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The argument made here is that it is less expensive to eat healthy home cooked meals vs getting obese by eating too much fast food, or bags of Let's potato chips.
Nutrient profiles aside - it costs less to be thin than to be fat. Period.
No kidding. So, put your money where your mouth is...provide meals for 7 days for 1 person on $10 that is healthy.
The argument made here is that it is less expensive to eat healthy home cooked meals vs getting obese by eating too much fast food, or bags of Let's potato chips.
Nutrient profiles aside - it costs less to be thin than to be fat. Period.
Quote:
Originally Posted by malamute
Dozen egg $1, loaf of bread $1, water $0, 5# potatoes $3, tomatoes grown in garden $0, onions home grown $0, box of rice $2, peanut butter $2, carrots $1. Mow a lawn for $20 and the amounts can be tripled, housecleaning for someone one day $80 more and now you can buy some steaks, hamburger, chicken, etc.
Dozen eggs where I live: $1.89
Loaf of bread where I live: $1.29 (that's the generic brand)
Five pound bag of potatoes where I live: $5.00
To grow tomatoes in garden, you need to buy the tomato plant, or you need to grow it from seedlings which requires that you invest some money in gardening equipment to keep those tomatoes in good condition to be eaten.
Box of rice: about the same, roughly $2 but how big is this box of rice?
Peanut butter is not healthy, it has hydrogenated oil. Why on earth would you want someone eating hydrogenated oil? That's begging for a heart attack.
Carrots to last a week: $2.19
You have exceeded the $10 by $2.37.
Who has time to mow the lawn? Who has time to house clean? These are poor people who already have jobs, and have to take the bus to get to and from their job. (See? If you want to throw in some made up situations, I can, as well.)
Ok, so we have eggs, potatoes, bread, rice, and carrots. We have to get rid of one of those items because the price exceeded $10. Which one do you want to throw away? The eggs? The bread? The rice? The carrots?
Really? You actually think that is going to last one person 7 days for three meals a day? REALLY?!!! And do you honestly believe that this overload of carbs is a healthy way of eating? Seriously? But let's say that they DO use this menu for 7 days, for months on end, if not longer. And then we wonder why poor people are fat?
Because being at poverty level in the USA is nothing like being poor in other countries where they can't get food, our poor have no problem getting food or a TV.
If you only ever have $10/week, forever, and magically carry zero condiments or pots and pans from week to week, and have no burner, then no, you can't do it.
I would lay my last dollar that the above statement applies to a TINY percentage of the poor.
Here is your $10:
1lb meat = .99, on sale. This would be chicken thighs, discounted chops, etc. If you contend this is not available in your area, substitute more dried beans or 2 cans of sale tuna.
1lb dried beans = $1
1 doz eggs = $2
1lb carrots = $1
1lb onions = $1
1 loaf wheat bread, on sale = $2
small bunch bananas or sale apples, $2
You now have a slice of toast and an egg for breakfast daily. Your snacks are your sale fruit.
The lb of meat cooked into a soup or casserole with the carrots, beans & onions will require some time and effort, and daily reheating. If you have rice or potatoes left over from last week (see my initial point about very few starting from scratch each week) you can bulk up your dinner and be quite full.
I'm sure some will object because it will take time to prepare meals, time to compare sale flyers. There are tradeoffs, but somehow the time I put into meal prep after a 10 hour day at work, before doing my college homework and putting my kids to bed is unacceptable to ask of the poor?!?!
I'm not even touching the large amounts of milk, beans, cheese, bread, cereal, carrots that WIC gives, or those who receive food stamps. The question was how to eat on $10 a week and make it healthier than ramen.
Where would I find this one pound of chicken? Where I live, while it may be possible to find .99 sale on chicken per pound, it cannot be found in one pound packages. Where am I getting this phantom amount of rice and potatoes? I only have $10 to spend and you already took up the entire $10 for the week. There is no money left to get potatoes and rice...where is it coming from? To be fair, let's say it came from the food bank. You are a little off with your carrots and onions, however. Keep in mind, it's not the same price all over. What may cost you only $1 costs more in other areas. I can tell you, because I just went to the store on Sunday, that a pound of carrots costs over $2 where I live. The onions were more than a dollar per pound...I would have to get my receipt to find the actual number. It wasn't much, but it was more than a dollar.
I have no objection to taking the time to create meals, when did I EVER say that in this entire thread? Point that out, please. I know it takes time because I tend to make my own food. I HAVE lived off of Top Ramen at one point in my life, and I never want to have to go through that again. I had LESS than $10 for food each week at that time. I was very poor. However, unlike some people claim here, I did not sit around and expect others to pay for me. I worked. I went to school. I was working my ass off to improve my situation. That does not change the fact that for a year, I was very, very, very poor.
Having said all of that, I lost 30 pounds in one month because I was so poor. I think most of that had to do with the fact that the bus I took for work only got me within a mile and a half of where I needed to go. I had to walk the rest of the way, there and back. So, not taking in enough calories, plus all of that walking because I had no other way to get to work and get back home, it stands to reason I would lose a ton of weight to the point that my boss got alarmed.
I'm not talking about WIC either. I'm talking about people who do not get benefits. Again, despite popular belief on here, all of the poor people do NOT get hand outs.
No, the question was: Since so many claim that it is "cheaper" to eat healthy, then provide a healthy menu for one person, for seven days, for three meals a day. That is what is being debated in this thread. I stated, in the beginning, that healthy food is more expensive. All of you have proved me right. IT IS more expensive. While your menu is far more interesting, and not nearly as nauseating as yet another %#$^&* bowl of disgusting Top Ramen, the fact is, it IS more expensive.
Your menu ALMOST works. At least it has chicken in there, if I were able to find ONLY a pound of chicken in the store. Most packages that are on sale for 99 cents a pound come in 5 pounds or more. How do I know this? Because I buy a crap load of chicken for my pets. I've been doing it for three and a half years, (along with other meats and organs), so if there was a 1 pound package to be found, I would have found it.
This conversation about how to buy food with very little money reminded me of the time I and a Middle Eastern individual talked about this. We were both poor struggling graduate students and I proposed, if you only had $2.00 to feed your family with today what would you buy. (This was in the late 70’s)
I said I would buy a whole chicken to roast, and boil the carcass to have broth later. He said he would buy grapes and bread and save the rest of the money. My philosophy was to get the most bang for the buck, his was that money is the greatest resource if you are poor. Spend as little of it as possible until you can get more.
The truth be known, most Americans are fat regardless of their station in life. IMO we are fat because we value getting a good deal more than anything. Sometimes a poor person spending $45.00 in the store looks like quite a bit more food than a middleclass person who spent the same amount.
Dozen eggs where I live: $1.89
Loaf of bread where I live: $1.29 (that's the generic brand)
Five pound bag of potatoes where I live: $5.00
To grow tomatoes in garden, you need to buy the tomato plant, or you need to grow it from seedlings which requires that you invest some money in gardening equipment to keep those tomatoes in good condition to be eaten.
Box of rice: about the same, roughly $2 but how big is this box of rice?
Peanut butter is not healthy, it has hydrogenated oil. Why on earth would you want someone eating hydrogenated oil? That's begging for a heart attack.
Carrots to last a week: $2.19
You have exceeded the $10 by $2.37.
Who has time to mow the lawn? Who has time to house clean? These are poor people who already have jobs, and have to take the bus to get to and from their job. (See? If you want to throw in some made up situations, I can, as well.)
Ok, so we have eggs, potatoes, bread, rice, and carrots. We have to get rid of one of those items because the price exceeded $10. Which one do you want to throw away? The eggs? The bread? The rice? The carrots?
Really? You actually think that is going to last one person 7 days for three meals a day? REALLY?!!! And do you honestly believe that this overload of carbs is a healthy way of eating? Seriously? But let's say that they DO use this menu for 7 days, for months on end, if not longer. And then we wonder why poor people are fat?
So what do you suggest poor people do who are living in this hypothetical situation where they only have a $10 a budget week for food?(Since they aren't able to qualify for food stamps aparently)
Should they wallow in misery and eat ramen? Scrounge for change and get a quarter pounder? You seem to be quick to criticize everyone else's suggestions but meanwhile you don't seem to have any solutions yourself to this specific scenerio.
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Why Are So Many Poor People Fat?
