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A lot of people here are missing the fact that cereal doesn’t require any additional cost, time, and/or effort to store and prepare (in a desperate situation you might even have it with water or dry if you can’t access milk).
So while rice or potatoes might be a better meal, and the ingredients cheaper to buy (but not when you factor in cost and time of cooking), they may still not be an option for some.
For those who have never really been it - it’d blow your mind how expensive it is to be poor in so many different ways (a feature of capitalism, of course, not a bug).
Yeah, that is an excellent point. The time to actually prepare rice and beans comes at a premium when you’re working multiple jobs to make ends meet.
I don’t want to sound unsympathetic, but rice takes 15-20 mins in the microwave (if done right it’s perfectly fine) so it’s just seconds of button pressing and then walk away to do whatever else you need to and I buy canned beans that are already cooked so all you need to do is reheat them.
The hardest part for some is learning not to hate eating leftovers. I never had this issue so it comes easier to me, but my easy weekly meal (it’s just me so it’s simpler) is canned vegetables, canned beans, and a chicken breast all the the slow cooker with some basic seasoning. I can add whatever I want afterwards to change the flavors so it’s not always the “same.” I really don’t spend any time over an oven unless I want to.
All that said I imagine this gets 100000x harder when kids are involved, but luckily for me I’m pretty much the least desirable man on earth so I don’t need to worry about procreation lol
15-20 minutes is a long time when you have a 30-minute gap between your two jobs.
I just do it once a week and make a bunch, but if you’re working 2 jobs 7 days a week then yeah just about anything is too much :(
I’ve been there and it almost killed me. It wasn’t money that got me (that much), but the lack of time and sleep. I’d live by vending machine junk and naps in the car between jobs.
Right, that’s why fast food is thriving despite everyone knowing what shit it is - it fills a hole fast and cheap enough, and you’re not using any of your own energy - physically from the utility, but also physically, and mentally, from yourself to prepare it (and before that you have to refrigerate ingredients or keep them frozen so you have to own and pay to run a fridge/freezer as well as an oven or toaster or hob, and before that you have to shop for ingredients, it all takes money, time, and energy of every kind).
The problem isn’t how people go about trying to survive (like eating cereal for dinner), it’s the people making billions off of the industries and institutions that require workers be in such a desperate state in the first place.
Beans from a can, champignons from a glass, bit of corn from a can. Put it on a tortilla with a bit of salsa for flavor. I add some flax seeds cause they are supposed to be good for your intestinal health. Obviously this tastes better when you take some time to prepare it in a pan, but it’s cheap, very filling and takes a few minutes to prepare at most. I like to eat it cold on hot summer days.
You can get a rice cooker for $20. Then, you can make rice and beans (with beans from a can) with virtually no effort.
You can also go from there if you have more time/money. Add cheese, hot sauce, salsa, avocado, make tacos, etc.
But I’ve survived many a meal with just rice from a rice cooker and a can of beans, and it’s far more nutritious and has left me feeling far better than eating cereal would.
Cereals and milk, 20 seconds
Rice and beans, 20 minutes
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no food spoils that fast.
It’s not about food spoiling. It’s about multiplying bacterial spores that have survived the cooking process.
That link doesn’t focus on rice specifically. And the FDA doesn’t have a great reputation. I’d rather trust a source with an active interest in illness prevention.
My wife has been telling me this and I find it really upsetting. Like what am I supposed to use for stir-fry? Good, damn… fresh? steaming rice?? 🤢
Yeah. You need rice that has lost all it’s steam vapour.
Good news. You can freeze rice for up to 6 months. Just portion it and let the water escape before freezing.
so does milk, unless you’re talking cereal with water. If you go that way within about a month you’ll have started eating your muscles.
You can get a rice cooker for $20
If you need $20 dollars spare as the first step, and to continue to use electricity to power the thing as the second - it isn’t accessible. Also - did it even cross your mind that if they could afford it, they would get one? It’s not like rice cookers are this secret tool only a select few know about…
Seriously, I get that it can be hard to imagine conditions we haven’t personally experienced, but it can’t be that hard to understand what “dirt poor” actually means, nor to accept that poor people aren’t poor by choice, nor are they surviving on cereals because they have better options they’re just not utilising as well as you think you would in their shoes, which you are not, and clearly have never been, in.
A box of cereal is like $6 and all sugar. It will provide 3-4 bowls of cereal for that price, with no actual nutrition. If you can afford a box of cereal a day, you can live on instant noodles instead for like 3 days and have the 20 for a brand new rice cooker. Or just go to the thrift store.
Cereal is not a poor person food. It is not nutritious, cheap, or filling. It is an expensive box of sugar. I get that it can be hard to imagine conditions we haven’t personally experienced, but it can’t be THAT hard to do basic math and put yourself in that situation for one second to understand that eating cereal for every meal is not cheap or sustainable.
Is there a word for mansplaining to poor people? Because that’s how that came off.
nah I’ve been eating from bins poor and you can also just eat beans from the can cold. I’m not saying you’ll love life but you can survive around a year before serious deficiencies and it’s much much much cheaper per calorie than cereal.
Importantly it also has proteins so you can actually keep working/moving around etc. You can basically only sell your body (begging, stealing, sex work, or labor) at that point so you need it to work.
Rice is bulk and calories but stale bread from supermarket bins is free and can be eaten cold. Steal bolt cutters from the back of a car at a job site and you’re golden for getting into supermarket bins.
I didn’t even grow to that poor, but knew people who ate worse just because the battle of everyday life took every last ounce of gumption they had.
Luckily my ma knew about food and cooking, so we did alright, but I had a lot of little friends who were totally totally lost when it came to feeding themselves.
Hell right now I know middle aged men pulling six figures who are hurting nutritionally, and it’s like impossible to educate them to a better way to take care of themselves, despite money not actually being an issue
Yeah, I guess I was lucky in some ways because my family coming from Polish invasion survivors meant that I was raised with a strong emphasis on healthy peasant food. My grandparents in particularly always made sure we ate heartily, so when I was on my own for a bit and had to survive I knew that I needed crap like veggie stews and not instant noodles.
When I went to uni it was baffling sneaking in to the student accomodation to visit my girlfriend and seeing rich kids with literal fucking scurvy and shopping carts full of pasta and mince + instant noodles. Like friends, please eat a carrot.
Nah it’s like $4 max or you go with generic, and it sure as shit is more then 3-4 bowls lmfao
Even generics are more expensive than that now a days. It’s like 5 plus taxes for the small box or generics.
Thanks for assuming a ton there, asshole.
I have been there. I have scraped together coins I could find to buy a single pound of dry pasta, to eat it plain. Repeatedly.
Money is not such an issue for me these days, but depression is. I know how hard it can be to do the minimal steps to make food.
I understand how precious time, money, and energy can be. I have eaten cereal and the like for plenty of meals I shouldn’t have, and have always regretted it.
There are better options.
A $20 rice cooker is the same as like 5 boxes of cereal. If you are too money pressed, but have some time, one can likely be found nearly free at a thrift store or yard sale, or you can cook rice or pasta in a pot instead.
If you don’t have access to a cooking surface, we’re getting to houselessness territory, which is a huge problem and is affecting far too many people, but is beyond just being poor or not having time.
Edit: And if all that is too much, you can eat cold beans from a can. I have done this as well. It’s not great, but it’s a better option than cereal still.
I’m happy that no matter how bad things were for you that you had the wherewithal to feed yourself properly. It doesn’t sound like you’ve experienced a lot of privilege, but that is one area where you can count yourself fortunate.
Similarly, I’ve been homeless but I always made sure that I could get some food into me somewhere. Usually shelters, soup kitchens, food banks
That’s $20 brand new. If you get it used you can find some either for free or next to nothing. I don’t think it’s a cost thing, I think it’s an accessibility thing.
Also, Kellogg isn’t a budget cereal brand. If you’re so poor you can’t afford a few dollars for a ride cooker then you shouldn’t be buying Kellogg. Actually, nobody should be buying Kellogg because it’s all the same cereal except for marketing.
Mine was a slow cooker with lentils and I would just refill as needed. Lentils, salt, pepper, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro and if I’m feeling fancy/rich cook up some bacon to chuck in there. Minus the bacon it took like 5 minutes to chuck everything in there and leave it to cook. This was my poor college days where I just rented a room and had a part time job. Shit sucked.
Yeah I know!
Not enough money to pay your bill it will cost you 75-90$ for being broke.
You buy small portions cause you can’t afford bulk, it will cost you more in small portions.
You are alone ! No family rebate for you. You can’t buy a home, well rent will cost you more than a mortgage.
Etc…
Related: Sam Vimes ‘Boots’ Theory of Socio-Economic Unfairness
https://terrypratchett.com/explore-discworld/sam-vimes-boots-theory-of-socio-economic-unfairness/
It’s also depression food. If you don’t find the energy to make one simple warm meal a day, and that can be as simple as melted cheese or pancakes or an omelette, you don’t have a time problem you have a psychological problem.
I can count my lucky stars my income level never dipped below the rice-and-beans povery level, but it has dipped below cereal made by Kellogs and General Mills. They’re a false product like Nestlē baby formula as sold in Africa. They are expensive by the ounce and poor nutrition.
But if you are that dirt poor and have a 60 hour job then you may not have the time or energy to make rice. You’re also stuck in bonded servitude. That is a profound level of fucked.
Pilnick is celebrating selling desperation food at inflated prices to slaves.
I’m right there with you. Beans, rice, potatoes, and the occasional pasta dish. Whatever vegetables were inexpensive, and whatever meat was on manager’s special or BOGO. I did eventually figure out that inexpensive tofu could be purchased in bulk at some asian grocery stores, but by then I was on my way off the struggle diet.
At one point, it was clear that stuff like “hamburger helper” was too expensive, and going after raw seasoning ingredients and pasta was going to save a substantial part of the shopping bill. Boxed cereal was also out of the question.
Edit: energy costs (electricity) were bundled into my rent at the time. I don’t even want to think about how to navigate that situation by paying for butane, propane, or natural gas on top of everything else.
a boring dystopia
late stage capitalism
Anyway poor people don’t buy Kellogg’s, it’s overpriced. Poor people buy the generic cereals that come in those huge plastic ziplock resealable bags. Not only do they cost less but they have more intelligent useful packaging and the quality is fine too.
Almost every MaltOMeal cereal is better than the name brand version.
True. The really poor people buy the off brand Malt-O-Meal cereals.
Maybe the true cereals are the poor people we made along the way.
That’s a profound statement, EdibleFriend.
I am as wise as I am delicious.
I buy malt-o-meal raisin bran. I like the large quantity yet minimal packaging, and I really like that it has the right amount of raisins. Kellogg’s puts too much raisins in theirs.
Meanwhile Rocket Mortgage over here telling me to refinance my house so I can afford groceries . . .
Weren’t corn flakes invented to suppress the urge to masturbate with their blandness or something?
I miss the days when psychologists thought everyone was obsessed with banging their parents and cocaine basically solves all your problems.
That or a yogurt enema and some chaste thoughts, too bad for Kellogg that’s what I’m into.
Yeah seems like some yogurt squirting up there might be something at least a few people are into.
Also prescribing orgasms!
I mean, hot.
Was literally the standard treatment for hysteria. So much so that the vibrator was invented as a labor saving device for doctors.
Yeah, there was like a whole movement of “doctors” who recommended bland food to suppress masturbation, which would supposedly make you healthier.
That’s also how we got Graham crackers.
Yes. That’s right, but only in a clinical context when they were first invented.
huh what?
Look up John Harvey Kellogg sometime. Dude was the Gwyneth Paltrow of his day.
Makes sense since his cereal turns to goop after being in contact with milk for like three seconds
Except for the part where he was all about keeping your goop in.
Dr Kellogg’s whole thing was trying to prevent masturbation for health reasons. Advocated a super bland diet to avoid anything at all stimulating. Corn flakes were invented as part of that.
Graham crackers were invented by one of his contemporaries for the same reason.
Kellogg is also the reason why routine circumcision became a thing in the US to start with (circumcision reduces sensation, he thought the reduced sensation would prevent masturbation while not reducing it so far that it prevented reproduction), and tradition and the uses of human foreskin in the biotech and cosmetic industries help keep it going.
Just be glad his treatment for girls meant to be akin to circumcising boys never took off. Which was burning the clitoris with acid to scar it and reduce sensation.
You read that right
that’s not what i use it for 👀
In what country is Kellog’s cereal affordable to cash strapped families
I assume they also own a bunch of the budget brands.
I remembered being poor early in my life and eating cereal with water. Reading this shit makes me hate this man even more than I thought I could.
Don’t do this, you’ll be malnourished. Grains aren’t a particularly good food group.
Potatoes don’t require much prep, are generally cheap and filling, and will be much better nutrient wise. I’d still recommend rice and beans though. Canned beans work if you have no means to cook.
I seem to remember there being issues historically with poor people relying on potatoes as their food source
A lot of that was also the British taking Irish food supplies.
No way. The British would never take anything from someone else
It is not stealing if you declared it your land 50 years ago.
Yeah being on the genocide list of the English had more to do with that than the taters
(Note to the reader: they can be boiled, mashed, or simply added without ceremony to a pre-existing stew)
Beans are cheaper dry than canned though. If you have the patience you can start them in a slow cooker before you go to work.
Garlic, onion, and peppers go miles in making beans taste good while also being cheaper.
I’m wondering now though whether the cost balances out because dry beans require a lot more energy to cook? I know they need at least an hour on the stove, whereas canned beans you can just add to a chilli etc straight away
This can also be mitigated a lot by cooking the beans in the morning mor a short time, packing the pan into a lot of blankets and then cooking it shortly in the evening.
Most likely, dry ones would still turn out cheaper because they weigh much more after hydration. But this is indeed a matter to consider
Pressure cooker is the way for dry foods. Mine will do split peas lentils and mung bean stew in 12 mins.
If you are poor, a pressure cooker is out of reach if you don’t already have one.
How poor are we talking? I just found a pressure cooker for $25 on Amazon.
Poor where we are talking about saving cents on buying canned beans vs dry beans because it makes a difference.
When you go in debt every month to just survive, every cent count.
I would definitely indebt myself of 25$, but I am in a situation where I don’t need to, so it is easy to say. I don’t know what that reality is.
Fair, but it’s also the kind of thing that can be found for very cheap/free if you don’t mind second hand
I am not aware of the second hand market where you are, but it’s hard to find deals here and if you find one, you gotta be fast.
But that’s a fair point. It depends on where you are I guess.
I think time to cook food has become a luxry in the eyes of the so-called “invisible hand”. It’d be rad to find someone in the community with the time to cook huge pots of the stuff and pay them for the rice 'n beans.
Cereal is expensive, people arent buying it because its cheap, theyre buying it because the invisible hand demands their cooking time.
Oh yeah and don’t go calling it a restraunt, cause thats fucking expensive too.
Potatoes are also really easy to grow. If you ever forget about your potatoes and they sprout or you leave them in the sun and they get green, you can put them in a pot and grow fresh potatoes.
Fava beans are also extremely easy to grow.
“Fava beans are also extremely easy to grow”
They also pair nicely with liver and a nice chianti.
I recommend starting with the CEO of Kellogg.
Hannibal ante portas est!
can they grow in an apartment?
Potatoes grow well in shade. Fava beans can grow in containers just fine, but may need a balcony. I would also get a short variety. A lot of things can grow in a window sill.
There’s also guerilla gardening, where you plant on an abandoned plot. Potatoes are great for this because they’ll basically grow on their own as long as they aren’t overtaken by blackberries.
Potatoes don’t require much prep
You have to peel and cook them, though. That’s a pretty big hurdle for people who would consider regularly eating cereal for dinner.
I do like instant mashed potatos, though, and they’re fairly cheap.
I’m talking people on survival mode, as I mentioned at the end of my very short comment just eat canned beans from the tin with no facilities to cook. Also you don’t need to peel potatoes, you can microwave them also, or bury in a fire if you don’t have electricity and are using one for heat.
Cereal is a scam, it’s expensive and nutritionally pointless.
You don’t have to peel them. Just slice them and fry them or bake them in an oven.
Rice often contains too much heavy mettals. Canned food contains too much BPA.
that’s probably why most recipes ask to wash rice before boiling… im certain this works great… if your house’s water-pipes were not made of lead hahaha…haha… sigh ._.
I think that’s mostly to wash the excess starches off of the rice.
it does leech out (some) arsenic though.
“ The PBA method involves parboiling the rice in pre-boiled water for five minutes before draining and refreshing the water, then cooking it on a lower heat to absorb all the water.”
This was the only information provided about the method in the article. I do the same thing with quinoa to make it less bitter, guess I’ll start doing it with rice too.
My understanding is that this is related to whether it’s American grown in fields previously used for cotton and other non-food crops due to pesticides… foreign rice should be ok?
at least it’s going to be foreign pesticides
Not a good thing either haha… as an American, I don’t think our farmers are purposely poisoning the rice, but may not understand the pesticides in the soil from decades ago can still fuck people up now.
The thing that everyone ITT seems to be forgetting is that while yes making rice or beans or something similar can be cheap and also very filling. When someone is working 40+ hours a week at multiple jobs to keep a roof over their heads, depression is inevitable. Living paycheck to paycheck is stressful, anxiety inducing, and depressing. So when someone is exhausted and depressed, sometimes all they have the energy for is to pour a bowl of cereal, because anything beyond that is just too much.
I’m more or less in the situation you describe, but I don’t find rice and beans to be particularly stressful.
Part of that is that I do cheat with canned beans instead of making them from dry.
But rice is pretty much get home, start rice, go pee, get out of work clothes, curse my existence, and boom, rice is done.
I’m not in the financial situation you describe. I can afford better food. But better food does take effort that I don’t want to put in after twelve to fourteen hour days. I’m way too tired to be bothered with chopping and prepping. In slower times of the year, I’ll do that in Sunday for the whole week, but in these busier times, I can’t even get to that.
Yes, cereal is bad. Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, it’s unhealthy. But what many people here are forgetting: There is a whole industry advertising cereal as a healthy breakfast (and now apparently dinner). You go into a supermarket and it is full of colourful boxes telling you what an awesome meal cereal is. Potatoes don’t have that. There is no TV ad for potatoes. And yes, cereal tastes great, because of the sugar.
People are broke and broken. They don’t care anymore and settle for sugar frosted cardboard for dinner. This guy is up there smiling and thinking “all this misery is great for business!”
Lol. We should just skip straight to calorie pellets at this point
They would be even more expensive than cereal because they would upcharge for the convenience of not having to pour cereal into a bowl.
Every time I’ve eaten cereal for dinner, it was never because it was cheap. I’ve always had cheaper and healthier alternatives. Cereal for dinner isn’t a poverty meal, it’s a poor mental health meal.
Yeah, but being poor and overworked will also kill your mental health, so…
Bruh
Hey guys, I have an idea. Let’s go punch him in the cock.
And twist his nuts!
I’ll get my gloves
You have cock punching gloves? Also your username is only raising more questions.
Doesn’t everybody?
I would eat vanilla-flavored sugar for every meal if my body’d be down for it
How long until French Revolution 2: Electric Boogaloo?
I’ll ask Madame Guillotine if she is up for another round.
I ain’t playing. too many morons. I don’t want a bunch of fucking morons deciding how the next constitution looks. now if it was just you and me messing with it? meh we’d probably fuck up tooooo, my lil portabello
