Comments on: Food and personal finance are similar

By: jana

jana — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:56:47 +0000

you well have a point here. i have some experience on this. i have sarted dieting last year as mentioned elsewhere. in 2007 i was keeping a budget and doing pretty good with my finance. but my calories were out of control. in 2008 i have desided i need to shed weight so i worked on it, but soon after i was just unable to stick to my budget – counting both cals and money was too much at that time, and healthy weight was a priority.
at the end of 2008 i did some planning so i hope 2009 is a year when i will be able to handle both, but sure will need to learn a lot, and to read many blogs and articles as motivation – having control of both finance and food is harder that just doing one (but i am sure if i stick to it the results will be fabulous)

By: Joe Bassett

Joe Bassett — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:30:41 +0000

Americans are so fat and stupid. That’s why our airlines can’t make money and they can in Europe. Americans are 50 lbs fatter on average. The airlines should charge fat people more money to fly. The airlines claim if they cut just one lb from their flights they save 13,000 gallons of fuel. So just think how much it cost to fly a plane with 200 Americans weighing 10,000 lbs more than Europeans. The airlines will figure this out. Also, McDonald’s is the worst place to eat in the world. A big gulp soda has 40 teaspoons of sugar. A family of five eats lunch at McDonald’s the cost $40 and the food is junk. Here’s a better tip. If you’re leaving home and you know you won’t be home for lunch just pack a sensible lunch. Also in the hot Summer pack a cooler with Gatorade or water. If not you’ll buy the big gulp. If you are caught away from home and you need to eat lunch go to Dollar General and get a can of corned beef, jar of pickles and can of spinach and apple sauce. A family of five could eat at Dollar General for $12.00. Americans are lazy. When you go to Pizza Hut you eat the junk and then have to leave a tip. I would love to see all the Fast food restaurants go out of business.

By: Joe Bassett

Joe Bassett — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:22:42 +0000

My mother comes from the old school. She doesn’t feel like she’s eaten well unless she gets out the frying pan or turn the oven on everyday. In the summer eat big salads that you have grown in your garden and you’ll save a ton. IN Europe everyone grows a garden. Those people hardly go to the grocery store. They can’t afford it and we see that we cna’t afford food prices that we have now, either. There is alternatives, grow a garden, it’s fun and cheap. http://www.georgehayduke.com

By: Joe Bassett

Joe Bassett — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:19:47 +0000

If you have a chicken plant near you and you can afford it buy a thousand lbs of chicken and split it up between your family members. Grow a garden already. Now tomatoes are a dollar a piece. No matter how high food gets seeds stay the same price. Processed foods are junk food anyway. If you have a fish plant by a thousand lbs of fish and split between your family members. Grow a big garden that many family members can take care of. Walking in a grocery store and buying processed foods is like bending over and taking it big time. Grocery stores are a rip off. BUy at smaller stores that don’t sell kosher foods marked with the K or U.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:44:11 +0000

Wow…people complaining about food prices??? why i do agree that it sucks to pay more for healthy foods.. i spend about $300 a MONTH on food.

Thats about $10/day.

I eat healthy, am in great shape. And (including snacks) I eat about 6 meals a day. (some of which might be as easy as a handful of almonds).

Skip all foods with High fructose corn syrup, sugar, beached wheats, trans fats.. etc

I eat mostly chicken, veggies, oatmeal, fruits, cottage cheese, almonds, cashews, tuna fish… etc.
Almonds are $7.99/lb at the grocery store.. but Amazon has them for $4.50/lb… buy smart
I save about $3/lb on chicken by getting it from costco…

stop using the $$$ as a cop out to eating healthy. i guarantee most people spend more on candy each month than they do whole grains.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:33:52 +0000

I enjoyed this post, and I snicker because I have recently become perhaps more obsessed with my calorie counting than my finances (which I keep well, but not at the detail I’m tracking calories now!).

I found a website that allows me to keep a daily diary of calories and exercise The site is motivational about consistency (they give you badges) and has a rich community that has populated the database quite well, making it easy to know the caloric intake. Arguably the reason people probably don’t really know what they’re consuming is that the information isn’t always easily obtained (the website helps). Using a dietary system/tool is essential, just as it is for finance.

My favorite statistic is how many servings are in a basket of Island’s french fries: 4.5 (I have been known to eat one by myself). Each serving: 420 (that’s almost 2000 calories I was eating!).

By: june

june — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 13:43:54 +0000

On emore solution: Forage and freeze. Bargains galore but watch out for contaminated sites.

By: Lee Walmach

Lee Walmach — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 04:18:20 +0000

#6, McDonalds USED to be fast and cheap, now it’s slow and expensive .

By: hypatia

hypatia — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 17:03:30 +0000

@John

You’re crazy… Going to restaurant takes a lot of time: driving, parking, ordering, waiting, eating, waiting for the *&%#ing check… etc. It’s fun when going out with friends, tedious otherwise.

@everyone else

Now, on to tacos. Leave it to gringos to make tacos expensive. I buy fresh corn tacos in 30-packs and refrigerate them. Cheap, easy lunches all month. I use chicken as filling (ground beef is so school cafeteria). That’s the most expensive part since I usually get tenders instead of cooking it from raw. A little ground cheese (even cheapass mozzarella works), any veggies I have in the house (peppers are most authentic anyway), frozen peas and corn if I don’t have fresh veggies, an avocado if I can get it (sometimes as little as 99c–you’ll pay more than that for guac at Chipotle), and spices–free! Okay, so I did have to buy them… once. I get large packs of fresh, tasty mexican spices from the ethnic store. Badia is a good brand, often in actual supermarket. Why would anyone buy “taco seasoning” packs? Ugh! Get “chili powder” mix, or use cumin, cinnamon, cayenne and a little tumeric for fun.

Also, you can buy kidney beans in the can and mash them with a fork. This reduces the gas and is much cheaper than refried beans. Just add ground cumin to give them the “mexican” taste.

Sour cream is too expensive, too fatty, and goes bad. If I put a lot of hot pepper in my tacos, I add a dollop of plain yogurt. If you use clean spoons to dish out the plain yogurt, the tub will last longer than you think.

I eat microwave “tacos” almost every day for lunch. They are cheap, delicious, and satisfying. You taco shell, canned salsa, and seasoning mix purchasers are being ripped off big time!

By: John

John — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 06:08:39 +0000

looking over these replies, I see a distinct lack of ccounting for the value of time spent on either activity – i.e. the value of the time (and labor) spent acquiring and preparing food vs. the time spent on buying “junk food”.

Some prefer to eschew Jeff’s “simple” 6 step process
for an even simpler 3 step process:

1) Order food

2) Eat food

3) Repeat (as needed)