Meet 'America's cheapest family' ( 7 family members live on $44K a Year )

[TomGshotput]

ya , enjoying eating is the key to only spending $ 1 a day on food.

Now you're getting it. If a person likes to eat, a year of oatmeal, potatoes and peanut butter is not much of a hardship. For most people eating is so tough that the food industry increases the price so much on the few things they can choke down to the point that food budgets reach hundreds per month

The idea of using points was just a departure from the main idea. Ireally could go to the store and spend $7 per week and eat just fine. If you want to call me a liar or a piece of shit because I actually wouldn't have a problem with eating those types of meals, go ahead. I've heard it plenty of times

 

[WorldNumberOne]

Now you're getting it. If a person likes to eat, a year of oatmeal, potatoes and peanut butter is not much of a hardship. For most people eating is so tough that the food industry increases the price so much on the few things they can choke down to the point that food budgets reach hundreds per month

The idea of using points was just a departure from the main idea. Ireally could go to the store and spend $7 per week and eat just fine. If you want to call me a liar or a piece of shit because I actually wouldn't have a problem with eating those types of meals, go ahead. I've heard it plenty of times

would never call you a liar or a piece of shit.. i find you to be a reasonably intelligent individual. we just disagree on eating $ 1 a day worth of food purchased at the store . after about 60 days you'll want to kill yourself..

my next trip to the store i will seek out items totally $ 7 and figure out how i'll survive the week on them.

 

[hybrid]

7$ wont even buy me a ben & jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream

you cant live on 7$ a week unless you're sponging or dumpster diving.

 

[texansfan]

My monthly food budget is ridiculous.

shop at whole foods usually 125 a week
usually have one nice dinner a week 100 dollars
usually have one scaled down dinner out a week 40 dollars

I am close to a 1000 a month in food/alcohol.

Don't forget all your Mario Williams posters and memorabilia of him you buy monthly.

 

[Doug]

would never call you a liar or a piece of shit.. i find you to be a reasonably intelligent individual. we just disagree on eating $ 1 a day worth of food purchased at the store . after about 60 days you'll want to kill yourself..

my next trip to the store i will seek out items totally $ 7 and figure out how i'll survive the week on them.

It would be really tough to make this work. I could see losing 1-2 lbs a week on the dollar a day diet while trying to maintain the same weight. Most americans could easily handle a month or two of losing 2 lbs a week. Try it for a year and you'd better be obese at the start of this !

I don't think you could pull off a healthy diet on $1....but you could eat eggs,rice, potatoes and pasta to survive. 60 days might be about all I could stand.

 

[punter]

You can eat pretty well on oatmeal, rice and beans but it would be hard to fit a nice merlot in the budget.

 

[VegasJogger]

they sure know how to budget. but whats the point in being that cheap. seems like more of a hassle and headache than what its worth

 

[WorldNumberOne]

i can imagine their are larger families in this country living on way less than 44 grand... probably less than 1/2

 

[Doug]

I've read about a couple of different people that have tried to live on $1 a day

usually for a month. This guy blogged it....

http://hungryforamonth.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_hungryforamonth_archive.html

he lost 18 lbs !

You can't get enough calories to do this for $1 a day now. You will lose a lot of

weight too fast and also not get enough of what your body needs. A month is doable.

forget a year. You'd look like a POW.

 

[parlayin]

My monthly food budget is ridiculous.

shop at whole foods usually 125 a week
usually have one nice dinner a week 100 dollars
usually have one scaled down dinner out a week 40 dollars

I am close to a 1000 a month in food/alcohol.

How long have you eaten like this for? Did your tastes develop to only enjoy eating expensive things or how did it come about? JUst have the extra disposable income?

 

[kid44]

I was laid up for almost a year after ankle surgery. With time on my hands and a laptop i decided to try to make an extreme budget for the fun of it. Strictly experimental. I found that I could get all personal hygiene and and cleaning products for next to nothing. Free samples poured in. i could not choose the items but used what I could get. Food, bought in bulk, fortunate to have extra fridges and freezers and only had to shop twice a month. Actually was very fun to see if i could do it.Found out I could live on 15-20% of what I normally spent. My savings acct. increased beyond belief.
Point is, it can be done with some intelligence and creativity. If you make a concerted effort you can live fine with considerably less money than normal.
Dining out was the one thing I missed and spurged once a month for the heck of it. Try it, you might amaze yourself.

 

[WorldNumberOne]

i am putting myself on a program starting monday of only fruit for lunch and salads for dinner . will add some chicken or shrimp to the salads once in a while.

this will be my monday thru friday routine. weekends i will mix in a couple of slices of pizza or a sub . breakfast has always been cereal and juice.

will report back how much i spend for october .

 

[Doug]

i am putting myself on a program starting monday of only fruit for lunch and salads for dinner . will add some chicken or shrimp to the salads once in a while.

this will be my monday thru friday routine. weekends i will mix in a couple of slices of pizza or a sub . breakfast has always been cereal and juice.


Will this be store bought only ?

I think , if so, you'll come in under $150.

I'd like to see Tom do it for a month ( on $30) and not lose 10+ lbs !

I like Barman's prison figure of just over $2 a day....seems realistic.

 

[WorldNumberOne]

i am putting myself on a program starting monday of only fruit for lunch and salads for dinner . will add some chicken or shrimp to the salads once in a while.

this will be my monday thru friday routine. weekends i will mix in a couple of slices of pizza or a sub . breakfast has always been cereal and juice.


Will this be store bought only ?

I think , if so, you'll come in under $150.

I'd like to see Tom do it for a month ( on $30) and not lose 10+ lbs !

I like Barman's prison figure of just over $2 a day....seems realistic.

ya . grocery store . can probably get by on :

box of cereal $ 4.00
1/2 gallon of juice $ 3
fruit for 5 days of lunch $ 11
salad fixins for 5 dinners $ 7

thats just the weekdays and i'm up to $ 25 . 5 bucks a day . ooops.. forgot milk $ 2.50

 

[WorldNumberOne]

it would be tough for me to do a month for under $ 120 . its just me and my daughter and if we strickly ate food from the store all month , we'd spend around $ 300 to $ 325. she doesnt eat much..

 

[Doug]

ya . grocery store . can probably get by on :

box of cereal $ 4.00
1/2 gallon of juice $ 3
fruit for 5 days of lunch $ 11
salad fixins for 5 dinners $ 7

thats just the weekdays and i'm up to $ 25 . 5 bucks a day . ooops.. forgot milk $ 2.50

cheaper cereal exists than $4 a box. You can probably get the juice for $2 ( maybe frozen), but I get where you're going with this !

$5 day without living on mainly on rice and eggs and Spaghetti is the realistic minimum ( at least $3) and $1 means you're going to live off of fat reserves and a month is about as far as you can go... maybe a few months if you're fat.

I agree you can't go on $365 for a year without some help from a garden, dumpster, hunting and gathering, fishing pole, etc.

I'm sure Tom would not make it a year for a million $. I initially thought I could, but NO ! These guys that try it lose 10+ lbs a month. I'm assuming I can't even supplement my diet by eating insects or something. Maybe in China or similar where food might be cheaper, but not in the USA....unless you can get brown rotten bananas for 5cents a lb or other old food super-cheap.

Good challenge here....I can't see anybody going much past a month w/o help in the form of severly reduced produce ( at least) that is beyond the cheap prices most could get. I don't see getting 2,000 calories a day ( about what you'd need minimally) on $1.....even if you did you'd be missing a lot of essential nutrients.

A coupon champion could probably do it for a year, but that changes the premise.

 

[Doug]

it would be tough for me to do a month for under $ 120 . its just me and my daughter and if we strickly ate food from the store all month , we'd spend around $ 300 to $ 325. she doesnt eat much..

You'd have to tighten up expenses but $3 a day would suffice ( even for a year....with a big prize at the end). That is doable !

 

[WorldNumberOne]

i will be going to the store monday morning and only shopping for me. not my daughter . i want to see how much food i can get for $ 25 . switch from simply orange brand of juice to a frozen concentrate . get some watermelon , cantaloupe, apples. lettuce , tomoatos , cucumber maybe raw mushrooms .

this isnt the first time i've thought about cutting my food expense way down. i really dont care too much about eating. could probably get by on a peanut and jelly sandwich for lunch for many days in a row. a couple of eggs and 1/2 a english muffin and a small glass of juice works for breakfast. would be about $ 1.50 a day for those 2 meals eating what i mentioned.

 

[Doug]

i will be going to the store monday morning and only shopping for me. not my daughter . i want to see how much food i can get for $ 25 . switch from simply orange brand of juice to a frozen concentrate . get some watermelon , cantaloupe, apples. lettuce , tomoatos , cucumber maybe raw mushrooms .

this isnt the first time i've thought about cutting my food expense way down. i really dont care too much about eating. could probably get by on a peanut and jelly sandwich for lunch for many days in a row. a couple of eggs and 1/2 a english muffin and a small glass of juice works for breakfast. would be about $ 1.50 a day for those 2 meals eating what i mentioned.

I see that at more like 75 cents to a dollar actually. Eggs are like 10 cents each. I calculate Breakfast at about 40-50 cents, about 50 cents for lunch, too, maybe less ?.....but there goes the dollar for the day !

No juice for you....and maybe we can have half a serving of M&C for dinner and still be on the $1 budget ?

Damn , I think we lost some weight on day 1 !

How many calories here, 1,000 maybe ?

 

[Doug]

I think we drop 10 lbs a month easily by eating this diet....

Breakfast of 2 eggs, 1/2 of an English Muffin, can't afford the OJ, sorry !

Lunch is a PBJ sandwich

Dinner is a half box of generic M&C

that might just barely come in at $1 for the day.