5 ms·

This is never more apparent than when you start making your own stuff from scratch. The comparison is stark.

by foxyv 2mo ago

8by3 2mo ago
Totally, a huge swathe of things are better and cheaper when your make them yourself, you just need the time. Shame we've given up all our free time to work so we can buy worse alternatives.
- GlacierFox 2mo ago
  For a lot of my friends it's not about time. They'll proclaim their lack of time to make a simple meal, doom scroll for hours then order take-away then doom scroll half and hour while waiting for it to come.
  - customguy 2mo ago
    What about the rationalisations of those who cut corners and wine to make even more profit when they're already so rich it's become a health issue for them? How is it the sole responsibility of your friends to work around that? The idea is basically that it's "just the way it is" that the food we can buy in supermarkets, that is made in factories, that GIGANTIC amounts of real estate and logistics and energy are devoted to, that is made cheaper than it would be otherwise (and that is true even if it was awesome quality and mega healthy -- it would be more expensive, but less expensive than doing it yourself, economics of scale etc.) sucks, is unhealthy, you "shouldn't eat that". Just buy some veggies and do it yourself. It's not so hard to plant some tomatoes, either! Nevermind people in private jets doing airshows... I just can't with how lazy my friends are. It would take them 30 minutes max. It's not that you're wrong, of course. Both "sides" matter, and you always should mostly focus on what you control. But at the same time, it's better to punch up than kick down or sideways.
    - GlacierFox 2mo ago
      Unintelligible. Re-write this into something coherent so I can respond if you like.
- insane_dreamer 2mo ago
  sorry, got no time to eat healthy -- too busy scrolling!!
- phil21 2mo ago
  > Shame we've given up all our free time to work so we can buy worse alternatives. Not true on average. The average American spends 4-5 hours a day on personal screen time. And those who complain about not having time to cook I'd bet dollars to donuts are pulling that average up, if my personal lived experience is anything to go by. There is a case here in terms of two income households being the norm these days, but that's really about it. The average person today lives a life of far more comfort and convenience than even in the 90's.
  - deleted 2mo ago
    [deleted]
  - 8by3 2mo ago
    Doom scrolling is part of the free labour we are providing, in exchange for digital goods.
  - account42 2mo ago
    The average person doesn't exist.
customguy 2mo ago
Less and less people have time and money for that, for the same reason this stuff happens in the first place (i.e. greed and wealth consolidation). Put differently, if more people had time and money to do what you do, you wouldn't bother to do it, either.
- foxyv 2mo ago
  What? I make things from scratch because I'm broke AF.
  - somenameforme 2mo ago
    lol amen. I don't understand where this myth of it being expensive to do things yourself came from. It's not only cheaper but way way way cheaper. And that's comparing it to crap quality stuff. If you compare to what something of the same quality as you make would cost, then the difference is just ridiculous.
    - AlexandrB 2mo ago
      I think the myth comes from the upfront costs of cooking equipment and spices as well as expensive proteins like ground beef. If you cook with mostly starches like rice or potatoes and just some meat, there's no contest. The other thing that can make cooking expensive is buying too many different ingredients to make a fancy dish and having a bunch of leftover stuff that gets thrown out. But that's where soups come in.
      - foxyv 2mo ago
        I think most people don't know how to cook cheap stuff and don't even know where to start. It is a bit of a learned skill. You get a repertoire of cheap but delicious menu items over time. It used to be that our parents would hand them down like sacred family heirlooms on notecards in a greasy metal box. But our parents were way richer than us and they only kept the most delicious ones. One big hit for me was having to create an entirely new set of recipes when I cut out meat from my diet. It got really hard because plant protein is way different from animal protein. The processed vegetarian stuff is insanely expensive too.
linker3000 2mo ago
I find it apparent when I very occasionally take a break from making my own stuff from scratch and get a takeout.
bob1029 2mo ago
I have found it is roughly an order of magnitude cheaper to cook at home, even once you factor in the "lost" time. The amount of time required to prepare incrementally larger batches increases at a sub-linear rate. The bigger your batch, the more food you get per unit of wall clock time. I try to prepare no less than 3 lbs of dry beans or 2 lbs of beef at a time. Anything less does actually feel like I'm wasting my energy.
- krackers 2mo ago
  >roughly an order of magnitude cheaper to cook at home Why should this be the case in principle though? Do economies of scale not apply to food preparation?
  - AlexandrB 2mo ago
    They do and companies already take advantage of them. But even a fast food restaurant has a ton of additional overhead that you won't have by cooking at home (or some you won't include in your price of your homecooked meal): rent, salaries, utilities, taxes, shrinkage, maintenance, etc. So even if they can get the ingredients cheaper they can't compete with you on some of these factors and must also include others like utilities in the cost of the finished product where you will generally ignore them when thinking about how much it costs to cook dinner.
  - pessimizer 2mo ago
    In a lot of cases it's simple price fixing. If you want to be shocked, compare the prices of frozen potato products (like bagged hash browns and french fries) to the price of potatoes. There's like a 200% premium for simply cutting and flash freezing them. The machines have got to pay for themselves in an hour. Does it make economic sense? Yes, when you know that there is a frozen potato cartel: https://www.potatopro.com/news/2024/alleged-potato-cartel-accused-conspiring-raise-price-frozen-french-fries-tater-tots https://www.potatopro.com/news/2024/alleged-potato-cartel-ac...
    - foxyv 2mo ago

This is never more apparent than when you start making your own stuff from scratch. The comparison is stark.

by foxyv 2mo ago

This is never more apparent than when you start making your own stuff from scratch. The comparison is stark.

8by3 2mo ago

Totally, a huge swathe of things are better and cheaper when your make them yourself, you just need the time. Shame we've given up all our free time to work so we can buy worse alternatives.

GlacierFox 2mo ago
For a lot of my friends it's not about time. They'll proclaim their lack of time to make a simple meal, doom scroll for hours then order take-away then doom scroll half and hour while waiting for it to come.
- customguy 2mo ago
  What about the rationalisations of those who cut corners and wine to make even more profit when they're already so rich it's become a health issue for them? How is it the sole responsibility of your friends to work around that? The idea is basically that it's "just the way it is" that the food we can buy in supermarkets, that is made in factories, that GIGANTIC amounts of real estate and logistics and energy are devoted to, that is made cheaper than it would be otherwise (and that is true even if it was awesome quality and mega healthy -- it would be more expensive, but less expensive than doing it yourself, economics of scale etc.) sucks, is unhealthy, you "shouldn't eat that". Just buy some veggies and do it yourself. It's not so hard to plant some tomatoes, either! Nevermind people in private jets doing airshows... I just can't with how lazy my friends are. It would take them 30 minutes max. It's not that you're wrong, of course. Both "sides" matter, and you always should mostly focus on what you control. But at the same time, it's better to punch up than kick down or sideways.
  - GlacierFox 2mo ago
    Unintelligible. Re-write this into something coherent so I can respond if you like.
insane_dreamer 2mo ago
sorry, got no time to eat healthy -- too busy scrolling!!
phil21 2mo ago
> Shame we've given up all our free time to work so we can buy worse alternatives. Not true on average. The average American spends 4-5 hours a day on personal screen time. And those who complain about not having time to cook I'd bet dollars to donuts are pulling that average up, if my personal lived experience is anything to go by. There is a case here in terms of two income households being the norm these days, but that's really about it. The average person today lives a life of far more comfort and convenience than even in the 90's.
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
- 8by3 2mo ago
  Doom scrolling is part of the free labour we are providing, in exchange for digital goods.
- account42 2mo ago
  The average person doesn't exist.

customguy 2mo ago

Less and less people have time and money for that, for the same reason this stuff happens in the first place (i.e. greed and wealth consolidation). Put differently, if more people had time and money to do what you do, you wouldn't bother to do it, either.

foxyv 2mo ago
What? I make things from scratch because I'm broke AF.
- somenameforme 2mo ago
  lol amen. I don't understand where this myth of it being expensive to do things yourself came from. It's not only cheaper but way way way cheaper. And that's comparing it to crap quality stuff. If you compare to what something of the same quality as you make would cost, then the difference is just ridiculous.
  - AlexandrB 2mo ago
    I think the myth comes from the upfront costs of cooking equipment and spices as well as expensive proteins like ground beef. If you cook with mostly starches like rice or potatoes and just some meat, there's no contest. The other thing that can make cooking expensive is buying too many different ingredients to make a fancy dish and having a bunch of leftover stuff that gets thrown out. But that's where soups come in.
    - foxyv 2mo ago
      I think most people don't know how to cook cheap stuff and don't even know where to start. It is a bit of a learned skill. You get a repertoire of cheap but delicious menu items over time. It used to be that our parents would hand them down like sacred family heirlooms on notecards in a greasy metal box. But our parents were way richer than us and they only kept the most delicious ones. One big hit for me was having to create an entirely new set of recipes when I cut out meat from my diet. It got really hard because plant protein is way different from animal protein. The processed vegetarian stuff is insanely expensive too.

linker3000 2mo ago

I find it apparent when I very occasionally take a break from making my own stuff from scratch and get a takeout.

bob1029 2mo ago

I have found it is roughly an order of magnitude cheaper to cook at home, even once you factor in the "lost" time. The amount of time required to prepare incrementally larger batches increases at a sub-linear rate. The bigger your batch, the more food you get per unit of wall clock time. I try to prepare no less than 3 lbs of dry beans or 2 lbs of beef at a time. Anything less does actually feel like I'm wasting my energy.

krackers 2mo ago
>roughly an order of magnitude cheaper to cook at home Why should this be the case in principle though? Do economies of scale not apply to food preparation?
- AlexandrB 2mo ago
  They do and companies already take advantage of them. But even a fast food restaurant has a ton of additional overhead that you won't have by cooking at home (or some you won't include in your price of your homecooked meal): rent, salaries, utilities, taxes, shrinkage, maintenance, etc. So even if they can get the ingredients cheaper they can't compete with you on some of these factors and must also include others like utilities in the cost of the finished product where you will generally ignore them when thinking about how much it costs to cook dinner.
- pessimizer 2mo ago
  In a lot of cases it's simple price fixing. If you want to be shocked, compare the prices of frozen potato products (like bagged hash browns and french fries) to the price of potatoes. There's like a 200% premium for simply cutting and flash freezing them. The machines have got to pay for themselves in an hour. Does it make economic sense? Yes, when you know that there is a frozen potato cartel: https://www.potatopro.com/news/2024/alleged-potato-cartel-accused-conspiring-raise-price-frozen-french-fries-tater-tots https://www.potatopro.com/news/2024/alleged-potato-cartel-ac...
  - foxyv 2mo ago