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Just found a restaurant where the individual meal costs only 0,57$! Meal composed by rice, toasted cassava flour and black bean stew with few pieces of pork meats. Feeds one person decently and the taste is good. You can eat the whole month for less than 35$, considering lunch and dinner daily! That is perfect for cutting expenses with food!

Do you know any restaurants which serve cheaper meals than that where you live? It must be a meal, not snacks.

in each country, province and district, of course, the price of food will be relatively different in price and depends on the location where the sellers open their business. Yes at my place it's probably only $2 for a single lunch and that's relatively expensive from where you say.

the situation of the place is the main factor in the difference in the price of each food and there are also those who sell at a low price in order to attract customers to buy food at their place.

If can rule out the type of foodstore, several agricultural areas in my country Indonesia offer a price per serving of breakfast adjusted for the income of daily laborers, that's 5000 IDR/0.33USD (https://www.google.com/search?q=nasi+bungkus+5000). It consists of a variety of side dishes (mostly vegetables and eggs) and can be said to have met some of the daily nutritional needs.
And a few days ago, found an interesting tip in a city that for only 10,000 IDR/0.66USD (https://food.detik.com/info-kuliner/d-6565897/murah-banget-makan-3-kali-sehari-di-wonogiri-cukup-rp-10-ribu-saja) you can get 3 meals a day.

Which country are you talking about? 35$ might look cheap in the US but for a meal in a country like Pakistan 35$ for a month for a person two meals is still on the average or the higher side only. You can get away with cheaper cost if you cook at home for a family of 3-4. Also in India as well you can find decent portion of food which costs around the similar price at a lot of mediocre places and many people especially the wage labour do eat it.

And the average wage around there is....?
Cause I would rather earn $1000 and spend $700 on food and utilities than paying 30$ while earning $100.
Also, there is another thing, no way you're going to have the same restaurants working and not be shut down in one hour in a different country when there are completely different laws when it comes to food serving and health inspections. If you want to compare prices in general and how one can really save money and how much, which definitely implies cooking at home look at the amount one spends on food from his wage.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-country-spends-on-food/

Anyhow, probably the cheapest serving here which would include a soup, some porc, and a side dish is around 6-8 Euros, that is is either foodcourts near shopping malls or in some not-so-good restaurants, so called asian street food.

What you'll find is the cost of a meal varies hugely country to country. In America you might buy a burger for $10 but the average wage people are paid is much higher. In your country that $0.57 might be worth the same amount in comparison to the average wage. It makes no sense to really give just the cheapest examples without giving a wider context about food costs. The food while cheap does not exactly constitute a well rounded diet and is lacking any sort of variety, unless they have multiple different dishes priced at the same level you wouldn't want to eat it twice a day for a month. Even prisoners seek a bit of variety in their food habits, although it's interesting to see prices from lots of different people here.

And getting sick in the process. Most of that is carbs. I suspect you haven't had the pleasure of eating rice with beans all day, but I can assure you it's going to lead to gases and constipation.
I could technically eat extremely cheap if I wanted to, for instance buy the cheapest pasta and make a basic tomato sauce with onion, garlic and some basil and a serving of that would probably cost me 2 EUR and keep me full for half a day, but the real question is, do I want to?


Unless that $700 of meals would only buy you rice and beans for breakfast lunch and dinner. :D
The price is one thing, but I'd be willing to pay much more if that would mean eating decent food.

that's is very true. who would want to eat all day, every day the same food within a month? you may end up hating eating your next meal if that's the case.  ;D but maybe, the OP just want to say that such price of a decent meal still exists. however, as you said, it is relative to the place where you are living. if you are staying in a 1st world country, you would hardly see such price but of course, your wage is much much better than most countries, hence, you can very well afford the 10 bucks burger. haven't seen such price of a meal where i am now. it is more maybe for snacks, but not a meal.

The cheapest food you can find in my country is two hundred dollars a month. It is impossible for an ordinary person to live on $35 a month. Perhaps that is possible in your country.
You can eat a piece of bread with some milk for one dollar, so the least possible thing is thirty dollars a month for one piece of loaf that may not satisfy you, let alone stay for a whole day with it.

It's impossible to even here, I could buy for 4 Euros a day one kilo of rice and half of pasta since you mentioned that, and to reach the previously mentioned sum throw in one kilo of pork meat with potatoes on top of it and still go below 300 euros a month, basic food is cheap almost everywhere compared to a median wage, good food that covers every need and diet, that's obviously different. Whenever I'm out in the evening and in a new restaurant I'm always worried about cheap stuff, the first question is why is this so cheap and how long ago has it expired before turning the page!

But seriously, food is the one thing where you don't want to cut costs, but it's also the first thing people like to cut, I would do so with a lot of other things first, health is something you won't be able to recover if you neglect it no matter how much money you make from saving a penny a day. And sometimes it's even worse, people eat garbage food just because they don't have time or are lazy, not because of the price as some fast food junk is becoming far more expensive than normal cooking.

Without any variance to your diet, I don't think that is healthy enough for one individual to eat in a whole month. Then again, a lot of us are probably not eating healthy anyway so if we are really trying to save some money wherever we can, we can probably do this for a month if the option is available. Here in our place, I can eat healthy foods with lots of variations for $4 a day. Basically, it's 2 cups of rice with a combination of meat, veggies, fish, or whatever dish you want. $120 a month for food doesn't seem to be too bad, considering that you will always have the option which foods to eat that'll satisfy your tastebuds without sacrificing the nutrients that you get.

There’s a lot of canteens in my country and this is the best place to eat good food at very affordable price, probably $.5 - $1 is already enough per meal if you are ok with that, just don’t expect for bigger servings since the  price is cheap. I used to live on this situation when I’m still a student, and this is still happening in a lot of areas in my country.

Thisnisna bit cheap and that will be okay for many persons who they have plans of cooking in there homes. $35 is very cheap for a budget for food for a whole month. There are people that do spend this kind of amount in one seating in my region because things are very expensive and the government does not even have plans for the people so you'll need to hustle well and get money that you will be able to use and pay bills. Would this kind of offer make some persons to leave there homes everyday to get a meal there for the entire month? I don't think so even if it's it's opposite my building.

I wonder how the owners of the place are making their profit in this period. I also imagine the food will be small for that amount and not really enough for someone with a large appetite and also that even someone with a small appetite may decide to eat more on some days maybe due to some activities. In my country I cannot trust a cheap meal, because the quality will be less than decent in most cases. And it becomes really suspicious for someone to be selling really cheap meals when I know the condition of things in my country.

In my country presently to eat a meal in a restaurant, you will pay $3 and nothing less,you can only get snacks and soft drink below $3. It is better to save your money by cooking at home if you have a family, but if you are staying alone,you can save yourself the stress by eating in the restaurant. My country is a third world country but things are expensive,for you to eat a good meal,you should budget $5. I guess your country is poor,that is why the cost of living is low. You can't spend $35 in a month inu country, it will only last for ta week.
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If you consider a porridge a meal then there is one selling in one place in my country for only $0.1  but aside from that I don't know any that cost less than $2 meal.  It is quite expensive on where I live.  There are some food stall but they are not selling cheap either.  And with the inflations, the price of food are getting expensive.  The once $0.004 bread is now selling @0.01 and is getting more expensive as the price of raw materials is increasing.

Brazil.
Wow, if that is expensive for people in Pakistan and India I would like to know what is considered a cheap price for restaurant's food there, and what food it is.

252$ minimum wage. Most people earn this monthly.

Hahaha! I also heared this kind of feedback from people around, but what can I say, I like doing experiments! :D

Yes, nutritional value is pretty low and the meal lacks proteins. Still, it's just 0,57$ and I couldn't avoid sharing this curiosity, because it was surprising even for me, since cheapest meals here are usually 2,68$.

It seems operational costs are subsidized by the state (at least partially). The portion size is decent for one person, at least for me.

High carb content very unhealthy for long term diet.

Likely it tastes nice.

I would suggest it one or two times a week no more.

One of the major issues for the worlds diets is not enough cheap quality proteins.

Here is the USA they directly attacked the general population by raising the price of eggs from 1.19 a dozen to 4.49

Eggs were $1.19 in July of 2021 it is a huge price jump.

Annual spending on food by country for 2021. Source: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service

Find your country:

Switzerland	$4,313.36
Norway	$4,093.42
Israel	$3,996.60
Denmark	$3,727.23
Hong Kong	$3,671.54
New Zealand	$3,483.37
Japan	$3,458.91
Sweden	$3,268.22
Belgium	$3,260.38
Australia	$3,239.44
France	$3,234.39
Italy	$3,168.33
Finland	$3,137.76
United States	$3,070.23
Austria	$2,987.65
Netherlands	$2,933.04
Germany	$2,897.04
Lithuania	$2,885.61
Canada	$2,766.51
Portugal	$2,698.98
Costa Rica	$2,656.43
Estonia	$2,621.40
Kazakhstan	$2,554.15
Greece	$2,489.99
United Kingdom	$2,417.75
Slovakia	$2,355.96
Slovenia	$2,331.82
Spain	$2,275.32
Romania	$2,262.33
Croatia	$2,256.28
Iran	$2,188.11
Latvia	$2,171.17
Ireland	$2,147.79
Montenegro	$2,077.22
Saudi Arabia	$2,054.25
South Korea	$1,986.04
United Arab Emirates	$1,961.74
Uruguay	$1,950.61
Czechia	$1,947.30
Singapore	$1,893.41
Taiwan	$1,808.97
Chile	$1,806.71
Qatar	$1,779.94
Russia	$1,755.34
Mexico	$1,754.42
Malaysia	$1,736.91
Poland	$1,701.58
Dominican Republic	$1,674.05
North Macedonia	$1,659.67
Hungary	$1,596.85
Kuwait	$1,535.48
Argentina	$1,494.69
Guatemala	$1,484.97
Turkey	$1,478.81
Oman	$1,464.63
Bosnia and Herzegovina	$1,421.53
Serbia	$1,418.89
Georgia	$1,388.45
Egypt	$1,369.14
Bulgaria	$1,338.85
Ukraine	$1,292.15
Panama	$1,244.62
Bahrain	$1,239.19
Azerbaijan	$1,223.55
Belarus	$1,179.26
Paraguay	$1,124.08
Peru	$1,121.08
El Salvador	$1,034.89
Thailand	$1,027.71
Philippines	$995.62
Ecuador	$984.15
China	$933.80
Jordan	$926.49
South Africa	$920.87
Kenya	$885.38
Laos	$875.60
Colombia	$806.69
Indonesia	$799.23
Bangladesh	$791.20
Sri Lanka	$780.42
Nigeria	$748.62
Morocco	$741.12
Brazil	$722.07
Honduras	$712.10
Cote d'Ivoire	$673.49
Bolivia	$659.97
Angola	$657.61
Ghana	$648.25
Tunisia	$647.73
Algeria	$614.00
Lebanon	$602.09
Iraq	$578.28
Vietnam	$563.15
Cambodia	$546.45
Cameroon	$540.96
Myanmar	$501.60
Uzbekistan	$483.40
India	$446.47
Pakistan	$383.91
Turkmenistan	$310.05
Uganda	$293.40
Ethiopia	$244.73
Tanzania	$179.85
Venezuela	$46.67

I did research on growth and preparation of beans for human consumption purposes, as part of my attempts to HODL agriculture.

According to bean cooking recommendations I have seen. The consensus appears to be, beans must be cooked for more than 10 minutes at boiling temperature, to breakdown the chemical components which cause gas and other negative side effects.

Some sources claim beans should be cooked for more than 30 to 60 minutes before consumption to completely eliminate gas. (Although I have not gotten around to testing this, yet.)

Electricity costs being on the rise, it could be ideal to use passive cookers for this role. Such as solar cookers which use mirrors to redirect the suns rays.

Holy crap! 

Now this is what I'm talking about; I love discussions like this and I'm reminded of my masturbation-fantasy thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5390048) which I'm going to unlock so's I can get some colorful input in my brain instead of the dark gray cloud that seems to be going around like some kind of psychiatric contagious disease.

Brazil is beautiful from what I've heard, and I'm shocked that the cost of living is that low.  OP, there's nowhere in the US where you can get a meal as cheap as the one you described (am I correct in assuming that's USD in your post?).  Even the dollar menu at McDonald's is now like the $5 menu, and if you can easily spend $15 just for an unsatisfying sandwich, fries, and a watered down soda.  It's no better anywhere else as far as I know, and I think it's only going to get worse.  There's an egg shortage now?  WTF?

It depends on the resources when it comes to the price of food; matter of demand and supply. If you are living in an agricultural country or area wherein ingredients are just there to be picked up, then expect for a lower food expense. But once import and export are involved, then for sure it would reflect to the price; making it more expensive. Same thing applies with restaurants in city wherein they'd be needing to compensate for the importation of goods from different areas plus their costing of the restaurant itself, which would add to the raw market value of the meal. In my country, a complete set meal of rice, side dish, and main dish would cost around 1.5$ because of inflation and monopoly with raw materials.

Compared to the price in the restaurant you found, many countries in the world have regions that sell food at low prices. In general, the raw materials for these foods are all from local products, including the way these foods are made. In those same cities, you will find restaurants that serve expensive food.
In my country, there are restaurants that serve cheap dishes with simple ingredients. These same foods are served at expensive prices in tourist areas and luxurious neighborhoods.

The place one resides will determine how much he is to spend on feeding per day. I have been to a place where I spend close to 0.50$ per day. Why I have such low spending on feeding because I was staying in a rural area where foodstuffs are been harvested in the community. The place is an agricultural area. What took me to that locality is the immunization of kids.

Where I am staying now, eating 3 meals per day in a restaurant would cost you close to $3 due to the price increase of foodstuffs. I can only eat once a day if am ought to, which is a dollar price

There's in my country though we call it fast food or Papa put, where you can eat rice, beans and fried egg for about $0.5 which about NGN 380 or even $0.7 which is NGN 500 actually the queue most at times is very discouraging where most people finds it difficult to wait and have their breakfast. This food are most being booked by student in the college and transporters.

Basing up and looking around on where i do live then i would be able to see that you could eat up $1 per meal in minimum which if we do count on 3x meal a day which it is impossible for most people on here to eat twice only which means that $3/day and thats $90 per month but considering this amount is the most basic and not really that much sufficient i would say but if you are on a budget then you could actually live on this way.
Each country does have their own economic status but there might be no big differences i would say but if ever you do live on a country where food is cheap then be thankful.
not all people would be experiencing on the same situation.

When it comes to food, it is upto the end user who makes it. There are families that live the entire month with the same $35. Between different countries this changes and restaurants offering such low price meals is really impressive and when the competence is high, to stay on the top it is a must to compromise on the price. Over time the price will be increased, which is the base of business. Lets see whether the price is being increased over time.

yeah even here in the states careful shopping you can get a lot of food cheaply.


A local supermarket had a deal for chicken soup.

cleaned checked breast no bones or skin. 4 pounds

2 lbs carrots

1 quart broth

2 pounds celery

1 pound of noodles

add a quart of water.

and a 20 oz bag of broccoli


cost is $12 for 4 pound of chicken breast.
the bag of broccoli is 1 dollar
all the rest was free as a promo

total is $13 dollars and  add the time and gas to cook it is 3 hours and about 50 cents in gas.
 
grand total of $13.50

this is a very large pot of chicken soup.

very little carbs lots of protein good quality food.

About 10 plates of soup or ten meals.

 So $1.35 a high quality food /meal home cooked.

I was able to buy this deal 4 times and my wife and I ate 40 dishes of it.  I played around and added more veg and some cheese so grand total may have been 4 x 13.50 = 54+6 or 60 bucks

say $1.50 a meal.

This type of deal is not constant I may get it one month a year.

Maybe a few other deals and I can be low cost  and diabetic friendly which is hard to do for me.

The place determines the selling price, especially in a luxurious place, the selling price is definitely higher, even though the type of food is the same.  usually the selling price is cheaper in a village that adjusts to their income if in urban areas the price is more expensive, here what is known as cheap food called Nasi Kucing which consists of rice, eggs, crackers, and tempeh is usually sold near universities because most  those who bought it were students but there were also many employees who bought the food. At a price of $ 0.4, you can already eat delicious and healthy food.

An individual lunch can cost somewhere between 4$-10$ here, depending what you ask and where you are.
The best cost effective meal I recall having was back in December, I ordered a combo of hot dogs at my local mall, they cost about 2$-3$ for two hot dogs and a small ice tea.

For that price I was expecting it to be rather a small snack but those came very well charged with a lot of dressings and toppings, got me really full.  :)

I have the impression here in my homeland one can find rather cheap groceries, instead prepared meals.

Actually, you can find a lot of eateries, locally named carinderia, here in my country where you can have a meal as cheap as $0.57. That meal comprises of a cup of rice and a simple viand, vegetable dishes usually or different kinds of noodles. They could come with tiny slices of meat also. In many carinderias, soup is also served for free.

So, you can also live here with just $35 a month for food and the meals are nutritious enough, although in relatively small servings. But could you endure those kinds of meal everyday?

I could get full meal with variety of dishes for double of amount you mentioned. My appetite is less, we could even manage 2 — I guess that could counter the offer in title ;D

For sure, you'll get sick eating it all day and all night. I know it's cheap, but we should consider it healthy. Talking about cheap meals, here in our country, you can eat one meal, like for lunch, for only $.40, and you can select a chicken foot with rice. It also depends on the seller if he includes a free juice or not. We call them street foods, and most of them are made for students and workers with tight budgets. You can see a lot in here, and they are delicious, but again, you can save if you cook more and eat healthy if you are the one who cooks.

Lack of vitamin and nutrition because it's full of carbohydrate and protein, you can't eat for everyday because you will suffer obesity and heart problem. You need to compare it apple by apple, not the unhealthy dish. I read on an article where minimum wage in Brazil is 2265 BRL/Month or $440/Month [1], how it's possible you're saying the minimum wage is only $25/Month.

Anyway, if you want to have a frugal lifestyle, it's stupid to save your money by eating cheap unhealthy food, health is the most important, so make sure you eat a healthy food even it's will cost a little bit more.

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[1] https://take-profit.org/en/statistics/wages/brazil/

There are family restaurants in where I live which make home made meals and each meal costs around $1.06-$1.1 The quality is OK but not that great and I wouldn't eat there as long as I have a very very tight budget. These prices may look funny to the forum members but there are many people who work for the minimum wage (which is $450) and they still struggle to pay those prices.

I wouldn't reduce my food quality just to cut my expenses. Eating quality food makes me happy.

When I worked at the old place I found a restaurant with dishes for $1 per portion I often order this meal because it is economical and can fill the stomach but behind the food honestly there is no protein that is healthier mostly oily food where the side dishes are all fried, so indeed this effort is to save expenses in each particular area but at the same time we don't think about health about the protein.

My minimum wage has increased, so of course I choose healthier food for the good of my health. I choose nutritious food to take care of my body better. Health care is more than nothing.

$35-$40 is enough for a month of eating in my area with snacks.

I know places in my city where a person can eat cheap. There are two categories of them. First is sort of a canteens located in huge manufacturer or places where average Joes or people with low income work. Example - a canteen for city bus drivers, located in depo. For 3 EUR you will get soup, meat, garnish, vegetable salad, drink. But there is one problem - locals cant get there. Either you have to work there, or have a friend there. Second place - small canteens in sleeping quarters or outskirts. Cheap food (less than 5 EUR for a portion), but the taste if awful. Basically no taste. Cheapest place to fill stomach. Cheapest place to get diarrhea. For comparison - I spend around 10 EUR when go out for a lunch during working days.

That's very cheap, but if you want to survive, then you have no choice but to eat cheap food. Well, in our country, there are also inexpensive food options, but if I have the money, I would certainly go for food that is full of nourishment to live healthily. Due to inflation, prices are rising, and the quality of life is getting harder, if you know what I mean. So, it's a blessing to find such cheap food to feed the poor and help them survive in these trying times.

If I had to spend money on food only to survive, I think the minimum I would need is maybe $22 a month for two meals per day.

it seems hard to find a restaurant or eatery that serves food at a lower price than what the OP found if it's in a developed country. but in developing countries I think you will find a lot of the same or cheaper prices. and I think in Indian and Indonesian as well as in Malaysia there will still be many restaurants at low prices. but to be honest it seems like it will be very rare to find. unless the restaurant is in a suburban area or in a small town.

With this menu, depends on someone if he really likes to eat this dish. I can go on for a month with the same meal but provided with some other snacks, I can really survive with that. This is cheaper than the Philippines, what country can you find that meal at that cost?
Here in our country, a regular meal that's not in a regular restaurant would even cost you more than a dollar and that's not even going to suffice your appetite. Everything has gone up because of the inflation.

You can never actually save money buy eating unhealthy foods. I mean, you may succeed for a while and won't notice it during your youth but once you get older, you'll have to pay the debt. A lot of white bread, white rice, potatoes fried in sunflower oil, i.e. cheap diet means that you consume highly processed carbohydrates and saturated & trans fats. It will definitely increase risk of diabetes, high cholesterol, heart problems, anemia, etc. I prefer to spend more money on foods today instead of spending far more money on meds and doctors. Even with free health insurance, I wouldn't love to visit doctors and be put on free insulin or bp meds.
I prefer to stay lean and muscular instead of being fatty.


I am dumbfounded by those prices. So, if you work on minimum wage, you are guaranteed to feed well? If food is so cheap, then there shouldn't be food related problems but according to statistics, half population experiences some kind of food insecurity.

This actually depends on the country and their currency exchange rate with USD, they can actually make the exchange and convert to their local currency and enjoy a high rate, also there are other alternatives that can serves better than the restaurant due to the locations bases and the availability of the the cash needed in some regions for immediate purchase of food items, one can diet freely on fruits and vegetables and there are other food items that can be easily eaten without the stress of how to go about them, such as roasted corn, yam, groundnut, plantains and few other food items can be roasted and taken with water as balance diet, being poor is not an excuse neither is poverty, there are cheap canteens as well were local foods were made available and affordable.

Now there are more and more foods at low prices such as menus that are served 1 package containing rice, chicken and fresh drinks at a price of $ 0.5. But have you ever thought that the food served is hygienic? Isn't it better for us to cook ourselves at home with clean ingredients and clean cooking utensils too? Cut the budget by buying 1 sack of rice, then buying fresh vegetables or fish that we can cook ourselves.

Sometimes even cheap food really needs to be questioned about its hygiene, because cheap food is not necessarily healthy and usually cheap food is not found in fancy restaurants or fancy cafes. But cooking yourself by buying ingredients like you said is also not cheap at first even though it can last for groceries in a few days. But in this case, I also agree more with the option of cooking myself at home if I'm not really preoccupied with so much work on a daily basis.

This won't be easy to answer, but now most people prefer fast food to other foods, yes that's because the time required to wait is not too long and takes up a lot of time. Regarding the hygiene level of fast food, I think we can choose it ourselves, I mean that many fast food places pay attention to the cleanliness of what they sell. So I think it depends on us to choose which restaurant.

I used to have a one riggit local food when I was in Malaysia which is close to $0.3 or something and its comes with chicken wings and steamed rice along with hot sauce, and tasted good so yeah if you visit Malaysia don't forget to try it. ;)

Well apart from food there are some other expenses also need to be considered and minimum wage so its pretty much depends on minimum wage and which country we are talking about.

At my place for a meal containing rice, sliced potatoes and chilies, vegetables, and eggs costs about $ 0.85, and in my opinion this is the cheapest, I often go around places and it's hard to find food cheaper than $ 0.85, there is a cheaper portion, namely noodles instant boiled without any additions worth $ 0.65, the menu does not include drinks so for one meal it takes around $ 1.25.

Where I live is a suburb with hills, agricultural areas, fruit farms and a small sea.  It's my luck in this food/high food age.  Each country/urban/rural has different food costs.  Most in the city will be higher due to traffic problems, trade, store/staff costs… A full meal where I live and work would be 2-3 dollars for a small pot of squid ink,  rice, a piece of fish, full of vegetables.  Cheaper place is 1-1.5$.  Anyway, I think this is a fair price for a small town in the suburbs.
Mostly, due to the nature of ecotourism, some places near me will cost much more.

The average meal of the restaurants where I live is about $0.8-1.5 for a full-quality lunch, ensuring the health of all workers, workers, and students.  Most of the dishes will be ordered according to each person's preferences such as braised fish, braised meat, braised eggs, sour soup, grilled pork ribs, fried chicken... Cheaper place is 0.8$ but the food is somewhat not as fresh, yes.  Maybe it's my taste.  We should also learn that the cost of food is cheaper but also food safety and quality safety.  Otherwise, health status will be affected.  After the food increased, there were a lot of people in my place who got food poisoning because of eating in unsanitary restaurants and poor quality food.  Human greed also gets worse in any situation.

Yes, all the values I post are converted to USD, taking the currently Real : Dollar ratio on the moment I'm writing the post.

Years ago McDonalds had some very interesting promotions here. Each day of the week we had one sandwich in promo, including Big Mac. I think it was about 2$ on that time, and Dollar was also cheaper compared to Real. I remember buying a sandwich and a big fries portion and taking home, so I had coca-cola cheaper from the supermarket.

But since then, I haven't been to big centers often anymore. Just last year when I had the opportunity to return to McDonalds, I saw that promotion didn't exist anymore. Now prices are also more expensive and similar to the 15$ you mentioned, although I remember eating a lot. I'm checking the prices on the internet right now and it says a Big Mac combo is around 5,33$ (probably with a medium portion of fries and soda, which are small for my taste).

Going much back in time yet, there was also a vanilla ice cream cone promotion, on which you received a free one after 5 bought (could be acquired in different days).

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Then read it again, and I never said minimum wage here is 25$ monthly...

https://i.imgur.com/u7WT0XG.png

These rates aren't considering the raise to 1320 BRL this year, as announced by the president, so it's slightly higher (not that 18 BRL extra worth anything, anyway).

In my previous company, 0.25$ is enough to have a full meal that consist of rice and one main dish. The quality of food is very decent it’s an exclusive canteen for company workers. This is possible only because our company is giving the canteen free of rent so that they will reduce the food price to minimum level without the rent fee cost.

The average meal on our country cost 2$ if you want a decent food and 1.5$ if you eat on the street vendor.

Still better than my diet lol. I hate cooking, and since my wife needs to be with her mother for the past 2 years and comes and goes from hospital, she can't cook, doesn't have the time, so I rather order from outside, which is usually fast food joints. That means I end up eating burgers and pizzas and all that every day.

Contradicting to that, if I could get food for that cheap, I would at least try it a few days, that would give me so much money to save, because right now one of my biggest spending is food, due to ordering, and if I could get something so cheap, I would totally do that like 5 times a month, and save a bit of money, not everyday, but at least few days.

That's standard like food stalls in general, but with food stalls by maintaining cleanliness and hygiene, of course it will be more expensive in general, so this is only for the lower middle class with food under $1 fast food, that's more than enough for one person worker.

Cooking yourself will, of course, choose quality ingredients and also cleanliness, but for a worker who doesn't have much time to do it, sometimes they prefer the simple one by buying at a cheap restaurant and it's more practical even though they don't think about food hygiene.

The important thing is that they as workers save more per day or don't spend too much money.

I research if there's any vitamins in those type of foods and to my surprise there is, especially the black beans because this one is a kind of vegetables. I think casava too is a kind of vegetables so there must be vitamins found on this food. Rice and pork/meat on the other hand is also essential for the body to help us give energy.

Overall, I see no problems with the food that the OP featured. What is only good is that those foods are very affordable. He is lucky to have that kind of meal on his place but I think is possible because he is living on a country where the cost of living is only minimal but if you aren't from those country then I don't think you can find any restaurant that serve those kind of food at a cheaper costs.

Yea, that's what I told him.
Potato chips and coke also taste nice, but try eating it every day. They'll need people to move you out of the house on a stretcher after a few years.


I guess a lot of it had to do with the way Egg industry has evolved. I remember that in the 90s it was normal for farmers to keep chickens in crowded, dark warehouses. Nowadays in the EU we have labels that tell us what type of farm the egg comes from and you can still find cheap ones where chickens are fed the lowest quality grain and kept in cages. Luckily I have a neighbor that sells eggs and you can see what these guys eat and how they run around. Real bio products are going to become expensive in the coming years.



I try not to think about this when I eat out, but yea, it's somewhere in the back of my head :D


When I was studying I sometimes ate ramen noodles. If you read into it, it's water with salt, glutamate, pepper and those garbage instant noodles that taste like paper and you pay 1 EUR for that crap.
You'd be better off buying potatoes and just eating them boiled with some salt and pepper for the same price.

At some point I started baking pizza and realized that I can have 3 for the price of one if I make it at home instead of ordering and I'll know what's inside. My brother worked at a restaurant and he told me they'd often use moldy sauces for pizza and pasta. If there was a mold on top they'd fish it out with a spoon and boil the sauce for a while. Same thing with vegetables. Mold on a tomato? Cut it out and blend it into sauce - problem solved. Mold on olives? You'd rinse and drain them.

You are right. Location matters in things like this. I know areas in my place where a launch or Dinner is cheaper than $2 and other areas where that cannot buy you either. All of the time, things are priced based on the location you find yourself, and the rural areas are mostly found to have cheaper food prices as far as I know because most of the kinds of foodstuff are farmed around and don't also cost much to transport.

Well, in my country, one can get a meal of rice, spaghetti, beans and maybe i piece of beef meat for as little as $0.394, and i can tell you that it used to be way way more cheaper than this one or two years ago, but recently, lots of things have changed in the country, a lot of things have gone from bad to worst, food items now cost more than double what they used to cost two years ago, there is so much hardship in the country, and even as cheap as $0.394 is, many can not afford to spend it on buying food in a restaurant because its a big amount of money to them.

A portion of food at a price of $1.25 is a decent portion, actually, because it is for one meal and try to multiply it for three meals a day. You have to spend almost four dollars a day just to eat without anything else like motor gasoline and cigarettes for men who are active smokers. I think that more or less everyone should have about $8 to live in your area on a daily basis and that is still included in a very reasonable category, even though it does not include expenses for small entertainment in life.

I believe it depends on which country where you are.

Different countries, different economy which might affect the price of foods that are available. Here in my country, the average price of food per person is like $1 per meal, that's only street food meals we called "karinderya". But if you'll go to a restaurant, average price for them is like $2-$3 or even more depends on how fancy the restaurant is.

Cheap food is almost synonymous with poor quality or at least not healthy food. All cheap food comes down to a large intake of carbohydrates, fats, including vegetable fats. Yes - it's cheap. But it is always worth evaluating the cost in terms of perspectives and nuances.
Yes, you can eat 2 meals a day for a month for $35. And a year - for conditionally 400 dollars. Cool, someone will say. But ... Tell me - how much does medicine cost you? Do you have unemployment insurance? And such a diet, regular, is guaranteed to lead to problems with the stomach, intestines, and possibly loss of work. This is what I mean - trying to save money - you are setting the stage for huge expenses and problems, already in the near future. I agree, if there is a question of survival, and for some time you need to "get by" on food that will make you faint from hunger. But as a regular meal, I would strongly recommend against such food. It is better to study some new subject area and earn more, so as not to limit yourself to such nutrition.

Many people are correct for pointing out we shouldn't eat unhealthy foods where it's mostly about high carbohydrates and fats, so it's better to find a restaurant where they serve a meal which composed about vegetables and other healthy foods. But many people are forget if those restaurants might use not fresh ingredients, instant sauce where it's contain high sugar, unhealthy cooking process, preservative uses etc.

You need to know the whole ingredients to judge how healthy the foods is, but since restaurants mostly don't care about it and only looking to make people come back to eat since it's delicious, it's better to buy a raw ingredients and cook yourself.

Don't always fry or saute your foods, it's better to stew or grill.

That is extremely cheap, forget about restaurants I doubt many people can even prepare a meal which costs less than that, and we must remember that such a meal is being sold for a profit, so it has an even lower cost for the restaurant owner, making impossible for me to prepare a meal that cheap, however it would be unwise to try to go through your life by only eating that as there are many nutrients that you will not get with that meal, and the rest of your meals will need to provide them or you could suffer from malnutrition.

Yeah it is not balanced properly.

I mentioned the chicken soup I can make at home for 1.35-1.50 a meal us prices

Occasionally supermarkets sell large pork roasts 13 pounds with careful slow roast you can rend most fat out and then shred the meat. Maybe 7 or 8 pounds of meat after fat is rendered and bone removed.
Good Frozen veg on sale say broccoli ,stringbeans ,carrots,cauliflower. 5 pounds of it can be five dollars.

So 13+5= 18.00 toss in a pot with tomato sauce a few more dollars. maybe 3 so 21 dollars.

very low carb. proper prep of the pork lowers fat.

If you are diabetic no rice but if you are not diabetic put on a bed of rice . less than 2 dollars

You can serve a dozen people for 24 bucks as you need gas stove to cook it.

With a low carb or normal carb option (rice/no rice)

I can make this two or three times a year with sales.

Basically the chicken soup/stew  along with shredded pork veg rice or no rice. Is likely 70 of the meals my wife and I eat in a year.

We eat 6 x 365 = 2190 meals a year.

The ones above are good for us and low cost.

But even if I want to make  140 meals a year vs the 70 we do make it would be hard to source and hold the food as the sales are rare.

That is why others will say unhealthy foods are delicious. I really don't care about the foods I've eaten since I was a teenager; I don't care if they are healthy or not, and I also always eat at those cheap food stalls to save money and play those computer games, but that was a really wrong move as it could really affect my health. Eating healthy foods is sometimes expensive, and only a few people can afford it. That is why those poor families usually tend to rely on cheap food to survive.

I agree with you on this. I also come from a country with low income and a standard of living but with a cost of $0.57 per meal. I've never seen that in my country, at least $1 per meal. In the context of high inflation and crisis, high food prices, to get a meal at such a low cost, I doubt that food can't guarantee quality for our health. Unless OP is talking about a charity diner subsidized by charities.

In my county people have big heart. Many people provide free food to those who cannot afford
There are places where people can get free meal . . there are some places where they would even charge penny and would provide big meal to the whole family.

For 0.57$, you have rice, toasted cassava flour, and black bean stew with pork meat, we call that a package meal, it can be considered cheap and you can't lose there.

It's just that right now I don't see such a price here, the cheapest package menu that I see is at 1.55$ overload as we call it here, in short, it's enough for this amount. But only a few restaurants have it here.

A poor country is not a synonym for an undernourished or undernourished country. I used to travel the world often and a lot, visited about 50 countries, and I have something to say :)
For example Thailand. A beautiful country, indescribable nature, culture... and cuisine :) Yes, a tourist usually sees tourist beauty. I like to travel away from the tourist centers on my own and see real life. I won’t say what the dollar rate is now, I was there when it was about 30-32 Thai baht / dollar. I'll give you a specific example. Phuket Island, small family restaurants on the waterfront, in the Karon Beach area. Lunch cost about 15-20 dollars. It was tom yum soup, king prawns, vegetables, beer, snacks,... Lots and delicious. But this is a tour area. If you go north, to less touristy areas, everything changes there. Yes, there are no king prawns and lobsters, but there are vegetables, eggs, chicken, pork, rice, fruits. There you can eat in a cafe for about 2-3 dollars, this is a full meal. And if you take not a cafe or small family restaurants, but what is called a "dinner" - lunch already cost 1-2 dollars. But lunch included a light broth with greens, rice, some seafood or meat, juices / fruit drinks ... Portions are not as huge as in the tourist area, but quality products, and quite enough for lunch even for me, with my weight of just over 100 kg: )
I was in Srilanka, Bentota. Dinner at the hotel restaurant - 35-40 dollars. Dinner in a restaurant on the beach - 10-20, drive inland - and dinner is already 3-5 dollars. And this is a complete meal, not only carbohydrates and fats, but also vegetables, meat, seafood.
Was in Mexico. At first I was in Cancun, then I went to see the country. In small towns, you could have a good meal with Mexican cuisine - for 2-3 dollars. But this is the price of a wholesome meal - vegetables, meat, corn tortillas, juices, fruits.

And I think that in other countries, with a not very high standard of living, the availability of good and healthy food is also not a very big problem, and you should not focus on the cheapest and most unhealthy. I agree only in relation to countries with a low standard of living and difficult conditions, for example, countries where there are not enough areas with less fertile land.

Someone should start posting pictures in this thread, plain numbers does not show what we get for those <1$ or 10-20$ meals. It might turn that the trick of cheap food is small portion or a mix of rice/pasta with vegies, that dont cost much in general. cheap food does not equal cheap ingredients.

Cheap food can be like this:
https://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/top-ramen-courtesy.jpg

Or it can be like this:

https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Egg-fried-rice-square-FS-40.jpg

In first case you will get a diarrhea in couple of hours and hungry again, in second case you will at least have some taste and be well-fed for 3-5 hours.

People who are looking to just eat the same thing and cut from their expenses do not know how to get rich. In order to get rich you can't just cut your costs, sure it would be a smart decision if you spend responsibly, I am not saying go out and buy the newest iphone each time a new one comes out, nor saying you should eat at 3 michelin star restaurants everyday, if you can find a meal for a dollar then that's great, 4-5 dollars? That's not too terrible neither.

However, the real way to get rich is to earn more, because that's unlimited, you can cut your costs down to a minimum and can't cut down more, but you can earn unlimited amount of money, focus on your revenue instead.

If you do really think off on getting yourself that freed into that kind of limitation on trying out to cut up your expenses but on the time that you do have multiple sources of income then you wouldn't needing

on minding this stuff.Im not saying that wise spending and expense handling is bad but most of the time you would really be forgetting if you do know that you have multiple income sources or simply could sustain.
Speaking about cheap food then it would really be varying on different places on the world considering that economical situations and conditions would really be that different.
We do have different handling in regarding on our finances, if we do see  that we could save up then stick into that principle.

Where I am live, food stalls are popping up selling food cheaper than usual. We can buy 1 full meal for only $0.72, while the normal cost that must be spent at other places to eat is $1.05. Indeed, the portion is slightly different, but that is enough to help the cheap labor to be able to enjoy meat and the good thing is that it is available in quite a lot of places

Hit us hard. We are just more focused on budgeting like we spend most of our time to budget and we are just having temporary solution on this and not a permanent one like having another source of income so that we wont be sacrificing our food budget. Having another source of income is the solution so that we wont be eating cheap and unhealthy food which we need to find another job or side hustle that can add to our income so no need to budget our money

I want to know where is it?

In my opinion this is classified as a restaurant that provides rice at a relatively cheap price, in my area you will pay as much as $ 1.31 for one portion of food, unless you are willing to buy a pack of food (rice) on the side of the road from a seller who uses a wheelbarrow for $ 0, 65 per portion. This price is still quite expensive for one serving of food in the area where you live and in our area places like this are not included in the restaurant category.

Let's forget about what is called a restaurant or eating house according to the version of each of our countries. But as far as I know in your area it is much cheaper for one portion of the cost of one meal, I assume an income of around $ 197.14 a month is quite large and you can afford to live luxuriously in the area where you live, if you calculate the need for one meal and the amount of income we get from the assumptions I mentioned we receive every month.

Indeed, saving or cutting spending will not be able to make us rich, instead, we should find ways to increase income. I know there are many people in difficult circumstances, and choosing cheap foods is what they are doing, but I will not do so because cheap foods are often foods that are not good for health. I prefer to have nutritious meals, and then I will try to do a little more to make up for that spending rather than eat poor quality food. If we think we can save it in that way, sooner or later, that savings will be given to the doctor. Think simply, as long as we have health, we will always have the opportunity to make money.

What country are you talking about friend? 0.57$ meal is full, is it too cheap? That kind of amount here is called "Trentalog" It has rice, eggs, and a hotdog or ham. Or maybe a lucky me pancit canton plus One rice.

       Apart from what I mentioned, I can't think of a meal like that price that can be bought in a restaurant it's not even a restaurant that I can buy, I said instead in Carinderia which is like a Canteen that is really for those who can't afford to eat in restaurants.

the picture of instant noodles that you show is very familiar to me. but the packaging is slightly different from here. is that new packaging? Or is it in another country?
and these noodles are indeed the cheapest noodles in the country where I work now. it costs only $0.099USD per pack. And it is quite filling when eaten when we are working overtime. and I often eat it when I have to work late until midnight. and I eat it at midnight.

and I usually add 2 sausages at a price of $ 0.066USD per 1 sausage. then I bought a fresh fruit flavored drink at a price of $ 0.132USD per bottle.
so the total price I spent was only $ 0.363USD. but an hour later I feel hungry again. and I went back to look for other snacks at the snack shop on the side of the road.  :P

It's cheap but I guess you don't eat it every day, do you? Cheap food tends to be unhealthy but in many countries, especially developing or undeveloped countries, people eat it to survive. And they are still healthy.

Maybe it's okay if you eat food like that but not every day because our bodies need nutritious food intake. So think before you decide what to eat.

it's true I don't eat it often. that's just what i eat when i get overtime work. and usually work overtime until midnight. and I'm starving. and yeah, that's what I often find in a small shop near my workplace. because actually I prefer food that is processed or cooked by myself. because I was diligent enough to buy raw materials to be brought to my inn. and I started cooking after coming home from work. and it's quite fun. and also enough to save my finances. because raw and fresh ingredients tend to be cheaper. than ready meals.

That's good because it will save money on monthly bills so we don't eat so much fast food that we don't know how healthy it is. Maybe in other countries, the price of raw materials is cheap so that people who sell daily food can sell it at an affordable price too. We must be able to manage expenses every month, regardless of the salary or income we receive so that we can make ends meet for our lives. And even though the price of food in our country is quite cheap compared to other countries, that doesn't mean we can spend money on things that aren't important because it's better to use that money as future savings.

I could say that "not being healthy" is alright if you are living in poverty. You can't just go out and eat organic food that costs x10 more, you are going to face the reality that you are going to eat unhealthy stuff for a while and it is the sad act that you have to take. I know plenty of people who eat rice and potatos and bread etc etc, because they can't afford to buy meat or anything like that, it's poverty and it happens.

I hope that as humanity grows, we can finally get rid of this food issue, we should be able to end any type of starving, or people should be able to eat food without worrying about prices, it's a human need, it's a must.

I think this totally depends on the particular region the person is staying. I guess in a country where the cost of living and the inflation rate on foodstuffs is not much, i think the owner of the restaurant can actually get some profits off his business but i totally doubt the quality of the foods not the quantity because they are some typical example of some restaurant where my friends go to eat where the foods is low at about 0.65$ per meal but the quality of the material used in cooking such foods is not very nice. But the facts still remain that not everyone likes eating such food and not everyone can afford the high meals too so i think we are to make our choices on where to eat.

I wonder if that same business is a family owned where they are also the ones who are managing it without hiring anybody. And if they are hiring a cook or a waiter, I'm curious how much are they earning in a day as a meal that cheap will certainly mean that the wage is not that much. But this case really depends on the area, whether if it's rural or urban and most of all, it depends on a certain country if they belong on a 3rd world or not because I'm quite sure that you can't find these places in Northern America, Middle East and most countries in Europe.

This product is sold WORLDWIDE, regardless of the income of citizens :)
On the one hand, in a couple of minutes you get a dish that will fill you up. And most importantly - at a very low price! You won't find anything cheaper.

But. These are very simple and very little useful carbohydrates for humans, plus all seasonings contain a lot of salt and all sorts of "taste enhancers", "flavor identical to natural" ... If you use this as a backup option for a rare case, it's not a problem - you can eat. But to eat it all the time, or even daily - believe me, it will not lead to anything good! And then you will spend a lot more money on treatment. Well, or you will lose income due to the fact that you can not work. It is better to spend an extra 30-40 minutes and prepare a meal from inexpensive, affordable and natural ingredients than to eat, almost "synthetic food". Believe me - in most countries there will always be inexpensive but quite high-quality food - rice, legumes, vegetables, herbs, chicken or pork, ...

You did not mention your country so we can compare the standard of living in that country, but that $0.57 is so cheap its almost a complete meal and it looks healthy too, here in our country the cheapest meal in an average food stall that one can afford is $1 to $2 considering that the daily wage here is $11 so its much better to cook your own food I can budget $1 for myself only for rice and scramble egg I have done this when I was out of job.
I wish we have a complete meal like that at the price you posted.

I don't know where you live, but the daily wage is too low and the food is very expensive. I am in a third-world country, and our average daily salary is also $9–$11, but we can buy meals for $1, which include rice and pork or beef. There is also unlimited rice with chicken for $1. Food stalls here in the side streets are cheap since most of their food is for those students and employees that are out of budget, though sometimes it is not that healthy, but still you won't be hungry.

If you live in a city, you have plenty of options. You might have to get a little creative and ask around, but if it's free or very cheap, that might be worth the trouble. If you're more interested in great food and interesting experiences than simple sustenance, that's wonderful—but it's also the fastest way to empty your wallet.

I do not think this price is beatable. It is sounding it is a free meal for people. How do they make profits? How much do they buy food items? Do they also pay rent such as housing and electricity. Then what is the hygienic status of the meal and finally which country does this happen if I can relocate.

I used to work in a company specializing in frozen food and industrial catering. I can tell you that, if you live in a 3rd country and you are a worker, it will not be too difficult for you to get such cheap meals. Honestly, such a meal only makes you full and healthy to continue working, but can not guarantee hygiene and health later for you. There are many hidden corners about cheap food that I have seen, I work at that food company but never dare to eat a meal there.

That's very cheap, where actually is that restaurant? From the type of food it sounds a bit like Brazil. I remember from my few trips in South America that food is fairly cheap down there and very fresh. In Brazil almost every meal included rise and black beans, so delicious and much more healthy than all the fast food in my country. Here are no restaurants where you can get a meal below 5 USD, there a children portions for 3 USD but that doesn't count. Even the lunch menus are above 5 USD. The only real cheap food we have here is for students, because it's subsidised by the state. For less than 2 USD you get a main dish, salad or soup and a small desert. The quality was quite good back in the day, unfortunately you need to be a student to get the discount.

It sounds great - cheap and delicious, but you won't be able to eat like this regularly. Rice is good to alternate with noodles, buckwheat, pasta. Pork meat is good meat, it contains vitamins B12 and B6, but pork is better to alternate with chicken. You wrote about beans - but it does not cover the entire diet of vitamins from fruits and vegetables. We need to diversify them. Plus I want sweets - glucose is needed by the brain. Therefore, you will not be able to spend $ 35 a month. I think it will be twice as expensive.

I think people generally don't care too much about the nutritional value of their food, instead, they value food's taste. Old generation and even younger one seems to be this way. If you tell my father to eat oatmeal, broccoli and other healthy goods that taste terrible to improve his health, he will go crazy and kick you.
It's not only about my father, people generally taste what tastes delicious, that's why a lot of people have diabetes, high cholesterol, heart problems, stomach problems, kidney problems (a lot of soda, low water intake). They think that if they buy multi vitamins in pharmacy, it will fix all of their issues, some people even think that if you eat cranberries during the summer, it will be enough to keep your body saturated with C vitamin for one year.

Well, I pay 32 Euro for food that lasts me for 2-3 days. And I buy in supermarket and cook it myself at home. I imagine, with my money, one month's expenses on food would be enough for me to eat in Brazil for one year. Maybe I should become digital nomad and immigrate in Brazil :D Btw I usually eat chicken breast, eggs, beans, some fruit, some yoghurt. Everything is super cheap except chicken breast and eggs. Probably 80% of expenses goes into chicken fillet and eggs. 1KG breast costs 10 Euro and ten eggs costs between 2.5-4 euro. Well, I workout and wanna keep my big muscles, maybe that's why expenses are so high (you wont' see single person in Germany spending up to 600 euro a month on food).
But cmon guys, how is $35 enough for food? What's the price of 1KG chicken fillet? What's the price of 10 eggs? What's the price of healthy food in your country?

I ask this question to everyone here who comes from countries where food costs so low:
Imagine I am a bodybuilder who competes in Mr Olympia classic physique and I eat 700g chicken fillet every day, 300g salmon,  5-10 eggs (egg whites), 4-5 bananas, two cottage cheese, oatmeal, rice and some vegetables.
Can someone do me a favor and briefly tell me how much would my expenses be? In Germany, it's up to 600 Euro.
P.S. I need the food to be good quality, so don't include low quality foods into your calculation.

you only gave measurements of first 4
so i gave you the UK prices from UK Aldi and converted for you

although those are prices based on kg of weight. it should be noted that there may be actual differences of TRUE weights and measures

Eg a large egg in germany may be a medium egg in the uk(or vice versa)
the amount of brine pumped into meat may differ from country to country (pre-cook weight)

In our country, there are still cheap meals but we can't expect that they will serve them in restaurants. We can buy them from food stalls where they serve beef stew and fried rice or dimsum meals and a lot more combos.
This is common in our country but we have to deal with the surroundings since we can't expect a cozy place and waiters to serve us. We will only be getting what we paid for but it's still a good way to save.

This price looks very cheap, but we must consider the nutritional value of the given food. Usually, the most expensive component of any meal is the meat. At the same time, it's the most needed component for a body to maintain its form and perform well, so if the amount of meat added to this meal isn't enough, we shouldn't consider it a perfect meal. In my country, all kinds of meat are very expensive, so I can't imagine finding a perfect meal with a price that is as similar as your meal. In this case, the cheapest nourishing meal here costs no less than $2, so with 3 meals a day, a person needs $180 monthly to pay for their food.

an active male needs about 1gram of protein per kg of body weight
an average 90kg male needs 90gram of protein.
average meat is 30gram protein per 100gram of meat.. so that is 300gram of meat per day

which UK prices is (£6/kg = £1.80 A DAY)
yep 300gram of meat(90gram of protein) is the DAILY amount not meal amount
1kg of veg is £1
meaning you can split the meat and the veg for £2.80 a day over 3 meals

google suggests US chicken breast is $1 per 100gram. meaning $3 a day for meat

Don't expect the finest ingredients or the necessary meal preparation measures. The OP is most likely in a third-world country; I'm not sure if it was mentioned in one of the previous replies, but this meal certainly isn't as affordable as for local people; you're an outsider with a wage that certainly isn't comparable to yours. On top of that, you can't live eating beans and rice; they don't provide much in terms of nutritional value. You need much more than that in order to be healthy, and cutting down on food isn't the wisest option.

Its only cheap if the food dont make you sick.  Which city is highly relevant and all the other details, some food its vital its cooked all the way through etc.    Not everyone agrees to this idea of 'saving'   The cheapest tip to save money is learn to cook, even basic food can be very tasty if you just follow the ingredients, preparation (sometimes overnight soak etc.) and instructions to cook and Im not the best myself at this but fresh food will always have the advantage + its just cheaper to source your own meals not buy prepared/hot.  The hot food is taxed extra 20% in some countries plus service charge etc. not often a cheap path.
   You wont beat this one but honestly I never understood how a group of six of us went to central London, Oxford street and just close by in a sidestreet was a Thai takeaway and far eastern food buffet, all you can eat just serve your portions then pay  We paid under $10 total for all of us, I thought it should be far more but it was afternoon and maybe the food was discount about to changed out for the evening not sure but it tasted great to me, miniature sweetcorn fried sauces all kinds of food I never had before or since even as I dont eat thai often.
  Ive worked in an airport lounge long ago, we sold a cart full of food with each sandwich very finely made best fillings was $10 each but also they were required by law to throw away all the prepared sandwiches every 4 hours.  So at the right time of day, ask the right people nicely the food was free and nothing wrong its just you cannot display food without a fridge for more then 4 hours apparently.   Many years ago this job was but I doubt any more sense exists in the system now.

They are still able to earn profit for those food owners as they bulk buy those foods to save money and add other ingredients, though let's not say that the surroundings they made are like made of cement or steel. Those people who sell this are also people who want to survive on a daily basis, so they really don't have nice houses. Some will be hygienic, some will say you'll find a hair in the food or something like that. But you can't complain as the price is low, and what would you expect? That is why others are finding those vendors that are hygienic.

Place is the main factor in restaurant price competition, trade competition is getting tougher if an area has several restaurants. To survive in trade, must have a strategy to attract visitors.
In the place around me lives, there are several restaurants that serve food at low prices. The saving package offered depends on the menu ordered. Only at a price of Rp 25k or equivalent to $1.64, You can enjoy rice with meat on it + vegetables and cold drinks.
This figure is fairly cheap for this delicious menu, while in public places such as roadside traders offer more affordable prices for breakfast.

Probably roadside cafes can offer a lower price since they do not need to provide you with a place: a table and an armchair. Plus they don't need to provide you with a toilet and sinks to wash your hands. Nevertheless, I am surprised at such cheap prices in your countries. In my country, a plate of side dish with meat in a restaurant or cafe will cost at least 3-5 dollars.

We can't expect a luxury food service out of a small penny but we can grab it as a chance to save but people in our country are wiser. They would prefer cooking at home with cheap yet healthy ingredients just so more people could eat. Eating out at cheap restaurants will be ideal if you are living alone but if you have a family, it will be cheaper if you will just cook at home using your own budget.

Well, it may be a good idea to become a digital nomad and live in Brazil, depending the state, of course. Since you talk about Germany, I think the states of the south would fit very well your preference, since they were settled by germans and slightly preserve the culture and tradition.

I don't know how much you pay for a gym monthly subscription, but it's also cheap here. I was paying 15$ and now I will pay 9$ in another gym.

Chicken breast (kg): 3,83$
Salmon fillet (kg): 15$
Eggs (30): 3,07$
Bananas (12): 1,53$
Oatmeal (170g): 0,95$ (but I found on the internet 1kg for 1,91$, and I intend trying this)
Rice (5kg): 4,22$
Carrots (1kg): 0,76$
Potatos (1kg): 1,15$

*Brocolli I have no idea now, but it was expensive last time I checked on the supermarket.
*Cottage I don't consume, and I know there is some trickery on the sale this product, as they sell "cottage type cheese", what means it's an imitation... So I really can't say the price of a decent cottage cheese.

Do you also consume protein powders (1kg for 19,19$) and creatine (250g for 15,35$)? Those are the costs.

Indonesia is indeed famous for places to eat at very affordable prices. However, this is not the same in every region. But indeed, on average, with only $ 1.64, you can enjoy food quite satisfied and also with a delicious food menu. but the further east it seems that food and staple food prices in Indonesia are indeed becoming more expensive as in the Papua region. I was even surprised to hear that the price of basic commodities such as rice there could be up to 10 times the price in other ordinary areas in Indonesia.

Yes, during the COVID-19 lockdown that took over one year and some months in my country made me to discovered some cheapest restaurants someone can spend small amount of money to feed stomach and still have some money in your wallet to do other things. Many people that live in this area are doing well, because their farmers are more active than the ones in the township which will be very difficult for them to lack food. But the area I live, food are very expensive here and for you to buy food from restaurant and be satisfy, you must spend a huge amount of money because is an area that contain wealthy men and women.

I do not dispute that cooking at home is the cheapest way to get the cheapest and most delicious food. But! Wholesale supplies are available to restaurants and cafes, according to which they receive products at prices cheaper than the store provides us with you. Also, one of the disadvantages of cooking yourself is that you spend time cooking and washing dishes.

Strange, Пepвый кaнaл, Poccия Ceгoдня and other Russian media and news companies were saying that people in the UK have to choose between heat and food. I don't know how british people can afford food with so low salaries.
Okay, just kidding. Thank you for information, there are still quite good prices in the UK.

Monthly contracts are a little expensive but 1-2 year contracts are cheap. Roughly, you can find great GYM with sauna, solarium and other premium services for 45 Euro a month.

You shouldn't really buy cheap protein powder because shady companies do amino spiking to bump up the overall protein content of a powder. Optimum Nutrition gold standard whey is really a gold standard. Best price and quality ratio.

Hmm, it sounds very interesting.

I bought from the official site of a national brand called Growth. Their rates and feedbacks are pretty positive. Coincidentally, today a friend of mine showed a 2kg jar of Optimum Nutrition brand and he really said it's the best available, and said to have just paid 19$ for that through a popular general shopping platform. I think it's too cheap to be legit, so it's really not advised to purchased these goods at websites which aren't the official ones of the brands.

Hard to be certain you are acquiring a legit product here...

There is no cheap food in my region so you will need to have good amount of Money for you to eat good food that will nourish your body. Good food are meant for those that has the money not just for everyone. We don't import much food and we do local production for the entire populations. Food are becoming expensive so we will need the government to step in and help the masses so they will not always go begging.

Currently, eating in some cheap restaurants could be more worth it if you're living alone.
I agree that's one of the disadvantage of cooking so if you'll calculate the food expenses, the ingredients, gas, water, electricity and even the effort.
You'll be saving more time and money if you'll eat on a budgeted and cheap restaurant. The energy you've got physically will be even saved but one of the cons of this is you'll get limited food.

True , i just surprised that there is a place where you can get a good food for a whole month for just $35 ... we spend that money for just a day in daily basis here , crazy just crazy if it was real ... i just can't believe it if i didnt experience it by muself.

Fast food is the best one practically but not an option for your health.

I will compare the price we got here in my place in

Chicken 1Kg : 2.5$
Egg 30 pcs : 4.5$
Bananas 12pcs : 2.3$ it depends on the size.
Oatmeal 170g :0.75$
Rice 5Kg : 3.5$
Carrots 1Kg : 2.2$
Potatos 1Kg : 2.3$

If you see majority of the expensive here are vegetables and eggs here in the communities of my country
I live in even though I am living in their price, when it comes to protein powders,yours is much more expensive than
here.

Exactly. The prices of everything is adjusted in each country based on the performance of its currency. So it makes no sense to convert everything to US dollars and compare the prices of stuff between different countries. If anything, it says more about the currencies you've converted from than the things you're comparing.

Isn't it a bit sad that people are talking about how to find cheaper foods these days? I mean to my understanding of the world, we shouldn't be really cutting back on food expense, of course eat as healthy as possible and that is a very important thing, but you shouldn't be forced to do this.

You should eat whatever you want, okay maybe not caviar and champagne every day lol, but eat whatever that is healthy for you with a few cheat meals here and there. If economy is so terrible that we have to reconsider how much we are spending on food? That means we are in big trouble, and we should do something about it because this can't be how we live, we don't deserve it.

Yep.. nutrition is important.. especially as we get older and if we might have any health condition, then we are going to be more vulnerable to inferior ingredients that might be in cheaper foods.

For sure, I am not against saving money and trying to be frugal in order that maybe we can defer gratification, including being able to invest more into bitcoin so that we will be able to spend more (on luxury and perhaps consumption) later down the road, but at the same time, there may well be times in which cutting back on quality ingredients and/or eating real (rather than processed) foods might end up causing us difficulties in our health... and maybe we will not know about the difficulties that we are causing ourselves until later down the road... yet, I have frequently had the theory that certain people are more able to tolerate worse kinds of foods and even recover from those kinds of situations better than others, and likely that has to do with their genetics and maybe even if they might have had been eating good foods prior to some deviations and short term eating of bad (less nutritious) foods.. actually there are some items that really are not food, even though they proclaim to be food.. so each of us do need to be careful in terms of some of the processed items (that are proclaiming to be foods and/or nutritious) that any of us might be offered to eat..

Whether we do like it or not but there are people who are really that indeed on such state on which they are really that mindful about their food expense or budget because the earning that they do get isnt really that
sufficient and this is why we dont really have no choice but to make out adjustment basing on what we do earn.Its true that it is really that sad that we are really that on that situation.We dont really have no choice
because if we dont really tend to make out adjustments then we are the ones who would be suffering even more later on. The key on here is that you should make yourself that stay fit and healthy because
we do all know that health is wealth as always.

Correct, This is indeed noteworthy. due to global economic conditions that have not yet recovered. and it's a little sad to hear that people are starting to save money on food due to food prices that have been increasing over time.

but if a little more effort to still get healthy food but at a cheap price. then the solution is to buy direct raw materials that have not been processed. because I also have implemented this method since last year.

even if we buy raw materials and cook it independently in fact it can save us almost 30% on food costs or even more. but it does take more effort to do so.

But despite all that. we are still categorized as lucky people and should be grateful. because actually there are still many who even have difficulty getting food in several countries. caused by a prolonged food crisis. because if we look at the World Food Program (WFP) last year. We can see that there are around 625 million people in 89 countries who are not expected to have sufficient food until the end of November 2022. And it turns out that in these 36 countries there are around 379 million people who are truly food deficient. (Sourch : www.cnbcindonesia.com (https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20221201075452-4-392757/cek-daftar-negara-yang-kekurangan-pangan-ada-indonesia/amp))
but that is the data in last year. I hope this year the food crisis can be overcome soon.

You are totally right on your speech. But sometimes that is what life imposes to us on the currently moment, until we achieve doing something to improve our financial standards. I went for that cheap food for curiosity and I may go for that again if I feel it's necessary to save some money for other expenses, but without any doubts if I can have access to more nutritive meals, I'm not going to replace it by cheap food which lack nutrients, especially proteins. It would be great if every person could order the meal they desired without worrying about prices, though.

Although it takes time to cook for yourself, but in return, you can cook the food you like, and the more important thing that I want to cook for myself is the hygiene and quality of the food. I used to work as a waiter at a 3-star restaurant when I was a student, to be honest, a 3-star restaurant but the quality and hygiene were inferior.

Do you believe there are foods they prepare and keep in the fridge for a month, and when we were about to throw them away, someone ordered them? We prepare it and bring it to our customers to eat, what surprises us is that the customers say the food is delicious. There are many hidden corners in the culinary industry that diners will never see. The restaurant is still so unhygienic, what about the food in popular restaurants?

I do not dispute that cooking at home is the cheapest way to get the cheapest and most delicious food. But! Wholesale supplies are available to restaurants and cafes, according to which they receive products at prices cheaper than the store provides us with you. Also, one of the disadvantages of cooking yourself is that you spend time cooking and washing dishes.

Dude that’s unreal! Can you please share the kind of cuisine we are talking about here? Like meat and veggies or just carbs and low quality meat? 57 cents in America will get you 100 grams of sugar in a plastic wrap.

You can't save money for other expenses by replacing normal food with cheap food. It looks like sleeping less than 8 hours to have more time for other activities. For a while it works but there comes time when you'll have to pay.

High carbohydrate diet leads to weight gain, diabetes and an increased risk of heart disease.
low protein diet can cause impaired immune function, fatty liver, loss of muscle mass, weakness and fatigue, etc.
Unhealthy fats can raise bad cholesterol levels (ldl), increase risk of heart diseases and stroke.

Does it worth the price? Personally, I would prefer to eat healthy and save on other expenses.




By the way, when people here say that they pay $35 a month in restaurant and eat well, please, can you share a photo of restaurants?
Is it casual dining restaurant? Fast casual? Or maybe fine dining?
When someone says restaurant, I always think about something like this (https://images.otstatic.com/prod1/49135837/3/huge.jpg).

Sorry but I wouldn't restaurant to this place:
https://i.ibb.co/2YS6N3N/Capture-PNG.png
https://i.ibb.co/jgVKWw1/Capture-PNG.png
Imagine was posted by user rat03gopoh.

In reality, things should be different. Advanced travelers say, that the best place to eat is the place where locals eat, specially if it is crowded. They have check all the place around and selected the best and most affordable. It will be a matter of will your stomach be ready for local food. If I was in short of money and abroad, I would definitely gonna go to that place instead of fancy restaurants that are created for tourists. Imo, the cheapest way to get full is to eat complex carbs. Search any place that serves them for a lowest price and have big portions. That is the trick.

Yes, meals at this price are pretty common, if you travel to poor countries, go to the popular food courts of the locals, and you will easily find meals at this price. I used to eat those meals at that price, it can be said that if you are easygoing, it will suit you, but if you are meticulous, it will not be suitable. In my opinion, those meals are nutritious and affordable for unskilled workers, but those who are rich, of course, they will not choose them.

In this place, you can also take your food home by the way.

Whether you want it or not, it depends on your preference because maybe you're from an area where you can't find restaurants that look above that around, or because the economic level is higher than the average income of people in a low-income country so you always imagine "cheap" restaurants will always look like this at firstthought.https://images.otstatic.com/prod1/49135837/3/huge.jpg

But focusing on the OP, it wants food with a decent dose of nutrients but cheap. so the place ism't a major consideration.

My country used to have very cheap food, but no, these days there's nothing nearly as cheap and filling as what the op described. While as an occasional meal it can be both healthy and financially good, though, I don't think anyone should stick to eating any one dish all the time. My main concern would be for health, as eating a wide variety of foods is important to get all sorts of vitamins and other essentials that one's body needs. Secondly, it's probably going to be sickening to eat one thing cooked the same way all the time.

Somedays we also sleep less than 8 hours a day and it's also part of daily unpredictable life, it's fine. The problem is when it becomes a routine...

Actually, the only problem of the food mentioned on this thread is the lack of meat and vegetables, because people consume that same portion of carbohydrates in every cases. Rice and beans is a must and the base of the lunch and dinner meals here.

Yes, the restaurant is something like that (restaurante popular), where you get your food at the entrance and go somewhere else to eat. Preferentially, your house.

I believe it's due to the Covid pandemic that people aren't allowed to eat in-loco anymore, because at least this restaurant I went, it was a big size building, with large empty tables behind the counter/fence.

Yeah, I can get some decent foods which are quite tasty too. And the price is only $0.35. It was much cheaper before the inflation. You can get a fried egg, some vegetables and rice. Other options are available too. But it is a special dish only available in the breakfast. You have to buy other food at lunch and dinner. I guess it's quite good given the price.

maybe the problem is that it depends on the situation of the country, because every country will indeed be different because of the dollar exchange rate that can be exchanged for the value of the local currency. usually where the dollar price is high, it is certain that all prices will be slightly cheaper, it does not mean that nothing is expensive.
food will be more expensive or cheaper depending on the presentation and where it is sold, some are really expensive (restaurants in 5-star hotels) or cheap (roadside restaurants) because in the end everything is taken into account with the location and presentation.
for under $1 you can still eat full at my current place but with different presentation and situation the food can cost more than $10.

Is it a restaurant with their own place? just wondering. Here in our country we have that kind of food that can be bought with that price but now since inflation really hit us, cost of living here now went too high, I'm having a corporate job but it is not good enough to cover all expenses because an average meal per day for a family now can range from 7$ from 3$ to 4$ before pandemic hit us.

That's a very low price.
Where we eat a plate of rice and a piece of chicken for $1, this is the cheapest with the simplest seating. This may sound too low to some. If we eat 2 times a day, of course spend $ 2. If a family has four siblings, of course they have to spend $8. That's just eating rice, of course other needs are still very much. In fact, I myself estimate that I spend more money on other necessities than on food.

What I am conveying is actually a complaint from many people when the global economic condition is in crisis. Be grateful in areas that still sell food at very low prices. There are even countries whose citizens do not eat for once a day. It's sad.

In my country the cost of food is of course very cheap, with $ 0.6 you can eat a portion of rice, vegetables and egg slices, the cost of eating is indeed the most important thing especially for us who work in offices so choosing cheap food is the best strategy to save money, sometimes I bring rice from home then buy vegetables or meat worth $ 0.8 because my portion of food is more than the portion at the restaurant.

How do you plan to be eating the same meal for months? that is an attempt to get Kwashiokor on repeating the same thing. You will end up loosing interest on that food if you keep repeating the same food over and over, it is also possible that the restaurant will not open everyday, you don't have choice than to look for elsewhere where it is a bit cost than where you are used to. This kind of restaurants don't usually have nice enviroments, they don't also have good relaxing enviroments where you can hang out conisdering that cost of food they sell to customers.

In my country there are eateries that are already cheap in and of themselves, offering a full meal for as low as 2 dollars, Viand, a cup of rice that you can add more of for more or less 20 cents. But if you're really tight on the budget you can buy a half meal for a dollar, which is not that filling but is enough to get you through a few hours without food. I don't want this to be seen as a sign of resilience or the human capacity to be resourceful because heck, I firmly belief you shouldn't cheap out on what you put in your mouth. Your food is what would get you through the day, if you eat shit food you'd have a shitty performance and a shitty day. That being said I understand the concept of abject poverty so there's that.

seriously having mostly carb diet is no joke, it could easily lead to serious constipation, i wouldn't recommend folk to consume them too often. btw i hardly go by any decently prepared food, i also begin to realize beef could have very low end and high end price depend on the contamination in the meat itself, although both rich and poor folk consume the beef, but they don't spend the same price on the beef they consume, rich folk could easily get sick by consuming the cheap beef prepared for the poor folk.

Everything else is OK, but I am not sure how can they include pork in a meal that costs just $0.57. Here a small serving of pork costs as much as $1.25 in the most inexpensive restaurant (and I am residing in one of the third world nations). And here one needs to be extra careful while visiting "cheap" restaurants. A few months back, there was case of dog meat being served disguised as mutton. And also there are constant allegations of meat dishes prepared from diseased pigs, buffalo and goats. 

That’s kind of cheap, but I think you can’t be spending the same amount everyday, you will have to change food, you will get tired of the food you are eating always so you will want to change taste sometimes, and from your analysis this is the cheapest meal so if you are looking for a better one you will have to be spending more than 0.57$ on the meal.

That budget sets for meal within the entire month is really too cheap. But it's true that it setbacks your health and if you think that you're good in that setup, you may feel the effect of it through your health later on.
In these times, we're all looking for ways to get those food that we want to it whether it's on a budget or not.
It is that everyone wants to enjoy good food and that helps us forget temporarily the problems that we're dealing in our day to day living.

Saving up isnt really that bad but of course you should really be that having monitoring in terms of your health because saving up money would be useless if you are really that putting your health at risks.
This is why you should really be needing to balance up everything because if you do go full force or dedicated on saving up as much as you can. Dont make yourself that really that too focused but its not
really that something that you should really be going for long term and as much as you could then its better to have that good balanced diet despite of the budget.Of course not all would
really be having on the same financial status and this is why some people doesnt really have no choice.

I remember the time when I was a student, I knew all the places where you could eat cheaply. Then, in the last years of my studies, I already had a job and could afford to buy something better, but at first it was difficult to get rid of the habit. ) I agree that it is not worth saving on food, our well-being and our health depend on it. You can probably find places where you can eat on a budget anywhere.

It is a very bad practice to buy food for a long period. Imagine how fresh it will be, even if they are stored in the refrigerator. It is better to buy fresh food and eat them right away. Personally, I get great pleasure from cooking a new dish, I like to look for products in the shops, choosing the best for my family. An even bigger plus is that product promotions are constantly changing, which means that by frequently visiting the store we will be able to buy on them.

Wow it looks like you can save a lot of money after finding that restaurant, in my country, it's rare to find a complete meal at such a cheap price and usually for food outside the home at least I have to spend $5 or more for each meal especially heavy food like rice+side dishes, but I think this is quite reasonable considering the price of goods which is now starting to increase along with the increase in oil prices in my country, lucky enough for you to find the restaurant because it can save you money but I think maybe you will visit that the restaurant only 2 or a week at most because it will be very bored to consume the same menu every day.

I have seen very healthy food which includes a pieces of meat that sold slightly below that price. Been abit long I visited that place (probably a year plus now)
Things are cheaper now compared to then so I expect them to sell below former price or at most still maintain the price.

The cost of eating at my place is still cheap and I usually have breakfast with a menu of rice, vegetables, pieces of fish and tea water without sugar with only $ 1.2, actually there is a cheaper menu and usually I spend around $ 0.5 which consists of rice and sprinkles of eggs and peanut sauce, Whatever we eat is certainly worthy to be grateful because there are still many people who cannot eat.

As much as we want to have a balance diet if our pockets are also aching, there's no way to mend that but to find some solutions temporarily until we think that we're all set and good with our budget and can eat all of those healthy foods without being problematic with our budget constraints.

That's why one week is likely the longest period for the food that we buy at the market or grocery stores whether they're fresh or non fresh foods. I also like to eat fresh foods because we know that flavor is there and it's still nutritious but then, again if we connect it with out budgeting, sometimes they just don't match at all.

I try not to save money on food, because our health depends on it. After all, it is suspicious to eat a dish that costs only half a dollar, it would immediately raise doubts in my mind. I am also curious to know whether such places have delivery and how much it costs. Imagine what it's like to make a delivery, when the delivery itself will cost more than the order itself. But this has its advantages because the food is cheap, and also if you are a freelance courier, you will get good revenue from such orders. And if you for example did not know that it is possible to work as a courier for yourself, then I advise you to follow link (https://serviceclub.com/blog/) and try it yourself.

looks like we are in the same country. because it's near where I live, food prices are still very cheap when compared to other countries. but actually a few years ago the price was much cheaper than you mentioned. but prices in developing countries are known to be quite cheap. different from that in developed countries. even in one of the restaurants I subscribe to for only $ 1.2 we can get rice + chili sauce + chicken + salad + several other types of complementary vegetables + unlimited free tea. and if you want to add rice, just add $ 0.3. the dining facilities are also comfortable. even the nuances are very elegant and classic. sometimes accompanied by the strains of classical music that is deliberately played by the owner of the restaurant. and there are free wifi facilities. friendly waiters are also a plus.

Whether it is a meal or a snack, various people have varied culinary preferences. In any case, there are several possibilities in our province where you may receive it for free in my case. All you have to do is work for it by engaging in activities like pond fishing or harvesting your vegetables and sweet potatoes.

The price of getting food in my is not too expensive compared to other countries though the prices varies depending on the environment. There places you can get good meals for 1$ while there are still expensive environments that the least price for a meal costs more than $15

Despite the very affordable price of food here compared to other countries, is still not affordable for majority of people because of the high cost of living here. Lack of job creation by the government and their failure to create enabling environment for entrepreneurs are other factors that's left cheap price of food unaffordable for many

In every country around the world, the prices of the goods are not the same, the price in our area here is that you can buy a packacge meal that includes 1 cup of rice, 1 fried egg, 1 hot dog or sausage.

     But in other countries maybe there is less than that I think, but this I mentioned the other similar amount that op said is the "Pares' as we call it here, 1 fried rice with a bit of beef and soup.

I live in a small town with a cheap cost of living, with $ 0.95 then I can eat a plate of rice, vegetables and a fried egg, if you want it cheaper, of course you can, namely by reducing food portions, and whatever we can eat is certainly worth it be grateful, because there are still many people who cannot eat or eat only once a day.

Ok, So let's consider it you said 0.57$ which is around 0.60$ for easy calculation, and 1$ in PKR = 282, and 0.6$ will be around 169PKR so let's get started after the 42% inflation in my country on basic food consumers goods there are still some options so for an average person a day time meal in Pakistan is Roti and Curry of lentils or vegetables. Roti will cost 75 including 3 Roti and vegetable Salad/yogurt and 60RS for a single person Curry that's it. Believe me, that is enough for a person to spend a whole day and it's considered a full-day meal in my country. The total cost is around 170RS.

If we consider the same meal 10 months before it will hardly cost around 100RS. Anyway, for the Daily wagers in my country to reduce their living costs who work in outer cities there are Ehsaas Program for their free Quality food and Sheltering directly managed by State on the funding of Federal. This way the Small Wagers can save their food cost and save money for their loved ones. I admire such systems, unfortunately, the maximum of these programs is Paused by the recently Imported Government in Pakistan but still, we belive that soon this hard time is gonna end.

I usually consider the "Big Mac Index" for have an idea about price of meal (and food) in other country. Yhis index is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), the notion that in the long run exchange rates should move towards the rate that would equalise the prices of an identical basket of goods and services (in this case, a burger) in any two countries.

You can try here and see more about:
https://www.economist.com/big-mac-index

Cheap foods can really help those employees, students and families that have a tight budget or having difficulty with their money. It is also the same here and I am happy that most of those vendors will say that they lowered the price so that those who can't afford the food can still buy it. Though we even know that it is not as healthy as cooking your own that is why if we have like spare money we can buy food and cook it in our home you can still save a lot on this.

For now of course it is very difficult to find a menu that is less than $ 1, I usually eat at a roadside mini restaurant and it takes about $ 1.3, and to find something cheaper than $ 1.3 is very difficult and maybe I have to go to a small town far from where I am, of course the cost Eating is important and don't make us wasteful.

For now with $ 0.57 of course it is very difficult to find a menu like that at my place, it takes about $ 1.2 or almost 200% more expensive, of course the cost of living or eating in each city is different, there are many conditions that make the cost of eating or living costs cheap or expensive, and usually cities The more developed, the more expensive the cost of living.

You should be grateful if for less than $ 0.57 you can get a healthy cut of meat, with $ 0.57 at my place of course you can only get rice + fried eggs, as long as we have the time and opportunity to hunt for cheap food, of course it's very pleasant, especially eating is a staple so if you get a cheap price, of course you can save.

I've never found it but in other areas of my country there may be, the cheapest place I went costs 0.7$ and will probably go up to 0.8$ soon, although it is more expensive than your place, at least it's not that expensive to pay more money for one meal.

Currently, the world is experiencing what I term as  "Global Economic Challenge" which means almost all the countries of the world is experiencing economic difficulties. But that of my country is absolutely abnormal and weird. The governmental financial policies of my country has even worsen the economic situation which has closed down so many businesses thereby skyrocketing the price of goods and services from the very few businesses that are still in operation. So as a result of all these things, it has become too difficult for citizen of my country to make a good living. The price of getting a single meal in my country is less than a dollar but just 30% percent of the total population can afford it daily.

Asda ( a UK supermarket chain ) is offering vegetable or tomato soup, a roll and butter, and unlimited coffee for £1. ( $1.22 US ).

That is because every food costs varies from place to place and we cannot really compare how much it would cost us because even the vendors in rural and urban area know how expensive it is especially if you're buying it in an urban area. In our place, in rural area, a $1 is so enough for us to buy a decent meal with a soda included or juice depends on the availability but in urban area, $1 won't do you any good because even the transportation will cost you around 2-3 dollars.

I would like to suggest you if you have a stable income over $1000/month to travel to some Southeast Asian countries. I know this place is a food paradise and the cost is very cheap, you may be surprised at the taste of the food there, I admit that some of the dishes that I have tasted make me happy because the taste is great, and the cost to me is very low compared to developed countries such as America, Europe, Japan, Korea,... I guarantee that if you spend $10 you have You can taste every dish that comes along the way. I remember there was a dish made with bananas but they put something in them and fried it and served it with chocolate, indeed I never forgot that taste.

How about this. New Jersey USA ShopRite offers a free turkey for easter. If you shop $400 in purchases for 6 weeks prior to easter. I spend 100 a week there :

So I got a 21 pound turkey cost 0
Six bags of frozen veg cost       6 bucks
1 gallon of filtered water cost   10 cents
1 dollar to cook turkey              1 dollar.

I ate 1 leg. the drumstick my wife ate the thigh


rest went into a soup     about 13 pounds of meat six pounds of veg. a little bit of dried spices



net cost well under 10 dollars likely will serve 20 large bowls of food. so 50 cents for a very healthy meal.

But once again only for the easter special and they also do it for Christmas .

SO for under 20 bucks 40 bowls of very healthy low carb high protein food .

in a country the price of food varies, depending on the place we will choose. if a place has a bit of class, maybe the price of food in that place is a little expensive. in our country it's like that, friends, the price of food depends on the place chosen. If we buy it in a restaurant, the price of food we have to pay is also high or expensive.

True, each place will have a different price. I tried to compare with the minimum salary in several regions in my country. In area A, the salary is not as high as in area B but the price of food there is cheaper than in area B. Likewise in area B, their salary is indeed higher than area A, but their expenditure on food is more. I am a person who believes that when someone's income is greater, their expenses are also proportional, and vice versa, when someone has a smaller salary, their expenses are not greater than those who have a large salary.

In a country where I live there are lots of restaurants and its prices differs widely. May be it depends on location and cities and I have my own experience that in those cities where there are lots of national areas all the things are very expensive where in villages the prices is not such high and all of the food are very tasty.

It is not necessary that you must will eat in great restaurants but those who wants to save money and do not make wrong use of cash should eat better but in less amount of money. Instead of going to restaurants where everything is very expensive you should eat one dish in little amount because not everyone can manage cost of restaurants.

A person can eat in home for the money to be saved but if he is far from home then eating less expensive dishes will be better rather than buying expensive foods. We should complete our needs rather than spending money in useless activities.

I work on contract in many third world countries and I see what malnutrition does to people, so I will not recommend people going on a diet like that for extended periods. People should eat a balanced diet that meets their daily nutritional needs, if they can... so add some fruit and sugar and more protein to that meal.  ;)

Some of the people in the rural towns are doing wonders with the little amount of money that they earn...but they still eat a very balanced diet. (Trading crops and skills between each other)

I also saw that some people in the US that are living off discount coupons and barely paying for food. (Some even manage to get money back from the shop, if they work it out correctly)  ::)

In the 90’s I could routinely get 65% off my weekly grocery bill.

It has become much more difficult to do that.

I got $115 bill reduced to $5 best reduction I ever did.

Now shopping for discounts in USA is not that easy.

You may get one or two free turkeys during Easter and Christmas.

Maybe 10 or 15 pounds of matzo during passover.

Low priced carrots, potato’s, cabbage for St Patricks day. Also low priced Irish cheese and Butter.

The corned beef is not as low cost as it was.
The Irish soda bread is not a big discount.

I mentioned before a few pages ago they had a good deal to make a huge pot of Chicken soup.

The chicken soup deal and the turkey deal are very good for health. Low carbs low fat and high quality protein.

I can really relate on this because when i got my first job my salary is really low but i would say it is enough for me but as my salary getting higher i just think of that my salary is not enough even if it is high already its because the expenses and you are having a loan because you know that you can pay it off easily on monthly. The more money you received it is also the more you spend it to things because you'll be more having to own your wants unlike those low salary that only needs you are going to spend

In my country, eating out at a local restaurant can provide a decent meal for around $30 a month. Although currently, the global economic recession has hit our country and here also the prices of all foods have increased by almost 50%+ compared to last year.
Even then a plate of rice and chicken and with some fish and vegetables and eggs you can easily get in my country for around $30 in a month. I don't know about other cities in my country but it's possible in my own city.

That is the point, because indeed we also follow in terms of needs. When our salary is high, our level of needs will also be high because we think we can still make money again and again so that sometimes the hedonic attitude is clearly felt when we have a salary that is indeed large enough so that the expenses will also be large.
But indeed this can also be said as fairness because regardless of anything that is the attitude that everyone has.
Saving or being economical sometimes will be forgotten when we have guaranteed large money in salary, but we will try to be economical when we know our monthly income is small.

Its quite cheap consider mine is about 0.9$. You can get rice, any dish (chicken, fish, egg) , lettuce or cucumber its so delicious. It is already most cheaper in my area. "restaurant" on my hometown is always expensive also the taste of food is not good on my tongue. Spending 2$/per day for food its enough.

In each country of course our expenses to buy basic necessities must be different, then it all depends on where we live, but if in my place all food prices are still very affordable, especially eating rice, and injecting other necessities we can still rely on, but there are also some products that cost more expensive, maybe it's because of the quality they make, So for developed countries all food prices are more expensive so the price of food in each country must vary and also it all depends on where we live, if in rural areas maybe the price is cheaper when compared to big cities.

I want to add one nuance. Absolutely stupid, and useless to compare "basic food menu" only in absolute terms, like the amount of 0.6 dollars. I explain:
this amount is not correlated with incomes and prices for "basic products" in different countries. Also, regional features of the market, local cuisine and other things are not taken into account. $0.6 at an average wage of $300 cannot compare to $3 in a country with an average income of $3,000 and a developed, competitive food market. For a real picture - give prices and the percentage of their average income in a country or region of a country, then the picture will be comparable and objective

I would also like add a nuance, that with cheap food you can not find balance between quality, being full, taste, portion size. What is the point of eating a dish for $1, if it taste like cardboard and you will feel hungry again in an hour. What is the point of eating cheapest possible food to save on normal food, when you later need to spend on medicine to fix stomach.

OP, does "free" counts as "beating cheapest food price" that you have mentioned in your post? I think each country have their so called salvation armies, or places where people are fed for free. That is the cheapest food a person can find.

The key to healthy life is keep your food simple and balanced. If you are looking to just feed yourself with simple diet then it wont be expensive whether you are in rural or urban area. In my country one can buy 2 to 3 kg of apple in a price in which you buy a burger from some fancy fast food chain restaurant.
There are many charity organizations too that are helping people in need to eliminate there hunger. I am from Muslim country and there are many organizations that distribute food and fruits to needy people for free throughout the holy month of Ramadan.

This is the pros and cons in eating cheap foods just to save your money. Of course its given when you compare a $1 foods to let's say $10 foods, that they differ on the qualities of it which ain't enough to some people to satisfy. But from my experience which I heard a lot in grandparents. Eating such unhygienic foods like street food could help you to have a strong stomach. And I thought of it as a joke. But some says that it's good to have some bad bacteria in order to protect our body. But for me its better to stay healthy than believing in phrases.


But it would be better to give it to people who is in need. And those privileges were given to them since they served the country. Why would you get free food if you could afford to buy one? If you want to get free food it would be better to get it in where some funds were intentionally given to an event, which they provide free food for its audience in short promotion or advertisement for foods.

1 dollar in developed countries may not mean much. but in my country which is a developing country with 1 dollar we can really enjoy good food. even with good nutrition. we get a complete menu in it. and it looks like OP is also from a developing country so he can still find food even for less than 1 dollar. but in developed countries maybe it will not be obtained with 1 dollar. but it's probably still possible for 10 bucks. but saving expenses by buying cheap food too often is also not a wise move. although it does save money. but still we have to be more able to respect our bodies by always eating more nutritious foods that can maintain our health. because health is the most important factor that must be maintained.

at my place with 1$ you can get rice and chicken and iced tea you can take as much as you like except your chicken is subject to an additional fee it is very cheap with a very good and friendly place and service it makes us very economical and can cut a lot of expenses.

That includes still quite cheap if one portion of food is added to a drink. Because at our place here, with $ 1, you can only buy a pack of food without a drink in it, so you still need to spend more money to buy drinks when you want to eat. And I think that every region within a country has a difference in the price of food, although it's not that significant, except for the price of food in each country which is different. So this must also be understood by each individual because it will not always be the same in every region or country.