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foxyv | on: Mars Bar from 1991 found – and it's 20g bigger than today's
This is never more apparent than when you start making your own stuff from scratch. The comparison is stark.
bob1029 | parent | next
I have found it is roughly an order of magnitude cheaper to cook at home, even once you factor in the "lost" time.

The amount of time required to prepare incrementally larger batches increases at a sub-linear rate. The bigger your batch, the more food you get per unit of wall clock time. I try to prepare no less than 3 lbs of dry beans or 2 lbs of beef at a time. Anything less does actually feel like I'm wasting my energy.

foxyv | root | parent | next
I can make about 2000 calories for about $2-5 using staples like rice, beans, flour, salt, yeast, pepper, etc... Generally, spices are pretty cheap. Especially if you go to the bulk section instead of buying the little jars.

The thing I see stopping most people in poverty is lack of access to a kitchen. No oven, no stove, no pantry, etc... A hot plate and a microwave if they are lucky. Also the usual health issues that come from deep poverty like executive dysfunction, depression, and other chronic illnesses.

krackers | root | parent
>roughly an order of magnitude cheaper to cook at home

Why should this be the case in principle though? Do economies of scale not apply to food preparation?

pjc50 | root | parent | next
Yes, but then you have to account for tax, pay, shipping, wastage, theft, and (most importantly) rent on both kitchen and storefront.

The homeowner does not charge themselves rent for their own kitchen, nor for their time.

AlexandrB | root | parent | next
They do and companies already take advantage of them. But even a fast food restaurant has a ton of additional overhead that you won't have by cooking at home (or some you won't include in your price of your homecooked meal): rent, salaries, utilities, taxes, shrinkage, maintenance, etc. So even if they can get the ingredients cheaper they can't compete with you on some of these factors and must also include others like utilities in the cost of the finished product where you will generally ignore them when thinking about how much it costs to cook dinner.
pessimizer | root | parent | next
In a lot of cases it's simple price fixing. If you want to be shocked, compare the prices of frozen potato products (like bagged hash browns and french fries) to the price of potatoes. There's like a 200% premium for simply cutting and flash freezing them. The machines have got to pay for themselves in an hour.

Does it make economic sense? Yes, when you know that there is a frozen potato cartel: https://www.potatopro.com/news/2024/alleged-potato-cartel-ac...

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carlosjobim | root | parent
Once you factor in rent, then cooking at home is maybe not cheaper. Rent and mortgages is the black hole sucking all money from the restaurants. Not ingredients or wages.
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linker3000 | parent | next
I find it apparent when I very occasionally take a break from making my own stuff from scratch and get a takeout.
customguy | parent | next
Less and less people have time and money for that, for the same reason this stuff happens in the first place (i.e. greed and wealth consolidation). Put differently, if more people had time and money to do what you do, you wouldn't bother to do it, either.
jandrewrogers | root | parent | next
Making food from scratch is cheap. It also doesn't take much time unless you want it to. Choosing not to cook has become performative learned helplessness.

I was far more likely to cook from scratch when I was poor than when I was not. And honestly, the food was healthier too. Basic life skills.

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HeyLaughingBoy | root | parent | next
And here I was stupidly thinking that making meals at home was the default and eating out/getting takeout was the exception.
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foxyv | root | parent | next
What? I make things from scratch because I'm broke AF.
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Amezarak | root | parent | next
> Less and less people have time and money for that, for the same reason this stuff happens in the first place (i.e. greed and wealth consolidation).

It takes very little time to prepare and cook most simple meals - if you want to dress it and garnish it and execute a 1000 step recipe, that is of course on you. For example, you can have a steak and potato (loaded with cheese and sour cream) as good as anything you get in a restaurant in under ten minutes. It is rarely faster to go out to eat. That is of course taking as a given that people really are working more hours, which I am very skeptical of and which BLS data does not support.

I am sympathetic to people's arguments about cost and free time generally, but I think "cooking your own food" is mostly a victim of the increasingly sky-high value people place on convenience vs doing almost anything for themselves that constitutes "work" in their minds. It is definitely not true that money is the issue, as other commenters already mentioned.

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carlosjobim | root | parent
It's usually faster making a meal at home than ordering from a restaurant, if you are smart about it. And it's always cheaper and healthier as well. And tastier.
8by3 | parent
Totally, a huge swathe of things are better and cheaper when your make them yourself, you just need the time. Shame we've given up all our free time to work so we can buy worse alternatives.
phil21 | root | parent | next
> Shame we've given up all our free time to work so we can buy worse alternatives.

Not true on average. The average American spends 4-5 hours a day on personal screen time.

And those who complain about not having time to cook I'd bet dollars to donuts are pulling that average up, if my personal lived experience is anything to go by.

There is a case here in terms of two income households being the norm these days, but that's really about it. The average person today lives a life of far more comfort and convenience than even in the 90's.

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| root | parent
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GlacierFox | root | parent | next
For a lot of my friends it's not about time. They'll proclaim their lack of time to make a simple meal, doom scroll for hours then order take-away then doom scroll half and hour while waiting for it to come.
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insane_dreamer | root | parent
sorry, got no time to eat healthy -- too busy scrolling!!