It is ridiculous that people think giving up on fast food in favor of cooking from scratch and using fresh seasonal ingredients from the perimeter of a grocery store can actually save money.
Eating this way is something people in need of saving money can’t afford. Not only are fresh produce and meat enormously more expensive than the dollar menu at McDonald’s, but cooking them also requires a collection of spices and condiments plus pans and other cooking instruments.
This is like suggesting that instead of buying cheap clothes at Walmart that will fall apart into months, poor people get their personal tailor fashion a wardrobe that will suit their individual needs.
Clarissa's Blog 
You linked to an amusing but awfully silly article about one graduate student’s anecdotal experience with working ridiculously hard to combine a multitude of unrelated activities (saving money, “building peer relationships,” not being bored, “feeling satisfied with what and with whom I was eating,” time management, and so on ad nauseam).
How did she manage to get a PhD in a hard-facts field like biomedical engineering while she spent so much time worrying about the necessary but trivial experience of eating while you’re in graduate school? Did she also map out a detailed chart about when and how to brush her teeth or take a shower?
LikeLike
” Did she also map out a detailed chart about when and how to brush her teeth or take a shower?”
I’m sure she uses a hand-carved shower head (and a woodburning water heater) and brushes her teeth with an artisanal toothpaste made of the ashes of organic wood. baking soda and homemade juniper vinegar….
LikeLike
Also stores that are easily available to poorer people tend to have prices that are higher than those in middle class neighborhoods (this used to be the case at least especially in the North).
The reason is largely due to higher overhead due to insurance and security and theft issues….
A few times I had to go on extreme economy for my food budget ($10 a week or so to feed myself at the time) but I was able to go to stores with reasonable prices (not in poor neighborhoods but biked to a pseudo-farmers’ market) and knew how to not waste anything and had reasonable kitchen facilities and I had the luxury of regarding that situation as temporary, none of which is necessarily true of the chronic poor.
LikeLike
It’s cheaper to buy one chicken and fry it after using a handful of “special seasonings” to coat it with then it is to get half as much cooked chicken from KFC. Don’t know what the prices are where you live, but here I can get bottles of spices for 99 cents that should last for about 20 meals or so.
LikeLike
That’s true, Dark Avenger, but you’re assuming a lot of things in this statement. You’re assuming (1) a kitchen is available with a stove (2) a knowledge of cooking and of spices (3) time for frying (4) storage of leftovers (5) available grocery which sells both chicken and spices.
Since leaving college, I’ve always lived in housing that has a kitchen, and is near relatively good grocers — but I got lucky, since when I was really broke, I lived in small southern towns, in decent working class neighborhoods. And I grew up cooking for my family, so I had basic cooking skills. I’ve also always had the time to cook, since my job has reasonable hours.
I do remember the neighborhood where I lived when I was in college, though — the only “grocery” nearby was a kind of a convenience store. It sold frozen foods and take-out foods and ready-packed sandwiches. It had a bin of bruised apples, and another bin of potatoes. Milk in quarts. That kind of thing. I don’t remember any spices at all.
Our dorm had a stove — sort of — but no oven, and no fridge. I ate a lot of boiled potatoes and canned soup. (I couldn’t afford the meal ticket.)
There was a better grocery, several miles away, a Piggly-Wiggly.. No bus services in the town, though, and I didn’t have a car at the time, or even a bike. Sometimes on the weekend I would make the walk; but I was limited to what I could carry back. And then there was the storage problem, obviously.
LikeLike
You can fry chickenin an electric skillet which can be had cheaply at most thrift stores.
As for spices, all I ever use is a flour-salt-pepper-0nion powder-granulated garlic mix.
As for a knowledge of cooking, that’s what libraries with free internet access can be helpful. Frying chicken isn’t exactly like making cordon bleu Chicken Tetrazzini, right?
Time for frying? Anytime, just put it in the fridge, which can be a small personal model, not a 6-foot model. Or, with a crock pot, again, easily obtainable at many thrift stores, you just put the food ingredients in, turn it on, put the lid on and go to work, knowing that a hot meal will be ready when you come home. It’s not fried chicken, but with a few carrots and potatoes, it can be pretty good as well.
LikeLike
I’m not trying to encourage anybody to eat junk food. I’m all for fresh and seasonal all the time. But there are people for whom it’s not possible, unfortunately.
LikeLike
Yes, ingenuity can’t replace a lack of resources.
LikeLike
Yes, there is also the whole problem of actually getting to the grocery store. I only learned to drive 2 years ago, and before that, it was very hard to get myself to the grocery store. I had to buy a lot of what I ate at a convenience store at the gas station, and everything there is more expensive. Especially fresh fruit that is sold by piece. But what choice was there?
These gas station stores are where many people buy food, and it’s a big added expense.
LikeLike
“Yes, there is also the whole problem of actually getting to the grocery store. I only learned to drive 2 years ago, and before that, it was very hard to get myself to the grocery store. I had to buy a lot of what I ate at a convenience store at the gas station, and everything there is more expensive. Especially fresh fruit that is sold by piece. But what choice was there?”
-This was my experience as an undergrad research assistant, especially the summer I lived alone. I lived on Main Street, and there was a gas station about fifteen minutes away where I bought milk and cereal and things. These were far more expensive than the regular grocery store, and they didn’t have fresh fruit, meat, or vegetables. Every other weekend I’d walk to the grocery store. I had to time it just right, since it was really, really hot, a forty-five minute walk on a good day, and I didn’t want the chicken to spoil. I couldn’t buy a lot, since I had to carry it all home. And I had to set aside a good half a day to do it. Mostly I tried to avoid doing that, and rationed everything out until a weekend I knew my parents or someone would visit and could drive me to the store. Which means I didn’t cook a lot of decent meals. I subsisted mainly on cereal, instant rice, instant potatoes, and macaroni and cheese.
LikeLike
She’s writing for “grad school poor” not “poor poor”. The premium is for time and energy, which can be a function of money. She recommends buying in bulk, which necessitates going to more than one grocery store. All of this is really about not becoming fat.
LikeLike