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sorry to burst your bubble Lube but Terry neglected to document , the fact that you'll have to quit drinking them 4 sixpacks a day... true , it's not about eating, as the title of the thread suggests but it's a sacrifice you'll have to make if you wanna bounce dimes :D:D |
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True - Almonds are pretty pricey, even at Sam’s Club. Sunflower seeds are a little better but I would have to go with the unsalted version, Walnuts and Cashews and Pistachios are priced out of bounds. I guess if I went with bird seed…naa, that’s just stupid!
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I should call this the Porsche Diet – cuz the only way to afford one is to eat like this!
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well, actually .... i did have 6 months where i didn't eat in the evening, to cut costs and to finance that rebuild of mine... past that now... just got home cut up an onion , one tomato fried the onions, added the tomato lid on , had it simmer till the tomatoes were collored nicely then scrambled 2 eggs then served that with 4 slices of prosciutto di Parma the whole thing melts in the mouth , pretty happy with it... all things added up , no more then 3.5 euro's , the bulk beeing the Parma which cost me 2 ... i'm sure it's not super healthy like "grains" or "greens" , but it sure as hell beats anything from any fast food franchise anywhere in the world... and considering it only took me 7 minutes, i doubt i can drive to Micky D and get something ordered and delivered faster either... |
Mike,
The advice about regular produce is right on. Using fresh vegetables, rice, pasta, etc, you can make great meals and freeze the rest. Two key ingredients in this are; more than one person (you need an audience for your creativity) and a big, very cold freezer. Planning is very important. With the right stuff your menu can be much more exciting than Ramen and PB&J. Your $3/day/person can save up for some exciting meals. The most important thing is you want to eat healthy and not get board. Go by a local Jr. college or culinary school and talk to the teachers. Perhaps you can be a class project. That might be an easy way to maintain documentation and even better nutrition. I’m the shopper and chef in our family and generally cook real meals every time. We eat very properly with lots of vegis, salad and fruit. I don’t buy on a budget but I just looked in the big freezer and found: Three boneless pork loin roasts, one is 5.2#, $0.99/#, $5.18, others similar. Rib-eye roast bone-in 5.89#, $11.14 “manager’s special” Boneless lamb sirloin steaks 0.9#, $5.99/#, 2-for-1 is about $1.75 each. One is a great serving and just as good as two $7 ea lamb chops. There is a 20+# turkey that needs to be cooked. I’ll bet it was $5 last Thanksgiving. There are a bunch of pot roast bargains that I use to make a great classic beef stew (potatoes, onions, carrots, celery). I see two Stouffers 6# “party size” lasagna that I paid $3 ea last winter (bought six and at least three went to the teens over Christmas in one gulp). There were also a bunch of freezer containers of my spaghetti sauce, stuffed bell peppers, turkey tetrazzini and more. You can do this by watching for (and recognizing) the bargains. With the current freezing and sealing stuff you can take advantage of what is in season – gee just like ancient times. Sounds like a fun and healthy project. Go for it. Post a daily report here and you will get moral support. Oops, this is OT, more than likely you will only be abused. HeHe Best, Grady |
I lived pretty cheap in college. Rice and split pea soup is cheap! My dad had it pretty bad. There are pictures of him after he graduated from law school. He looked like a skeleton. He paid his way through school. Meals sometimes had to be sacificed.
Mike |
Grady - interesting angle. I am an adjunct at UNT. I spend 2 days a week there. It would be very easy to hook up with a prof in the nutri dept and put something together. The concept is actually compelling and maybe it could turn itself into something.
the basic notion is "how little can somebody spend and still remain healthy?" |
Mike,
It will be important to define the criteria. You want to include all food but not supplies and condiments. What else? Where is the dividing line? For example is the butter/margarine/olive oil you cook with food, supply or condiment? Ask the same for the jar of salsa, the sprinkle of Parmesan or Romano, the daub of mustard, etc. Perhaps a way might be to start fully stocked, keep track of use and apportion cost and finally decide if replacement is warranted when used up. How are you going to account for the exceptions? Surely you will go out to dinner with friends, have dinner parties, afternoon BBQ, etc. Devise a method to account for this “time out.” No begging or mooching but free samples are just fine. The stores I use are willing to split produce and sell me ½ head of cabbage or lettuce for ½ price if sold by the unit. Lots of stores will give away slightly bruised or soon to wilt produce. How are you going to keep track of the cost of items? You will probably find yourself shopping at many more stores than you do now in order to find the bargains. You aren’t considering time and fuel here. How are going to calculate stuff you have in your pantry? What do you consider booz? That has lots of carb-only calories. Aside from needing Joy of Cooking and a few others, public libraries are full of good cookbooks. You will want a nutrition encyclopedia, a good cooking scale and measurers. Spoilage and waste will kill your goal. Good planning will help there. This isn’t to be a gruesome “starvation” exercise but fun and healthy. Your docs might be worth consulting. Have “before” and “one-year-later” physicals. A good bathroom scales and calendar log will help. I’ll bet you both are leaner, healthier, eaten better and enjoyed it more a year from now after spending less than $2190 for food (365 days X $3/day X 2 people). Best, Grady |
Dang Grady all I ever wanted to do was save a little money and loose a little weight! Actually, what you are stating makes great sense. For purely empirical reasoning, all those parametrs should be considered.
You are correct, I should lay out what the overall objective is. On a pure ecomonic reason, a health reason or a blend of the two and to what depth to engage such a study. I suppose there is grant money available and if I really wanted to be savy I would pitch it to the AARP and the greek community at the universitys (as a way to hit 2 powerful demographics that are price and health conscience) look for sponsorship, write the findings in a book, publish, get on Opra and Phil, begin the branding of a whole line of food stuff, get the majors th carry them, branch to a clothing line, open some gyms on the side - let them go out of business to collect as a tax shelter on the lose, sponsor a NASCAR, buy ad sapce during the Super Bowl, start a website with a forum and begin my collection of Porches! Hmmm...going cheap would never get me soo rich! Then I could afford to eat a fat Prime Rib with sour cream smathered taters... |
i've been cutting back on my fat & sugar intake lately (to combat the quit smoking weight gain), and been upping on veggies and fruits considerably, and must say it's working out pretty good...
i used to make spaghetti , then eat 4 big plates over the course of the evening... now i eat one small one at 20h30, and another small one at 10h30... probably in total the same as one of the old style big plates and freeze the rest... same for other meals, now i even select smaller packs of meat in the supermarket, no more 600 gram roast beefs that vanish in one go, instead i end up with 200 gram , that is eaten in 2 goes at the same time, i've quit drinking soda's, just water and milk no more fried food in the cantine @ work, but yogurt instead when i do ravioli , i add cream spinage adding onions and tomatoes to other quick meals less liberal use of cooking fat or oils less mayonaise , or other prefabricated sauces small changes like that, low effort, not hard core diet at all and i don't get the idea, that my food is less tasty on the contrary... it's better but i guess , for me , i wouldnt have noticed back when i smoked so it's a complete "change" package for me |
Mike,
Allright! Now you can sponsor my son’s desire for the GT3 Porsche Cup. How about an advance? :D :D Stijn, good for you! SmileWavy Not only can you afford the next round with the “S” but you will live long enough to enjoy it. :) Best, Grady :cool: |
Oh yea, I just got home from the local Farmer’s Market. “Peaches & cream” sweet corn picked yesterday afternoon. Tomatoes right off the vine. The best green beans of the season, picked yesterday. Perfect peaches from western Colorado. And more and more. Fresh fruit & vegetable heaven.
Now I need to sort out what I give to an elderly neighbor who doesn’t get out much. Not cheep but the best possible. We used to have a 1.2 acre garden on an empty neighborhood lot but they paved over paradise and there are now wall-to-wall townhouses. Best, Grady |
Grady - we are in a Farmers Market collective with a few other families. Each week somebody would go to the Farmers Market in Dallas and buy an assortment and then divi it out. Great produce at great prices. You never know what you'll get with such a system.
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You all cannot be Porsche owners. Everyone knows that you can go to Costco and live on samples, for free. Well almost, you do have to pay the annual fee of $50. That works out to less than $1 per week.
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two words "PrimateChow" from Purina, last I heard, it was about 20 cents a day.
fully balanced meal, all you need in one bag. Jim |
Here's the final answer:
Malt-O-Meal cereal. It's a couple bucks for the big bag, which will last you at least 3-4 days, is fortified with vitamins and nutrients, and there are multiple "flavors" to choose from. Eat it with water, or get fancy and add fat-free milk on special occasions. Only 200-250 calories per serving, too. It's my professional opinion that you can effectively live on it. |
sure there are boring ways to eat healthy at 5 a day or even less
but the point is , to do it in a non boring way where you get variation in your meals, and the meals themself are tasty... a bag of cereal, or monkey chow is not really all that imho i would get very depressed on such a diet |
Re: Is It Possible to Live (eat) on $5/Day?
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They're the new gold standard :p |
1 euro 60 for 700 gram of banannas
that's in a supermarket , i'm sure i could get em at better prices in a fruit/vegies store... 6.9 USD ??? for a pound??? do they come with monkey to unpeel em when you need em?? |
They used to be 1/10th of that price until a cyclone a few months ago that wiped out the country's supplies!
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Mike,
After more than three pages, give $45 Emergency Menu for 4 to 6 a try. Add more fruit and vegis. Try $70 and see what happens for a week. Plan now and start Saturday morning. You will have some leftover staples. In addition to your Farmer’s Market group, we have some friends that get together once a month and buy Sam’s Club quantity staples for very low cost. I can see real value in getting together a group. Not only is there the economy of scale but the moral support and sharing of techniques. Isn’t that how the “Whole Earth” movement started in the late ‘60s? :D Best, Grady :cool: |
http://www.spcomplete.com/images/eps/902.gif
Cartman: Hippies.They're everywhere. They wanna save the earth, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad. |
Stijn,
Do you prepare meals and freeze them? That is a way to buy bargains not 100 g at a time and have great meals over several weeks. Do your stores have sales where some produce is sold at cost or less to get you in the store? Are there local “Farmer’s Markets” where you can buy in-season fresh produce directly from the farmer? All those things let you improve your meal quality to gourmet status and lower your cost at the same time. :) You and Mike can have an international $3/day, 3 euro/day quality diet. :D Best, Grady BTW, Hippies are the newbies. I’m closer to the Beat Generation. :cool: |
that's exactly what i do
monday i made hutsepot , dunno what it's called in english but basically taters, porq saucage, bacon, carrots, spinage , all in one pot ate a third, 2 portions in the freezer, it's a bit of a traditional farmers meal around these parts... definately not bad , and works well for freezing.. made coq au vin on wednesday , 25 minutes to prepare, an hour to cook, ate 1 third,2 in the freezer again, should have gotten a bigger bird though , or two birds, this thing , the more you make in one go the better spaghetti , make 5 kilo of sauce , a lot of it in the freerzer and many meals , will actually taste better when you defrost em definately the case for bolognaise sauce, and coq au vin.... |
i don't look for farmers markets, don't think they have em here in R'dam
there is the market down town , but to far from my place, and if i'm goign to drive for groceries, i'm driving to Belgium... home country, and a lot better for delicacies... Holland is barbaric territory when it comes to cuisine don't get me wrong, i don't give a rats ass about cooking cheap i used to be work in fancy restaurants about 13 years ago , and just started cooking more for myself lately , because i quit smoking and regained my taste, and need to do something to fill my evenigns a bit more, and just be a bit more conscience of what i eat... and cooking for one , is just not practical , at least not if you don't want to become an overweight pig... freezing just makes it managable, and more effecient... and you get TV dinners that are a lot better tasting ... i can pick 4 meals out of my freezer right now , italian , chinese, flemish, french , and all are decent , all are self cooked i just posted my results on this thread, because i'm hitting around 5 a day, with not to much effort, and i am single sure it's Euro's , but again, i doubt that 1 euro buys a lot more then 1 dollar in the US, we saw the banana's higher up in the thread, they're more expensive here, same for meat... |
I just finshed a one pound, dry aged, USDA prime fillet mignon. Cost $28 US per pound. Darn it was good. What was the subject of this thread anyway?
Oh yeh, I just blew a weeks budget on a single meal, and thats not counting the $50 bottle of wine. And I saved a bundle by cooking it myself at home. I also save a lot on hamburger. I buy USDA prime grade tri-tip on sale, about $8 per pound, grind it myself and save the leftover in vac packed bags for tacos. How about a new thread. How to eat $200 per person 5 star resort quality meals at home for less than $50 per meal, per person. Sounds a lot tastier than a $2 meal. |
Just made some barley soup that turned out prety tasty. Added a little ground beef, and frozen mixed veggies from a bag for flavoring. Spice to taste. One cup suprisingly made about 3-4 meals.
Anything cheap as the base can be made better: potatoes, mac 'n cheese with tuna, onions, and a splash of tai fish sauce, or ramen with a dash of soy sauce and some "dashi joyeux" flakes(seaweed sesame mix) or drop in an egg. Leave the starches/meats to a minimum, they don't have the fiber. I just took the girl out for a $41 dinner that was good, but not that good. Could have eaten for a week on that. |
Cool Thread. When in a pinch on the road here in CA, I try and find an "El Pollo Loco" BRC burrritos beans-rice-cheese for.99cents or taco's Al Carbon for the same. Really good and pretty healthy. They have pretty decent salsas,spicy guacomole, etc. inc. for free. Keep healthy and on budget.
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In the bay area, try "El Farlitos" pollo super burrito and an horchata. Comes with bag of chip for under $5 and has a killer salsa verde.
Oops, well that'll be good for the whole day. |
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that's pretty easy as well used to do that regulary back when i was still cooking for real the price of a 200$ meal , in 5 star restaurant is mostly man hours , markup and recouping investement of decoration and kitchen equipment... ingredients are but a small fraction of the total sum you can do it at home , but if you want to get a decent price , you will have to cook for more then 1 person, no freezing, fully equiped kitchen will be required as well and be prepared to spend the better part of 2 days in the kitchen for all the prep work |
Looking over the $45/week for four menu:
SHOPPING LIST 10 lbs all purpose flour @ 96¢ for 5lbs 3 pack of yeast Baking Powder Oatmeal 3 lbs long grain white rice 2 lb bag of cornmeal 5 lbs sugar Vegetable Oil 2 cans frozen orange juice concentrate @ 88¢ each 20 quart box of instant nonfat dry milk 2 pounds lentils @ 60¢ a lb 2 lbs pinto beans @ 65¢ a lb 1 lb black beans 1 lb lima beans 3 boxes Macaroni & Cheese 3 packs of Ramen Noodles 2 dozen eggs @ 69¢a dz 2 lbs margarine @ 48¢ ea 1 lb hot dogs 1 28-oz can tomatoes 1 15-oz can tomatoes 15-oz can green peas 15-oz can corn 15-oz can greens 15 oz cans spinach 5 lb bag carrots 3 lb bag onions 1 bunch celery 6-oz can tuna 18-oz jar peanut butter Jelly Pancake Syrup Vinegar Cinnamon Garlic Powder Chili Powder Salt Pepper Bouillon Cubes 100 Count Box of Tea Bags This wouldn’t take much to modify it for two for two weeks. This is $1.50/day/person. I was surprised that 27% of the calories are fat with no meat. I think that can be reduced. There is also probably too much salt. Add in-season fresh produce, more spices (curry powder, lemon juice, oregano, basil) and some jalapenos and you have some lively meals. One thing I see missing are potatoes. A baked potato with some inexpensive toppings is great (and inexpensive.) Last week the farmer’s market sweet corn was 20¢ an ear. I’ll post what I see in the morning after our 7 AM visit to the farmer’s market. In a month corn will be $1/dozen. This past week I made a 6-liter batch of thick & chunky spaghetti sauce. I’ll figure what it cost. I froze 2/3 of it. I need to learn how to bake bread. Best, Grady |
Corn is very bad for you. 100 percent carbs. Same for a lot of other so called natural produce. Try to produce a diet that has only 25 percent carbs, the rest protein and fibre. Salt is insignificant in any diet, unless you get to little.
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Grady - great job! And the thing is, broken out and amortized it would come under that if you figuer that many of those items will last a few months (spices, herbs, sugar, etc...).
If I wanted to just go cheap - we always have a deep freeze full of grain fed angus form my Wifes parents farm. Never paid for any of it - everytime they come up it is like a housewarming gift - a cooler full of meat! The sweet corn crop is coming in so me have more sweet corn than we know what to do with. Jack is right, it has little value but it does taste good and will fill you up. |
Salt? Insignificant??? Surely, you DO NOT mean from a health stand point, do you? And could you please clarify what is "so called natural produce"?
Bryan |
There is no data to support a reduced salt diet, unless you have high blood pressure due to excess water retention. There were long arguments to even include salt in the latest food US food fandangle as there is no data to show reduced salt consumption is meaningful in any way. Salt was included as a result of political correctness. Salt, get to little and you die, get to much and you might retain a little extra water.
So called natural produce, like corn, is 100 percent carbs and is far more harmful than any salt may be. Carbs are a health threat and fruit is pure carbs. Metamucil and a vitamin pill is probably much more healthy than a several servings of fruit is. Fruit may be natures candy, but its still candy. Everything in moderation. |
Agreed, everything in moderation. And part of that moderation for me will
continue to be a wide variety of fruits and vegtables. I prefer to get my anti-oxidants, fiber, and vitamins from my food as opposed to from supplements. But hey, that's just me... |
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One of the concerns about feeding cattle too much grain - like you eating nothing but Snicker bars - you'd get pretty fat right quick but the health concerns. Of course, grain fed beef does have more flavor than the free range stuff. IMHO. |
The cattle don't have long to live once they start their corn fed diet. So what does this have to do with humans? Sure you can't live a long productive life eating pure sugar, but their life is neither long nor productive.
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