Monday, April 9, 2018

Research: Cost per 1000 calories

I've been doing some investigation into grocery costs, and settled on cost per 1000 calories as one measure to look into.  (Not all calories are nutritionally equal, of course!!!)

The idea came from a comment I read online, someone saying that cakes from store-bought mixes were the cheapest calories that his mom could get for their family.

I don't buy cake mixes, and haven't checked into what they cost yet, but it is true that the cheapest calories I've figured so far have been for white flour and sugar, at about $0.25 to $0.30 per 1000 calories, and then canola oil at $0.33. 

I want to gather a bit more data before I post the whole list; there are some things that we buy in bulk, rather than at the grocery store.

I did notice, though, that one of the most expensive foods that we buy for our family is plain yogurt (not low-fat). I have at times made yogurt at home, using store-bought yogurt only for starter cultures; the only hard thing with that is maintaining the right temperature for long enough. I used to use a little electric mug warmer, with a stack of metal juice cans ends for spacers, as the mug warmer alone would keep a quart jar of yogurt rather too warm.

But I have an idea now for a different way to maintain a moderate temperature, so I will try it out and report on my results.

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