The Cost of Food

I like meat, I am a meat eater. I like cheese and butter and milk. I like eggs and fresh vegetables.

The problem with liking those things if you're on a low income is they are EXPENSIVE. A gallon of milk in my town costs $3.49 - $4.99 depending on where it is purchased. A pound of cheese is $11.99, a pound of ground beef (the cheap stuff) is $3.59. That may not sound like much but consider that the cost of home made burgers with boxed mac and cheese costs about $8.75 in just ingredients. That is almost a hour's worth of work just to pay for dinner. At seven dinners per week that is over six hours worth of work just to pay for one meal for a whole week. Figure breakfast and lunch into the mix at half the cost and it brings the total up to twelve hours worth of work to pay for food for a week for two people. That means that at current work hours nearly 20% of our working time would be spent paying for food.

Realistically that's impossible, if I spent 20% of our combined money on food we would be homeless. What does that mean? We go without. We never go hungry but we aren't eating things that are good for us and we aren't eating things that we like and it effects our quality of life. For lack of a better term it makes us feel poor.

The same holds true for vegetables. Canned vegetables (least nutritious, most processed) are by far less expensive than fresh or frozen vegetables. Do we eat vegetables, yes. Are they canned, usually.

Its a vicious cycle. While we don't spend 20% of our income on food I know many families that do. Hubby and I are lucky because we are in a position to break out of the cycle of constantly being short and doing without. A lot of people aren't that lucky.