unpopular opinion: any infographic that does the whole “this meal of consisting entirely of lettuce and apples is way cheaper than a Big Mac, checkmate poor people” thing must use the total price, rather than price per serving.
none of this “well a thing of cinnamon is $8 and each has 200 grams so a gram is like $0.4 and divided by four it’s really only $0.1 per serving.” no. spices cost money. if I have to buy a new spice, that’s more money. how much is one canister? that’s the price.
did I have to buy a new pot for this? how much did that cost?
do I need multiple pots? is there complex timing? do I need to set aside an hour to prep? all that costs money.
when you get fast food, the total price is right there. we can talk about how that total price is artificially deflated due to the exploitation of labor and the industrialization of food, but the fact remains that a ten-piece chicken nuggets meal at burger king is like $6, and making them yourself costs a lot in buying a whole thing of chicken plus flour plus eggs plus spices plus frying oil (not even counting that a meal comes with a side and a drink).
(incidentally, this is an issue with any advice that calls for buying things in bulk because it’s cheaper overall. yes, it is objectively cheaper in the long run to buy the $15 thing of toilet paper at $1/roll than it is to buy the $10 thing of toilet paper for $1.50/roll. but when you only have $10, then you’re getting the $10 one, because that’s what’s cheaper to you.)
THANK YOU I’VE MADE THIS ARGUMENT SO MANY TIMES
I just get so mad when people are like “it’s cheaper to eat healthy food instead of fast food” and then list the cost of one ingredient as if that equals an entire meal. And then ignore all the necessary cooking/prep work needed. It’s dishonest and ridiculous.
This is true, at least in the North American context. Your vegetables are expensive. And don’t get me started on your fermer’s markets targeted at hippies (which seems to be 90% of NA farmers’ markets, correct me if I’m wrong.)
