• RBWells@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I live close to work, and have never lived alone - but living close to economic opportunities costs more, not less. Not having to drive saves some money, sure, but probably not enough to make up for the difference in housing cost.

    Cooking from scratch at home is more a quality of life thing, I do that so we can eat well & reasonably healthy. The more money we make, the more I cook from ingredients. Have a garden now, even - it’s a luxury of having space for one, not a cost saving measure.

    Nothing you can do on the expense side will ever make up for the depressed wages - productivity and costs have increased much faster than pay, and nobody can save their way out of that.

    • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      For real, I’m always impressed when home cooks can get it done cheaper than restaurants (who are buying ingredients at wholesale, cook everything in batches, etc). Most can’t. People look at me like I’m crazy when I say this, but there’s a reason working class people get so much takeout: it’s cheaper than cooking, when you factor in the time spent cooking.

      • RBWells@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        Yes. Say you make $20 an hour and can get a takeout meal for $20 or ingredients for $15 and cook for an hour to make something better and healthier. I enjoy cooking, and am in a multi income household, but if you need to maximize work hours to make it, better to spend more time on what you are good at & pays the most.

    • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Cooking from scratch at home is more a quality of life thing, I do that so we can eat well

      again for people who weren’t listening. most of my fun money goes into more expensive, higher quality foods or recipe experiments.