[log_base_login]

While I applaud your efforts to eat well, I'd posit that with some attention, you could measurably decrease the expense if you factor in certain foods and factor out others.

For example, I enjoy tacos as lunch a few times a week. I make them from scratch, and while this doesn't adhere to your recommendation of no starches, I doubt they cost me $1.00 per taco, and that's with avocado, beans, onions, and peppers (plus the tortillas, of course). If I added meat, that would almost double the cost, so I don't.

Other foods are like that too, stir fry with veggies and shrimp, instead of beef saves me another 20-30% on cost.

I also shop at Aldi, or at Wal-Mart as often as befits what foods I'm eating, which knocks another 30-40% off of my food budget.

Eating well doesn't have to cost a ton.

[dnate]

I am quite surprised to see a recommendation to shop at Walmart on HN. I thought it was common knowledge that Walmart is a pretty terrible company and that people shouldn't support that?

Sure, you save money, but at what cost?

[log_base_login]

That's presumably because most people who frequent this forum don't fall into the same tax bracket as I do.

Ever read Les Miserables?

When it's the difference between making the car insurance payment and shopping at Wal-Mart, or not making it, and shopping at, say, Publix, the choice is less about ethics and more about practicality.

For what it's worth I do grow a garden, albeit a limited one due to the law restricting my garden to my backyard. I hope to plant fruit trees this Spring to offset more of my food costs and enjoy fresher, healthier fare.

[logfromblammo]

Publix is a great store, but I can generally only shop there when they have an advertised special and I have a handful of coupons. And you really have to stick very tightly to the pre-planned list.

Generally, my staple stores are Kroger, Target, and Costco. Wal-Mart, Dollar General, and Aldi fail on one of two fronts: you can't buy everything you need from there at the same time, or the things you actually want are not really cheaper. In both cases, the cost-per-mile of making the trip determines whether it is worth going.

The grocery business has a lot of local variability, though. In a lot of places, even some near here, Wal-Mart actually would be cheaper, to the extent that I would put up with their goods that are not quite what I am looking for, with little ingredient substitutions that nickel-and-dime you on the quality. It's like how chocolates that used to have cocoa butter in them are now "chocolate candies" that have palm oil in them instead. Sure, they're cheaper, but they're no longer edible.

Wal-Mart does that all over. The garbage bags will be a fraction of a mil thinner. The chicken has just a tiny bit more brine solution added. The reconstituted juice bottles have just a little less concentrate and a little more water in them. Sometimes, a major national brand will go missing from the shelves for weeks or months, then come back with less shelf-distance allocated or a higher price, stocked immediately adjacent to the store generic.

I would almost rather make not shopping at Wal-Mart part of my diet. I can't eat calories that I can't afford to buy, so the ones I do eat have to count for more. And then I can remind myself how making X myself instead of buying it at lower cost from Wal-Mart is actually accumulating significant savings out of my stress budget. But I have plenty of competition to choose from. If it was a choice between Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, I know which one would not bankrupt me.

[smileysteve]

Walmart has been the subject of political grandstanding by both parties. Over the last decade, Walmart has increased wages, benefits, and locally produced products (including food).

[ende]

Generally money is saved at negative cost.

[eru]

What's bad about Walmart?