
How To Live (Comfortably) on $36 A Month For Food - markbao
http://andrewhyde.net/how-to-live-comfortably-on-36-a-month-for-food/
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physcab
Something that always amazes me is how people are willing to sacrifice quite a
bit when it comes to monthly food costs, when in reality these costs are
incredibly low compared to the benefits you get (nutrition and health). Why
don't people reconsider getting trashed on Friday and Saturday nights, where
bar bills can run up to $20/night or find less convenient housing and save
themselves $50/month. Or how about getting rid of the non-essentials like
cable, internet, or a car. IMHO food is the one monthly cost that you should
not cut corners, because the long term effects have actual measurable
detriments to your personal well-being.

~~~
kingkawn
Super-mega-lol at $20/night as bar costs. Maybe if you and your date have a
drink each.

~~~
physcab
I live in Gainesville, Fl which is pretty much the cheapest place to live and
drink, and $20 is still the norm. $4 cover + 3 beers x $4.00 a piece + $4 tip
= $20. Now, recently I found a good bar without a cover charge and if I drink
straight Old Milwaukee then I can do 4 x $2.00 + $4.00 tip = $12.00. Even so,
doing this once a week is about $48.00/month which is more than the OP paid in
food costs per a month.

~~~
nfg
3 Beers = Getting Trashed?

~~~
physcab
Hey, I'm your stereotypical thin and tall, nerdy hacker. However, when my bi-
monthly stipend allows me, I will indulge a whiskey on the rocks and build my
tolerance :)

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edw519
Big mistake.

A better title would be, "How to sacrifice you health for money." No thanks.

I can be cheap with a lot of things, but not with the food I put into my body.
The kind of diet OP proposes may work OK for a while. The younger you are, the
more resilient you probably are, so that can be quite a while. But sooner or
later, especially if you're a little bit older, you will be trading quality of
life for a few bucks.

AFAIC, the best possible use for limited resources is excellent food. This
first thing this means is fresh produce, which, frankly is difficult to find
"on sale". OP's advice to eat at home is excellent, OTOH, I'd rather spend 7
bucks on a restaurant salad bar than 3 bucks for a home cooked highly
processed meal.

Almost everything in life, including work, is a marathon, not a sprint. I
intend to be just as strong at any point in that marathon with proper
lifestyle, especially nutritional excellence. Saving $ intelligently is always
smart. Sacrificing potential health and well being for a few hundred dollars
per month is just not a good idea.

Pass.

~~~
andrewhyde
Most of the meals I listed are actually pretty balanced. If I listed 'eat mac
and cheese and dollar menu items' I would be right with you, but salads, eggs,
PB&J and rice and beef are pretty good staples to build any diet off of.

I'm not advocating anyone goes near as far as I did, but something to keep in
mind for that friend that eats like shit out every night spending 10x what you
could by making a healthier option at home.

~~~
edw519
I'm one of those "nuts" who insists that fresh produce comprises about 80% of
what I eat, so that's my major source of disagreement. I have never found a
way to eat like this for even 5x what you're recommending. Salads and frest
fruit are definitely good staples to build any diet of. Eggs, PB&J, rice, and
beef, OTOH are compromises. But that's another whole debate outside the scope
of hn.

If I ate like most people then $36/month sounds difficult, but achieveable.
But I don't and I wouldn't advocate changing away from eating excellence to
save money.

~~~
maggie
I've been able to eat a diet of 80%+ fresh produce on $90/month.

A lot of it involved getting the reduced-almost-bad produce and cooking it
day-of, state-level farmer's markets, and dumpster diving, though. Plus, being
a college student where every week you can find something free...

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pmichaud
The numbers you're using sound wrong now. In the last year or maybe 2 years
food prices have skyrocketed. I'll go to store to pick up a few things and end
up with a bag or two of groceries, and the bill is like $100 -- I know I could
scrimp and figure out ways to spend less, but it wasn't always like that. The
same stuff costs way more now.

If you want to talk about really healthy food, especially if you have a
strange diet like veganism, then forget it, your bill will be huge.

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HeyLaughingBoy
No, you're just buying the wrong things. If I walk out of the store with $100
of groceries for my family of 3, it's an entire shopping cart full of food and
lasts for weeks!

4-5 lbs of "on sale" meat, 10 lbs of bread flour, 5 lbs of sugar, 2 lbs of
cheddar, a gallon of milk, cereal (from local mill, not the national brand
stuff), vegetables, butter and lunch meat will cost around $60 here in the
Upper Midwest. But if I spend that $60 on mostly processed food, I will barely
get two grocery bags full.

With a bit of land you can go further. I keep chickens for fresh eggs, but I
realize most people can't do that. However, my potatoes, corn, carrots,
broccoli, squash, pumpkins, salad greens and some herbs come fresh out of the
garden so for summer/fall at least, I don't buy those things.

~~~
pmichaud
This is pretty much what I mean. You buy fairly average food, but I wouldn't
touch most of what you mentioned with a barge pole.

Meat? No. White Flour? No! Sugar? Hell no! Chedder? Maybe a little. Milk?
Maybe, but expensive. Cereal? Probably not, unless it's real like granola or
muesli, in which case it's expensive. Veggies? of course, but those also cost.
Butter? Maybe a little. Lunch meat? No.

Try doing without white rice, sugar and pasta, and getting fresh greens and
fruits, whole grain everything, brown rice, etc. Even if you make a lot of it
from scratch, it adds up.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
There's a huge amount of "food fear" going on in this country (USA).

What exactly is nutritionally wrong with white flour, sugar and meat (unless
you're vegetarian)? In any case, I probably have 3-4 different kinds of flour
in my pantry right now, plus wheat germ flakes. And the bread I'll be eating
tomorrow will be home made sourdough. I'm neither fat nor malnourished.

What's a "real" cereal? This morning my 8 year-old son asked to make his own
breakfast. He had Malt-O-Meal (a local Minnesota mill) raisin bran. Is that
"real?" Generic corn flakes and oatmeal are probably the cheapest cereals on
the market. Are they real? If you like granola so much, buy the oatmeal, honey
& nuts and make it yourself. It's simple and infinitely cheaper!

To the earlier comment about organic vs. "pesticide ridden crap." Newsflash!
Organic farming also uses pesticides, just different ones. That said, my
veggies (pesticide free and fertilized with our chicken & horse manure
compost) are no more nutritious than the (non-organic) ones in the grocery
store. The difference is that the freshness makes them taste better and
improves the texture.

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TrevorJ
I a lot of people are suggesting that this diet is not healthy, but I'm not
convinced.

Eggs, salads, veggies, fruits, rice, beans, cheeses, beef...As long as things
are taken in the correct quantities I see very little problem here, am I
wrong?

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lutorm
To me, I'd just be suspicious of anything sold at those prices. You're a
bottom feeder on the dregs of the food-industrial complex, and that can't be
good.

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jonknee
No, you're just buying at the right time and in bulk. Grocery stores run tight
margins and frequent loss leaders. Just because someone at the grocery store
over bought and has to run a sale doesn't make you a bottom feeder. It's the
same food everyone else is getting.

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luccastera
A trick I learned from a friend while in grad school. When they have football
games, walk around the tailgate parties right before the game is about to
start, people will almost pay you to take their extra food so that they can
get to the game. And it's usually pretty good food...

For better results, go next to the ones thrown by corporations. They usually
order too much food and the employees do not care and do not want to bring the
food back home.

Oh.. and bring an empty backpack :)

~~~
aardvarkious
I had a friend in college who went everywhere with two tupperware containers.
When he was asked whether or not he wanted left overs he would feign a no, but
as soon as he was asked a second time he would say "I guess so" and pull out
his tupperware.

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notaddicted
It is important to think about eating in terms of return on investment. You
can spend more money on better food (you can also spend more money on worse
food) and get better overall fitness and alertness and performance in general
from your body. The important thing to know is what is the cost and what is
the benefit.

Nutrition is a vast science.

* All carbs are not equal.

* All fat is not equal.

* All protein is not equal. Beans are not meat.

~~~
WilliamLP
> Nutrition is a vast science.

It ought to be treated as a science but often it isn't. If you ask 100
nutrition experts how much protein a person should get in a day, you're not
going to get a consensus based on empirical evidence, but drastically
different answers and emotional passions bordering on the religious.

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splat
As a poor college student I'm currently on a food budget of < $40 per month. I
rarely buy anything but bread, bacon, peanut butter, cheese, bananas, eggs,
yogurt, and butter. It's a bit monotonous, but I was surprised how quickly I
got used to it.

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RyanMcGreal
Try replacing some of that with seasoned brown rice and beans. It will be
cheaper, healthier and (depending on what spices you use) tastier.

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splat
That's a good idea, I'll try that. Thanks!

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dbr
My favorite thing to add to rice is curry powder. Gives the rice a completely
new flavor. If you have peanuts add those, too.

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DanielStraight
Or you could walk next door and mow your neighbor's lawn for $10 (at that
rate, who would refuse?). Focus on earning more, not spending less.

~~~
klipt
Unless of course you're an international student, in which case earning more
is illegal, while spending less isn't.

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yan
Wouldn't exactly call it 'Comfortably'

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noodle
executive summary: base your meals around cheap food staples, such as rice,
beans, oats. buy other cheap things, use coupons and buy expiring food in
order to spice up each meal.

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dugmartin
Or go wash dishes/clean up the back of the house for a hour or so every day in
a restaurant in exchange for breakfast and dinner. You'll eat a lot better.

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fauigerzigerk
Where I live you die from eating deeply discounted ground beef a month after
buying it :)

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bendotc
Do you live in a place without freezers?

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fauigerzigerk
No, but I bought my freezer for $36 ;-)

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gcheong
The part about dumpster diving reminded me of when I used to help a friend of
mine slop his pigs. He had arrangements with a few restaurants and old folks
homes for their leftover food and we would drive around, pick it up in these
large plastic garbage bins and feed it to his pigs. It would always surprise
me when he would often pick over the food before we gave it to the pigs,
looking for things like chicken legs which he would summarily devour. I never
could bring myself to do it.

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tybris
Spending all that time working seems to be much more economical.

I just eat bread in the morning and afternoon and cook a different meal every
night. Probably comes down to about $20 a week. I could eat for less that
$0.75 if I want to, but I don't.

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stinkytaco
Bread machine. Pick one up at a thrift store for a couple of dollars. Thrift
stores always have bread machines because people love to buy them but never
use them.

Put the ingredients in the bread maker, let the maker raise the bread and then
throw the loaf in the oven to cook. Great bread for pennies.

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kingkawn
This is absolutely doable, but when life is stressing theres nothing like an
extravagant meal to bring back some cheer. It doesn't have to be eating out,
home-cooked is fine, but rib-eye ain't cheap either way.

Green olives, goat cheese, and crackers really do melt away my troubles.

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Devils-Avacado
"PB+J can be priced at $.25...Rice cakes and cheese was a favorite. "

PB+J and Rice cakes = Living comfortably?

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Goladus
Just curious how many calories in a typical day? That diet definitely looks
very lean to me. One box of spaghetti is usually enough for 1.5 meals for me,
if that. If I'm working out I'll eat an entire box in one evening.

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truebosko
$36 a month is a nice number. It peaked my curiosity but he goes through a lot
of work and his food suggestions basically mean you're going to miss out on a
lot of delicious flavours.

I understand the premise but .. meh :)

~~~
alanthonyc
"piqued"

...sorry...

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csomar
food is very expensive those days, i live in tunisia and i estimate it (my
spending) to $100/month

I like to eat and spend on eating, i think it's better than spending it on
some kind of mobile phones; isn't eating better.

so $36 only if you don't have money: the poor, however a hacker can write few
articles or code few lines and get an easy $150 a month and feed himself well;

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xenophanes
a lot of comments focussing on health. one other issue is that finding all the
best deals and using coupons takes time. if you treat it like a salary, maybe
you could beat minimum wage(?), but it's not a good salary by any means.

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eli
...for varying definitions of "comfortable" and ignoring certain opportunity
costs

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ojbyrne
Except for breakfast, every meal seems to be above his own 33 cents/meal
budget.

~~~
andrewhyde
slightly, which is made up with a few skipped meals where someone else is
providing.

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Mz
I wish. I'm in the "eat well to avoid (huge) medical bills" crowd.

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Mz
I don't see what the problem is with my comment. It's a sincere comment. I
wish I could substantially cut my food bill. But I have a serious medical
condition and have gotten off multiple prescription drugs in part by changing
my diet (and doing a lot of research on what works for my particular
condition). I know lots of people with my condition who are taking several
thousand dollars a month in prescription drugs -- more than my monthly income
in some cases. What I spend on food is high but it's cheaper than the
alternative.

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tzury
why not spending these efforts finding a side job which will add to your
income $36 a day? This way you can eat anything you want as much as you want.

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thedjpetersen
Wow! Its cheaper than buying taco bell every day!

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vuvtytivlui
Quiet, if the rest of America realizes that - our plans for world domination
are over.

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rawr
I stopped reading when he suggested dumpster diving.

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aplusbi
I've gone dumpster diving on a couple of occasions with some friends of mine.
I actually think most people should, at the very least, watch other people
dumpster dive at least once. You will be absolutely amazed at the amount of
perfectly good food that gets thrown out.

Go to a bakery right after they close. There will be garbage bags full of
bread (and nothing but bread so it's relatively sanitary) that was baked that
day. Even if you don't eat any, it will probably change your perception of
waste.

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vuvtytivlui
When I was a poor starving student and worked in a supermarket the managers
had to put all the expired cakes and cookies in the trash compactor to stop
workers taking them. Not sure if this was so we would buy from the store
instead or in case we sued if we got ill

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scndhndsmk
I believe the reason is actually to avoid intentional over production. If the
employees know that they'll be able to take home any left overs, then why not
bake a few extra cakes... that kind of stuff.

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thras
Too many carbs, not enough protein and fat.

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bendotc
Easy to fix: buy dried pinto beans and lard. Soak the pintos in water over
night. The next day, pour off the water and simmer them in fresh water for
about an hour. Strain your beans, put them in a pan (or cast-iron skillet),
and pour liquid lard over top of them until the fat is about half-way up the
beans. Cook over medium heat until the beans have exploded out of their skins.
Now, take a potato masher to them. If they're too dry, add more fat. Season to
taste.

Refried beans are a great source of protein, fat, and flavor, and are one of
the cheapest foods around. Pair it with some rice and vegetables and you've
got a pretty nutritious meal (assuming you need all those calories).

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thras
You'll be eating 2 grams of carbohydrate for every gram of protein that you
get that way. Sure, getting your carbs from beans is not nearly as bad for you
as getting them from sugar, but there are much higher quality, and more
expensive, protein sources that one should prefer.

Then again, medical bills are expensive too.

~~~
bendotc
Honestly, I don't really buy into the idea that getting your protein from a
mix of beans and grains will somehow cause you to end up making up the cost
difference in medical bills due to the amount of carbohydrates you're
ingesting, given the huge number of people on this earth who do so and who
appear to have perfectly fine results from this sort of diet. Just make sure
you're getting some exercise (which you should be doing regardless of your
diet).

That all having been said, tofu can be quite cost effective, low in carbs, and
high in protein. Of course, you might tell me there's aggression issues
associated with tofu ingestion, and that it contains chemicals that mimic
estrogen. So, there's seitan, which is also high in protein, low in carbs, and
can be made relatively cheaply from wheat gluten in bulk. Of course, there are
lots of people who decry wheat gluten as well, not to mention people who're
legitimately allergic to it.

So that brings us to meat and fish. Meat often comes along with saturated fats
and often raises your blood's LDL cholesterol levels, not to mention all the
health, environmental, and ethical concerns of factory farming. You could take
part in a co-op for your meat, but that is not going to enable you to eat for
especially cheap. Fish is generally better in the fat and cholesterol
departments, but many carry with them mercury content that makes a lot of
people nervous and the threat of overfishing. There are fish that avoid most
of these concerns, such as tilapia, which fit most of the criteria, but is
still not anywhere close to as price effective as dried beans.

If you don't want to get your protein from beans, that's fine. I personally
advocate people pay a little more and eat a healthy, varied diet, including
many (or all) of the above-mentioned dangerous foods. But this crap about
"medical bills are expensive too" implying that somehow eating an incredibly
traditional and largely vegetarian diet will send you to the hospital is just
ridiculous.

~~~
thras
Traditionally, poor people who couldn't afford meat have been much worse off
health-wise. And the biggest health decline in human history occurred when we
switched from hunter-gathering lifestyles to farming (see Jared Diamond).
Further, the Keyes hypothesis about the dangers of fats -- weren't you the one
suggesting refined beans? -- are not well supported (see Gary Taubes).

~~~
bendotc
Poor people who couldn't afford meat have been much worse off health-wise
because they weren't eating well in general, because they don't have access to
medicine, because they don't have access to supplies for hygene.

Put another way: poor people are worse off for a great number of reasons, but
I don't think that proves that rice and beans will kill you.

Jarad Diamond (among others) showed that switching to civilized society
shortened lifespans. You're not advocating becoming a hunter-gatherer and
neither am I, so it's not really germane. Civilized society has a lot of
factors that contribute to earlier death, such as population density helping
the spread of disease. To draw from his work that carbohydrates will send you
to the hospital is to draw a totally unsupported conclusion.

"Weren't you the one suggesting refined beans?" I was the one who replied with
a recipe when you suggested that the diet was lacking fat and protein.

You don't address the issues of cost and you still haven't shown that the
level of carbohydrates present in beans are a problem. My point is that most
foods present trade-offs and you should probably eat a reasonably balanced and
varied diet.

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smithjchris
Get a bicycle, stop commuting and grow your own food.

Works for me. Costs virtually nothing. Keeps you fit and healthy. Provides 75%
of our food needs.

Also stop the guilt complex on quality, organic foods and branded goods.
People give you evil looks if you pick up the "value eggs" in Tesco in the UK.
"Think of the chickens" they chant. Fuck the chickens.

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lucifer
Poor kid. Went through all that trouble to get some schoolin' and he still
can't write proper English.

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sidburgess
So this is how the Japanese save so much money.

~~~
sidburgess
This comment wasn't meant to be derogatory. That is effectively their diet and
they are some of the best savers in the world.

