This reminds me of a project I did in November of 2006 when I decided to eat for $1/day for the month. The whole thing is chronicled here: http://www.hungryforamonth.blogspot.com/
I wouldn't say what I did was exactly healthy though.
I wouldn't say what I did was exactly healthy though.
> [...]I’m consuming less than half the amount of food I used to and I don’t even notice it.
> Lately I’ve been thinking about anorexia. Not because I’m anorexic by any means, but because this month has shown me how a person could do it. Before, I assumed that anorexia meant constantly being hungry, so hungry that you were in constant pain. I never understood how people said they just sort of, “fell into the disease without realizing it.” But now I understand that like a lot of pain, the human body adapts around it. Like I said, if I wasn’t carefully monitoring my calories, I could easily eat way less than I should be eating and think it perfectly normal. If you were to add to that the psychological pressure to get or stay thin, I could definitely see how it happens.[...]
Breakfast:
- one piece of toast and margarine (6p - cost of tea)
- one cup of tea (6p - cost of toast - cost of margarine)
- one "unethical" egg (8.7p)
Lunch:
- one ham sandwhich, presumably just bread and ham (29p)
Snack:
- one "value" scone with jam (6p)
- one apple (free?)
Dinner: (37p combined, I imagine there are some more "free" ingredients in here)
- 1/4 zucchini
- 1/4 bell pepper
- 35g bacon
- 100g spaghetti
- 50g peas
- 10g "value" brie cheese
- 1 clove of garlic
Apart from some lemon juice and spices she added to her dinner, that's about it.
What I consider to be a scone costs about $1 alone where I live here in Canada. I would be a bit worried to eat one that cost over 10x less and the seller was still able to make a profit.
I remember paying ~$4 for an apple once when visiting France. Brian got his for free somehow. Perhaps he has a tree in his backyard.
Not to mention the massive overhead costs involved here with the fact that he could easily boil water to cook his spaghetti and a nice knife and cutting board which allowed him to make his sandwhiches. Plus a fridge to keep those remaining 29 unethical eggs in.
At the very least, it's a good read to get people thinking about efficiency.
When I paid $4 for that apple: it was the middle of winter in Paris, France. I was in a grocery store, or Paris' equivalent of one at least.
Cheap, which they call value.
Expensive, which they call finest or luxury.
Regular.
Here's a link to the scone product. (https://secure.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=25828...)
Here's a link to a price comparison website. (http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/grocery-categories/Scones_in_...)
So, you can get value scones at 50p for 10, with these ingredients {Wheat Flour,Water ,Sugar ,Vegetable Oil ,Sultanas (7%) ,Whey Powder ,Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate) ,Pasteurised Whole Egg ,Preservative (Potassium Sorbate) ,Emulsifier (Mono- and Di-Glycerides of Fatty Acids)}
Or you could get Tesco Finest Butter And sultana Scones at £1.50 for 4, (37.5p ea) with these ingredients {Wheat Flour,Sultanas (21%) ,Buttermilk ,Cornish Unsalted Butter (11%) ,Sugar ,Free Range Pasteurised Whole Egg ,Cornish Clotted Cream (3%) ,Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate) ,Salt}
(https://secure.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=25384...)
Some of the value items are good. But you need to be careful. As you say, these value scones are not nice. Even the finest scones aren't great, compared to scones you can buy in cafes.
A lot of supermarkets, at least in the UK, sell various basic foodstuffs as loss leaders[1], so they are making a significant loss on each one they sell. They do this to get you into the shop, in the hopes that you'll buy other more profitable items once there. Also, in university towns supermarkets are prepared to take a loss in order to secure the long-term brand loyalty of students who are shopping at supermarkets for the first time and forming their opinions, and will go on to become professionals who can afford the more profitable products.
If you are smart you can take advantage of these to get food very cheaply indeed.