Could you live of $21 a week?

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

I don't really know what we spend on groceries a week. It's a heck of a lot more than $21.00 / person, though. We like fresh foods and stuff that's good for us - which just can't be had for 3 bucks and change a day. But then, I work for our groceries and don't have the taxpayer buy my groceries for me.

samne here brother reinhard

same here. but i wll check with Ana. we do try to prepare meals at home. mostly simple meals with fresh veggies. so it should not be much. food items we generally buy from costco(meat, some veggies/fruits, cereal) and a food mart(mostly veggies/fruits and other items that is best not bought in bulk). We love going to farmer's market. but dang, it is a like a 30 minute drive.

Daniel

:energetic:

sister sanita, spends more $$$ on bird seed, corn, sunflower seeds, raccoon/possum food than we do to feed us...

plus dog food. our dog get the premium stuff.

Daniel

:energetic:

[almaty 19]

I don't really know what we spend on groceries a week. It's a heck of a lot more than $21.00 / person, though. We like fresh foods and stuff that's good for us - which just can't be had for 3 bucks and change a day. But then, I work for our groceries and don't have the taxpayer buy my groceries for me.

samne here brother reinhard

same here. but i wll check with Ana. we do try to prepare meals at home. mostly simple meals with fresh veggies. so it should not be much. food items we generally buy from costco(meat, some veggies/fruits, cereal) and a food mart(mostly veggies/fruits and other items that is best not bought in bulk). We love going to farmer's market. but dang, it is a like a 30 minute drive.

Daniel

:energetic:

sister sanita, spends more $$$ on bird seed, corn, sunflower seeds, raccoon/possum food than we do to feed us...

plus dog food. our dog get the premium stuff.

Daniel

:energetic:

yeap, 3 dogs and they are picky..and one russian cat..like caviar...

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

I don't really know what we spend on groceries a week. It's a heck of a lot more than $21.00 / person, though. We like fresh foods and stuff that's good for us - which just can't be had for 3 bucks and change a day. But then, I work for our groceries and don't have the taxpayer buy my groceries for me.

samne here brother reinhard

same here. but i wll check with Ana. we do try to prepare meals at home. mostly simple meals with fresh veggies. so it should not be much. food items we generally buy from costco(meat, some veggies/fruits, cereal) and a food mart(mostly veggies/fruits and other items that is best not bought in bulk). We love going to farmer's market. but dang, it is a like a 30 minute drive.

Daniel

:energetic:

sister sanita, spends more $$$ on bird seed, corn, sunflower seeds, raccoon/possum food than we do to feed us...

plus dog food. our dog get the premium stuff.

Daniel

:energetic:

yeap, 3 dogs and they are picky..and one russian cat..like caviar...

plus the treats we buy him. shees. life of a dog!

Daniel

:energetic:

[Anna C. 4]

Sounds about how I lived in New York City with my super dooper salary.... Buy on sale, potatoes, salad, drink filtered water instead of buying some!!! Also it depends a lot, you can get way more for 20 bucks in NC than in NYC!!!!

[tom&tata 2]

I don't really know what we spend on groceries a week. It's a heck of a lot more than $21.00 / person, though. We like fresh foods and stuff that's good for us - which just can't be had for 3 bucks and change a day. But then, I work for our groceries and don't have the taxpayer buy my groceries for me.

Agreed. $21 is not a lot, we spent more than that but at least we work to pay for it. Nobody can't complain.

[Nessa 23]

Wow Now I think we spend too much on food. It's usually between 100 -140 weekly for the 4 of us (me, Charles and both cats), between food, cleaning products, cat litter, cat food, hygiene products, basic pharmacy stuff (like aspirin, sleeping pills, etc) oh and that's because we buy at the comissary, lower taxes we save a lot of money, if we had to buy in normal grocery store (walmart, price chopper or whatever) we'd spend way more. I know that even if we tried to lower our spending still I can't see us spending less than 60 weekly unless we really had no other option.

Now $ 21,00 if it's only for food (no cleaning, hygiene products, cat stuff) for 1 person, still, only in papaya I spend more than $ 5,00 weekly, since here in the States the fruit is made of gold

[Ladylethal 12]

Luis and I spend an average of $60 weekely, not counting eating out, but including all the cleaning products, etc. In general it's $250 groceries every month, although I know that we'd spend more if weren't trying to stay in a certain budget.

[JohnK 0]

because we buy at the comissary, lower taxes we save a lot of money

I'm pretty sure that food bought with food stamps is not taxed.

I think it's interesting to note how many times I've seen people pay for food with food stamps, and then pull out a wad of cash to pay for their alcohol and cigs.

[almaty 19]

because we buy at the comissary, lower taxes we save a lot of money

I'm pretty sure that food bought with food stamps is not taxed.

I think it's interesting to note how many times I've seen people pay for food with food stamps, and then pull out a wad of cash to pay for their alcohol and cigs.

true, not taxed...

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I think it's interesting to note how many times I've seen people pay for food with food stamps, and then pull out a wad of cash to pay for their alcohol and cigs.

...and don't forget the fancy ride they hop into out in the parking lot.

[tom&tata 2]

I think it's interesting to note how many times I've seen people pay for food with food stamps, and then pull out a wad of cash to pay for their alcohol and cigs.

...and don't forget the fancy ride they hop into out in the parking lot.

Waste of money on some, reducing the help available to the people who actually need it.

[Jenn! 918]

I don't know what we're doing wrong. I shop at the discount grocery store and I have a really hard time spending less than $100 a week, including toiletries and stuff to make our lunches for the work week.

I know a lot depends on where you live, but I'm sure we could cut down somehow....

[mychelle 1]

i heard this story from NPR (local affiliate kpcc). they interviewed this Food Critic from Portland who is going to participate in this exercise. there are other rules...other than just spending $21 per week. one is, he is suppose to clear-out his cupboard with all the staples that people (who can afford groceries) would normally have. he said he was thinking that $21 was not that bad but when he actually went out to buy groceries, he was shocked on what he can actually get. he even thought of just cooking everything from scratch but he said anything that was fresh or frozen he couldn't afford. he had to settle for canned goods. he said his proteins will be from canned tuna and eggs only, since meats were expensive. he said that, for people who actually only had that much money to buy groceries, there were no extras for them to buy their staples (potato...flour...) or have an option to stock up on them.

[Nagishkaw 510]

I can live on 10$ a week for myself. I probably spend at least 60$ a week for all my pets. The turtle alone eats already cooked and peeled shrimp at 11$ a pound.

[Jasman0717 9]

Damn, my toilet paper bill is higher than that