Terms might be confusing, but as far as I can tell:
Original source was doing food to feed for people one meal (four “individual meals” make up one “family meal”) for $10
Reporter got three “family meals” for $28, meaning four people could eat three times each, 12 “individual meals” in total
Bearing in mind that this appeared to rely heavily on prepared foods, this is not so bad.
I can get a pound of dried beans from Walmart for $1. Five pounds of rice for $3.37. 12 ounces of bacon for $3.94 - perhaps not the very cheapest source of tasty meat/fat for seasoning, but a convenient one. Spend a little for an onion, garlic, assume we have spices and can replace them from time to time… I should end up with 6-8 bowls (using about half the bacon) so around $2 for half the bacon, less than $2 for the beans+rice, so add on a dollar for an onion and some garlic… That’s going to be less than a dollar per bowl. Rice and beans may not have “vegetables”, but it is a complete protein and nutritionally sound.
It’d be easy to add some cheap veggies - things like frozen broccoli, corn, peas run around a couple of bucks for four servings; fresh carrots a couple of bucks for a couple of pounds.
You can eat cheaply if you have a little time to cook. A slow cooker really helps make this more accessible.
So while I detest Dollar General, the video is… not completely terrible, just mostly terrible.
My point is that you have to be very frugal there to get around the same ballpark cost here buying pretty much whatever I feel like. That being said, I am vegan, mostly used only use fresh ingredients, dry legumes and some canned things. Don’t know if that makes it cheaper or more expensive than with more processed things.
Also, I did a very rough calculation by taking our total monthly expenses on groceries and dividing by our total number of meals. So toiletries, cleaningn supplies and other random things kinda get baked into the meal price.
Terms might be confusing, but as far as I can tell:
Bearing in mind that this appeared to rely heavily on prepared foods, this is not so bad.
I can get a pound of dried beans from Walmart for $1. Five pounds of rice for $3.37. 12 ounces of bacon for $3.94 - perhaps not the very cheapest source of tasty meat/fat for seasoning, but a convenient one. Spend a little for an onion, garlic, assume we have spices and can replace them from time to time… I should end up with 6-8 bowls (using about half the bacon) so around $2 for half the bacon, less than $2 for the beans+rice, so add on a dollar for an onion and some garlic… That’s going to be less than a dollar per bowl. Rice and beans may not have “vegetables”, but it is a complete protein and nutritionally sound.
It’d be easy to add some cheap veggies - things like frozen broccoli, corn, peas run around a couple of bucks for four servings; fresh carrots a couple of bucks for a couple of pounds.
You can eat cheaply if you have a little time to cook. A slow cooker really helps make this more accessible.
So while I detest Dollar General, the video is… not completely terrible, just mostly terrible.
My point is that you have to be very frugal there to get around the same ballpark cost here buying pretty much whatever I feel like. That being said, I am vegan, mostly used only use fresh ingredients, dry legumes and some canned things. Don’t know if that makes it cheaper or more expensive than with more processed things.
Also, I did a very rough calculation by taking our total monthly expenses on groceries and dividing by our total number of meals. So toiletries, cleaningn supplies and other random things kinda get baked into the meal price.