Cheap food: can you beat this price in your country?

[blockman]

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.

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.

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[Synchronice]

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.

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.

And the average wage around there is....?

252$ minimum wage. Most people earn this monthly.

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.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

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.

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.

[fuer44]

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.

[Davian144]

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.

[Sterbens]

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.

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.

[Findingnemo]

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.

[19Nov16]

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.

[DOH!]

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

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.

[ivankoh]

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.

[uneng]

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?).  

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

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).

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.

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



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).

[Beparanf]

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

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.

[justdimin]

Meal composed by rice, toasted cassava flour and black bean stew with few pieces of pork meats

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.

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.

[ajiz138]

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.

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.

[TheGreatPython]

Meal composed by rice, toasted cassava flour and black bean stew with few pieces of pork meats

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.

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

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.

[coolcoinz]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

[Henrobakkara]

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.

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.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

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

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.

[fadhilz123]

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.

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.

[AicecreaME]

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.

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.