gourmet health food restaurant..but they are not less expensive than preparing meals at home or choosing more natural food.
loading....
#60,
You are probably right, but caloric density should not be the proper measure to look at. Unless the goal is to over-eat. I thought the goal would be to eat properly, just right, and nutritious. As you mentioned, it is easy to over-eat.
An apple has fewer calories than a donut. So what? That means a donut is a better value? I don’t think so.
loading....
What’s even scarier than 1 billion people living on less than $1/day is the fact that 3 billion people live on less than $2/day. There’s a non-profit that I support which is seeking to change this. Check it out at http://www.onedollarnation.org
loading....
There was a little girl in New Mexico eight years ago who was taken away from her parents at the age of three because she was hugely overweight. The state was just *convinced* her parents were deliberately overfeeding her.
Never mind that she was also very *tall* for her age, had a full set of teeth by the time she was a year old and at age three had a full head of hair much like an adult’s.
The state ignored all this, and most of the media outlets writing about it ignored these facts too. Also the part where her parents were literally starving her, keeping her at 500-1000 calories a day, on doctors’ orders.
Later, after a huge court fight and a lot of pain and hassle, the parents got their baby girl back. After that it came out that, whoops, she had a genetic disorder after all!
I can’t tell you how many *normal* fat people (normal as far as I know) have told me they actually *don’t* eat a lot of food. *I* don’t eat a lot of food. The one “leak” in my intake where I was getting lots of liquid calories, I have now switched to diet soda and water. It hasn’t made much difference.
And all this crap people say about what constitutes healthy eating? If I cut meat and dairy out of my diet, on account of that’s “healthier,” I would start suffering extreme blood sugar spikes and crashes, my ankles would swell up like inner tubes, my fingers would turn into sausages and my joints would start hurting. And I’d probably be dead by the time I’m forty.
The last fifty pounds of my overweight were gained while I was exclusively breastfeeding my daughter and while I was attempting to adopt a vegan diet. Can’t get calories from animal fat on such a regimen, so I was ODing on grains and beans. Oops.
And people are so dishonest in the way they talk about this. If I say I have to eat relatively low-carb in order to stay healthy, people think I’m not eating any plant food. Well, gee. Vegetables and fruits are plant food, and the healthiest ones are even low-carb!
But, yes. I can eat up to 2900 calories a day–I have documented this in tracking my intake–have it be high-fat, moderate-protein and low-carb, and drop weight. Even go down to a lower pants size. But if I eat the way the USDA says I should eat, I get nowhere.
And if I had to be on food stamps I’d be screwed, because they don’t cover that kind of eating.
And I have to watch it with my daughter because she comes from a long line of diabetics on my mom’s side. So I hope her dad lives a good long time because I don’t have his earning power and I can’t keep this up if he’s not around.
If you ever wondered why poor children are so often obese, there’s part of your answer.
Oh, and exercise only went so far. I was at a point once where I probably walked a good three miles a day, and had to walk at a fast pace because it was transport to and from bus stops and work (hence on a tight schedule), and I still never got down to the “correct” BMI. It is not natural for people to be constantly moving and constantly expending energy. So if anybody’s got any better ideas I’d love to hear them. Doubt it though.
loading....
susan @ 47:
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.
Did it ever once occur to you that maybe they didn’t have the kitchen facilities or the necessary equipment for perishable food storage and preparation, and thus couldn’t cook any of that food in the first place?
Getting a free turkey is absolutely useless when you are cooking eveything on a hotplate, or in a small microwave or toaster oven, in your room at a residential hotel or motel. Ditto if the “kitchen” in your low-income, one-room, “efficiency” apartment contains little more than a bar-sized sink, a half-sized or mini fridge, a two-burner stove, and a tiny oven–with maybe three or four feet of counter space that has to serve other purposes.
Telling a “disadvantaged” woman she should just make “a huge pot of soup,” when it is likely that she either does not own said huge pot, or hasn’t the cooking facilities needed to make a pot of soup that doesn’t come out of a can in the first place, is not helpful. It is, in fact, clueless and insulting. The “lack of interest” she showed in being “educated” by you was more than likely annoyance at your ignorant, privileged assumption that she had the means to do such a thing, and humiliation at not being able to.
And canning? Are you kidding?
What was she going to say? “Oh, so sorry Nice Middle-Class Lady, but I’m so poor I don’t have a proper kitchen?” Hardly. Being chronically poor and relying on food banks is humiliating enough. So you take what you can get, endure the useless advice doled out by “rich” volunteers who have no clue what your life is like, and discard what you can’t use as soon as you’re out of sight.
Which, of course, leads Nice, Middle-Class Lady to make assumptions about the “disadvantaged” being lazy and wasteful and preferring to wallow in ignorance. No–they too often really are disadvantaged in feeding themselves cheaply because they don’t have the tools or space to do it.
I can feed myself very well on about $3/day on a low-carb, whole foods diet because I have a real kitchen, with all the cookware, utensils, containers, appliances, and space needed to prepare, preserve, and store food in quantity. My stove, refrigerator, and freezer all work as they should. My kitchen has excellent ventilation for steam, smoke, and cooking odors. Since I am my own landlord, and take care of my house, I do not have an ongoing problem with vermin. I have sufficient ready cash at all times, and a car that runs well, and thus I can take advantage of buying in bulk and stocking up when things go on sale–I don’t have to walk long distances carrying heavy loads, or try to get it all home on the bus.
Since I have a stable income and substantial savings and am not economically dependent upon others, I know I will not be forced to move anytime soon. Knowing this, I can stock my freezer and pantry, safe in the knowledge that I will get around to eating everything in due time, rather than having to pitch it all out or leave it behind because I can’t take it with me.
I can afford to eat cheap, in other words. All of the structures are in place to allow me to do that.
That your post struck such a nerve with me is because such was not always so. When I was younger, I was briefly homeless, then lived in a residential hotel and then a cheap efficiency apartment while I pulled myself back up (which I was able to do quickly, being white, reasonably well-educated, and able to conform to middle-class social norms).
But during that entire time, I never had a truly functional kitchen. At the residential hotel, I had a coffee maker and a small, low-wattage microwave (we were not allowed hotplates, but other residents smuggled them in anyway). When I moved into the efficiency apartment (the best of the very bad–but affordable–lot I looked at) I had those same small appliances, a tiny galley stove with a small oven, and a mini-fridge. Washing a coffee mug and a spoon in the tiny wet-bar sink was trouble enough; where was I going to clean a roasting pan or a stockpot (which I no longer owned, and could not yet afford to replace)?
And as difficult as that living situation was, I was doing much better than many of my neighbors. At least I lived alone; I wasn’t trying to raise children in my cramped living quarters, or share them with a lover, a roommate, or adult family members. But still, I lived on convenience foods–things that I could prepare and clean up after given the constraints of my “kitchen.”
Even after I had recovered my footing and left the big city for a much smaller town, I came to know people who were rural and suburban poor. Many of them owned their own homes, but could not afford to replace aged appliances–my best friend cooked with a two-burner hotplate and a toaster oven that sat on top of her long-defunct stove. Her refrigerator was on its last legs, so she only bought perishables in amounts she knew she could consume in a day or two. She turned to the local food bank on occasion, and when she did, she gave away the excess perishables–including holiday turkeys–to people who had the means to cook and store them. And she frequently got lectured by well-meaning Nice, Middle-Class Lady food bank volunteers on how to cook things to save money, and she endured those lectures as best she could–just like the poor folks I knew in the city.
loading....
One thing I see missing in any of these discussions is the other costs associated with preparing this sort of food. How much energy is expended to cook beans from scratch? Add that in, and one is not eating on a dollar a day.
I’ve had vegetable gardens, I found them to be more expensive than buying the vegetables, even in a grocery store. I’ve canned, it seemed a lot of time and effort for very little return.
And finally, calculate the time it takes to do all this. That was another reason I let the vegetable garden go, I just didn’t have the time to take care of it.
loading....
I think that many people overstress their point about how good eating directly lowers your medical bills. Unless you have private insurance, it certainly doesn’t lower your premiums. And even healthy people get sick with the flu and other ailments. I hardly think good eating causes most people to have less sinus infections, since they are often caused by an allergic seasonal reaction to things in the air. Don’t get me wrong – eating well certainly raises your quality of life and most likely your quantity of life (in that respect you might end up paying MORE long term for health care since you live longer, but of course that is a good thing). I guess my point is that you can overstress your point. My brother in law spends insane amounts of money on an all organic pantry for his family, and I don’t think this is a financially advantageous decision. But, this isn’t a priority for him. He would rather go broke and do this for ethical and health reasons.
The reason I don’t eat more organic is because I don’t like to be bilked, and I feel that a lot of organic foods (esp. the processed ones – and yes, much organic food is also processed) are ridiculously overpriced at Whole Foods (my neighbor calls it “Whole Paycheck”).
loading....
My wife and I average about $10 a day on food which includes dining out to a sit-down restaurant at least once a month. The key for us is to budget budget budget. We keep track of every penny we spend on a log (not just for food but for everything we spend). It takes about a minute or two each evening to log the money we spend. We also separate needs vs wants and compare the totals to see our impulsiveness. The month we put this into operation we immediately noticed a savings of over $100/month on groceries alone. We’re also having fun doing it which helps motivate. With the savings on our food alone we plan to take a cruse to Alaska in two years or so.
loading....
Great article J.D., thanks!
I love batch cooking. I make about 10-15 portions at a time (rice, or pasta), and freeze them individually in zip locks.
loading....
Slightly off-topic, but these numbers yet again make me wonder how people can gripe about the cost of quality pet food.
The high-quality grain-free kibble we buy works out to about 37 cents a day, while the average American eats 7 bucks every day? Geez.
loading....
First, Khürt says his wife has fibromyalgia, do you realize that most cases of fibromyalgia are actually just a Vitamin D difficiency that has been misdiagnosed? My ex used to always be complaining about that, only to find that she wasn’t getting enough Vit D since her other medications say to stay out of the sun. A $10 bottle of Vit D tablets from Walmart cured her of those complaints. It won’t work for everyone, but try it anyways as it won’t hurt you and it is a very cheap ‘cure’ if it works.
Next, why are we trying to squeeze down to $1 a day? Why not just up it a tad to $1.50 or $2 a day and include the vegetables/fruit too? I keep my food budget at $1.50 a day (with occasional splurges for the kids favorites) and we eat quite well. Sure, I live in Hawaii where there is good weather so we can plant bannanas in the back yard (a no maintenance crop that renews itself), but we also have some of the highest costs for imported food. Of course, I do love to experiment in the kitchen so I am not as addicted to fast food.
For those talking about the expense of cooking, compare that with jumping in your car and driving to the fast food place. With gas the way it is, that drive will cost you unless you live right next door. For me, 6 miles to the nearest fast food adds $2.40 in gas without adding in the wear and tear ((6*2 round trip)/(20 Miles per gal)*$4). I will take that $2 any day and put it towards some local fruit for the kids instead.
Gardening doesn’t have to be super expensive. Forget buying all those gadgets. Can’t afford a hoe, grab a stick. Don’t buy a tiller, just cover the ground with an old newspaper for a week and the grass will die on it’s own. Can’t afford seeds, talk to a neighbor to get their ‘leftovers’ as there is always way more in a package than you use. Try growing ‘maintenance free’ things like Papaya, Bannanas, passion fruit (yes, I live in Hawaii, so I find tropical plants grow best here, but you mainland folks probably have 10-100 times the yard space that I have). When I used to live in Maine I found Tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, radish, corn and lettuce were my mainstays and I always worked a full time job to boot so don’t tell me about not having time. The time you spend can be quality time with the kids that fills their bellies and makes them grow strong. Get them out early in the garden and you won’t have complaints when they are older as it’s ‘natural’ to be doing it.
loading....
I won’t lie. Convenience purchase charges seem to be my greatest amount of spending on food, not to mention their prices have skyrocketed lately.
loading....
I’ll add my two cents on the fibromyalgia, too, in hopes this info might be helpful. I lead a celiac/gluten intolerance support group. One member who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and was taking the heavy duty Lyrica at the earliest interval. She always had to have it on hand. Six months after being diagnosed with gluten intolerance, she is pain-free and medication-free. It’s important to note the some illnesses and symptoms can be driven by the malabsorption and vitamin/mineral issues driven by celiac or gluten intolerance. In these cases, supplementation will not help because the body will still not absorb the vitamins/minerals … until the offending gluten is removed from the diet and healing takes place.
We’d have a hard time eating on $1 a day, but I do think if you avoid processed foods for the most part, eat real food, shop sales and loss leaders, cook and bake, you can do very well. Regarding convenience foods, I read something in the little Graffitti section of the newspaper that has stuck with me and still makes me laugh: “People spend hours looking for instant food.” Been there, done that! Simple, nutritious meals are less costly and often really don’t take much more time. It’s just getting off out butt to make them and changing out mindset about it all. (Going gluten free has really helped me with that lesson.)
loading....
I think Melissa makes an excellent point. Not everyone has the facilities and even the most basic equipment and space to make things like soups, turkey, stocks, chop veggies, clean and prepare meat in a sanitary fashion, store food, etc let alone the know-how. I have known people who live in those one room studios or hotels with NO sink (the only source of water is a shared bathroom down the hall) and lucky to have a working hotplate and/or small microwave. The only thing they can do is canned soup and maybe frozen veggies from the local liquor store – that’s more than $1/day right there, This is especially true you cant get these things from places like Costco because you either dont have transportation and/or have no way to store it. It’s not always about not “getting off your butt”.
On a side note, sinuses infections and allergies can be related to diet in a lot of cases. Dairy, gluten and other foods, can cause an inflammatory reaction in the body. Once I eliminated gluten in my diet, I no longer have seasonal allergies (pollen, etc).
loading....
@ Melvin and @ Shirley, My wife’s fibromyalgia is not a vitamin deficiency or gluten allergy. In fact fibromyalgia is not “caused” by any of those.
loading....
Melissa @65 said
Which, of course, leads Nice, Middle-Class Lady to make assumptions about the “disadvantaged” being lazy and wasteful and preferring to wallow in ignorance. No–they too often really are disadvantaged in feeding themselves cheaply because they don’t have the tools or space to do it.
Thank you, thank yo
loading....
Melissa @65 said
Which, of course, leads Nice, Middle-Class Lady to make assumptions about the “disadvantaged” being lazy and wasteful and preferring to wallow in ignorance. No–they too often really are disadvantaged in feeding themselves cheaply because they don’t have the tools or space to do it.
Thank you, thank you! In my case, I was lectured by a Middle Class Old Guy that his charity was “not meant to permanently subsidise utility bills” when I came in for a voucher for my sixth bill running. What he didn’t know, being a temporary replacement during my usual worker’s illness, was that this arrangement was reached with my usual worker because she was trying to help me get out of the sex industry. She had noted the decision on my file but had kindly “forgotten” to note down the reason, which I would never have disclosed to a judgmental old man. I endured the lecture and fled.
loading....
I did not read every single post, but sometimes I am completely baffled by the path these comments take. I did not intend to disparage anyone by my “get off my butt” comment. Certainly, I know that J.D. mentioned poverty and food stamps as a point of reference and we all know that folks can be limited by resources, facilities, etc., but I don’t think that was the intent of this post. It was just one of J.D.’s hey what do you think about this and how can it affect your personal finances type posts.
Khurt–Best to you and your wife.
loading....
Dana “It is not natural for people to be constantly moving and constantly expending energy” Dana, I completely disagree. I’ll say it more specifically: while Americans obsess about their low carb/allergy proof/latest fad diet, physical activity is more important than diet, for long term health and reaching ideal weight/muscle etc. What I mean by this is as long as you are eating real food (not junk) you can have alot of leeway diet if you are physically active every day. People spend too much time obsessing on their diet versus being physically active.
loading....
I personally don’t think one is more important than the other. It really depends on your body and what your body can and cannot handle. I eat a certain way that’s different than even what a typical healthy American diet consists of because of allergies and intolerances. If you don’t have those issues – congrats! Despite my diet, I don’t exclude physical activity; for me its heart pounding sweaty workouts six days a week. I cant do one without the other.
loading....
Sorry if I sounded too harsh. I agree both are important, like 2 pillars holding something up. I guess I know too many people who go on and on about how they have to eat a very specific diet while neglecting physical activity.
loading....
Just wanted to draw your attention to Rebecca Blood’s Eating Organic on a Food Stamp Budget project (http://www.rebeccablood.net/thriftyo). She blogged her way through the one-month project and I really enjoyed reading about it. Great ideas here.
loading....
during “the year of the divorce” i was paying off the divorce expenses and saving diligently for my emergency fund. i lived on beans and rice, fresh fruit and veg. very little meat. I developed pernicious (B-12 and iron) anemia.
it’s not worth it, folks.
loading....
I live in California, in the Bay Area and I’m thankful for the Grocery Outlet and Foodmaxx. I get 5 lbs of carrots for $1.99 at Foodmaxx. At Grocery Outlet, I can get 3 lbs of frozen vegetables for $2.29 and 4 lbs of fresh bananas for $1.99 at Grocery Outlet. These are not sales. They are everyday prices.
I’m currently averaging $71 a month on groceries and I’m eating relatively healthy meals compared to two years when I was spending nearly $300 a month on junk food and fast food.
loading....
I don’t know about $1, but you can easily make it on $5. You’ll even have variety. I just wrote a post on this. Feel free too look.
http://sillenivek.blogspot.com/2008/10/eat-for-less-than-5-per-day.html
loading....
We invite everyone to follow our ”dollar a day challenge” also as we’ve taken a little bit different approach.
Eating a balanced diet is certainly a challenge and, although we’re not vegetarian, we do have to take into account my gluten allergy so it does make shopping a little interesting in that regard too.
Christopher and Kerri did a great job – we have no doubt that this will be quite the eye opening experience.
Check us out at:
http://1-dollar-a-day.blogspot.com
Thanks
Karla
http://www.hope-heals.org
loading....
It drives me crazy when people say eating healthy is more expensive!!! I eat very healthy and spend a lot less on groceries than most of my friends…I think the key is to make everything from scratch and do not buy fast food or go to restaurants…my mom has a good point..her reason for not eating out is that she does not want to pay taxes on her food…if you buy at the grocery store you do not:) So for those people who are saying that eating healthy is just too expensive for them…I would ask how many times they eat out in an average week? Take that money and go and buy some fruits and vegetables!:)
loading....
It is hard these days for sure. $1 day dont think anyone could. Take a reality check here. My hubby is a meat eater and eats very few vegtables.
I was a single mom who made very little money. I remember getting up and cooking breakfast (homemade biscuits, grits, scrambled eggs, milk for kids) lunch was at school mostly, supper consisted of mainly things like (cabbage, stewed potatoes, dried beans, meat loafs, salmon patties) not all at one time by any means. I could not buy cereal and milk for a meal( not even in the late 60s. My son could sit down to a box of cereal and a gallon of milk at one sitting and I imagine kids are still like that. He is 45 now. He still says mom would cook beans and potatoes one day , the next we would have potatoes and beans. (which I admit was true mostly) I cooked the baked goods and the sweets.(yes I worked) And if you did not watch they would eat them all up at once. It was bad then too. But I can imagine these days with people on min. wage trying to feed a couple of kids. (WOW)
I am unemployed and hubby still works and takes his lunch to work consisting of peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a nutty buddy and thermist of coffee. I scramble him a egg and toast every morning. We usually eat a roast one day in the crock pot with pot. and carrots. Next day I take the extra meat and make chinese or some kind of left over from that. I go to store on a wed. morning to get the meat that is out dated. We live in a motel mostly because he works construction. We do not own a home and buying bulk is no option. We have a small fridge at most motels so there is not an option of buying in bulk there and most of the time only live there for month or two. The fridge is not big enough to buy frozen veg or any thing like that.
We don’t buy newspapers or magazine so can not clip coupons and if you go online to get the coupons, you have to travel all over to get those and most of the sites want you to buy something before they give you any thing or sign up for something that ends up costing you. So living on a $1 a day is foolish to even think you can.
In Ohio now so you find very few dried beans. But I do love them.
Anyway this is just my opinion. It can not happen. We never eat fast food. We never have. But teens and 20 year olds that is how they were raised these days and now you want them to stop(sure)….
I see these new mommies saying my two year old will only eat mcnuggets and catsup. It is what they started them on so what do you expect.
It is rough no matter whether you skinny or fat. It is hard for older folks and there are alot of us. I am a 63 year old woman, been living with my hubby for 20 years. He and I have worked construction for 20 years. Now I am laid off and who is going to hire someone my age. We never had an option to buy home when moving around 365 days a year with maybe 2 weeks vacation a year. Living in places for 2 to 12 months a year. mostly 6 months at the most. So you do motels because signing a lease is not an option. I could retire but who could live on $542 a month. and that is what they say I can draw after working since I was 16. I spent my 401K which only offered me since 1997 when hubby had an accident to pay our bills off at that time (2005)We both was out of work for 8 months. Well the stocks and bonds deal has just about took all his and he is 61 just around the corner from retiring. So we not looking forward to retiring, we were a few years ago. It is hard for the old and the young. I really wish these folks that pay this high dollar to go to a movie and these high dollar to go to a sporting event would stop (maybe the rich would get a taste) These owners n CEOs have got to be stopped. The rich have took their money and hid it , this is what happen to Wall STreet. As you see I could go on and on. Sorry
loading....
We are a one-income (teacher’s salary) family of 7, living in semi-rural No. NV. After reading these posts, I calculated that we spend $2.85-3.10 for food per person on a daily average.
I grew up eating whole, fresh, made-@-home food. I was blessed to learn to bake, cook, menu-plan, price-compare, garden, etc. Left-overs/re-use were a normal part of our life. I grew up in Latin America, so learned to appreciate rice & beans and wonderful fruits & vegetables.
All these experiences have been translated into our eating style throughout almost 20 years of marriage.
To keep things in perspective, our 5 children range in age from 17 (6’6″ man-child) to 5 yo. They are all active in sports (which ups the food intake).
We eat meat (mostly in dishes, not usually for individual servings), lots of fruits & vegetables, garden what we can, have chickens for eggs, bake from scratch, eat a lot of rice & bean dishes, soups several times a week, and are moving into ‘traditional cooking’ little by little (mostly by soaking at this point). We spend about $100/mth on eating out. The cost I quoted above includes that eating out portion.
I am not obsessive about organic; at this point, my purchase mentality is more about current cost. I purchase a lot of bulk items. Oatmeal & cracked wheat are our breakfast mainstays. I rarely buy processed cold cereal. I have 2 fish-allergy folks, so we don’t eat fish (but do eat tuna, occasionally).
We have good balance and variety. I’ve never heard my kids complain that we have boring food. hehe
I know we can reduce our food costs, but we are comfortable with what we do & how we do it. My kids aren’t picky; I actually have trouble keeping fresh fruit in stock!
I know not everyone has our same situation; I also know lots of people who have the time, space, finances & appliances, etc. to learn to cook healthfully & frugally, but have absolutely no interest. I have lived in poverty-filled nations, accompanying my mom to ‘outdoor market-groceries’ where the meat is hanging on a hook with flies all over. I am supremely thankful to live here in the US, but I also know that there is a lot of malnutrition in this country!! (Even “healthy-looking” people can be in a state of malnutrition.)
Just a thought or 2 regarding the whole concept of $1/day eating/living. To make truly equivalent comparisons, you’d have to adjust for COL and earning potential. A person in Nigeria, India or Ethiopia, etc. eating on $1/day is also purchasing foods that cost less than what we spend (even for basics such as rice & beans). By the same token, their earning potential and GDP are much less (exponentially, even). I think a better comparison (if you’re looking to make one), is the percentage of daily income $1/day eaters spend on their food!
Just my 2cents.
loading....
For the most part, what I have read here makes me sick. Has anyone gone hungry? I see a lot of intellectual discussion about food and meals, with very little tangible experience regarding what it is to do without. It is freaking expensive to “eat right”. Most people earning under forty or fifty thousand dollars a year can’t afford this. My husband and I make in that range and we can’t afford salmon, other seafood, or organic vegetables. WE CAN’T AFFORD IT. PERIOD. That means we pay our bills, we are responsible people, and we still can’t afford to eat the so-called “healthy” foods discussed here. I do my best. That doesn’t make me irresponsible regarding my health. Where do any of you get off criticising the working poor for not taking better care of their health when they simply do not have the money to do so?
loading....
#90 – Calm down. No on is criticizing the working poor. We were giving our own opinion of what do can and cannot do – that’s all. No one was attacking you.
loading....
50k lady: my folks eat right all yr long due to high blpressure. mama bakes saltless cakes..use lime juice. we have a garden. read up on how to grow one. im getting a topsy turvy to save on space.
loading....