Eating healthy while living on a dollar a day for food?
“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.
One-month challenge: Eating on a dollar a day
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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There are 94 comments to "Eating healthy while living on a dollar a day for food?".
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.
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.
“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!
Finally someone gets it. Yeah, you can buy some apples…and then what? The point is getting enough calories. That junk food gives you those calories. Veggies and fruit do not.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. =)
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
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’.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thanks, Christy, for the clarification. I’ll edit the post to reflect your correction.
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.
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. 😉
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
a dollar a day? i’m sorry but that is damn near impossible
I might be able to get darn close to a healthy $1 per MEAL per day, but I could not do $1 per DAY.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
#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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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”).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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).
@ 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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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!:)
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
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. 🙂
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?
#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.
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.
Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. This is a good article with a lot of information, good content!