Nexa wrote:
I realize that this is a one-person budget, but it's not something that could just be multiplied by 4 to make it a four person budget.
It's actually easier to multiply to make a 4 person budget because cost effective portions tend to come in 4-5 serving sizes. There's a whole lot of things that you really can't buy for just one person because it'll spoil before you'll get through using half of it. How much of a factor this is obviously varies based on your specific menu selection, but I'd argue that it's actually easier to spend $400/month for food for 4, than $100/month for food for one. Variation of meals if nothing else.
Most of your points are valid (but IMO still don't really change the math that much), but a couple kinda jumped out at me:
Quote:
3. Meat I could give or take but you should be eating at least one serving of fish a week.
Says who? Is this really "should", or is this "it would be nice to". Poultry should substitute for fish, and as you mentioned, if it's really an issue, make a tuna noddle casserole (which is pretty darn cheap).
Quote:
4. 4 dozen eggs- 1.6 eggs a day. Since you have no bread or cereal, is this the entirety of your breakfast? I guess it could go along with 1/2 cup of peas and half an apple. Hardly sustaining.Maybe you're having some rice too?
How the hell much are you eating for breakfast? You're not one of those "load up on carbs in the morning!" people, are you? One egg, one piece of toast and a piece of fruit is a more than sufficient breakfast (and by "piece of fruit, I'm literally talking about like a quarter of an orange or apple).
Quote:
5. 10lbs of potatoes is around 25 potatoes. You could almost have one a day, which isn't terrible, if it wasn't such a huge portion of your groceries.
Portion in terms of size, or cost? I get the whole "OMG! It's so hard to walk food back to the house" bit, but maybe we should bring that up the next time someone gets in an argument with me about the virtues of urban living, where everything is within walking/biking distance versus us evil suburbanites who drive everywhere in our cars.
Quote:
6. Rice: there are about 2 cups of uncooked (white) rice per pound, meaning about 4 cups of cooked rice x 25 = 100 cups of cooked rice. If this is a side dish, a half a cup per serving is probably ok, but as a main course, which is what you're talking about, I'd think a cup. You have about 3 1/3 cups of rice for your meals for a day. You enjoy that.
A cup of uncooked rice is a
massive serving. I struggle to make a small enough portion of rice for just one person because it's tricky to cook rice with less than 1/2 a cup of rice in the pan and avoid burning it. 1/2 cup of rice makes really more than a single person should ever eat at a sitting. 1 full cup of rice is enough for 4 people to eat as side or base under a main. I think you're grossly underestimating how much rice that is.
Also, that's like massive amounts of food. I get that you have kids, so half of what you put in front of them gets tossed anyway, but holy hell!
Quote:
7. 2 Gallons of milk - maybe that works for you at half a gallon a week. This is definitely one of those things that is dramatically different if you have children. We go through 2 gallons a week sometimes, and Smash and I don't even drink it, we drink almond milk.
I acknowledge that things are more difficult with kids, but the point is that if you really have to budget, you can. Try using powdered milk if the cost is too high. And there really is very near to zero reason for adults to drink milk at all.
Quote:
8. Perhaps most importantly is that this relies almost entirely on the "neighbor with a quarry" mentality - a fully stocked pantry and fridge (is this Chopped?). We'd need to add in salt, pepper, other seasonings, oil, butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, condiments, dressings, vinegar.
Sure. But these things are so inexpensive and used in such small portions that you can almost just handwave them away when calculating a monthly food budget. I literally buy a container of salt and/or pepper like maybe once a year. A small container of vegetable oil lasts me like 4 months. Small bags of flour usually get thrown out half used because it's gets old before it runs out. If age wasn't an issue, one of those small bags would last like 3 years. Unless you're baking bread or making pie crusts, you just don't use that much of it. Same deal with baking powder and soda.
Something that costs like $3 and lasts for 3-6 months is pretty negligible in this context.
Quote:
So, a daily menu: Breakfast: 1 egg, 1 cup of rice, half a cup of peas, and half an apple. Snack: 1 potato. Joy. Lunch: 1 cup of rice, a cup of corn, half an apple. Snack: half an apple Dinner: 1 cup of rice, 1 cup of carrots, .5 lb of chicken (about the daily recommendation of protein rich foods for a male). Before bed: half a cup of milk
That's an insane daily menu. You're eating like 5 times more food for breakfast than you need. Two snacks? And an entire potato is a snack! You're kidding, right? An entire potato is half of a dinner. You're going to weigh like 300 lbs eating this way.
Quote:
This would be ok for a day, or a week, but to have this be every day sucks. Like you said, it wouldn't be a great existence, and would likely be an emergency thing. This isn't a budget someone would "easily" stick to and it's total bullsh*t if someone says they are when they have a choice. Again, not arguing with you Spoon, I know what you're saying - it's this kind of "snapshot" look that people use without taking all the variables into account that leave us, as a society, with totally unrealistic expectations of what "poor people should be able to do" with their food stamps.
If that's all you did, and never varied it, sure. But there's tons of variations that you can do that can still fit inside the budget.
Edited, Dec 12th 2013 2:49pm by gbaji