The Economies Of Food

With tighter economic times people are looking for every way possible to save every penny they can and given my work I am obviously in touch with people trying to economize. One topic of recent interest to me was just how much the average person spends on food every day.

I read a study that said the figure is in the $ 5 to $ 7 range and that seemed somehow low, so I decided to run the math and see if it works and to my surprise I found that not only does it work but that the lower figures may well be more accurate.

Here is the menu I put together for a week

For Breakfast: I’m not much of a breakfast eater but I wanted to keep everything accurate so I decided on either toast or cereal (hot or cold) along with some fruit and either juice or milk to drink.

For Lunch: Wanting variety I didn’t lock myself into just sandwiches, though I did figure on 3 a week, of varying types (ham, turkey, PBJ, etc). Then a couple lean pockets for a 2 days and a frozen pizza for one day. Finishing off with leftover pasta from my dinner menu

For sides, chips or crackers or fruit or veggies. To drink milk/soda/juice/drink mix/water.

For Dinner: I put together a variety of options. Chicken, fish, pork would provide at least 3 and perhaps 4 meals. A lean pocket or frozen pizza would do one night and then pasta with a variety of sauces for the other nights.

Potatoes or pasta or rice as side dishes with veggies each night. Same variety of drinks as lunch. Maybe some rolls with a couple meals and fruit or cookies for dessert.

For snacks, crackers or cookies or fruit or veggies along with same variety of drinks.

Putting all this together and buying some of the main courses in bulk and freezing I was able to do it for $ 28 for the entire week or $ 4 a day. Even if you add on extra for missed costs, it’s still amazingly easy to eat for $ 5 a day.

In doing this I though it might be interesting to share with our TMV readers to see what they find is an average food cost for their families. I’d think larger families (i’m on my own) could do even better as they could buy more items in bulk

It’s not the most stimulating discussion we could have but with many of us trying to watch the pennies it might be a productive one. Feel free to share your money saving tips too.