Could you do keto / carnivore / LCHF diets on benefits?

food
#41

Lobster was prison meat and salmon peasant meat once… Well that was in the distant past but still. I still don’t get the salmon thing, it’s great, wild salmon from the more or less clean rivers? But it was easy to get so lords didn’t eat it… How stupid.

Here chicken is the cheapest meat BY FAR. Of course not breast or fancy well-kept ones (but breast still costs as much as the cheapest pork). Organs are pretty cheap too, that’s neat as I love some of them :slight_smile: Pork tongue has the best value/price ratio to me, I LOVE it.

I don’t think we should give up good food just because we are poor unless we have, like, $1-2 per day for food? I stop calculating with pound sterling now :smiley: (Or more but at some expensive place).
My food money is like $3? (I am sure I go way higher on my off days. And my hungry ones. I don’t have an allotment, I just choose my items knowing I shouldn’t spend too much and hope for the best.) I could go lower on carnivore and keto but it would be tricky and slightly unpleasant.

(Bob M) #42

I was just showing what was on sale this week. That pork is good. I don’t think of hot dogs much, as I don’t eat them. When I was on a high fat version of keto, I found they upset my stomach. So, if I eat them, I usually “dilute” them by eating other meats.

Definitely those are all good choices (assuming you have no problems with them). I buy pork chops when on sale, put them in sous vide bags, then instant dinner if you have time before dinner. Of course, someone on a budget won’t have a sous vide machine, but freezing, thawing, and oven would be good.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #43

I go in streaks. Right now I’m on a hot dog kick. My favourite brand happens to be the cheapest, which delights my Scottish heart. Interestingly, I started buying the all-beef ones and found that I don’t like them nearly as much as the kitchen-sink variety, lol!

(Little Miss Scare-All) #44

My favorite way to eat hot dogs is put into the microwave until they burn. They squeak a little. :grin:

#45

Why not? People without INCOME easily can have a house… Financial troubles may be more recent than some possessions.

All good enough quality pork (I am not super choosy here but surely there are bad meat available somewhere, oh and we have our tastes) is perfect prepared in a pan or oven for me, lucky :wink:

(Hot dogs and hamburgers, there are still so odd to me when said for the meat. Here it means the whole thing with the bun.)

@x-Dena-x: Oh yes, the singing meat products in the microwave. They are fun :slight_smile:
I can’t burn things there though, that would require more patience than I have.

#46

This is what you need, my Ulster Scots friend:

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(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #47

The recipe sounds great, except for mixing the meat with rusks or breadcrumbs. I wonder if substituting a nut flour would work. Hmmm . . . .

#48

Sorry to jump in 2 days late…

In the UK we now have ‘universal credit’. Which is all the job seekers, unemployment benefits and a dozen others all rolled in to one.
I think that it roughly works out that you get £17k a year to live on as a couple. More if you have kids.

It’s different for me as I work, I used to get tax credits, which top up your salary if you earn a low income. They just take wheat you earn, vs how many are in your family and top what we needed to live on. I don’t get that anymore, but with the cost of living going up, I actually have less money now after bills than I did when I earned a lot less.

The fast food industry is going to take a beating over the next few years. 1/2 of industry in cities is feeding the others that work there. Now we have the technology to work from home, the pandemic forced many of us to trial working from home. Their is a huge realization that we no linger need to crowd our cities with office workers as most of it can be done remotely.
So the food industry serving the lunch hours are getting hammered.

Simular with shops. Now we are buying online, we don’t need high streets as much. In Ipswich, Suffolk, UK, there are whole streets of shops boarded up. Even the really large shops that are parts of huge chains and have been there for 100years are closing.
You would think that would make the rent cheaper, but the reality is that the town councils now have less tennants, so they are pushing the prices up on shop rentals not down.

It is a real shame, but the world is changing.
The world has always changed, but this time way more people are involved.

#49

I totally agree mate,

#50

And people still complain? Food prices are super cool so that takes a tiny fragment only (not half of a low wage - buying stuff smartly, of course. that is a huge difference). What is expensive there? Rent and buying a house is much everywhere…
I AM aware that some high quality life may need a lot of money but just some basic level…

Zero income is more interesting but don’t talk about that.

I think I should stay away. I don’t want to envy the riches of people on benefits or something. It would be wrong.

#51

This may be a huge stereotype and I may get criticism for saying it.
There are people that try hard, save hard, spend smart, teach their children well and I hope I am one of them.
However, there are people that do not try, they have loads of kids but do not teach them, they let TV and games entertain their kids while they winge about their small social circles, they spend every penny the government give them.

For example I earn £1800 a month. After tax i take home £1500 which is the same as someone on benefits gets.
I pay £800 rent, £40 water, £155 council tax, £90 electric, £60 gas, £10 internet, £25 car tax, £30 car insurance, £20 phone
That leaves £270 a month to feed my family and pay for clothes, fuel the car, car repair, dog, chickens and any technology we want, like Netflix.
So my family lives on £2.25 a day per person.

Someone without a job also gets £1500 but in council housing their rent is £300, if they live in a small flat their gas and electricity may be half the cost, and they probably do not have a car. And their council tax will be less.
So they have around £950 a month after bills. That’s about £8 a day per person.

That’s why the system is so broken.
I work hard. Some people that do not work have 4 times the money I have.
What’s worse is that some (many, thousands and thousands) of these poeople spend the majority of that money on heavily taxed alcohol, cigarettes and crappy food.

So the government are paying them all that money and where does it go? The biggest industries on the planet. Food, booze, tobacco.
And now, subscription services, phones, amazon.

#52

And tattoos, trainers and weed!

I think it takes careful budget micro-management to successfully control that whilst working and raising children. A lot of creativity too.

I buy cream when it’s <50p as turn into butter within minutes. I’l let you know if I find bargains as I’ve been in the same boat; hard with kids.

#53

Say the word Bro.

I have your back mate.

#54

Thanks for the numbers, they are informative!

I work hard. Some people that do not work have 4 times the money I have.

Oh my, that’s so messed up… :frowning: Even more with what you wrote afterwards but we know this about people, it’s probably the same everywhere. They just don’t have nearly as much money here. But there are certain tricks and unfair things in these parts of the world too :frowning:

I know there are smart people and not so smart ones. Here £270 is easily more than someone’s salary (if 2 people lives from that, it’s hard to spend less than 50% of it on food and it’s cheap food bought smartly and they don’t need very much food. okay, they probably don’t pay rent, living in their own tiny house in the country or at their moms, no idea. it’s almost no house to rent outside of bigger cities as far as I know and most families have a house somehow. people are creative with that I suppose and some tiny huts in the middle of nowhere are cheap). And those low salary people may buy expensive smartphones… Rare and they do it very occasionally but still, it happens, it’s crazy! Odd preferences. So they end up living from super little and not everyone have about zero for water and £25 for electricity (it’s our average, we use electricity for everything including heating. it’s complicated as the government keeps the electric price low, now it started to change but it’s still quite low)… But the food buying is very informative too, people buy crap for too much money quite often. I don’t even understand how poor people buy booze or cigarettes, I can’t afford that (but I am not an addict either, that’s true…). I am thankful my idea of drinking alcohol is quite unusual so I don’t need to completely stop… I like my tiny freedom. And the taste of certain drinks. In moderation.
Oh and I forget the existence or real drugs, no idea how people without wealth can afford those, oh well… Theoretically I know but it’s so foreign from me…

But if you folks there need to spend such a tiny amount of income on food, I don’t see why this topic exists… Here most people spend a very big part of their income on food I am pretty sure. People with good salaries use their money more willy-nilly when it comes to food. They may spend more on coffee than I do on meat on carnivore… Tiny expensive sandwiches, takeouts (well that may be worth it, it depends), snacks and whatnots… It’s fine if it is worth it for them and they have the money for it but when it keeps them from saving any money or repair their houses (I heard about such people. they had a pretty great income but they spend it all and the house started to have problems)…
There is a saying here about sparing money through spending less on food is the easiest. It may not be true but it does have a point.

#55

It’s getting unsustainable, IMO.

Something needs changed.