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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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
That's a great last sentence, I might start using.
Friend 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.
Cereals and milk, 20 seconds
Rice and beans, 20 minutes
You could make a big pot and eat that for a week. But that does require refrigeration, aka, electricity.
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.
I don't buy it. Basically no food spoils that fast, and the FDA does not echo that absurd recommendation: https://www.nifa.usda.gov/sites/default/files/resource/Preventing-Foodborne-Illness-Bacillus-cereus.pdf .The important thing is to cool the food quickly, which is true for all foods requiring refrigeration.
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.
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.
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.
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.