Items under €1 at Mercadona: a lesson in grocery shopping errors

A grocery cart under €1 at Mercadona and the unit price trap

A shopping cart filled almost entirely with items costing less than one euro, filmed by Argentine customers at a Mercadona supermarket in Spain, has become a small manual for budget shopping. Spanish prices, seen from abroad, are surprising. However, the exercise hides a trap revealed by the numbers themselves: cheap unit prices are rarely cheap per kilo. And what fills the cart does not always fill the plate.

What was in the cart and what isn't real food

The video boasts of filling the cart with products under €1. The list includes muffins made with sunflower oil for less than a euro and packs of industrial biscuits for 75 cents. This is the first clash. Some analyses argue that this isn't food, but rather sugar in packaging: it provides calories but very little nutritional value per euro. Compared to skimmed milk, sliced bread, or non-probiotic dairy, the argument is that cured cheese or kefir offers better value than diluting your budget on products that only fill the stomach.

Why a pack of sweets costs more per kilo than ham?

A calculation circulating in the conversation provides a perfect example: twelve 8-gram boxes of mints at €1.50 per box equals an equivalent of €186 per kilo. More expensive than Iberian ham. The error is not the price, but the arithmetic: looking at the packaging instead of the small label showing the price per kilo. The quick response is immediate—no one eats 200 grams of sweets in one sitting—and that nuance is exactly the heart of the matter. Comparing apples to oranges is easy; comparing the price per useful serving is not.

What the video failed to show

The most repeated criticism is not about the cost, but about how incomplete it is. Entire aisles where real savings could be found were missing: canned goods, nuts, pasta, rice, or household cleaning products. The list of what was omitted includes crushed tomatoes at €0.43 per 400g, cocktail sausages at €0.95 per 185g, shelled sunflower seeds at €0.90 per 200g, cat litter at €0.85 for 5kg, or mineral water at €0.56 for 6 liters. The underlying message: anyone truly looking to tighten their budget doesn't stop at pastries; they go down to the basics. *Lonchafinismo* (a term used to describe extreme budget-conscious eating), properly understood, is something else entirely.

Eating truly cheap: three days for 10 euros

Aside from the video, a practical breakdown shows how far a budget can be stretched without relying on ultra-processed industry: three portions of porrusalda (leek and potato soup), three of broccoli, three turkey fillets, two persimmons, and two bananas, rounding up to ten euros including soup, coffee, and yogurts. The result is €3.33 a day for three meals, without sausages or sliced bread. It is not an advertising diet, they acknowledge, but the repetitive food of someone who prioritizes cost per nutrient over variety. The figure, according to the person sharing it, aims to debunk the common belief that eating well is expensive.

Argentina vs. Spain: the invisible dollar

The context of origin weighs on every comparison. An Argentine participant translates the prices using two different exchange rates: the official one, which only some can buy, and the real market rate, which is much higher. With the official rate, Spanish food costs half as much; with the real rate, it remains cheaper than in Argentina in almost all categories, except for meat, vegetables, and eggs. Regarding why so many people post about their move and encourage others to do the same, one explanation is less epic than it seems: surprise at low prices and a desire to prove to those back home that the leap was worth it.

Where the analysis gets stuck

The conversation starts with the price per kilo and ends, as almost always, somewhere else. For some, the video is a simple saving guide; for others, a showcase of a country that boasts of being cheap while filling its carts with ultra-processed foods. And a third, harsher line, reads it as a call to action. Three readings of the same shopping cart, none able to reconcile with the other two. The missing label wasn't the price: it was what on earth we are actually buying.