Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Talk about budgeting

I got this series of photos from my mom in an email this morning and it was so moving for me that I thought I'd post them here. I'm sure a lot of people have seen these, but if you haven't it really shows how blessed we are.

Each picture shows a family from around the world. What they eat in a week and how much it cost.



Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: $260.11




Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: $500.07



United States: The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week: $341.98




Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: $189.09




Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna
Food expenditure for one week: $151.27




Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo
Food expenditure for one week: $68.53




Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55




Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village (Bhutan is between India and Tibet)
Food expenditure for one week: $5.03






Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp
Food expenditure for one week: $1.23

8 comments:

TRS said...

Wow. Just wow.

One thing that struck me is all the boxed food for the American family vs the fresh fruits and grains for everyone else.

Kelly said...

That's really neat.

I also noticed the piles of processed food in the Americans' pile. Kind of makes what I've been reading in The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan come to life.

Maggie said...

Do you really think that the US family's budget for a week is average for a family of four here? Because if so our family lives way below the norm.

I mostly noticed the amount of bottled beverages like sodas, alcohol,etc. Our family does their share of milk drinking, but other than that it's mostly water, and a lot of it. That would probably cut a lot out of the budget.

Katharina said...

I agree with Maggie's comment above. I too noticed lots of bottled beverages (sodas, juices, booze) in the more affluent families' piles. Cut all that out, and the budget would change quite a bit.

As for those last few pics, wow. Humbling.

Alicia said...

The amount of processed food on the American table is pretty amazing and expensive to both the checkbook and general health. Though it takes more time to prepare fresh meats & produce it's ultimately better for our bank accounts & our waistlines!

Anth said...

What a fascinating series of photos.

Like pps, I noticed all the soda in the top few photos. And the beer for the German family. Heehee Very little fruit or vegetables on the American table!

And I can't even figure out what the family in Chad is eating all week - spiced lentils?

Anonymous said...

Though I'm apparently too lazy to compare them at the moment, I'm assuming those photos are from the Hungry Planet book, right? It's a GORGEOUS coffee table book, if you haven't seen it. Besides all the photos it's chock full of other interesting information about the countries represented by each family. What struck me was just the utter and complete poverty.

Anyway, it's a fascinating book, which I highly recommend you check out.

Stephanie said...

That's crazy!

How can the American family spend that on food for a week? That's a little less than what I spend for our family of 4 for a month!