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A lot of advice stories about eating cheaply often fail to achieve that goal because it is hard to do and requires a lot of effort. This is a recurring sentime

A lot of advice stories about eating cheaply often fail to achieve that goal because it is hard to do and requires a lot of effort. This is a recurring sentiment which speaks volumes about our culture. Complaints of "hard" and "a lot of effort" belies how incredibly rich this society is, that the notion of just making pasta or growing vegetables is somehow prohibitively difficult - not because it's inherently so hard, but because we're so used to "swipe a card, get a meal" at all levels of society. Even if you're officially "poor", just be at WalMart at midnight on EBT recharge day and walk out with convenience foods. For most of humanity through most of history, what so many today belittle as "hard" was "normal" on a daily basis. On my "A Buck A Plate" blog I've addressed various forms of this complaint. Difficulty? boil some water, open a few cans, spaghetti dinner done. Cost of cooking system (stove, gas, etc.)? grandma's ancient cast-iron frying pan over burning wood scraps in the back yard, make a nice veggies-and-shrimp stir fry. No cooking space indoors or out? $4 crock-pot and an electrical outlet. Cooking your own meals? c'mon, it's not that hard, really. Shopping for inexpensive? look at every price tag in the store (Walmart, Aldi) and discount everything over $1 per pound. Appliances? thrift shops overflow with them dirt cheap. Dried items? throw 'em in water before going to work, ready to cook when you return. Planning meals in advance? you really have an issue with this? Sure convenience foods are popular. You also pay for that convenience: instead of doing the work yourself, you work doing other things then exchange the money earned there. Do more yourself, and there's less need to be out doing other things. Don't confuse "you have to do something" with "hard to do and requires a lot of effort". If you watch TV at all you have no excuse.

itsybitsycoder 14y ago
I think as software developers, many of us are very disconnected with the lives of the very poor in our society. There are people out there working multiple full time jobs, or working full-time while raising young kids by themselves. It boggles my mind that you would consider these people lazy because they're dead on their feet when they arrive home... probably even software developers can think of days when they're too tired to cook, is it really so hard to imagine having to work so hard that those days are every day?
- ctdonath 14y ago
  I know it boggles your mind. I too shared the mindset susceptible to "I can't". Amazing how being dead for a few hours can change your perspective on such things. It must be done. Do it. Eradicate "I can't" from your vocabulary. Cut out all superfluous activity & costs. Unless you're in fact passing out onto the floor, you have the energy and time to do it. Yes, every day. I'm so far past tired and overwhelmed that they're just not excuses any more - it all still needs doing, and the alternative is being where I've been and I'm not keen on going back there.
  - scarmig 14y ago
    You're relying very heavily on this "well it's physically possible, that means if someone doesn't do it they don't really want to" trope. It's pretty lazy, I've got to say. Stop using it like a sledgehammer. No, don't say "I can't help but use it like a sledgehammer": try to make a new, novel suggestion beyond "just try harder!" Evidence that it's pretty damn lazy: you can use it anywhere. A Roman slave, upset about being worked really hard? "Well, other slaves have worked hard enough to buy their own freedom. Why don't you?" A poor person in rural India? "Well, at least one multibillionaire started out in the same position as you, and that was a couple decades ago in worse conditions. Try harder!" Defacto it's a crutch to shift responsibility away from the social structures we live in.
    - ctdonath 14y ago
      Again, I'll acknowledge some people truly can't. I've found they're a fairly small subset of those claiming/imputed "can't". We're not talking Roman slaves here. "Work 'til you drop or we'll kill you" isn't at issue. A poor person in rural India really is poor. Under $2/day income (world median) is poor. My sympathies and help. Blaming the social structures WE live in, no. Assistance, tools, opportunities, etc are prolific; if you're not using them, it's not because they're not available to you. Yes I'm leaning on the "if someone doesn't do it they don't really want to" trope. That's largely the POINT in this thread, as pointed out by others too. I just see far too much "golly, going to Walmart and buying beef/beans/sauce/seasoning for $5 and cooking it for 10 minutes to feed 4 is just too hard", which a poor rural Indian or a Roman slave would look on at with sheer astonishment.
dcalacci 14y ago
check your privilege
- abduhl 14y ago
  This is the most useless comment you can possibly post. If your only contribution is "check your privilege" then your contribution is worthless and you shouldn't even bother. It's playground sarcasm and offers nothing.
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sliverstorm 14y ago
Of course people used to work much harder to prepare their food. We've replaced harvesting your own food with working to pay for your food. The complaints of preparing a full meal being difficult are coming from a context of somebody who already spent 8+ hours working for their food that day, not somebody who is just being lazy.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

itsybitsycoder 14y ago

I think as software developers, many of us are very disconnected with the lives of the very poor in our society. There are people out there working multiple full time jobs, or working full-time while raising young kids by themselves. It boggles my mind that you would consider these people lazy because they're dead on their feet when they arrive home... probably even software developers can think of days when they're too tired to cook, is it really so hard to imagine having to work so hard that those days are every day?

ctdonath 14y ago
I know it boggles your mind. I too shared the mindset susceptible to "I can't". Amazing how being dead for a few hours can change your perspective on such things. It must be done. Do it. Eradicate "I can't" from your vocabulary. Cut out all superfluous activity & costs. Unless you're in fact passing out onto the floor, you have the energy and time to do it. Yes, every day. I'm so far past tired and overwhelmed that they're just not excuses any more - it all still needs doing, and the alternative is being where I've been and I'm not keen on going back there.
- scarmig 14y ago
  You're relying very heavily on this "well it's physically possible, that means if someone doesn't do it they don't really want to" trope. It's pretty lazy, I've got to say. Stop using it like a sledgehammer. No, don't say "I can't help but use it like a sledgehammer": try to make a new, novel suggestion beyond "just try harder!" Evidence that it's pretty damn lazy: you can use it anywhere. A Roman slave, upset about being worked really hard? "Well, other slaves have worked hard enough to buy their own freedom. Why don't you?" A poor person in rural India? "Well, at least one multibillionaire started out in the same position as you, and that was a couple decades ago in worse conditions. Try harder!" Defacto it's a crutch to shift responsibility away from the social structures we live in.
  - ctdonath 14y ago
    Again, I'll acknowledge some people truly can't. I've found they're a fairly small subset of those claiming/imputed "can't". We're not talking Roman slaves here. "Work 'til you drop or we'll kill you" isn't at issue. A poor person in rural India really is poor. Under $2/day income (world median) is poor. My sympathies and help. Blaming the social structures WE live in, no. Assistance, tools, opportunities, etc are prolific; if you're not using them, it's not because they're not available to you. Yes I'm leaning on the "if someone doesn't do it they don't really want to" trope. That's largely the POINT in this thread, as pointed out by others too. I just see far too much "golly, going to Walmart and buying beef/beans/sauce/seasoning for $5 and cooking it for 10 minutes to feed 4 is just too hard", which a poor rural Indian or a Roman slave would look on at with sheer astonishment.

dcalacci 14y ago

check your privilege

abduhl 14y ago
This is the most useless comment you can possibly post. If your only contribution is "check your privilege" then your contribution is worthless and you shouldn't even bother. It's playground sarcasm and offers nothing.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

sliverstorm 14y ago

Of course people used to work much harder to prepare their food. We've replaced harvesting your own food with working to pay for your food. The complaints of preparing a full meal being difficult are coming from a context of somebody who already spent 8+ hours working for their food that day, not somebody who is just being lazy.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]