Income you're living on (mobile, areas, average, lifestyle)
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The thing is that eating unhealthy is also eating relatively cheap.
You can get take out from many fast food places for under $5 - if you eat off the dollar menu with no drink, less.
I live in an area with high grocery prices. Eating fresh vegetables, lean meat, etc., is not cheap here. For many people, especially those on lower incomes, it's actually cheaper to get take out than to cook healthy at home.
It doesn't take much of a portion to meet your calorie need when eating heavy with biscuits and fast food. A grilled chicken salad will be far more filling at the same calorie count. If you eat enough fast food to feel full, you'll have consumed a lot of calories.
Fast food will actually make you more hungry because it includes way too much salt and sugar.
I recently loaded the McDonalds app on my phone in order to easily find their locations while travelling. I find their bathrooms to be much cleaner than any "public" facility. I usually buy an Iced tea when visiting.
But they started sending me notifications for "deals". Some of those are for free "food". For example, I can get a free "Mcdouble" (whatever that is) by just showing up.
However, just the thought of eating that stuff gives me nausea.
LOL, that brought back some funny memories of the car my late husband was driving when we met. In 1984 when we met he was driving a 1970 Chevy Nova that was formerly owned by a deceased nun who was a friend of his mother. That car had no power steering, no AC, a steering wheel almost the size of a hula hoop, ran like a tank, and in the glove compartment was a vial of holy water put there by Sister Motor Head for good luck. It was a good thing that I was not the kind of woman that judged a man by his car because we would have never made it down the aisle.
And THAT brought back my DH's car story. I always knew he was a frugal guy, but when we started dating (1997) he was driving a '73 Malibu. It was a TANK and he bought it off a lady he knew through a friend for $700. It ran great and was huge, heavy, and ugly as sin, pea green with a vinyl roof. He drove that sucker for 8 or 9 years. Eventually he got another great deal on a newer car and sold it for $900. He just put a sign on it and it sold the next day! I think that shows some of how we were able to save for early retirement. We don't spend on appearances.
the fact is most of the countries poverty is in the rural areas . it is not my opinion . it is published stats . i don't make up the definitions . it isn't based on what you eat or do .
I'm not disagreeing about the numbers, I'm saying that the numbers don't tell the whole story.
I pay less for a gal of fresh raw organic milk than I could a gal of processed organic milk.
Grass fed beef cheaper than the grocery etc.
Yes there's no Broadway plays.... those put me to sleep.
I sat and watched a rabbit for 5 min yesterday.
I chased a deer out of my yard.
Numbers can be helpful, but they can also impart false information.
You don't have to SPEND as much money when your closer to the dource.
You also get BETTER QUALITY. (I make pickles from cukes that I pick 2 minutes before I process them.)
People LOVE my tomato sauce because I pick them at full ripeness.... something you CANNOT get at your grocery store.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious Conversation
The thing is that eating unhealthy is also eating relatively cheap.
You can get take out from many fast food places for under $5 - if you eat off the dollar menu with no drink, less.
I live in an area with high grocery prices. Eating fresh vegetables, lean meat, etc., is not cheap here. For many people, especially those on lower incomes, it's actually cheaper to get take out than to cook healthy at home.
It doesn't take much of a portion to meet your calorie need when eating heavy with biscuits and fast food. A grilled chicken salad will be far more filling at the same calorie count. If you eat enough fast food to feel full, you'll have consumed a lot of calories.
Fast food is NOT a regional thing.
That's a lifestyle choice.
The thing is that eating unhealthy is also eating relatively cheap.
You can get take out from many fast food places for under $5 - if you eat off the dollar menu with no drink, less.
I live in an area with high grocery prices. Eating fresh vegetables, lean meat, etc., is not cheap here. For many people, especially those on lower incomes, it's actually cheaper to get take out than to cook healthy at home.
It doesn't take much of a portion to meet your calorie need when eating heavy with biscuits and fast food. A grilled chicken salad will be far more filling at the same calorie count. If you eat enough fast food to feel full, you'll have consumed a lot of calories.
This is nonsense.
I'm in New England at the end of the supply chain with the highest food costs in the continental US because it has the highest transportation costs. I can buy boneless chicken breast for $2.00/pound pretty much anywhere. I can buy whole pork loin for $2.00/pound pretty much anywhere. I can buy a 3-pack of romaine hearts for $2.50 to $3.00. Large bags of store brand frozen vegetables are always inexpensive. Eggs are 99 cents per dozen in most of the grocery stores. Rice, flour, potatoes are all cheap.
If I needed to, I can eat well and healthy for $5.00 per day. That means I'm cooking all my own food and doing my own baking. I'm buying no prepared food and no convenience food. I'm using powdered milk and powdered buttermilk for baking. I'm drinking water other than breakfast where I'm making my own coffee.
If you were in an inner city food desert, sure. In eastern/central Tennessee, you can certainly shop at a Walmart Super-whatever and pay those prices. Most of it freezes. The leftovers from cooking dinners are lunch you carry to work.
I'm not disagreeing about the numbers, I'm saying that the numbers don't tell the whole story.
I pay less for a gal of fresh raw organic milk than I could a gal of processed organic milk.
Grass fed beef cheaper than the grocery etc.
Yes there's no Broadway plays.... those put me to sleep.
I sat and watched a rabbit for 5 min yesterday.
I chased a deer out of my yard.
Numbers can be helpful, but they can also impart false information.
You don't have to SPEND as much money when your closer to the dource.
You also get BETTER QUALITY. (I make pickles from cukes that I pick 2 minutes before I process them.)
People LOVE my tomato sauce because I pick them at full ripeness.... something you CANNOT get at your grocery store.
Mathjak lives in Queens so the whole concept of having your own garden, a big chest freezer or two, and home canning aren't part of his life experience. You can feed a family of four for a year on 1/4 acre or have seasonal fresh vegetables and a bit of frozen/canned in 1,500 square feet. With a fishing rod, a deer rifle, and a shotgun, you can eat pretty well.
I'm in New England at the end of the supply chain with the highest food costs in the continental US because it has the highest transportation costs. I can buy boneless chicken breast for $2.00/pound pretty much anywhere. I can buy whole pork loin for $2.00/pound pretty much anywhere. I can buy a 3-pack of romaine hearts for $2.50 to $3.00. Large bags of store brand frozen vegetables are always inexpensive. Eggs are 99 cents per dozen in most of the grocery stores. Rice, flour, potatoes are all cheap.
If I needed to, I can eat well and healthy for $5.00 per day. That means I'm cooking all my own food and doing my own baking. I'm buying no prepared food and no convenience food. I'm using powdered milk and powdered buttermilk for baking. I'm drinking water other than breakfast where I'm making my own coffee.
If you were in an inner city food desert, sure. In eastern/central Tennessee, you can certainly shop at a Walmart Super-whatever and pay those prices. Most of it freezes. The leftovers from cooking dinners are lunch you carry to work.
Wow. Those prices are extremely cheap. I'm jealous!!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikala43
Wow. Those prices are extremely cheap. I'm jealous!!
Similar prices in PNW (on sale dates / every other week)
Milk $0.99/ 1/2 ga
eggs $0.99
Pork Loin or Country Style ribs $1.99
Salmon (in season ~ 6 months / yr) can be had direct from local Indian Fisheries for $3/#
Wild berries free
Edible landscape 6 mo / yr (300# of blueberries each yr) for food and barter
We are very lucky in USA to have inexpensive raw food.
We are very challenged in our USA health / lifestyle / medical costs to have inexpensive fast food.
After working in Europe for a yr... (2-4 hr / day eating LONG duration $$$$ meals) I was ready for a $1/ Whopper & 10 min lunch break. (and to LEAVE work at 3pm, rather than to be coming back from lunch @ 3pm !) Not healthy, not wise, but as a farmer I don't like burning daylight 'eating!'
As a retiree, I even LESS like to sit around eating when there are so many other choices. Must be in my genes, as my 86 yo mom demo'ed a Retirement center for 3 months. She went back home claiming she was wasting too much time hanging around eating with old people while they complained about everything. It was causing my mom to get depressed and / or go postal. SHe had an ideal set-up with nice 'remote' cottage with a great mtn and lake view, BUT... it was those meals that were killing her. (Time and health)
Living in rural Ohio, my experiences are closer to Serious Conversation’s than to GeoffD’s. Yes, there are Wal-Mart super-centers, and even Krogers. But fresh produce is expensive. Buying citrus, apples, bananas, green peppers, grapes, green onions, mushrooms, pears and peaches – filling 3 plastic grocery bags – costs around $30-40, with weekly substitutions, depending on what’s on sale. If I munch on fruit throughout the workday, and use the onions and mushrooms as part of cooking dinner, those bags last maybe 5-6 days. I end up spending $200/month on fruits/veggies alone – never mind meat, bread or starch (rice, potatoes, pasta). That buys a lot of fast-food hamburgers, were I to choose that option.
We have one of those “gourmet” Krogers nearby. Even on sale, deli meat (ham etc.) is around $7/pound. My typical lunch is a half-pound of ham, maybe a quarter loaf of bread and the aforementioned fruits/veggies. Lunch works out to around $8/day… and that’s brown-bagging it.
The economies that people are able to achieve on their grocery bills, are truly astounding to me. I don’t consider myself to be poor, but easily 50% of my after-tax budget goes to food – and that is assuming zero dining-out, zero alcohol (OK, maybe one grocery-store 6-pack per month) and zero lobster/steak type of items.
Then again, I fail to understand how people can spend more than $50/month on their electric bill. Or pay for the inestimable privilege of watching television.
Addendum: there's currently an active thread - though I forget on which subforum - about food production in the California vs. the Midwest. I'm surrounded by farms; there's a farm literally across the road from my house. But it's all corn or soybean, corn or soybean. And the corn isn't even intended for human consumption. Our peas and carrots, our beets and onions, which in principle could all flourish locally, are trucked from California - or abroad. I am more likely to find fruits/veggies from Chile than from Chillicothe (a nearby town). So here we are, living in America's bread-basket, where there's no local wheat for making bread. Funny thing, modernity....
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