photo courtesy of Time
I feel like I’m playing some sort of “Six Degrees of Separation” game, but I saw this on 28 Cooks, who saw it on Sweetnicks, who I guess just saw it from Times magazine. You always hear people talk about how families in some parts of the world can eat for $4 a week (relative, of course – it probably costs them their whole week’s salary). This photo gallery shows you what various families from around the world eat in a week and what it costs them, both in the local currency and in $US. I found it interesting that the Japan family seems to eat a lot of food, but also that they eat a lot of fruits and red meat, which are kind of expensive over there. But they also have a lot of prepackaged foods. Some families drink a lot of soda. Others eat mainly grains and rice and supplement it with meat. Are these average families? Families in the upper class? Is this what they spend if they just go shopping, or is this their budgeted amount and they could spend more or less depending on how their bank account is doing?
I really liked that the British family also included the dog food in their weekly spread.
Does it really costs $300 to feed a family of 4 for a week? I have a household of 2 and I swear we don’t spend $150 a week. Ever since we joined the CSA, I haven’t been doing much grocery shopping, just living off vegetables and whatever’s in the freezer. Even if I figure in the cost of the steak or chicken I pull out of the freezer, I think we’re only at $50. Even if we go out to eat twice that week, that adds $70. The dogs cost me $10 a week total for their food, more if you want to count each treat they get. But it makes me curious. Maybe I’ll save up my receipts for a week and see what we really spend.
Three Dog Kitchen 