Food Spreadsheet and Analysis

I’m a college student on a limited budget cooking for myself for the first time in my life. I started to a project to understand the costs of various food items I’ll be purchasing often to discover what ingredients have the best value from a caloric and protein point-of-view. 

 

The project started as a simple grocery sheet. A way to look at the costs of every item from yogurt to chicken. To find consistent numbers I used HEB’s online search system to find the price, servings, and nutritional value for each item. 

 

Once I had the data in the spreadsheet, I needed a way to compare each food under the same metric. While micronutrients are important, calories and protein were the values I was prioritizing. With differing costs, serving sizes, and number of servings per item I summed the total calories and divided by cost we well as total protein and total costs to calculate calories per dollar (CPD) and protein per dollar (PPD). Finally, I used excel filter tables to rank food items based on these criterion.

 

 

The spreadsheet helped me to identify some trends beneficial to keep in mind for frugal eating. 

 

1. Store-bought greek yogurt is very expensive for its nutritional value. While a major kitchen staple with a strong association to the health and wellness industry, yogurt ranks towards the bottom of both protein and calories per dollar. Whether or not this is due to markup or high production costs, if yogurt is a favorite of yours, I’d recommend considering making your own yogurt from milk, as a potentially cheaper alternative.

 

2. For a long time I struggled to gain weight and when I’d just feel overly full and unable to consume any more food. When I spent some time with this spreadsheet I realize that my Western diet that prioritized meat and protein-dense foods often results in protein consumption far greater than the optimal 0.82 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. While consuming more protein than this doesn’t immediately present adverse health affects, because protein is the most filling macronutrient consuming so much of it decreases the total amount of calories one can eat. This is a helpful strategy for those attempting to loose weight, but for those trying to maintain or gain weight it can make things more difficult. Additionally, as the spreadsheet shows, protein is often much more expensive than carbohydrates or fat, and so eating becomes cheaper with less unnesecary protein consumption.

 

3. There are enough excellent vegetarian options to meet one’s protein needs at low-cost. I am not currently vegetarian, but what held me back from the idea for a long-time was the idea that I couldn’t eat healthy and hit my protein goals by being vegetarian without paying a fortune. This spreadsheet (and talking to vegetarian friends who provided input on it) showed me that there really is no excuse for that reason. While I won’t be going fully vegetarian yet, I will be trying to lessen my meat consumption over the next year (and try to use more meat by-products like chicken liver to cut down on the meat’s impact).

 

During my research, I found many short-cuts and ways to get more for less through some creative avenues.

 

1. Chicken. While it is the cheapest meat, most people just buy chicken breast and call it a day. Don’t. For a low effort move, switch to chicken quarters. They have higher fat content but are much cheaper. Going further, chicken liver and gizzards are more parts of the chicken that are produced everytime a chicken is slaughtered, but have far less demand. While they taste a little different, they can be deliciously prepared and are significantly cheaper and more nutrious than chicken breast. Finally, if you are a big fan of the traditional chicken cuts then instead of buying them directly, buy an entire uncooked chicken. With practice it takes only about 5 minutes to separate it into the individual cuts. Also, nothing goes to waste: the leftover carcass can be used to make chicken stock for cooking rice in for more flavor and nutrition, and the fatty skin can be mixed into homemade bread dough to increase the loaf’s flavor, protein, and shelf life. Here's a great video tutorial!

 

2. Bread. It’s honestly not too difficult to make at home, tastes much better, and avoids store preservatives. One can also add vital wheat gluten to increase protein content. Bread’s high-carbohydrate content and low-cost also makes it great for meeting your total caloric needs without breaking the bank.

 

3. Make yogurt at home. Like I mentioned before with yogurt, only a small amount of existing yogurt is required to ‘grow’ milk into more yogurt. Also it tastes better home-made in my opinion.

 

4. Cook your own food. This spreadsheet is hyper-optimized, but honestly just cooking your own food from scratch instead of eating out will already lower your food expenses below the vast majority of college students.