Two weeks ago, Fairlie emailed me this link to a photogallery at Time magazine showing the weekly food consumption and cost of that consumption for families from all corners of our globe. The photos come from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel. The photos show families standing behind their weekly food "shop" with a caption showing how much it cost them in US dollars.
We were so struck by what we saw. One family from Chad feed themselves on US$1.27. A family from Egypt on less than US$70. What was also striking was what people were buying. I couldn't help but gasp out loud at some of the products displayed by families from Western nations as compared with those from less-developed areas.
We were so struck by what we saw. One family from Chad feed themselves on US$1.27. A family from Egypt on less than US$70. What was also striking was what people were buying. I couldn't help but gasp out loud at some of the products displayed by families from Western nations as compared with those from less-developed areas.
The Dare:Fairlie and I want you to show a photo of your weekly food shop
Here is mine (Check out Fairlie's here).
I bought the items in this photo today. It represents what our family of four will eat for 7 breakfasts, 5 school lunches and approximately 4 evening meals. Not shown are items already in my pantry such as onions, rice, pasta & flour; and items already in my fridge or freezer such as frozen meats,cream and pumpkin. We would usually have one take out meal per week (Thai) which costs about $25. Our total expenditure based on this would be AUD$197 from this shopping expedition plus AUD$60 in additional purchases throughout the week. Lets just round that off to AUD$260 or US$246.
Will you take up the dare and show your weekly shop?
5 comments:
Interesting. I think we have similar menus this week!
M - I usually do a weekly shop for basics and then shop for fresh meat and veges every day. However I am happy to show an example of a daily shop and then add on what I would spend on the basics. I would say it costs me $300.00 or so for our family of five a week though.
I'm looking at all those veggies and thinking: I wonder if this will be the week PL caves and tries one? I think that every week with J.T., even though most weeks it is a futile thought. I'm up for the dare.
Melinda: Yes, I know, it's certainly not from lack of trying to get PL to try them! (I have to tell you I've had a little success with store-bought pumpkin filled ravioli...very sneaky)
Mary & Melinda: looking forward to seeing your challenges!
Cool! This is a fun project. We had done our utensils for a week, because of our then impending move into our tiny cottage that we have been building. When we saw the Time article we did a weeks food post for our family. Reading about the families around the world was a great voyage for our family - we don't otherwise travel but in books. It was also a great homeschooling project.
The weekly food costs for our family of five comes out a bit lower in part we raise much of our own food. This means there is also quite a bit of seasonal variation, especially in the fruit and veggies. Right now in the spring we've run out of almost all our home grown produce and must buy those things until the gardens start producing again.
In our photo of food for a week we did include everything, spices, flour, rice, etc. It made for a very full table! :)
This Christmas my wife Holly bought me the book so we've been having fun reading that over the winter.
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