Eating for one costs more than eating for two (but it's worth it)
This in from Spain! Families spend less on food than childfree couples and single adults. The reason?
According to the article:
Not everybody eats the same food, and according to the Ministry for Agriculture data published last week, families with children are the most efficient spenders. They tend to eat home-cooked meals, milk-based products and bread, and drink mineral water at the table. The younger the children, the more they cost to feed. Retired people are also efficient consumers, their reduced budgets forcing most of them to seek out the least expensive products, and their desire to live longer encouraging them to eat healthy meals.
Couples without children account for 9.2 per cent of the total population, and while their spending habits are rather similar to those of retired people, they spend more on meat, fruit, vegetables, bread and soft drinks. Adults living on their own make up 6.6 per cent of the population, and they do not generally worry about issues like diet and health, spending most of their grocery budget on fish, bread, fruit and pastries. Young people living on their own make up 4.5 per cent of the population, and for them, the less time spent preparing meals the better. The result is a higher consumption of pre-cooked meals, pastries, soft drinks and meat.
So not having kids means you probably drink more wine, eat tastier food, spend less time cooking, and aren't stressed about your health? And there's nobody shoving tater tots into your ears when you're trying to make conversation? And you get to go out to dinner at good restaurants more often? Worth the extra cost, if you ask me.
[LINK]
According to the article:
Not everybody eats the same food, and according to the Ministry for Agriculture data published last week, families with children are the most efficient spenders. They tend to eat home-cooked meals, milk-based products and bread, and drink mineral water at the table. The younger the children, the more they cost to feed. Retired people are also efficient consumers, their reduced budgets forcing most of them to seek out the least expensive products, and their desire to live longer encouraging them to eat healthy meals.
Couples without children account for 9.2 per cent of the total population, and while their spending habits are rather similar to those of retired people, they spend more on meat, fruit, vegetables, bread and soft drinks. Adults living on their own make up 6.6 per cent of the population, and they do not generally worry about issues like diet and health, spending most of their grocery budget on fish, bread, fruit and pastries. Young people living on their own make up 4.5 per cent of the population, and for them, the less time spent preparing meals the better. The result is a higher consumption of pre-cooked meals, pastries, soft drinks and meat.
So not having kids means you probably drink more wine, eat tastier food, spend less time cooking, and aren't stressed about your health? And there's nobody shoving tater tots into your ears when you're trying to make conversation? And you get to go out to dinner at good restaurants more often? Worth the extra cost, if you ask me.
[LINK]
2 Comments:
Just noticing your blog for the first time- excellent! Loved the book...
I wonder if US stats regarding kids and food spending are the opposite of Spain. I know that I spend alot of time cooking because I don't have kids. To me cooking is a blessed choice- not an obligation. btw- I'm thinking meals from scratch... heating up cans of soup isn't cooking.
Cheers to eating out with adults and being able to hold conversations!
We eat out perhaps once a month, mainly (like Mcauliflower) because we enjoy cooking and eating healthful food. Sure, we had burgers last night, but they weren't part of a Happy Meal. We had mesquite-smoked venison burgers made from a deer that I shot last fall on my hunting property, the one that I could afford to buy outright because we have no kids. And that's another thing about cooking from scratch: It's economical.
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