Sorry how can raw ingredients be expensive? I'm talking about staples flour, onions, carrots, beans, rice, etc.
Is there a database with US staples prices somewhere?
Cooked well, that will lead you to a bland meal. Cooked badly it will be pretty awful. If you're used to high in salt/sugar it will taste awful regardless.
Craft Mac and cheese is $1/portion and ready in less than 10 minutes with one dish.
Any one else here have parents put random stuff in your Mac to "balance the meal"?
Mac with tuna. Mac with peas. Mac with what EVER was handy.
Oh it brings back memories.
Literally just the price tags in the store. I once baked some pumpkin spice muffins for a friend in NYC who wasn’t in the habit of cooking (so I had to buy everything). Total cost: $45. I think it would have come to about $10 in London (where I live).
Admittedly, he’d have had some flour and butter to spare after that. But you have to somewhat know what you are doing to take advantage of the remaining ingredients.
This is completely false. You should stop propagating things you don't know about.
Check out Efficiency Is Everything, you can eat for $1.50/day on raw ingredients.
On $1.50/day I eat only rice and salad.
When I was a kid, steak was a rare luxury.
These days, you can buy a nice steak in the supermarket for $3 (I buy when they have a 2 for 1 sale). Heck, a bag of chips costs about that. You don't have to be much of a cook to cook it, either. Just put it in the frying pan.
A dozen eggs is $1.99.
The expensive stuff is the cookies, candy bars, doritos, etc.
Even high fat ground beef is still $4 a pound.
Beef is dirt cheap compared to candy bars, frozen pizza and chips.
Processed food is _so_ cheap.
[0] https://www.walmart.com/grocery/ip/Great-Value-Rising-Crust-...
That's right. But you can get a microwave for $9.99 at the thrift store. I see bread machines for a similar price. If you can follow directions like "gather the ingredients, dump them in the bread machine, push a button" you can make incredibly tasty fresh bread for next to nothing.
Just yesterday I went to the thrift store, and donated a bunch of stuff I don't use anymore, and bought a bunch that I did have a use for. It's a cheap way to live without compromise.
A pound and a half of pizza, not even close?
The nutrition in the steak is better, but I don't see any other basis of comparison where it could be cheap. The right candy bar (high in peanuts) will have lots more calories and something like 50% of the protein, for half the total price of the steak.
The other reply already pointed out how cheap wheat calories can be.
And a dozen eggs for $1.99.
The store also sells bulk peanuts for far far less than peanut candy bars cost. Like $2.99 per pound. You pour it in a bag, weigh the bag, put the label on it, and voila! And it's good for you, too, unlike the sugar-ladened candy. No prep required.
So? They're still cheaper than chips and a lot better for you.
In season vegetables are dirt cheap. If not frozen, prepared, mixed veggies are a couple dollars for 5-6 servings (no need to wash or cut!). Chicken is easy to find at <$3/lb, same with hamburger. Rice and beans are dollars per pound.
The real answer is, like most things that humans do that aren’t good for them (eat too much and end up obese, not exercise, not eat healthy, smoke, drink too much, not take medication or go to the doctor or dentist), is cheap, starchy food is just easier and lower effort.
Those things are cheap in the US now?
I know people who don't take their $4/month heart medication prescription and end up hospitalized.
I know people that when faced with the choice of walking around the block for exercise would rather watch Netflix despite their uncontrolled type 2 diabetes and doctor telling them exercise will keep their blood sugar under control.
In my examples this was a person who had a pre-existing dentist who already accepted their insurance - it was literally just the effort to go they couldn’t muster.
The $4 heart medicine was not insurance related. It was already in their medicine cabinet, they just couldn’t muster the energy to set a reminder to take it (or even take it if their spouse reminded them).
And the last one is purely the trade off between Netflix and a walk.
In my neighborhood, a wealthy liberal enclave called Marin County, preparing something paletable from raw ingredients is usually more expensive than cheap salty starchy food.
There are no cheap cuts of meat at my Safeway.
Most people are horrid cooks. They might think they can cook, but usually it's just awful. (Learning how to cook is not my point though.)
Poor people have huge problems, and cooking a nutritious meal is down on the priority scale.
Plus---for many poor people, the little bit of enjoyment is eating something that tastes good. I can see why the poor gravitate towards the lousy quick food.
(My all means I am poor. I don't eat crappy food though. I was a cook in my teens though. I'm glad I learned how to cook, but understand those that didn't.)