One week of Food shopping

**Daylily** · 02-23-2008, 03:16 PM

I actually have the book that these photos came from. It is called Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith d'Alusio. There are more photos in the book and each family has several pages of text devoted to them. The pictures and the stories of the families are great. I highly recommend this book to everyone.
Many libraries carry this book.

Additionally, the authors have other books. I also recommend Material World. In that one, the authors photographed families around the world with all of their possessions.

**project15** · 02-23-2008, 04:58 PM

The NC family has pizza, taco bell, burger king, and mcdonald's in the picture, so this weekly budget doesn't just include grocery items.

That sure is a lot of food for US$5 in Shingkhey Village and some of these other places.

**pearlieq** · 02-24-2008, 07:41 AM

Wow, we sure do eat a lot of crap, don't we? It's depressing to see all that processed, packaged food. It's no wonder we're drowning in disease, obesity, and garbage. I'm not saying I'm doing any better, but it's just a bummer to see it so clearly.

Also, it's very interesting to see the distribution of products. Lots of Coke turning up very far from home. KFC in Japan. Bananas seem t be a very widely eaten food, for being grown in such a narrow climate range.

Fascinating...

**rob62521** · 02-24-2008, 09:45 AM

I saw this email awhile back and was amazed.

Other than the few of us who add to this board, most of the people my husband and I know seem to have a steady diet of take out and already prepared foods. I spend quite a bit more at the grocery store than they do, but I prepare a lot of things from scratch and try to incorporate a lot of fruits and vegetables into our diet. Fresh stuff is far more expensive than the microwave stuff you can have in a flash.

**MonkeyMama** · 02-24-2008, 05:41 PM

Actually we spend far less than our U.S. counterparts (in the photos). We don't buy all that crap!

How interesting though. That "Material World" sounds interesting as well.

**Joan.of.the.Arch** · 02-24-2008, 06:05 PM

I don't think that in general fresh food prepared from scratch is more expensive than microwave ready food. I think it is the reverse.

The backgrounds in the homes also interest me. But I wonder, too whether the families arranged their week's worth themselves. Some are nicely presented. One in particular made me smile because the layout seems to conform to a stereotype of that nationality as controlling and orderly.

**LivingAlmostLarge** · 02-24-2008, 06:38 PM

Fresh food cost more if you know how to shop for processed foods using coupons. Then all processed foods are free.

**rob62521** · 02-25-2008, 01:48 PM

OK, I guess I got in a hurry when I typed this, I meant fresh fruits and vegetables are more expensive than processed foods like boxed dinners and stuff like that that contain lots of starches and fillers as well as preservatives. Sorry about the confusion.

**JBinKC** · 02-27-2008, 11:37 PM

I found this very interesting. One thing I noticed is the people of Bhutan seem to have the highest standard of living in terms of cost.

**Russ G** · 02-28-2008, 12:28 AM

It's certainly an interesting series of pictures. Some of the comparisons are even more extreme when you look at the number of members in each family.

It's nice that the Brits included their dog too

**aida2003** · 02-28-2008, 04:31 AM

I think info is quite accurate.
We live in Charlotte, NC and no, we do NOT spend $$ on the crap like MM says. Instead we buy meat of better quality (or at least labels claim so), produce, and if we wish to try a fancier (= gourmet

) recipe, it involves buying ingredients that we don't usually buy. That's where our $$ goes.
Produce is very expensive in NC, IMO. It was a shock for me after we relocated from Detroit, MI 5+ years ago. But I'm not going save $$ in order to deprive us and kids of vegetables and fruit.

Germany's and Poland's expenses also look about right. The German family has all those bottles of water and juice exactly what I see at my in-laws house when we go to visit them.

**aida2003** · 02-28-2008, 04:42 AM

Originally posted by Daylily View Post

I actually have the book that these photos came from. It is called Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith d'Alusio. There are more photos in the book and each family has several pages of text devoted to them. The pictures and the stories of the families are great. I highly recommend this book to everyone.
Many libraries carry this book.

Additionally, the authors have other books. I also recommend Material World. In that one, the authors photographed families around the world with all of their possessions.

Thanks for the tip. I'm curious and I'll check my library online if carries them.

**beebop25blue25** · 03-25-2008, 05:43 PM

This article is amazing to me and extremely interesting to see what different countries spend their food dollars on! Thanks for the article.

Recently I joined a site that has helped me plan meals which in turn has helped me save money by not eating out! The way the economy is lately, I needed help planning healthy meals and keeping within a budget. This gave me the tools and the boost I needed.

This is the link:

Meal Planning - Menu Planning - Meal Plan

One week of Food shopping