$5 for 20 lbs of rice.
I am fortunate to have a lot of local (suburban NYC) grocery outlets. I can buy cheap rice at a local Korean supermarket, a local Indian supermarket, and at a chain called Western Beef which specializes in putting supermarkets in low income neighborhoods without raping the locals.
Even though I live in a highh cost of living area, the shear ethnic diversity and competition keeps prices reasonably low. Right now (because the weekly circulars just came in the mail, I can, at a variety of stores, buy the following items right now:
Porterhouse or rib steak for $4.99/lb.
Prime rib steak for $8.99/lb
Live Maine lobster for $8.99/lb
Live mussels for $2.00/lb
Shrimp for $5/lb
Cabbage for 50 cents per pound
Porkchops for $1.59/lb
Whole chicken for 68 cents per pound
90% lean ground beef for $1.99/lb
Boneless chicken breast for $1.99/lb
In-store roasted coffee for $3.99/lb
Italian sausage for $1.70/pound
Garlic for about 10 cents/head
Onions for 50 cents/pound
Most cold cuts for $5-6/pound
Jarlsberg cheese for $4/pound
With regard to spices, I generally get them in six ouce plastic containers for about $3. These pint-sized containers last for about a year. Think about how long a pint of whole nutmeg would last.
As far as wine, one could argue that wine is food, although it is likely that wine could completely consume our throretical $176 budget. But for those who consider wine as food (myself among them), there are very reasonable options available. I will dismiss three buck chuck, as each bottle seems to taste different from the previous one, and their offerings are not to my taste. If we set the bar at less than $10/bottle, I have literally hundreds of options available to me locally. For less but for $8 or less (and don't forget the 15% case discount, which brings the price to less than $7). Since I usually drink red, and prefer the bargains from Spain, Portugal or Chile, I would put my two current bargain favorites are Porca de Murca from Portugal (case of 6 for $6.38/bottle) or Odfell Armador Carmeniere from Chile for about $6.70/bottle by the case. But if you're too cheap for even a six dollar bottle of wine, you would - seriously - be better served by a decent Australian box wine than something like three buck chuck or yellowtail. Boxed Shiraz that I've had is roughly on the same level as Rosemount, which is a solid inoffensive shiraz.
To put the above prices into perspective, I could throw a dinner party for eight people, serving them a nicely dressed salad, decent bread, chicken parmesan, and pasta such as linguine or spaghetti, along with half a bottle of wine per person for $7.50 per head. And this is treating my guests to food I've made myself and ensuring enough food (an entire basket of bread, generous salad with vinegarette, eight ounces of protein, four ounces of dried pasta, decent cheese (rubber mozzarella but parmagiano reggiano), and 2.5 glasses of wine per person) so no one goes home hungry. There is no dessert, but I'm not particularly fond of sweets, and people often bring the host/hostess either wine or dessert. Espresso for the group would probably cost no more than $2.00. Of course, if they wanted Sambuca that would be another story.
This meal at a decent, but reasonable local family-style red sauce place (not Olive Garden, which is not bad but I live in NY so its kind of missing the point) including tax and tip would be about $42 per person, and would likely tas|te the same or worse (the menu is very easy, and even though it relies on high quality ingredients, you're not using a huge amount of them). I'm reminded of the economics of two high dollar restaurant meals that are very, very easy to do at home given good ingredients: lobster and steak. A dry-aged porterhouse at a local steakhouse (one of NY's signature contributions to American cuisine) will likely cost about $30/person, plus ala carte sides. I can purchase dry aged prime porterhouse locally for $20/pound. Even being very generous with the portions, it would cost no more than $15/person. Same with lobster, perhaps one of the easiest things to cook. Honestly, Kraft mac and cheese is more difficult. At a local restaurant, a 1.5 lobster will cost about $30 each. At home it will cost $12.
I would legitimately say that splitting a bottle of wine every day, shopping care,m ' fully but splurging on what some would consider a luxury meal twice a week, the two of us could eat and drink for about $600 per month. If money were truly tight, we could easily eat on half that, and probably even less. For perspective, the aforementioned dinner party meal actually cost about $4.00 per person for food, and the calorie content would likely satisfied our entirely daily needs.
