Eating Healthily for $3 a Day • Hacker News Board

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#181

Post by mikle » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 9:05 AM UTC

papa_bear wrote: post #176

I feel like this might be a good time to plug my project: http://swole.me/ It's a diet generator I made over the past few weeks that promotes adhering to certain proportions of macronutrients. I'll probably make a full post about it when I add some more features/food choices, but so far it's been a great way to learn to program. If you use it, let me know if you have any feedback!

I bookmarked it. This seems like a great resource, when it will get more foods (even though the list now looked good, and gave me a good overview of what I should expect of my upcoming workout / diet phase.).

One thing I noticed is that the checkboxes overflow the text in "Customize food choices" (Tofu is on the text below it, mangling everything). I'm using firefox 3.6.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#182

Post by wheels » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 9:07 AM UTC

shadowsun7 wrote: post #145

wheels wrote: post #41

I've thought about putting together a brief founders' cookbook with a dozen or so of the recipes for things that I survived on in the lean days that you can make for about a buck or two and in about 20 minutes. The real trick is not buying prepared foods at all. Things like flour, rice, eggs, beans, pasta, potatoes, fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, yogurt, cheese, ground beef, fish filets and chicken breasts are all…

Have you tried the stonesoup cookbook? Premise: 5 ingredients, 10 minutes cooking time per dish. I've tried a couple, and they seem brilliant so far. http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2010/06/a-free-e-cookbook/

I have looked at it actually, and it's pretty neat, but for the way that I do things it has a fatal flaw: the ingredients are exotic (i.e. where I live they're expensive and you'd need to go to a specialty shop for some of them) and don't overlap much between recipes.

From the looks of things, he's a much better cook than me. The stuff I make is far more ghetto, but revolves around like 15 ingredients or so that I basically buy every time I go to the grocery store. That keeps me from having to actually plan meals. I usually cook in the opposite direction -- I look at what I have on hand and figure out what I can make from that.

My gut sense is that that would be more approachable for folks that are transitioning from fast-food and frozen pizzas.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#183

Post by jswanson » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 9:14 AM UTC

photophotoplasm wrote: post #169

D_Alex wrote: post #144

Can I ask: What is the motivation of trying to limit the cost of your food to such a low (for first-world) amount? I am really weirded out by the number of me-too responses, the philosophy of such extreme saving on food is alien to me. For me, delicious food is near the top of my priority list. I really do not stint at all, my grocery bill is abt $40/day for 2 people... that is $15k/yr, such a bargain considering: re…

$20 per person per day? That's massive, even for Australia. What are you eating?

I easily top that, living in central Tokyo.

This is including eating out for lunch on weekdays though, which costs at least 10 dollars a day.

Fruit and vegetables are more expensive. A decent apple will cost about 1.50 each. 1 metric litre of milk costs about 2 dollars, and 10 eggs wil probably run you around 3 dollars.

Meat, depending on the origin and cut, can cost you about 6 dollars for about 150 grams (or a much, much more).

You can get frozen manufactured food for fairly reasonable prices, but I'm kind of a snob and pretty much will not eat anything that has ingredients I don't understand in it.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#184

Post by dalyons » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 9:18 AM UTC

prawn wrote: post #154

Klinky wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to store those products somewhere. 25lb - 50lb bags or buckets of flour, rice, beans and/or other dry goods are not small. Buying produce in bulk may save you money, but you must use the produce before it goes bad which can start to happen within a few days or a week.

My biggest issue is with wastage. My budget is certainly not a few dollars/day - we eat out a lot and our schedule changes (last minute invites, etc) so it's hard to buy fresh things in advance without losing a fair bit along the way. My idea is for a guide and cookbook that focuses on: - ingredients that can be stored for a long time (tins of coconut milk, rice, etc) - things that can be cooked and then frozen/saved…

I would buy that... would be very useful for my lack of schedule. I've collected a fairly eclectic list of throw together recipes in my head than can be made from long life ingredients without being terrible for you. I bet there's lots of tips to be found - stuff like freezing rice, freezing fresh herbs, other things alot of people dont know about.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#185

Post by jswanson » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 9:19 AM UTC

westicle wrote: post #161

latch wrote: post #103

I've mentioned it before, but anyone serious about this type of thing should get familiar with quinoa. It might be more expensive than rice, but it also contains a balanced set of essential amino acids - which is pretty rare for a plant. Most meals that call for rice can generally use quinoa instead, and you'll be much better off.

I tried quinoa for the exact reasons you mentioned, but didn't find it nearly as palatable as more "traditional" staples. Compared to rice I found it didn't gel together when cooked, had a stronger (slightly unpleasant) flavour and a gritty texture. In the end I couldn't justify the cost to eat something I just didn't enjoy. More power to those who enjoy it.

If you still want to give it a shot, it's great in soups. An easy Chicken Quinoa soup with carrots and celery, and a healthy dose of lime and pepper, is healthy, flavorful and fairly easy to make.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#186

Post by nickthedart » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 9:32 AM UTC

icegreentea wrote: post #69

charlieflowers wrote: post #17

I'd really like to see someone do an analysis like this, but including meat. I'm a meat lover, but would like to get an idea of just how cheaply I could eat healthily.

Having just come off 4 months doing a student life... I can't give you a fullout breakdown, but the cheapest way to get your meat is to buy all the parts that takes at least an hour to cook. No jest. Brisket, flank, legs, w/e. If you can stomach it, get to know a butcher, and then ask for animal heads. Needless to say, I stopped at the flank/brisket stage. Head is a bit... nuts to deal with.

That's interesting. Completely agree about the cuts that take a long time being cheaper. I tried cooking brisket for the first time a couple of days ago. It only took 30 mins in the pressure cooker. BTW a pressure cooker saves time and money and energy and lets you eat cheaply and healthily. All students and entrepreneurs should have one IMHO. The entire population of India can't be too far wrong on the merits of pressure cookers. As for the brisket, well it was good, but didn't seem cheaper or better than lean(ish) minced beef, and didn't go as far as we hoped. So maybe we'll stick to making spaghetti bolognaise...

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#187

Post by sliverstorm » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 9:44 AM UTC

D_Alex wrote: post #144

Can I ask: What is the motivation of trying to limit the cost of your food to such a low (for first-world) amount? I am really weirded out by the number of me-too responses, the philosophy of such extreme saving on food is alien to me. For me, delicious food is near the top of my priority list. I really do not stint at all, my grocery bill is abt $40/day for 2 people... that is $15k/yr, such a bargain considering: re…

Consider that you have $70k/yr in living expenses, and many people don't even come anywhere close to earning $70k/yr.

Food is one of the places you can cut a lot of your spending without needing to make major lifestyle changes, so it's one of the first places people look.

Also, I think you will find different people place different value on food flavor. I personally am very, very deep into "eat to live" territory, and I take a certain amount of pride in that approach.

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#188

Post by skrebbel » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 9:53 AM UTC

phlux wrote: post #126

mmaunder wrote: post #22

My wife and I tried to do this recently on $1.70 per person per day. We didn't last our intended 28 days. A few observations we found: Meat and organic food was too expensive. Fruit is crazy expensive so we bought OJ from concentrate with no additives as a cheap source of Vitamin C. Eggs were are very expensive, but we needed the protein and nutrients, so rationed ourselves to 3 each per week. We had to remove all su…

I would love to find a community of like minded individuals in the bay area that meetup regularly to shop in bulk and divide. We did this on reddit recently with herbs/spices sold in bulk where people basically committed 20 bux and got a healthy personal portion of the loot. It would be great to do the same with a costco bill....

Won't you spend as much on gas driving to wherever you decide to bulk shop (Bay area isn't tiny) compared to your neighbourhood supermarket, as you'd save by bulk shopping?

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#189

Post by edu » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 10:15 AM UTC

D_Alex wrote: post #144

Can I ask: What is the motivation of trying to limit the cost of your food to such a low (for first-world) amount? I am really weirded out by the number of me-too responses, the philosophy of such extreme saving on food is alien to me. For me, delicious food is near the top of my priority list. I really do not stint at all, my grocery bill is abt $40/day for 2 people... that is $15k/yr, such a bargain considering: re…

I agree with you. I don't understand why people try to save in food to keep their 'lifestyle'. I'd rather not going out (bar/club/coffe shop) than skimp in food (which is a source of health and happiness!).

Re: Eating Healthily for $3 a Day

#190

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Apr 28, 2011, 10:36 AM UTC

papa_bear wrote: post #176

I feel like this might be a good time to plug my project: http://swole.me/ It's a diet generator I made over the past few weeks that promotes adhering to certain proportions of macronutrients. I'll probably make a full post about it when I add some more features/food choices, but so far it's been a great way to learn to program. If you use it, let me know if you have any feedback!

That's a fantastic app, but it seems to report that we need to eat about 1000 calories/day (both for me and my family members) more than other calculators... Any idea why?