4 ms·

Yes, when I eat fast food, it's always from the value menu. But if you're strapped for cash, $3 per meal on a consistent basis still adds up, compared to <$1 m

Yes, when I eat fast food, it's always from the value menu. But if you're strapped for cash, $3 per meal on a consistent basis still adds up, compared to <$1 meals prepared at home and ready to grab from the fridge. Certainly convenience & taste is a factor in these decisions as well, but if the primary pain point is raw cost for your baseline consumption because you have no money to spare, you really should be kitchen-based. Of course, all of this assumes that one is being financially sensitive, and not just impulse spending without realizing how much is trickling out. Too many people I know who struggle with their meager finances (even if they make similar or more than I do) are entirely too flippant and just go for the $10 combo meal, not realizing how often they're "treating themselves" and how it's adding up against their monthly balance.

s73v3r_ 8y ago
"compared to <$1 meals prepared at home and ready to grab from the fridge." They're never "ready to grab". They take time and effort, and do require knowledge to prepare. They also require you to then do the dishes after. For someone who's working multiple jobs, that may be time they just plain don't have.
- white-flame 8y ago
  They're ready to grab if you sensibly prepare a bunch of food ahead of time, once or twice a week. Nobody who's strapped for time starts from scratch every meal, and our American fridges are plenty large. Besides, if I may rant a bit: If you have no money, then time, effort, knowledge, and social currency is what you have to spend to get by. Either you're going to spend those things, or spend money you don't have which will make your immediate future immediately worse. This is a situation that sucks to be in, and the only way to have any sense of even partially managing this is discipline. Many of us have grown up in and/or lived through these sorts of situations as adults, and you simply do what you have to and try to be smart about it. Obviously you need to put in time and effort, and do the dishes. But you can buffer things a bit to match your schedule, or establish specific routines, and any little lessening or organization of crunch is a huge affirming step. If you step back for a bit you also see that maintaining your health (including having mental and physical energy) is super important when you have no money and are working hard, and so making food at home hits multiple critically important facets. It does not matter that it takes effort, what matters is that you put forth effort commensurate to what you're facing. And to position this back to the initial contentious point, it reaffirms my position that it is not an issue of healthy groceries being somehow priced higher, but rather that of stressful life situations that people turn to convenience food (with the time sink of shopping/shorter-prep/cleanup or driving/ordering/waiting at restaurants still intact).
  - s73v3r_ 8y ago
    "They're ready to grab if you sensibly prepare a bunch of food ahead of time" Families with parents who work multiple jobs are laughing their asses off at this idea of having time to do that. "Besides, if I may rant a bit:" Only if you want to show how out of touch you are.
    - white-flame 8y ago
      Then I truly and seriously feel sorry for them if they consider managing their situation to be a laughable absurdity. But be careful not to project that as the expected case, and ignore the reality of others' lives (yes, like mine and family & friends around me, if it's even necessary to state). That's dangerous tribalism that normalizes failure.
      - s73v3r_ 8y ago
        "I truly and seriously feel sorry for them if they consider managing their situation to be a laughable absurdity." No, they just have to laugh at people like you telling them that all they have to do is "manage their situation", because otherwise they would have to cry at exactly how out of touch everyone else is with what they're going through. "That's dangerous tribalism that normalizes failure." Do you remember what website you're on? This is the community that praises and lauds failure, but apparently only when it happens to certain people.
        white-flame 8y ago
        I don't think you read my rant at all. Times like that suck, and you have to work hard. Stating "I have to work hard!" is just a tautology in that situation. "Managing their situation" is even in the little baby steps, not some silver bullet to turn it into a cakewalk. I don't know what exactly you're projecting on me (or how I'm somehow different than "them", giving "them" more of a voice), but I was certainly talking about being in the miserable times, with no available money or time, not casting down edicts from an ivory tower of disconnected comfort.
  - 8y ago

s73v3r_ 8y ago

"compared to <$1 meals prepared at home and ready to grab from the fridge." They're never "ready to grab". They take time and effort, and do require knowledge to prepare. They also require you to then do the dishes after. For someone who's working multiple jobs, that may be time they just plain don't have.

white-flame 8y ago
They're ready to grab if you sensibly prepare a bunch of food ahead of time, once or twice a week. Nobody who's strapped for time starts from scratch every meal, and our American fridges are plenty large. Besides, if I may rant a bit: If you have no money, then time, effort, knowledge, and social currency is what you have to spend to get by. Either you're going to spend those things, or spend money you don't have which will make your immediate future immediately worse. This is a situation that sucks to be in, and the only way to have any sense of even partially managing this is discipline. Many of us have grown up in and/or lived through these sorts of situations as adults, and you simply do what you have to and try to be smart about it. Obviously you need to put in time and effort, and do the dishes. But you can buffer things a bit to match your schedule, or establish specific routines, and any little lessening or organization of crunch is a huge affirming step. If you step back for a bit you also see that maintaining your health (including having mental and physical energy) is super important when you have no money and are working hard, and so making food at home hits multiple critically important facets. It does not matter that it takes effort, what matters is that you put forth effort commensurate to what you're facing. And to position this back to the initial contentious point, it reaffirms my position that it is not an issue of healthy groceries being somehow priced higher, but rather that of stressful life situations that people turn to convenience food (with the time sink of shopping/shorter-prep/cleanup or driving/ordering/waiting at restaurants still intact).
- s73v3r_ 8y ago
  "They're ready to grab if you sensibly prepare a bunch of food ahead of time" Families with parents who work multiple jobs are laughing their asses off at this idea of having time to do that. "Besides, if I may rant a bit:" Only if you want to show how out of touch you are.
  - white-flame 8y ago
    Then I truly and seriously feel sorry for them if they consider managing their situation to be a laughable absurdity. But be careful not to project that as the expected case, and ignore the reality of others' lives (yes, like mine and family & friends around me, if it's even necessary to state). That's dangerous tribalism that normalizes failure.
    - s73v3r_ 8y ago
      "I truly and seriously feel sorry for them if they consider managing their situation to be a laughable absurdity." No, they just have to laugh at people like you telling them that all they have to do is "manage their situation", because otherwise they would have to cry at exactly how out of touch everyone else is with what they're going through. "That's dangerous tribalism that normalizes failure." Do you remember what website you're on? This is the community that praises and lauds failure, but apparently only when it happens to certain people.
      - white-flame 8y ago
        I don't think you read my rant at all. Times like that suck, and you have to work hard. Stating "I have to work hard!" is just a tautology in that situation. "Managing their situation" is even in the little baby steps, not some silver bullet to turn it into a cakewalk. I don't know what exactly you're projecting on me (or how I'm somehow different than "them", giving "them" more of a voice), but I was certainly talking about being in the miserable times, with no available money or time, not casting down edicts from an ivory tower of disconnected comfort.
- 8y ago