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Engineer eats efficiently for $2.50 a day (2016)
- FrustratedMonky 2y agoWould like to see a calorie and protein breakdown. I really don't think you can get enough protein for $2.50 a day (3.33 adjusted inflation.) Just a block of Tofu costs $3.
- gnabgib 2y ago(2015) At the time (no comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9316050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9316050
- abhayhegde 2y agoConsidering this is from 2015, I wonder how much does inflation bring $2.5 a day to.
- 29athrowaway 2y agoAround $3.30
- bugbuddy 2y agoSo in a few years this will be about $3.50.
- taneq 2y agoI’m always intrigued by the apparent total disconnect between official inflation figures and observed cost of living. Our weekly groceries have doubled over the past 3-4 years but inflation is in the low single digits so what’s it measuring, exactly? The answer, of course, is “whatever the current administration wants it to.”
- rat87 2y agoDo you have any evidence for your claim or is it just a conspiracy theory? Of course the new administration will try to cook stats, hopefully the bureaucracy can resist them. Inflation measurements describe what they measure in detail. Food inflation isn't necessarily the same as overall inflation.
- polynomial 2y agoConfirming that this is how bureaucracy works.
- Mountain_Skies 2y agoThe outgoing administration claims food inflation was 0.3% over the last year. Do you think that's accurate or do you think they were cooking the stats? Can you answer without partisan glasses on?
- mbrubeck 2y agoNo, the Consumer Price Index shows (seasonally-adjusted) inflation of 0.3% over the last month. The increase for the food category over the past year is 8× higher than that. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t01.htm
- npoc 2y agoTrue inflation is money supply inflation. Doubling the amount of money (diluting the total value across more monetary units e.g. dollars), halves the value of each monetary unit, doubling prices. This is why hard assets, like gold, housing increase in price at approximately the same rate that the banks increase the money supply (historically the number of dollars doubles every decade, other currencies are even worse). If people saw the same increases in consumable prices as hard assets then they would be become aware of the falling value of the currency and the currency would quickly collapse in value as they stored their wealth in other things (hyper-inflation). However, the continuous optimisation of production through efficiencies of technology and associated automation means that consumables take less and less human time/effort to produce and so are going down in value at rate of around -5% year. This offsets the 7% devaluation of the dollar to give an overall price increase of consumables of 7-5 = 2% which is a level that the population finds acceptable without losing faith in their currency. However, in recent decades the recent struggle and failure to keep devaluation of the dollar at 7%/year means that the official inflation figures need to be massaged, and so hard assets are removed from the basket goods used in the algorithm (e.g. housing related costs) and more consumables that have benefited from increased automation and reduced value are added. If you run the algorithm used say 15 years ago, you'll find that it produces a much higher inflation figure than the one used today.
- bnc319 2y ago$3.37 per CPI Inflation Calculator, though it may be even higher given food has increased above the average.
- abhayhegde 2y agoSure, but I'm not inclined to believe that number on its own. Practically, even the cheapest grocer like Aldi could turn out to be expensive than the quoted $3.37.
- nverno 2y agoRice and beans - been my staple for most of my life - isn't too much more than this. Two cup dried rice + two can beans is around $4 and that is generally enough for me. Although it is much better with a few eggs and some hot sauce or salsa as well.
- nicoburns 2y agoI'd bet it's closer to $5 now to buy equivalent food in practice.
- lxgr 2y agoThe CPI is, for largely good reasons, primarily tracking things other than groceries, so it's arguably indeed pretty useless in comparing these over time.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- nutrifiedrock9 2y agoIt's also important to consider where they live, the price of food can vary wildly depending on where you live, so adjust accordingly to your local general food-prices.
- sieabahlpark 2y ago[dead]
- asdasdsddd 2y agoLove this, cooking with limited ingredients is a true skill. Korea has a cook out of the fridge show that I like.
- 1970-01-01 2y agoNot mentioned is the cost of cooking and preservation. You can't eat any of this if you can't cook it. Water, heat, and again more water to wash up. Also the costs for running a refrigerator and freezer 24/7 is going to be a few cents per day.
- aerioux 2y agoAh 2015 .... I was wondering where on earth he was finding chicken thighs for $0.88/lb
- NAHWheatCracker 2y agoI was surprised at $0.99/lb for asparagus. My local Walmart has it for around $6/lb.
- blackguardx 2y agoAsparagus is out of season. The price will half that in 6-8 months. I have seen it for close to $0.99/lb but only for like one week a year.
- ryao 2y agoI got ham from Aldi for $0.99 per pound on December 29. I assume it was leftover stock from the Christmas season since the label on the ham said it was $2.39 per pound. I would not be surprised to see chicken thighs for that price at Aldi one week.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bluedino 2y agoWelcome to the midwest? You can still get leg quarters cheaper than that https://www.jacksmarket.net/weekly-ad https://www.jacksmarket.net/weekly-ad
- 29athrowaway 2y agoI had not seen this when it was released (2015). Refrigeration can be costly if you are on a budget, and can be a non marginal factor in the total expenditures. Other ways to save are: - buy large bags of rice, flour, lentils, which last for a long time. - forage mushrooms (they're online communities for this), or grow. - grow vegetables and fruit. Lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries are easy to grow. - hunt or buy an animal, get it butchered and store it in a freezer. - farm animals.
- thfuran 2y agoIn the US, it's hard to be on such a budget that the energy cost of refrigeration is a major factor in food costs unless you have a really old fridge. A modern fridge probably costs less than $5 a month to operate. There are places with cheaper food and more expensive electricity though.
- 29athrowaway 2y agoA french door refrigerator with ice maker costs about $25 per month to run. If your budget is $2.50 per day for food (or $3.30 adjusted for inflation) that's significant.
- thfuran 2y ago>A french door refrigerator with ice maker costs about $25 per month to run. Maybe if you bought it in 2005.
- jogjayr 2y ago> A french door refrigerator with ice maker costs about $25 per month to run Which one?
- zahlman 2y agoIf your budget is $2.50 per day for food then you are probably looking for much cheaper options for a refrigerator. I understand it's possible to buy small chest freezers and convert them to run at fridge temperatures and they're very efficient that way.
- purplezooey 2y agoThis is nice, but also a somewhat horrifying array of processed foods.
- VectorLock 2y agoProcessed or ultra-processed? It looks to me like the majority of the things made started unprocessed (cabbage, pork shoulder, salmon, lettuce, chicken, bananas, eggs), some was processed (mayo, tortillas, white bread, flour) with only a smattering of ultra-processed (brownie mix, campbell's tomato soup, blue cheese dressing)
- KennyBlanken 2y agoDo not buy cheap spices. The toxin levels in (for example) Cinnamon among non-organic brands are quite high, with Badia (the big cheap bulk containers in many supermarkets) being the worst of them all. The lowest toxin levels were in an organic brand sold by wholefoods but the other organics were really close. The amount of spice you use in most dishes is so small that it's stupid to pinch pennies here. Ditto for non-organic oats. If you live in North America, there's a good chance your oats came from Canada, where farmers figured out they could spray Roundup right before harvest so heavily that it desiccates the oats on the plant. They harvest, and the dried oats last longer in storage. It's literally soaked in Roundup. You couldn't pay me to eat anything containing oats that isn't certified organic. We had regulations against the maximum amount of roundup allowed in grain. The Canadian farmers lobbied and had it changed. Anything to make another dollar in profits. Vegetable oil? No; it's a mix of basically anything oil-like that came out of any sort of seed or vegetable, whatever was cheapest. Canola (which is rapeseed oil) or safflower oil. Overall this blog post feels like there's this between-the-lines unspoken commentary that really, people on foodstamps should be able to do just fine on $2.50/day, and they should stop complaining. Among other things, people who are poor generally don't have much free time to do all sorts of meal prep. That's one big reason they go for cheap, ultraprocessed foods. It's fast, it's calorie dense, it's (somewhat) cheap. The nutritional content of these meals is meh on quick inspection. There can't be nearly enough calories - a bowl of oatmeal and that's it, for breakfast? Then one hot dog? He seems to heavily rely on ultraprocessed foods, but in general it seems to be 'meat+carb+flavor". I did see potatoes, which is decent, but sweet potatoes have a better glycemic index and more nutrients. I guarantee if you plugged a couple of these days into Cronometer you'd see numerous missing macro and micronutrients and minerals. And, like I said, lots of ultraprocessed junk. Legumes and rices will help substantially with nutrition and are very inexpensive. What's expensive? Red meat...
- m3kw9 2y agoTheoretically 10$ a day per person would get you some extravagant foods if you do it right and got the right tools(cap ex). UBI better take this blog into account when it happens
- alexjplant 2y agoI'd never call myself a chef but I'm something of a gourmand and do love cooking. Even if it's mediocre food seems to taste better when you make it yourself :D. I also read someplace that people with desk jobs and busy minds should have a hobby that produces tangible results and involves working with your hands and cooking fits the bill perfectly. As a matter of fact I just finished meal prepping for this coming week and made: - Natto on rice with scallions, egg, and kimchi - Chicken curry with daal and spicy raita - Chicken fajitas with refried beans - Hummus and carrots I spent ~$50 for everything delivered via Instacart not counting spices and staples like rice and lentils and I live in southern California... not as cheap as this gentleman but not too shabby all things considered. I need to start cataloguing my recipes so that I can make them more repeatable and share them easily with friends when they ask.
- sudohackthenews 2y agoHow do you find your recipes? Looking to get into meal prepping but I don’t really want to wing my meals for a whole week
- alexjplant 2y agoThis isn't a good answer but I don't have a single spot. I usually think "huh, I'd like to make X" then try and find what I believe to be the most traditional/classic recipe that I can via search engine. From there I'll make it (possibly with a few modifications) and it usually takes a few tries at most to get something that's at least a 7/10. I'm also in the somewhat unique position of being a single dude that's looking tasty food in bulk with good macros which are goals that are sometimes at odds with each other - recipe sites usually don't target all three. One thing you might try is signing up for a meal kit service using their introductory offers. You can go a month or two doing this while never paying full price via the discounts and it's a good way to try a bunch of different dishes. Save the recipe cards for the stuff you like then contrast them with other internet recipes or ask an LLM for ideas. Once you've done this enough you'll build up an informal database of things you like to make and a framework for how to do it without having to resort to step-by-step instructions.
- quantum_state 2y agoWould suggest to multiply the spend by 20 to account for the recent inflation and to maintain good health … having to see a doctor instantly skyrockets the spend.
- paulcole 2y agoReally? You think you need to pay $50 a day on food to maintain good health?
- sadeshmukh 2y agoThey're including the medical expenses in it as well
- pinkmuffinere 2y agoYa this is a crazy take. I spend ~20 per day on food, and $15 of that is eating out for lunch at work. I suspect I could easily cut this back to $10 daily total, and with some more effort maybe $5-7 total
- polynomial 2y agoJust got back from the grocery store and still finding it incredible the prices people are apparently willing to pay for stuff. Especially all the incredibly overpriced single use disposably packaged food. Is everyone rich or just no one plans to have any money in the future?
- bagels 2y agoWhat are you going to do, go on hunger strike?
- schmookeeg 2y agoThis was interesting until I got to Day 2: Cabbage Burgers. That you can use as ready-meals by freezing them. Then I went out for a $65 meal of Sushi to put them out of my mind. I'll have my eye peeled for some sort of happy medium, like $20/day, but this feels too much like the masochistic version of frugal-jerk.
- BugsJustFindMe 2y ago> happy medium, like $20/day If you're cooking, $20/day is very high.
- titanomachy 2y agoA lot of the food looked pretty tasty. Fried chicken, pulled pork, homemade bread. Mostly he got his costs down by buying in bulk and cooking from scratch, not by eating weird stuff. Although, his diet was almost totally lacking fresh fruits and vegetables.
- carlgreene 2y agoThat’s funny because that’s the point where I left the article to go find a recipe for krautburgers cause they looked and sounded so good
- schmookeeg 2y agoAmusingly I was thinking about sauerkraut on a burger bun as I love sauerkraut, but then the author said that wasn't.. in budget? or available? I forget his reasoning, but that glimmer of hope was dashed :D I may go try Kimchi in a burger, but... there will be some sort of protein. Sorry I didn't enunciate it in the early morning haze, but 20/day would be for two of us. As was the sushi :) We're DINKs and cooking is a time luxury. Green Chef is our current "exactly the ingredients we need, nothing wasted" source -- and it's not exactly cheap. First world probs, I know.
- criddell 2y agoIf you have any colleagues that went to University of Nebraska, ask them about Runza. They are basically these cabbage burgers and are pretty popular there. There’s a regional fast food chain based on the sandwiches: https://www.runza.com/ https://www.runza.com/
- matthewmorgan 2y agoEating is the easy part. Now wash up
- globular-toast 2y agoWashing up is part of cooking. When I cook my partner washes the dishes and cutlery, but I always wash the bowls, pots, pans and utensils as I go. Leaving a pile of stuff after cooking is the sign of a bad cook, as is having to scrub/scour any of your gear. But you can, and should, leave the pots soaking while you eat to make it easy to rinse after you eat.
- unsnap_biceps 2y agoI'm surprised at how few calories per day this was For day 1 1/2 can Campbell's Tomato Soup - 135 Milk, half of 10.7 floz - 133.75 4 slices white bread - 600 Tillamook Italian 3-Cheese, 58 g - 186.43 Butter, 32 g - 228.57 Homemade Kimchi (73 g) - 25.75 135 + 133.75 + 600 + 186.43 + 228.57 + 25.75 = 1,309.5 calories which is generally well under weight maintenance levels for anyone moderately active.
- hn_throwaway_99 2y agoNote that he said day 1 was Ash Wednesday, which is traditionally a fasting day, and thus he decided to only eat one meal. That said, the rest of the days didn't look much better. I'm quite a skinny dude, but what he prepared for an entire day was like one meal and a snack for me generally. I suspect the amount of calories on these meals would be well below maintenance level for most people.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ycombinatrix 2y agoI could probably pull that off playing video games from my bed
- j45 2y agoQuantity, composition and quality of calories are all important.
- edanm 2y agoYes, but quantity of calories is what ends up determining whether you're gaining or losing weight over time, and at 1300 calories a day, most adults would be losing weight. (Which was a half-goal of the challenge, iirc.)
- j45 2y agoThat is generally true, minus any plateaus that require assistance like exercise to break through. For me, I like to eat my calories than drink them if I had to pay attention. I liked this challenge and think it presented a lot of solid merits.
- readyplayernull 2y agoYou are supposed to eat at least one pound of uncooked vegetables daily to be healthy.
- NewJazz 2y agoSource?
- readyplayernull 2y agoWould you trust a healthy guy?
- nwah1 2y agoI was hoping for something more elaborate, algorithmic, and data-driven like the Stigler Diet. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler_diet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler_diet
- snizovtsev 2y agoOptimal in theory but totally uncookable.
- lblume 2y agoLinear programming has become flexible enough to allow way more constraints. Take a thousand variables for each food type, and then not only impose constraints for each nutrient, but also for cookability, for example not allowing flour to be used in a much larger quantity than milk, if one desires. LLMs could probably figure half of this out. Then, you could add binary variables for each food type and add big M-constraints to ensure these correspond to whether the food is actually used in the diet or not, modifying the objective to favor either variety or simplicity. One could then add constraints on these variables to ensure foods are not used in too small quantities (too large ones are even simpler). If I didn't enjoy food too much, I would do this now, solve the MILP and strictly follow this diet. The Wikipedia article does not name any modern applications or improvements upon his principle, did. nobody actually follow through this at all as LP exploded?
- mrayycombi 2y agoEliminating meat, eggs, cheese, and dairy often done for various reasons, also eliminates what are often expensive elements in the diet. Rice, beans, vegetables, fruit and nuts in moderation, produces a relatively inexpensive diet.
- NewJazz 2y agoSome egg substitutes for anyone considering: For baking, chia or flax "eggs" are easy. For omelettes, chickpea flower can be a good base. Easy to find recipes online. For scrambles, tofu is a good option.
- zdragnar 2y agoRice and beans are cheap enough. Around here, fresh fruit and veg tend to be pretty expensive though. It's not hard to find pork shoulder or turkey that's cheaper than many varieties of apples, or roughly on par with bell peppers and tomatoes, as an example. Beef and chicken always tend to be more expensive, of course, but you'll be pretty sad if you like food and stick to only things that are "cheaper than meat".
- ghxst 2y agoFrozen fruits like berries are typically really budget friendly, as long as they get frozen shortly after harvesting they contain the same amount of anti-oxidants and taste fine in my experience, although might require a bit more planning.
- zdragnar 2y agoThere's cheap frozen veg too. The problem is largely variety and texture. It isn't that good reasonably priced vegetarian and vegan lifestyles aren't possible. The problem it's when you set "cheaper than animal products" as the bar to get under, it becomes very boring very quickly. I do limit the amount of animal products I consume myself, and unless everything is in season somewhere somewhat local, I don't find myself saving a ton of money.
- mtwtkman 2y agoThis meal plan is too much carbs. This may be efficient for economic but not for metabolism.
- geowwy 2y agoCarbs are great for metabolism! In fact high carb diets are about as good as a low carb diets for reversing metabolic issues. The real problem seems to be "balanced meals" that have moderate amounts of all macros.
- lblume 2y agoSource? Nature usually doesn't follow uninverted parabolas... (except in ecology, but that's just diversification in a high-dimensional space)
- ezfe 2y ago3/4 of an egg for egg salad sandwich? What the hell…I usually put two whole eggs in mine
- ycombinatrix 2y agoI will not stand for this hideous misrepresentation of Engineer's diet. Engineer uses 3 whole eggs for their egg salad, clearly stated under Day 3. The fact that they eat it in quarters is wholly irrelevant, and your plainly obvious smear attempt against Engineer has not gone unnoticed.
- ezfe 2y agoThey made three eggs, but they say they ate 1.5 sandwiches and that each sandwich contains 3/4 of an egg. This means they ate 1.125 eggs, which is still a small sandwich even if made into a single dish.
- ycombinatrix 2y agoWould you say you use more or less mayonnaise per egg than Engineer?
- ezfe 2y agoThe mayo amount does seem higher, but it's in grams and I usually use tablespoons. I would do about 1 Tbsp/egg.
- ghxst 2y agoSomething articles like these make me wonder is what would a single "perfect" meal look like? Perfect as in a meal that provides all the essential nutrients the average person needs to stay healthy over the long term? The goal would be to make it as cheap as possible, easy to mass-produce, and have a decent shelf life. It might not be the most exciting food, but it could address serious issues like malnutrition and food insecurity. Food banks could always have something reliable to offer, combine it with a supplement to make up for any lack of micro nutrients and no one would have to worry about not having access to basic nutrition. It feels like a solvable problem, but it's likely harder than I imagine.
- sva_ 2y agoLike Soylent? You know you can also enjoy life a little.
- ghxst 2y agoMy main concern is people having to skip meals and kids facing developmental issues due to malnutrition. I get that the idea of feeding people something like Soylent isn’t exactly appealing, but if we could bring the cost down to nearly free for those in need, it could be a really effective safety net, (maybe not Soylent as it exists now but a product like that).
- iancmceachern 2y agoThere is a peanut butter thing like this that has been very successful in the developing world. https://www.unicef.org.au/stories/plumpy-nut-peanut-butter#:~:text=Plumpy'Nut%C2%AE%20is%20used,%C2%AE%20is%20a%20true%20lifesaver https://www.unicef.org.au/stories/plumpy-nut-peanut-butter#:....
- ghxst 2y ago> just $65 can provide a child with six weeks' worth of this therapeutic food. That comes down to a little over $1.50 a day, that's great! Seems like it comes in packets of about 500 calories each, containing 40grams of carbs, 30.3 grams of fat and 12.8gram of protein. Unsure what fiber contents are like but Wikipedia does list that it includes vitamins and minerals. > as of 2018 Plumpy'nut patents have expired in the US, UK and the European Union Also says it's manufactured in the US, I wonder if these are available at food banks and such, maybe even in schools and if parents know about it. Edit: additional fiber is included as well according to Wikipedia.
- neilv 2y agoBig bag of rice, and big bag of dry beans. Or cheap canned beans, if you're not up to cooking beans properly (I wasn't). A working-poor friend also used to buy steel-cut oats, to eat breakfast for pennies. If you buy fresh vegetables, learn how to keep them from spoiling on you. With canned soup, instant ramen, and a lot of other packaged foods, pay attention to the sodium. (I avoid a lot of those, or end up diluting it, or, say, using only half the seasoning packet.) Where you shop matters to budget. Where I live, WFM has bought out, or driven out, most of the other grocery stores (and one of the remaining stores prices similarly, but without the cachet), but a Market Basket is just a short hike over the train tracks. For specialty groceries, a small grocery store serving some ethnic group for which that's a staple, can be cheaper than most broader grocery stores. Don't get scurvy, or other nutritional deficiency. If you can't make sure all your nutrients are covered, I've guessed (I'm not a nutritionist) that a mainstream multivitamin pill can't hurt. You should also count your calories, to make sure you're getting enough. Once you start being more penny-pinching with eating, you might find yourself getting hungry less, rather than more, and it's not hard to slip into caloric deficit that will make you sick. There are calculators on the Web for how much you should intake.
- xattt 2y agoNow make this feasible for family with kids. Most children won’t eat beans and rice for a long time without lifelong trauma that yields strong reactions at mealtimes in adulthood.
- CountHackulus 2y agoSometimes there's no choice. If it's between beans and rice or nothing at all, then it's going to be beans and rice. Soup kitchens, school lunches, etc are a great help too.
- aziaziazi 2y agoI respectfully doubt that: many east Africans grown with their traditional meal loves rice and beans if cooked well. I think there’s a lot about habits and parents mimicking. Sure they loves chicken, but beans too. There’s also that study where they feed a mother cat with food that contains brocolis perfume When then kitties got weaned they prefer brocolis than fish. (I can’t find it back on google sorry, perhaps it was another legume)
- lelandfe 2y agoBreakfast: fried potatoes. Lunch: nothing. Dinner: 9 day old pre-cooked spaghetti with tomato sauce, lettuce declared "going bad" the day prior, 10 day old homemade bread smeared with fried chicken coating. It's technically a meal! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk4EC6-YFbs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk4EC6-YFbs
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- j45 2y agoJust going to leave this here: https://efficiencyiseverything.com/food/ https://efficiencyiseverything.com/food/ (No affiliation)
- mproud 2y agoEggs…
- mupuff1234 2y agoCan someone explain to me why groceries in the US are 3x more expensive than Europe?
- throwup238 2y agoIt really depends on where you live in the US. A lot of people live in areas where there are very few competitors in the grocery business so they can charge obscene amounts of money; especially anywhere rural. On top of that, the major grocery stores like Safeway, Albertson’s, and Kroger try to keep their stock consistent year round instead of going more seasonal, which massively inflates the price of fresh food. I live in Southern California in a high cost of living area but the produce and meat is very cheap at ethnic stores like Ranch 99 and SuperKing that actually compete on price. These kinds of stores are only present in areas with dense immigrant populations. Even in urban areas so many people default to shopping at Whole Foods or Trader Joes that it’s easy to get a distorted view of prices. Much of it is that Americans ostensibly choose to pay more for convenience and availability. As an example, the Halal grocery that I usually buy my meat from has ribeye steaks for $5-8/lb while Costco - normally considered cheaper than most other stores (in bulk) - has them for $20-25/lb. Now the former isn’t as high quality as prime Costco steaks so I still buy the latter for special occasions, but for day to day food it’s a much better deal. A little smart shopping goes a very long way.
- mupuff1234 2y ago> Much of it is that Americans ostensibly choose to pay more for convenience and availability. I doubt that convenience and availability is a US only thing. Prices in budget grocery stores like Aldi and Lidl in Europe are still 50-70% cheaper than US prices.
- throwup238 2y agoWhere are you getting your price data from? IME that may be true for Bucharest or Prague, but definitely not Paris or London. Budget US grocers are much cheaper than nominal US prices so I don’t know why you’re comparing the cheapest in Europe to the average in the US (which, again, has a much less concentrated population leading to less competition). Average prices are higher but the floor in the US is significantly lower.
- alecco 2y ago> (2016) Albertson's had a dozen eggs for $0.99 I wonder what would be the budget for all this today.
- Engineering-MD 2y agoDepends how much you want to avoid caged hens
- doix 2y agoFor quite a long time, I ate only Huel at home. At $2.21 per serving (a bit cheaper in the UK - £1.51, where I am from), and 5 servings per day, it's $11.05 per day. 4.5x what the author did, but I think it's worth it. Whilst it costs a bit more, you save so much time and possibly money. It allows you to not have any dishes -> no dishwasher needed -> no cupboard space needed -> no kitchen needed -> no fridge needed -> cheaper rent. You don't need to go grocery shopping (no car needed), food never gets wasted, you take out significantly less trash. There's 0 "mental load", you never have to think/plan about how you're going to eat/cook/whatever. If you're willing to adopt a bit of an "ignorance is bliss" attitude, you can happily pretend that you're eating a perfectly balanced diet ;). I have no affiliation with Huel, just an extremely happy customer. Now that I'm traveling around the world, it's pretty much the only thing I miss from my old life. If I could get it shipped anywhere in the world for a reasonable price, I'd probably still be eating it right now.
- spacebanana7 2y agoI practice a miniature version of this by having protein bars for breakfast everyday. It saves so much time over cooking anything in the most time-valuable moments of the day.
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago? I'd rather get up a little earlier than stress about how much time I spend on breakfast to be honest. Mind you my breakfast is usually a sandwich, not exactly time consuming.
- squeaky-clean 2y agoFor me, getting up earlier because of breakfast is stressing over how much time I spend on breakfast.
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y agoOne of the true pleasures of WFH is being able to cook whatever I want for any meal of the day.
- tomxor 2y agoKeep in mind this is a dangerous route to go down long term. Optimising for economic cost with the only requirement being "fill your belly" and "be palatable enough", tends to result in poor nutrition. This is roughly how the industry optimises food - minimise economic cost, maximise yield, and maximise sales (make everything artificially hyper palatable), with terrible results. In the long term this is partly covered by the economic cost on a personal basis because of the cost in health care and loss of ability to produce income due to deteriorating health. But this is displaced in time, and you do not want to do this experiment on yourself, it's not reversible. Calories are not equal, as a general rule, buying cheap food often means cheaping out on nutritional value. If you want to frame it in terms of money, buying good quality food now is an investment in your future.
- valval 2y agoI’d argue this as well. I eat mainly meat and other animal products, and get by on less than $10 a day just fine while hitting optimal nutrition. Trying to gather a cheap and healthy nutrition profile from random items in a grocery store is a task doomed to fail.
- nutrifiedrock9 2y agoYou bring up a great point, and the article linked does indeed mention this in on of it's core goals: >3. Be Safe! Maintain and track nutrition, get enough calories, and don't eat rotten food.
- tomxor 2y agoStill, it's at odds with the premise. A more compatible goal would be to minimise cost of nutritional value rather than cost of calories. Unfortunately this is very hard to measure, so the best we have is to gauge it by proxy.
- thomquaid 2y agoDid the engineer end up malnourished? If not...
- Refusing23 2y agoi care much more about nutrients per dollar, than overall price
- Havoc 2y agoThat seems quite extreme. Most people probably have a lot of scope for some easy wins on reduction though. I found that batch cooking and freezing is a remarkably easy win. Especially something that is lentil based. Bit bland but reasonably nutritious dirt cheap and entirely passable if you only substitute let’s say every 6th meal. Some with beef stews. Beef is expensive but even a little bit of good quality beef in a mostly veg one can impart a lot of flavor. Pressure cooker ftw
- graycat 2y agoOne cheap pork recipe: At US grocery prices, roasted pork for ~$0.33 an ounce -- 3 ounces makes a meaty sandwich: Get 2 Picnic Pork Shoulder roasts, ~9 pounds each. On a 'V' roasting rack (I found a strong one, no moving parts, in stainless steel) in a common turkey roasting pan, place the two roasts, skin side down. Roast in 210 F oven to internal temperature ~180 F, ~22 hours. This time and temperature is an example of the old rule "low and slow". Three old food chemistry claims: (1) For food safety, it is sufficient to cook meat to 165 F. (2) Cooking meat much over 180 F for too long results in the proteins unwinding, expelling their water, and becoming dry and tough. (3) Meat, not overcooked, is tough only due to collagen. If not overcooked, the meat fibers are always tender. Collagen melts at ~160 F. So low and slow achieves food safety and melts out the collagen without overcooking the fibers. Once at ~180 F, separate skin, fat, bone, and lean meat. Can freeze the lean meat in 2 quart covered plastic containers. Freezes well. To eat, one version: With one of the 2 quart containers unfrozen, weigh out some of the cooked pork, say 6 ounces. Add ~3 ounces (weight) of some BBQ sauce. Cover and warm in microwave. Then, with a knife and fork, the meat fibers will separate easily, and that will also mix in the BBQ sauce. Serve on hamburger buns or toasted bread slices. A cheap pizza recipe: At Sam's Club can get Fleishmann's Active Dry yeast, 2 packages, each package 1 pound, $6.18, $0.19/ounce. So, ~750 milligrams of water, 1 tablespoon of the yeast, and 1 kilogram of "bread and pizza flour" (Sam's), can make 8 small pizzas. To one of the 8, add tomato sauce, Mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni. Novel way to cook, without an oven: Get e.g., Amazon, $7.59, a roll of sheet Teflon, and cut a piece to fit the bottom of a standard 10 inch top, inside diameter, cast iron frying pan, $7.88 at Walmart. Will want a cover, and I use one, perfect fit, from a glass casserole dish, but Amazon sells some such pans with covers. Place the raw pizza on the Teflon in the frying pan, add the cover, place over medium stove top burner heat, can be ready to eat in ~19 minutes. About $1 and 750 calories.
- eulgro 2y agoI did such an experiment in Canada, tracking calories and nutrients and found I could live on about 100$/month, or 3.30$/day. Although I did not reach 100% daily value for all nutrients, there were no catastrophic deficiencies (nothing under 50%). However, if I had to save the most money, and the most time, I would definitely opt for something like Soylent or Huel. Except these are not available in Canada, and they cost way too much. I found a website where people share recipes for DIY soylent (completefoods.co) and tried one. I only bought a small batch of ingredients so the cost per day was around 3.30$, but if I had bought in bulk I'm sure I could get this down to about 2$/day. And technically, this would be the most nutritionally complete diet I ever had. If a multivitamin pill cost about 0.05$/day in bulk, so why would I spend so much on vegetables? That said, the taste isn't great, there's no variety, and I'm sure it gets boring after a while. But it was a fun experiment, and it's enlightening to know how little one can spend to eat while the average spend for food is like 400$/month.
- b8 2y agoI used to drink Soylent drinks, but they cost way too much now a days and it took at least two to fill me up each meal. I just bought groceries at Walmart and got Yogurt, Chicken steaks, fish and hotdogs. Bannas and apple sauce for breakfast. Costed me like $110 a week. I have Autism, so I'm a very picky eater and only like simple food too.
- rirze 2y agoSoylent used to be decent. But now they push the bottled drinks over the powders and it's lamentable.
- aziaziazi 2y agoI re-discovered Tempeh (0) a week ago while trying a new recipe (tomato sauce pasta). Then read a bit about it and WOOOW!!! - great protein source stuffed with fibers, minerals vitamins and probiotics. Your nutritionist and sport coach loves it. - intrinsically cheap, doesn’t need tarif or subsidies to make it affordable. - only two steps from raw beans, you can make it at home if you wish: 1.cook 2.incubate. - soy beans can be replaced by many others bean. Chickpea tempeh taste like banane popcorn. - can be adapted to almost any "salty" recipe, like you’ll do with beaf minces. Sauces, woks, lasagna, soups, burger, pizza, sauerkraut, you name it. Even some desserts. That weird white brick can go from disgusting to delicious depending on how it was cooked. If you don’t like tempeh, it probably wasn’t cooked well. 0 https://www.tempeh.info/ https://www.tempeh.info/
- hombre_fatal 2y agoTempeh is awesome. It has kind of a funky taste at first but eventually I came to prefer its nutty, sometimes crunchy-ish taste. It's now the essential ingredient in my stir frys. Trader Joes seems to be the cheapest source of it if you live near one. $2.30 per block or so.
- NotYourLawyer 2y agoI found this part fascinating. Have I been wrong about it my whole life? (By the way, if you think that a pound or an ounce is a unit of weight, and not mass, that's a common (but potentially dangerous) misconception. Read the full discussion of this in this Frink FAQ entry.) Why is the pound a measure of mass, not force (or currency?) Well, in the United States, the pound has been officially defined to be a unit of mass since at least 1893 (by the Office of Standard Weights and Measures, and later by its successor, the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), which was formed in 1901. The National Bureau of Standards was renamed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 1988.) It has had its current value since 1959, defined as exactly 0.45359237 kilograms (also a unit of mass,) both by official notice in the Federal Register, giving it the effect of official U.S. policy, and as an official refinement by the National Bureau of Standards. The latter document is very detailed and authoritative, and shows the very slightly different values it had in 1893 (then defined as 1/2.20462 kg, a mass), the value from 1894-1959 (then defined as 1/2.2062234 kg, also a mass, which only differs from the current exact value of 0.45359237 kg by about 1 part in 10 million.) All are quite unambiguous on this point. No standards body has, as far as I can tell, defined pound as a unit of anything other than mass, at least since 1893. (Legislation before that was ambiguous about the distinction between mass and weight.) In the United Kingdom, the pound has been officially defined as a mass since the Weights and Measures Act of 1878, which defined it as having a very slightly smaller value (equal to approximately 0.453592338 kg.) The value of the pound was unified to its current value in all countries by 1960. The "pound-force" or "lbf" is a measure of force, though. But that's not the pound. If you want the pound-force in Frink, use lbf or pound force (with no hyphen, which would be indistinguishable from subtraction.) The unit force is a synonym for the unit gravity, which is the standard acceleration of gravity, defined to be exactly 9.80665 m/s2. The "pound-force" is defined as the mass of a pound multiplied by the standard accleration of gravity as defined above. More details from the (U.S.) National Institute of Standards and Technology: Appendix B9 of the NIST Guide to SI Units. Please note that the pound is only listed in the mass section and not in the force section. This is from NIST Special Publication 811 which is considered authoritative. NIST Handbook 133, Appendix E. (This document and its predecessor, NIST Handbook 44, use italics or underlining to show the units that are defined in terms of the survey foot. (I'm glad to see that the 2007 version of this publication apparently contains fixes for most of the several errors that I reported and they acknowledged but sat on for 3 years since first reporting!) Official definitions from other countries: From the United Kingdom's National Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML), the definition of pound as a mass. Also see their FAQ. U.K. Weights and Measures Act part I, section 1.1, defines the pound as a mass of exactly 0.45359237 kilogram. Canada's Weights and Measures Act (this is rather fuzzy-headed; it defines the pound as exactly "45 359 237/100 000 000 kilogram" (a mass) but does so under the heading "Measurement of Mass or Weight".) It correctly defines the kilogram as a measure of mass earlier. If the pound is defined as a multiple of the kilogram, and the kilogram is mass, then the pound must be a mass also. This legislation should be amended to remove the misleading heading. Highly-regarded reference books like the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 83rd Edition (2002-2003) has the definition given above in terms of the kilogram. The pound is, again, a mass and nothing else. (This is also true in the 1960 edition, but the 1960 edition has some non-self-consistent uses of "foot pound" as a unit of energy which has been corrected in later versions, which cite only "foot pound-force" as a measure of energy. Thanks to Bob Williams for the historical research.) I was surprised too when I first started researching the pound. I had been told it was a unit of force by one engineering professor, and I believed it. It turns out he was wrong, I was wrong, and I realized I had better unlearn my mistakes and start using the right terminology before I made a big, costly blunder. If you don't believe it, please do your own research and it might help change your mind. You don't have to believe me, but I think you should believe your own country's standards bodies (and probably comply with your country's legislative definitions if you don't want to breach contracts!) After all, if you don't use the units properly when they're unambigously defined by both standards bodies and law, then you're the one with the liability. If you can find any evidence that a standards body in the United States or any other country has ever defined pound as anything but mass (well, at least in the past century,) please send it to Alan Eliasen. Please, authoritative references only--not some individual's webpage or old confused textbook. Yes, I have this discussion over and over again. "I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives." --Leo Tolstoy If you want the British currency, use GBP or Britain_Pound, or, for the historical buying power of the pound in, say, the year 1752, try pound_1752.
- chasd00 2y agoWhen I was in college there was a Vietnamese place I could walk to from my dorm. I could get a big bowl of pho for $3.75 with noodles, meat and bean sprouts. I ate their so much the staff invited me to holiday parties which I though was pretty cool as a standard issue white guy.
- jgalt212 2y agoThe parts may be very cheap for this plan, but you get killed on labor costs (prep time, food acquisition time, monitoring time, etc).
- nottorp 2y ago<click on inflation calculator> $3.30 a day now
- sotix 2y agoOne of the more intense things I pulled off was greatly reducing my calories when I made my career switch into software engineering. I saved up enough money (and sold my car) to take a year off from work to study computer science full time. Since I didn’t have income, I significantly reduced my caloric intake. I lost quite a bit of weight and got pretty skinny. But I was mainly studying at home most days and didn’t need the extra weight at the time. I optimized for getting the appropriate nutritional values and took a B12 supplement to ensure I stayed healthy during that period. I wasn’t as cheap as this post, but my groceries with fresh produce, rice, and beans cost about $40/week. Eliminating meat made it pretty easy to keep costs low. After I got a job, I began hitting the gym and bulking up. Getting rid of all my excess fat during that previous period proved to be pretty worthwhile, and now I’m in better shape than ever.
- onemoresoop 2y agoWhat were your daily caloric intake on average?
- dan353hehe 2y agoThis is a small cookbook that I have used a lot. It’s designed around being able to feed a few people, and eating well, without being expensive. https://leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap-2/ https://leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap-2/ I get a hard bound copy for everyone I am friends with when they go out on their own. It’s a great resource!
- sudosteph 2y agoMy go-tos for cheap semi-healthy food: - Sweet potatoes. I eat one almost every day. I live in NC and can buy bulk local-grown ones in the fall and they last a very long time, but even at the grocery store it's only like 1.50 for 3 good sized ones. Eat them cooked in oven at 400, wrapped in foil for 1.5hrs depending on size, with butter or just salt. - Sardines - I just eat from the can or over toast. Can also be good mixed with mayo. Lots of good deals available here, but try to prefer Morroco or Poland sourced ones vs the bottom tier ones from China. Bonus is sardines are lower in mercury than bigger fish like tuna. - Goat cheese from Aldi - It's like $2/8oz there, my regular store is more than double that Then I pair it all up with toast. The toast part isn't very healthy, but it's cheap. I don't have a real cost reason to prefer cheap eating, but I'm the kind of person who would happily eat the exact same meal my whole life if given the option. So it's fun to optimize a little.
- seszett 2y ago> cooked in oven at 400, wrapped in foil for 1.5hrs I don't know how much is electricity at your place, but in some places in Europe this could cost you 1.50 euros or so. Microwaving is much more cost-efficient.
- sudosteph 2y agoMicrowaving ruins the skin for me, but does work much faster at least. A small toaster oven / convection oven might be a good trade off, and pressure cooker can do a good job too.
- Karawebnetwork 2y ago> convection oven might be a good trade off I'm not very up on the details of electricity prices, as I live in a place where it's cheap, but using a tiny air fryer to cook the sweet potatoes suits me just fine. Both are wrapped in foil and cut into chips or cubes. Kids love it for breakfast.
- troyvit 2y agoAnother good resource for cheap meals is this free book: https://leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap-2/ https://leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap-2/ It uses a lot more whole ingredients than the link above, although it doesn't talk as much about food conservation as this does. Combined I think you can get some amazingly cheap and amazingly fresh food. While we're at it, I bake bread and each loaf costs about 20 cents per loaf and tastes great.
- mythrwy 2y agoIf you have the space and time, growing much of your own food is the way to go. Over the past 3 years I have supplied around 30% of my diet from an 800 square foot garden and chickens. I can't say it's really "cheaper" (although there are times of bounty) but the food quality is excellent. We can and vacuum seal and dehydrate what is left. I also eat much healthier than previously from looking for ways to utilize what is on hand (large amounts of produce). It does take some work and planning but is very rewarding.
- niemandhier 2y agoDo big portions and share with others: I can feed 10 people for 17€ with curry and rice, I can’t do this for a single person using 1.70€
- helpfulContrib 2y ago[dead]
- ksec 2y agoLong time ago I was doing around £0.75 ( roughly today's $1 USD ) per day on food. At the time it was may be closer to $1.4 USD given how British Pounds have depreciated. Now I looked at those food cost number, I cant help but think certain Food in US are relatively cheap. ( Edit: Ok I only realise it is 2016 ). It was hard, and not getting enough nutrients. Although I dont believe I have much of a choice at the time. I wish we could have meal plans for different region across the world, where we have meals and ingredients for nutritious food with the smallest budget. I really like Food. And out of all the important things in life Food and Water is number one on the list. But it is also the most neglected. Not a single Tech Billionaires invested or moved into Food industry.
- psadri 2y agoOne of my fondest memories is from when I was in university and one Xmas break my stipend was late for a few weeks and I completely ran out of money. All my dorm-mates were away for the break so I had no one to borrow money from. I scrounged around my dorm and found a fistful of loose change — it came to around $2.30 iirc. Bought a bag of rice and frozen peas and managed to last about a week. “Free” takeout soy sauce packets were a big plus. Good times.
- giardini 2y agoCan one reach such a low price level on a "carnivore diet" (meat, eggs, fish, milk products)? Would you have to be a hunter/trapper to do that? Plenty of wild pigs and possums in Texas. Although possum are the easiest wild animal to catch by far (you can chase them down and pick them up by their prehensile tail), I don't know how to prepare a possum and am unwilling to experiment.
- latkin 2y agoInteresting challenge, and very impressive. But he isn't honestly accounting for the cost of the salmon, even by his own rules ("Food that I don't use needs to be factored into my costs.", "if it goes to waste, I have to charge myself for it."). The salmon, at $1.99/lb, costs $4.48 for 2.25lbs (36oz) of whole fish. From that, he's only able to extract 3x 6.25oz portions (19oz total) of meat. Despite consuming everything he could/would from $4.48 worth of fish, he only charges himself $0.77 * 3 = $2.31, ignoring the cost of the waste that he was required to purchase in order to obtain the meat. IMO a fairer accounting for 3 equal servings would be $4.48/3 = $1.49 per serving. Nearly double.