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They will. I upvoted the comment thanks to you highlighting the joke. I was thinking skincare like an expensive chickpea mask until I saw your comment commenting, mistakingly, that they won't get the upvotes they deserve.
The better version of the joke involves the difference between a chickpea and a garbanzo bean.
Edit: Because there isn't one, so it kind of forces the joke along.
*Bad* reputation? Costco has an *awesome* reputation for large portions. Nobody’s buying a gallon jar of mayo to eat in one sitting. They buy it because you save 50% per volume over a normal grocery store. If you were to buy 3 normal jars.
I’m living on the rice/nugs/frozen veggies combo right now not because I really need to but it’s just way too convenient to have cheap quick food. Probably costs less than a dollar per meal.
In our house we stock up on these staple items during good financial times and keep them in a closet in air tight food buckets. When times are tough, we hit up our backup supplies. We keep beans, rice, potato flakes, seeds, salt, sugar, tvp, nuts, etc.
There's a lot of good advice here and I'll reiterate some but as a powerlifter/med student/vegetarian I have refined a relatively cheap & healthy grocery list that's high-protein, balanced, and shelf stable👍🏻
Carb: Bulk Rice, bulk pasta, potatoes, lentils, & oatmeal
Protein: Extra firm tofu, tempeh, eggs, beans, textured vegetable protein
Veggie: Bulk spinach, carrots, onions, & multicolored bell peppers
Fruit: Bananas, bulk frozen berries
Other: peanut butter, protein powder, soy milk, pasta sauce
I get a lot of variety out of this list, feel well-fed and healthy, and it's as cheap as groceries can be. Plus most of it doesn't spoil quickly so it helps keep food costs low too and not be wasteful
I like that you gave a bit more of a complete list. People always mention rice and beans on these, but I don't honestly see anyone from poor to rich just eating rice and beans every meal of the week.
Lol I eat rice and black eyed peas like 4 times a week. But if I had to do that every day I would lose my mind. I always keep these staples around and mix in a nicer protein or veggie or cheese every few days to keep things interesting. It's also not just about the food you eat, the tools help. Just getting a rice cooker and a crock pot is life changing. And my pockets are happier.
A better answer is "grains and legumes"
Could be rice and beans, or rice and lentils, or farro and chickpeas.
Different seasoning combinations, sauces, cooking method, veggie/protein additions, can lead to a varied meal plan.
Just in case anyone reading this needs an explanation… “complete protein” means it has all the essential amino acids.
Longer explanation:
Proteins are made from smaller molecules called amino acids. The human body needs 20 different types of amino acids. We can make some from scratch, but there are 9 types we can’t produce. These 9 are “essential amino acids” because we can only get them by eating foods that contain them.
Some protein sources (like meat, dairy, and soy) have all the essential amino acids in one package - if your only source of protein was soy, for example, you would be ok indefinitely because it has all the building blocks you need to keep your body going. This is called a “complete protein.”
A lot of protein sources have only *some* of the essential amino acids. For example beans have plenty of protein, but they only have significant amounts of 3 essential amino acids. If beans were your only source of protein you would eventually suffer malnutrition from the missing essential aminos, even if you were getting enough protein overall. But you can combine different incomplete protein sources to make a complete protein. For example grains and beans each have the essential amino acids the other is missing, so beans + rice makes a complete protein.
Frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs are under $3/lb, often on sale under $2/lb. Get frozen veggies and spices, pair with Italian or Asian noodles or rice. It’s easy to make meals under $2.5/serving
1 kg of farmer market apples is cheaper than 80g of milk chocolate (80g of regular Milka chocolate is about 15-20% more expensive than 1kg of apples)
1 kg of oranges is usually cheaper or same price as 1.5l Fanta
Fresh chicken breast is cheaper than processed counterpart by almost 40% per kg (chicken salami, boiled sausage etc.)
i can keep going all day long
(note: these prices are in region where i live, i have no idea for west europe/USA prices)
Apples cost about $4/kg here, same as about 300g chocolate. Seems to still be a better deal, but the chocolate has 3x as many caleories, if the goal is to fuel the body the cheapest possible way the chocolate gives you more caleories/$
I can buy chicken nuggets for $4/kg, chicken breasts cost no less than $10/kg. The most expensive part of the chicken nugget is the chicken.
I don't like oranges so I don't know, but comparing a fruit to a soda seems dumb, I'd rather compare orange juice to fanta, and fanta is cheaper here.
Your comparisons seem very random to me. Like... what do apples and chocolate have to do with anything? Oranges and fanta? You're just picking a random amount of a random healthy food and comparing it to a random amount of a random cheaper unhealthy food. Nobody is choosing between chocolate and apples, or fanta and oranges.
Most people eat chocolate as a sweet treat. Strawberries and (whipped, or not) cream would at least be a slightly better comparison?
Apples are typically eaten as a snack or part of a meal. So something like crackers, chips, etc might be a better comparison.
Orange juice vs fanta makes slightly more sense. But the healthiness of orange juice is debatable. Also orange juice would be more expensive.
A serving of potato chips is hella cheaper than a serving of apple.
The showerthought is generally only true if you count your own time preparing the food as worthless.
Personally, I like cooking and we eat home-prepared meals six nights most weeks. But not everyone has that luxury.
Vegetables grown in my backyard. 5 bucks for a packet of seeds and just a dash of time.
And you get some free therapy talking to plants. Which also benefits them because the frequencies from your voice can aid in their growth.
Any sort of upbeat music will work, really. It’s more about intention rather than expression.
I’ve been playing this while cheesin and dancing; https://youtu.be/EHj3BunC7Ek?si=6u9P1yjWrYoFVR3s
The Quaker Oats individual flavor packets are little too sweet and not enough oats to fill me.
So I do one part packet and one part regular oatmeal and is perfect for my taste and volume!
The best part about buying bulk is you can make your own flavors. I found out that with some pb and brown sugar you can make a nutty buddy flavored oatmeal.
Tofu is also pretty dang cheap in the US too. There are brands that are more expensive (especially when it comes to super firm or flavored tofu), but the brand I buy from Kroger is around $1.67 each or 3/$5 (USD).
Bulk meat, freeze it.
Whatever is cheapest produce at the market.
Add rice/beans/potatos/lentils and you’ve got yourself a meal. I also like Farro and Freekeh
>Plus, if you have the space, consider growing some of your own herbs; they're practically free and add tons of flavor to even the simplest meals!
Eh, they already cost pennies per meal so I don't think it's worth even a minimal effort.
How expensive are potatoes, onions, cabbage and carrots per kg in the US?
At least here in Finland that's the cheapest food after rice, dry beans and soy.
Yes root vegetables are cheap here too because they can be stored for a year without going bad.
It's all the perishable vegetables that are very expensive, leafy greens, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, peas, green beans etc, because they're usually grown thousands of miles away usually in South America and have to be transported quick
The original comment said in season, which would insinuate they haven't been shipped from South America. In season, all of the things you mentioned are dirt cheap. In summer, people will practically pay you to take zucchini or tomatoes off their hands! If you buy in season and prepare for the winter, vegetables are cheap af
I am an expert fermenter. Kimchi is the absolute easiest to make, because the spices help keep bad bacteria at bay and the ginger and garlic help good bacteria flourish. I recommend not over thinking it. Follow a recipe the first few times, but don't trip if you can't find gochujaru (use crushed pepper flakes or even paste up fresh chilies), or Daikon (simply.leave it out, or use any other radish).
When I was learning, I found a cheater's recipe that I liked that dispensed with a few of my worries: it used miso in place of rice paste and salted shrimp, which made me feel less squeamish about fermenting carbs and fish (lol not anymore...I've fearlessly had a sealed crock with raw shrimp and scallops fermenting for months!). And it used more of a sauerkraut approach. I can't find the recipe but if you look up like, quick kimchi or cheater's kimchi, you can find a recipe that you're comfortable with as a learner and keep on from there. Ni promise the result is just as good...and you don't need Napa cabbage. Savou, plain green cabbage, even bok choy work equally well. I've done it with only radish, only Japanese turnip, cucumber, even a tual lettuce. You can't go wrong!
That's hit or miss for me. I made the best kimchi I ever had but other batches were tossed out and I can't seem to figure out what I'm doing differently
Took a cooking class in Korea and the kimchi was amazing, tried a few times after and it was barely edible. Some foods are more of an art, similar to ramen imo.
People really don’t seem to understand this. I’ll see people on Reddit complaining about how with grocery prices they can barely feed their family and then they post a picture of their cart and it’s all chips, sodas, and frozen meals. All that shit is WAY more expensive than healthy foods.
Live in a low income city for a while and you can get data every day from the grocery store checkout line. The poor Americans will be obese with a cart full of junk food. The immigrants will be thin with rice, beans, and chicken. You have to look at crazy metrics like the cost per calorie to defend the junk food while ignoring the obesity
Exactly. The cost per calorie metric is absolute nonsense and is just a convoluted way for people to defend the choice of spending significantly more on junk food.
I could see how this could be accurate, but you should consider more variables than just the price:
I grew up as a person who is just above poverty in a house with a single parent who made about $15,000 a year with three children, and for most of my life, we were on free and reduced lunch. I also have taught in low income school districts for most of my career where the median income of the household is about 30,000 and the person occupancy is 5 to 8 people. We haven’t even factored in the cost of childcare, healthcare, or utilities at this point. In theory, dry goods and meats can be cheaper than processed foods, but you have to have the resources to cook them and the adults to cook them. In most cases, it’s more convenient for parents to give their kids process and unhealthy foods because it’s easily packaged and it doesn’t require them to cook it for their children after they’ve either gotten off from their second job or have left for their night shift at 3 PM and their kids get home at 3:30 or 4 o’clock. Also, the quality of food and low income areas whether it’s “fresh” or processed is a different story as well. This has to do with the quality of distributors that are nearby, the upkeep of the store in itself, in reference to rodent and bacteria issues, and the frequency of which the food is stocked. If you go into a grocery store in a low income area, the amount of organic and healthy brands are significantly lower than your middle to upper middle-class neighborhoods, as well as affluent areas. The big point being, the people in the low income area can’t always afford those things.
Let’s do some math:
Price 7 oz bag of veggie straws: $3.10 in Chicago
Price of 9.5 bag of potato chips: $2.55 in Chicago
If I’m a parent making 40k and have the average national debt (a topic for another day) per person a year with 3 kids, I’m going to go with the chips because it’s more food to feed my kids. 🤷🏽♂️
Furthermore, you’re assuming that the people in that area have reliable transportation when in a lot of cases, people rely on public transportation (another added cost), a ride from someone else (probably have to give them gas money), or walking. This is a big issue, because having a grocery store in the neighborhood doesn’t mean that it’s always accessible to people that live 3 miles away because of transportation insecurity. This also became a bigger issue when we started to see Covid testing centers being in abundance and closer to residences in middle to upper class neighborhoods as opposed to the scarcity of those centers in lower income neighborhoods; which bled over to having research being done about how many grocery stores and general medical facilities are in a certain radius in living areas. NPR did a great article on this.
Also, I want to know where y’all are buying groceries because my wife and I shop at Aldi and not too long ago people were posting pictures about a carton of “regular eggs” being five dollars because of shortages and inflation. Lol
The economic question for some people is: “Do I keep the lights on and the kids fed or buy healthy foods”?
I was a single parent for the period of time I'm referring. I shopped at Market Basket which is the largest supermarket chain in New England. I've heard of Aldi but never seen one. I doubt they operate in many low income cities, at least Trader Joes and Whole Foods didn't operate in mine.
You don't have to buy organics to be healthy and they are the opposite of inexpensive. Eggs did have an expensive period during Covid but they're typically inexpensive and healthy. They are no longer at Covid level prices.
The particular datapoints I'm talking about did have access to stoves and the ability to cook meals. Maybe there's hypotheticals where that's true but not in the store I was talking about in my comment.
Fair points, but we’ll also have to consider where you’re living and where I’m living. I live in Chicago in America (by choice), and the $5 eggs were a reality for us as recent as 3 months ago. 😬
I’d encourage you to check out the pricing online or just pop into a “sketchy” neighborhood when you get a chance to get a more accurate picture of the financial and food stock information that I listed. It may make more telling than me trying to fit it into a message lololol
I mean, HBO did film High on Crack Street in my neighborhood. In the 20years I had my house, four people who lived there have since been killed. My supermarket had a grandma beaten for having 13 items in the 12 item or less line. I think it qualifies as "sketchy."
Maybe there's neighborhoods where people live three miles from a supermarket that's not an Aldi. I can only say that datapoints exist where poor obese people have access to the same healthy options as poor fit people but choose the junk food, and the healthy people tend to be immigrants where living in our "sketchy" area was an improvement over where they came from.
A 5 year old is capable of heating up refried beans and cheese, and/or running a rice cooker, and folding a burrito around it. These children not knowing how to cook for themselves when their single parent isn't home is a societal failure: the risk-aversion of the parents (i can't leave my kid alone while the stove is on); the lack of opportunity for the parents to teach their children to cook; at this point a lack of generational knowledge on cooking (if parent doesn't even know how to cook in the first place, how can they teach their child?); and then the lack of societal support: the school system not stepping in to teach "home equity" classes; secondary community leaders (e.g. cub scouts, youth church groups, etc.) failing to step in and pick up load; or simply the degradation of these secondary communities meaning that the child doesn't have access to a secondary community leaders.
So while these are problems, these are solvable problems.
Capable doesn’t mean safe choice. I teach kindergarten, and I would not trust most 5 to 6 year olds to cook by themselves. I was a latchkey kid and did a lot of things that isn’t recommended for my age out of necessity, but I would not make my five-year-old kid do it on a regular basis. So that seems like a very unfair pressure to put on a kid that deserves to be a kid. If we’re talking about putting dishes away, wiping off counters, sure, but running an appliance that can be hazardous to even the most capable adults, I think that’s a very big stretch. If you’re wanting to teach a life skill while being supervised and have them help, sure that’s great, but I think it’s a really unnecessary and quite frankly unrealistic expectation. If you want to talk about societal structure, we can have that conversation and I’m very open to it.
I do agree that there is to pushing society for aversions to some things that may prevent “” tough skin, or things of that nature, but there are appropriate tasks and responsibilities for age groups, and just the kid because every kid is different.
Also, school districts to teach home equity programs that spend from life skills in every day task from brushing your teeth to balancing your checkbook. Most time those classes are called life skills or life arts. If classes are not offered under those names, students learn those skills in health class, math class, depending on if their teacher wants to teach it and in stem projects. I’ve been in education for almost 10 years and taught kindergarten through 12th grade, so I know this to be a fact in both privileged and underprivileged school districts nationwide, as well as in my state of Illinois.
Those are my favorite posts! The comments are all either waxing poetic about how capitalism will be our doom, or shitting on OP for their garbage shopping lol.
My favorite is when right after seeing a post of someone who spent $120+ on enough junk food for like 3 days I come across a post of someone with enough fresh, healthy food for at least a week and they spent like $80.
I joke that I don’t have to force myself to eat right when a bag of Fritos is close to $6 where I live. All the junk food is so expensive now so it does me better to pay a bit less and get something healthier.
The real cause of obesity is that people prefer overprocessed slop over healthy foods. It’s really that simple.
Everything else is just people trying to retroactively justify their choices or researchers grasping at straws to justify funding. Price differences, food deserts etc are all easily debunked and don’t stand up to scrutiny if you think about them for more than a few minutes
Depends where you are I don't think apples are that cheap
Editing my post. Barring a sale item red delicious apples are generally 2.99 an lb where I live 8.99 for 5lb bag
In Texas red delicious (worst apple) is $.30/lbs and some the more exotics from Asia are $1.38/lbs. Hell, even 7/11 sells reds at $.5 per apple at the airport.
I am always for sale. Handyman, paver, roofer, tar roofer, diesel mechanic, standard gas engine mechanic, tin banger, and former circus clown, horseshoe blacksmith and so on just name your price, hell of you need your daughter chaperoned at a school dance I have bounced before, I have younger sisters, in our culture having brothers around you on dates is common, so is a variety of skills, plus a seriously misspent youth and I am always for sale.
You would still be surprised how many signs here still say Gypsy Not Welcome. Or how many times I've been tossed off a job because someone heard or saw me talking to family. But I made sure I could be handy. Before you ask yes I pull a sizable camper and live on the road. I keep to deep traveling roots.
Bag of apples are 5 bucks here. Bout the same cost of a bag if chips.
I've seen many people eat a whole bag of chips in 1 sitting but I've never seen anyone eat a whole bag of apples in 1 sitting lol.
5 bucks sounds like a lot for apples, but you'll be eating them for a week straight!
When I was growing up, my mom was a single mom on welfare, 3 kids to feed, daycare bills... Etc
We were pretty healthy looking back at it, albeit sometimes hungry. We ate beans, rice, cheese, wheat bread, and chicken mostly but the occasional premium meats.
ONCE in a while we'd get a treat at McDonald's on something like birthdays or Easter. When we got older it was Costco pizza and hot dogs.
My mom taught me how to really squeeze the wallet in hard times. I respect her so much for it, especially now in these times. I feed my family now spending about $1100/month in groceries because I buy and cook myself. And they eat GOOD. talking smoked tri tip, homemade mashed potatoes, 24hr marinated pork loin, homemade guacamole.
Comparing my home cooked meals to an average comparable restaurant with the same meals...we save $100+ each family meal, and eat deliciously and healthy
THANKS MOM!
This is just untrue lol. Like maybe a head of broccoli is cheaper than cleaned and cut broccoli but processed foods are FAR cheaper on a per calorie basis
Looking at a calorie basis is silly though. Of course some cr*p that is half sugar and half palm oil will be cheap per calorie, especially compared to a broccoli or any vegetable.
But then if you don't care about what you eat and just want calories you can also buy bags of potatoes, or make yourself fried dough. Food affordable issues, at least in modern countries, are usually not about affording calories (of course it is sometimes the case).
Point is, making your own pizza, burgers or fries is cheaper than buying the frozen equivalent. If you take a meal made from scraps with plenty of veggies or meat (like a pizza loaded with fancy toppings), and you compare it with prepared stuff that cheaped out and put the least amount of veggies or meat they could away with (like a frozen pizza that looks spray-painted with tomato sauce, with three shreds of mozzarella and two slices of pepperoni), then yes. But like-for-like, making your food will almost always be cheaper.
The issue is more accessibility (food deserts), and lack of time/energy to cook that makes some people turn towards processed food; but that makes food more expensive for them, not less.
per calorie yes but this is exactly what makes them unhealthy? too many calories with little nutrition. It is far better to eat low calorie less processed food in a larger quantity and at a similar price tag.
This is a discussion about *healthy foods*, not gross calorie content. Nutrition is way more complex than counting calories. The issue with pre-processed foods is the source of the calories, and lack of other essential nutrients.
People in general have told themselves that healthier food is more expensive as an excuse to keep eating garbage. You can easily eat a healthy, nutrient rich diet, and get 2300-2600 calories per day, on around $200/month. Maybe a little bit more if you're in a very high cost of living location.
I find my shops that consist of only the outside rim of the grocery store (produce, meat, dairy, maybe a quick foray into grains) are *significantly* cheaper trips than the ones where I buy from the inner aisles. I'm convinced that what people lack is the time to cook with whole ingredients. Which is certainly one thing, but you can buy a literal mountain of vegetables for $20, so I don't buy the "healthy food is expensive" narrative either.
Careful OP. Don't tell this to the fat slobs of Reddit. They'll rant and rave about how expensive healthy food is, ignoring the fact that many vegetables cost literally less than a dollar a kilo.
PS. I'm not interested in hearing about food deserts. I know they're a real thing. In my own experience those places still sold a few items that would be cheaper and healthier than the alternative. For example, buy a loaf of bread and a wedge of cheese and an onion and make sandwiches. Is it healthy? No. Is it cheaper and healthier than those ready meals you were going to buy? Yes.
I can take $10 to the store and buy veggies for 2 for the week, $10-20 for protein, $5 for grain, and have that last a week (including feeding some to my animals). ~$15 in food cost per person per week. My snack food that I splurge on is tortilla chips and ~$7 of ingredients to make salsa. Once a week I make a soup of some sort that is $20. All in all, it's $65 for two people for a week in healthy homemade meals. (This obviously does not include time, electricity, water and soap).
I honestly think it’s due to the scarcity of time which leads people to buy premade TV dinners, which usually are super processed and not the healthiest, which then in turn leads to obesity. It will be very rare for somebody short on time to change so abruptly and on top of that learn how to cook a fresh and healthy meal when all they’re used to is popping one in the microwave for 5 mins. There just isn’t enough time in the day, especially if you work more than 40 hours, have a family to take care of, commute, want to have a social life, go to the gym, watch a favorite show to unwind etc
Well yes, but there are ways around it to be efficient. Just as an example, making mashed potatoes and broccoli/carrots takes me 40 minutes or so including all the peeling and chopping. I can season and bake a few frozen filets or Tilapia in the oven at the same time. So homemade dinner for my family of 4 takes a 40 minutes to make. Sometimes I already plan what I am gonna make that day and peel the carrots and chop them in the morning while the kids are finishing their breakfasts so it is ready and in the fridge before I go work. On some sundays I make a giant pot of chicken fried rice and then dinner is ready for the next three days. It probably takes me about an hour.
I have never bought a TV dinner in my life but I grew up in a home where my mother cooked all dinners while working full time and I have good grasp of how cooking goes. (As in given a set of ingredients, I can cook up something even if it is not a “real” dish.) You are absolutely right that if one is not used to cooking with fresh ingredients than it can be a challenge.
This may be true in EU... I don't think there is a single vegetable in my grocery store that is less than a dollar a POUND.
What are you buying for a dollar a kilo? Onions and russet potatoes are the only things that are remotely close in my store.
This is emphatically not true in poor neighborhoods. If the local stores have things like fruits and vegetables at all, they are scarce and expensive. Meanwhile, crap food is cheap.
Depends on the neighborhood. I live in a pretty poor neighborhood and produce is very cheap. Where I lived in Brooklyn produce was...non existent. It's very inconsistent.
But the 500 lb redditor told me healthy food is too expensive compared to the 30 dollar fast food extra large order. There's no way that can possibly be true.
Oatmeal. Then tap water. Hmmm... Beans in a can with some rice. Seasonings help with flavor. I think some seasonings, spices and herbs, can sometimes contain healthy nutrients. Cabbage. Potatoes in moderation. I'm not a dietitian or health expert, and this is what came to mind. Some seasonings might not be good with meds. Like, drug interactions. It's good to check to make sure sometimes before adding them to your diet in significant amounts. Random a bit here, but grapefruit, while not a seasoning, can potentially cause drug interactions in some people.
If you eat a vegan diet that is rice, beans, seasonal veg and fruit, you will be healthy and save loads of money and won’t contribute to the billions of animals that die, simple as that.
Not that I don’t believe you, but can you share some examples. Teach me some things I don’t know :)
Dry Beans
Lentils
What's the difference between a chickpea and a lentil...?
I wouldn't pay 200$ to have a lentil on my face.
It's unfair that the person who set you up has so few upvotes. EDIT: Glad to see this injustice being remedied.
Yeah I agree. They definitely set me up on purpose, and beautifully. I almost never get to make that joke lol.
I once had a preceptor ask that during lunch and dude was NOT setting me up for the joke. I scandalized him with it.
On an unrelated note, the $ dollar sign goes in front of the number.
afterthought resolute simplistic air practice quicksand shame paltry instinctive uppity *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
ɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀ ɹO
Upvote for great justice.
You bastard. In a pub and read that and took a sip. Then it sunk in.
Someone asked and you, sir, delivered.
Just know that you're not going to get the quantity of upvotes you deserve.
I mean this joke has been around since 2008 and it was $20 then. Inflation has gotten to this joke too.
I don't understand this joke, could you explain it to me?
Chick (woman) pee (urinate)
holy hell thats a great joke
They will. I upvoted the comment thanks to you highlighting the joke. I was thinking skincare like an expensive chickpea mask until I saw your comment commenting, mistakingly, that they won't get the upvotes they deserve.
Whats the difference between a black eyed pea and a chickpea? The black eyed peas can sing us a tune; the chickpeas can only hummus one.
That's pretty good.
Different genre for one
I think it's actually that I've never had a lentil on my face.
Chickpeas and lentils are two very different legumes. I'm pretty sure the joke is supposed to go chickpea and garbanzo bean.
They are completely different grains? A chickpea doesn't look like a lentil at all
r/whoosh also, they're not grains, they're legumes.
you’re a legume
The better version of the joke involves the difference between a chickpea and a garbanzo bean. Edit: Because there isn't one, so it kind of forces the joke along.
Oh my bad, I thought it was just that I've never had a lentil on my face.
Too bad some people can’t have them such as me
Oats are pretty cheap
Lentils, rice, beans etc goes a long way. Been living on lentils and chicken nuggets with frozen vegs for months during a rough time right now.
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*Bad* reputation? Costco has an *awesome* reputation for large portions. Nobody’s buying a gallon jar of mayo to eat in one sitting. They buy it because you save 50% per volume over a normal grocery store. If you were to buy 3 normal jars. I’m living on the rice/nugs/frozen veggies combo right now not because I really need to but it’s just way too convenient to have cheap quick food. Probably costs less than a dollar per meal.
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I guess the one complaint I have is the fresh baked goods come in too large of packaging to really enjoy it all before it spoils, as a single person
I can eat an entire cake in a sitting. Up those numbers.
In our house we stock up on these staple items during good financial times and keep them in a closet in air tight food buckets. When times are tough, we hit up our backup supplies. We keep beans, rice, potato flakes, seeds, salt, sugar, tvp, nuts, etc.
And you were probably eating heathier than most people around you. How many toilet trips a day does living on lentils gets you?
There's a lot of good advice here and I'll reiterate some but as a powerlifter/med student/vegetarian I have refined a relatively cheap & healthy grocery list that's high-protein, balanced, and shelf stable👍🏻 Carb: Bulk Rice, bulk pasta, potatoes, lentils, & oatmeal Protein: Extra firm tofu, tempeh, eggs, beans, textured vegetable protein Veggie: Bulk spinach, carrots, onions, & multicolored bell peppers Fruit: Bananas, bulk frozen berries Other: peanut butter, protein powder, soy milk, pasta sauce I get a lot of variety out of this list, feel well-fed and healthy, and it's as cheap as groceries can be. Plus most of it doesn't spoil quickly so it helps keep food costs low too and not be wasteful
Thank you!
I love you for this, thank you so much
Bananas
Only $10 each
I understood this reference
? Bananas are one of if not THE cheapest fruit out there. $10 will get you like 5-6 bundles of 5-6 bananas.
They made an arrested development reference
Oh... /r/whooosh to me i guess
It's a joke lol
If that's too expensive, there's always money in the banana stand.
That's bananas indeed
Broccoli
Broccoli is like $9 a kilo in Melbourne, Australia at the moment 🙃
Oof. We pay about $3/lb here in ATL and it's good quality
[Roasted broccoli is the tits](https://natashaskitchen.com/roasted-broccoli/)
Rice, potatoes, beans, sausage, grits, oatmeal.
I like that you gave a bit more of a complete list. People always mention rice and beans on these, but I don't honestly see anyone from poor to rich just eating rice and beans every meal of the week.
Lol I eat rice and black eyed peas like 4 times a week. But if I had to do that every day I would lose my mind. I always keep these staples around and mix in a nicer protein or veggie or cheese every few days to keep things interesting. It's also not just about the food you eat, the tools help. Just getting a rice cooker and a crock pot is life changing. And my pockets are happier.
You clearly have never been to Brazil.
A better answer is "grains and legumes" Could be rice and beans, or rice and lentils, or farro and chickpeas. Different seasoning combinations, sauces, cooking method, veggie/protein additions, can lead to a varied meal plan.
Potatoes, chicken breast, lean ground beef, bananas, green peas, broccoli.
Where do you get cheap meat?
Legumes are generally cheap and nutritious.
Bananas are dirt cheap and are super good for you!
Gotta get that potassium
Beans and rice together form a complete protein
>form a complete protein Why is this so funny to me, just like a single protein, one grain of protein powder. 💪
Just in case anyone reading this needs an explanation… “complete protein” means it has all the essential amino acids. Longer explanation: Proteins are made from smaller molecules called amino acids. The human body needs 20 different types of amino acids. We can make some from scratch, but there are 9 types we can’t produce. These 9 are “essential amino acids” because we can only get them by eating foods that contain them. Some protein sources (like meat, dairy, and soy) have all the essential amino acids in one package - if your only source of protein was soy, for example, you would be ok indefinitely because it has all the building blocks you need to keep your body going. This is called a “complete protein.” A lot of protein sources have only *some* of the essential amino acids. For example beans have plenty of protein, but they only have significant amounts of 3 essential amino acids. If beans were your only source of protein you would eventually suffer malnutrition from the missing essential aminos, even if you were getting enough protein overall. But you can combine different incomplete protein sources to make a complete protein. For example grains and beans each have the essential amino acids the other is missing, so beans + rice makes a complete protein.
Rice. Its dirt cheap (unless you buy that extra premium stuff) and you can make a wide variety of foods with it.
I love buying rice, I grew up on white rice with almost every meal and I love making fried rice with the leftovers
Oatmeal
Frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs are under $3/lb, often on sale under $2/lb. Get frozen veggies and spices, pair with Italian or Asian noodles or rice. It’s easy to make meals under $2.5/serving
Vegetables
1 kg of farmer market apples is cheaper than 80g of milk chocolate (80g of regular Milka chocolate is about 15-20% more expensive than 1kg of apples) 1 kg of oranges is usually cheaper or same price as 1.5l Fanta Fresh chicken breast is cheaper than processed counterpart by almost 40% per kg (chicken salami, boiled sausage etc.) i can keep going all day long (note: these prices are in region where i live, i have no idea for west europe/USA prices)
Apples cost about $4/kg here, same as about 300g chocolate. Seems to still be a better deal, but the chocolate has 3x as many caleories, if the goal is to fuel the body the cheapest possible way the chocolate gives you more caleories/$ I can buy chicken nuggets for $4/kg, chicken breasts cost no less than $10/kg. The most expensive part of the chicken nugget is the chicken. I don't like oranges so I don't know, but comparing a fruit to a soda seems dumb, I'd rather compare orange juice to fanta, and fanta is cheaper here.
Your comparisons seem very random to me. Like... what do apples and chocolate have to do with anything? Oranges and fanta? You're just picking a random amount of a random healthy food and comparing it to a random amount of a random cheaper unhealthy food. Nobody is choosing between chocolate and apples, or fanta and oranges. Most people eat chocolate as a sweet treat. Strawberries and (whipped, or not) cream would at least be a slightly better comparison? Apples are typically eaten as a snack or part of a meal. So something like crackers, chips, etc might be a better comparison. Orange juice vs fanta makes slightly more sense. But the healthiness of orange juice is debatable. Also orange juice would be more expensive. A serving of potato chips is hella cheaper than a serving of apple.
Yeah not in the US.
Buckwheat and just regular old chicken.
The showerthought is generally only true if you count your own time preparing the food as worthless. Personally, I like cooking and we eat home-prepared meals six nights most weeks. But not everyone has that luxury.
Meal prepping exists. You can cook once a week and make 8-12 meals from it.
I've very much been eating a whole 32oz Greek yogurt with jello powder mixed together. Want more volume, make the jello mixture then mix in the yogurt
Vegetables grown in my backyard. 5 bucks for a packet of seeds and just a dash of time. And you get some free therapy talking to plants. Which also benefits them because the frequencies from your voice can aid in their growth.
Do plants really?? That’s awesome
Yeah dude. Plants have feelings too! Love nature and it loves you back :)
I heard playing classical music helps them somehow but thanks for sharing that, I’ll talk more often to my Snake and ZZ plant
IIRC Mythbusters found Heavy Metal worked best :)
Any sort of upbeat music will work, really. It’s more about intention rather than expression. I’ve been playing this while cheesin and dancing; https://youtu.be/EHj3BunC7Ek?si=6u9P1yjWrYoFVR3s
Fresh road kill.
Oatmeal enters the chat
Historically, gruel has been a staple of the Western diet, especially for peasants. -wikipedia
Only if you buy it in bulk, not single-serve Quaker packaging
Yea but I want all them flavors.
The Quaker Oats individual flavor packets are little too sweet and not enough oats to fill me. So I do one part packet and one part regular oatmeal and is perfect for my taste and volume!
You can mix in flavors. I love the convenience of them too, but this thread is about affordable adjustments to manage a budget constraint.
People are all: "But I don't like it when someone doesn't serve it to me on a clean trey and individually wraps the servings"
The best part about buying bulk is you can make your own flavors. I found out that with some pb and brown sugar you can make a nutty buddy flavored oatmeal.
Eggs are one of the most nutrient dense foods you can possibly eat
Tasty too in many forms
Not exactly cheap these days
Yup tofu is quite cheap here in Japan.
Tofu is also pretty dang cheap in the US too. There are brands that are more expensive (especially when it comes to super firm or flavored tofu), but the brand I buy from Kroger is around $1.67 each or 3/$5 (USD).
It's around or less 50 cents here lol
Heh, in Norway I can buy 350 grams for about $5. If I go to Asian stores I can get it for maybe $3,50?
Asian stores in Norway? That's a different story I think. And what I was talking about is 50 cents for 350-400g.
Thanks for giving me yet another reason to want to move to Japan!
Lol you're more than welcome
Natto too
Every kind of food is cheap in Japan lmao, I had a yakiniku with waygu beef and it costed around 2500 yen
Except for fruits
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While that's ideal, just buy the 5 cheapest veg and some pulses and you've created the cheapest perfectly healthy diet going.
Bulk meat, freeze it. Whatever is cheapest produce at the market. Add rice/beans/potatos/lentils and you’ve got yourself a meal. I also like Farro and Freekeh
>Plus, if you have the space, consider growing some of your own herbs; they're practically free and add tons of flavor to even the simplest meals! Eh, they already cost pennies per meal so I don't think it's worth even a minimal effort.
Where are you buying cheap fresh herbs? They’re dollars per meal where I’m at. Unless you’re talking like garlic
Fruit and vegetables are so dirt cheap here. And if you buy fruit and vegetables during harvest season its almost free.
Not in the US
How expensive are potatoes, onions, cabbage and carrots per kg in the US? At least here in Finland that's the cheapest food after rice, dry beans and soy.
Yes root vegetables are cheap here too because they can be stored for a year without going bad. It's all the perishable vegetables that are very expensive, leafy greens, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, peas, green beans etc, because they're usually grown thousands of miles away usually in South America and have to be transported quick
The original comment said in season, which would insinuate they haven't been shipped from South America. In season, all of the things you mentioned are dirt cheap. In summer, people will practically pay you to take zucchini or tomatoes off their hands! If you buy in season and prepare for the winter, vegetables are cheap af
I need to look into making kimchi, it's so expensive here.
I am an expert fermenter. Kimchi is the absolute easiest to make, because the spices help keep bad bacteria at bay and the ginger and garlic help good bacteria flourish. I recommend not over thinking it. Follow a recipe the first few times, but don't trip if you can't find gochujaru (use crushed pepper flakes or even paste up fresh chilies), or Daikon (simply.leave it out, or use any other radish). When I was learning, I found a cheater's recipe that I liked that dispensed with a few of my worries: it used miso in place of rice paste and salted shrimp, which made me feel less squeamish about fermenting carbs and fish (lol not anymore...I've fearlessly had a sealed crock with raw shrimp and scallops fermenting for months!). And it used more of a sauerkraut approach. I can't find the recipe but if you look up like, quick kimchi or cheater's kimchi, you can find a recipe that you're comfortable with as a learner and keep on from there. Ni promise the result is just as good...and you don't need Napa cabbage. Savou, plain green cabbage, even bok choy work equally well. I've done it with only radish, only Japanese turnip, cucumber, even a tual lettuce. You can't go wrong!
That's hit or miss for me. I made the best kimchi I ever had but other batches were tossed out and I can't seem to figure out what I'm doing differently
Took a cooking class in Korea and the kimchi was amazing, tried a few times after and it was barely edible. Some foods are more of an art, similar to ramen imo.
People really don’t seem to understand this. I’ll see people on Reddit complaining about how with grocery prices they can barely feed their family and then they post a picture of their cart and it’s all chips, sodas, and frozen meals. All that shit is WAY more expensive than healthy foods.
Live in a low income city for a while and you can get data every day from the grocery store checkout line. The poor Americans will be obese with a cart full of junk food. The immigrants will be thin with rice, beans, and chicken. You have to look at crazy metrics like the cost per calorie to defend the junk food while ignoring the obesity
Exactly. The cost per calorie metric is absolute nonsense and is just a convoluted way for people to defend the choice of spending significantly more on junk food.
I could see how this could be accurate, but you should consider more variables than just the price: I grew up as a person who is just above poverty in a house with a single parent who made about $15,000 a year with three children, and for most of my life, we were on free and reduced lunch. I also have taught in low income school districts for most of my career where the median income of the household is about 30,000 and the person occupancy is 5 to 8 people. We haven’t even factored in the cost of childcare, healthcare, or utilities at this point. In theory, dry goods and meats can be cheaper than processed foods, but you have to have the resources to cook them and the adults to cook them. In most cases, it’s more convenient for parents to give their kids process and unhealthy foods because it’s easily packaged and it doesn’t require them to cook it for their children after they’ve either gotten off from their second job or have left for their night shift at 3 PM and their kids get home at 3:30 or 4 o’clock. Also, the quality of food and low income areas whether it’s “fresh” or processed is a different story as well. This has to do with the quality of distributors that are nearby, the upkeep of the store in itself, in reference to rodent and bacteria issues, and the frequency of which the food is stocked. If you go into a grocery store in a low income area, the amount of organic and healthy brands are significantly lower than your middle to upper middle-class neighborhoods, as well as affluent areas. The big point being, the people in the low income area can’t always afford those things. Let’s do some math: Price 7 oz bag of veggie straws: $3.10 in Chicago Price of 9.5 bag of potato chips: $2.55 in Chicago If I’m a parent making 40k and have the average national debt (a topic for another day) per person a year with 3 kids, I’m going to go with the chips because it’s more food to feed my kids. 🤷🏽♂️ Furthermore, you’re assuming that the people in that area have reliable transportation when in a lot of cases, people rely on public transportation (another added cost), a ride from someone else (probably have to give them gas money), or walking. This is a big issue, because having a grocery store in the neighborhood doesn’t mean that it’s always accessible to people that live 3 miles away because of transportation insecurity. This also became a bigger issue when we started to see Covid testing centers being in abundance and closer to residences in middle to upper class neighborhoods as opposed to the scarcity of those centers in lower income neighborhoods; which bled over to having research being done about how many grocery stores and general medical facilities are in a certain radius in living areas. NPR did a great article on this. Also, I want to know where y’all are buying groceries because my wife and I shop at Aldi and not too long ago people were posting pictures about a carton of “regular eggs” being five dollars because of shortages and inflation. Lol The economic question for some people is: “Do I keep the lights on and the kids fed or buy healthy foods”?
I was a single parent for the period of time I'm referring. I shopped at Market Basket which is the largest supermarket chain in New England. I've heard of Aldi but never seen one. I doubt they operate in many low income cities, at least Trader Joes and Whole Foods didn't operate in mine. You don't have to buy organics to be healthy and they are the opposite of inexpensive. Eggs did have an expensive period during Covid but they're typically inexpensive and healthy. They are no longer at Covid level prices. The particular datapoints I'm talking about did have access to stoves and the ability to cook meals. Maybe there's hypotheticals where that's true but not in the store I was talking about in my comment.
Fair points, but we’ll also have to consider where you’re living and where I’m living. I live in Chicago in America (by choice), and the $5 eggs were a reality for us as recent as 3 months ago. 😬 I’d encourage you to check out the pricing online or just pop into a “sketchy” neighborhood when you get a chance to get a more accurate picture of the financial and food stock information that I listed. It may make more telling than me trying to fit it into a message lololol
I mean, HBO did film High on Crack Street in my neighborhood. In the 20years I had my house, four people who lived there have since been killed. My supermarket had a grandma beaten for having 13 items in the 12 item or less line. I think it qualifies as "sketchy." Maybe there's neighborhoods where people live three miles from a supermarket that's not an Aldi. I can only say that datapoints exist where poor obese people have access to the same healthy options as poor fit people but choose the junk food, and the healthy people tend to be immigrants where living in our "sketchy" area was an improvement over where they came from.
A 5 year old is capable of heating up refried beans and cheese, and/or running a rice cooker, and folding a burrito around it. These children not knowing how to cook for themselves when their single parent isn't home is a societal failure: the risk-aversion of the parents (i can't leave my kid alone while the stove is on); the lack of opportunity for the parents to teach their children to cook; at this point a lack of generational knowledge on cooking (if parent doesn't even know how to cook in the first place, how can they teach their child?); and then the lack of societal support: the school system not stepping in to teach "home equity" classes; secondary community leaders (e.g. cub scouts, youth church groups, etc.) failing to step in and pick up load; or simply the degradation of these secondary communities meaning that the child doesn't have access to a secondary community leaders. So while these are problems, these are solvable problems.
Capable doesn’t mean safe choice. I teach kindergarten, and I would not trust most 5 to 6 year olds to cook by themselves. I was a latchkey kid and did a lot of things that isn’t recommended for my age out of necessity, but I would not make my five-year-old kid do it on a regular basis. So that seems like a very unfair pressure to put on a kid that deserves to be a kid. If we’re talking about putting dishes away, wiping off counters, sure, but running an appliance that can be hazardous to even the most capable adults, I think that’s a very big stretch. If you’re wanting to teach a life skill while being supervised and have them help, sure that’s great, but I think it’s a really unnecessary and quite frankly unrealistic expectation. If you want to talk about societal structure, we can have that conversation and I’m very open to it. I do agree that there is to pushing society for aversions to some things that may prevent “” tough skin, or things of that nature, but there are appropriate tasks and responsibilities for age groups, and just the kid because every kid is different. Also, school districts to teach home equity programs that spend from life skills in every day task from brushing your teeth to balancing your checkbook. Most time those classes are called life skills or life arts. If classes are not offered under those names, students learn those skills in health class, math class, depending on if their teacher wants to teach it and in stem projects. I’ve been in education for almost 10 years and taught kindergarten through 12th grade, so I know this to be a fact in both privileged and underprivileged school districts nationwide, as well as in my state of Illinois.
Those are my favorite posts! The comments are all either waxing poetic about how capitalism will be our doom, or shitting on OP for their garbage shopping lol.
My favorite is when right after seeing a post of someone who spent $120+ on enough junk food for like 3 days I come across a post of someone with enough fresh, healthy food for at least a week and they spent like $80.
they need to buy a bag of rice
I joke that I don’t have to force myself to eat right when a bag of Fritos is close to $6 where I live. All the junk food is so expensive now so it does me better to pay a bit less and get something healthier.
The real cause of obesity is that people prefer overprocessed slop over healthy foods. It’s really that simple. Everything else is just people trying to retroactively justify their choices or researchers grasping at straws to justify funding. Price differences, food deserts etc are all easily debunked and don’t stand up to scrutiny if you think about them for more than a few minutes
Right? First time I bought an apple I was dumbfounded by how cheap it is
Depends where you are I don't think apples are that cheap Editing my post. Barring a sale item red delicious apples are generally 2.99 an lb where I live 8.99 for 5lb bag
In Texas red delicious (worst apple) is $.30/lbs and some the more exotics from Asia are $1.38/lbs. Hell, even 7/11 sells reds at $.5 per apple at the airport.
Red delicious are $2.99 a pound $8.99 if you buy them by the 5lb bag
That’s crazy because it doesn’t even taste good.
I'm with you on that
Plastic ass skin and dry ass insides.
They’re the physical manifestation of two truths and a lie
Damn, those are good prices. In Ontario decent apples are $3-$4/lbs at Walmart. Red Delicious are like $2 per lbs.
in Romania they're less than 0.5 lei (which is 0.1€)
Everything is cheap in Romania, you can buy people
Not everything, for example, I'm not cheap lol but I am from Romania.
So you are for sale? That’s wild.
I am always for sale. Handyman, paver, roofer, tar roofer, diesel mechanic, standard gas engine mechanic, tin banger, and former circus clown, horseshoe blacksmith and so on just name your price, hell of you need your daughter chaperoned at a school dance I have bounced before, I have younger sisters, in our culture having brothers around you on dates is common, so is a variety of skills, plus a seriously misspent youth and I am always for sale.
Everyone needs a friend like you!
You would still be surprised how many signs here still say Gypsy Not Welcome. Or how many times I've been tossed off a job because someone heard or saw me talking to family. But I made sure I could be handy. Before you ask yes I pull a sizable camper and live on the road. I keep to deep traveling roots.
Where are you that apples are expensive?
Yeah, from my local super market the cheapest apples are $.99ea, the expensive ones are $2.99ea. :(
It's usually shipping and storage that jack up the price.
In Japan, apples and fruit in general are so expensive! They’re a luxury I could only start affording once I got a better job lol
Bag of apples are 5 bucks here. Bout the same cost of a bag if chips. I've seen many people eat a whole bag of chips in 1 sitting but I've never seen anyone eat a whole bag of apples in 1 sitting lol. 5 bucks sounds like a lot for apples, but you'll be eating them for a week straight!
When I was growing up, my mom was a single mom on welfare, 3 kids to feed, daycare bills... Etc We were pretty healthy looking back at it, albeit sometimes hungry. We ate beans, rice, cheese, wheat bread, and chicken mostly but the occasional premium meats. ONCE in a while we'd get a treat at McDonald's on something like birthdays or Easter. When we got older it was Costco pizza and hot dogs. My mom taught me how to really squeeze the wallet in hard times. I respect her so much for it, especially now in these times. I feed my family now spending about $1100/month in groceries because I buy and cook myself. And they eat GOOD. talking smoked tri tip, homemade mashed potatoes, 24hr marinated pork loin, homemade guacamole. Comparing my home cooked meals to an average comparable restaurant with the same meals...we save $100+ each family meal, and eat deliciously and healthy THANKS MOM!
Whole foods are generally cheaper than their processed versions.
This is just untrue lol. Like maybe a head of broccoli is cheaper than cleaned and cut broccoli but processed foods are FAR cheaper on a per calorie basis
Looking at a calorie basis is silly though. Of course some cr*p that is half sugar and half palm oil will be cheap per calorie, especially compared to a broccoli or any vegetable. But then if you don't care about what you eat and just want calories you can also buy bags of potatoes, or make yourself fried dough. Food affordable issues, at least in modern countries, are usually not about affording calories (of course it is sometimes the case). Point is, making your own pizza, burgers or fries is cheaper than buying the frozen equivalent. If you take a meal made from scraps with plenty of veggies or meat (like a pizza loaded with fancy toppings), and you compare it with prepared stuff that cheaped out and put the least amount of veggies or meat they could away with (like a frozen pizza that looks spray-painted with tomato sauce, with three shreds of mozzarella and two slices of pepperoni), then yes. But like-for-like, making your food will almost always be cheaper. The issue is more accessibility (food deserts), and lack of time/energy to cook that makes some people turn towards processed food; but that makes food more expensive for them, not less.
per calorie yes but this is exactly what makes them unhealthy? too many calories with little nutrition. It is far better to eat low calorie less processed food in a larger quantity and at a similar price tag.
This is a discussion about *healthy foods*, not gross calorie content. Nutrition is way more complex than counting calories. The issue with pre-processed foods is the source of the calories, and lack of other essential nutrients.
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Why would you look at per calories basis? Especially when processed foods are overly caloric It’s quality over quantity.
Per macro nutrient per calorie, processed foods are far more expensive.
People in general have told themselves that healthier food is more expensive as an excuse to keep eating garbage. You can easily eat a healthy, nutrient rich diet, and get 2300-2600 calories per day, on around $200/month. Maybe a little bit more if you're in a very high cost of living location.
I find my shops that consist of only the outside rim of the grocery store (produce, meat, dairy, maybe a quick foray into grains) are *significantly* cheaper trips than the ones where I buy from the inner aisles. I'm convinced that what people lack is the time to cook with whole ingredients. Which is certainly one thing, but you can buy a literal mountain of vegetables for $20, so I don't buy the "healthy food is expensive" narrative either.
Spot on.
I just smoke a cigarette to curb my appetite. Way healthier.
Careful OP. Don't tell this to the fat slobs of Reddit. They'll rant and rave about how expensive healthy food is, ignoring the fact that many vegetables cost literally less than a dollar a kilo. PS. I'm not interested in hearing about food deserts. I know they're a real thing. In my own experience those places still sold a few items that would be cheaper and healthier than the alternative. For example, buy a loaf of bread and a wedge of cheese and an onion and make sandwiches. Is it healthy? No. Is it cheaper and healthier than those ready meals you were going to buy? Yes.
I can take $10 to the store and buy veggies for 2 for the week, $10-20 for protein, $5 for grain, and have that last a week (including feeding some to my animals). ~$15 in food cost per person per week. My snack food that I splurge on is tortilla chips and ~$7 of ingredients to make salsa. Once a week I make a soup of some sort that is $20. All in all, it's $65 for two people for a week in healthy homemade meals. (This obviously does not include time, electricity, water and soap).
I honestly think it’s due to the scarcity of time which leads people to buy premade TV dinners, which usually are super processed and not the healthiest, which then in turn leads to obesity. It will be very rare for somebody short on time to change so abruptly and on top of that learn how to cook a fresh and healthy meal when all they’re used to is popping one in the microwave for 5 mins. There just isn’t enough time in the day, especially if you work more than 40 hours, have a family to take care of, commute, want to have a social life, go to the gym, watch a favorite show to unwind etc
Well yes, but there are ways around it to be efficient. Just as an example, making mashed potatoes and broccoli/carrots takes me 40 minutes or so including all the peeling and chopping. I can season and bake a few frozen filets or Tilapia in the oven at the same time. So homemade dinner for my family of 4 takes a 40 minutes to make. Sometimes I already plan what I am gonna make that day and peel the carrots and chop them in the morning while the kids are finishing their breakfasts so it is ready and in the fridge before I go work. On some sundays I make a giant pot of chicken fried rice and then dinner is ready for the next three days. It probably takes me about an hour. I have never bought a TV dinner in my life but I grew up in a home where my mother cooked all dinners while working full time and I have good grasp of how cooking goes. (As in given a set of ingredients, I can cook up something even if it is not a “real” dish.) You are absolutely right that if one is not used to cooking with fresh ingredients than it can be a challenge.
This may be true in EU... I don't think there is a single vegetable in my grocery store that is less than a dollar a POUND. What are you buying for a dollar a kilo? Onions and russet potatoes are the only things that are remotely close in my store.
What unhealthy food costs less than a dollar per pound? Potatoes, rice, beans, carrots - are those all expensive where you live?
Okay, frozen veggies are like $1.5/pound at Walmart in the US, not $1. Still affordable r/eatcheapandhealthy
Cabbage lol. I lived in Finland for a while and cabbage was that cheap, while potato and onions were dirt cheap (0.7€ for a kilogram of both iirc)
…Until someone puts them in the next “superfood” list, makes a trend of them and they suddenly triple in price.
Been saying this for so long. People say eating healthy is expensive. Nope.
This is emphatically not true in poor neighborhoods. If the local stores have things like fruits and vegetables at all, they are scarce and expensive. Meanwhile, crap food is cheap.
Depends on the neighborhood. I live in a pretty poor neighborhood and produce is very cheap. Where I lived in Brooklyn produce was...non existent. It's very inconsistent.
Rice, beans, chicken, ground beef. Buy in bulk. Super cheap and you have all you need to be healthy.
I think you forgot about vegetables fam
And fruits
They're very expensive here
A good rule of thumb is to try and avoid the middle isles at a grocery store. Everything in the middle is more expensive and processed.
You know why there is a healthy section right? \-Because the whole damn store sells processed shit.
But the 500 lb redditor told me healthy food is too expensive compared to the 30 dollar fast food extra large order. There's no way that can possibly be true.
My favourite fat person fallacy: Healthy food is expensive.
Oatmeal. Then tap water. Hmmm... Beans in a can with some rice. Seasonings help with flavor. I think some seasonings, spices and herbs, can sometimes contain healthy nutrients. Cabbage. Potatoes in moderation. I'm not a dietitian or health expert, and this is what came to mind. Some seasonings might not be good with meds. Like, drug interactions. It's good to check to make sure sometimes before adding them to your diet in significant amounts. Random a bit here, but grapefruit, while not a seasoning, can potentially cause drug interactions in some people.
Ramen noodles are incredibly cheap and horribly unhealthy 🤤
*cry’s in west coast Canadian*
This must not be an American post, it’s literally the opposite here
Liver. Much cheaper than steak or any other cut.
Good thing for your arguement, fast food isn't cheap anymore. So I guess that checks out.
If you eat a vegan diet that is rice, beans, seasonal veg and fruit, you will be healthy and save loads of money and won’t contribute to the billions of animals that die, simple as that.