"You can feed 4 people on $300 a month.
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@sinvega @melindrea @artemis When you come home and you feel half dead, you don't want to spend an hour or more preparing a picture perfect healthy meal. You just want something for fuel so you can crawl into bed and pass out.
@gwynnion @melindrea @artemis home at 9, maybe 10, up at 6, not seen a friend for years and wouldn't have time or money to. Sure, I definitely have the capacity to cook because of all the time I magically had at the weekend to plan and cook a week in advance, in between dragging shit home from the supermarket I can afford for 40 minutes each way and cleaning the house and trying to make up for the sleep disorder all weekend
just no fucking clue, these cunts
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"You can feed 4 people on $300 a month. In this video, I will show you how to make a thin rice gruel..."
(The first sentence is really from a real person. The second is what I assume came next)
@artemis In the UK the inevitably right-wing politicians who used to do the loud public media saying "you should live on gruel if poor" could never complete a week living on social security level payments as part of an 'experiment' and that test-poverty was before the "social security agency fucks up your money roulette" or "something breaks down". Usually they quit after 2 days when they spent all the money on stupid shit and had a massive tantrum.
And worse, still promote their gruel-media.
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Suppose you *could* through constant labor, strenuous planning, & deprivation manage to feed yourself & your family on a tiny budget, that would still be extreme poverty.
I hate that people who aren't in poverty try to explain to those who are "no, really, you can survive. You just need to find a way to suffer a little more."
The problem is not a lack of ingenuity & creativity. The problem is poverty. No one should have to struggle every moment of every day just to live.
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That little boy and his shaming attitude about poverty fucking enraged me. I studied home economics. This kid can fuck all the way off back to his green smoothies and yoga class.
Farming While Beige did a short about this, called iirc Stop telling poor people to be better at being poor, and he explained all of the time, prep work and storage capacity you would have to have to come even close to this milquetoast shitposter’s numbers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXTF61r-RT4
Grrrrrr! Infuriating.
An excellent video. Beans and rice are staple foods but like the man says 80 cents per meal is not a lot of money.
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@artemis Oscar Wilde, a fuckin rich man, got it:
"Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less. For a town or country labourer to practise thrift would be absolutely immoral. Man should not be ready to show that he can live like a badly-fed animal."
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@gwynnion @melindrea @artemis I need my oven junk because I am fuckin disabled and poor as shit and tired.
I remember some tosser online, when I was travelling for 30+ hours a week to work, lecturing people on "you can make lots of pizza bases and freeze them" and like... oh yeah? so then my section of the freezer is full and I can't eat anything else and I have to fuck around with a half frozen half fresh pizza every night? Or maybe you should shut the hell up about lives that are way way harder than yours"
like yeah actually, I CAN make pizzas. And yes, I am aware many cheap frozen ones are garbage. But they are cheap and they do not take 20 extra tasks or require a fucking schedule, or rely on the randos I live with not stealing shit
I fucking hate the comfortable.I want to rub sand in their eyes
I always thought that about Jamie Oliver and his "you can make chicken nuggets for your children at home"
If you have loads of time, completely defeating the point. If you have time to make chicken nuggets you'd make them something else.
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I always thought that about Jamie Oliver and his "you can make chicken nuggets for your children at home"
If you have loads of time, completely defeating the point. If you have time to make chicken nuggets you'd make them something else.
@Printdevil @sinvega @gwynnion @melindrea @artemis this is something that really pisses me off with a lot of the budget cooking recommendations stuff. What if you only have 30 mins between shifts? What if all you have to cook on is a single hot plate? This is why I really like Jack Monroe's books. They lived on an incredibly low income and understand what it's like. Their book "tin can cooks" is useful for esp food bank users who often get stuff in tins.
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@Printdevil @sinvega @gwynnion @melindrea @artemis this is something that really pisses me off with a lot of the budget cooking recommendations stuff. What if you only have 30 mins between shifts? What if all you have to cook on is a single hot plate? This is why I really like Jack Monroe's books. They lived on an incredibly low income and understand what it's like. Their book "tin can cooks" is useful for esp food bank users who often get stuff in tins.
The "Sad Bastard's Cookbook: Food you can make so you don't die" is a good book for people without the energy to put food together.
But also like, don't want to die from it.
https://traumbooks.itch.io/the-sad-bastard-cookbook
(edit to include link to the book)
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@AldinTheMage @TheTenuousOrder
Oh my god, this encapsulates so much.@artemis @AldinTheMage nevermind thousands of years of east Asians having rice just fine, popsci has decided eating rice in place of (food that will be next year's boogyman) will make you instantly reenact Weird Al - Fat
- Victoria
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@Printdevil @sinvega @gwynnion @melindrea @artemis this is something that really pisses me off with a lot of the budget cooking recommendations stuff. What if you only have 30 mins between shifts? What if all you have to cook on is a single hot plate? This is why I really like Jack Monroe's books. They lived on an incredibly low income and understand what it's like. Their book "tin can cooks" is useful for esp food bank users who often get stuff in tins.
@quixoticgeek @Printdevil @gwynnion @melindrea @artemis I remember people giving them shit for saying if you have no can opener you can use a knife. Because "you could injure yourself!" and "you can gert a can opner for a pound!"
No, YOU can. IF you live somewhere that sells one (and it actually works and doesn't disintegrate) and IF you have time to find it and IF you can spare a pound, when the entire fucking point of the book was that not everyone can
I had opened several cans with a knife. Yes you could get hurt if you did it wrong but guess fucking what poverty means about how many options you have, and how many risks you're forced to take
Condescending, smug arseholes attacking someone actually trying to help, instead of just clout farm
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@quixoticgeek @Printdevil @gwynnion @melindrea @artemis I remember people giving them shit for saying if you have no can opener you can use a knife. Because "you could injure yourself!" and "you can gert a can opner for a pound!"
No, YOU can. IF you live somewhere that sells one (and it actually works and doesn't disintegrate) and IF you have time to find it and IF you can spare a pound, when the entire fucking point of the book was that not everyone can
I had opened several cans with a knife. Yes you could get hurt if you did it wrong but guess fucking what poverty means about how many options you have, and how many risks you're forced to take
Condescending, smug arseholes attacking someone actually trying to help, instead of just clout farm
@sinvega @Printdevil @gwynnion @melindrea @artemis
Am I right in thinking that resulted in lots of people donating tin openers to food banks ?
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@quixoticgeek @Printdevil @gwynnion @melindrea @artemis I remember people giving them shit for saying if you have no can opener you can use a knife. Because "you could injure yourself!" and "you can gert a can opner for a pound!"
No, YOU can. IF you live somewhere that sells one (and it actually works and doesn't disintegrate) and IF you have time to find it and IF you can spare a pound, when the entire fucking point of the book was that not everyone can
I had opened several cans with a knife. Yes you could get hurt if you did it wrong but guess fucking what poverty means about how many options you have, and how many risks you're forced to take
Condescending, smug arseholes attacking someone actually trying to help, instead of just clout farm
@sinvega I thought part of the issue was that they were also offering tips on how to make things like biscuit cutters with that can cut open with a knife, when a better solution might have been drop biscuits or cookies.
But in general it was clear that Monroe got a lot more heat because they were also antipoverty advocates. And not a man.
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Suppose you *could* through constant labor, strenuous planning, & deprivation manage to feed yourself & your family on a tiny budget, that would still be extreme poverty.
I hate that people who aren't in poverty try to explain to those who are "no, really, you can survive. You just need to find a way to suffer a little more."
The problem is not a lack of ingenuity & creativity. The problem is poverty. No one should have to struggle every moment of every day just to live.
@artemis I live on a relatively frugal diet--legumes and produce--and I know where to get inexpensive produce (everyone in Boston knows about Haymarket). But I *enjoy* the shopping and cooking and reading cookbooks, and I have the time. I would never tell someone who was food insecure to follow my lead because I know what it is to be shamed.
But I would happily share food I cooked with someone else in need. And if that gave them a little space in their budget and time, I'd be thrilled.
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Suppose you *could* through constant labor, strenuous planning, & deprivation manage to feed yourself & your family on a tiny budget, that would still be extreme poverty.
I hate that people who aren't in poverty try to explain to those who are "no, really, you can survive. You just need to find a way to suffer a little more."
The problem is not a lack of ingenuity & creativity. The problem is poverty. No one should have to struggle every moment of every day just to live.
@artemis It's similar to the argument that one person overcame poverty and huge odds to become successful so everyone should be able to do the same.
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"You can feed 4 people on $300 a month. In this video, I will show you how to make a thin rice gruel..."
(The first sentence is really from a real person. The second is what I assume came next)
@artemis I bet someone could if they have a lot of available gardening/farming land, plenty of spoons and free time for labor, *and* live somewhere they can get seeds and gardening/hunting supplies for free or cheap. Sucks that not all of us have *any* of those privileges, let alone all (personally I do have the last one, but it doesn't do much for me without land or time/spoons), but I bet whoever you're quoting either does or simply isn't getting enough nutrition
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@TheTenuousOrder @artemis a real conversation someone had with my wife recently went like:
Person: How can you afford to feed a family of four these days?
Wife: We eat a lot of cheap one pot meals like beans and rice and pasta
Person: Oh that's not good for you, those really pack on the weight
And of course, that person did not volunteer to supply us with fresh produce and whatever else they imagine we should be eating
@AldinTheMage @TheTenuousOrder @artemis eating the food you can afford? I don't see how that's economically viable
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"You can feed 4 people on $300 a month. In this video, I will show you how to make a thin rice gruel..."
(The first sentence is really from a real person. The second is what I assume came next)
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@artemis one of my absolute pet peeves in "budget friendly cooking" is that there are *very* few I've seen that aren't coming from a perspective of privilege.
They go "oh, this meal only costs $5 if we count that you use a tablespoon of milk" ... but you can't buy a tablespoon of milk. You need to buy a whole carton.
They often assume that you have a bunch of things at home already, some decently reasonable (hopefully all have basic salt and pepper), but some that ... aren't (several different types of oil, including olive oil; onions, potatoes, carrots ...)
They go "oh, but you save so much money if you buy dried beans and then cook them yourself!" ... but don't think about the fact that boiling them for a long time takes electricity, and you can't just leave them on the stove while you go out and work to actually make a living.
And that is the final point: saving money by shopping at half a dozen different places (which takes time) and making things from scratch (which also takes time), completely ignoring that a lot of people are poor *despite working far more than full time*. So they don't have the time to do this.
@melindrea @artemis I also can't usually shop at multiple places (or I'll shop one place and then somewhere else next time I urgently need food) because gas is fucking expensive, and public transit takes forever and is also expensive for anyone who doesn't want to risk not being allowed on it again. It's only worth it for someone who can do $5 and several hours for transportation (in a city with a "good" bus system) and buy enough to actually save more money than $5+hours they could be working
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@gwynnion @Kalshann @artemis The best I've ever felt was when I was doing a low carb/high fat diet ... but at this point, my spouse and I can't do it, because we don't have the energy it takes. Every single meal and snack needed to be made almost from scratch. You could count on not being able to get anything at restaurant or whatnots that fit that, etc, and don't even think about frozen foods >.<
@melindrea @gwynnion @Kalshann @artemis the best I've ever felt was doing a gluten free, plant based, primarily whole foods diet. Without financial aid *and* the SNAP of someone counted as making $0, that now seems utterly laughable. I have family members with celiac who've even given up on the gluten free part; the only reason I haven't tried that is that I can't afford risking 2 weeks off work, nor a wheelchair-accessible apartment
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"You can feed 4 people on $300 a month. In this video, I will show you how to make a thin rice gruel..."
(The first sentence is really from a real person. The second is what I assume came next)
@artemis It would really depend on location, which would affect prices, and how much variety you wanted. Also, plant-based meals are cheaper than meat. Lentils, beans, are protein and fibre. Chilis, pastas, Indian food…
