Weird Universe points us to an undated story from Austin where a man gets his food budget down to $5 a day. That seems altogether extravagant as he had meat in two of his three meals. Having fed a family on much less per person, I could share the diet common in my area, where families eat beans and cornbread, with occasional poke sallet or collards and fried potatoes for years on end. But that's not altogether nutritious.
During the Great Depression, food was cheap, but people didn't have enough money anyway. Sociologist Gladys Sellew conducted an experiment with herself as the subject to see how cheaply one person could eat and get adequate nutrition. To the point, Sellew wanted to see if people could actually eat on 15 cents a day. The diet she worked out over the course of five years came to 13 cents a day! Sellew spelled her diet out for the newspapers, but don't expect to use her tips today. You no longer get a discount on day-old bread, turnips are not sold in most supermarkets, and bacon ends go to the butcher's dog instead of the sales bin. That said, eating that cheaply isn't the most pleasurable experience, but as you can see at Weird Universe, Sellew wasn't about to give up her cocoa. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Austin American Statesman, June 3, 1942)
A us based inflation calculator tells me 13c in say June 1939 is 2.86 now.. that's not unachievable but where I am in Australia about double that at $5.72ish USD (abt $9 aud) is probably more reasonable (at least for a healthy diet without too many heavily processed foods: they are not as unhealthy as some claim but are not great either). Then add another dollar for cat food (aud, inc wet, dry and treats). I spend about $10 a day (aud) on food. (I am a -sustainably sourced- pescatarian diabetic and eat well and fairly healthily)
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um, you are either shopping in the wrong stores or not looking for the deals. i am glad for you that you don't need to save that badly. i love turnips and have never not been able to find them in various stores, at least in season. granted sometimes they only have a dozen on the shelf, but they are almost always there. unfortunately they are also not that inexpensive these days. there's a bakery outlet near me that sells older and imperfect products at a steep discount, and i see that they have several locations in the east/midatlantic (nature's own) plus i've been to a pepperidge farm outlet store in orlando when i lived there years ago. i am sure there are plenty of bakery outlets across the country. also you can absolutely buy bacon ends and pieces if you know which stores to check. a discount grocery store near me sells bacon ends in blocks and i know multiple stores that sell ham offcuts and ugly pieces at far less per pound than the pretty slices. according to the online ad, carli c's is currently selling bacon ends at about 20c per oz, compared to their other cheapest bacon slices at 33c per oz. "Cp Bacon Ends & Pieces $4.79|1.5 lb". granted, for fresh meat, a lot of places sell their pork and beef offcuts as "stew meat" and charge prices comparable all the other cuts. the large asian grocer near me sells several ugly parts of non processed meats quite affordably. i was there on friday and saw their currect price for chicken bones, with a ton of meat left on (perfect for soup) is $1.58lb. their prettily sliced pork spare ribs are $5.99lb but their rib ends and pieces are $3.99lb. just as delicious, only less attractive to plate up. (not that ribs are a cheap meat, but it's an example of the savings you can get on ugly food). ugly vegetables are also available a lot of places for less than the "perfect" ones.
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