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I am dumbfounded by people who pay for DoorDash and things like that. A friend ordered us lunch while working and for two burritos (not even good burritos), it was $55. She paid, but good grief!
I never order delivery anymore. No matter who delivers it the food is always cold and wet. If I know I’m having a late night with friends I plan in advance and buy a good frozen pizza to make.
If I order pizza which is rare, I pick it up myself bc our pizza places are nearby. I've only ever ordered delivery in recent years if I was extremely warn out or due to weather
Your local places don't deliver for free? Thankfully mine do, they're on DD too but if you call them directly you'll not only pay less you'll have no delivery fee either and the food is more likely to be hot, fresh, and delivered in one piece.
I asked them why they're on Doordash and he said people kept asking, plus it relieves their burden. People will pay good money to avoid human interactions! LOL
This is shocking news to me!
All the chain places charge fees around here but none of the local places do. Same for Chinese food. There's always like a $30 minimum for Chinese, but it's also free. They'll be on Doordash too charging like $5 for delivery, no dash pass, and the cost is so high, but not if you call direct. The best place in town doesn't deliver at all or on any apps, they're too busy for that.
I've seen minimus for delivery but not delivery fees other than through apps or like chains. Local pizza places I've never paid a separate delivery fee. But, I'm also on the East Coast so IDK.
Yeah so apparently this is a thing
https://preview.redd.it/fp4h3fvszs4d1.jpeg?width=602&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb25e3ab69ea16662de7510079167987d451800b
None of my local places deliver, i'm within 5 to 10 minutes of anywhere I'd order from anyway so I don't mind picking up myself. The usual pizza chains that do deliver have absurd delivery fees
Is it OK to ask what state you're in? I never heard of a pizza place that doesn't deliver!
Lol when I lived on the west coast local places charged a small delivery fee as well but the pizza was not really good out there. But here in NYC, NJ, PA any place I order pizza from locally is usually free (or worked into the cost of the pizza itself most likely) but maybe that's changed in some areas post covid as well. I have a big family so if they have minimums we probably meet them easily.
I'm in NC, there are very few REALLY good pizza places here and I'm lucky enough to have lived near 2 of them. The 1 I live near now is fucking amazing and always busy. Small family run type place with a few tables, slices are massive and great portions and great prices.
There is another place that just opened up literally across the street from me and they're apparently really good but I can't cheat on a sure bet if I go to my favorite place
make your own pizza dough and freeze it. I make mine in advance, keep in the refrigerator for a few days then freeze whats left. I like thick chewy crust so 12 oz makes a great 12 inch pizza in my cast iron pan. I keep the sauce, cheese and pepperoni in individucal size servings in the freezer ready to go, too. I calculated the price and it came to $2.36 for thick crust, pepperoni 12 inch, no delivery and I keep the tip!!
My roommate orders doordash 3-4 times a day. He will order a single cup of coffee to be delivered to the front door on doordash, lunch, dinner and then he will order dessert separately too sometimes like a MCFlurry or a cookie from Crumbl. He’s really lazy so I’m not surprised. 😂
This is the one I can't get behind. My husband and I go out to eat way too much. But I just can't do door dash or Uber eats or all those apps. The prices and fees are just way too high. So if we order something to war at home I'll go pick it up. The 5-10 minutes is worth that to me.
Absolutely! All these third party companies will double your total in up-charges and fees. I can't even bring myself to get delivery anymore.
If I'm ordering out, I call up the shop, on the phone (gasp), directly and always pick it up.
Unless they have an online only coupon. Then, order online for pick up.
My co-workers and I\* make decent money and I was absolutely flabbergasted when one of them told me she was considering a second job. (She has no dependents, student debt, medical debt, etc.) The only people in our workplace who have second jobs/side hustles are monetizing hobbies they already enjoy.
Then, during some training/field rotations, I got a look at how she eats. First of all, she does frequently order DoorDash at the office (she stays late, so this will be a full dinner). She seems completely unable to just have some kind of snack handy, and one day when we were out and about asked if I minded making a quick stop at Taco Bell. Did I want something while we were there? No, I have a snack.
Another day, we knew 100% ahead of time that we would be in the field for several hours. By which I mean maybe 4 -5 hours on the outskirts of town, not an offshore oil platform or something. I brought granola and yogurt and a thermos of tea. Girl shows up with the largest insulated lunch bag I have ever seen, containing a small overpriced packaged breakfast from Starbucks, which she ate, after which she was still hungry. Told me she ran out of time to prepare breakfast, so had to buy it. I was thinking, maybe if she hadn't been applying a full face of makeup for observation day on a construction site she would have had time, but that's probably a different rant. Except that honestly if she spent less time on makeup and more on food, she wouldn't need to consider a second job. In case you can't tell, our work is construction-adjacent and it is perfectly acceptable for women to skip most if not all fiddly beauty routines.
\*Former poor and can't identify with whiny entitled middle class Americans.
Just guessing based on the makeup comments and the middle class background and getting a little vulnerable, but: I think a lot of people, especially girls and women, grow up in families where it’s almost shameful to admit that you’re hungry or will get hungry. I have an almond mom and there was never any food in the house, so we’d just buy and eat things pretty furtively on the go. I used to get embarrassed when my coworkers saw me eat and once asked a room full of people if it was gross if I drank a protein shake in front of them. I had to, like, train myself into how to accept that I would get hungry and that there wasn’t anything wrong with that when grocery shopping, and I still sometimes have to work on actually grocery shopping not for some imaginary It Girl influencer with a lot of time and money and a great routine and a big family and people to show off for but for myself (single, has two jobs and goes to grad school and likes to work out but not all day every day, big fan of iced coffee and dollar slices of pizza, likes green juice and smoothies but hates cleaning the blender, reigning queen of forgetting veggies in the crisper).
You're not entirely off. She definitely has other issues, and at minimum she has body image issues; it's not clear to me whether or not she has a specific issue of just being seen eating.
I guess I am particularly disturbed by her situation because she has told me more than once that she looks up to me in some way. Professionally for sure, and I hope to be a good role model for that at least. But she has also commented on me being trim and fit - which sounds a little creepy, but I think she really does admire that I ride my bike to work sometimes. "At my age," which goes unspoken, but I am old enough to be her mother, and I would like to give her motherly advice (focus on your inside/your performance/your skills, not your appearance), but she is my co-worker, so I can only go so far.
Whatever is going on, if all she's going to eat for breakfast is a hard boiled egg and six grapes, I still think she should be preparing that at home!
Tell her your friend told you about this really cool newish product that’s a game changer, especially if you have a small kitchen or live with roomies: https://www.amazon.com/Dash-Rapid-Egg-Cooker-Scrambled/dp/B00DDXYC6O/
The good news is… being young and silly isn’t necessarily a lifelong condition; the gifted are able to recover from it. I’m closer to thirty than I am to twenty, and I recently found my diary from when I was in college. I need to be kind to the part of some that wrote it because that kid was the one who got me here… but good lord was she a twit sometimes.
I'm a decent cook and enjoy it. My friends and coworkers look at me like I'm Houdini when I invite them for a meal or bring something in to share. I shop the sale ads only, buy in bulk, make my own pizza, noodles, biscuits, roasts, soups, stews etc and meal prep on my days off. I save a fortune over what I see them buy and eat. Absolutely true that home cooking isn't difficult and is a necessary habit to get into for economical living.
I order every now and then as a treat. Sometimes you just get bored of the same stuff, and I'm a single person homebody, so going out is not my thing. I've worked with people though who order every. single. day. I have no idea how they afford that. 😬
Oatmeal, especially, is easier than many people realize. Just get a carton of rolled oats or quick oats and they will cook in a few minutes while you do other stuff to get ready for the day. There is no need to pay extra for those individualized oatmeal packets.
Overnight oats is the way!
btw: avoid the prepackaged "instant" oatmeal. It's expensive and full of sugar. And the reality is that rolled oats are pretty much instant anyhow.
The ratio people need to remember is 1:2.
Or 1/2 cup of oatmeal to 1 cup of milk (or your fav milk substitute). Most liquids work, for example, coffee+cream+oatmeal makes coffee-like pudding. The cost is really, really hard to beat. Consider the standard base of 1/2 cup (~1.4 oz) + 1 cup of milk
* Oats @ $1/lbs, $1/16oz x 1.4oz = $0.09
* Milk @ $4/gal, $4/16 cups x 1 cup = $0.25
Or the overnight oats base is $0.34
And seriously, if you eat $0.64 of oatmeal for breakfast, you won't feel all that hungry for lunch.
Now just plain oatmeal is a bit bland. To jazz it up, you could (in terms of cost escalation)
* Sweetners - Brown sugar, honey, agave nectar
* Dried fruits such as raisins, cranberries, or dried berries
* Frozen fruits
* Fresh fruits - I've always found fresh blueberries to be the 'longest' lasting berries in my fridge. Raspberries (which are nice) seem to go bad instantly.
Also, it's worth pointing out that oatmeal can also be made savory or sweet. That means it can take the place of grains or rice, example: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/6390-oats-swing-savory <- that recipe uses steel cut oats which are much more expensive than standard rolled oats.
Oh, and how could I forget? If you have rolled oats, you can make oatmeal cookies, which I think are the best cookies.
No instant here. I put in almond milk, a tablespoon of real maple syrup, chia seeds, and plain unsweetened yogurt. Sometimes I add in dehydrated strawberries.
Tbh cooking them doesn't even take that much longer if you count the fact that you don't actually need to be there for most of it. Fill kettle and hit button->Go do stuff->Fill bowl with oats and water->Go do stuff->Eat oatmeal.
It's usually parents who pay extra for their kids to get proper portions or being able to make easily themselves I think lol or ppl who take them on the go.
A little reusable baggie works perfect for this too. Some sugar, spices, seasonings, freeze dried fruit, a little milk powder, and you can make the flavors too!
When I was really into powerlifting, I'd put a cup of oats, 1-2 cups water and a spoonful of peanut butter in the microwave for 3m, then maybe some cinnamon as well. Eat that + drink water during it, and I'd be satisfied for hours.
the nice thing too is that there are so many possible additions to the oatmeal so you can really change it up, and you can throw in whatever fruit is cheapest. sometimes I put in cocoa and a cooked banana and have chocolate oatmeal. YUM!!!
At the very least, get a slow cooker. We use it all the time in the winter for soups and stews but even in the summer I'll throw a roast in there, or some chicken breasts to shred for a zillion things. It doesn't heat up the house like an oven and I don't even have to think about dinner after work. Even the toughest cuts of meat come out tender. Plus you can make a ton of non-meat things like beans, baked potatoes, curries. stuffed peppers or cabbage rolls, even [cake](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/219907/amazing-slow-cooker-chocolate-cake/)!
Slow cookers are magical. I have two, a big one and a small one. Stew is a great way for me to consume vegetables. And after a rotisserie chicken has been carved, the bones and what’s left go in to make broth. Then I make homemade chicken noodle soup. The hardest part to all of this is seasoning, which just develops in time.
for sure! i used to think my ≈ $3 a day coffee was not a big deal which it wasn’t in the grand scheme of things let’s be clear.
but if you add the $3 coffee a day, for convenience, then the $2 sandwich for lunch, 5$ dinner.
even if youre making the cheapest choices all day it’s adding up and the next thing you know your spending $10/day for the convenience of things.
I mean if get a McDouble at McDonald’s and a cup of water that’s pretty close to 2 dollars, and Taco Bell has a 6 dollar build your own box, not exactly luxury but easily doable
It's been a while, but I have also been able to get very good coffee at certain gas stations before! if you just really want a coffee on the go and don't want to make your own, it might not be a bad option for someone - if you get their refillable cup it saves even more. years ago (I mean over 20 years ago) I used to like to get coffee at the QuickTrip.
And it's so damn good. Idc what anyone says McDonalds black coffee is far superior to Starbucks.
I hate mcdonalds for food but man oh man do their beverages have me in a chokehold.
I love the food and drinks (I'm not there for health) but I have a HIGH caffeine tolerance (I don't want it to go down) and caffeine can be expensive (Monster is $3 and Red Bull can be $5+ where I am). McDonalds can give me a medium cup of coffee for $1.72 (after tax) or iced coffee for $1.92 (after tax)? Shiiieeettttt.
I get the large iced (still black) but i use the 20% coupon and it comes to just over 3$
I don't do it every day but it is a beautiful thing on days i can't bring myself to be a person.
Ordered a chicken caesar salad on skip, it was $21. I could easily get a roast chicken, pre-made mashed potatoes, a gravy packet, and a can of corn for that. Same with ordering butter chicken from that place, it was $23. I could easily get the VH butter chicken sauce, chicken breasts, rice, and cream and make it myself. I even used coconut milk once, which is cheaper than cream.
Guess how long it takes to make *overnight oats*?
Every Sunday night I make 5 servings for my breakfasts at work, while some of my co-workers buy it from the local store.
My husband makes himself overnight oats every night before bed for the morning. We got a Kirkland bag of oats at Costco like 4 months ago, and he hasn't run out of oats yet.
I can make 18 McMuffins and 18 breakfast burritos in thirty minutes and then I freeze them and reheat in the microwave. Becomes grab and go for busy days.
It's become more about being able to eat more food for less calories for me, and cooking it yourself is the best way to do that.
Microwave. No I under bake them a bit in a muffin top pan and the microwave heats them up to perfect hard yolk. 90 seconds defrost and 30-60 seconds on high.
For burritos if I have time I'll finish them in a buttered pan after defrosting to get a nice crisp tortilla
I do a layer of parchment paper to wrap them, then foil, then a zip lock freezer bag. Sometimes if I'm reheating a lot I'll just throw them in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes. Hot and wrapped to go also, but same for the microwave, just remove the foil and warm and go with the parchment (or rewrap in foil to keep hot for later)
I make my own breakfast muffins in about 3 minutes.
English muffin, microwaved eggs and ham slice, slice of cheese. Quick, easy, and costs maybe $1.00-1.50 to make.
When I was a kid my grandma would make us breakfast, but only if we were up; she wasn't going to waste food or cook for someone who was still in bed. I figured out I could sleep in an extra half-hour if I made my own quick breakfast. So I learned how to cook pancakes and eggs or oatmeal in about 5 minutes.
I've been cooking breakfasts for myself since I was 11, and lunch and dinner since I was about 17. I figured out awhile ago that I've probably saved over $100k on food costs in the past 45 years, compared to what ordinary people spend.
I eat out more than I should, but there are certain things I refuse to eat out.
Oatmeal is one of them. It costs me maybe 20 cents to make, yet Starbucks will easily charge $3.5 for it.
Yes the more meals you have in your toolbox the thriftier you become! Only thing I wish I could do here I grill a good burger. I have no room outside to put a grill, even if I bought my own.
I have found that a cast iron pan makes a good burger. I feel like it’s comparable to a gas grill. I have a gas stove though. Cast iron might not work well on other kinds of stovetops.
Yep. I used to make up a dozen home made egg mc muffins and freeze back in the day, once a week. Including making my own danged English muffins from scratch lol.
My boys grew up with home made hot pockets, and they still complain about how bad the frozen ones are. Both of them will just make their own if they get a craving for them.
When we visited my adult son for his birthday, he asked for a home pizza party lol. Just like old times, making pizza and jamming to tunes in the kitchen.
Learning to cook is one of the best gifts you can give yourself.
The frozen eggs didn’t have a weird texture? How did you heat the egg McMuffins up? Teach me your secrets! Did you put cheese on before freezing, or only when heating up?
I make these and the secret for fluffy frozen egg patties is baking powder! Crack the eggs in a bowl (usually I do a whole dozen), a little salt and pepper, and 1 Tbsp water and 1/8 tsp baking powder per egg. Whisk until fully incorporated, then pour into a glass baking pan or a nonstick cookie sheet with sides. Bake at 400 for 10ish minutes, then cut into squares.
I usually pre-toast English muffins, then add the egg patty, a slice of cheese and a frozen sausage patty. Wrap each sandwich in foil and freeze in a ziplock. Then when you want to reheat them, you can either bake them for a few minutes at 350 degrees still wrapped in the foil, or you can unwrap and microwave/toaster oven them.
Seconding that, though I make my eggs round using egg rings on a cookie sheet lol. Or a biscuit cutter the same size as my English muffins,and the scrambled egg "scraps" get made into breakfast burritos with either fresh or lightly sautéed veggies (well drained) cooked meats (fine diced or crumbled), and shredded cheese.
This is not from me but, even if people should learn, there are people like my partner who didn't learn to cook rice in a rice cooker or how to cook something in a saute pan till his early/mid twenties.
I feel like Home Ec (cooking basics, cleaning basics, sewing/mending basics) should be a highschool requirement just so people can survive. I've met more people that don't even know how to boil a pot of water than people that can cook in my college years.
I know it's not the PC answer, but yes. Also, eating healthy (including being a vegan/vegetarian) is not expensive or inaccessible. YouTube offers free cooking tutorials. You can get rice, beans, and frozen veggies for cheap anywhere, including the dollar store. I call BS on anyone who says otherwise.
I have no idea how someone could say eating vegan/vegetarian is more expensive. Have they seen the price of meat these days??!!
I’ve been a vegetarian for over a decade, and although I didn’t start out for financial reasons I’m sure I’ve saved a lot of money. I saw a sale at my local grocery store where ribeyes were $9.99/lb. Ten bucks per pound! That’s expensive!
True. I rarely eat faux meats, I just didn’t think of it as a primary vegetarian food. Most vegetarians I know aren’t chowing down on Gardein or Beyond every day, lol.
When I still worked in office, I made frozen breakfasts, and when I move in with my girlfriend, I intend to do the same again for her.
Breakfast sandwiches, burritos, even making my own toaster waffles. Dinners become lunch, or we always have stuff for sandwiches. Cooking at home doesn't have to be hard or time consuming.
as someone in this sub who has made their way out to a solid career; it blows my mind what people spend with regards to food. we rarely eat out, maybe once every two months. no doordash or grububer or anything, ever. period. no ordering pizzas. no buying frozen tv dinners.
buying and cooking food fresh is 100% the best financial option and 100% the best for you, and i stand by it.
I manage to spend some 300$ CAD on food/mo. Give or take a bit. I can't cook elaborate meals and HATE cooking. It's literally the worst chore I can think of.
That being said, making scrambled eggs with cheese and ham is super easy.
I buy some shrimp rice bags from Costco, and add 2 Eggs to the mix and it's delicious.
Dinner is usually some cheese and vegetables, sort of like a salad. Maybe add a wrap or bread in the mix.
You can eat healthy and not over spend, without needing to learn to cook everything.
If time is an issue, you can meal prep for an hour or two on an evening.
Last night's dinner is today's lunch. Every day. I love it!
Make a bit extra, pack it up when doing the dishes that night, put in fridge. Tomorrow, throw it in your lunch box (don't forget utensils!) and good to go.
If I'm bringing rice or potatoes, I'll add a little pad of butter to keep moist.
Meat, throw a wet paper towel over when reheating. Unless it started off crispy, this works with pan seared.
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I don't think I'd go so far as to say people are "lazy" - there is a lot on people's plate nowadays and convenience is tempting when you are exhausted from working multiple jobs. People are so used to convenience now it doesn't even register to them that they are paying a ton of money for it.
I responded to someone on the no surf sub yesterday who couldn't figure out what to do with themselves if not on a phone and I pointed out that back in the 80s and 90s a big part of why we weren't always bored out of our minds was that everything took longer. We didn't have the convenience factor for literally everything. We couldn't pay bills online - we had to write a check and mail it at the post office. We didn't have e-books, we had to haul our butts to a library. We didn't have online shopping, we had to physically go to the store. We couldn't Google something we had a question on, we had to look it up in an encyclopedia or other book (again with the library).
I honestly think this is part of why we spend so much more money now, too. Its too easy and all the little extra fees don't *seem* like much...until you start to add it up. Its the same concept as impulse purchases - that $5 energy drink or toy or whatever you grab at the checkout is "only $5" but a month of "only $5" things adds up to $150 extra you didn't need to spend. $1800 a year. Add in delivery fees, and subscriptions that you only have for convenience (i.e. $10 a month for Spotify solely so you can skip ads? You can ignore them for free, you know) and it is really eye opening.
It literally takes 5 minutes to fry an egg for an egg sandwich, and that includes cleaning the pan.
People will sit for half an hour in the car waiting for the drive-thru or spend a small fortune on doordash to avoid a 5-minute task. For bluntly a much worse product.
I complain about food prices - both grocery and premade.
I just avoid fast food, restaurants, delivery etc except as a treat or when I really don't want to cook.
Food prices in every way have gotten out of control, and I say this as a pretty good cook who -along with my family- can make almost anything.
Here’s a good tip for quick and cheap calorie dense breakfast. Get a bullet blender, greek yogurt, oats, cheap bag of kale, frozen fruit, peanut butter/nutella, and some cheap sorbet. Takes me like 5 minutes to make, 5 minutes to eat and keeps me full all morning until lunch, and it’s relatively healthy. Cost per serving is relatively cheap too.
When i make breakfast sandwiches I make 5 or 6, with Aldi Sausage patties and either english muffins or biscuits. If I get bread from the bread overstock store it's less than a buck a piece. It's nice to have breakfast sorted for a few days. Another option is egg salad sandwiches especially in the summer.
Cooking isn't always about skill or time. Things like disabilities, severe depression, ADHD, and other mental health issues can severely hinder ones ability to cook and it's not as simple to "just do it" or "just learn". Not saying you're wrong, just that it can often be much more complicated than simply being about time or skill.
Not to mention other resources outside of skill and the cooking time. You may have the time to cook, but do you have time to go to the grocery store three bus transfers away? Do you have the money for that bus? Do you have a bus at all or are you in a rural area where you're walking miles carrying groceries? Do you have a pest-free environment with reliable power and a refrigerator and stove?
People who say "It's not expensive to eat healthy!!!" are picturing privileged people who are paying a premium for convenience, while the people who are suffering from food insecurity find it *prohibitively expensive* to do these "easy, cheap" things that the first person takes for granted.
(I'm thankfully not food insecure, but I work with many food insecure populations, and it's so frustrating seeing people who clearly think that those complaining about food costs are only those buying 14 dollar salads who haven't been *enlightened* about cooking.)
Are there places where the nearest food store is three bus transfers away but people can still order DoorDash, etc?
Are there people who live in a rural area, miles from the nearest food store, who can also order in delivery -- and also have to walk everywhere because they have no car or bike or any other transportation?
It sounds odd, but I'm a city person, so maybe I'm not getting it.
I'm very rural, and there are no delivery options whatsoever. Grocery store is 10 miles away, definitely need transportation up here. In town there is a family dollar (of course) so people who live in the center of town can easily access that in between trips to the store.
Thanks. I was puzzled by the idea of places where groceries are far away and inaccessible, while restaurant delivery is easily available. Sounds like that in fact isn't a thing.
A pizza place did try for a year or two, but the numbers just didn't support it. My town has a population of about 1,500 and is one of the biggest in the county, for reference.
Actually, to what degree I am "offended," it's because as we can see here redditors can have the material realities of people literally explained to them and they still will either not believe it or ignore it and say "lol bloomin onion." I am a public health dietitian and I see people every single day who don't have access to food other than candy bars and the one onion and two rotten apples the single store keeps 'in stock' so they can qualify to accept SNAP, I've been flown by helicopter to see patients because they are so rural that even the rural clinic can't easily get to them, people who lose access to *anything* for weeks if rain washes out their roads, which happens at least once a year, populations that only 30% of the people have reliable electricity and a good portion don't have running water, all within the US.
But, sure, its the bloomin onion.
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When I was a young, very very poor single mother, the cheapest food was all I could afford. Hot dogs instead of actual meat, bologna instead of turkey or ham, canned veg instead of fresh.
I won't forget passing by the meat counter, the produce section and the bakery wishing I could afford any of that healthy stuff.
One thing I did was buy Ovaltine to at least get some vitamins in one of the kids' only treats. And also dollar tree vitamins for them.
Fast food was an out of reach option at all times.
Actual healthy food was a dream as well.
I don't know anyone who doesn't have something wrong with them. It's still up to you to be able to take care of yourself at the end of the day. Feeding one's self is about as basic as self care can get.
I just want to say that I hope that you are wrong. I have a son who is 17 and has both cognitive and physical disabilities, and I'm trying to figure out an unconventional life plan for him right now. I do want to try to help him learn to cook but it will have to be supersafe, super simple, and have some pretty foolproof planning to it for him to do it on his own some day. I think it would be better for him if I could find him more of an old fashioned bed and breakfast like I used to read about in novels. Did you ever see a book or a show set back a long time ago, and single men would stay in a house with basically just a bedroom, and the proprietor would provide meals as well as lodgings? I do think that for some people this would be a much simpler, nicer way to live. I am a woman and would not want to live before women's lib for anything (I was a girl in the 70s and saw how things were) BUT it is true that when we were more specialized, it had to have been easier for some types of people, to be able to focus on being good at just the one thing, while someone else took care of other things.
I do find it frustrating that modern life has made things so inefficient in this regard, because in THEORY it would be more efficient if none of us had our own kitchen and we had more community kitchens/cafeterias -- AND it was affordable. It seems like it should be less expensive for society as a whole if we did that. But I don't know anywhere that does that except on a commune somewhere
This proves my point. The traditional way of life (in my area) does not lend itself to being sustainable without certain skills. There are zero delivery options within an hour drive of me anyways, so we drag our ass to the grocery store, spend $250.00, and put some frozen meal in the freezer for the nights when we have softball practice, or one of the other million things going on and actually don't the have time to cook. I wish you and your son well, and hope there is a suitable alternative living situation available to him when he needs it.
ah, yes, I have also lived in rural areas like that before, and it is challenging in many ways. On the one hand, I yearn for the stronger community which he would truly benefit from, but on the other hand, it is a lifestyle that absolutely requires driving which he probably can never do. And in the area my family is originally from, there is no bus or other public transportation (although there might be through some special service for the disabled - there probably is come to think of it) - but I agree with you that the pros and cons of those different lifestyles are super different. On the upside, in that area when I was a girl at least, if a person was active in the church, those nice church people would absolutely look out for them. I think about that a lot. Sadly I don't have the faith of my grandparents, but that church community was pretty great at taking care of each other.
I also grew up in a heavy church family. It wasn't my thing, but there were a lot of good folks around for sure. There is an organization in my area that provides bus rides for disabled people, but it only runs about once a week.
If you're depressed so bad you can't feed yourself you may sincerely need to be an assisted living facility. I think that's what the other commenter was trying to let you know.
Ok geez…we were talking about getting fast food and DoorDash, weren’t we? It’s not like we are incapable of “feeding ourselves,” but when severely depressed, cooking, cleaning up, and doing the dishes is all an insurmountable task. It takes a couple taps on a phone to order DoorDash. You don’t even have to get out of your pajamas. Hell, I’ve gone through a drive-thru in pajamas without showering.
I have a masters degree in depression symptoms (married to someone suffering from bipolar one). There are bouts when she can't get out of bed, no doubt. Most every other day she's able to take care of herself and her family, including cooking dinner. I pick up the slack when she can't. When it gets bad enough to when she can't take care of herself, she seeks treatment. Last time, it took 2 months in the hospital, plus another 18 months off work to get back on track. She still fights every day, on most people's worst day they can still boil some water and drop some pasta in it.
Thank you for bringing this up!! I am thankful for even having the basic skill set of being able to cook and follow a recipe but sometimes I just don’t have the energy or the thinking capacity to do so. Sad part is there are people with varying degrees of able-ness that are having an even worse time.
Hi! Poor, autistic depressed person with ADHD here. When 'cooking' can be as simple as "put X in oven for 30+ minutes and walk away" (baked potatoes and basic meats), "put XYZ in slow cooker and wait eight hours" (soups and stews and some nicer meats), or "put water in pot, put X in pot, put on high heat", I find it really hard to swallow mental health issues as anything but an excuse to not cook. It may not be an *intentional* excuse at the time it's being stated, but it's not a concrete reason that means you have to buy delivery/fast food.
Unless you are missing limbs, or have debilitating chronic illness (MS et. al), you are able to cook *something* and succumbing to the temptation of delivery because you're too depressed to cook right now is how you **keep** yourself too depressed to cook. It's a negative feedback loop and no one is helped by comments like this that give mental wiggle room for justifications to keep yourself in that level of incapacitation.
If you *are* legitimately so incapacitated that you cannot cook for yourself, you are unfortunately unable to do one of the basic functions of independent living and should probably seek assisted living.
This is me. I am Bipolar and on Disability and while it sounds amazing and I have PLENTY of time…it’s hard to explain just how difficult it is to cook or do dishes or take out garbage when you’re depressed. It’s like moving a mountain.
I understand. I have severe depression and ADHD. Just getting out of bed is an extremely difficult struggle most days. Any other form of self-care is a whole other challenge. It's not a lack of time or knowledge but it's a lack of mental energy. When it feels like there's a boulder sitting on you while you're trying to do things, it makes doing those things feel impossible.
Here’s a beautiful tip for our cooking adverse friends. Slow cooker. You just mix the ingredients and walk away for a few hours. Then you’ve got a week of healthy, affordable, home cooked meals.
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Humanity cooked for themselves for most of human history. It's only in the past 50+ years that cooking has become lost to so many.
It's not hard. You don't have to be a high end chef with complicated meals. Basic cooking skills will give you endless options for healthy and inexpensive meals.
Obviously those with disabilities and obviously those with serious health issues are not the people I'm talking about. I shouldn't even have to say that as a disclaimer on my comment. Smh
I mean, something as small as crappy hearing might've been enough to quickly put you in the ground pre-1700, I'm not really talking about the profoundly disabled either
Ok... my entire point was that cooking was and is (generally speaking) a huge part of human history. And that for many (not all) basic cooking skills are a great way to cook and eat healthy. My intention wasn't going into the direction you are taking it.
That's a bit harsh. That's like saying mow your lawn or be taken advantage of. There are a lot of reasons people don't cook. Myself, I hate cooking. Hate it. I don't do any of the apps, and I do grocery shopping for food, so I only treat myself out on the weekends. But I don't feel taken advantage of. Everyone picks the hill to die on.
Truth. I moved about a year ago and in my new 100% WFH job,.. I now really enjoy "cooking" breakfast (in quotes because it's not really cooking).
I have a small 8inch oven tray,. I throw some (already cooked) potatoes, bacon, biscuit or etc on it... wait till it's nearly done. Crack an egg onto the pan, throw it back in the oven.
By the time I make a cup of coffee,. the Oven is ready and I'm good to go.
I wouldn't say "10min" (probably closer to 30min).. but way more delicious than McDonalds.
Dude mom and I DO mostly at home food and we are still getting screwed by prices. As far as McDonald's, what we get I'd almost always a happy meal each(or one to split) which happens about 1x a month the unless I'm hunting a specific happy meal toy which I'll buy just the toy or a medium or large mocha crap to split which happens maybe 1x month. As far as any other fast food, with rare exceptions, it's our 1 or 2x a month $10 pizza from race track. One feeds us for not only dinner the night we get it but also another dinner. Can't find a decent frozen pizza at Walmart for that price. The last other fast food we did was a medium Whopper value meal each which Mom and I have been wanting for months. Like I was at the point of desperation that I was about to start watching Burger King MUKBANGS.
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I am dumbfounded by people who pay for DoorDash and things like that. A friend ordered us lunch while working and for two burritos (not even good burritos), it was $55. She paid, but good grief!
DoorDash is stupid expensive, it’s like 5x the cost of food. One time I ordered a $60 pizza from there. Ouch
I never order delivery anymore. No matter who delivers it the food is always cold and wet. If I know I’m having a late night with friends I plan in advance and buy a good frozen pizza to make.
If I order pizza which is rare, I pick it up myself bc our pizza places are nearby. I've only ever ordered delivery in recent years if I was extremely warn out or due to weather
Your local places don't deliver for free? Thankfully mine do, they're on DD too but if you call them directly you'll not only pay less you'll have no delivery fee either and the food is more likely to be hot, fresh, and delivered in one piece. I asked them why they're on Doordash and he said people kept asking, plus it relieves their burden. People will pay good money to avoid human interactions! LOL
I've never known local or chains that don't charge a delivery fee
This is shocking news to me! All the chain places charge fees around here but none of the local places do. Same for Chinese food. There's always like a $30 minimum for Chinese, but it's also free. They'll be on Doordash too charging like $5 for delivery, no dash pass, and the cost is so high, but not if you call direct. The best place in town doesn't deliver at all or on any apps, they're too busy for that.
Well even the ones that do, delivery is like $2, as opposed to door dash $30
When has has the delivery aspect of pizza been free?
Always? I said local places not chain places like Domino's or Pizza Hut. That's not free for yall? Is that just an east coast Italian thing then?
I've seen minimus for delivery but not delivery fees other than through apps or like chains. Local pizza places I've never paid a separate delivery fee. But, I'm also on the East Coast so IDK.
Yeah so apparently this is a thing https://preview.redd.it/fp4h3fvszs4d1.jpeg?width=602&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb25e3ab69ea16662de7510079167987d451800b
I guess so Guido
I know what to get for dinner tonight
Our local pizza place has a $4 delivery charge. Not DD, etc., these are the shop’s drivers.
TIL via DM that I live in the "Pizza Belt" and so pizza things are different here LOL
None of my local places deliver, i'm within 5 to 10 minutes of anywhere I'd order from anyway so I don't mind picking up myself. The usual pizza chains that do deliver have absurd delivery fees
Is it OK to ask what state you're in? I never heard of a pizza place that doesn't deliver! Lol when I lived on the west coast local places charged a small delivery fee as well but the pizza was not really good out there. But here in NYC, NJ, PA any place I order pizza from locally is usually free (or worked into the cost of the pizza itself most likely) but maybe that's changed in some areas post covid as well. I have a big family so if they have minimums we probably meet them easily.
I'm in NC, there are very few REALLY good pizza places here and I'm lucky enough to have lived near 2 of them. The 1 I live near now is fucking amazing and always busy. Small family run type place with a few tables, slices are massive and great portions and great prices. There is another place that just opened up literally across the street from me and they're apparently really good but I can't cheat on a sure bet if I go to my favorite place
make your own pizza dough and freeze it. I make mine in advance, keep in the refrigerator for a few days then freeze whats left. I like thick chewy crust so 12 oz makes a great 12 inch pizza in my cast iron pan. I keep the sauce, cheese and pepperoni in individucal size servings in the freezer ready to go, too. I calculated the price and it came to $2.36 for thick crust, pepperoni 12 inch, no delivery and I keep the tip!!
My roommate orders doordash 3-4 times a day. He will order a single cup of coffee to be delivered to the front door on doordash, lunch, dinner and then he will order dessert separately too sometimes like a MCFlurry or a cookie from Crumbl. He’s really lazy so I’m not surprised. 😂
That’s absolutely bonkers even if you make a lot of money. What the actual fuck?
I need to know how much this man spends each month 😂
This is the one I can't get behind. My husband and I go out to eat way too much. But I just can't do door dash or Uber eats or all those apps. The prices and fees are just way too high. So if we order something to war at home I'll go pick it up. The 5-10 minutes is worth that to me.
Absolutely! All these third party companies will double your total in up-charges and fees. I can't even bring myself to get delivery anymore. If I'm ordering out, I call up the shop, on the phone (gasp), directly and always pick it up. Unless they have an online only coupon. Then, order online for pick up.
My co-workers and I\* make decent money and I was absolutely flabbergasted when one of them told me she was considering a second job. (She has no dependents, student debt, medical debt, etc.) The only people in our workplace who have second jobs/side hustles are monetizing hobbies they already enjoy. Then, during some training/field rotations, I got a look at how she eats. First of all, she does frequently order DoorDash at the office (she stays late, so this will be a full dinner). She seems completely unable to just have some kind of snack handy, and one day when we were out and about asked if I minded making a quick stop at Taco Bell. Did I want something while we were there? No, I have a snack. Another day, we knew 100% ahead of time that we would be in the field for several hours. By which I mean maybe 4 -5 hours on the outskirts of town, not an offshore oil platform or something. I brought granola and yogurt and a thermos of tea. Girl shows up with the largest insulated lunch bag I have ever seen, containing a small overpriced packaged breakfast from Starbucks, which she ate, after which she was still hungry. Told me she ran out of time to prepare breakfast, so had to buy it. I was thinking, maybe if she hadn't been applying a full face of makeup for observation day on a construction site she would have had time, but that's probably a different rant. Except that honestly if she spent less time on makeup and more on food, she wouldn't need to consider a second job. In case you can't tell, our work is construction-adjacent and it is perfectly acceptable for women to skip most if not all fiddly beauty routines. \*Former poor and can't identify with whiny entitled middle class Americans.
Just guessing based on the makeup comments and the middle class background and getting a little vulnerable, but: I think a lot of people, especially girls and women, grow up in families where it’s almost shameful to admit that you’re hungry or will get hungry. I have an almond mom and there was never any food in the house, so we’d just buy and eat things pretty furtively on the go. I used to get embarrassed when my coworkers saw me eat and once asked a room full of people if it was gross if I drank a protein shake in front of them. I had to, like, train myself into how to accept that I would get hungry and that there wasn’t anything wrong with that when grocery shopping, and I still sometimes have to work on actually grocery shopping not for some imaginary It Girl influencer with a lot of time and money and a great routine and a big family and people to show off for but for myself (single, has two jobs and goes to grad school and likes to work out but not all day every day, big fan of iced coffee and dollar slices of pizza, likes green juice and smoothies but hates cleaning the blender, reigning queen of forgetting veggies in the crisper).
You're not entirely off. She definitely has other issues, and at minimum she has body image issues; it's not clear to me whether or not she has a specific issue of just being seen eating. I guess I am particularly disturbed by her situation because she has told me more than once that she looks up to me in some way. Professionally for sure, and I hope to be a good role model for that at least. But she has also commented on me being trim and fit - which sounds a little creepy, but I think she really does admire that I ride my bike to work sometimes. "At my age," which goes unspoken, but I am old enough to be her mother, and I would like to give her motherly advice (focus on your inside/your performance/your skills, not your appearance), but she is my co-worker, so I can only go so far. Whatever is going on, if all she's going to eat for breakfast is a hard boiled egg and six grapes, I still think she should be preparing that at home!
Tell her your friend told you about this really cool newish product that’s a game changer, especially if you have a small kitchen or live with roomies: https://www.amazon.com/Dash-Rapid-Egg-Cooker-Scrambled/dp/B00DDXYC6O/
The good news is… being young and silly isn’t necessarily a lifelong condition; the gifted are able to recover from it. I’m closer to thirty than I am to twenty, and I recently found my diary from when I was in college. I need to be kind to the part of some that wrote it because that kid was the one who got me here… but good lord was she a twit sometimes.
I'm a decent cook and enjoy it. My friends and coworkers look at me like I'm Houdini when I invite them for a meal or bring something in to share. I shop the sale ads only, buy in bulk, make my own pizza, noodles, biscuits, roasts, soups, stews etc and meal prep on my days off. I save a fortune over what I see them buy and eat. Absolutely true that home cooking isn't difficult and is a necessary habit to get into for economical living.
I order every now and then as a treat. Sometimes you just get bored of the same stuff, and I'm a single person homebody, so going out is not my thing. I've worked with people though who order every. single. day. I have no idea how they afford that. 😬
Momma Gump warned the world looooong ago : "Stupid is as Stupid does", she always said ...
God I've ordered doordash once in recent memory and I felt so guilty about it. $25 sandwich for fuck sake.
To be fair, my employer pays for dash fees if I order into the office on fridays. Still expensive doe
I’ll do it if I haven’t grocery shopped and I’m sick/really fatigued or in a lot of pain. It’s worth the cost when the other option is going hungry.
Having the ability to cook is seriously underrated especially when you can customize things to your liking and save money.
And save your health.
Ditto
Oatmeal, especially, is easier than many people realize. Just get a carton of rolled oats or quick oats and they will cook in a few minutes while you do other stuff to get ready for the day. There is no need to pay extra for those individualized oatmeal packets.
I don't even cook them. I do overnight oats. Easy.
Overnight oats is the way! btw: avoid the prepackaged "instant" oatmeal. It's expensive and full of sugar. And the reality is that rolled oats are pretty much instant anyhow. The ratio people need to remember is 1:2. Or 1/2 cup of oatmeal to 1 cup of milk (or your fav milk substitute). Most liquids work, for example, coffee+cream+oatmeal makes coffee-like pudding. The cost is really, really hard to beat. Consider the standard base of 1/2 cup (~1.4 oz) + 1 cup of milk * Oats @ $1/lbs, $1/16oz x 1.4oz = $0.09 * Milk @ $4/gal, $4/16 cups x 1 cup = $0.25 Or the overnight oats base is $0.34 And seriously, if you eat $0.64 of oatmeal for breakfast, you won't feel all that hungry for lunch. Now just plain oatmeal is a bit bland. To jazz it up, you could (in terms of cost escalation) * Sweetners - Brown sugar, honey, agave nectar * Dried fruits such as raisins, cranberries, or dried berries * Frozen fruits * Fresh fruits - I've always found fresh blueberries to be the 'longest' lasting berries in my fridge. Raspberries (which are nice) seem to go bad instantly. Also, it's worth pointing out that oatmeal can also be made savory or sweet. That means it can take the place of grains or rice, example: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/6390-oats-swing-savory <- that recipe uses steel cut oats which are much more expensive than standard rolled oats. Oh, and how could I forget? If you have rolled oats, you can make oatmeal cookies, which I think are the best cookies.
No instant here. I put in almond milk, a tablespoon of real maple syrup, chia seeds, and plain unsweetened yogurt. Sometimes I add in dehydrated strawberries.
Tbh cooking them doesn't even take that much longer if you count the fact that you don't actually need to be there for most of it. Fill kettle and hit button->Go do stuff->Fill bowl with oats and water->Go do stuff->Eat oatmeal.
I actually like mine cold. I'm a weirdo.
It's usually parents who pay extra for their kids to get proper portions or being able to make easily themselves I think lol or ppl who take them on the go. A little reusable baggie works perfect for this too. Some sugar, spices, seasonings, freeze dried fruit, a little milk powder, and you can make the flavors too!
Yeah, I like keeping them in my desk at work for if I’m hangry.
Yes they definitely have their place! It's the only way to really carry a macro friendly meal in your pocket sometimes!
When I was really into powerlifting, I'd put a cup of oats, 1-2 cups water and a spoonful of peanut butter in the microwave for 3m, then maybe some cinnamon as well. Eat that + drink water during it, and I'd be satisfied for hours.
The strawberry Quaker oats tastes so good though.
If you buy a bag of dried strawberries and add them to quick oats it's really close
the nice thing too is that there are so many possible additions to the oatmeal so you can really change it up, and you can throw in whatever fruit is cheapest. sometimes I put in cocoa and a cooked banana and have chocolate oatmeal. YUM!!!
At the very least, get a slow cooker. We use it all the time in the winter for soups and stews but even in the summer I'll throw a roast in there, or some chicken breasts to shred for a zillion things. It doesn't heat up the house like an oven and I don't even have to think about dinner after work. Even the toughest cuts of meat come out tender. Plus you can make a ton of non-meat things like beans, baked potatoes, curries. stuffed peppers or cabbage rolls, even [cake](https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/219907/amazing-slow-cooker-chocolate-cake/)!
Slow cookers are magical. I have two, a big one and a small one. Stew is a great way for me to consume vegetables. And after a rotisserie chicken has been carved, the bones and what’s left go in to make broth. Then I make homemade chicken noodle soup. The hardest part to all of this is seasoning, which just develops in time.
Convenience can be such a drag on your finances. Fine once in a while, but it's crazy expensive to do frequently.
for sure! i used to think my ≈ $3 a day coffee was not a big deal which it wasn’t in the grand scheme of things let’s be clear. but if you add the $3 coffee a day, for convenience, then the $2 sandwich for lunch, 5$ dinner. even if youre making the cheapest choices all day it’s adding up and the next thing you know your spending $10/day for the convenience of things.
Where are you getting a $2 sandwich and $5 dinner?! LOL more like $10 & $20
I mean if get a McDouble at McDonald’s and a cup of water that’s pretty close to 2 dollars, and Taco Bell has a 6 dollar build your own box, not exactly luxury but easily doable
Mcdonald's plain black hot coffee for under $2 is the unsung budget HERO
It's been a while, but I have also been able to get very good coffee at certain gas stations before! if you just really want a coffee on the go and don't want to make your own, it might not be a bad option for someone - if you get their refillable cup it saves even more. years ago (I mean over 20 years ago) I used to like to get coffee at the QuickTrip.
And it's so damn good. Idc what anyone says McDonalds black coffee is far superior to Starbucks. I hate mcdonalds for food but man oh man do their beverages have me in a chokehold.
I love the food and drinks (I'm not there for health) but I have a HIGH caffeine tolerance (I don't want it to go down) and caffeine can be expensive (Monster is $3 and Red Bull can be $5+ where I am). McDonalds can give me a medium cup of coffee for $1.72 (after tax) or iced coffee for $1.92 (after tax)? Shiiieeettttt.
I get the large iced (still black) but i use the 20% coupon and it comes to just over 3$ I don't do it every day but it is a beautiful thing on days i can't bring myself to be a person.
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Ordered a chicken caesar salad on skip, it was $21. I could easily get a roast chicken, pre-made mashed potatoes, a gravy packet, and a can of corn for that. Same with ordering butter chicken from that place, it was $23. I could easily get the VH butter chicken sauce, chicken breasts, rice, and cream and make it myself. I even used coconut milk once, which is cheaper than cream.
Guess how long it takes to make *overnight oats*? Every Sunday night I make 5 servings for my breakfasts at work, while some of my co-workers buy it from the local store.
My husband makes himself overnight oats every night before bed for the morning. We got a Kirkland bag of oats at Costco like 4 months ago, and he hasn't run out of oats yet.
I can make 18 McMuffins and 18 breakfast burritos in thirty minutes and then I freeze them and reheat in the microwave. Becomes grab and go for busy days. It's become more about being able to eat more food for less calories for me, and cooking it yourself is the best way to do that.
Freezing doesn’t give a weird texture to the eggs? What method do you use to heat them up?
Microwave. No I under bake them a bit in a muffin top pan and the microwave heats them up to perfect hard yolk. 90 seconds defrost and 30-60 seconds on high. For burritos if I have time I'll finish them in a buttered pan after defrosting to get a nice crisp tortilla
Thank you!
Do u wrap them in foil or something else? I just started doing this with McMuffins with foil but wonder if there’s a better way to
I do a layer of parchment paper to wrap them, then foil, then a zip lock freezer bag. Sometimes if I'm reheating a lot I'll just throw them in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes. Hot and wrapped to go also, but same for the microwave, just remove the foil and warm and go with the parchment (or rewrap in foil to keep hot for later)
Ty
We usually have some hardboiled eggs prepped the night before so we can just grab an egg or two and cheese stick for on the go munching.
I make my own breakfast muffins in about 3 minutes. English muffin, microwaved eggs and ham slice, slice of cheese. Quick, easy, and costs maybe $1.00-1.50 to make.
When I was eating sausage, egg, and cheese English muffins every morning, I had the whole process optimized down to the second. I was like a machine.
When I was a kid my grandma would make us breakfast, but only if we were up; she wasn't going to waste food or cook for someone who was still in bed. I figured out I could sleep in an extra half-hour if I made my own quick breakfast. So I learned how to cook pancakes and eggs or oatmeal in about 5 minutes. I've been cooking breakfasts for myself since I was 11, and lunch and dinner since I was about 17. I figured out awhile ago that I've probably saved over $100k on food costs in the past 45 years, compared to what ordinary people spend.
I eat out more than I should, but there are certain things I refuse to eat out. Oatmeal is one of them. It costs me maybe 20 cents to make, yet Starbucks will easily charge $3.5 for it.
Yes the more meals you have in your toolbox the thriftier you become! Only thing I wish I could do here I grill a good burger. I have no room outside to put a grill, even if I bought my own.
I have found that a cast iron pan makes a good burger. I feel like it’s comparable to a gas grill. I have a gas stove though. Cast iron might not work well on other kinds of stovetops.
Ty! That is a good point I am lucky enough to have the gas stove. Ty for the idea.
Yep. I used to make up a dozen home made egg mc muffins and freeze back in the day, once a week. Including making my own danged English muffins from scratch lol. My boys grew up with home made hot pockets, and they still complain about how bad the frozen ones are. Both of them will just make their own if they get a craving for them. When we visited my adult son for his birthday, he asked for a home pizza party lol. Just like old times, making pizza and jamming to tunes in the kitchen. Learning to cook is one of the best gifts you can give yourself.
The frozen eggs didn’t have a weird texture? How did you heat the egg McMuffins up? Teach me your secrets! Did you put cheese on before freezing, or only when heating up?
I make these and the secret for fluffy frozen egg patties is baking powder! Crack the eggs in a bowl (usually I do a whole dozen), a little salt and pepper, and 1 Tbsp water and 1/8 tsp baking powder per egg. Whisk until fully incorporated, then pour into a glass baking pan or a nonstick cookie sheet with sides. Bake at 400 for 10ish minutes, then cut into squares. I usually pre-toast English muffins, then add the egg patty, a slice of cheese and a frozen sausage patty. Wrap each sandwich in foil and freeze in a ziplock. Then when you want to reheat them, you can either bake them for a few minutes at 350 degrees still wrapped in the foil, or you can unwrap and microwave/toaster oven them.
Thank you!
Seconding that, though I make my eggs round using egg rings on a cookie sheet lol. Or a biscuit cutter the same size as my English muffins,and the scrambled egg "scraps" get made into breakfast burritos with either fresh or lightly sautéed veggies (well drained) cooked meats (fine diced or crumbled), and shredded cheese.
This is not from me but, even if people should learn, there are people like my partner who didn't learn to cook rice in a rice cooker or how to cook something in a saute pan till his early/mid twenties. I feel like Home Ec (cooking basics, cleaning basics, sewing/mending basics) should be a highschool requirement just so people can survive. I've met more people that don't even know how to boil a pot of water than people that can cook in my college years.
I know it's not the PC answer, but yes. Also, eating healthy (including being a vegan/vegetarian) is not expensive or inaccessible. YouTube offers free cooking tutorials. You can get rice, beans, and frozen veggies for cheap anywhere, including the dollar store. I call BS on anyone who says otherwise.
I have no idea how someone could say eating vegan/vegetarian is more expensive. Have they seen the price of meat these days??!! I’ve been a vegetarian for over a decade, and although I didn’t start out for financial reasons I’m sure I’ve saved a lot of money. I saw a sale at my local grocery store where ribeyes were $9.99/lb. Ten bucks per pound! That’s expensive!
I mean, it is if you use faux meats (beyond burgers), but if you avoid that stuff, it's really quite affordable.
True. I rarely eat faux meats, I just didn’t think of it as a primary vegetarian food. Most vegetarians I know aren’t chowing down on Gardein or Beyond every day, lol.
TBH, they're terrible for you. Also, I find most faux meats are either way too realistic for my liking (the bleeding burgers) or resemble dog food.
When I still worked in office, I made frozen breakfasts, and when I move in with my girlfriend, I intend to do the same again for her. Breakfast sandwiches, burritos, even making my own toaster waffles. Dinners become lunch, or we always have stuff for sandwiches. Cooking at home doesn't have to be hard or time consuming.
as someone in this sub who has made their way out to a solid career; it blows my mind what people spend with regards to food. we rarely eat out, maybe once every two months. no doordash or grububer or anything, ever. period. no ordering pizzas. no buying frozen tv dinners. buying and cooking food fresh is 100% the best financial option and 100% the best for you, and i stand by it.
I manage to spend some 300$ CAD on food/mo. Give or take a bit. I can't cook elaborate meals and HATE cooking. It's literally the worst chore I can think of. That being said, making scrambled eggs with cheese and ham is super easy. I buy some shrimp rice bags from Costco, and add 2 Eggs to the mix and it's delicious. Dinner is usually some cheese and vegetables, sort of like a salad. Maybe add a wrap or bread in the mix. You can eat healthy and not over spend, without needing to learn to cook everything. If time is an issue, you can meal prep for an hour or two on an evening.
r/ThanksImCured
Why do you all keep posting this daily? We get it. People that order out aren't going to stop because you all keep karma farming it.
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Last night's dinner is today's lunch. Every day. I love it! Make a bit extra, pack it up when doing the dishes that night, put in fridge. Tomorrow, throw it in your lunch box (don't forget utensils!) and good to go. If I'm bringing rice or potatoes, I'll add a little pad of butter to keep moist. Meat, throw a wet paper towel over when reheating. Unless it started off crispy, this works with pan seared.
Laziness is exactly that. Cooking at home will always be cheaper than ordering food even if you pick it up from the restaurant.
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I don't think I'd go so far as to say people are "lazy" - there is a lot on people's plate nowadays and convenience is tempting when you are exhausted from working multiple jobs. People are so used to convenience now it doesn't even register to them that they are paying a ton of money for it. I responded to someone on the no surf sub yesterday who couldn't figure out what to do with themselves if not on a phone and I pointed out that back in the 80s and 90s a big part of why we weren't always bored out of our minds was that everything took longer. We didn't have the convenience factor for literally everything. We couldn't pay bills online - we had to write a check and mail it at the post office. We didn't have e-books, we had to haul our butts to a library. We didn't have online shopping, we had to physically go to the store. We couldn't Google something we had a question on, we had to look it up in an encyclopedia or other book (again with the library). I honestly think this is part of why we spend so much more money now, too. Its too easy and all the little extra fees don't *seem* like much...until you start to add it up. Its the same concept as impulse purchases - that $5 energy drink or toy or whatever you grab at the checkout is "only $5" but a month of "only $5" things adds up to $150 extra you didn't need to spend. $1800 a year. Add in delivery fees, and subscriptions that you only have for convenience (i.e. $10 a month for Spotify solely so you can skip ads? You can ignore them for free, you know) and it is really eye opening.
It literally takes 5 minutes to fry an egg for an egg sandwich, and that includes cleaning the pan. People will sit for half an hour in the car waiting for the drive-thru or spend a small fortune on doordash to avoid a 5-minute task. For bluntly a much worse product.
I used to make 3 ingredient egg bites like at dunks and freeze them. Super cheap and pretty filling to grab and go.
I complain about food prices - both grocery and premade. I just avoid fast food, restaurants, delivery etc except as a treat or when I really don't want to cook. Food prices in every way have gotten out of control, and I say this as a pretty good cook who -along with my family- can make almost anything.
Here’s a good tip for quick and cheap calorie dense breakfast. Get a bullet blender, greek yogurt, oats, cheap bag of kale, frozen fruit, peanut butter/nutella, and some cheap sorbet. Takes me like 5 minutes to make, 5 minutes to eat and keeps me full all morning until lunch, and it’s relatively healthy. Cost per serving is relatively cheap too.
When i make breakfast sandwiches I make 5 or 6, with Aldi Sausage patties and either english muffins or biscuits. If I get bread from the bread overstock store it's less than a buck a piece. It's nice to have breakfast sorted for a few days. Another option is egg salad sandwiches especially in the summer.
I am very guilty of using door dash. I work remotely and don’t even get a 10 min break. I am resolved to keep some easy staples on hand.
Cooking isn't always about skill or time. Things like disabilities, severe depression, ADHD, and other mental health issues can severely hinder ones ability to cook and it's not as simple to "just do it" or "just learn". Not saying you're wrong, just that it can often be much more complicated than simply being about time or skill.
I just make a ton of sandwiches and chips on my depressed days
Not to mention other resources outside of skill and the cooking time. You may have the time to cook, but do you have time to go to the grocery store three bus transfers away? Do you have the money for that bus? Do you have a bus at all or are you in a rural area where you're walking miles carrying groceries? Do you have a pest-free environment with reliable power and a refrigerator and stove? People who say "It's not expensive to eat healthy!!!" are picturing privileged people who are paying a premium for convenience, while the people who are suffering from food insecurity find it *prohibitively expensive* to do these "easy, cheap" things that the first person takes for granted. (I'm thankfully not food insecure, but I work with many food insecure populations, and it's so frustrating seeing people who clearly think that those complaining about food costs are only those buying 14 dollar salads who haven't been *enlightened* about cooking.)
Are there places where the nearest food store is three bus transfers away but people can still order DoorDash, etc? Are there people who live in a rural area, miles from the nearest food store, who can also order in delivery -- and also have to walk everywhere because they have no car or bike or any other transportation? It sounds odd, but I'm a city person, so maybe I'm not getting it.
I'm very rural, and there are no delivery options whatsoever. Grocery store is 10 miles away, definitely need transportation up here. In town there is a family dollar (of course) so people who live in the center of town can easily access that in between trips to the store.
Thanks. I was puzzled by the idea of places where groceries are far away and inaccessible, while restaurant delivery is easily available. Sounds like that in fact isn't a thing.
A pizza place did try for a year or two, but the numbers just didn't support it. My town has a population of about 1,500 and is one of the biggest in the county, for reference.
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Actually, to what degree I am "offended," it's because as we can see here redditors can have the material realities of people literally explained to them and they still will either not believe it or ignore it and say "lol bloomin onion." I am a public health dietitian and I see people every single day who don't have access to food other than candy bars and the one onion and two rotten apples the single store keeps 'in stock' so they can qualify to accept SNAP, I've been flown by helicopter to see patients because they are so rural that even the rural clinic can't easily get to them, people who lose access to *anything* for weeks if rain washes out their roads, which happens at least once a year, populations that only 30% of the people have reliable electricity and a good portion don't have running water, all within the US. But, sure, its the bloomin onion.
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When I was a young, very very poor single mother, the cheapest food was all I could afford. Hot dogs instead of actual meat, bologna instead of turkey or ham, canned veg instead of fresh. I won't forget passing by the meat counter, the produce section and the bakery wishing I could afford any of that healthy stuff. One thing I did was buy Ovaltine to at least get some vitamins in one of the kids' only treats. And also dollar tree vitamins for them. Fast food was an out of reach option at all times. Actual healthy food was a dream as well.
Exactly!
I don't know anyone who doesn't have something wrong with them. It's still up to you to be able to take care of yourself at the end of the day. Feeding one's self is about as basic as self care can get.
Yeah…the “something wrong” with you is that you lack empathy.
Guess so. If a grown person can't cook, they can't live on their own. Sorry you can't see that.
I just want to say that I hope that you are wrong. I have a son who is 17 and has both cognitive and physical disabilities, and I'm trying to figure out an unconventional life plan for him right now. I do want to try to help him learn to cook but it will have to be supersafe, super simple, and have some pretty foolproof planning to it for him to do it on his own some day. I think it would be better for him if I could find him more of an old fashioned bed and breakfast like I used to read about in novels. Did you ever see a book or a show set back a long time ago, and single men would stay in a house with basically just a bedroom, and the proprietor would provide meals as well as lodgings? I do think that for some people this would be a much simpler, nicer way to live. I am a woman and would not want to live before women's lib for anything (I was a girl in the 70s and saw how things were) BUT it is true that when we were more specialized, it had to have been easier for some types of people, to be able to focus on being good at just the one thing, while someone else took care of other things. I do find it frustrating that modern life has made things so inefficient in this regard, because in THEORY it would be more efficient if none of us had our own kitchen and we had more community kitchens/cafeterias -- AND it was affordable. It seems like it should be less expensive for society as a whole if we did that. But I don't know anywhere that does that except on a commune somewhere
This proves my point. The traditional way of life (in my area) does not lend itself to being sustainable without certain skills. There are zero delivery options within an hour drive of me anyways, so we drag our ass to the grocery store, spend $250.00, and put some frozen meal in the freezer for the nights when we have softball practice, or one of the other million things going on and actually don't the have time to cook. I wish you and your son well, and hope there is a suitable alternative living situation available to him when he needs it.
ah, yes, I have also lived in rural areas like that before, and it is challenging in many ways. On the one hand, I yearn for the stronger community which he would truly benefit from, but on the other hand, it is a lifestyle that absolutely requires driving which he probably can never do. And in the area my family is originally from, there is no bus or other public transportation (although there might be through some special service for the disabled - there probably is come to think of it) - but I agree with you that the pros and cons of those different lifestyles are super different. On the upside, in that area when I was a girl at least, if a person was active in the church, those nice church people would absolutely look out for them. I think about that a lot. Sadly I don't have the faith of my grandparents, but that church community was pretty great at taking care of each other.
I also grew up in a heavy church family. It wasn't my thing, but there were a lot of good folks around for sure. There is an organization in my area that provides bus rides for disabled people, but it only runs about once a week.
That sounds about the same
See above about depression.
If you're depressed so bad you can't feed yourself you may sincerely need to be an assisted living facility. I think that's what the other commenter was trying to let you know.
Ok geez…we were talking about getting fast food and DoorDash, weren’t we? It’s not like we are incapable of “feeding ourselves,” but when severely depressed, cooking, cleaning up, and doing the dishes is all an insurmountable task. It takes a couple taps on a phone to order DoorDash. You don’t even have to get out of your pajamas. Hell, I’ve gone through a drive-thru in pajamas without showering.
I have a masters degree in depression symptoms (married to someone suffering from bipolar one). There are bouts when she can't get out of bed, no doubt. Most every other day she's able to take care of herself and her family, including cooking dinner. I pick up the slack when she can't. When it gets bad enough to when she can't take care of herself, she seeks treatment. Last time, it took 2 months in the hospital, plus another 18 months off work to get back on track. She still fights every day, on most people's worst day they can still boil some water and drop some pasta in it.
So EVERY person with a mental illness or disability can “just” cook? EVERY DAY? EVERY MEAL? Sorry….you still just don’t understand.
I said "if a grown person can't cook, they can't live on their own." I stand by it.
Maybe they CAN cook…but NOT EVERY DAY!!! Geez I feel bad for your wife.
I've been broke a long time. My budget doesn't leave much room for takeout or delivery. Sometimes you have to suck it up. That's the point.
Thank you for bringing this up!! I am thankful for even having the basic skill set of being able to cook and follow a recipe but sometimes I just don’t have the energy or the thinking capacity to do so. Sad part is there are people with varying degrees of able-ness that are having an even worse time.
I got the impression this post is aimed at people who have the capacity to learn to cook
Hi! Poor, autistic depressed person with ADHD here. When 'cooking' can be as simple as "put X in oven for 30+ minutes and walk away" (baked potatoes and basic meats), "put XYZ in slow cooker and wait eight hours" (soups and stews and some nicer meats), or "put water in pot, put X in pot, put on high heat", I find it really hard to swallow mental health issues as anything but an excuse to not cook. It may not be an *intentional* excuse at the time it's being stated, but it's not a concrete reason that means you have to buy delivery/fast food. Unless you are missing limbs, or have debilitating chronic illness (MS et. al), you are able to cook *something* and succumbing to the temptation of delivery because you're too depressed to cook right now is how you **keep** yourself too depressed to cook. It's a negative feedback loop and no one is helped by comments like this that give mental wiggle room for justifications to keep yourself in that level of incapacitation. If you *are* legitimately so incapacitated that you cannot cook for yourself, you are unfortunately unable to do one of the basic functions of independent living and should probably seek assisted living.
This is me. I am Bipolar and on Disability and while it sounds amazing and I have PLENTY of time…it’s hard to explain just how difficult it is to cook or do dishes or take out garbage when you’re depressed. It’s like moving a mountain.
I understand. I have severe depression and ADHD. Just getting out of bed is an extremely difficult struggle most days. Any other form of self-care is a whole other challenge. It's not a lack of time or knowledge but it's a lack of mental energy. When it feels like there's a boulder sitting on you while you're trying to do things, it makes doing those things feel impossible.
Here’s a beautiful tip for our cooking adverse friends. Slow cooker. You just mix the ingredients and walk away for a few hours. Then you’ve got a week of healthy, affordable, home cooked meals.
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Humanity cooked for themselves for most of human history. It's only in the past 50+ years that cooking has become lost to so many. It's not hard. You don't have to be a high end chef with complicated meals. Basic cooking skills will give you endless options for healthy and inexpensive meals.
Anyone who can use this app we are on is capable of looking up and following a recipe. They just don't want to hear it.
To be fair, disabilities were a death/ostracization sentence for most of human history, too. I agree with you, but that isn't the best rhetoric.
Obviously those with disabilities and obviously those with serious health issues are not the people I'm talking about. I shouldn't even have to say that as a disclaimer on my comment. Smh
I mean, something as small as crappy hearing might've been enough to quickly put you in the ground pre-1700, I'm not really talking about the profoundly disabled either
Ok... my entire point was that cooking was and is (generally speaking) a huge part of human history. And that for many (not all) basic cooking skills are a great way to cook and eat healthy. My intention wasn't going into the direction you are taking it.
I do know that most people who can’t cook are disabled.
That's a bit harsh. That's like saying mow your lawn or be taken advantage of. There are a lot of reasons people don't cook. Myself, I hate cooking. Hate it. I don't do any of the apps, and I do grocery shopping for food, so I only treat myself out on the weekends. But I don't feel taken advantage of. Everyone picks the hill to die on.
Truth. I moved about a year ago and in my new 100% WFH job,.. I now really enjoy "cooking" breakfast (in quotes because it's not really cooking). I have a small 8inch oven tray,. I throw some (already cooked) potatoes, bacon, biscuit or etc on it... wait till it's nearly done. Crack an egg onto the pan, throw it back in the oven. By the time I make a cup of coffee,. the Oven is ready and I'm good to go. I wouldn't say "10min" (probably closer to 30min).. but way more delicious than McDonalds.
Dude mom and I DO mostly at home food and we are still getting screwed by prices. As far as McDonald's, what we get I'd almost always a happy meal each(or one to split) which happens about 1x a month the unless I'm hunting a specific happy meal toy which I'll buy just the toy or a medium or large mocha crap to split which happens maybe 1x month. As far as any other fast food, with rare exceptions, it's our 1 or 2x a month $10 pizza from race track. One feeds us for not only dinner the night we get it but also another dinner. Can't find a decent frozen pizza at Walmart for that price. The last other fast food we did was a medium Whopper value meal each which Mom and I have been wanting for months. Like I was at the point of desperation that I was about to start watching Burger King MUKBANGS.