Topic: Cheap food: can you beat this price in your country? - page 5. (Read 1263 times)

Its only cheap if the food dont make you sick.  Which city is highly relevant and all the other details, some food its vital its cooked all the way through etc.    Not everyone agrees to this idea of 'saving'   The cheapest tip to save money is learn to cook, even basic food can be very tasty if you just follow the ingredients, preparation (sometimes overnight soak etc.) and instructions to cook and Im not the best myself at this but fresh food will always have the advantage + its just cheaper to source your own meals not buy prepared/hot.  The hot food is taxed extra 20% in some countries plus service charge etc. not often a cheap path.
   You wont beat this one but honestly I never understood how a group of six of us went to central London, Oxford street and just close by in a sidestreet was a Thai takeaway and far eastern food buffet, all you can eat just serve your portions then pay  We paid under $10 total for all of us, I thought it should be far more but it was afternoon and maybe the food was discount about to changed out for the evening not sure but it tasted great to me, miniature sweetcorn fried sauces all kinds of food I never had before or since even as I dont eat thai often.
  Ive worked in an airport lounge long ago, we sold a cart full of food with each sandwich very finely made best fillings was $10 each but also they were required by law to throw away all the prepared sandwiches every 4 hours.  So at the right time of day, ask the right people nicely the food was free and nothing wrong its just you cannot display food without a fridge for more then 4 hours apparently.   Many years ago this job was but I doubt any more sense exists in the system now.

Don't expect the finest ingredients or the necessary meal preparation measures. The OP is most likely in a third-world country; I'm not sure if it was mentioned in one of the previous replies, but this meal certainly isn't as affordable as for local people; you're an outsider with a wage that certainly isn't comparable to yours. On top of that, you can't live eating beans and rice; they don't provide much in terms of nutritional value. You need much more than that in order to be healthy, and cutting down on food isn't the wisest option.

an active male needs about 1gram of protein per kg of body weight
an average 90kg male needs 90gram of protein.
average meat is 30gram protein per 100gram of meat.. so that is 300gram of meat per day

which UK prices is (£6/kg = £1.80 A DAY)
yep 300gram of meat(90gram of protein) is the DAILY amount not meal amount
1kg of veg is £1
meaning you can split the meat and the veg for £2.80 a day over 3 meals

google suggests US chicken breast is $1 per 100gram. meaning $3 a day for meat

This price looks very cheap, but we must consider the nutritional value of the given food. Usually, the most expensive component of any meal is the meat. At the same time, it's the most needed component for a body to maintain its form and perform well, so if the amount of meat added to this meal isn't enough, we shouldn't consider it a perfect meal. In my country, all kinds of meat are very expensive, so I can't imagine finding a perfect meal with a price that is as similar as your meal. In this case, the cheapest nourishing meal here costs no less than $2, so with 3 meals a day, a person needs $180 monthly to pay for their food.

In our country, there are still cheap meals but we can't expect that they will serve them in restaurants. We can buy them from food stalls where they serve beef stew and fried rice or dimsum meals and a lot more combos.
This is common in our country but we have to deal with the surroundings since we can't expect a cozy place and waiters to serve us. We will only be getting what we paid for but it's still a good way to save.

you only gave measurements of first 4
so i gave you the UK prices from UK Aldi and converted for you

although those are prices based on kg of weight. it should be noted that there may be actual differences of TRUE weights and measures

Eg a large egg in germany may be a medium egg in the uk(or vice versa)
the amount of brine pumped into meat may differ from country to country (pre-cook weight)

I think people generally don't care too much about the nutritional value of their food, instead, they value food's taste. Old generation and even younger one seems to be this way. If you tell my father to eat oatmeal, broccoli and other healthy goods that taste terrible to improve his health, he will go crazy and kick you.
It's not only about my father, people generally taste what tastes delicious, that's why a lot of people have diabetes, high cholesterol, heart problems, stomach problems, kidney problems (a lot of soda, low water intake). They think that if they buy multi vitamins in pharmacy, it will fix all of their issues, some people even think that if you eat cranberries during the summer, it will be enough to keep your body saturated with C vitamin for one year.

Well, I pay 32 Euro for food that lasts me for 2-3 days. And I buy in supermarket and cook it myself at home. I imagine, with my money, one month's expenses on food would be enough for me to eat in Brazil for one year. Maybe I should become digital nomad and immigrate in Brazil Btw I usually eat chicken breast, eggs, beans, some fruit, some yoghurt. Everything is super cheap except chicken breast and eggs. Probably 80% of expenses goes into chicken fillet and eggs. 1KG breast costs 10 Euro and ten eggs costs between 2.5-4 euro. Well, I workout and wanna keep my big muscles, maybe that's why expenses are so high (you wont' see single person in Germany spending up to 600 euro a month on food).
But cmon guys, how is $35 enough for food? What's the price of 1KG chicken fillet? What's the price of 10 eggs? What's the price of healthy food in your country?

I ask this question to everyone here who comes from countries where food costs so low:
Imagine I am a bodybuilder who competes in Mr Olympia classic physique and I eat 700g chicken fillet every day, 300g salmon,  5-10 eggs (egg whites), 4-5 bananas, two cottage cheese, oatmeal, rice and some vegetables.
Can someone do me a favor and briefly tell me how much would my expenses be? In Germany, it's up to 600 Euro.
P.S. I need the food to be good quality, so don't include low quality foods into your calculation.

It sounds great - cheap and delicious, but you won't be able to eat like this regularly. Rice is good to alternate with noodles, buckwheat, pasta. Pork meat is good meat, it contains vitamins B12 and B6, but pork is better to alternate with chicken. You wrote about beans - but it does not cover the entire diet of vitamins from fruits and vegetables. We need to diversify them. Plus I want sweets - glucose is needed by the brain. Therefore, you will not be able to spend $ 35 a month. I think it will be twice as expensive.

That's very cheap, where actually is that restaurant? From the type of food it sounds a bit like Brazil. I remember from my few trips in South America that food is fairly cheap down there and very fresh. In Brazil almost every meal included rise and black beans, so delicious and much more healthy than all the fast food in my country. Here are no restaurants where you can get a meal below 5 USD, there a children portions for 3 USD but that doesn't count. Even the lunch menus are above 5 USD. The only real cheap food we have here is for students, because it's subsidised by the state. For less than 2 USD you get a main dish, salad or soup and a small desert. The quality was quite good back in the day, unfortunately you need to be a student to get the discount.

I used to work in a company specializing in frozen food and industrial catering. I can tell you that, if you live in a 3rd country and you are a worker, it will not be too difficult for you to get such cheap meals. Honestly, such a meal only makes you full and healthy to continue working, but can not guarantee hygiene and health later for you. There are many hidden corners about cheap food that I have seen, I work at that food company but never dare to eat a meal there.

I do not think this price is beatable. It is sounding it is a free meal for people. How do they make profits? How much do they buy food items? Do they also pay rent such as housing and electricity. Then what is the hygienic status of the meal and finally which country does this happen if I can relocate.

If you live in a city, you have plenty of options. You might have to get a little creative and ask around, but if it's free or very cheap, that might be worth the trouble. If you're more interested in great food and interesting experiences than simple sustenance, that's wonderful—but it's also the fastest way to empty your wallet.

I don't know where you live, but the daily wage is too low and the food is very expensive. I am in a third-world country, and our average daily salary is also $9–$11, but we can buy meals for $1, which include rice and pork or beef. There is also unlimited rice with chicken for $1. Food stalls here in the side streets are cheap since most of their food is for those students and employees that are out of budget, though sometimes it is not that healthy, but still you won't be hungry.

You did not mention your country so we can compare the standard of living in that country, but that $0.57 is so cheap its almost a complete meal and it looks healthy too, here in our country the cheapest meal in an average food stall that one can afford is $1 to $2 considering that the daily wage here is $11 so its much better to cook your own food I can budget $1 for myself only for rice and scramble egg I have done this when I was out of job.
I wish we have a complete meal like that at the price you posted.

This product is sold WORLDWIDE, regardless of the income of citizens
On the one hand, in a couple of minutes you get a dish that will fill you up. And most importantly - at a very low price! You won't find anything cheaper.

But. These are very simple and very little useful carbohydrates for humans, plus all seasonings contain a lot of salt and all sorts of "taste enhancers", "flavor identical to natural" ... If you use this as a backup option for a rare case, it's not a problem - you can eat. But to eat it all the time, or even daily - believe me, it will not lead to anything good! And then you will spend a lot more money on treatment. Well, or you will lose income due to the fact that you can not work. It is better to spend an extra 30-40 minutes and prepare a meal from inexpensive, affordable and natural ingredients than to eat, almost "synthetic food". Believe me - in most countries there will always be inexpensive but quite high-quality food - rice, legumes, vegetables, herbs, chicken or pork, ...

I wonder if that same business is a family owned where they are also the ones who are managing it without hiring anybody. And if they are hiring a cook or a waiter, I'm curious how much are they earning in a day as a meal that cheap will certainly mean that the wage is not that much. But this case really depends on the area, whether if it's rural or urban and most of all, it depends on a certain country if they belong on a 3rd world or not because I'm quite sure that you can't find these places in Northern America, Middle East and most countries in Europe.

I think this totally depends on the particular region the person is staying. I guess in a country where the cost of living and the inflation rate on foodstuffs is not much, i think the owner of the restaurant can actually get some profits off his business but i totally doubt the quality of the foods not the quantity because they are some typical example of some restaurant where my friends go to eat where the foods is low at about 0.65$ per meal but the quality of the material used in cooking such foods is not very nice. But the facts still remain that not everyone likes eating such food and not everyone can afford the high meals too so i think we are to make our choices on where to eat.

I could say that "not being healthy" is alright if you are living in poverty. You can't just go out and eat organic food that costs x10 more, you are going to face the reality that you are going to eat unhealthy stuff for a while and it is the sad act that you have to take. I know plenty of people who eat rice and potatos and bread etc etc, because they can't afford to buy meat or anything like that, it's poverty and it happens.

I hope that as humanity grows, we can finally get rid of this food issue, we should be able to end any type of starving, or people should be able to eat food without worrying about prices, it's a human need, it's a must.

That's good because it will save money on monthly bills so we don't eat so much fast food that we don't know how healthy it is. Maybe in other countries, the price of raw materials is cheap so that people who sell daily food can sell it at an affordable price too. We must be able to manage expenses every month, regardless of the salary or income we receive so that we can make ends meet for our lives. And even though the price of food in our country is quite cheap compared to other countries, that doesn't mean we can spend money on things that aren't important because it's better to use that money as future savings.

it's true I don't eat it often. that's just what i eat when i get overtime work. and usually work overtime until midnight. and I'm starving. and yeah, that's what I often find in a small shop near my workplace. because actually I prefer food that is processed or cooked by myself. because I was diligent enough to buy raw materials to be brought to my inn. and I started cooking after coming home from work. and it's quite fun. and also enough to save my finances. because raw and fresh ingredients tend to be cheaper. than ready meals.