5 ms·

> By comparison, my grocery bill is 5€ a day. Do you live on rice and beans? That sounds like you're trading enjoyment for money. We (2 adults) spend about US$

> By comparison, my grocery bill is 5€ a day. Do you live on rice and beans? That sounds like you're trading enjoyment for money. We (2 adults) spend about US$150 a week on groceries, and still eat out about once a week. Those groceries include three meals a day, with the leftovers of the night before being taken for lunch the next day. How on earth do people eat healthily and only spend $5 a day?

cko 6y ago
Rice, beans, pasta, oats, eggs, nuts, chicken thighs, tomatoes, paprika, onions, potatoes, olive oil, etc. All quite cheap. Requires a bit of initial thought and planning, and maybe experimenting with ingredients. Carbs and fat are both cheap, and protein can be in the form of chicken and eggs. Vegetables are kinda expensive so I go with mostly broccoli, cabbage, and stuff from the Asian supermarket. As for groceries, things like hygiene and cleaning products bring up total "grocery" bill, but $5 a day is very possible if it's pure food expenditure. German groceries are quite cheap actually. When I visited, I bought a kg of sauerkraut for 1 euro and a liter of soy milk for 1.5.
- sdenton4 6y ago
  And you can get even cheaper kraut for the price of a head of cabbage and a bit of salt...
nicbou 6y ago
Two or three square meals a day with a lot of meat and cheese. I am not careful about price at all, but I do cook from scratch. Base ingredients are usually cheap.
Emma_Goldman 6y ago
I'm from the UK but while I was doing my PhD I spent the equivalent of US$30-40 a week on food. It's very easy, vegetables and staple carbohydrates - pasta, rice and potatoes - are all inexpensive, and I'm a vegetarian so I bought pulses, beans, eggs, soy and nuts for protein. You just buy what you strictly need, and nothing more. It does come at the expense of some enjoyment, but I still spend no more than US$50 a week now - even though I don't really have to think about the cost of my groceries anymore. US$150 seems high to me, I'd struggle to spend that much with my partner if I tried?
wanderingstan 6y ago
The author lives in Germany, where food is surprisingly inexpensive even at good quality.
- poma88 6y ago
  Fuit and veg are expensive in Germany, IMHO, and very expensive if organic.
maccard 6y ago
My experience of grocery shopping in the US and europe is that the US is substantially more expensive, and €5 per day is probably equivalent in purchasing power to $10-12 per day which is definitely more doable. $150 is more than the average family of 4's shopping bill in the UK
ma-int 6y ago
5€ per day is 150€ a month. I think that this is reasonable but somewhat on the low side. My family of 3 spends around 100 to 130 Euros per week on groceries. We don't really are trying to save on groceries and usually buy what we want. We eat not much meat and usually cook fresh instead of using convenience food. We try to buy medium to high quality, local and seasonal food. So it's a tad more than 150€ per person but not that much.
bouk 6y ago
Groceries in most of Europe are much higher quality for a lower price than in the US
- paulryanrogers 6y ago
  Is this true in urban areas too? When I last visited prices seemed higher than the Midwestern US by at least 30%
  - bouk 6y ago
    Europe isn't one country so it depends on where you visited.

cko 6y ago

Rice, beans, pasta, oats, eggs, nuts, chicken thighs, tomatoes, paprika, onions, potatoes, olive oil, etc. All quite cheap. Requires a bit of initial thought and planning, and maybe experimenting with ingredients. Carbs and fat are both cheap, and protein can be in the form of chicken and eggs. Vegetables are kinda expensive so I go with mostly broccoli, cabbage, and stuff from the Asian supermarket. As for groceries, things like hygiene and cleaning products bring up total "grocery" bill, but $5 a day is very possible if it's pure food expenditure. German groceries are quite cheap actually. When I visited, I bought a kg of sauerkraut for 1 euro and a liter of soy milk for 1.5.

sdenton4 6y ago
And you can get even cheaper kraut for the price of a head of cabbage and a bit of salt...

nicbou 6y ago

Two or three square meals a day with a lot of meat and cheese. I am not careful about price at all, but I do cook from scratch. Base ingredients are usually cheap.

Emma_Goldman 6y ago

I'm from the UK but while I was doing my PhD I spent the equivalent of US$30-40 a week on food. It's very easy, vegetables and staple carbohydrates - pasta, rice and potatoes - are all inexpensive, and I'm a vegetarian so I bought pulses, beans, eggs, soy and nuts for protein. You just buy what you strictly need, and nothing more. It does come at the expense of some enjoyment, but I still spend no more than US$50 a week now - even though I don't really have to think about the cost of my groceries anymore. US$150 seems high to me, I'd struggle to spend that much with my partner if I tried?

wanderingstan 6y ago

The author lives in Germany, where food is surprisingly inexpensive even at good quality.

poma88 6y ago
Fuit and veg are expensive in Germany, IMHO, and very expensive if organic.

maccard 6y ago

My experience of grocery shopping in the US and europe is that the US is substantially more expensive, and €5 per day is probably equivalent in purchasing power to $10-12 per day which is definitely more doable. $150 is more than the average family of 4's shopping bill in the UK

ma-int 6y ago

5€ per day is 150€ a month. I think that this is reasonable but somewhat on the low side. My family of 3 spends around 100 to 130 Euros per week on groceries. We don't really are trying to save on groceries and usually buy what we want. We eat not much meat and usually cook fresh instead of using convenience food. We try to buy medium to high quality, local and seasonal food. So it's a tad more than 150€ per person but not that much.

bouk 6y ago

Groceries in most of Europe are much higher quality for a lower price than in the US

paulryanrogers 6y ago
Is this true in urban areas too? When I last visited prices seemed higher than the Midwestern US by at least 30%
- bouk 6y ago
  Europe isn't one country so it depends on where you visited.