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Quick search... $3 for pack of 8 hamburger buns $4 for 2lb ground beef $3 for 10lb russett potatoes $4 for four apples $4 for a 52oz jug of OJ $18 total fo

Quick search... $3 for pack of 8 hamburger buns $4 for 2lb ground beef $3 for 10lb russett potatoes $4 for four apples $4 for a 52oz jug of OJ $18 total for ~8 "Happy Meal equivalents", or $2.25 per meal, so less than the actual Happy Meal, but you need 1. $20 cash to buy the supplies and 2. the time/equipment/knowledge to prepare the meals. Yes, the headlines are rage-bait, but fast food is still ridiculously inexpensive. Yes, you ca reproduce the fast food at home, or live on rice+beans, for less. But add some quality protein and a pile of fresh veg and the price goes up.

opprobium 3y ago
2 lb of ground beef is way more beef than a happy meal. A kids meal patty is only 1/10 of a lb, you've given enough for 20 kids meals. The rest of your numbers are similarly off: - you are giving each happy meal 1.25 lbs of potato!? - apple serving size is 1.2 ozs - An average apple is 8-10 ozs, 4 apples = 26 happy meals minimum. You realize how expensive fast food is if you are at all used to cooking at home from scratch all the time.
- anon291 3y ago
  He's the young man who doesn't cook for a family I was talking about I'm guessing.
  - alistairSH 3y ago
    My kid is 30. But yeah I’m cooking for two, not four or five.
- afavour 3y ago
  > You realize how expensive fast food is if you are at all used to cooking at home from scratch all the time. But cooking from scratch all the time has a time cost, too. Many families are time poor as well as money poor so there's a balancing act to be done.
  - opprobium 3y ago
    When I say "cooking from scratch", I specifically mean the super fast and easy stuff. Starting from raw materials doesn't mean you do anything complicated to it. For the burger example: buying pre-formed burger patties is still massively cheaper. Throwing a pre-formed burger patty from your fridge in a pan and putting it on a bun with a slice of cheese will take you ten minutes. Microwave small potatoes while you fry. You are done. There is no prep, you have made 1 easily washed pan and bowl for potatoes and your plate. Is it the exact same thing taste-wise as your fast food meal? No, the potatoes aren't fried, sorry. Does it hit all the macro nutrients for far cheaper, and probably less time than even going to the fast food place? Yes.
    - djbusby 3y ago
      Bag o'tots and an air fryer solves the "no fries" problem. Tots > Fries
  - int_19h 3y ago
    It does, but that is a highly subjective value that depends on the person in question. You can't just plug in the average wage for someone doing cooking for a living and assume it's meaningful. And you especially can't do that while running a clickbait headline that just straight up says fast food is cheaper without also explicitly and prominently explaining this caveat.
anon291 3y ago
I would download the safeway app. Hamburger buns are $1 usually. Ground beef is $0.99/lb. 10 lbs of russett potatoes makes way more than 8 happy meals. frozen orange juice is like $1 each. This is insanity, and exactly expresses my point above. And if you go to a food bank, it's all free. Most are throwing away entire grocery stores worth of food.

opprobium 3y ago

2 lb of ground beef is way more beef than a happy meal. A kids meal patty is only 1/10 of a lb, you've given enough for 20 kids meals. The rest of your numbers are similarly off: - you are giving each happy meal 1.25 lbs of potato!? - apple serving size is 1.2 ozs - An average apple is 8-10 ozs, 4 apples = 26 happy meals minimum. You realize how expensive fast food is if you are at all used to cooking at home from scratch all the time.

anon291 3y ago
He's the young man who doesn't cook for a family I was talking about I'm guessing.
- alistairSH 3y ago
  My kid is 30. But yeah I’m cooking for two, not four or five.
afavour 3y ago
> You realize how expensive fast food is if you are at all used to cooking at home from scratch all the time. But cooking from scratch all the time has a time cost, too. Many families are time poor as well as money poor so there's a balancing act to be done.
- opprobium 3y ago
  When I say "cooking from scratch", I specifically mean the super fast and easy stuff. Starting from raw materials doesn't mean you do anything complicated to it. For the burger example: buying pre-formed burger patties is still massively cheaper. Throwing a pre-formed burger patty from your fridge in a pan and putting it on a bun with a slice of cheese will take you ten minutes. Microwave small potatoes while you fry. You are done. There is no prep, you have made 1 easily washed pan and bowl for potatoes and your plate. Is it the exact same thing taste-wise as your fast food meal? No, the potatoes aren't fried, sorry. Does it hit all the macro nutrients for far cheaper, and probably less time than even going to the fast food place? Yes.
  - djbusby 3y ago
    Bag o'tots and an air fryer solves the "no fries" problem. Tots > Fries
- int_19h 3y ago
  It does, but that is a highly subjective value that depends on the person in question. You can't just plug in the average wage for someone doing cooking for a living and assume it's meaningful. And you especially can't do that while running a clickbait headline that just straight up says fast food is cheaper without also explicitly and prominently explaining this caveat.

anon291 3y ago

I would download the safeway app. Hamburger buns are $1 usually. Ground beef is $0.99/lb. 10 lbs of russett potatoes makes way more than 8 happy meals. frozen orange juice is like $1 each. This is insanity, and exactly expresses my point above. And if you go to a food bank, it's all free. Most are throwing away entire grocery stores worth of food.