Says the software developer making 100K+ a year. I have been poor before. I didn't need healthy. I needed cheap so I could work on other parts of my life.

McDonald’s hasn’t been cheap in a while. Even doing their cheapest hamburger at .99 cents for 250 calories that’s still about 8 dollars for a full days calories with little nutrition. You can get pasta and sauce or pasta and butter for nearly half that price for the same number of calories and better nutrition as long as you can boil water. Rice and beans is even cheaper

Black beans

Oatmeal

Frozen vegetables

Peas

Peanut butter

Eggs

Brown Rice

You don't have to be wealthy to eat well. Just don't shop at Whole Foods and other foolish places. Also learn to enjoy cooking. You'd be surprised how much you'll save.

Says somebody with time to cook. And probably a fulfilling job. Spend a double shift being yelled at while making change for rude people, then imagine how appealing shopping for all those things, then spending another hour preparing them, then 5 minutes eating, then another half hour cleaning up. What joy!

>Spend a double shift being yelled at

Find a job where you're not yelled at. Do you work double shifts every day? You can try meal prep.

>how appealing shopping for all those things

Frozen vegetables? Uhh Oatmeal? Wh-Where??

>then spending another hour preparing them

I have a feeling you have little experience in cooking. Microwave black beans in a bowl and put salsa on top. Tada, 1 minute! Scrambled eggs with spinach, 5 minutes.

With your defeatist attitude, life sounds like one big chore.

I cook daily, Italian and German and American Southwest. I'm upper middle class. I live out in the country. I grow my own ingredients.

But I have some empathy, for people who don't have the leisure I have. For instance, I have sympathy for folks who want hot prepared complex food without spending the hour to make it. Nobody imitates a Big Mac or fried chicken sandwich in seconds. Eating oatmeal at home after a hard day is very far from my idea of a good life.

>Nobody imitates a Big Mac or fried chicken sandwich in seconds

And nobody should dare try. That's toxic crap that'll make you depressed, tired, and unhealthy. Please don't tell me how difficult it is to ball up some ground beef and flick it on a stove top.

Oatmeal is just a grain. https://www.loveandotherspices.com/5-savory-oatmeal-recipes/

Ah! So that's why you don't like hamburgers - no idea whatsoever, what it takes to cook it right. And dress it. And the right bread.