Interesting how politicians are in touch or out of touch with household economics..
In the above article, a Montreal politician stated how $75 is enough for a family of three to feed itself for a week. Maybe he reads this forum?? The University prof says $149 a week is the bare minimum. The provincial average states it was $233 per week for a family of four.
Just a bunch of random numbers really..people think they have an idea of what they do or need but really they don't. The prof even said the $75 per week grocery budget would have a severely compromised nutritional value. Maybe if people lived on the lower budget they would eat less and there would be much less overweight people.
Another comment: "...The result (living on $75 per week) is it would create other problems the health system would have to solve." Really? Like less heart disease maybe?
Keep in mind that most people still buy pre-processed solutions regardless of income.
Those spending $1000/month would likely buy organic ready-made microkale salads sprinkled with artisanal import cheese served with wild-caught salmon. Even for this crowd, cooking mostly means assembling finished solutions. It just comes from the deli instead of the freezer department.
Those spending $300/month would likely buy mac'n'cheese from the 7-11 on the corner adding ground hamburger. Perhaps some popcorn as a snack if the meal wasn't filling. And soda for drinking if you live in Flint, Michigan or a fracking county with bad water.
There are few who would and could do their own cooking after spending their $200 in the produce section, largely avoiding meat and dairy. It's theoretically possible and would do wonders for public health costs, but it requires too much cultural adjustment.
The USDA thrifty budget for a single woman my age is $39.20/week. If you go to the USDA site and read the list of what would comprise the weekly market basket, it is fairly amusing. For instance, I would be purchasing .7 lbs. of prepared or condensed soup and .01 lbs of bacon, sausages and luncheon meats each week. The total poundage is supposed to be 37.13/week = 5.3 lbs. day, so the thrifty shopper should be paying an average of right around $1/lb of foodstuffs.
This is of particular interest because the U.S. poverty level calculation is directly linked to this calculation. If you or your family has income less than 3X combined grocery market basket total then you are below the poverty level.
Well, a bunch of elites that have never really pushed those boundaries are the wrong people to ask. Not that we don't have problems with nutrition in developed nations but it's largely a matter of food choices. A bag of spinach cost less than a bag of chips, but most choose the high calorie micronutrient poor chips. People have moved away from cheap but nutrient dense organ meats. People were scared off of eggs by cholesterol even though your body produces far more than you can get though diet.
I think I read the same article as you did (in french, I live in the suburbs close to Montréal). The (award-winning, personal-financial-specialized) journalist concluded that it was entirely impossible to feed 3 people for 75 $ per week: "the fridge would be empty when the week-end comes. You'll need to get invited by friends or family." The journalist even interviewed a nutritionist who said that eating with such a budget would not lead to a balanced diet. Not only that, but the kid wouldn't have "granola bars, cookies or crackers", which are, as is common knowledge, part of a nutritionally optimal diet.
I must live in another dimension because me and DW maintain an average of 50$ without doing a big effort, and I personally feel like we are splurging. According to some agency that offers nutritional support for women in need, you need 230 $ to feed adequately four people for a week. Rice and lentils do get a mention in the article, but only as an ingredient or a side-dish (for meat, which is the main meal, rather than an ingredient).
On Facebook, it's the big meme now. Everyone seems (as Jacob rightly advanced) to believe the only way to respect such a budget is to eat mac and cheese every day, every meal (except for saturday, the week's special meal, when you'd add a hot dog sausage).
@Jean: It did exist but I believe they removed it 20 years ago, maybe more. I'm 29 and I never had such a class. Ten years ago, the government also removed economy/personal finance classes in high school.
I spend about $35 per person a week on groceries and that is eating keto thus cutting out the cheap carbs and substituting in more expensive meat and vegetables.
If it weren't for my keto diet I should be able to drive cost down to probably half of what I currently spend by switching to cheap carbs for low cost calories. Doing rice and beans at least twice a week and switching some calories from meat and vegetables in all the other meals to carbs would probably get it down to at least $20-25 per person per week achieving the $75 per week for a 3 person family. Also women and kids tend to eat fewer calories than an adult male so the $75 is probably even a little generous if I were to do that. It does require some planning and effort though to buy items in bulk and while they are on sale and storing/freezing them in portions to use when needed. It's also just a little more work than popping something pre-made in the microwave for a few minutes.
Sure, you would face limitations in your cooking not being able to buy expensive vegetables or nicer cuts of meat. However if you are short on cash it's very much doable. If I was really strapped for cash I could get by on even less by substituting more meals for rice and beans still getting a nutritionally complete diet for under $14 per person a week, though it would likely be very boring. However most believe the only way to eat cheaply is to buy crap(which is often as if not more expensive than some of the other ways).
Problem is many people that are poor still buy soda, bottled water, crisps, cookies etc. None of which are necessary(except maybe the water depending on the water situation where you live, but for most it isn't).
My wife and I do fine on $75 a week at Aldi in Baltimore, MD without leaning on processed crap. Add in a 3rd person and it would get difficult...but not impossible if you double down on dry goods. I'm pretty sure I would have to bump the budget to $90 for my sanity though....I would get serious "rice and beans faitgue".
This could be pretty hard to do for single parents.
25$ à week is about 3000 Cal of legumes per day. 2000 Cal of rice and lentils in equal proportions is around 1.40, leaving around 1.90 per day, which is about 1 pound of végétables or 80 grams of meat. So the smallest of those numbers seems frugal but doable.
But Canada really sounds like an expériment to turn people into zombies....
I feed a family of 2 or 3 (number 3 doesn't eat all meals with us) for less than $50 a week. And we eat pretty well; meat for dinner every night and plenty of fresh fruits/vegetables. We eat little or no junk/processed foods, and cook a lot from scratch. Nothing organic, free range, gluten-free, or hand-massaged, either.
I re-did Jean's calorie calculation with some of my numbers: If we take pinto beans as a typical legume, I can get dried pinto beans for $0.75/lb. from Walmart. (Probably cheaper in bulk at costco or Winco.) According to the USDA, a pound of beans cooks up to 12 one-half cup servings (each 120 calories), so a total of 1440 calories, or 1920 calories/$. For a week, $25 would get you 6857 calories per day! (I absolutely don't expect anyone to live on legumes 24/7, but many of the bulk dried goods I buy are in this same price range.)
Calculated another way: 4 pounds per day of prepared food is typical for most people. (Note that a lot of this is water. For example, the half-cup serving of prepared beans above is mostly water, it weighs about 90 grams but only 30 of this is dried beans. So, cooked beans only cost $0.25 per pound, if you buy them dry and cook them.) For a week, you'd consume 28 pounds of food, so at $25 per week you need to be paying $0.89 per pound on average for unprepared food.
I get pork shoulder for $1 per pound on sale (though, a lot of this is bone). Just bought a whole bunch of boneless/skinless chicken breasts for $1.28. I try not to spend more than ~$1.50/pound for most fresh fruits and vegetables, by buying them in season. Average out these high costs per pound for meat and fruits/vegetables with the much lower costs per PREPARED pound for dried foods such as beans, pasta, grains, etc. and I think it's possible to eat well for less than a dollar per pound, or $25 per person per week.
My daughter and wife like to snack more than I do. Occasionally they go to the store and buy chips, soda, cookies etc. and easily spend more just for a week's worth of junk, than I spend on the solid meals.
I should add: All my numbers are in US Dollars, so I guess this is a bit more than Canadian dollars.
Legumes are much cheaper in the US than in europe then. The cheapest I find in switzerland (but it doesn't seem cheaper in germany) is around 2$ per pound, about the same as local in season non organic fruits or vegetables (altough onions are much cheaper).
Meat in switzerland is crazy expensive because you only find grassfed beef (which I find good and more morale), beef at 10$ per pound is a rare sight, 40$ per pound is comon for a nice part. Pork and chicken are common at 10$ per pound, but I couldn't to them what it takes to have them at this price. One egg cost between 30 and 80 cent depending on the life of the chickens laying them.
If paid in food, I could get 10 pounds of grassfed beef for one day of work.
The combination of cultural habits and mass distribution systems render food prices rather irrational. For instance, I lived for many years in a small town in a rural county which was heavily planted in soybeans. So, there was a tofu factory within biking distance of my house, but tofu was more expensive at my local super-market than in the nearest city center, because red county dwellers eat/buy less tofu than blue county dwellers. Of course, I am the sort of person who sometimes finds it amusing to bring tofu salad to a rural potluck and macaroni salad to an urbanite gathering. If I am trying to make everybody happy, I will bring something like pickled peaches.
