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>My general monthly bill on food is 600€. This is crazy, are you on a meat only diet or do you go to very expensive restaurants? Otherwise I struggle to believ

>My general monthly bill on food is 600€. This is crazy, are you on a meat only diet or do you go to very expensive restaurants? Otherwise I struggle to believe it.

goodpoint 5y ago
20 euros a day for 3 meals? That would be on the cheap side in a number of cities.
the-dude 5y ago
> and I buy organic food Whatever that means, but it sounds expensive.
timdaub 5y ago
organic food "Bio" is wildly expensive here in Germany... Also: the 600€ is groceries only. I don't track the cost of going to restaurants. It'd probably significantly increase total food costs.
- lexapro 5y ago
  I know the prices in Germany. I can see how one would spend €300 or even €400... but €600 just seems a lot. Maybe if you eat a lot of expensive imported items and such.
wonderwonder 5y ago
I don't really see anything crazy about this. Poster eats organic food and lives in an expensive city. If he works out he probably consumes a good amount of food.
danaris 5y ago
That's not at all crazy. Spending 600 euros or dollars monthly on food for a single person is actually quite reasonable—as another commenter pointed out, it's about 20 euros per day for all three meals. In my experience, "moderately expensive" restaurants (I don't actually go to what I'd term "very expensive" restaurants) come in at $40-50 per plate. That means that just for dinner, if they were going to very expensive restaurants every day they'd be paying roughly twice what they quoted.
- jefftk 5y ago
  They said they were talking about "grocery costs", and later clarified it was groceries only [1], which is very different from restaurant prices. For comparison, our household (US) spends ~$200/person/month on groceries (also with very little eating out). Food here in the US is cheaper, and we aren't mostly buying organic, but we are using Instacart. I'm also surprised they are getting such a large number. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29513375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29513375
glaberficken 5y ago
How much do you spend?
iso1631 5y ago
America has the cheapest food in the world, by a long way https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-country-spends-on-food/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-mu...
- lexapro 5y ago
  I know food prices in Germany and US ... US is more expensive in my experience. Not by a lot, but noticeable.
wiether 5y ago
It doesn't seems crazy to me. Like OP said, they live in an expensive West European city and buy almost only organic products which consists, in part, of meat and imported products. I myself live in a West European cit and buy almost only organic products that are plant based and mostly locals. It costs me around ~300€/month. Still, OP pays double that. But : - The city I live in is way smaller than Berlin so it's obviously cheaper (going often in Paris for work, I can assume by how much) - I don't eat meat. Organic meat is probably (after luxury restaurant) the most expensive way to feed someone so I have no doubt that if I added meat to my diet I would be paying (a lot) more than 300€/month - 80% of my vegetables come from a local farmer with whom I have a yearly contract, which divide probably by two the vegetables cost compared to buying them in a store - Except for a few things that can't be cultivated locally (at a country scale), most of the food I buy didn't to make more than 1000km to arrive in the shop - I'll take a wild guess but while 80% of what I buy is "raw food", OP is probably buying more prepared product which again makes it more expensive - Another guess but OP is probably making their groceries in a in-town shop where prices are higher (because of rent and delivery constraints) than shops around town made for suburban people, while in my case I go in those cheaper shops to take advantage of the longer route to ride my bicycle more All that combined, I'm not surprised by the figures given by OP since they're eating one of the most expensive diet a Western European can eat. And I'm not saying it in a bad way. I'm just trying to see facts.

>My general monthly bill on food is 600€. This is crazy, are you on a meat only diet or do you go to very expensive restaurants? Otherwise I struggle to believe it.

goodpoint 5y ago

20 euros a day for 3 meals? That would be on the cheap side in a number of cities.

the-dude 5y ago

> and I buy organic food Whatever that means, but it sounds expensive.

timdaub 5y ago

organic food "Bio" is wildly expensive here in Germany... Also: the 600€ is groceries only. I don't track the cost of going to restaurants. It'd probably significantly increase total food costs.

lexapro 5y ago
I know the prices in Germany. I can see how one would spend €300 or even €400... but €600 just seems a lot. Maybe if you eat a lot of expensive imported items and such.

wonderwonder 5y ago

I don't really see anything crazy about this. Poster eats organic food and lives in an expensive city. If he works out he probably consumes a good amount of food.

danaris 5y ago

That's not at all crazy. Spending 600 euros or dollars monthly on food for a single person is actually quite reasonable—as another commenter pointed out, it's about 20 euros per day for all three meals. In my experience, "moderately expensive" restaurants (I don't actually go to what I'd term "very expensive" restaurants) come in at $40-50 per plate. That means that just for dinner, if they were going to very expensive restaurants every day they'd be paying roughly twice what they quoted.

jefftk 5y ago
They said they were talking about "grocery costs", and later clarified it was groceries only [1], which is very different from restaurant prices. For comparison, our household (US) spends ~$200/person/month on groceries (also with very little eating out). Food here in the US is cheaper, and we aren't mostly buying organic, but we are using Instacart. I'm also surprised they are getting such a large number. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29513375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29513375

glaberficken 5y ago

How much do you spend?

iso1631 5y ago

America has the cheapest food in the world, by a long way https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-country-spends-on-food/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-mu...

lexapro 5y ago
I know food prices in Germany and US ... US is more expensive in my experience. Not by a lot, but noticeable.

wiether 5y ago

It doesn't seems crazy to me. Like OP said, they live in an expensive West European city and buy almost only organic products which consists, in part, of meat and imported products. I myself live in a West European cit and buy almost only organic products that are plant based and mostly locals. It costs me around ~300€/month. Still, OP pays double that. But : - The city I live in is way smaller than Berlin so it's obviously cheaper (going often in Paris for work, I can assume by how much) - I don't eat meat. Organic meat is probably (after luxury restaurant) the most expensive way to feed someone so I have no doubt that if I added meat to my diet I would be paying (a lot) more than 300€/month - 80% of my vegetables come from a local farmer with whom I have a yearly contract, which divide probably by two the vegetables cost compared to buying them in a store - Except for a few things that can't be cultivated locally (at a country scale), most of the food I buy didn't to make more than 1000km to arrive in the shop - I'll take a wild guess but while 80% of what I buy is "raw food", OP is probably buying more prepared product which again makes it more expensive - Another guess but OP is probably making their groceries in a in-town shop where prices are higher (because of rent and delivery constraints) than shops around town made for suburban people, while in my case I go in those cheaper shops to take advantage of the longer route to ride my bicycle more All that combined, I'm not surprised by the figures given by OP since they're eating one of the most expensive diet a Western European can eat. And I'm not saying it in a bad way. I'm just trying to see facts.