Dude it’s insane. I don’t understand how the hell these places stay in business anymore when the quality still sucks ass and it’s all so expensive now. Like even taco bell, who used to be the king of cheap, costs a fuckton these days.
It’s an addiction for a lot of people.
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It’s become a habit for many people. Cooking is a really difficult habit to (re)learn. It’s possible though and good meal prep is very convenient on long days at work.
I just hate cooking. I cannot stand it. It takes so much effort and you have to clean all the mess you made (even cleaning as you go sucks). And then you end up with something that may or may not pan out. And if you’re trying to meal prep then you have to eat the same meal for the whole week which I hate also.
If this was the only thing you’d ever have to do, fine. But the majority of the rest of our time is spent at work or sleeping. We have few precious hours where these things aren’t the case. I hope this doesn’t make me sound too much like an asshole, but I’m fortunate enough to purchase things like pre-prepared foods and get takeout a couple of times per week. So I take advantage of that because I don’t want to spend my few moments of free time slaving away over a stove or cleaning the mess of pots and pans and cooking utensils.
Another this about cooking when you live alone…a lot of perishable foods can only be bought in somewhat larger quantities and then they go bad before you use them all up. I tried to make a recipe out of a cookbook several months ago and I was frustrated at how many things I had to buy a large thing of when I only needed a very small amount for the recipe. Ended up with a lot of food waste.
None of these problems mean you have to resort to buying fast food though.
You can buy things like crumbed chicken tenders that last over a week in the packaging and take 15 mins to cook in an air fryer. Mix some mayo and hot sauce, steam some veg and you’ve got a cheaper, healthier meal than most fast food, in about the same time it takes to drive through and order.
That actually makes up a decent amount of what I eat already. The majority of my diet comes from the frozen food section at the grocery store. I get both the prepackaged dinners and also the precooked meats and “steam in bag” veggies you’re talking about. But on days where I don’t want that, I get takeout as a treat. Most often, I actually order food delivery instead of fast food, but I get fast food now and then too. I’ve actually got into the habit of going to the chick fil a near me because it’s literally a 5 minute walk and they have a good salad. McDonald’s seemed like they stopped selling salads some years back for whatever reason.
One of the points of my previous post is that I don’t care about the cost though because I’m fortunate enough to not be scraping by. I don’t get this takeout or fast food every day, but it doesn’t bother me financially to do it a couple times per week. Plus, sitting in your car listening to music and browsing your phone while someone prepares food for you is hardly a comparison to putting together something yourself. The time might be the same, but the effort is significantly lower which is the point.
Fair enough. I’m not scraping by either. I just choose to vote with my wallet because that’s capitalism.
Most times I buy fast food these days (few times a year) I just feel ripped off, because I know I’m paying extra just for shareholders; not for actual value.
Yes, I fully relate with this as if you spoke from my heart. Agreed on all points, haha.
I do cook, kind of have to when you have kids. But I definitely do not enjoy doing it. Especially because I’ll slave over a new dinner idea and my kids will just refuse to eat it.
My friend with kids also talks about this. She is like I work so hard to cook and even make it simple for them but they still refuse to eat it half the time lol
You can always ask the butcher to get you a smaller piece of meat. You can also separate pieces of meat and freeze part.
If produce is by weight, you can break the package to be smaller. Even things like squash can be cut in half (ask the produce people, places like Aldis will not do this).
Buy canned and frozen veggies as much as possible, they last longer. They won’t be as tasty, but will reduce your food waste.
Cook larger portions and freeze the leftovers and eat them in a week or two.
As far as spices, dishes, etc. look at them as “investments” cause you won’t be using them all on one meal…
Meat is actually the easiest one because you can just freeze it like you said. Powdered spices are also a complete non issue. It’s fresh produce that I struggle with.
But for example, the recipe I tried called for…
Jasmine rice - could only find it in a whopping 5 lb bag which was ridiculous for a solo person who rarely ears rice. I know rice keeps, but since I don’t at all like to cook, it was very excessive. Even if I were to have made a larger quantity of the meal or make it multiple times, I still would have an insane amount left over.
A clove of fresh garlic - I know you can get powdered garlic or garlic in a jar, but people seem to say that it doesn’t at all work the same, so I wanted to try it the way the recipe wanted you to. So I had a shitton of cut up garlic left over because I could only find whole garlic bulbs at that particular grocery store if I didn’t want to go canned or powdered. Can you even freeze a portion of garlic?
A portion of whole fresh ginger - again same issue as the above problem I had with fresh garlic. Only this one was even worse because ginger rarely present in any of the foods I eat
Etc. for a lot of the ingredients for that recipe.
Yes, I get that you can do some complex puzzles and math to figure out how to use all of these ingredients in different meals without wasting the excess, but that is absolutely NOT for me. That’s a whole additional ordeal and one of the many reasons I hate cooking. I don’t want to have to perform an elaborate game of ingredient/meal chess to avoid significant food waste when I’m grocery shopping. I do enough work at my job and there are still plenty of other annoying tasks to keep up with like cleaning and laundry.
The point is I don’t want to look at any of these as “investments”. That is is an insane amount of work to put into something I hate.
Where are you shopping? Only having a 5lb bag of jasmine rice is weird.
Just use powdered instead of the fresh herbs. I would consider doubling up on most spices if you are using powdered.
Garlic and ginger both can be frozen. They also last a good while, so you can keep them in your fridge
I don’t mind cooking, I just hate coming up with a dinner plan for the whole week. I’ve begun watching cooking videos on instagram to help motivate me. I do wish there was an alternative to instagram, but so far it’s the best.
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Me, limping my ass into a McDonalds for the first time in forever: “I’ll have 20 nuggets, no meal.” (expecting 5$, or something close to it since it had legitimately been a while)
“Yeah, that’ll be 12.47”
The fuck???
I don’t go to fast food often, I walked into a McDonalds for the first time in maybe 1yr +? They had the kiosks for self ordering, I looked at the prices and “deals” and decided that the cost/experience ratio was just not worth and just left. I can go to a restaurant or cook myself for those prices (and I did, cooked enchiladas).
It doesn’t seem affordable/worth it even for a one-off now
I’ve officially stopped going to McDonalds. Their prices make zero sense, and their food quality has dropped to incredible lows.
Only desperate, dumb, or wealthy folks eat at this place in 2025.
Not cheap, not convenient, not fast, and, let’s be real: It’s barely food.
“What’s the deal with fast food? It isn’t fast, and it isn’t food!”
It’s been a long time since fast food was any good. It’s addictive, maybe comfortable, but definitely not good. Break your addiction, especially now that you could save so much money
Learn to cook. Honestly. When you know what you’re doing you can make simple and nutritious meals for a fraction of what you’d pay for this junk food.
+ it doesn’t need to be complicated. You only need a few ingredients and can buy certain pre-made things like crumbed fish or chicken. If you do it right the first meal takes 30 mins, then eating the same thing again in the next few days should only take 5-10 mins.
Exactly. Take three main ingredients and use that as a base, or keep it like that. For example: rice + tofu + tomatoes. Another: couscous + chickpeas + green beans. Simple, quick, easy, and nutritious. Add some more flavour with herbs, spices, soy sauce, etc
People just dont know how to cook. Its an unpopular take these days but with the cost of living I cant help but look at how some of the people I know eat and think “Y’all could use some fucking austerity”. Everything is pre-made, pre-prepped, and sometimes pre-cooked.
Forget simple and nutritious. I can make you the filthiest nastiest food coma inducing double bacon cheeseburger in about the time it takes most people to make it to and through the drivethrough, and probably for less than you would spend on fuel. The less said about how much better my fried chicken is the better.
A lot of people don’t have the time or the energy to cook because they are being ground down by their shitty jobs. It’s no wonder so many people turn to processed food even if they don’t eat fast food.
Oh I know, for some people it isnt a choice. Thats why I prefaced it with “Some people I know.” because I know their circumstances.
One specific coworker in particular. If you’re stressing about your car payment, you dont have money for doordash. GO PICK IT UP YOU LAZY BASTARD THATS WHAT THE CAR IS FOR!
This was my exact thought. If you frequent fast food 2-3 times a week, you can substitute meal kits and have fresh cooked food for the same cost and time it takes to leave the house. Once you’ve mastered kits, everything becomes more apparent in recipes, and the world is your oyster.
Honestly, it’s been a great help reducing take out. It’s such a gamble, I’d rather spent nothing on a sure thing (even if it’s boring) than nearly $40 for a meal I may not even finish.
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I’m trying to get myself together too (though not nearly as impressive as your method). I’m writing down everything I spend, from a soda, or groceries, to rent. I quickly saw I was spending, like, to the penny of my check, and saw I wasted a good $200 on just bullshit. I’m trying to put on my big girl panties and get it together. Whenever I saw no to something, I’ve been putting it in a savings account. Like, “eh, I can make dinner at home.” Okay, then that $15 for the cheeseburger that you were okay with is now going into savings.
My goal is to end this year without debt. School, credit card, all of it. Tired of it lol
That’s an impressive level of financial responsibility, nice job
When I can buy like a large 5 top pizza for as much as a single fast food combo, i know which I’ll choose.
Pizza is also ridiculously expensive where I live. For something that is comprised of almost entirely dough, cheese, and tomato sauce, it’s kind of criminal that some places are charging $20 or more for a large pie. It probably cost them $1.50 worth of ingredients to make when you factor in bulk pricing.
Yeah the rise in pizza prices has been disappointing in my area. Unless you’re getting just a plain pie, you’re gonna spend at least $20 for like a medium pizza.
There are so many goddamn places around here too, that there has to be like a pizza cartel or something, setting the price lol…
Hey now, those poor businesses need to make up for their profit situation! Even though they have all made record profits year after year… After year…
We will be in a recession once they decide it’s time for one.The weird this is that generally the once with shit quality make a decent profit and a lot of the once with way better food make almost nothing.
Capitalism at work. Race to the bottom.
When I was in high school, we’d split a gram of weed four ways and go to Wendy’s for the $4.20 meal. For less than ten bucks, you got stoned, a junior bacon cheese, four nuggets, small fry, and a small chocolate frosty. This was in the mid oughts so not that long ago!
The mid oughts was a different world, hundreds of years ago.
Y’all oughtta know the mid oughts were a lit time to behold.
I don’t usually eat fast food, but one night I was starving, and there happened to be a drive-thru right next to me. I saw only two cars ahead in line and thought it would be quick. I pulled in and waited. Fifteen minutes passed. Then nearly twenty. By that point, a long line had formed behind me, trapping my car.
At the thirty-minute mark, I started asking the cars around me if they could maneuver to let me out. After almost forty minutes, I finally managed to escape.
Frustrated and still hungry, I drove a little further to a local gyro joint. I walked inside, placed my order, and within five minutes, I was enjoying a fresh, delicious lamb platter.
If this had been an isolated incident, I wouldn’t have thought much of it. But the reality is, experiences like this are all too common. Fast food isn’t fast, and to make matters worse, it’s often not even cheap anymore. Unless you’re scraping the bottom of the so-called “value menu”—which has become scarce and filled with low-quality options—you’re likely paying the same, if not more, than you would at a local spot.
When you stack up the cost, the wait, and the disappointing quality, it’s hard to justify why anyone bothers with fast food at all.
Yeeeess! Gyro is my go to “fast food” too! My favorite gyro place loads plates up enough that I can get a large lamb plate for $15 and split it into two meals. I order on my way there, and it’s always ready within 10 minutes of ordering, without fail.
Same… And the food is so goddamn good.
It’s a real bummer that half of Americans seem to want to get rid of all of the fucking people willing to make all of these delicious varieties of food. What a boring fucking place that would be.
Right!? They have no idea what culture is, or what they’re missing out on. :/
In my days, you got a week’s worth of calories for $3.50
In my days you could buy 420 chickens for $0.69.
Nice.
Yeah… I only do fast food using apps and only go if there’s a good enough “discount”(quotes because it’s really what the prices should be anyway, obvs.).
If you have a Braum’s nearby you can get a bomb-ass burger with two quarter pound patties, crinkle cut fries, and drink or shake for about $9.
But you probably don’t have a Braum’s around unless you are in the US and in one of like two shithole states.
I have a 2 year old who falls asleep when driving, and we have had troubles with sleeping so I drive the motorway for perhaps two hours. In Norway the only places that do drive through is BK and McD, and yeah I have been one black coffe guy. Or just fries and coke. And nuggets and fries are car friendly. Can be eaten with one hand, and makes little mess
I didn’t know 2-year-olds could legally drive in Norway.
It’s a very advanced country 🤩
Don’t forget about the black coffee and coke.
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