I spent $3 to buy all of these. The most expensive were the bananas for $1 a kilo. The rest cost $2. It made me wonder, will it really be hard for me to live on $1.50 a day?
I hear people discuss this every so often, in my first world country. It is not a new concept. I tested living on $7 a week for 4 weeks when I was single between high school and university, more than 15 years ago. I found it easy then.
I believe, I will still find it easy now.
I say this with reflections to my "researches", when I explored countries considered poorer than where I am blessed to reside. I liked going to local markets and supermarkets. I liked finding out how much basic necessities cost like toiletries, spices, food oil, fruits, grains, meats and vegetables. Sometimes they were hard to find, so if I got to befriend the cooks/chefs in restaurants or in the streets, I ask them about prices of onions and eggs or pepper and salt.
I found out that:
- in many less-affluent countries toiletries such as toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, and luxury goods; such as shaving creams, sunscreen lotion, and shower gels are more expensive than in my home country; or the sold for almost the same price. [I know, these are not food, but still amazes me that it is so.]
- fruits and vegetables fluctuate in price comparisons - sometimes cheaper, sometimes similar to normal prices or sale prices back home (see photo above), and sometimes shockingly expensive.
- the difference is in the quality - as in freshness, packaging and sizes.
- poultry and fishes were usually cheaper or similar to sale (only) prices, but the quality again varied.
- food seems cheaper compared to home because the mark-up is much less when sold in restaurants (labour costs, insurances, bills, etc) or because we look at it from the perspective of our budgets (e.g. salary per hour), not the budget/living standards of the people who were living there.
- we are spoilt for choice with foods coming from various countries to our (super)markets DAILY.
- foods/goods are moved faster and delivered to us packaged, frozen and fresh; whilst other countries do not have the infrastructure nor the storage facilities to accommodate such spoils.
- I don't recall ever seeing "half-price" to practically giving away sales; foods were always paid at market or bargained prices.
- I never survived on spending only $1.50 a day on my meals while I travelled. Was I charged foreigner prices? Not every meal, yet at mimimum I spent $5 per day. However, I rarely cooked my own food.
A lot of people say it will be cheaper and easier to live in poorer countries. Granted, there is a lot of truth to it. There are great benefits of lower living costs such as accommodation, healthcare, transportation,etc. But I am specifically musing over the topic of food costs in this post. It isn't hard to eat cheaper in richer countries. Most people instead don't notice or pay attention to it. The beauty of being able to afford. We can enjoy the the quality of our food, in abundance. We want and enjoy the freedom to choose how to satisfy our hunger - cheaply to ridiculously. We want to be able to eat out. Those are the spoils and luxury, we have no strong need nor care to let go.
I became painfully aware that the majority of people who were "middle-to-low-income-earners" living in those countries, were sometimes paying the same amount or more for goods/foods we take for granted. But first-world-low-income-earners are earning much more than them. Hence why we love the fact that we get so much for our dollar in many countries, and take advantage of it during our travels.
In my home country where food is generally expensive, people would assume spending $1.50 on food daily is impossible. It is absolutely, if bought daily. One could afford one meal a day, but not three main meals. But with an equal budget for a week ($10.50) on hand, this is very easy. A monthly budget could allow one to laugh through the experience. Staples like pasta, potatoes, bread or rice could be bought in bulk enough for weeks, and they are always on sale. Premium beef mince was being sold for $3.50 per kilo (half-price) when I passed the meat section just before closing time. A dozen huge eggs could be purchased for $4.00 in the supermarket, cheaper elsewhere, and even cheaper when on sale.
There is huge variety of choices and oversupply to choose from. There are constantly sales in the markets and supermarkets. A lot of times they are practically giving food away [side note, I know of places that provides unlimited free healthy/delicious breakfasts and lunches; and some including free dinners]. We may not eat our favourites and indulgences, or we may have to wait for the opportunities when they go on sale, but we will still eat well in comparison. We may not eat balanced and healthy all the time, but we will still survive very well. The portions we eat may be smaller, but I doubt we will become under-nourished.
To see how it is in other countries.... click here.... For them it is much much tougher. But we know that already.... :-/
