FRONT BURNER

Eating on $4 a day as hard as it sounds

Inspired by a friend and a new cookbook, I decided to re-evaluate how Joe and I are spending our food dollars. And how we can save some.

My friend, a dedicated vegan (no eggs, cheese, butter or milk) who also restricts the kinds of fat he eats -- naturally fat-laden foods such as nuts and avocados are OK, but oils are not -- challenged himself to eat three meals a day for just $5 total.

The new cookbook, Good and Cheap Eat Well on $4 a Day by Leanne Brown (some readers may be familiar with the digital edition of this book released about a year ago), is much less strict in that it doesn't limit the types of foods -- dairy, meat, fish and eggs are OK -- but it reduces the daily budget by $1.

The book includes plenty of ideas, tips and budget-friendly recipes and for every print copy sold the publisher will donate a copy to someone in need.

I tend to think of myself as flexitarian with a meat tooth. My husband, however, is a devout meat-and-potatoes man. I wouldn't describe our spending habits as extravagant, but we definitely aren't frugal either.

To get started, I jotted down what I eat on a typical day. Then I calculated the cost and calories of each meal. Eating three home-prepared meals a day -- a light breakfast, sack lunch, snack, dinner, a modest amount of alcohol and dessert -- I averaged $14 a day, consuming about 1,900 calories.

There are some easy cuts I could make. Skipping my evening cocktail or beer would shave off about $1. Replacing the quinoa in my salad with beans or a less expensive grain would save about 50 cents. Snacking on peanuts instead of pistachios would save another 75 cents.

There are many items I only buy organic (grains, canned beans, dairy, eggs, salad greens), and buying conventional versions of those products would definitely save money.

But even with those tweaks, that still leaves me spending about $10 a day on food. Bring my husband into the equation and we're looking at $20 to $28 a day or $140 to $200 per week.

Yikes!

That's way more than I expected. And it doesn't include things like dog food, farmers market purchases and nonfood items like paper towels, aluminum foil and storage bags. Maybe we are a little extravagant.

To find out how we compared to the average family of two, I consulted a variety of sources. First stop was the U.S. Department of Agriculture. According to the most recent data available (March 2015), the average weekly cost for a family of two in my age bracket ranged from about $90 to $180. For a family of four (two adults under age 51 and two children under age 12) the range is about $150 to $300. If you're feeding teenagers, just double the figure for two adults, especially if your teens are boys.

I also consulted Gallup. According to the most recent article I could find (August 2012), the Americans it polled were spending an average of $151 a week. However, the Gallup article did not specify household size.

Though they're much less scientific, I then consulted the discussion boards at chow.com, where I found most couples admitted to spending $500 to $800 a month or $125 to $200 a week.

In our defense, many of the groceries we buy are for my work purposes (recipe testing, photographing) and not all of this food is consumed. We do eat as much as possible, but some things are simply unpalatable or unsafe to eat after sitting out at room temperature for an extended time during a photo shoot.

So maybe we're not so extravagant after all.

Food on 07/22/2015

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