How much does good food cost?

Bernadette60614

Re: The waste factor..I hear you. We tried fresh produce entirely and let's just say that the hamsters at school got some nice treats (hamsters aren't all that picky it seems.)

We put frozen veggies and fresh apples, oranges, pears and other fruits in season. We put huge generic bags of blueberries for smoothies because they are usually reasonable year round and they are one of those super antioxidant foods.

We buy foods like canned tomatoes, canned pumpkin, canned beans, canned veggie soups off Amazon in cases.

I'm for healthy and sustainable. If I can't sustain fresh veggies, I'm going to frozen ones.

Fit_Fox88

I live in North Carolina. I went grocery shopping yesterday, these are some of the things I bought:

1 dozen tangelos - 2 dollars
Pre-cut fresh pineapple - 2.50 for 1 lb
10 lb bag of potatoes - 3 dollars
10 lb bag of chicken - 6 dollars
1 lb of grapes - 1.39
1 gallon of milk - 2.50
1 whole cabbage - 1.50

Total : $18.89

This isn't what I'm eating all week. I have other stuff at home. I just needed to grab a few more things. But this is a lot of food. If I was the only person in my house, it would last me a week or more.

Where do you shop?!?!??! 10lb bag of chicken for $6?? I pay that for a 3lb store brand when it's on sale, $7 if it's not. Milk is almost $4 here.. although I've seen my grocery bill go up considerably, and the fact that I seem to go shopping every week and spend the same amount of money or more than the previous trip, I don't mind it. I know I'm making better choices and meals and I'm happy with that. The extra $20-$30 is worth it.

eddiesmith1

I recently moved out to live on my own for the first time. I have learned how to grocery shop on a budget. Of course healthier food may cost more then a $1.00 cheeseburger. But i buy my fruits and veggies in bulk and they won't go bad because i use them. I also buy my meat in bulk. I think it is a choice that has to be made. You can either feel bad about the way you look or feel, or you can spend a little extra money and eat healthy. I have only been eating healthy for about 2 weeks and i have already lost 11 pounds. I have found that since i cut out bad foods and replaced them with health foods, i am actually saving money because i am not drinking soda, water is free, and i am not wasting $7-$8 a meal on fast food. When i buy the health stuff in bulk and prepare my meals, in the long run i am actually saving money. Eating healthy can be done on a budget. Im living it.

the $1 cheeseburger is rarely $1 though because people have fries and a large soda with it. all of a sudden it's $5 the extras have insanely low cost to the shop so the average profit is still high. make the same yourself with the same crappy grade of product and it will be cheaper, or the same price with better quality product . Jamie Oliver has done an interesting series in the UK where he teaches people how to make the most common takeaways foods cheaper and better. For people who struggle with cooikng and shopping properly it is a great series jmaies 30 minute meals (the timing being a big part because the common excuse is I don't have time to make a meal takeaway is faster - it's not really and it costs way more)

HarrietSabre

Good food costs a lot less than the healthcare required by people who eat poorly.

ok, enough joking around, even if it is true

I feed my teen daughter and myself a local organic vegan diet for about $75/week.

Long Live The NHS - I can eat burgers all I want!

Also, our healthy food is actually quite cheap here in the UK. Avocados have gone down a lot in price recently because I'm guessing they are getting transported in bigger loads. They used to be £1 ($1.6) each, today I got 4 for £1.75 ($2.20ish). Bananas are pennies. Lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, spring onions etc., normally about 50p per "pack" (so a lettuce, 4-6 tomatoes etc) Lots of Asian supermarkets popping up too so you can get a wide variety of noodles and things that are better than the standard (and disgusting) egg noodles we used to get. Fish should be cheaper because we're an island but we export like 70% of it, but a lot of the less popular fish types are cheap, like hake, trout, squid etc. Also remember I think our average wage is a bit higher, so £1 would probably equal $1 in actual buying power in some places. I bought about 2 weeks worth of fresh vegetables, cheeses, noodles and fish, as well as 4 weeks worth of frozen quorn, chicken, steak and cereal, falafel mix etc., (making around 3 weeks food total) for about £40.

Since we're talking about apples, it's £3 for 8 pink ladies (one of the most expensive) or 70p for a bag of about 7 of the cheapest.

Also if you're reading this in the UK and you're wondering how I did it - I used to think healthy food was more expensive too, but I set myself a challenge this month. I shop at ASDA (95% of it), Lidl/Aldi, markets and a local greengrocers and Asian supermarket.

Cripes - where in the UK are you?! My average weekly shop is £40 for one person in Central London - and that's being very frugal. My flatmates spend a lot more than that. Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber etc certainly aren't £0.50/pack here... 50p *might* get you one banana. No easily-accessible Lidl's/Aldis, or ASDAs in my part of town, and the time-cost is too high to spend hours running around town for indivdidual items at the cheapest price, but even then, I'd be very suprised if I could do three weeks of food for £40, unless I became vegan!

I'm in Oxford, so it's not the cheapest. Used to live in Lancaster, definitely noticed an increase when I moved here. I do actually go out of my way to go to ASDA (as Oxford itself is too posh to have one!) but yep, it's 50p for a cucumber or an iceburg lettuce, think it's 70p or so for 6 tomatoes. See if they deliver to you on their website? All my friends shop at Tescos and spend a *lot* more than I do...

eddiesmith1

I live in North Carolina. I went grocery shopping yesterday, these are some of the things I bought:

1 dozen tangelos - 2 dollars
Pre-cut fresh pineapple - 2.50 for 1 lb
10 lb bag of potatoes - 3 dollars
10 lb bag of chicken - 6 dollars
1 lb of grapes - 1.39
1 gallon of milk - 2.50
1 whole cabbage - 1.50

Total : $18.89

This isn't what I'm eating all week. I have other stuff at home. I just needed to grab a few more things. But this is a lot of food. If I was the only person in my house, it would last me a week or more.

Where do you shop?!?!??! 10lb bag of chicken for $6?? I pay that for a 3lb store brand when it's on sale, $7 if it's not. Milk is almost $4 here.. although I've seen my grocery bill go up considerably, and the fact that I seem to go shopping every week and spend the same amount of money or more than the previous trip, I don't mind it. I know I'm making better choices and meals and I'm happy with that. The extra $20-$30 is worth it.

Agreed 10 pounds of chicken for $6?? aside from the fact that almost certainly these are nastily raised battery chickens (the conditions are almost enough to make me a vegetarian and I will eat any meat and am willing to kill it to do so) the other trick to getting the cost down is water, they soak these builk packs in water salt and antibacterials which can double the true weight so you may look like you are saving but maybe not as much as you think. We have the same bags of crappy meat at all the low cost groceries 0 the steaks are actually glued together scraps made to look like strip-loins for example. I want good prices but I won't buy any of that crappy mass produced meat myself. By shopping sales and carefully I can get air chilled free reange chicken for close to $2 a pound on a regular basis (usually the whole bird but i just butcher it myself and make stock with the trimmings - I haven't bought pre-made stock of any sort in 20+ years) OTOH I buy Food for a hotel for a living so I'm very aware of food costing and qualities.

HarrietSabre

Hi,

I was wondering now and then why people complained about the costs of dieting..
Now a new fried wrote that he has to pay 3 dollars for an apple?!?!?

Well, I really hope it is not like this everywhere...
I live in Italy, and I lived in the UK, and the food is by no means as expensive as that...

So, my questions, out of curiosity... how much does "good" food cost where you live?
Fresh fruit and vegs, chicken and pork meat, legumes, potatoes, rice...

Do you really find that eating healthy is more expensive than not?

If by good you mean unprocessed foods, they are always cheaper than prepared processed foods on a per portion basis - of course many people can't cook. Having spent time in Italy, the UK and much of the rest of Europe in fact your food prices are generally higher than north America (and I live in Canada which costs more than most of the US) there are differences though in Europe people seem more willing to pay for quality food, and it's reflected in the markets (the UK less than France/Italy/Spain etc)
people in north america want to spend as little as possible on food and that drives down quality IMO. It's changing but that takes time. I'm more Value Conscious than looking for the lowest price I start by eating what's in season locally and resort to imports onl;uy when local isn't available or is too limited (winter in other words)
I'm old enough to remember eating local and seasonally as the norm, now with the big agra worldwide industry anything is available any time often at the expense of the countries and people growing it. $2 a pound chilean strawberries in mid winter are cheaper than the local strawberries at the height of the season in june here. that's just insane.

Markets in the UK went quiet for a little while at the beginning of the 2000s, but now everyone is more interested in good food (because of the celebrity chefs?), so they're *everywhere* now. My housemate went to our local one on Monday and paid around £10 for 12 potatoes, a load of carrots, onions, parsnips, a bag of apples, tomatoes, and a bunch of other less common stuff...was about 3 carrier bags full anyway! I think sometimes they're not always in the most obvious places anymore... and don't forget that we get Italian AND French (and sometimes even Asian, Spanish and Polish...) markets AS WELL!

eddiesmith1

Hi,

I was wondering now and then why people complained about the costs of dieting..
Now a new fried wrote that he has to pay 3 dollars for an apple?!?!?

Well, I really hope it is not like this everywhere...
I live in Italy, and I lived in the UK, and the food is by no means as expensive as that...

So, my questions, out of curiosity... how much does "good" food cost where you live?
Fresh fruit and vegs, chicken and pork meat, legumes, potatoes, rice...

Do you really find that eating healthy is more expensive than not?

If by good you mean unprocessed foods, they are always cheaper than prepared processed foods on a per portion basis - of course many people can't cook. Having spent time in Italy, the UK and much of the rest of Europe in fact your food prices are generally higher than north America (and I live in Canada which costs more than most of the US) there are differences though in Europe people seem more willing to pay for quality food, and it's reflected in the markets (the UK less than France/Italy/Spain etc)
people in north america want to spend as little as possible on food and that drives down quality IMO. It's changing but that takes time. I'm more Value Conscious than looking for the lowest price I start by eating what's in season locally and resort to imports onl;uy when local isn't available or is too limited (winter in other words)
I'm old enough to remember eating local and seasonally as the norm, now with the big agra worldwide industry anything is available any time often at the expense of the countries and people growing it. $2 a pound chilean strawberries in mid winter are cheaper than the local strawberries at the height of the season in june here. that's just insane.

Markets in the UK went quiet for a little while at the beginning of the 2000s, but now everyone is more interested in good food (because of the celebrity chefs?), so they're *everywhere* now. My housemate went to our local one on Monday and paid around £10 for 12 potatoes, a load of carrots, onions, parsnips, a bag of apples, tomatoes, and a bunch of other less common stuff...was about 3 carrier bags full anyway! I think sometimes they're not always in the most obvious places anymore... and don't forget that we get Italian AND French (and sometimes even Asian, Spanish and Polish...) markets AS WELL!

One of my favourite markets anywhere is in the UK Borough Market in London fantastic. the marylebone market on Sundays is also great.
It's come a long way, When I lived in London (76-77) though there were good and cheap markets (the old east end markets which are so changed i didn't recognize them for instance aside from brick lane which may be very ethnic now but has much the same feel as the old markets

BahamaMama85

The Bahamas is SUPER expensive as we import 85% of everything. On top of the transportation costs that Hawaii has to deal with we have customs duty tax as well. A bag of apples with 7 in it is $8, a gallon of 2% milk is $8 (Silk or Lactaid is $10). There are no coupons. Two persons own all the major grocery stores on the island so there is little competition. Fast food is expensive as well, a two piece combo with fries & a drink at KFC is $9. So I guess you just choose which expensive won't clog your arteries because healthcare is expensive here as well

AsaThorsWoman

The Bahamas is SUPER expensive as we import 85% of everything. On top of the transportation costs that Hawaii has to deal with we have customs duty tax as well. A bag of apples with 7 in it is $8, a gallon of 2% milk is $8 (Silk or Lactaid is $10). There are no coupons. Two persons own all the major grocery stores on the island so there is little competition. Fast food is expensive as well, a two piece combo with fries & a drink at KFC is $9. So I guess you just choose which expensive won't clog your arteries because healthcare is expensive here as well

Geez Louise.

castadiva

Markets in the UK went quiet for a little while at the beginning of the 2000s, but now everyone is more interested in good food (because of the celebrity chefs?), so they're *everywhere* now. My housemate went to our local one on Monday and paid around £10 for 12 potatoes, a load of carrots, onions, parsnips, a bag of apples, tomatoes, and a bunch of other less common stuff...was about 3 carrier bags full anyway! I think sometimes they're not always in the most obvious places anymore... and don't forget that we get Italian AND French (and sometimes even Asian, Spanish and Polish...) markets AS WELL!

One of my favourite markets anywhere is in the UK Borough Market in London fantastic. the marylebone market on Sundays is also great.
It's come a long way, When I lived in London (76-77) though there were good and cheap markets (the old east end markets which are so changed i didn't recognize them for instance aside from brick lane which may be very ethnic now but has much the same feel as the old markets

[/quote]

Borough is great, I agree, but it certainly isn't cheap. None of the London markets I've tried end up coming out any cheaper than the big supermarkets. I lived near Portobello Rd for a while, so did a couple of months of direct cost comparisons. Even shopping at a Tesco Metro ie. more expensive, though just a little, than a larger shop, the markets were more expensive for fruit & veg. For a few specific things, the difference in quality was just about worth the difference in price, but not in general. It might seem less expensive initially, but that's usually because one tends to buy a specific number of items - say six potatoes - rather than picking up a pack of 1kg. Comparing the cost/weight, that apparent reduction in price doesn't bear out, though.

Hannahp1402

Cheapest its ever been for me £50 a week for me partner and 3 year old.

When I minus the £5 Ben and Jerrys and the £20 worth of chocolate, cakes , crisps and fizzy drinks I find its much cheaper. I was buying the good foods all along but just stuffing myself with crap.

I do still buy some of that stuff but I spend about £3 on junk a week. which lasts the whole week. Whereas before all the junk I bought was gone in a couple of days. (And it was me who eat it all, not my three year old who took the blame for a while - terrible parenting lol)

I think it helps to go from place to place and compare - but the cost of food is constantly rising here

elbaldwin0525

Healthier food is more expensive....in the short term but is WAY cheaper in the long term.


$20 of Mcdonalds will last maybe a day while $20 of healthy food could last 5 days depending on various factors

murdledoe

I'm not sure where you would buy an apple for $3.00 at?! Putting that aside, I think cooking clean and eating healthy does cost some what more at the time, but is cheaper by far in the long run. Heart disease, diabetes and cancer will cost you more by far in the long run so why not eat healthier now and pay a little more to help avoid the massive doctor bills that could mount up later from eating unhealthy.

eddiesmith1

Markets in the UK went quiet for a little while at the beginning of the 2000s, but now everyone is more interested in good food (because of the celebrity chefs?), so they're *everywhere* now. My housemate went to our local one on Monday and paid around £10 for 12 potatoes, a load of carrots, onions, parsnips, a bag of apples, tomatoes, and a bunch of other less common stuff...was about 3 carrier bags full anyway! I think sometimes they're not always in the most obvious places anymore... and don't forget that we get Italian AND French (and sometimes even Asian, Spanish and Polish...) markets AS WELL!

One of my favourite markets anywhere is in the UK Borough Market in London fantastic. the marylebone market on Sundays is also great.
It's come a long way, When I lived in London (76-77) though there were good and cheap markets (the old east end markets which are so changed i didn't recognize them for instance aside from brick lane which may be very ethnic now but has much the same feel as the old markets

Borough is great, I agree, but it certainly isn't cheap. None of the London markets I've tried end up coming out any cheaper than the big supermarkets. I lived near Portobello Rd for a while, so did a couple of months of direct cost comparisons. Even shopping at a Tesco Metro ie. more expensive, though just a little, than a larger shop, the markets were more expensive for fruit & veg. For a few specific things, the difference in quality was just about worth the difference in price, but not in general. It might seem less expensive initially, but that's usually because one tends to buy a specific number of items - say six potatoes - rather than picking up a pack of 1kg. Comparing the cost/weight, that apparent reduction in price doesn't bear out, though.

For something like potatoes that last supermarkets are definitely cheaper - though they have a much narrower selection of them - the markets cost more in some cases due to the farmers raising heritage product that may have lower yields but it provides biodiversity so it's a win imo , plus a lot of those varietals taste great (and different) . I agree borough is expensive but the meat selection was great (- i'm also in a unique position when i shop there it's vacation and it's to cook a vacation meal - I don't really worry about that type of cost on vacation i just enjoy;)

natlierees

I shop at Aldi family of 5 (me, hubby, 14 year old, 8 yr old and 2 yr old) £60-90 per week mostly fresh fruit and veg the kids do have the occasional pizza but its mostly fresh, that's including cleaning stuff, nappies etc too so not bad really