Comments on: Man spends $30 on food for a month

By: Luis

Luis — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:33:26 +0000

I live with my mother, I’m 20 and I pay $50 every month for food. That’s about it, I worry not about it! But perhaps the most we spend is on other stuff.

By: Teri

Teri — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:51:59 +0000

$30 is possible. I used to be a single mom of two. I had no car, walked to the grocery store with my sons, cooked from scratch, and did NOT receive food stamps. I held a full-time, minimum wage job. It is possible to eat on so little per person. Perhaps those of us with Starbucks addictions (myself included nowadays) wouldn’t mind surprising a single parent with a bag or two of groceries every now and then. Just a thought.

By: Amy K.

Amy K. — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:56:45 +0000

I saw a few comments above from people who have gotten by on $30/month or less. Do you or anyone know of a site with a menu plan/meal ideas for that? The closest I've found is the Hillbilly Housewife $45/week emergency menu for a family of 4, which still tops the $7/week/person threshold. I've also been reading through the Tightwad Gazette books lately, so it feels possible, but I can't imagine how to live a month on $30 without gardening, handouts, or other free food.

By: Ade

Ade — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 07:36:33 +0000

I don’t know. But even I who live in a country in which most people live with less than $ 150 income per month find it difficult to spend only $30 on food for a month

By: Enrique

Enrique — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:18:24 +0000

I agree with Ravi. We could cut off the Starbuck coffees, cable and eating out every day.

Invest that money.

By: Trent

Trent — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 21:07:35 +0000

In 1999, I spent $11 on food for a whole month, and I never ate ramen, either. I don’t see what the big deal is.

By: Ravi

Ravi — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 02:28:34 +0000

I just came back from a three week trip in India. It was astonishing how you could get a stellar meal with many different items for about 25 rupees and an ashram or lower-end food stall!

The quantity of food you get for this meager amount was enough to satiate even the most ravenous appetite.

Keep in mind 25 ruppees is about $.60 USD!

If you were dilligent, you could easily have 2-3 decent meals every day for I just came back from a three week trip in India. It was astonishing how you could get a stellar meal with many different items for about 25 rupees and an ashram or lower-end food stall!

The quantity of food you get for this meager amount was enough to satiate even the most ravenous appetite.

Keep in mind 25 ruppees is about $.60 USD!

If you were dilligent, you could easily have 2-3 decent meals every day for <$1/day.

Arriving back in the US today, it made me think about everyone lining up at starbucks ready to blow what would amount to a weeks worth food money for a lower-class worker in India, on a single drink and pastry!

I am not saying $1/day is easy or even possible for everyone in the developed world….but I am sure most of us can save more (or help others in need) by taking a harder look at our own spending patterns and cutting out the “fluff.”

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 05:38:01 +0000

Greg, I only mention these things because I’ve known single moms in these positions and it makes me SICK. I don’t know if they are feeding me lines or if theses things really are problems, but I know they do act on these concerns and it creates even bigger problems.

Maybe a frazzled, stressed, bone-tired single parent CAN drag their petulant, whiny 8-year old with a serious case of the I Wants to to a supermarket half a mile away without a car after 8 hours of work and a 3 hour commute on public transportation and then come home and cook in a disaster of a kitchen that they’ve never had time to clean . . . I wouldn’t know, I’ve never tried it . . . but if they don’t believe that they can, does it really make much of a difference?

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 22:33:53 +0000

Anonymous #11,
Yeah, I guess it might not work if you are homeless and dont have access to a kitchen or jobless and have no money at all to “put money down” for food, no bank account, etc.

I have never had to have childcare for grocery shopping.

A lot of your post seems like grasping for excuses, but I agree about the access to grocery stores part. Unfortunately a lot of communities seek to ban stores that save poor people money on fresh food for political reasons ( while at the same time these people like to try to claim they are all about helping poor people).

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 07:45:28 +0000

I have to agree with both Kat and Marie. I’ve gotten by on home-made soup, oatmeal and simple spinach or cucumber salads for less than $7 a week . . . and I’ve actually IMPRESSED dates with this food.

However, there are a lot more elements to eating like a poor person than just money for food: access to a kitchen and kitchen equipment, dealing with children’s impossible palates, access to real grocery stores, ability to cash a paycheck at a real grocery store, ability to put money down for the food up front, what food stamps and vouchers will and won’t pay for, child care during real grocery shopping . . . not to mention access to shopping and cooking knowledge.