> Cheap supermarket budget brands full of chemicals, hormones and preservatives? Yes. Quality stuff, no.

This is in the EU, regulation basically prevents excesses like that in most cases.

Furthermore, price doesn’t have to be a predictor of quality. E.g. LIDL/Aldi (budget chains) commonly win awards for best vegetables.

I used to spend ~150-200 on food per month when I was living by myself and wasn’t strictly managing it for low cost. Now with a family of 3, we spend 300-400€ a month on groceries (incl bread and meat) and are never holding back on anything because of price.

So, 5€ per day doesn’t sound unreasonable even in the Netherlands. Note: we eat vegetarian 5 out of 7 days, without that we’d probably spend 100-150 more.

Edit: I get that this doesn’t work everywhere. When I lived in the US (NYC) and tried to cook my own meals I couldn’t believe 1) how few supermarkets there were and 2) how high prices for basic food were. Eating out was basically cheaper :/