This American in South Africa has saved lots of money finding incredible deals on healthy food- Tips for when you visit
I love to eat healthy and I love to save money. Airbnb is the first step in saving money when traveling. It's cheaper than a hotel and you can make your own food. I only make my own food when in the USA or abroad and when I was in Cape Town in 2015 I jotted down some good deals. I saved the sheet and now that I am in Port Elizabeth I have expanded upon it. $1 basically = 14 Rand.
There are great deals on Avocados here. Last time I paid around $2 for a bag of small ones. I have been without avocados this trip because I don't need to buy any. The less than $20 I have spent on the following is all I need:
I discovered a place called "Eyethu's Fish Market" located at 76 Westbourne Road. I think it is mostly a wholesale place. It is hard to tell. There was a sign outside of the place (they don't have a web site) that said: "5 KG Frozen Pilchards 120 Rand"
Sure enough I was able to purchase 5 Kilograms of frozen Sardines (same thing as a pilchard) for the equivalent of $8.63! There is a photo of me below with the frozen sardines and the coconut oil I purchased at a nearby Spar super market (Five Ways Spar).
At the Five Ways Spar I purchased the following:
1 Liter container of Coconut oil for 65 Rand- $4.67! Coconut oil is a great way to get healthy fat.I had no idea I was getting the sardines at the time. The container is huge. I have never seen the equivalent in the USA.
30 eggs for 35 Rand! $2.50!
1 KG of golden delicious apples for 10 Rand. Basically 12 small apples for a total of 72 cents!
My "treat" which is still darn cheap is locally made Peel's Peanut Butter (just made of South African Peanuts!) 400 gram container for 38 Rand= $2.73.
Total spent on food for this 13 day stay is 268 Rand= $19.25
This video shows what the Indian Ocean looks like around here (if you like Bitcoin you will like the content of this video).
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Thanks
Adam
That's great!
I have a friend in Chile that I told I could easily eat on less than $200/ month, as long as I didn't go out to eat. He said no way. Actually, I manage on less than that here in the US. Kinda crazy what people think they "need". You're eating great stuff too.
In the USA a person can spend $0 a month. Two words for you- Dumpster Diving. I am sure of it.
The key to South Africa is to eat things produced in the country. It costs money (added on to the final price) to ship food into the country and deal with tariffs and what not. The dollar also is very strong against the Rand now. Finding a store like that fish store that can only be found by walking around is also important if you want to find a bulk deal.
Yeah, a lot of folks have had great success with dumpster diving. @kennyskitchen has posted a few times about it. We've done it for goods, but not food.
Most of it is just what you eat. I can go to a farmer's market and come home with one bag of food that'll feed me for a week. I did that all the time in Chile. I'd cut a bunch up, put it in a pot and let it simmer for a few hours. That would feed me for about five meals, plus I'd have some other things to eat for my other meals. It was super cheap. I can almost do it here, but am not a fan of big-ag produce.
Where were you in Chile? I was in Santiago in 2008 and back then I did not fully think this way so I just went to a super market although I sort of remember prices being reasonable there.
I spent a little time in Santiago, but much preferred the inland areas near Viña del Mar. I'm still hoping to move to Olmué one of these days, but I spent most of my time in Reñaca, just N of Viña.
Valparaíso and Viña both have good farmers' markets. The stores are fine too, but I really like the markets.
Trick to cheap food in Chile is the farmers' markets. I get great local produce that way without spending much. As a vegan, it's kind of necessary anyway because the supermarkets don't really cater to our crazy kind. Help to have an insanely good cook for a girlfriend too :)
Are there any super good deals there on produce? Certain areas of the world produce an abundance of certain foods that in North America are sometimes considered borderline high end. Like in South Africa with Avocados. Cheap in SA and over $2 in New York City!