aem wrote:
> Mitch@... wrote:
>
> > >Your costs seem neither particularly high nor low. Do your brother's
> > >costs include eating out? -aem
>
> > He's a gourmet, so he buys expensive meat, seafood, and other
> > ingredients.
>
> Well, we think we're gourmets, too, in that we appreciate high quality
> ingredients prepared with care and imagination. But we'd have to step
> up our searching for rare and exotic things to approach that budget
> for a week. Figure as much as a pound of beef or veal or wild caught
> fish @ $20/lb times two people times 7 days = $280/week for the dinner
> entrees. That still leaves a lot of $ for side dishes and fancy
> lunches. With desserts and reasonable wine I guess we could reach
> your brother's budget but we'd sure have to work at it. But we'd be
> fat. Are your brother and SIL big people?
>
> The other problem is that a number or our favorite meals are really
> inexpensive. I guess we'd have to give them up, huh? :-) -
> aem

There are lots of three pack a day smokers burning up close to $500 a
month.

I honestly don't think $500/wk for two adults is very extravagant...
it's only extravagant if they can't afford it... that comes to about
$35 a day each, or about $12 a meal... more than most spend but not
really so much, it's all relative. It's pretty easy to come up with
meals for two adults that average about $70 a day... I mean like a
simple lunch of sausage, cheese, fruit, bread, assorted olives, and a
moderate wine can easily top the full day's $70 allotment (I'm not
tawkin' Oscar Mayer bologna and Kraft singles). For dinner a few
quality lamb chops with wild 'shroom sauce, a fresh vegetable medley,
bread, wine, a nice dessert with gourmet coffee and apertif can also
cost more than $70. I can easily produce a menu for an entire year
consisting of common foods that would cost about $70 a meal for two
and not repeat once.... $12 a plate is a snap... a simple breakfast
for two can easily top $25... NYC bagels with nova and a schmear, with
a pitcher of mimosas, coffee, and danish and you're well over 25 bucks
and no one is stuffed (and that's eating at home), instead of the
bagels a seafood crepe and cheesecake instead of a danish you can add
another ten bucks. Heck, a decent meal at a NYC Chinatown joint for
two can very easily top $100... and that's a very moderately priced
meal and nothing exotic. Again, it's all relative, depends on ones
pocket.

But feeding a family of five on $500 a month is definitely poverty...
welfare food stamp level... one active teenager can scoff up $500 a
month all by himself just by inhaling. From reading this thread I
strongly suspect that many here eat **** poor fare... a lotta generic
box mac n' cheese and that ilk... they certainly ain't doing much
cooking... you can't be doing cooking alloting only $1.12 each for
dinner... that won't even cover a grilled cheese, a banana, and a
glass of milk. A 12oz can of Spam costs $4, with a small loaf of
cheap white bread and some yallo musturd that family of five uses up
their buck n' change each and goes to bed ill fed and famished.

I think most folks in the US live on a food budget somewhere about
haflway between those two figures... about $10-$12 a day per person is
more realistic for working class folks... people have snacks, they
drink a soda, eat cookies, chips, a hunk of cake, a bowl of ice cream,
a few cups of cawfee a day, a beer or two now and again.... only truly
poverty afflicted live on meals costing a buck a pop.

Obviously there are a lot of rfc'ers whose computer budget is more
than their food budget.

I can easily afford $500 a week on groceries just for me but I don't
because I honestly don't prefer those gourmet foods as a steady diet,
I'm more a meat and potatoes stew/soup kinda person, I much prefer to
pig out on meat loaf than prime rib, and I'm essentially pretty frugal
in that I don't like to waste food, but I eat a lot better than meals
for a buck. But then maybe I do spend more than I think... just this
afternoon I felt like a little nosh and so I polished off two cans of
King Oscar brisling sardines at $3+ per pop, who's counting.. my cats
is who, had to share half a can, they smelled those sardines right
through the can. A rough off the cuff guess, on average I spend
about $200 a week on edible groceries just for me... I'd say I spend
as much on feeding my six cats as I do on feeding me, so my family
grocery bill comes darn close to that $500 a week.. and even though I
can easily afford the good stuff I still drink $11.99/two liter
vodka... **** you, Sqwertz! LOL

I don't know if I believe the OP's grocery bill... a family of five,
if only two are female, has got to be spending at least $2/day just
for TP.
Sheldon