Hungry Planet: What The World Eats
We're piled on my bed to study the pages of Hungry Planet: What The World Eats. You've probably heard about this book and its beautiful photos, which document food from 25 families in 21 countries.
It's both eye-pleasing and eye-opening. Each family displays one weeks' worth of food, from raw ingredients to KFC. My kids enjoyed spotting familiar products (Coke!) and comparing the costs from country to country. It didn't take long to see that the more packaging in the kitchen, the higher the total would be.
We originally checked out the book to learn more about Bhutanese cuisine, as our family is involved with the refugee community here. The average cost of a week of Bhutanese food? $5.03. For the whole family.
I'm not suggesting that we throw away our menus to eat like an impoverished nation, but Hungry Planet did give us pause. How long has it been since we totaled our food cost for a week? Have we slipped into buying more convenience foods and fewer raw ingredients?
The kids are excited about counting the cost; honestly, so am I. We could all use a little accountability, and I'm thankful that Hungry Planet gave us the food for thought.
Do you know how much it costs to feed your family for a week? Do you total the weekly menu, or simply watch the grocery spending to keep things in check?
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8 Responses to “Hungry Planet: What The World Eats”
April 27th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
That book is a real eye-opener, isn’t it? It’s pretty astounding when you look at what we Americans tend to think of as necessary to get us through a week. (I seem to recall seeing delivery pizza, as well as tons of soft drinks and other processed junk foods in one of the American photos.) I recall looking at one of the Asian families and marveling at how good all their fresh, healthy foods looked!
I wish I could say that I know what we spend weekly on groceries. That’s one area I’ve never kept a tight rein on the budget. I tried using cash only for groceries at one point, but I found it tedious. That’s one area I really prefer to use the debit card, and then I don’t even bother to tally up receipts to see what we’re spending each week/month. I probably should…
April 28th, 2010 at 6:51 am
I think the low cost of food isn’t only for impoverished nations. I live in Cairo right now and there are a lot of poor…. but also a lot of rich. The rich who home cook eat cheap here too because there is a lot of readily available fresh produce and it’s cheap as anything.
The supermarkets do have a fair amount of packaged stuff but it tends to be more so in the expat supermarkets… aimed mainly at American’s.
I eat on about $5-$10 per week here.
April 28th, 2010 at 10:04 am
We keep ourselves in the monthly budget goal. I was doing great until the hubby went to the store to buy some last minute food, argghhhh, kind of threw off the monthly goal. However, it also includes spending money in the drugstores. but breaking it down to per week is alot of work, i don’t even tally the amount of coupons i send overseas, or log it into their website, too much work.
April 28th, 2010 at 11:01 am
We were stationed in Japan for 3 years and while it was certainly not cheap the quality of the meat and produce was amazing. I have never ever tasted peaches or strawberries as delicious as the ones I got there (from a regular supermarket), the eggs had yolks that were bright orange and no doubt rich in Omega-3s, and the tofu was made in a neighboring town. They also have very high meat safety standards and the fish was extremely fresh.
Notably, portions are also small and I was probably the most trim in my life living there. The idea of a small amount of very high quality food was a different mindset than one encounters here in the US.
April 28th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
I track our spending reeeealy closely and have our spending plan mapped out to the end of 2010. I put in a plug of $200/wk for groceries and once we’ve done our weekly groceries I replace that amount on the spreadsheet with the actual cost. We used to estimate $225/wk but this year we’re trying to cut that down through menu planning around what’s in the freezer and pantry and what’s on sale that week. So far this year we’re averaging $203.51/wk so I’ve almost reached the new target. Once that becomes comfortable, I’ll try to drop it a little more.
There is such a vast difference in the costs from one part of the coutry to another, let alone one country to another. It would be interesting to know, for example, what it would cost in various other countries to buy the identical items in various coutries. I double what you get for $5.03 in Bhutan can be had for that amount in North America for example.
I know to many our $200/wk sounds high and I know with work I can reduce it a little more, but I also have to recognize that I live in Canada where the growing season is short and most of the year fresh produce is imported. Stores don’t double coupons, and in fact coupons aren’t used all that much (none in my newspaper and most printable ones aren’t accepted here). So I rely on cooking from scratch, meal planning, etc. I also cut myself some slack and remember that my son is a teenaged eating machine and that’s not likely to change for a few more years.
April 29th, 2010 at 8:06 am
JKM – you are so right about teenagers and the amount they eat – not to mention their friends! Those of you with young children who are on a food budget need to plan to double that when that big growth spurt kicks it! But I find it a joy to feed them well and don’t mind the extra money or time in the kitchen. He will be gone too soon and I want him to have warm memories of always having lots of good food in his home.
May 3rd, 2010 at 8:34 pm
I found that book so compelling.
I know the average amount we spend on food per month, but I do not keep track of it precisely. I haven’t found much worth in doing that for reducing costs.
Monthly, our family of 4 spends $200-250 on groceries and toilet paper (we use cloth for the rest); we don’t really eat out and that figure does not include cleaners or drugstore items.
May 18th, 2010 at 3:53 am
It’s just my hubby, myself and my 2 cats here but i like to keep a very close eye on the grocery budget. I have a local mom-pop grocery just down the street and i check in almost daily to see what meats, vegetables, etc are going into the ‘reduced’ cart. The ‘catch’ of the day is usually how i plan my meals out. We have found that we can eat pretty darn cheaply this way. And i round the whole thing out by chasing the loss leaders when the other grocers have their sales. I also like to challenge myself to use what is in the pantry/freezer before i commit to buying more (unless it is a super one-time sale or clearance…gotta stock up then of course)…a couple times a year we play the ‘eat everything in the house till it’s completely gone’ game…then we begin again…
i would say we eat for under $15 a week (not counting my piggy cats of course)….
great blog by the way…i’ve been following for a few months…thanks!
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