DazharionThe fuck is the point
KorhakaMaybe stop doing that then. I can get a weeks worth of food for that kind of money and it tastes good.
I am fortunate we have enough mental energy to go to stores to buy ingredients to cook our own meals most days.
Its similar, to what is referred to as “adhd-tax” I am still in this picture more then i would like.
Doesn’t really matter what your mental energy is if you don’t have the money to have any other choice. Few years ago I was comfortably living on under £100 a month after paying rent for a bedroom, then putting the last £75 or so of my income into savings.
zeejooAlso half of Americans live in “food deserts” with limited or no options for fresh, healthy food/groceries. Often their only sources of sustenance are the dollar store and fast food.
I mean its not like there was a dark where i lived on a single bag of chips a day or the occasional cup noodles or anything.
Very affordable lifestyle, but you do feel even worse long term.
For a while I got discounted veg at the end of the day and threw it all into a slow cooker that I kept running all week. Take a meal out and top up with more of what ever cheap ingredients I could get.
People I shared the house with had started to steal my food which is why I switched to storing everything in my room and the slow cooker in my room. No fridge/freezer but you can even store meat for several days in a slow cooker. 22:55 the local coop sometimes had sausages for pennies.
apotheotic (she/her)I mean it matters in the sense that you just won’t eat if you can’t muster up the mental energy to make a meal.
E: this was me
I can get a weeks worth of food for that kind of money
Well, maybe one week, and you still have to get creatively frugal there.
But I see you point.
Yeah, this is beans and rice with little to no protein kind of money for a week, at best.
Didn’t used to be the case, but orange dipshit keeps causing inflation.
Didn’t used to be the case, but orange dipshit keeps causing inflation.
Beans, famous for not having any protein… Why do people look down on beans so much? They are great. Just bought a pack of broad bean seeds today as I plan to grow them and I ran out of the last pack. You don’t need to eat the weight of the average American in meat ever year.
That’s a good point, yeah, I was thinking like most Americans that you’d want some meat thrown in there for flavor.
Mostly a vegetarian as well so I agree with you is what I’m saying.
I’m disabled and homeless and eat veggies, fruit, pasta, bread, cheese and protein on a daily basis at about $7 a day. people eat fast food because they are lazy, not poor.
Inevitable Waffles [Ohio]I wanna say first that is a tragedy you are homeless and I wish the best for you in finding permanent lodging but your statement raises some questions. How are you preparing these foods? If you are as homeless as you purport, are you using a campfire, or a communal kitchen, or are your meals prepared for you? How are you procuring your groceries?
No OP, but just so you are aware, homeless can mean no permanent domicile in lots of ways. So, someone living out of their car, camping, staying ad hoc in shelters or hostels or cheap accommodation is all different versions of homeless.
People are homeless because they’re lazy, not poor.
Or unable to get a stable full time job, maybe none exists, or not enough for everyone.
That’s people on the street, the majority is people couch surfing or sleeping in their car. Where the only issue is money, not mental health at all.
That is slightly part of the problem but, no where near the totality of the issue. The broader issue is capitalism only works with the fear of homelessness and being cast out if you dont dance to their tune. Some of the population must be unemployed to keep the working class in fear. If you didnt have to work for housing, food, and healthcare, would you put up with the bullshit we do at a job? I certainly wouldn’t. They know that too.
As much as I was annoyed by the tone of the statement made by previous poster, we have to reach out and lift up. We cannot keep putting the boot down on people just because their life took a path or they are making choices we feel are incomprehensible and must require a defect of some sort.
We have to support each other cause the State ain’t coming over that hill to save the day.
Yes, with 1 other caveat.
People will also eat at restaurants because they’re ashamed and embarrassed of their own cooking ability and don’t want to look bad in front of their peers.
Food deserts are a thing.
LinkenDespite being a childish choice, any new restaurant I go to I order the chicken tenders. It’s pretty hard to mess those up (and they’re usually on the cheaper end).
I like to “get a review” from my wife and friends on their meals, and then I’ll decide if I want to branch out to the full menu if there’s a return visit.
I’m sort of the opposite. I usually aim for their advertised meal. If they mess that up, I know it’s not worth returning.
Went to a new pizza place with a friend and she insisted we get the margherita because it is less expensive hard to mess up, and you can tell if the place uses good ingredients.
dkppunk
orcaWhat even is the point of fast food now?
- ✅ Fast
- ❌ Good
- ❌ Cheap
It has jumped the shark and serves no purpose now, other than screwing working class people in food deserts out of their hard-earned money.
blinfabiannot even fast anymore to my experience
UndergroundGoblinIf a fast-food burger costs the same as a burger in a restaurant, then something’s wrong…
I’ve stopped doing fast food. Last time I was out running errands over lunch I went to a pub instead. I chatted with the staff got a cidre, burger, and fries for like $30. It was great, worth the time and money.
Yeah, we have a few local places that will do to-go orders, so we give them our money instead. The last few times where we grabbed fast food because we were traveling or just super busy, it was just a shit experience. I’m okay parting with my money if it’s going back into a local business.
My wife and I have also started shopping in smaller grocery runs. So we will buy food for like 3 meals ahead of time, and then do it again after a few days. We find that we have much less food waste and we make less impulsive decisions. I just wish veggies didn’t suck so much now.
I have a non-chain fast food place near me, doesn’t even have indoor seating, just a small waiting space (holds maybe 10 people if you pack them in such that the personal space bubble is tiny) and some picnic tables, but no drive-through.
They’ve managed to keep prices pretty low; Big Mac or whopper equivalent is $4, for example and I think fries are some 2.50 for the large. While that does add up since everything is ordered individually, the quality is superior and it’s local-family-owned, so well worth it. And it’s very very popular even without the drive-through convenience. The local McDonald’s hardly gets any traffic by comparison.
Just goes to show it can totally be done, if not for outright greed.
FudgyMcTubbsWhen I lived in Seattle, I loved eating a bag of Dick’s.
Available at off-ramps while travelling. That’s the only time I get it.
I usually only drive through Pennsylvania, and as a result I always end up at Sbarro, an “Italian” restaurant that can only survive in the cloister of a turnpike travel plaza. Somehow my brain forgets how fucking awful it was last time. Plus I always order something you can’t eat while driving, like pasta, so I have to sit there and finish it. The only good thing is having a bathroom right there.
Gaht Damm… I was on the Ohio Turnpike and got Sbarro… Two slices of pie was like $15. Theyre huge slices, but not $15 huge.
Theyre huge slices
That’s sort of like the old joke: “This food is terrible!” “Yes, and such unfortunately large portions!”
OwlIt used to be fast before skeleton crews were the norm, but I’m sure a lot of people alive today have never experienced it.
I remember when I was young, I could go to mcdonalds with a friend and 5 bucks. They handed you your order almost immediately and we both left full. There was a time when fast food was actually fast and food. Now it struggles to be either.
What the fuck happened with everyone switching to ingredients that make you shit yourself? Like making it smaller, without flavor, and unpleasant textures wasn’t enough? It’s like someone at the top said “Wow, they’re still buying our food after all that? Well let’s see what happens if we start making them shit their pants too.”
There are still places with surprisingly good value for money, but they’re rare. Greggs has been this for me, recently, though maybe a useless point of reference for anyone outside the uk
Every dinner in an airport.
Recently got back into cooking. Learn 2-3 easy recipes that can act as a base for the rest of your meal. Get a rice cooker and an instant pot. White rice is quick so its ADHD friendly, plus ricecooker will handle everything in case of distractions. Same for the instant pot.
Also don’t overlook sous vide. I’ve made some heavenly meals with cheap cuts of beef (e.g. shank) recently. Chuck it in a vacuum bag and wait - that’s it! Pull it out and give it a nice sear.
I usually do 2 bags and chuck one in the freezer for reheating at a later date.
If you don’t eat meat, no worries! Loads of veggies are great too, especially roots.
Watch some cooking competitions for inspiration and confidence building to give more challenging dishes a try.
Chef & My Fridge is a good one, though it’s a subtitled Korean show, but the great thing about it is that the challenges are 15 minutes long and take only ingredients from a Korean celeb’s fridge. I had already started trying some tougher dishes from watching Culinary Class Wars, but CMF (which has a bunch of the same chefs btw) really drove home how it doesn’t have to be a long affair with very specific ingredients to make a great dish.
I still for some reason take forever to get things prepped but once they are ready, I can have restaurant quality soup on the table from scratch in like 30 minutes. The secret is to sear the meats and saute the veggies in the pot before adding water/broth and they’ll quickly release their flavour and make a tasty broth, which then becomes rich when you add a bit of salt, sugar, lemon/lime juice, and soy sauce, like just a pinch or splash of each. Celery, onions, carrots, and poatoes, sliced, diced, and/or julienned. Even better if you start by rendering some bacon and then sauteing the veggies in the bacon grease, which acts as the base of the soup once it’s been tempered with all those flavours.
Anyways I’m rambling. Lol it’s a great thing to hyperfocus on, though not sure I’d say I’ve saved money because of it, what with the knives and other kitchen stuff I’ve gotten.
I spent about this for a burger at one of those char broiled joints. Tasted like a burger you’d get at a park bbq, overcooked cheap meat. I can make a burger at home 100 times better
🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 Tasted like a burger you get at a park BBQ; overcooked cheap meat.
I can make a burger at home 100 times better
But you can’t do it at a park? 🤨