Hacker News Reader

Comment by pmlamotte | Hacker News Reader

I'm one of the few people that bounces between 70-95% soylent each month. I do the powder which is the cheapest option and it comes out to around $230/mo if it was my only source.

The average per person spending in the US is somewhere close to $300 per person if I recall correctly. Taking that into account with the time savings, and it's really quite cheap as a pure fuel source.

View on HN

$220 on groceries (not eating out or takeout) for one person is enough to buy good stuff. You could make your own protein/fiber bars, yogurt smoothies, slow cooked foods. A freezer and a slow cooker will free you.

I guess I was taking the "people who can afford " part of your comment as "it's for well off people" when it's actually a reduction in spending for many Americans.

It matches up with the "Low cost plan" from the USDA for 2014: https://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/usda_food_plan...

I can see how'd you'd draw that conclusion from what I wrote, sorry for the confusion. I just mean that your money can be better, um... eaten, not that it's some kind of expensive luxury.

This depends greatly on where you live. I grew up in a middle class town in CT but now live in NYC. The price differential for groceries is huge. And compounded by the fact that you don't have a car, so you're limited in the stores you can reasonably go to and bring groceries home from.

NYC isn't totally unique, but it's hardly the norm either. Most of the people I've seen here at least, talking about Soylent, are struggling to find affordable groceries. Almost universally it's a variation on convenience or (to broadly paraphrase) "Freedom from food."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com