7 ms·

> I have friends who eat out every single meal of every single day. I have friends who do too but it's not because they don't know how to cook, it's because th

by astura 7y ago

> I have friends who eat out every single meal of every single day. I have friends who do too but it's not because they don't know how to cook, it's because they don't like to and don't wanna bother and can afford the luxury of having someone else to do it for them.

jdgiese 7y ago
I love cooking sometimes, but then again, other-times I would rather spend my time working on a client project. When you add up the time spent: 1. planning meals (may be minimal if you can ad-hoc quickly) 2. walking/driving to the grocery store 3. cooking 4. cleaning It can easily be more expensive for an individual person (or even a couple) to cook than it is to eat out. (I think this makes intuitive sense too, since there are economies of scale and efficiencies with how restaurants are run.) If you love cooking, then you are doing it for fun---thats great! But I think for people who don't like cooking, it can be rational to eat out for most meals. Many people are not paid at an hourly rate, so this analysis may not make sense for them. (Also, where I live, there are plenty of healthy and cheap places to eat out at.)
- the_gastropod 7y ago
  If you care about it, it's easy to save money by cooking yourself with this one crazy trick: leftovers. It takes very little extra effort to make a much larger batch of whatever you're cooking. It's pretty simple to cook ~10 servings of a solid meal that costs ~$0.25 (e.g., Chana Masala w/ brown rice) each with about ~2 hours of time all in with grocery shopping + cooking + cleaning. Sure, if you're making $200+/hour and would do none of these things, it might be slightly cheaper to get delivery. But... I suspect that scenario is very uncommon.
  - lordCarbonFiber 7y ago
    Sure, but now you're eating the same thing for a week. I lived that way in college, it was great for saving money. Now i can afford to do a combination of delivery and blueapron style box'o'ingredients and enjoy the increased variety with less mental overhead (buying, prepping, and storing multiple servings for one has its own issues).
  - astura 7y ago
    The trade off here is that now you're eating the same meal for 10 meals straight. Most people would rather not do that if they could afford not to. It doesn't particularly bother me to eat the same thing everyday, but some people absolutely hate it. I am good friends with someone who absolutely refuses to eat leftovers, ever.
- tomatocracy 7y ago
  I think this is why the usual advice is usually 'learn a few dishes you like', not 'cook something new every day'. Once you have a few recipes nailed, you don't need to spend time planning etc, and you can work out a pattern whereby you know exactly what to buy each time you go to the store (which you'd be doing anyway) without needing to think. And for washing/cleaning up, there are dishwashers.
- ako 7y ago
  You need your daily excercise, going to the shop, cooking, cleaning all count towards 10k steps per day on your Fitbit.
the_gastropod 7y ago
I have a suspicion this kind of living, in part, explains why so many people are miserable. I feel like removing every inconvenient thing from your life, and "having someone else do it for you" must make your ability to handle discomfort atrophy to the point where the tiniest unpleasantness feels like a catastrophe. Like muscles, your brain, your immune system, etc., we need a little discomfort / struggle once in a while to grow. Systematically removing all discomfort from our lives seems both expensive and self-destructive.
- chrissnell 7y ago
  I believe that your comment is spot-on. As one part of the population goes further and further towards living in a world where we get everything we need from a smartphone, another part of the population has figured out that this is the road to misery and is running quickly in the other direction, embracing stoicism, cold showers, and Crossfit workouts. A podcast I listen to calls this "ordinary misery" and stresses the need to bring as much of it into our lives as we can stand.
  - lozf 7y ago
    Interesting! Please link or name the podcast, thanks.
  - acoma12 7y ago
    Which podcast is that?
- Invictus0 7y ago
  Sounds like you're projecting the habits of your personal circle onto the masses: most people are nowhere remotely near the point of removing every inconvenience from their lives. I don't know a lot of miserable rich people either.
  - astura 7y ago
    Yeah, seems very weird to judge someone so harshly for simply not wanting to cook and then go on to accuse them of being miserable. I mean, does someone who's spouse does the shopping and cooking get the same judgement? Absolutely not! Neither do people who hire a landscaper instead of doing their own yardwork. Nor do people who drive a mile to the store instead of walking or biking there. Nor do couples who have multiple cars when one of them doesn't work (or they both work in the same direction) Anyways, these people I'm talking about upthread still go to work everyday, do their own laundry, clean their houses, scrub their toilets, do their yardwork, do their taxes, work out regularly, run errands, and probably hundreds of other things that cause minor inconvenience. It's not like they are doing nothing but sitting on the couch poking at their phones. It's not my kinda thing, personally. Mostly because food in general just isn't at all important to me.
alexfoo 7y ago
> can afford the luxury of having someone else to do it for them. Sure, but for my situation it works out that by cooking the majority of the time I'll be able to retire 1-2 years earlier. Save $10 a day on food most days ~= $3000/year, over 20 years ~= $60k. I also enjoy eating out more as it is more of 'treat' (and less of a chore to some extent).
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- loco5niner 7y ago
  Yes, but if we are talking strictly numbers, we have to consider opportunity cost. I do love cooking, but I can make way more than $10 in 1 or 2 hours.
sharadov 7y ago
It's not about affording it dude, I got a cook who comes and cooks for me, have a meal delivery service as well, but I also like to cook.Period. Nothing to do with luxury BS.

by astura 7y ago

jdgiese 7y ago

I love cooking sometimes, but then again, other-times I would rather spend my time working on a client project. When you add up the time spent: 1. planning meals (may be minimal if you can ad-hoc quickly) 2. walking/driving to the grocery store 3. cooking 4. cleaning It can easily be more expensive for an individual person (or even a couple) to cook than it is to eat out. (I think this makes intuitive sense too, since there are economies of scale and efficiencies with how restaurants are run.) If you love cooking, then you are doing it for fun---thats great! But I think for people who don't like cooking, it can be rational to eat out for most meals. Many people are not paid at an hourly rate, so this analysis may not make sense for them. (Also, where I live, there are plenty of healthy and cheap places to eat out at.)

the_gastropod 7y ago
If you care about it, it's easy to save money by cooking yourself with this one crazy trick: leftovers. It takes very little extra effort to make a much larger batch of whatever you're cooking. It's pretty simple to cook ~10 servings of a solid meal that costs ~$0.25 (e.g., Chana Masala w/ brown rice) each with about ~2 hours of time all in with grocery shopping + cooking + cleaning. Sure, if you're making $200+/hour and would do none of these things, it might be slightly cheaper to get delivery. But... I suspect that scenario is very uncommon.
- lordCarbonFiber 7y ago
  Sure, but now you're eating the same thing for a week. I lived that way in college, it was great for saving money. Now i can afford to do a combination of delivery and blueapron style box'o'ingredients and enjoy the increased variety with less mental overhead (buying, prepping, and storing multiple servings for one has its own issues).
- astura 7y ago
  The trade off here is that now you're eating the same meal for 10 meals straight. Most people would rather not do that if they could afford not to. It doesn't particularly bother me to eat the same thing everyday, but some people absolutely hate it. I am good friends with someone who absolutely refuses to eat leftovers, ever.
tomatocracy 7y ago
I think this is why the usual advice is usually 'learn a few dishes you like', not 'cook something new every day'. Once you have a few recipes nailed, you don't need to spend time planning etc, and you can work out a pattern whereby you know exactly what to buy each time you go to the store (which you'd be doing anyway) without needing to think. And for washing/cleaning up, there are dishwashers.
ako 7y ago
You need your daily excercise, going to the shop, cooking, cleaning all count towards 10k steps per day on your Fitbit.

the_gastropod 7y ago

I have a suspicion this kind of living, in part, explains why so many people are miserable. I feel like removing every inconvenient thing from your life, and "having someone else do it for you" must make your ability to handle discomfort atrophy to the point where the tiniest unpleasantness feels like a catastrophe. Like muscles, your brain, your immune system, etc., we need a little discomfort / struggle once in a while to grow. Systematically removing all discomfort from our lives seems both expensive and self-destructive.

chrissnell 7y ago
I believe that your comment is spot-on. As one part of the population goes further and further towards living in a world where we get everything we need from a smartphone, another part of the population has figured out that this is the road to misery and is running quickly in the other direction, embracing stoicism, cold showers, and Crossfit workouts. A podcast I listen to calls this "ordinary misery" and stresses the need to bring as much of it into our lives as we can stand.
- lozf 7y ago
  Interesting! Please link or name the podcast, thanks.
- acoma12 7y ago
  Which podcast is that?
Invictus0 7y ago
Sounds like you're projecting the habits of your personal circle onto the masses: most people are nowhere remotely near the point of removing every inconvenience from their lives. I don't know a lot of miserable rich people either.
- astura 7y ago
  Yeah, seems very weird to judge someone so harshly for simply not wanting to cook and then go on to accuse them of being miserable. I mean, does someone who's spouse does the shopping and cooking get the same judgement? Absolutely not! Neither do people who hire a landscaper instead of doing their own yardwork. Nor do people who drive a mile to the store instead of walking or biking there. Nor do couples who have multiple cars when one of them doesn't work (or they both work in the same direction) Anyways, these people I'm talking about upthread still go to work everyday, do their own laundry, clean their houses, scrub their toilets, do their yardwork, do their taxes, work out regularly, run errands, and probably hundreds of other things that cause minor inconvenience. It's not like they are doing nothing but sitting on the couch poking at their phones. It's not my kinda thing, personally. Mostly because food in general just isn't at all important to me.

alexfoo 7y ago

> can afford the luxury of having someone else to do it for them. Sure, but for my situation it works out that by cooking the majority of the time I'll be able to retire 1-2 years earlier. Save $10 a day on food most days ~= $3000/year, over 20 years ~= $60k. I also enjoy eating out more as it is more of 'treat' (and less of a chore to some extent).

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
loco5niner 7y ago
Yes, but if we are talking strictly numbers, we have to consider opportunity cost. I do love cooking, but I can make way more than $10 in 1 or 2 hours.

sharadov 7y ago

It's not about affording it dude, I got a cook who comes and cooks for me, have a meal delivery service as well, but I also like to cook.Period. Nothing to do with luxury BS.