It cost me AUD$18.35 to buy a large burger, fries and onion rings at BK the other day.
I can feed myself for a week of meals a day for that much in groceries, especially if pooled quarterly and buying in bulk.
Mind sharing what you eat? I agree a burger is around $20 AUD, but I didn’t know I could stretch those same $20 eating something healthy and varied for weeks. I would have said two days personally
some people are too lazy to cook and too lazy to admit they’re lazy
excuses written here 🤦
they don’t have time to cook but they’ve time to write about it here. Eat all the shit you want but don’t justify it!Depends what groceries you get.
Rice, tortillas, beans, pasta, pasta sauce etc can be cheaper.
Chips, soda, gum, candy, cookies etc are often overpriced.
Red bell peppers by me are $2.50 each. It’s not just unhealthy food that’s overpriced. Also no clue where you are getting tortillas but I’ve never seen them cheap unless you make them yourself
During a pepper shortage, I realised I eat alot of peppers. The prices went ridiculous near me (they are back to normal now but made for an interesting few weeks)
That makes a certain amount of sense if you’re in the northern hemisphere where it’s currently winter. Odds are local bell pepper production is down, if not completely stopped, thanks to the cold. This will be true of all produce, although stores will offer loss leaders like bananas. Hardier produce (apples, potatoes, carrots, etc) will have smaller price fluctuations.
In general, processed food will cost more than its unprocessed counterpart. It’s true that some “healthy” food can be expensive, but you can still save money and avoid the salt and fats in processed food by buying low cost one (or few) ingredient inputs like dry beans and grains, in season fresh fruit/veg, canned/frozen veg, etc.
Maybe it’s a regional thing. Tortillas are pretty cheap here.
Overpriced, but still cheaper in absolute value compared to real food. Real food is more expensive but it provides what junk food can’t: nutrition.
Please also avoid getting groceries in supermarkets. General grocery store or a bazaar is way cheaper. And you support local merchants this way.
I’ve seen people make this decision.
It’s not sound, the math doesn’t work out, not in the US, at least.
Your cost per meal is gonna be cheaper when you buy groceries and cook yourself, every time.
Not necessarily, depends on the groceries. If you shop irresponsibly, you can spend just as much if not more on groceries.
I’ve done the math for my area. $200 at Trader Joe’s covers family of four for about 7 to 10 days, breakfast, snacks, dinner and coffee. Lunch is usually leftovers. Even eating cheaply at my local Vietnamese place is like $8 a meal, and while the kids can split a pho, that’s still over $30 after tax and tip. And that’s cheapest - other places easily hit over $80 per meal.
Just tonight we made pesto pasta with chicken sausage and portabella mushrooms. $1 pasta, $3 sauce (or make your own, basil is about that price), $3 mushrooms, $4 sausage. Kids love it, cooks very easy, and saves well. It’s not the healthiest, but they had apples earlier so it wasn’t all bad.
Even if it’s just for one, all the ingredients can be halved and saved for a while, unless you love leftovers (and I do love leftovers). Just always prioritize breads asap, and freeze meats you don’t use unless they’re preserved like sausage. Frozen veggies are much easier to work with, too. Easy money.
It’s less-true when cooking for 1. Food doesn’t last forever, so you can’t save as much by buying in bulk, and there scopes a point where the small cost savings may not be worth the extra time required. I’m not gonna spend several extra hours a week on shopping, cooking, and cleaning to save 3 dollars a meal.
Food doesn’t last forever, so you can’t save as much by buying in bulk
You can get around this by favoring shelf stable staples, frozen foods, foods that take a long time to go bad like carrots and onions. I also have some silicone gallon bags I use to freeze banana and avocado slices, since fresh is generally cheaper than frozen for those.
Food doesn’t last forever
True but have you tried
- vacuum sealing
- freezing
- glass jars
because to be honest I’m still shocked at how efficient that is. You can cook in batch then if the seal is done properly that stuff will last for a LONG long while. All those techniques require a bit of upfront cost (vacuum seal ~$100, freezer $300, jars $10 each but requires boiling water so ~$100) but when done properly (which isn’t hard to learn) even texture will be preserved and it does not take long.
Source : I do all that even though I don’t cook for 1, it’s great to cook in batch, eat fresh then preserve some to have a rotation of meals that is not boring yet have “last minute backups” when you don’t have the time to cook.
I used to eat out all the time and I had the same mentality as you. I save money and it was convient. I calculate how many hours and I compare that to my hourly rate. That is valid.
But when I actually started to enjoy making my own food, the time wasn’t a waste anymore. What I saw as convience, I started to see as something against eating healthier.
Eating at restaurants you have to pay tip. I also have to wait for delivery. Instead of just going food shopping once a week, I have to go out and get food like twice a day.
Some meals only took me 30 minutes to make and 15 minutes to clean up. What exactly am I saving that time for that’s more important than eating healthier and having food exactly how I want it?
Have you tried making larger meals and freezing extra portions for future meals?
It’s a good idea, but it probably works better for some people than for others. I get sick of the same meal too many times in a row. My ex used to prep meals for a week and get tired of whatever he made by the 3rd day. It’s like we reach a satiation point, and there’s only so much room in the freezer/fridge to keep a variety of pre-cooked meals on hand.
I get that’s somewhat of a privileged problem to have, as I have subsisted on beans and rice for quite a while before. But if I can’t afford a trip or a house or really much in the way of luxuries at all, damn it, I’m going to at least eat something I enjoy.
The worst ratio I’ve had when making the same thing I could buy at a restaurant was 2x as cheap. Usually it’s at least 5x - 10x cheaper for us to stay home and cook the same thing ourselves. US based.
Yeah I’m open to people telling me they don’t have the time, skill or energy to cook their own meals. I understand that. Just don’t try to tell me it’s cheaper to eat out. That ain’t ever true.
Yep. Labor costs something so it cannot be cheaper to have someone make it for you. Wild that anyone claims differently. Just a complete lack of understanding, but that’s the times we’re in.
Hmm but what if you account for your own labor?
I can’t bill time spent in the kitchen. So cooking has an alternative cost.
It’s probably still cheaper to cook but maybe not as much. Definitely cheaper to cook when not alone though.
I’m going to be either sitting at a restaurant not getting paid or cooking in my kitchen not getting paid. Either way it’s always cheaper to not spend money in the restaurant. My labor is moot.
Tbh I meant that in the case of takeout. Which in my country is still fairly cheap to order.
An actual meal eaten sitting down at a restaurant, to me, is less for nutrition and more for the experience and enjoyment.
You know you can call a restaurant and just take the food when it’s done right? You also need to somehow have food to cook in your kitchen, the restaurant always does. Your labor isn’t moot it does have value and so does your free time. If cooking is the same as having free time for you that’s great but not everyone feels that way.
Actually I think a Costco rotisserie chicken may actually be cheaper than a raw whole chicken, but that’s a loss leader and it’s still sold in a grocery store, not a restaurant. Also you need a few more things to make a meal, but it comes damn close to beating the rule.
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Just a complete lack of understanding,
seems you completely lack the understanding that your labor also costs something. but don’t forget to be smug about it and blame the times we are in 😂
You’re missing the point.
Labor costs something so it cannot be cheaper to have someone make it for you.
what a surprise, your labor also costs something, so it can be cheaper for someone to make it for you
Wild that anyone claims differently.
someone would claim differently, because - guess what - you are not the only person in the world and people’s circumstances may be different than yours. shocking, i know, take a minute to absorb that fact.
Just a complete lack of understanding, but that’s the times we’re in.
so now when that complete lack of understanding on YOUR part have been cleared, you can tell me - what is the point i am missing? i am really curious.
Except your own labor also has value, calculate your hourly rate in and you get a very different result.
Who out there on a such a flexible schedule that their choices are either make a sandwich or work an extra 5 minutes??
I could work an extra hour if I want. If that would cover 12 sandwiches, I would do it, too.
Wut? Are we back to the sandwich now? You’ve been talking about someones time and skill to cook earlier. You also need to buy all the stuff organize the left leftovers etc. Respect if you can provide yourself meals in just 5 minutes everyday. I would plan like 1-2 hours daily for it.
1-2 hrs a day for a single person is wacky unless youre scratch cooking. Even then, you do it in bulk and freeze meals so those hours ripple across the week.
As an example, i made a batch of chili recently that took about 1-2 hours of actual labor in gathering ingredients, cooking and freezing. That worked out to 6 large bowls of chile. That 2 days of food if you eat 3x a day, but calorie wise its probally 3 days of food. I could have easily bulked those 6 servings to 9 with some rice/qouina/etc.
Tons of meals out there that are faster if you use some frozen things like mixed vegtables and meats/etc. 10-30 minutes of labor to get a days meals is fully possible. Its not hard to cook for a week with maybe 3-5 hours, depending on you level of skill and preferences.
lot of people. you really seem to have problem accepting the basic fact there are other people in the world and not everyone is your copy.
Normally a restaurant will spend 25-30% of the final price on food. If it’s less than that you’re being fed cheap, overpriced slop.
Restaurant/take out food is minimum one third food costs, one third labor and one third overhead and profit.
Labor will be the highest cost, it almost always is in business. But yeah, point made.
You’ve clearly never worked in a kitchen.
Nowadays there’s always a good chance that the largest cost is rent.
Some “regular” grocery stores do have really terrible prices. Like shockingly, “over twice as expensive as Costco” bad.
You can save a ton of money shopping around via their online stores, but I’m not sure most buyers realize this.
Storage is often the problem. Having the right containers, space in a fridge/cabinet/counter for the food and containers (when not in use) is a problem that needs solving. These are also an added cost that are not necessarily in budget.
You’re right that the math works out that the savings are worth the hassle. Many folks are not ready for that level of persistent multi step hassle. They are hungry and want food now.
The cost between groceries and takeout is getting pretty close in Canada at least. You can get food for like $15 which is pretty comparable if you’re using meat in your home cooked meal
Your cost per meal is gonna be cheaper when you buy groceries and cook yourself, every time.
that a wild claim. if you cook for one, for example, you are buying stuff in bigger packages than you need, there will be leftovers, plus you need to calculate the cost of your time.
Leftovers is part of the cost savings.
i mean leftover ingredients, because something simply wasn’t available in small enough package
That’s just more food you can cook into other meals…
not really how it works, fresh food has expiration date
Yes, many foods is going to expire if you don’t eat quickly enough.
Managing your food stores is a life skill and it’s one that takes some people more time than others to hone to a point where your food waste is minimal.
That doesn’t make eating at restaurants or getting take out cheaper per meal than cooking at home.
Have you heard of soup? Soup’s great. Don’t sleep on soup.
That doesn’t make eating at restaurants or getting take out cheaper per meal than cooking at home.
yes, that is exactly what it means. some people just don’t want to treat food like a strategy game where you need 7 days plan ahead and fridge full of stuff that you may throw out.
you also completely ignored the issue of price of your time that cooking takes.
why are you so bent on proving nonsense? no one forces you to do anything or change your ways, just accept that what is best strategy for you may not be best or cheapest strategy for everyone, because their circumstances are different, and move on.
That’s just part of meal planning, buying things you can use to make multiple things.
At worst you throw some one off ingredients out and still saved money. A few things are break even and worth having someone who knows what they are doing make it, but even buying spices for a specific dish should mean having them on hand when you make it a month later with some minimal planning.
At worst you throw some one off ingredients out and still saved money.
yeah, buying something and then throwing it away, that is one saving money strategy i haven’t heard of 😂 for the rest, i’ll link you to this reponse, so i don’t produce a wall of spam here. https://lemmy.zip/post/56225376/23704544
It’s still cheaper to get groceries instead of ordering. Groceries require you to pay upfront but you get more out of it over pay per dish plus delivery.
Yeah, the grocery store and food supply chains have been jacking up prices on everyone. Restaurants aren’t somehow magically immune from paying the higher food prices.
would be funnier if the takeout price went up
Well the comic is titled 8 dollar footlong. As opposed to 5 dollar footlong.
It probably would have irl.
glances around nervously in Canadian
