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very few have mentioned coupons, between picking up yesterdays newspapers for free at a few stores and printing off online coupons, you can get A LOT of free stuff, and a lot of very decent healthy stuff for at least 50% off
also, being in maine, we are going into fall which means hunting season, - many poor people hunt for deer moose, bear and turkey, and that meat in the freezer helps a lot, I cut up many road kills and donate to local food kitchens
not everyone can have a garden, but I think the online social media, should be identifying the free picking areas in different regions- where it is free to go pick some wild grown blackberries, apples, etc
what I am seeing is- on facebook, on town pages,,, many are posting " I have an abundance of cukes, come and get some for free" or corn or tomatoes, and this good will is contagious,,, no one likes to throw food out
ive worked in grocery stores for decades- and its ironic, much of the foodstamper crowd don't want to appear "poor" and will buy brand name items- while i'll buy cheap/reduced/damaged/mark-down items and be proud
ive always had a tough time on the "poor" ive read -its mostly poor people who smoke??????????
cigs are 5-7 a pack, if both adults smoke that's almost 300 month????
this is where I lose sympathy for the poor- if they are buying alcohol, cigarettes, its a waste of money ,,, and then complain they don't have enough to feed their kids- yes, foodstamps cant buy alcohol or cigs, but you get the point.
for basics,,,
shop the supermarket flyers- look at the front page - they have loss leaders- where they put the best price points- shop these items, make meals around these items
if chicken thighs or drumsticks are 99lb then buy some - I love chicken thighs!!
for burger- look for chuck or bottom round roasts on sale for 2.99lb or less, and ask the butchers to grind them for you- they will do it free- not at Walmart- they have no butchers
you can also use these roasts for stew meat
buy whole chickens at .99lb (you can ask the butcher to cut these up for free - they will)
my son in college asked if I would pick him up some "cheap" protein- I bought a whole boneless pork loin- 1.99lb
around 7lbs and sliced it 1/4 inch for chops, made some bnls pork ribs and a roast all at 1.99lb!! I also bought some bnls chicken breasts for 1.99lb and sliced the breasts in thirds ( slice the half breasts in thirds -thin the whole length) this stretches them out
buy the reduced items,,,,,look for the reduced racks in produce,,,buy the over ripe bananas
buy the reduced bakery-they reduce this stuff everyday!! buy the reduced meats-just keep an eye on the dates
when I was a meat department manager in a supermarket many moons ago, there were customers that came in early just for the reduced items- I would actually save some items for some poor single mothers
to save monies, its as much as what we don't buy, don't shop when hungry!!
if you have a local butcher shop or iga nearby - get to know the butchers, and ask " put me on your email list for great deals" or call list
or call you- I use to have a list of customers that asked me-they would have the first pickens at some great deals, many warehouse over -runs
chain stores wont do this
ive also seen poor families ask the produce department to save culls for their pigs- but they didn't have pigs- much of this produce was very edible- just didn't look pristine for presentation
again, you will have better luck with independents
supermarket/chain stores wont do this because of liability
It's funny how this super-intelligent college-educated blogger was like "I couldn't afford to eat like this, so I instead spent all my money all at once on a pizza, which proves that I should get more money." Uh, no. It proves that your college degree is worthless. Normal people, when resources are limited, use LESS of those resources, not MORE. The only reason people like Ms. Smart Blogger uses more is because her rationale is "if I spend my money really quickly and then have none left, society will feel badly for me when I have a sad face and then they'll decide I should get more." She's like some pathetic grown-up child.
so not only do people have to deal with being poor and on food stamps
there are some food police out there telling them what kind of food they should eat
You missed the point of what we're saying. All we said was that it's possible to eat healthy if you're poor and, actually, it's cheaper to do that. If you want to eat food that's not healthy, that's fine, too. Just don't whine about how fat you are afterwards to anyone and be like "this is because society doesn't care about me waaaaaaah!"
Different people have different ideas of "healthy".
Take me for instance.
If i eat once a day,and eat one cheeseburger and large fries,as my only meal.
I only drink calorie free soda and juice in addition to water.
After eating all of that,i am still under 1500 kcal for that day.
Some posters are saying potatoes are not healthy,others say red meat is not healthy,yet others are saying poor people should buy hamburger and freeze portions of it..you get the idea.
very few have mentioned coupons, between picking up yesterdays newspapers for free at a few stores and printing off online coupons, you can get A LOT of free stuff, and a lot of very decent healthy stuff for at least 50% off
I cut up many road kills and donate to local food kitchens
I agree with Hedgehog Mom. There are some reliably inexpensive produce items, but they don't make a full meal. In order to make a stir fry this weekend, I bought 2 peppers, one red and one yellow, at $1.29 each. Mushrooms were $1.99 for a small package. Sugar snap peas? Eek, $4.99 lb, but I didn't need anywhere near that many. Onions, broccoli, another couple of dollars. I easily spent almost 10 dollars on just the produce, and still needed to add chicken, rice, stir fry sauce, etc., to make a meal that would fill up the guys around my table.
Mac and cheese at 2/$1.00 on the other hand, would have done the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
We use a lot of fresh produce here, but it isn't the least expensive part of my grocery bill.
Yet another example of fiction as one can buy frozen stir-fry mixes which often contain enough for two meals for around $3 and quite economical (yet healthy) with instant brown rice and chicken. Of course fresh produce is optimal (and costs significantly more) but it has been proven that frozen vegetables are just about as nutritious.
I'm sure this has been discussed in the thread, but many poor people, especially in NYC by me and in other low-income towns, have food deserts. For many, going down the road to a bodega or convenience store, is much easier, then hopping on a bus for 20 minutes just to get fresh vegetables. I was surprised to learn the number of food deserts: USDA ERS - Go to the Atlas
He's not joking. There's actually nothing wrong with fresh roadkill, not that I've ever eaten any of it before. Just because an animal is hit by a car, doesn't make it less sanitary than if it was shot by a gun. You're thinking of road kill that's just left out on the road and pounded over repeatedly by car after car. In Alaska, moose get killed by cars and are donated to local food banks, for example. They consider wild animals to be part of the state resources and are very conscious about using game to feed people. You can actually be fined for not taking all of the meat from animals you kill. It's basically the same as when people in cities like New York City get all angry about the amount of food that is thrown out of stores or restaurants. And, by the way, that food is also fine for consumption. (That always sets up an amusing battle of activists, by the way. On the one side are the anti-corporate activists who say that stores should donate the food to the poor. On the other side are the poor activists who are offended that the poor should have to eat the food that remains after people who paid are gone. I lol.)
When you start buying organic and grass fed food and meats it can get expensive.
My GF and I eat insanely healthy. All 6 of my meals each day are cooked, as are her 5-6. We spend $150/wk easily if not more, and we do not buy organic or grass fed. If we switched to organic, we would easily be at $250.
That being said, healthy food is FAR more filling. It's 100x harder to eat 100grams of carbs worth or rice or potatoes as opposed to drinking 2 gatorades or 2 bags of chips, that have 100 grams of carbs.
Protein is where it gets expensive. $3/lb of chicken for normal, or like $7/lb for organic. When you're getting 20lbs of meat a week, that adds up fast.
However, just eating normal healthy (non organic non grassfed) really shouldn't be that much more when you actually calculate it. I also feel like when you eat healthy you eat a FAR better macronutrient ratio.. More protein and less carbs. Most unhealthy food is FILLED with simple carbs and no protein.
I would imagine the average person gets around 70% of their calories from carbs, 20% from protein, and 10% from fat. Which coming from the garbage processed foods, it's disgusting.
Then you factor in simply soda's, gatorades, etc. and how many carbs are in there. In one gatorade alone is like 40g or 50 of carb. One CUP of potatoes is around 26g of carbs. So, what's going to fill you up longer? 2 cups of potatoes or one gatorade? Then you factor in the amount of sugar in gatorade, the insulin spike from the simple carbs and how it will make you hungry much quicker..
Yeah.. there's so many things people don't have any clue about, and that's half the problem with our nations weight problem.
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