I don’t mean for it to sound like that, but there’s a lot of stuff like that going around.
I only intend it as advice, not as an admonishment. I don’t think anyone who doesn’t follow my advice is a horrible and irresponsible person, because they might not have been able to follow it for whatever reason.
We need to solve the problem of food deserts, really. There needs to be a certain amount of people to support a grocery store, and unless this is a densely-populated urban area, not everyone can live near a grocery store. I had an idea a while back for decentralizing stores, or essentially reversing the trend of big-box stores, but right now it’s just a theory.
Also, providing basic social services would be a good start. State-level infrastructure should be supported and maintained a hell of a lot better than it currently is. Likewise, cracking down on gotcha capitalism, predatory lending, etc. is also something that we’ve barely even tried.
In addition to the various barriers to home cooking mentioned above, I have one to add from a previous co-worker.
She lived in her grandmother’s house. At any given time, so did many other members of her extended family and their acquaintances. When she left for work every day, she had no idea who would come and go from the house throughout the day. She could not store any groceries that did not become “community food” and disappear while she was out.
So to her, I had the luxury of bringing a bag lunch while she had to buy fast food.
My sister had a similar problem with an ex. Any food she would buy,he would eat all of it while she was at work. No,he was not contributing to the household income, either.
McDonald’s isn’t setting the bar very high. Don’t overlook places like Kraft for easy ideas, which they’ve been collecting from the days of “busy housewives in a hurry”.
Last week I made these, which were easy, quick and tasty and the extras can go in the freezer:
You see those here in Austin. I subscribed to one earlier this year and i was majorly disappointed, though it’s not a criticism of the CSA model but to the particular one i used. I was forced into subscribing for a small box of veggies i had to pick up every week, when my preference would’ve been every other week. Fine whatever, and then i notice that instead of changing the selection of veggies every week they were mostly the same. A large head of cabbage, a ton of carrots, turnips and beets, a lot of cilantro, and a few other small random things. Every week.. The same things. I got really tired of forcing myself to eat carrots and cabbage and when my subscription was up i told them not to renew.
I am extremely lucky to have absolutely none of those problems in my life, and I love to cook. I stick to relatively simple recipes, with not too much active time, and I have every appliance/utensil/pan I need, and no kids. And making my and my wife’s food for the week (I condense it so I can have multiple things going at once and also do other chores during inactive time) plus grocery shopping still takes more than half a day once a week.
No way in hell would I even attempt to consistently cook for myself if I were working under the conditions that far too many people have to deal with.
OTOH, when my coworkers (whose salary and sometimes living situations I know with decent precision) complain about not having time to cook… that’s a different story.
It’s a sad reality of the modern world that if you don’t have a CC, and therefore can’t build credit, you will have a lot more down payments to deal with (even for utilities and the like) - you will have to deal with things like overdraft fees and “account balance fees” that those in better financial situations don’t even think about - and worse - if you do end up paying these fees, you may not have the funds necessary to correct the problem, leading to a vicious circle (or worse, borrowing against future paychecks at a payday lender, at some of the worst interest rates anywhere.
Then, add to that the likelihood that you are forced to work shift hours, weekends or holidays to make ends meet, your health suffers, you have poor nutrition because you don’t get to choose your meals, your available funds and time do…
Ugh.
So many people never consider this side of poverty - they just assume all the fast food purchasing is laziness. I reiterate my earlier point - the real travesty is not providing cheap, healthy “fast food” options in the first place.
And what if you have kids with friends from equally poor households? Especially teenagers.
They will descend like locusts, and you’re stuck with either feeding people you can’t afford to feed, or teaching you kids not to share- Which we could make a whole list of issues with.
I was listening to a story on NPR this afternoon about how climate change is affecting Central American farmers and how they are having to modify their crops to adapt to the pestilence and issues associated with a changing climate. One of the farmers mentioned that he has started a beehive and that the hive can produce two harvests a year of honey, which he can sell for a total of about $9 per year. This $9 is the difference between utter poverty for him and his family, and just squeaking by.
$9.
Made me feel both thankful and spoiled rotten at the same time.
One of the most creative meals my mom ever made was a chicken liver casserole - it was also infamously… untasty, unlike her usually awesome tuna casserole. My sister had unexpected company and there wasn’t enough of the planned meal to stretch, probably the chicken the liver came from. A lot of times ‘whats on hand that needs to be cooked’ casserole is great, sometimes not.
And there’s this:
Which - years later - became that casserole’s theme song.
During college, and then during the last recession, I had pared my food budget down to about $80-$100 each month, with sufficient use of fruits and vegetables.
Occasionally, I’d do some Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese, but followed my mom’s advice and stayed well away from things like Hamburger Helper, Stovetop, or ramen due to the sky-high sodium content.
Personally, I’ve always loved using a rice cooker, because rice or pasta free up one’s budget for a few food perks here and there, not to mention being a decent filler.
Food prices have doubled if not tripled since I’ve been in college.
Still, fast food is not nearly as cheap as it seems, compared to homecooked meals. A fast-food burger is about as expensive as home-cooked roast duck. Of course, there are a lot of other variables to consider.
During my college years i could buy a ton of food for myself, if i shopped smartly i could fill up a shopping cart and spend 60-80 bucks. These days i have to be somewhat conservative in what i buy to spend that much for a month’s worth of food. Thankfully money isn’t tight like it used to be, it’s kind of liberating not having to stress over min-maxing my purchases.
I try to, more so as a smart shopper but not to the extent i used to. There’s some pretty insidious tactics grocery stores will sometimes use like: The price of an extra large bottle of ketchup will cost 10% more than if you bought 2 regular sized bottles of ketchup. People will sometimes think that the larger size must be a better deal (because bulk), but it’s not usually the case for certain things.
