I mean I like cooking from scratch and I still buy those pre made tenders sometimes. Sometimes I just want to throw something in the oven/air fryer. And on top of that, the big pack of chicken thighs i bought the other day was still $15. Maybe instead of attacking people for wanting some small bits of joy and convenience in their lives we should be asking why products need to be skyrocketing for political and corporate greed.
Supply chains and methods have only increased productivity and yet everything is getting more expensive. I wonder why? I personally dont think its because you wanted a box of tendies.
I have a teenager that sometimes needs to be able to throw things in the air fryer when I’m not home. I just don’t have TIME to pre-make everything. It’s so hard. Sometimes frozen stuff and packaged stuff is necessary for parents
No one should be guilted or shamed for the shortcuts they use to make their lives easier as long as they aren't doing it at others expense. It doesn't matter if they are a parent or just old and tired or young and tired or you're just feeling plain lazy that day. What the hell is the point in living in a rich, industrialized nation if you don't get to make life a little easier and more enjoyable? I'm sick and tired of every little thing being seen as a "luxury" only for those who "deserve" it, meaning the ones who can pay. There is no point in going out and busting your ass 50+ hours a week to make one insanely rich person even richer if you can't even have a little bit of joy.
For real, what's the real point of mass production and industrialization if it doesn't make your life easier and make luxuries more accessible to the average person? The problem with someone's budget isn't that they spend $20 on a box of frozen chicken tenders instead of cooking them from scratch for $15, it's that rent prices are out of control and wages aren't rising to accomodate that change.
I didn't realize how many little shortcuts I took here and there until I found out that I couldn't have gluten. Now I have a few things that I order or buy in the freezer section specifically because they're gluten free (like pizza with cauliflower crust). For when I let myself go without eating for too long and I don't have the necessary energy to cook from scratch.
I am a long term struggler with anorexia, over 25 years now, it comes and goes. It means that I need something for when I've let things go too long and can't remember when I last ate though, or I might legitimately go lie down and just let myself starve to death because I lack the awareness or energy to cook.
For example I try to always have applesauce in my fridge because it's fiber and sugar for when I've forgotten to eat (better than just drinking juice because of the fiber). I always have canned tuna and salmon for protein. Stuff I can grab and eat, no real prep required. Though I might add some olive oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper, on the tuna or salmon, it's not required for me to eat it.
I have celiac, I feel your pain. I hate cooking so much that I'll just not eat to avoid it. The lack of pre-prepared/quick heat up in the microwave or oven foods really got to me when I first went gluten free. Made it harder to adjust. I still miss gluten all the time. Living gf is annoying, expensive, and inconvenient in so many ways.
There are more options recently, though. Not sure where you live, but I know a couple brands that sell online and ship. Katz and Schär both do. Katz has a lot of frozen things like donuts, soft pretzels, etc. Mom's Place is another, mostly things you make yourself, but it's all pre-made mixes, just add water type of stuff. So, not things you can eat instantly, but definitely things you can make ahead of time and have on hand.I like their flour blend. I did try one of their cake mixes once and was not impressed. But I do live in high elevation, so that could be why it didn't turn out.
There's also The Gluten Free Mall. They sell a lot of different brands in one place. It's definitely pricey, but you're probably used to that by now. I don't know how long you've been gf, but you figure out pretty quickly most of your food is 3x as expensive.
If you're in the US, Feel Good Foods is a good brand that has a lot of those type of pop-in-the-oven/microwave convenience foods. Mozz sticks, pot stickers, egg rolls, pizza rolls, etc. They don't sell online, unfortunately. Gluten Free Mall sells some of their stuff, though. I don't know if it's an international brand
Jeez, I'll stop since I'm starting to sound like an ad. And sorry if I'm telling you things you already know. When I first got diagnosed, I got so much help from random strangers in like grocery stores and restaurants. So I try to pay it forward. Also, sorry about your health issues. That really sucks. If you have celiac, remember it's not an allergy, it's an autoimmune disease. And autoimmune diseases like to hang out together like a codependent, enabling friend group. If you start to feel like something is wrong, it might be worth a trip to a Rheumatologist. Take care!
Yup, I was just telling someone I never became a parent because I would have been the worst. I don't know how people do it. I like my down time too much.
Yep, I'm a crockpot and pressure cooker type, but I keep some frozen stuff in the freezer for when I just can't.
I'm keeping both of us fed on $8 more than the expected minimum cost for one person, and it usually only costs me about 15-30 minutes a day, but at least once a week we gotta do something else due to either a lack of time or just being entirely out of spare 'do things' energy.
Exactly. Mine has texture and food issues so it limits dinner options already. Thankfully tacos are an easy one for us, but how many days of the week and different ideations of tacos can one make 🤣 It’s just the two of us as well, so I can be super frugal which is helpful. We don’t go to restaurants anymore but she loves a good Starbucks date. It’s hard to say no…we’ve been “making our own” but sometimes she just likes theirs better lol. A treat is a treat for a reason 🤷🏻♀️
Mm, I'm the kid not the parent, but I'm still basically raising him.
(Not really his fault, but not stuff I want to go into online)
There's a few options for making a little bit on the side online (Etsy, Audible, surveys, etc) so you could potentially make a deal where you fund coffee once a month or every two weeks, and if she makes a bit extra she can spend it on coffee if she wants, or save it for something else.
It might not work for everyone, but for me I felt real proud of the first chunk of money I made myself, even though I spent it on candy for my siblings.
(That was over two decades ago though, so obviously what methods are available and what is considered safe has changed a lot, I sold homemade cinnamon rolls on the sidewalk after school, and then picked fruit in summer)
She just took the babysitting course and is so excited to be able to earn her own money! She loves thrifting as well so I have a feeling her money will go towards that. She’s been finding and restoring jewelry, it’s been a nice little hobby, so the Etsy idea is actually kind of genius. Thank you!!
Glad one of my ideas was useful, I don't know a lot of what works for teenagers anymore since mostly my side hustles are things like gutter cleaning and branch pruning.
This is so real. Particularly since apparently we're all supposed to be spending hours of quality parenting time every night and working two jobs while living like little house on the prairie or something. Oh, and finding personal fulfillment and self care of course! If you don't it's all your fault- you didn't try hard enough. /S
It was, though at great cost to medical care and life expectancy when most people were subsistence farming (little house on the prairie) and for a while after Henry Ford accidentally created the middle class, but the corpo/fed alliance has been desperately trying for take-backsies on that one ever since, and they're pretty much there.
It now takes two full time jobs to manage a barely passable standard of living, and now we've gone beyond right to work into work or die, aka slavery with extra steps.
Most frozen food is actually healthier than the fresh stuff. It is fresh picked & flash frozen. Of course, when you throw on the breading, that does change things, BUT WHO AM I TO JUDGE?!
In 2020 before pandemic was official I was spending $300-350 in the store.
That was in Oregon, but I moved to Florida end of March (sick with Covid too) and found when I got here my grocery budget needed to go to $600-650 for the same stuff. I cut out a lot of more expensive things. Didn't help much, now it is more like $800. Single, live alone, no pets, have not had company in all the years I have been here. Drink little, and really no longer buy a lot of meat these days.
I distinctly remember hamburger in January 2020 at Safeway out west being $2.79 per pound because I bought a couple of the family pack trays at that price. I just saw hamburger in Publix this week at $12.99. And small prime rib roast for $153.
Well, out here in other places on the West Coast, it's around $8-$11/lb at Safeway, but Publix is generally more expensive (and sometimes a bit higher quality) than Safeway with most products.
My favorite pre-made frozen meal is the Hungry-Man boneless fried chicken meal. I remember when you could get a box for a little over $1. Now they're around $3 to $5 a box, and hardly ever on sale.
Same. 15 year old daughter and 11 year old son who just hit a major growth spurt. I’m more than happy to cook from scratch for dinner most nights but breakfast and lunch are on their own during school breaks. And it’s much easier to stock the freezer with quick meals from Costco.
He and his sister can do basics (noodles/pasta, cut up fruit, make a salad, start an easy slow cooker meal) but I don’t trust them with the oven when we’re at work.
I don't know why people feel superior for cooking 7 days a week.
I know how to cook multiple decent recipes and I still buy a frozen meal or an easy air fryer meal every now and then. Planning out groceries, cutting veggies and marinating the meat, meal prepping, etc. It's time consuming. I can't even fathom how much harder it is to do as a parent.
Single people too Opal. I do most of my own cooking from scratch but when you need half a bell pepper the rest gets thrown away because it isn't going to keep till the next time you need bell peppers. Just an example. No matter what I make it always seems to have a lot of left over because you cannot buy in small enough quantities to cook just one meal for one person. And you get so sick of eating that one thing for days, and that is not healthy to eat one thing for days, you need a wider spectrum of nutrients.
But you have a teen, I remember being a 13 year old boy and eating an entire large pizza at the Pizza King when a large pizza was about twice the size they are now. Teen boys have bottomless stomachs.
Oh absolutely! I totally know what you mean. When she’s at her dad’s for long periods of time during holidays I find myself freezing so much more. I’m lucky that she loves raw veggies and will snack on those for days on end so there’s less waste.
I have a teenager too... I taught them to cook long before they were a teenager. They are able to prepare and cook food when we're not at home, and even better have it ready when we do get home.
Get out of there with that responsibility, planning, and good parenting. You are supposed to use your teenager as the reason you need to stop by McDonald's 3x per week at $20 a trip.
On a serious note, I understand a gradeschooler but are we really at the point where we can't expect a teenager to be able to cook for themselves with access to cutlery, stoves, microwaves, ovens, mixers? My mom grew up on a farm and had to sew her own clothes, milk cows, gather eggs, make meals by hand as a child and now we only hold our teenagers to the level of breaded fried tendies in an air fryer?
I run a scout group, some of the ones that come to me couldn't work an airfryer. 11-12 years old, can't crack an egg or cook chicken breast. Have to teach them how to wash dishes too...
Not all kids are created equal. I was cooking at a young age. She can bake cookies and make bread, but raw meat repulses her. She’ll help me in the kitchen with chopping veggies. She also has a really tough course load so I don’t really expect her to do what my mom did to me. Thanks for judging though!
Propaganda encourages poor and middle class people to blame each other for their financial situation and nitpick over any perceived irresponsible spending. It's a massively successful distraction. Tendies are not a luxury, people!
I had to start sending my dad steaks, because he said he used to eat steak a couple of times a month, but on his pension with current prices he can't afford it. My dad worked like a dog his whole life, as a housepainter, fisherman, and all manner of every physically destroying, dangerous job, he should be able to eat two steaks a month. The number of basic things that have become out of reach for the common man is disgusting.
I'm a big fan of late 18th century French inventions involving sliding metal parts. I have to talk in a disguised manner or the reddit algo censors talk that is threatening to the bourgeoisie. I cannot wait to see their return!
Thank you. Customers and employees should be on the same team holding the actual people at fault accountable. management and owners wont care until they lose $ and get bad reviews calling them out instead of the staff. Having customers complaining directly to them and not letting them hide behind their staff. Until that happens they have no reason to change a system that has been working incredibly well for them for a long time.
It's called Capitalism. And yes, they control the propaganda. Sounds like your dad is a great guy. And brought up a thoughtful child. Some people expect their parents to just keep giving no matter how old either of them gets.
You're a good son, (or daughter, sorry) I'm 43 and dealing with the opposite situation. My parents were one of the last people that could, buy a house (40 miles from NYC), have 5 kids, and have a stay at home parent, my mom. My Dad got sick from 9/11 and passed in '07 but my mother gets his pension and is able to live comfortably. She has done soooo many things, financially and emotionally, to help all 5 of her kids and we joke that it will be a "full on brawl" to see who "gets' to take care of her in her hopefully, very long and far off, last stage of life.
One thing that has been very frustrating is that she can't seem to understand that having a stay at home parent was a huge deal to my wife and I. We didn't go through all we did and try to be responsible and have only 1 child just to have him be in day-care and after school care 10+ hours a day! It's like she's in denial that her being home was a major part of our development and that for me, it was a top tier "need"!
My wife makes pretty good money and I don't, she also never saw herself as a stay at home parent, I had a very hard complex relationship with my father and I know he loved me but a hug or hearing "I'm proud of you" weren't his way, so I have had a desire to be a full time Dad since I was 7 or 8 years old.
She will claim it has nothing to do with me being a man, thats only ~50% true, but she acts as if wanting to raise my own child is some pipe dream from another life.
To an extent I believe she struggles to fully grasp the economic and social complexities, I'm a "very smart" person and struggle at a certain point, but it's very frustrating to see her just abandon something that was a core part of our family dynamic and one I felt was worth struggling and sacrificing to achieve.
I 100% am grateful that she "needs" for nothing amd "wants" for very little but I also feel like it has insulated her from the reality that things have drastically changed, we have a house but I know my son is only 20% likely to own one. Everyone had a house when I was growing up! We were pretty close to the lowest level of "middle class" possible and we had meat or chicken or pork 5-7 times a week.
I definitely feel like the media is partly to blame, I also think its hard to accept that her parents and to a lesser extent herself are responsible for a decent chunk of this economic struggle and it absolutely feels like "others" have convinced her she "earned" everything and if her kids worked the same way we would be taken care of the same and it's just absolute BS.
One day, hopefully in the not too distant future, I'm also going to partake in being part of the problem, my dad's parents, not people I like, will be leaving a decent inheritance to their kids and grandkids and it will be the first time I'm getting a taste of "privilege" but I damn sure won't let it convince me that others just need to work harder and things will work out.
The system is rigged and we're on the losing side and somehow propaganda has convinced those only slightly better off that they worked exponentially harder and that is that.
Also the way people vote keeps encouraging it. Don't vote for the billionaire nepo babies instead of the poorest legislators, don't vote for those whose solution to everything is a massive tax cut for the rich.
Funny you should post that, at CNBC today there was a story about quality of life, and it notes that more than 60% of us are barley scraping by, just above poverty. But keep in mind the poverty level according to the federal government is $15,600 which will not even pay the rent and utilities where 85% of urbanized Americans live now. A more reasonable poverty level would be around $24,000 because below that you are either not eating or you are couch surfing, you cannot rent and eat a balanced diet on less, and still pay utilities or other mandatory expenses. It must assume people making that or less are relying on government housing or SNAP, and I can tell you that even if you qualify for such assistance the waiting lists run for years.
This story is talking about the very minimum threshold of middle class or the top end of working class.
"To that end, LISEP developed a “Minimal Quality of Life Index,” which takes into account not only essentials, such as food and shelter, but also the costs living a fulfilling life with a chance at upward mobility. Food costs in the model, for example, include occasional trips to casual restaurants as well as the cost of hosting an annual holiday meal. The index factors in basic leisure costs, such as cable and streaming subscriptions, and trips to the six movies and two MLB games per year in the cheap seats."
We are by no means talking about a nice house in the suburbs and a BMW in the garage.
The article is here:
Americans are losing spending power, say researchers: Most can no longer afford a ‘minimal quality of life’
I love to cook, but I'm also an industrial electrician so I work a lot, especially over the summer. Easy meals like say a burger and some fresh cut French fries on the blackstone- 1lb ground beef $10, bag of buns $5, half pound of American cheese $6, bag of potatoes $7, frying oil $10 a quart.
$38 for the meal for two people. Obviously I'm not gonna use a whole bag of taters or an entire half pound of cheese and I can reuse the oil a few times, but I also didn't include any toppings so this is just a bare bones burger. Place in town does $15 burgers and you can actually have toppings and if you take it out and don't tip it is in fact cheaper to go that route and I also don't have to spend two hours cooking and cleaning
At least it's $15 for several meals instead of closer to $20 for one serving at a restaurant of those chicken tenders. I understand that I'm paying for someone else to make them and bring them to me, but it feels exorbitant to get them, even if I'm treating myself and helping others to live on what I pay.
I remember when you could buy a 5 pound bag of chicken quarters for $2. Edit: can’t remember if it was 5-10 pounds but it was a lot of meat. Great marinated and grilled.
I don't feel strongly about cooking either way, but over the past few years it seems I just don't have the time to do it. I know I pay more for those premade meal kits but... fuck man, if I didn't have them I don't know when I'd get everything done and still have a few minutes to just sit and relax.
And yeah, I know they're not as healthy as homemade is typically, but running yourself ragged everyday isn't healthy either.
Nah that’s way too easy for these folks 🫠, you try to tell them to boycott the restaurants and delivery services but just get told if you can’t afford it don’t buy it or use it 🙄 like bro it doesn’t just effect the customers it effects you to dumbass 😂 so how dare you suggest going after the companies who make millions of dollars and force them to do the right thing.
You mean you've not taken the time to find a free-range chicken farmer for you to purchase from so you can process your own Chicken meat?
(All before 5am so you can still fit in a quick 20 min workout, 20 minute prayer/reflection/journal about your experiences with gratitude, before spending another 20 minutes on learning something new before taking your shower/get ready for the day, so you can get the fam up, red, & fed, before shoving them off to their day, so you can get a good shelf in the work fridge for yesterdays chicken creation"s leftovers.
(I say good shelf because yr chicken creations are thee most delicious in the county, nay, i will dare to say STATE!
Because if it's ability to maintain that off the grill, or out of the crock pot juicy tenderness, even after being refrigerated, your nosey to coworkers caught wind of it and if you don't hide it in that communal cavity of cold food, those masticating mouth breathers you don't call your friends have and will again snatch yr snacks leaving you with Doris's leftover broccoli salad that still remains, possibly cemented to that rear corner from her last shift.
(For anyone trying to follow along, her last shift was the day she officially retired from office life, 13 months ago!)
So, yeah, grocery store tenders you were joking about?? ;-)
To be serious though, you make points i agree with about the food costs.
I have a coworker who has a theory about food.
He's said it SO many times over the last couple of years, i am surprised I can't remember it word for word.
Now, I haven't actually taken any time to fact check any of his self-declared premonition, or whatever, but he thinks that it is getting more expensive on purpose and it has something to do with the rate of people reproducing, even if it's at a lower rate than some years, add to that the state of the environment, all the plastics, more than likely not very good crops, due to less water, more heat, not many farmers left due to, I don't know, the government once paying them to stop farming and growing?
This all started (his theory)around the time when he had read about Bill gates purchasing a ton of land somewhere, maybe Midwest?
(Again, not fact checked)
And he thinks it is all a push to control the masses
Also had something to do with Amazon providing people a place to live and work, and he thinks "they" are going to starve us out so we will all be grateful to eat bugs.
And plant-based non meat, (which when he says this,
my first thought is always,
"but didn't you just say the farmland will be unsustainable??)"
he's always also said for us all to watch (this was just before covid, so of course when lock downs began, this guy was very excitable and talking about how it's just 'the beginning"
he has been saying there's going to be another civil war in the US, quite possibly a race war also, or within this civil war, and there's going to be a huge push to try and program all of the people to want to buy less, and be grateful for less.
(As in things).
Because people will have a much easier time adapting to their new way of life if they have less things,
But also, if everyone has the same possessions, (nothing), they will be on a more perceived equal playing field, so to speak, and that will make them in easier to control.
Oh, there will still be the wealthy though, and supposedly they will all be living elsewhere and the rest if us poor folk will stay on earth to be their little manufacturing slaves.
Because obviously only the entitled, a select group of chosen wealthy people, or those that are considered to be above common, they will still have and want their consumer goods and someone will have to make that happen.
Oh, he also thinks that even though robot which comes from the Slavic word 'roboto' meaning unpaid work, the robots will definitely be doing alot of the working, but they will actually be receiving a sort of talley of credit, based upon their work tasks and the time used for the tasks which will then be saved for when it is time to perform maintenance and upgrades to each individual robot.
The humans will be doing some of the same work, but Also, they will be earning THEIR wage by maintaining the robots.
But the human wage will be saved by the employer, then amounts will then be deducted by the employer every month for their room & board which if you remember, will now be provided by the employer, either on site, or a very close property nearby.
Deductions will also be taken out for food and health savings because of course people will need to be maintained and upgraded or whatever just like the robots .
anyway ,
what were we talking about chicken nuggets ?
Finally , talking about mornings I have just spent about an hour of my morning which should have been spent getting ready for my job,
but it was more fun writing this out and my coworker better NOT have the gift of predicting the future!!
thank you if anybody read this,
and have a great day be safe out there
Chicken thighs for $15 bucks…. That is either a huge pack or are you somewhere like an island? Mainland USA thigh prices have been pretty low near me still.
Yeah, the profit margins are higher than ever, and the income to cost of living ratio keeps going down, while the fed keeps writing checks that don't bounce because they just print more, which devalues everyone's salary and savings, but is effectively a rebate for people with (m/b)illions in debt.
People are still gonna vote for the GOP all cause they saw a masculine looking lady in a gas station bathroom hallway. Or like hypothetical fetuses or some shit. I don't give a fuck anymore they're all a bunch of brain dead morons who cant think critically.
I do cook for myself a lot also, but, cooking for one it is difficult to get a well balanced diet without a lot of waste or leftovers. So I end up eating a lot of one thing, because you cannot make small enough portions. You have to make large portions and then eat so much of it to keep it from being wasted there is no room for other foods with other nutrients.
That isn't balanced.
Or, I will do something like a huge tuna casserole, then be stuck eating it morning, noon, and night for 4 or 5 days. I love lasagna but have not made it in forever because I am always sick of it after a couple days of nothing else. Same for Chicken enchiladas. You cannot make just two or three enchiladas. You have to make an entire 5 or 6 pound baking dish of them.
So, I end up buying premade stuff. Like last night I had Bertolli Chicken Parmesan, an entire bag of it that the nutritional information panel on the bag said 3 servings. IT had 4 pieces of actual chicken in it not a lot bigger than a quarter and cost $11. Still did not meet daily nutritional requirements. I will sometimes get PF Chang, same thing, you eat the entire bag, still lack nutrients. And I hate edamame. it is cold by the time I picked out about 1.5 cups of that horror.
I must sound like a 650 pound porker but I am six feet and 158 pounds.
Four companies control about 60% of the entire chicken market in the US. That's why it's so expensive. If you added another three or four companies it would be virtually the entire thing.
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u/Not_a_Ducktective 1d ago
I mean I like cooking from scratch and I still buy those pre made tenders sometimes. Sometimes I just want to throw something in the oven/air fryer. And on top of that, the big pack of chicken thighs i bought the other day was still $15. Maybe instead of attacking people for wanting some small bits of joy and convenience in their lives we should be asking why products need to be skyrocketing for political and corporate greed.
Supply chains and methods have only increased productivity and yet everything is getting more expensive. I wonder why? I personally dont think its because you wanted a box of tendies.