Codes of Living-3

Is There a Magic Formula for Living in Turkey?

We started our article to see if there is a magic formula for living in the situation in which our Turkey has been brought today, or even more accurately to be able to live.

Wecould only decide on our accommodation expenses per day, 2200 liras per month and 100 liras per month as a dues.

In yesterday's article, we determined our presuppositions in order to calculate our nutrition expenses. Let's see how far we can go today.

Let's start our account.

First I will try to calculate how much food we need in a month for our breakfast expenses.

If you remember, we predicted that our school child ate a little less.  Let's eat a little more, not half a serving, let's say 60%. In this case, excluding the baby in the swaddle, we will calculate the food need per person using a coefficient of 2.6 for the father, mother and child.

Let's start:

Breakfast Account:

Olives: from 8 pieces per person to 21 olives every day, 630 olives per month. If we say 200-210 olives a kilo of olives, 3 kg of olives are needed in a month.

Cheese: from 100 grams per person, 260 grams every day, 7 kilograms of 800 grams per month. Ifwe add a little to the salad in between, we need 8 kilos of cheese.

Butter: from 15 grams per person, 40 grams every day, 1 kilo of 200 grams of butter per month is needed.

Honey-jam: from 30 grams per person we need 80 grams every day, 2 kilograms of 400 grams  of jam or honey per month. let's say 400 grams of honey, whether 2 kilograms of various jams, it is more economical.

Eggs: one per person, 90 eggs per month are needed. This is just breakfast food, we calculate our other needs separately duringthe day.

Bread: I don't know if one loaf a day is enough for breakfast and dinner, Turkish people are addicted to bread, let's say two loaves a day. Let's face it, you need 30 loaves of a loaf per month for breakfast.

Sausage: it's very expensive, so if we say we can only eat it on weekends and occasionally, I think it's not possible to eat more than two kangals a month. I like tomato paste very much, in fact, you have to take into account tomato paste and oil. We'll add it to the account of other dishes, so I'm not adding it here for now.

Tea: 100 grams of tea is enough for me for ten days, I think 300 grams a month would be enough just for breakfast. Again, it was afternoon and we also examined the guest tea.

Sugar: two cups of tea per person, let's get the child one cup, five tea cups, 5 g of cut sugar, the father works, the child loves sweets, if we call them a total of 8 out of two pieces,  40 grams of sugar goes every day, 1 kilo 200 grams per month, only breakfast, there is no time for tea after breakfast.

Yes, I think we've had our breakfast so far. Now let's look at their prices. I look at the daily grocery prices online for prices. Our market is in the cheap category, a market with enough branches in all cities.

Let's start the account for breakfast:

Olive, Marmara Birlik, half a kilo is 26 lira, 95 kuruş, 6 packages are worth 3 kilos, total: 161 lira 70 kuruş.

Cheese, Yörükoğlu, 83 lira 75 kuruş per kilo, 8 kilos 670 lira.

Butter, Sütaş, 350 grams of 40 lira 95 kuruş, weight 117 lira. We need a kilo of 200 grams, 140 pounds is worth 40 cents. We use the unfinished package next month.

Honey, Honeycomb Honeycomb, 400 grams 27 lira 95 kuruş.

Jam, Seyidoğlu, 19 lira 95 kuruş per kilo, we will take two kilos, 39 lira 90 kuruş.

Egg, Yeniköy Farm,  30-pack of 29 lira 90 kuruş, three packages 89 lira 70 kuruş.

Bread, 200 grams loaf of 3 liras, only 90 liras per month for breakfast.

Sucuk, Cumhuriyet veal kangal, 350 grams, 65 lira 40 kuruş. Two coils 130 pounds 80 cents.

If we add it up, it's worth 1350 pounds, just breakfast! It seemed to hold up quite a bit.

Anyway, we still have a long way to go, let's look at lunch and dinner.

I wrote about our presuppositions in yesterday's article, the child and mother eat their lunch at home, and the father attends the dinners. We eat out once a week on Sunday. So we  have to calculate how many people we need to cook at home per month first.

Lunches are 26 meals if we drop it to four Sundays. Since the child eats less, if we say our coefficient is 1.6 at lunch, we need food for 42 people. In the evening, there will be 30 meals, and our coefficient will be 2.6 because the father also participates. For 78 people. If we collect it, we will cook for 120 people a month.

It doesn't matter if it's lunch or evening, the food is the same food, the only difference is that we don't have a bowl of soup for lunch. We said it should be a little lighter. If a plate dish is half juicy food, half rice or pasta is meat or chicken, and if there is only fish, I think there will be greens next to it.

I looked on the Internet, there is a lot of information, especially on diet sites, they all say different things from each other. The portion calculation also varies a lot from site to site. So I'm going to do it as I know it. Our portions will be 300 grams. That's all in a bowl of soup, a plate of juicy food, a plate of rice and meatballs, that's it again with separate greens next to fish, 300 grams. If we have meat on our plate, 100 grams of meat, 200 grams of rice, pasta or bulgur next to it. If there is fish, we will have 200 grams of fish, 100 grams of arugula and parsley except for the general salad. Let our salad in the middle be 300 grams per person.

Let the child drink the soup in full portions. Warm, it feels good. In this case, our soup, which is cooked only at dinner, will be for a total of 90 people per month.

We said that we have a plate of food at every meal except soup, and our account was 120 people in total. If we say let's eat a plate of water in half of the month and something that is not watery in the other half, it is necessary to make a juicy meal for 60 people and a non-juicy meal for 60 people. If we divide our non-juicy meals into meatballs for 20 people, as well as rice or bulgur, pasta chicken for 20 people and fish for 20 people for the average price, I think we can reach the approximate price of the food cooked in our homes in an average month.

Let's start calculating their price. We start from the soup, if there is no objection because the prices will not make much difference , I will make the calculation according to the uniform soup, I think the lentil soup with vegetables is the most suitable soup for the calculation. The recipe is available on the Internet:

Red lentil soup with vegetables for 6 people: a cup of red lentils, one onion, one potato, one carrot, three tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of butter on top, the rest with water, black pepper, salt and dried mint, pepper flakes.

Our soup will be for 90 people, so we will get 15 times the ingredients in the account. Let's look at the prices right away.

Unit Prices:

Red lentils: Plateau, discounted price, half a kilo 12 lira 75 kuruş. On the Internet there is a facility for ladies, a unit changer site, I look at it from there. A cup of red lentils is 170 grams, we need 2 kilograms of 550 grams. 65 pounds.

Onions: 3 liras 45 cents per kilo, again discounted. One medium-sized onion is 100 grams, we need 1.5 kilos, 5 liras is worth 20 cents.

Potatoes: 9 pounds 75 cents per kilo. One medium potato is 210 grams, we need 3 kilograms of 150 grams, 30 liras is worth 70 cents.

Carrots: 9 pounds 90 cents a kilo. One medium carrot weighed 40 grams, it seemed a little too little for me, I think we could buy 5-7 carrots for a kilo, if it was at home I would take care of it myself. Anyway, it says so on the Internet, the price does not affect the account very much, let's continue like this. In this case, you need a total of 600 grams, it is worth 6 liras.

Olive oil: Extra virgin orchid, 52 lira 90 kuruş per liter. A tablespoon is 15 milli-liters, we need 675 ml, 35 liras is worth 70 cents.

Butter, Sütaş, 350 grams of 40 lira 95 kuruş, weight is 117 lira, we looked at the price for breakfast, we had a little left. A tablespoon of butter was 14 grams. We need 210 grams, 24 pounds is worth 60 cents.

We add the spices and salt at the end of the calculation, we use our water from the fountain, we buy this filter, it is cheaper than the water sold in the market. Carboy waters are more expensive than water, we don't have that much budget, we are a middle-class family.

The monthly soup price as it stands was 167 lira 20 kuruş.

I think the average monthly soup price is pretty cheap. If we drink soup in a restaurant or restaurant, the prices are very high, a bowl varies between 20 liras and 50 liras. If we say the average is 35 liras, 90 bowls of lentil soup costs 3150 liras, even if we add the stove, electricity, other costs to what we cook at home, it is still quite economical. The minimum is 15 times lower. And ours is vegetable soup, plain lentil soup in the restaurant. Moreover, ladies cook very deliciously, I am sure that in restaurants they cannot match the quality and taste at home, and more importantly, the hygiene in the house.

Let's go back to our calculations, let's continue with juicy food. It's not easy to price juicy food, but I think we can look at one or two recipes and take an approach.

Generally, in our homes, meat potatoes, chickpeas with meat, dried beans with meat, green beans, stuffed, wrapped, chowder, what anyone likes now, what we find in the market according to the season, a dish is cooked. For an average price, let's start with three recipes:

Chickpeas with meat for 3 people: 250 g of aviar,  two cups of boiled chickpeas, one onion, one tablespoon butter, one tablespoon of tomato paste, the rest is water, pepper and salt

Meat beans for 3 people: 250 g of meat per bird's head, two cups of boiled dried beans, one onion, two charliston peppers, one tablespoon of tomato paste, one teaspoon of pepper paste, two cloves of garlic, four tablespoons of olive oil, the rest of which is water, pepper and salt

Meat for 4 people: 250 g of meat per bird's head, one onion, three green charliston peppers, one zucchini, one eggplant, one potato, one tomato, seven green beans, six cloves of garlic, one tablespoon of olive oil, one tablespoon of tomato paste, the rest with water, pepper and salt.

If we cook a pot of each of them, it will cook for 10 people. We need a juicy meal for 60 people, so we will get 6 times the amounts.

Kuşbaşı: 400 grams 26 lira 90 kuruş, kilo 67 lira 25 kuruş, we need 4.5 kilo, 302 lira 60 kuruş.

Boiled chickpeas: Highland, 700 grams of 15 lira 25 kuruş, one cup of boiled chickpeas 120 grams, we need twelve cups, 1.5 kilos, 32 liras 70 kuruş.

Boiled dried beans: Plateau, 700 grams of 15 liras 25 cents, one cup of boiled dried beans 180 grams, we need twelve cups, 2 kilograms is worth 160 grams, 47 liras.

Onions: I started the article yesterday, the weight was 3 lira 45 kuruş, today it is 5 lira 50 kuruş, they have removed the discount. We will use the undiscounted price in this account necessarily. I can't change the above account anymore, let's assume that we have a lucky memory while making soup, we all sometimes get a discount. Prices are changing at the speed of missiles these days, really, it is not possible to keep up with the speed of change even in writing time. Anyway, let's continue, one medium onion was 100 grams, we need 1.8 kilos in this account, 9 liras is worth 90 cents.

Charliston pepper: Its weight is 9 liras 90 cents, one of them is 35 grams, we need 30 pieces, 1 kilo is worth 50 grams. 10 pounds costs 40 cents.

Zucchini: Its weight was 7 liras 90 cents, one piece was 100 grams. We need 600 grams, 4 liras is worth 75 cents.

Eggplant: Today there is also a discount on eggplant, we are on our lucky day. His weight went down to 10 pounds and 90 cents. One medium eggplant is 200 grams, we need 1 kilogram 200 grams. 13 pounds costs 10 cents.

Potatoes: It was 9 pounds 75 cents a kilo. We are in our lucky day again, today there is a discount on potatoes, the weight is 7 lira 95 kuruş. One medium potato was 210 grams, we need 1 kilo 250 grams, 9 liras is worth 90 cents.

Tomato: Discounted price 9 lira 90 kuruş. One medium tomato is 110 grams, we need 660 grams. It costs 6 liras 50 cents.

Green beans: 19 pounds 90 cents a kilo, 13 grams a piece. We need 550 grams, it costs 10 liras 90 cents.

Garlic: Its weight is 39 pounds 90 cents, a clove of garlic is 4-7 grams, let's say 6, 300 grams is enough, 12 pounds.

Tomato paste: Tukas, 700 gram jar 19 lira 90 kuruş. His weight is 28 pounds 40 cents. A tablespoon of tomato paste was 8 grams. 110 grams is enough for us, 3 liras 20 cents. Let's add the pepper paste, let's say 4 liras.

Butter, Sütaş, 350 grams of 40 lira 95 kuruş, today the price has fallen by 5 kuruş, 40 lira 90 kuruş. Maybe I wrote it wrong, it is possible to be surprised when you do the calculation so carefully. His weight is 116 pounds 85 cents, A tablespoon of butter was 14 grams. We need 6 spoons, 9 liras is worth 80 cents.

Olive oil: Orchid extra virgin, 52 pounds per liter was 90 cents. A tablespoon was 15 milliliters, we need 450 ml, 23 pounds is worth 80 cents.

I hope we didn't skip anything, the rest is water, salt and spices.

If we add up, a month's juicy meal costs 497 pounds 35 cents.  Our soup cost 167 liras and 20 cents. Our breakfast was also 1350 liras.

We have a little more way to go to complete our nutrition expenses, but I am tired, let's leave it to taste, I say let it be enough for today, risking that the prices will change. We'll continue tomorrow.

Home economics is not easy at all, really, I'm tired of writing, who knows how tiring it is when I do. We should kiss the hands of our ladies.

Love and respect from Moscow for now