I’m not one of these people, but I’ve heard that some people find almost all forms of cooking stressful, difficult and unsatisfying. These people suffer from increased food preparation costs that make $3/meal cheap by comparison.
These people suffer from increased food preparation costs that make $3/meal cheap by comparison.
I don’t think it’s correct to describe these mental costs in dollar terms. It’s more convenient, sure, but that’s not the same thing as cheaper. But yeah, now that I think of it cereal is probably $0.50/meal (skip the milk, goes bad too fast) but you don’t want that more than once a day, and it’s reasonably plausible that it would be hard to get two decently proteiny frozen meals for under $8.50 if grocery store selection is poor in your area.
It’s not that easy to convert marginal labor into money. Getting a second job is a high transaction cost, and alternatives like online surveys don’t pay well. I just don’t buy this type of argument except for certain very far from universal situations, e.g. hourly workers who have some leeway to set their own schedules.
I’m not one of these people, but I’ve heard that some people find almost all forms of cooking stressful, difficult and unsatisfying. These people suffer from increased food preparation costs that make $3/meal cheap by comparison.
I don’t think it’s correct to describe these mental costs in dollar terms. It’s more convenient, sure, but that’s not the same thing as cheaper. But yeah, now that I think of it cereal is probably $0.50/meal (skip the milk, goes bad too fast) but you don’t want that more than once a day, and it’s reasonably plausible that it would be hard to get two decently proteiny frozen meals for under $8.50 if grocery store selection is poor in your area.
Labor costs.
It’s not that easy to convert marginal labor into money. Getting a second job is a high transaction cost, and alternatives like online surveys don’t pay well. I just don’t buy this type of argument except for certain very far from universal situations, e.g. hourly workers who have some leeway to set their own schedules.
It really depends on your base income. A programmer who makes 100k a year is in a very different situation then a college student.