I don't know the realities of the weird city life Americans experience, but the places I've lived in Europe make this trivial. First off, buying groceries and

I don't know the realities of the weird city life Americans experience, but the places I've lived in Europe make this trivial. First off, buying groceries and cooking is a huge money saver - if you're worried about the cost of public transport, the savings you get from cooking are also on your mind - you can easily eat healthy meals with plenty of meat and vegetables and still come out x3 cheaper than fast food here(never mind having to eat out - you're looking at x5-x10!) It doesn't take a lot of effort to cook, once you get over the mental hurdle. Most of the meals I know how to make are a variation of "put stuff in container, apply heat", all taking 10-15 minutes to prepare. Another 10 minutes of chopping up a variety of vegetables for a salad and you have meals for several days straight, if you're living alone. Speaking of living alone, that's just not my experience. My family grew up poor, and lots of my friends lived on shoestring budgets. Everyone lived with their parents, their roommates, their new family. They shared stuff and helped each other out. The parents around the block I grew up at saved a lot of time by taking turns to invite all the neighbourhood kids for a dinner at a single place. My roommates would take turns cooking, and we'd all go on a single shopping trip during the weekend, everyone carrying bags home because taking the bus was a luxury. I'm not saying that given a set of circumstances, there aren't people who are capable to pay for fast food, and forced into doing so. What I am saying is that these circumstances arise over a lifetime of choices(not necessarily just theirs), and at some point you have to throw up your hands and say "well, stop doing that".