What others spend on food each week by canttakesky

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

What others spend on food each week

POSTED BY: CANTTAKESKY
UPDATED: Friday, March 11, 2011 13:53
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VIEWED: 1582
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Wednesday, March 9, 2011 8:45 AM

http://www.dailydawdle.com/2010/07/what-others-spend-on-food-each-week
-pic.html

Poignant series of pictures.

I know people here like to rant and rave about how awful the rich are.

I hope this helps put into perspective that YOU are one of the rich. Please just keep that in mind.

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Wednesday, March 9, 2011 12:09 PM

KANEMAN

though... not in the INFLATION numbers...I spend more under Barry than any prez ever....he loves the middle class...and poor bitches

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Wednesday, March 9, 2011 2:44 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Well, there's also that food of any kind is damned expensive in the states, and worse, if you want something not laced with or constructed from toxic chems and additives, be prepared to pay through the nose for it, comparatively speaking.

Also, water - try getting safe-to-drink water anywhere in america without paying for it, as opposed to common wells and collective supplies in many third world countries - not all of which are safe themselves, especially what with corporate pollution, whether they be local or foreign, but the idea remains, which it does not, here.

Then there is prep time and expense, which the average american is really screwed about, since most of them have no idea how to cook, and wouldn't have time to do it if they did due to the amount of time slaving for their corporate masters for the pittance they get to pay the debts incurred for the privledge of being a corporations bitch, oh don't even get me started...

And heaven help you if you try to grow your own food on any scale approaching self sufficiency, cause Monsanto and their DNR accomplices and enablers will come down on you with a bang, lickety split - so while the perspective is useful, there's also a lil bit of blaming the victim here, because what else can you call it when a deliberately kept ignorant population functions in the only manner they've left to them.

I on the other hand, DO know how to cook, and I MEAN cook, not just boil water and follow the instructions on the box, and I don't even OWN a microwave, quite deliberately, cause it does nothing good for the flavor or nutritional value of anything you put in it!
As for the time factor, I can multitask that for most things, and if you know what the hell you're doing, you can roll out a multicourse meal on average in 28 minutes or less - there *IS* more than one burner on the stove, yanno, plus, yeah verily, the oven, god forbid...
*rolling eyes*

The monniker "Dynamo" comes from Domestic Dynamo, my ex's snarky nickname for me when I get on a culinary or cleaning rampage, so you can imagine.

Anyhow, my average food bill for a week is =< $25.00 USD , and that's including my weakness for clearance-rack pastry, and remember my employment has the unusual bonus of being allowed, even encouraged (the fallen fruit attracts more critters, which get into the trash, yadda, yadda) to make use of the "decorative" apple and cherry trees along the path of my security rounds.

What's amusing in a sad sort of way is the reaction of folk to such a notion, eat fruit right off a tree, OMG the horror, it hasn't been drenched in pesticide, irradiated, then washed, sprayed with a thin coat of carnuba wax and then buffed before being packaged and plastic wrapped, it's not SAFE, oh noesss...

Of course, my ex had a slightly more rational question - "but what if there's a worm in it, ewww!" - to which I noted that's WHY (other than, yanno, Griswolds) you use a freakin paring knife, and in that case you cut around him and make the fucker share!

People are idiots, seriously.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Thursday, March 10, 2011 2:27 AM

CANTTAKESKY

Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
... make the fucker share!

LOL.

My hub says in Africa, if you find a worm inside your apple, you say, "Oh look! Free protein!"

When I was in Egypt, the pretty pesticide treated apples were more expensive, and the worm-eaten organic ones were cheaper. I like that arrangement.

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Thursday, March 10, 2011 10:50 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

This was cirulated via email, but I really like it. It's a very telling series of photos.

Frem, I don't think it blames the victim, just showing it as it is. Obsety in developed countries is now associated with the poor in an odd turn around thats kind of unique in human history. And the reasons behind that are pretty much as you stated. Processed food that is crap for you is now cheaper than buying fresh foods in a lot of places. And secondly, people no longer know how to cook using fresh ingredients. If you have ever seen Jamie Oliver's Food revolution series, it really demonstrates how a lot of people have become reliant on packet and microwave food, loaded with salt, fat and preservatives. And the ubiquitous pop/soda/softdrink really is just like drinking liquid sugar, or a chemical cocktail or both. I noted that even the European families, who appeared to eat much more fresh food still have those bloody bottles as part of their weekly cache.

And that African family, so little food. I had a friend who travelled through Africa and I remember her talking about how little people often ate and how little food there was available, even to buy. In some places, people commonly only eat one meal a day, and that would be something like sorghum. We would feel like we were starving, but for them, that's how they live.

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Thursday, March 10, 2011 11:08 AM

CANTTAKESKY

Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
In some places, people commonly only eat one meal a day, and that would be something like sorghum.

My hub has traveled quite a bit throughout Africa in the last 30 years. His most recent trip was in 2005. He said in the DRCongo, they only ate 1 meal a day, and only at the end of a 14 hour work day (6 am to 8 pm). That's the folks who were lucky enough to have jobs. The families of those workers often lived on grass.

Yep, imagine one more picture with a family standing in front of grass.

Breaks my heart.

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Thursday, March 10, 2011 7:51 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Frem, $25 per week. Seriously? You'd barely get much change from $20 for milk and bread these days here. Bananas are over $6 per kilo because of all the trouble up north where they grow.

I spent $260 on groceries today, but that's the shop I do about once a month. I usually buy meat, fruit, veg, bread, milk etc a couple of times a week as well. I suspect we spend around $150-$200 per week on groceries for 3 of us.

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Thursday, March 10, 2011 9:14 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Yeah, organic in America is super expensive, my dad and I like to eat organic, but it costs too much anymore since he doesn't make as much in the last couple of years.

As for water I live in a city with some of the best tap water anywhere, I just get my cup and fill it up, Mmmmmm. We here on the boards are indeed much more fortunate than most people in the world, we should take pause to be thankful and greatful.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Friday, March 11, 2011 3:25 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
Frem, $25 per week. Seriously? You'd barely get much change from $20 for milk and bread these days here. Bananas are over $6 per kilo because of all the trouble up north where they grow.

Sometimes even less, MagonsD.

Remember, not only do I have access to free fruit, via the "decorative" trees, I am also quite friendly with the local farmers in the several agricultural areas south-southeast of here, and they like to keep on my good side since I am a damn handy small engine mechanic and general tinker, so the occasional offering extends my supplies as well.

And I could fish in the lake if I went and used a pole, but I am way too impatient for that.
(Btw, the shingle-recipe laid me on the floor, that was great, lol.)

But mostly it's cause I know HOW to cook, with a focus on speed and economy - those brownies of mine, while quite good, come to less than $0.18 USD each, including the power to cook em and water for the mix, and cleanup of the pan, and from start to serve is around eighteen minutes flat.

Which is why I kind of pity other americans, they don't know how to cook, never have the opportunity, or the TIME, to learn how - and would not have time to do so even if they did cause it's rush rush rush, and when they're not busting ass sixty-eighty hours on a forty hour "salary" (typical US Corporate dodge to avoid paying overtime, and unavoidable cause all the bastards are in collusion about it) then they're sleeping, trying to catch up on domestic mess, and heaven help em if they have a family...
And with pensions, social security, and retirements being savaged, they'll run on that goddamn treadmill till they drop dead, and then their children will be even further behind as they get stuck with the company-store type debt load which these fools never manage to get ahead on no matter how hard they work.

So culinary skill and focus takes kind of back seat, alas - and it's whatever they can sling in the microwave and cram down their gullet before they pass out, is what it is, leastways with most of em.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Friday, March 11, 2011 12:52 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER

ok, so now I want your brownie recipe. I LOVE brownies. I give you a hedgehog recipe, kind of our version of brownies.

* 250g packet Scotch Finger (any kind of bland packet of biscuits..milk arrowroot etc)
* ¾ cup chopped pecans (or walnuts or almonds)
* 1 cup sultanas (optional)
* 125g butter
* 125g caster sugar
* 2 tablespoons cocoa
* 2 tablespoons coconut
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 egg, lightly beaten

Icing

* 1½ cups icing sugar
* 2 tablespoons cocoa
* 2-3 tablespoons water

Method:

Grease a slice tin with butter
Crush biscuits (by hand or in a food processor), leaving some lumps.
Add nuts, sultanas (if using), cocoa and coconut.
In a small saucepan, melt butter, then stir in sugar, and vanilla.
Stir through biscuit mixture and then stir in egg.
Press into tin with the back of a spoon.
Put a bit of cold water on your fingers to press down the top so it is smooth
Spread chocolate icing over slice and refrigerate overnight.
Cut into squares.

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Friday, March 11, 2011 1:53 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Nothin TO it, really.

I'll have to actually measure out the cocoa powder in a cup or something next time...

But essentially, pre heat over to 400F, and put a stick of butter in a small saucepan to melt, then add 2 eggs and a 1/3 cup of water to the mixing bowl, dump the cocoa powder on it, then pour the butter over the works and stir briskly with a whisk until blended smooth, then hit the 8x8/8x9 pan with some cooking spray, pour it in, shake back and forth to level it and chuck it in the oven for about 16-18 minutes.

Getting the right cocoa powder is the key, really - not all of it works well enough for culinary use.

Most of my personal-use cooking is dead bang simple, and really quick too, it has to be.

-F

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