It's the same in the US. Fast food isn't really cheap when buying for a family compared to home cooked meals especially when you take leftovers into account. And if you meal prep you can prepare multiple meals at once and save time by not having to stop at a fast food restaurant all the time.

This post was edited by dark-soul on May 23 2020 02:42pm

Sure, if you spend the money on butter and olive oil and decent seasoning, which the potatoes and rice analysis I see never do.

This post was edited by Thor123422 on May 23 2020 02:46pm

ill be honest though, there are affordable options to eat healthy. asia is an example of this. Example; india, there are a ton of poor areas there who live off a simple vegetarian diet. lentils, beans, legumes are accessible and not overly expensive. the problem is that meat is too damn good lol

driving through fast food takes practically zero time. There's always one right on the way of wherever you are going.

buying, cooking, storing and cleaning dishes takes an immense amount of time by comparison.

This post was edited by Kayeto on May 23 2020 03:18pm

You don’t have to cook every night though. Cleaning up is annoying but not an issue especially if you have a dishwasher so it’s just a few pots or pans to wash a few times per week. If you don’t have a dishwasher it’s more work but still not a big deal. On the nights you would have to cook it would obviously take more time than stopping and picking up food that night but you end up saving money cooking at home and you’ll have a healthier diet so it’s worth the effort especially if money is tight.

This post was edited by dark-soul on May 23 2020 03:27pm

not disagreeing with you on any of those points, just on the time issue

drive through: 3-5minutes

going into a grocery store: 20minutes
cooking: 30minutes

Even if we discount the cleanup/storage aspects, doing drive thru fast food is still a major time saver

grocery store: 30 minutes once per week
cooking: 10 minutes per meal on average if you sometimes prepare several portions at once.

total time per week: 100 minutes
drive through total time per week: 35-50 minutes

there's a difference, but it's not the world.

maybe if its one adult, prepping food for just himself

if its a family, your numbers are way off. and you didn't even count the storage/cleanup aspects, which i was leaving off just to be generous

This post was edited by Kayeto on May 23 2020 04:22pm

Just buy good quality prepared salads ...

Too expensive for really poor families. Those prepared salads are more a thing for yuppies.