I love watching TV programmes on food especially the ones where the hosts visit various restaurants/cafés to try the dishes. Sometimes, I'm quite surprised at the amount of food you can get with less than $20. I know currencies differ from one country to the next, but I'm curious to know.. what can you get for $10 (at restaurants/cafés) in your country? In Cape Town (in my area especially), with $10 I can get : A medium-sized pan of mussels with a basket of bread A beverage - milkshake, sodas, and even a draft Your turn!
For $10 a day here there is no way I could buy 3 full meals. I could probably buuy one meal and only if it was from a fast food/ fast casual restaurant.
There are several restaurants in my locality - the southern Costa Blanca in Spain - where I can buy a three course meal with wine or a soft drink for 7 Euro (around $9). That would leave enough for some fruit, cereal or toast for breakfast, which would be enough food for me of the day, so in answer to your question, yes, I could survive on $10 a day, even if I ate out most days.
I live in the US so there are a lot of fast food chains with dollar menus that can be used. You can also buy a lot of cheap but healther options from a grocery store, especially in the produce departments. I think I could easily get three meals a day for less than $10 but I sure wouldn't want to do that everyday.
That depends... my grocery bill is less than $10 per day for two people. But in terms of eating out... yes, as long as you're not picky, haha! For breakfast, a muffin and a coffee from a bodega would be about $2.50. For lunch, two slices of pizza and a can of soda would cost you $2.50 at the dollar pizza store (which seem to be proliferating in New York these days). For dinner, five dollars would get you a couple of hamburgers and small fries at McDonalds, and most of them will give you a cup of water for free if you ask. So yeah, I guess I could do it. It just wouldn't be very healthy, haha!
Well, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada it really depends where you go. There are some restaurants that don't sell anything for less than $10. On the other hand, there are some parts of the city where you can get a decent meal for $10. New Yorker Deli, for example, has many items that taste pretty good for $10: fish and chips, chicken fingers and fries, hot dogs, beans and fries, etc. I decided to take my fiancee out to Bloor Street Diner and they charged us $14 for a wrap and a caesar salad!
It would be possible to feed myself on $10 if I go to a grocery store deli and purchase a meal something like Sam's.
I could definitely live on that if I were grocery shopping. To go to restaurants, though? Not so much. I could get a decent entree for dinner at some lower level places, but if I were trying to buy all three meals, I'd need to just eat off the dollar menu all the time and would be miserable. No thanks.
I obviously answered the question based on dining out. If I was going to the grocery store and was cooking I could eat on less than $10 per day.
In the southeastern US, it would certainly be possible to do this by shopping for groceries. When eating out it would also be possible. To avoid having to eat from a fast food dollar menu all the time, I would maybe get a lunch special at a local restaurant and then split that meal between lunch and supper.
I could absolutely make it on $10 a day for food and it wouldn't matter if I was eating out or only shopping at a grocery store for food. I could also eat well and healthy at the places that I would choose to eat out from. I wish I could have the chance to get $10 a day to eat. The only thing that would stop me is going to get the food.
That's a good point that I wouldn't have thought of. Around here as well, at certain local restaurants, you can get huge meals for five or six dollars, and easily split those into two or maybe three meals. In fact, when I go to those restaurants, I always have leftovers for days.
Wow - then, some of the places I've seen on TV are probably nowhere near where you guys live Some of the restaurants they showed were some delis and cafés, which looked like their meals are huge and they cost less than $10. That's why I started this thread. They are healthy food and some are organic as well. I can't remember the name of the shows, but one of them is hosted by Ray-something or something-Ray. $10 = ZAR80 and with that amount of money, I could get a good meal with a drink at any good restaurants because many of them offer lunch/dinner specials. Even without the specials, I can get two or three sets of meals! Most are seafood meals, too.
10 usd converts to about 30 rm or 300 bahts. In Kuala Lumpur, where I am now, it's impossible to live on 30rm a day if you are eating out. Just a simple meal by the roadside costs up to 10rm, if you really pick cheap food. Finishing 50rm for just one meal is very normal. In South Thailand, where I was before, 300 bahts is more than ample for food. A full meal with a drink can be had for as little as 30 bahts. A meal of 100 bahts is a very good meal. For 300 bahts you can have a good meal and a bottle of beer as well. With some loose change to take home, too.
MYR30 can get you some meals in mamak restaurant, no, or has meals gone up now?? Of course, in restaurants, you won't get a good meal for that amount of money, like you said, it would be about MYR50 or more. Although not healthy, considering the amount of oil in it, char kuay teow and a beverage would cost less than MYR30, or even a bowl of laksa. But, for a three-course meal, nope, you're right - it's impossible.
$10 is enough to eat wherever you live, if you have enough time to search for the right meal. Even large chains of restaurants will run budget offers on some products. In Europe for example you can get a menu at Subway for $15, but you can also buy Today's Sub -which is just as good- for just $4 or so (and hey, it has less calories). I guess it's really up to you, your comfort and your eating habits.
I could definitely eat on $10 per day grocery shopping. Eating out is a different story. I live in California. There are some fast food places with dollar meals, but that's just not my thing. I would be sick from the grease and fake meat.
Eating with 10$ a day won't be a problem. As long as I get enough carbohydrates in my diet, I don't have to worry about being hungry all the time. I maybe a food picker but I know what satisfies my cravings to avoid making me hungry.
I can do it at my local market with the use of coupons. I can get a loaf of bread, cheese and meat for dinner, fresh veggies and possibly 1 fruit for that much. I only drink tea, coffee or water so it is possible for me to do this.
It's definitely possible to eat for a day on $10 if you go grocery shopping. For example in Florida a box of spaghetti is $1 and a can of Hunt's pasta sauce is $1. You could stop there and have a huge pot of spaghetti and sauce for $2. Or if you wanted to spend an extra $1.89 you could buy a pound of ground beef at Walmart and put meat in your spaghetti which brings the total to $3.89 for a big pot of spaghetti. That will last you a couple of meals and you still have $6 for the rest of the day.
