How much do you spend on your monthly food budget?

[MonkeyMama]

Thank you for the information. Is the 10% net income? I only bring home $6800 per month after taxes.

I think I'm spending a little more because i don't eat too many carbs. I get my carbs from fruit. I could add a few whole grains into my daughter's diet, though. I try not to eat any grains at all.

10% gross income. "Net" is kind of a useless number for comparison purposes, though I understand may be useful for budget purposes. Lord knows if you are in a lower cost area with more expensive food... Things are just going to vary widely in a message board like this if we are all over the world with different parameters. Living in a more expensive region I might have less budget for food, but the food is less expensive in general, so maybe it works out. & in general, wages tend to be higher here, so maybe we get more bang for our buck if the food is less expensive than average.

[Reggie]

Okay great. So, gross would mean that I have $1100 a month to spend on food. HA. That is even too much for me. I'm going to set my budget at $600 and see what I can do with that. Eventually, I will try and get that down to 5% which would be $550 a month.

Oh and I live in a very VERY cheap cost of living area. Cheap food, cheap housing, cheap everything.

[elessar78]

It seems like everyone on forums eats ULTRA healthy and everyone in real life is overweight.

Just sayin.

I don't buy organic hardly ever. I don't know if it's worse to eat pesticides or bug excrement. I also enjoy the extra hormones...MUSCLE! I'm a fitness freak so I'm more worried about muscle mass and body fat percentage than I am about if my chicken is cage free. I just want the protein.

Everyone wants to believe the hormones and pesticides are killing us but heart disease is killing us. If you are eating an apple versus mcdonald fries you are already winning and will probably live to be 100. It's not personally that important to me if my fish is frozen in Asia. We have the FDA and people don't really die of food borne illnesses anymore. A much bigger risk is getting hit by lightning while a jet plane crashes in your front yard and the shark tank on the plane breaks and the shark eats you, simultaneously.

Everyone on THIS forum seems concerned about having good financial health and pretty much the rest of America is in debt, broke, or living paycheck to paycheck.

Coincidence?

I know he's a "pop" physician, but Dr. Oz had an article in Time last year that compared canned/frozen veggies to organic. Verdict: there's no nutritional difference. Makes sense, a vegetable is a vegetable and the inherent nutrients are the same. Maybe our in-house physician will correct me.

To me, the big differences are: 1. taste, but that may have more to do with freshness. My wife's family owns a vegetable farm (not organic, just "sustainable"-minimum amounts of pesticides etc) so our produce is mostly grown within 20 miles of us. 2. absence of hazardous chemicals.

Most of store bought produce has been genetically altered to survive any combination of early picking, rough handling during transportation, faster grow times—all which sacrifice how the food tastes.

Take the salmon example above. Wild caught salmon has the protein we seek, but it contains levels of mercury. So healthy proteins does not preclude in from having hazardous contaminants.

[Reggie]

Penn & Teller also did some surveys on organic vs. non-organic fruit and veggies based on taste. No one could tell the difference based only on blind tasting.

[elessar78]

Penn & Teller also did some surveys on organic vs. non-organic fruit and veggies based on taste. No one could tell the difference based only on blind tasting.

That'd be interesting to do. I might take that up challenge this weekend and report back.

[disneysteve]

Dr. Oz had an article in Time last year that compared canned/frozen veggies to organic. Verdict: there's no nutritional difference.

Penn & Teller also did some surveys on organic vs. non-organic fruit and veggies based on taste. No one could tell the difference based only on blind tasting.

A lot of people are confused about what organic means. It has nothing to do with nutrition. It has nothing to do with taste. It is purely about the use of pesticides. And it is probably more marketing mumbo jumbo than any real science but that's another debate.

[Reggie]

A lot of people are confused about what organic means. It has nothing to do with nutrition. It has nothing to do with taste. It is purely about the use of pesticides. And it is probably more marketing mumbo jumbo than any real science but that's another debate.

agree whole-heartedly

People think it's healthier for them. People think organic tastes better. It's insane. The best marketing strategy EVAH!

I really should find a way to profit from the organic train or now the gluten-free train.

[disneysteve]

The best marketing strategy EVAH!

Nope. The best marketing strategy ever was convincing people to buy water at outrageous prices. We drink tap water. Always have. Always will. Doesn't matter where we are (in the US). It's safe and FREE.

I really should find a way to profit from the organic train or now the gluten-free train.

The gluten-free thing is insane. I can't believe that has become such a huge fad. Unless you have celiac, there is nothing at all wrong with gluten. We've been eating it for thousands of years.

[elessar78]

My father in law is a vegetable farmer who (he supplies some of the top restaurants in our city) practices sustainable agriculture. From a farming standpoint, a farmer needs to let a plot of land lay fallow for a specified amount of time (I think a year or two), okay what farmer can afford to leave farmland fallow for a year or two. Second, it involves a lot of documentation. Basically, the cost difference is born out because of the overhead for more paper work (documentation of your farming methods) and the premium that can be charged for it.

[elessar78]

The gluten-free thing is insane. I can't believe that has become such a huge fad. Unless you have celiac, there is nothing at all wrong with gluten. We've been eating it for thousands of years.

DS, my sister-in-law (resident whack job/health nut), would think you were the devil incarnate for saying that. Gluten is the enemy. Among other things.

[Reggie]

not eating gluten is one thing. I don't eat a lot myself. Buying gluten-free products is something entirely different.

When I see gluten-free breads and pastas, I just smile. It's like buying sugar free candy.

[hamchan]

We drink tap water. Always have. Always will. Doesn't matter where we are (in the US). It's safe and FREE.

It may be safe and free but for various reasons it usually tastes horrible unless you at least filter it. I find most unfiltered tap water to be undrinkable. Certain minerals give it a nasty taste.

[Reggie]

We use a 10 year old Brita pitcher. It sits in the fridge and every year or so we replace the filter.

[disneysteve]

It may be safe and free but for various reasons it usually tastes horrible unless you at least filter it. I find most unfiltered tap water to be undrinkable. Certain minerals give it a nasty taste.

I have no scientific basis for this comment but I believe there is some genetic variation that causes some people to experience a bad taste.

We travel to Disney World regularly, often in the summer when drinking water is vitally important. We drink tap water all day long to stay hydrated. None of us have any problem doing so but I've had many people tell me the water has a very strong sulfur taste and they can not tolerate it at all. Some can't even stand having ice in their drinks unless it was made with filtered water. The only thing I can think of that would cause such a dramatic difference in how two people experience the taste of something would be a genetic variation in their taste buds.

I'm just happy we are all fine with tap water because the other folks are spending $3.50/bottle for water. We probably go through the equivalent of 5 or 6 bottles per person per day. If we had to buy it, that would add a lot of money to the cost of our trip.

[hamchan]

We use a 10 year old Brita pitcher. It sits in the fridge and every year or so we replace the filter.

We do that too. I will buy bottled water if I'm out though. It's cheaper than soda and better for you.