Hillary says she will help struggling Americans. Why Should We Believe that she would?

[rareboy]

^ The question is about diet.

And this is where the processed carb diet has become the go to for people on limited income in America.

But I'm sure there are a lot of smug people in the US who don't believe that other people should need fruit. Or fresh vegetables. Or any meat except ground chuck. Or fish.

Fill 'em up on starches.

And pick up the tab on the other end with health care costs. Or not.


Or get a food drive going at your local Walmart for the employees there who don't make enough to live on.

 

[jbrown329]

Well, I don't buy steak or roast. I buy chicken and pork (if it's on sale). I don't buy exotic stuff. Saw kohlrabi at the store yesterday and really wanted one. But at $3.50lb, forget it.

I don't buy crap in a box anymore and damn little of the ready in a can. Not good for a diabetic. So I cook from scratch. I don't do cold cereal. Only cereal I eat is oatmeal.

I don't even know how to spend $700 for groceries.

 

[TX-Beau]

My guy is a health nut, so you buy proteins, veggies and fruit mostly, starches not so much, and yeah, nothing processed. Then you keep snacks - nuts, dried fruits, etc, on hand because he's got a fast metabolism, me, I'm much more of a steak and potatoes guy but I'm not as finicky as he is so I don't sweat it.

Still, it's not like we're feasting on Prime Rib every night.

 

[TX-Beau]

If I added in the amount spent on restaurants I bet I could give you a coronary.

 

[luckynumbah7]

Where do you live that you pay approx $200.00 a month to feed yourself?

Philadelphia. But I grocery shop at several different places, Vegetables and some meats at the Asian Market, some meats and dairy (plus pasta and various canned goods - I can't cook beans yet, no pressure cooker) at the Shopright. That doesn't count bus fair for both places and the 8 bucks it costs for delivery for one of them since I can't drive. We don't get fruit unless it's on sale - same with the rest of the items, really. I mostly work with staples and what's on sale at a given time. And it's not myself, it's myself and the roomie. We only eat twice a day tho. Nvm, You're talking to Jbrown.

 

[luckynumbah7]

I buy produce, the usual kind, staples, etc for two people from the regular grocery store, not Central Market or Whole Foods, and my food bill is $700-$1000 monthly. I'm going to make some of you do my shopping for me. $200 a month to feed two people, that's like some kind of nirvana.

Noooooo, no it's not. Really. We could use more fresh vegetables, mostly. The market for those is way the fuck across the city, so fresh is a relative term. It doesn't last long. These days I splurge and you know the liters of green vegetable juice that cost, like, six or seven bucks? I get two of those for supplemental nutrients.

 

[TX-Beau]

Philadelphia. But I grocery shop at several different places, Vegetables and some meats at the Asian Market, some meats and dairy (plus pasta and various canned goods - I can't cook beans yet, no pressure cooker) at the Shopright. That doesn't count bus fair for both places and the 8 bucks it costs for delivery for one of them since I can't drive. We don't get fruit unless it's on sale - same with the rest of the items, really. I mostly work with staples and what's on sale at a given time.

So a typical menu looks like what?

 

[PacificBeach]

I buy produce, the usual kind, staples, etc for two people from the regular grocery store, not Central Market or Whole Foods, and my food bill is $700-$1000 monthly. I'm going to make some of you do my shopping for me. $200 a month to feed two people, that's like some kind of nirvana.

Thank you! I thought I was losing my mind. There's no way we get by on less than $200 per week for groceries.

 

[TX-Beau]

Noooooo, no it's not. Really. We could use more fresh vegetables, mostly. The market for those is way the fuck across the city, so fresh is a relative term. It doesn't last long. These days I splurge and you know the liters of green vegetable juice that cost, like, six or seven bucks? I get two of those for supplemental nutrients.

I do know that if I bought frozen or canned that I could cut the bill down a bit. But luckily the budget isn't that tight just now, and he can have his endless rivers of leafy greens.

I do worry about retirement though, we aren't getting any younger and though that still 20 years off, sometimes I look at all the expenditures - cable, internet, cell, land line, food, going out, liquor, miscellaneous shit, car payments, house payments, on and on...

 

[luckynumbah7]

So a typical menu looks like what?

What time of the month? The early days get fresh vegetables, the middle days get frozen, the end days get prayers and unfrozen vegetable juice and various canned veggies, which neither of us are particularly fond of. I'd buy more frozen but we still need tupperware for it. Did get a deep freezer, that's helping considerably for the frozen veggies. Yesterday roomie had blueberry pancakes for breakfast and broccoli/mushroom/onion/sliced tomato lasagna for dinner, today he had an egg and cheese mcmuffin type of thing (to go with the 2 bunches of bananas that he chose, still not sure how one of them is gone yet) and god only knows what's for dinner, I'm feeling lazy.

Today he had an egg/cheese english muffin combo and I had some of my lasagna, which was made with alfredo sauce, peppers and sausage since too much citric acid makes my mouth bleed, too much seems to be two glasses of lemonaid or two helpings of spagetti sauce content-wise in a week. I have no idea what dinner is considering I froze the lasagna for later in the month. Another thing is we're trying the hand at freezing/drying more fruit. There's a bunch of dried cherries in there that's supposed to go in a bread but damned if I know when I'll get around to making that.

 

[jbrown329]

Philadelphia. But I grocery shop at several different places, Vegetables and some meats at the Asian Market, some meats and dairy (plus pasta and various canned goods - I can't cook beans yet, no pressure cooker) at the Shopright. That doesn't count bus fair for both places and the 8 bucks it costs for delivery for one of them since I can't drive. We don't get fruit unless it's on sale - same with the rest of the items, really. I mostly work with staples and what's on sale at a given time.

Don't need a pressure cooker for beans. You clean/wash the night before and soak them overnight. Then cook the next day.

I do 90% of my shopping at WinCo. They have the best prices in town. They don't carry the flavors of Crystal Light that I like, so that's a Walmart item. They also don't carry the season salt that I love (Alpine Touch), that's a trip to Rosauers. Rosauers is the only store that delivers and it's $10. But their prices are outrageous. If their shelf prices were a whole lot cheaper, I'd use their delivery service in the winter.

I buy whole wheat pasta bulk instead of packaged. It's cheaper. I buy nuts the same way. I buy the store brands of canned goods (they're good since they got rid of HyTop).

I buy the store brand cheese, medium cheddar and swiss. They're OK. I also buy their brand of greek yogurt and cottage cheese.

 

[luckynumbah7]

Don't need a pressure cooker for beans. You clean/wash the night before and soak them overnight. Then cook the next day.

Not according to the beans I used. The bastards mock me whenever I try. Soak all night, cook for an hour, hour and a half, fuck them they're still raw. It's also ninety plus degrees here and there's no air conditioning downstairs. I wouldn't be able to stand wait in the kitchen that long.

We don't have bulk here, there is no winco that I've heard of. According to google the closest winco is in Jersey. Most that's here is bulk for flour, pancake mix, ect in the generic grocery store. And roomie brought home 25 pounds of flour from his work that they no longer need, extra or something, one of the people fucked up the inventory for ordering. The boss ended up getting the egg mixture, which could've used some of that, too.

 

[TX-Beau]

Damn, y'all are making me jealous, dinner for us is some kind of protein, beef/chicken/etc, no frying allowed, a steamed vegetable, and mountains of salad dressed with olive oil and vinegar. Then you get an apple, or a pear, maybe a couple of slices of melon.

Pasta is the Devil, sandwich bread it's lesser minion, rice the handmaiden of the apocalypse.

I fried some Chicken once, he wouldn't stay in the kitchen with it.

 

[luckynumbah7]

Damn, y'all are making me jealous, dinner for us is some kind of protein, beef/chicken/etc, no frying allowed, a steamed vegetable, and mountains of salad dressed with olive oil and vinegar. Then you get an apple, or a pear, maybe a couple of slices of melon.

Pasta is the Devil, sandwich bread it's lesser minion, rice the handmaiden of the apocalypse.

I fried some Chicken once, he wouldn't stay in the kitchen with it.

What about spices? A nice curry works wonders, goes well enough on mashed potatos as well if you can talk him into it. I may be stuck with whatever's on sale but my spice collection is damn near massive.

I could've sworn I was better at beans, I'm positive I've used the dried beans successfully before. These days I can't get it to work. Weird because we have a much better stove now. I even ran 'em through a small blender and mashed the fuck out of them before tossing them back into boiling water till the water was gone - no dice.

 

[TX-Beau]

What about spices? A nice curry works wonders, goes well enough on mashed potatos as well if you can talk him into it. I may be stuck with whatever's on sale but my spice collection is damn near massive.

MASHED POTATOS!!! ARE YOU INSANE MAN!

Now I must admit that he does the vast majority of the cooking, he hates to shop, I'm not a cook. I've gotten him a mountain of cookbooks on gourmet healthy food, and he will look into them every now and then, but I suspect that there is some kind of psychological security blanket to the way he prepares food, I think it's part of how he stays young in his head.

I just eat out at lunch and sneak the odd bag of cheetos when he isn't looking.

 

[luckynumbah7]

MASHED POTATOS!!! ARE YOU INSANE MAN!

Now I must admit that he does the vast majority of the cooking, he hates to shop, I'm not a cook. I've gotten him a mountain of cookbooks on gourmet healthy food, and he will look into them every now and then, but I suspect that there is some kind of psychological security blanket to the way he prepares food, I think it's part of how he stays young in his head.

I just eat out at lunch and sneak the odd bag of cheetos when he isn't looking.

Grated and mashed cooked cauliflower, add some garlic, a bit of butter, salt and pepper - works as a decent enough substitute for mashed potatoes. If he doesn't do butter maybe some chicken stock or cream cheese? Or hell, parmesian would help it along too.

 

[TX-Beau]

He will eat sparingly natural fats like butter, he does eat cheese, it's his only culinary vice. No margarine though, that's a good idea, I'll have to mention that and see how he responds.

 

[opinterph]

I can't buy that. Is it because you have no heating costs? Is rent that cheap?

Atlanta is a little higher than the state average, but even $700 is unrealistically low for some areas of the city. (That figure also includes utilities.)

For anyone interested …

The food component of the basic needs budget was compiled using the USDA’s low-cost food plan national average in June 2015. The low-cost plan is the second least expensive food plan offered from a set of four food plans that provide nutritionally adequate food budgets at various price points.

LIVING WAGE CALCULATOR User’s Guide / Technical Notes

 

[gsdx]

I can't cook beans yet, no pressure cooker)

As mentioned, you don't need a pressure cooker. I'm guessing you're talking about white pea beans (a.k.a. navy beans). This page will tell you everything you need to know about them, including different methods of presoaking and cooking:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=88

 

[luckynumbah7]

As mentioned, you don't need a pressure cooker. I'm guessing you're talking about white pea beans (a.k.a. navy beans). This page will tell you everything you need to know about them, including different methods of presoaking and cooking:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=88

They were blackbeans. I was doing rice n'bean burritos at the time, was quite confused at the bean's mutiny. I've bought pinto beans too though, so here's to hoping.