Real Food is Cheaper than Junk Food (sell, old, price) - Frugal Living - City-Data Forum

Woof Woof Woof! · 05-29-2009, 04:32 PM

Good article in the L.A. Times:

Real Food Can Be Cheaper Than Junk Food - Bitten Blog - NYTimes.com

HappyTexan · 05-29-2009, 04:58 PM

Lots of excuses in that article for why folks can't cook real meals.

I find that I do save money by cooking from scratch when I can and no it doesn't take hours in the kitchen to do it either. I also make more then enough for dinner so there's leftovers for another night with just an added side dish of noodles or rice.

Preprocessed food is a money hole. The only thing I buy from the frozen foods aisle is ice cream.

Woof Woof Woof! · 05-29-2009, 06:39 PM

I should have posted this link in the original post. Here's the recipes for cooking cheap. Please have a look. Some good ideas here.

http://www.cookforgood.com/recipes.html

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ICvegan · 05-30-2009, 05:53 AM

I've known for my whole life that real food is cheaper (and tastier and better for you) than prepackaged food. I was raised that way (thank you mom!) and live that way still. I cannot understand people who always eat out of a box or a plastic tray when they are "eating in".

Submariner · 05-30-2009, 07:02 AM

I stock shelves in a grocery store. I am amazed at how much more folks will spend for convenience.

A 5-pound bag of frozen pre-cooked potatos cut in quarters with basil sprinkled on them sell for the same price as four 10-pound bags of potatoes.

BigDGeek · 05-30-2009, 08:08 AM

I sometimes buy the more expensive frozen vegetables but I live alone and I could not eat 10 pounds of potatoes before they would start to rot.

deerislesmile · 05-30-2009, 09:12 AM

I used to teach basic nutrition and cooking skills to folks that were limited income/receiving food stamps. It would be great to think that they are just choosing to make bad choices, but the sad fact is that MANY people have NO idea how to cook from scratch, even if they wanted to. I have taught people how to make pancakes. How to make soup (and several other meals!) using a chicken that didn't come cut up for them. They also rarely know how to discern marketing techniques from actual information (ie- they fall for the whole "juice drink" that contains Vitamin C, and actually think it's real juice, or they think there is more calcium in whole milk, etc). Of course it's cheaper to cook with real foods, from scratch, but many lack the skills to do it.

I'll add- this is not limited to the lower-incomed populations. I have seen plenty of people who are educated and have resources who still don't have decent cooking skills. In some cases, it is actually a sign of success/wealth that they can buy all of the processed and pre-cooked foods, and brand stigma exists in the grocery store as much as in the mall!