My Co-worker Is an Eldritch X! - Ch. 8.1 - The Residence (1)

[rmremail]

Yes, having to neglect the long term in favor of getting by in the short term, that is a mark of the poor and desperate. Knowing this principle doesn't mean they have any real choice about it.

Your misconception is that the poor have spare time to shop and cook. You've heard the saying "time is money"? Well for the poor the time-to-money exchange rate is not great and they are typically working 2 or 3 jobs.

And then there's the supply problems. Food preservation - fridge costs money, electricity costs money. Cooking - do they even have access to a cooktop, do they own pots and pans, do they even have space for these things?

A slightly higher up-front cost can be prohibitive. Read your Pratchett.

The biggest problem that poor people face in eating healthy / cooking for themselves is that there are NO supermarkets where they live.

You can't buy food & cook it yourself if the only store within 30 minutes travel time is a Quiky Mart.

Multiple studies have documented this (and linked it to obesity). The problem is especially pronounced in the US South, where often the only supermarket is an hour drive away.

 

[Jatopian]

The biggest problem that poor people face in eating healthy / cooking for themselves is that there are NO supermarkets where they live.

You can't buy food & cook it yourself if the only store within 30 minutes travel time is a Quiky Mart.

Multiple studies have documented this (and linked it to obesity). The problem is especially pronounced in the US South, where often the only supermarket is an hour drive away.

yes, the "food desert" issue, I should've mentioned that too

 

[Me]

Come on, who can say no to that cute face?

Spending her money on just cigarettes? I never thought I would see the Elma of nicotine.

I just hope she isn't still trying to smoke 500 at once via sliced-open coke bottles. Faster way to the grave than instant ramen, that's for sure.

 

[isoycrazy]

I just hope she isn't still trying to smoke 500 at once via sliced-open coke bottles. Faster way to the grave than instant ramen, that's for sure.

She did that once already and killed her previous temporary body.

 

[theShear]

Thought I throw in my 2.6 Bison dollar to the whole "Healthy and cheap eating" thing but one is having the energy for it. And I'm speaking from experience here.
When most of your waking hours are consumed by worry on how to pay the next bills and working a dead end job, preferably with some seriously piece of shite customers, then it's not about wanting that stuff but ... not being able to. You don't have the energy for anything at all, you come home, slump on the chair or couch and just ... do nothing because what remains is just a bunch of burned out duracells. So you grab something easy so you at least don't starve. If anything at all.
Getting out of that was frankly a herculean task and on a bad day I still sometimes go back to old habits (Which is annoying because I actually like cooking now).

 

[hypemanverg1l]

Now, we wait for her to realize she can bribe him with her body... or at least try lol

i hope he doesnt teach him that.

 

[vanCham]

God, the artwork from shitposting senpai in this manga is honestly gorgeous.
ABsolutely beautiful.

 

[Firestorm252]

True, the noodles are cheaper, but then there's the high risk of health consequences. Saving money on instant noodles seems like the better thing to do, but then there's the possibility of those cut costs returning later with a vengeance in the form of medical fees caused by living on a diet of mostly instant noodles.

Ideally, the money that you manage to scrunge up living on noodles you should invest along with some spare time into learning to cook for yourself. There's a lot of cheap dishes you could make in bulk so that they end up lasting for at least a week. Yeah the cost will be slightly higher, but in the long-term it'll be the better choice to prevent any possible health complications with just a slightly better diet and nutrition. And occasionally there's no harm in getting instant noodles every now and then as long as you balance it out with real food.

I see forward thinking.
You're not thinking poor enough. You need to go deeper than "possible improvement poor" we're talking like "systemic, multigenerational, socioeconomic trap poor".

And my family came from the bottom tier there, I can tell you that yes you have valid points. But also, no they straight up don't matter when food that day is optional.

Edit: for those that care, philippine slums. The churches would give us food sometimes and that's about it. My dad enlisting in the US Navy was the turning point. We were able to get out of it. Eventually immigrated stateside.
And it's why, despite all that's going on with America, I can't find it in me to be angry at Americans.

 

[huntercheco]

I read all her lines in my mind with Omi Minami's voice of Tama from Gintama's anime

 

[SonarJPG]

See you guys again in 3-4 months

 

[Me]

She did that once already and killed her previous temporary body.

Hence why I said "still"

 

[rfwhypratama]

If you're broke, it's cheaper to cook for yourself than to buy instant noodles, isn't it?

in my country cup noodle cheaper than simple meal,maybe different in other place tho

 

[Ropoloid]

She may be an eldritch monstrosity from a higher plane of existence, but the true cosmic horror here is the economy, as always.

Death and taxes.

 

[aheiekf]

True, the noodles are cheaper, but then there's the high risk of health consequences. Saving money on instant noodles seems like the better thing to do, but then there's the possibility of those cut costs returning later with a vengeance in the form of medical fees caused by living on a diet of mostly instant noodles.

Ideally, the money that you manage to scrunge up living on noodles you should invest along with some spare time into learning to cook for yourself. There's a lot of cheap dishes you could make in bulk so that they end up lasting for at least a week. Yeah the cost will be slightly higher, but in the long-term it'll be the better choice to prevent any possible health complications with just a slightly better diet and nutrition. And occasionally there's no harm in getting instant noodles every now and then as long as you balance it out with real food.

Speaking pragmatically, buying pots, pans, knives, utensils, bowls, containers, and pantry staples makes the initial investment cost far too high for most people living paycheck-to-paycheck.
You must also consider factors that might make it difficult to consider cooking in the first place, such as the lack of clean drinking water, no stovetop/oven, no refrigeration, etc.
most of these things are basic amenities that we may take for granted, but are neither guaranteed nor considered as necessary for people who are concerned only with surviving until the next day. At that point, they can no longer afford for health to be top priority, which is how they become trapped in the cycle of consuming cheap, ultra-processed and non-nutritional junk foods.

Beyond these economic factors there are also social factors as well. Cooking is a time-consuming activity requires a lot of trial and error to complement the initial monetary investment. Long work hours eat into the time and energy one could dedicate to cooking full meals, and cooking skills may diminish across generations as people rely more on quick pre-packaged foods (this is especially the case for families where poverty is a multi-generational issue (the poverty premium)).

I love to cook and rarely eat food that I haven’t personally prepared, but I also recognize the privileged position I am in as someone who grew up in a household where cooking was the norm. Most peoples’ living situations simply do not afford them that luxury, and it’s reductive to tell them to “just eat healthier” when the issue lies deeper than individual lifestyle choices.

 

[stone_god]

She is hungry

 

[Carn109]

Shes a crippling cigarette addict

 

[finalm]

I've never been in a position where I was so dirt poor I cant afford food, but I would have thought the cheapest thing at that point is just buying a bag of flour and making plain water and flour flatbread. Though I suppose you do need a flat metal and something other than a microwave oven heat source.

You can't live on carbs alone. Not long, anyway. Also, not many could psychologically withstand a diet of flatbread and whatever cheap veg you could get at a discount somewhere. Not while still having to scounge up the funds for even that.

 

[finalm]

The biggest problem that poor people face in eating healthy / cooking for themselves is that there are NO supermarkets where they live.

You can't buy food & cook it yourself if the only store within 30 minutes travel time is a Quiky Mart.

Multiple studies have documented this (and linked it to obesity). The problem is especially pronounced in the US South, where often the only supermarket is an hour drive away.

That problem isn't nearly as present in Europe, you can find a supermarket or smaller variant nearly on every street corner. Time and energy are still a major issues, due to likely juggling multiple gigs.

 

[AzrefReza]

1. Instant noodles are cheap as shit
2. Time is also a consideration when you're poor

And also @aheiekf, @D0ncoming5torm, @Jatopian, @rmremail, @theShear, @Firestorm252, @finalm. My two cents from someone who’s also known a time in my life when I didn’t have any revenue at all.

Leaving aside the case of food deserts, which I know exist but seem completely nuts to me, coming from a civilized country, and the mentions of Third World conditions where even clean water isn’t readily available, since you need clean water to make instant noodles, so the point is moot, I’d still say it’s cheaper to cook basic food yourself.

The absolute cheapest instant noodles I can find at my local store cost 62 cents. That’s for a 85g portion, which means you shouldn’t be too hungry… Most instant noodles are rather around 1,50 € per portion.

As a comparison, the cheapest available potatoes cost 66 cents per kilogram (note that we’re speaking supermarket prices, it’s usually cheaper if you have access to an open air market), aka 13 cents for one meal. Leek costs 1,50 € per kilogram, aka 15 cents per meal. And the cheapest available eggs cost 20 cents apiece (at that price, better not think about the living conditions of the hens, but well, when you’re hungry…). Which makes a decent, balanced meal for 48 cents.

Cooking-wise, you just have to put everything in hot water and wait for it to be edible. Slightly trickier, and it usually requires some kind of fat (oil or butter), but you can also put everything in a frying pan on low temperature with a cover and shuffle from time to time so it doesn’t attach. No need to be Master Chef to do that. (Note: if using the cheapest possible colza oil, we’re talking 2 cents to add to the global price.)

Utensil-wise, if you have access to what’s needed to cook instant noodles, you can make do. At the very worst, the cheapest available pan at my local store is 4,49 €.

And if you have the possibility to trade time for even cheaper food, there’s the option of buying wheat for animal consumption. That one beats absolutely everything: the 10 kilogram bag costs 9,90 €, which means you have a meal for literally one cent. And yes, it’s safe to eat, the “for animal consumption” just means you might still have bits of the twig or so alongside the actual grains, so it doesn’t meet the legal criteria for being fed to humans. The tradeoff is that the wheat is completely unprocessed, so you have to let it cook for 40-45 minutes before it’s edible.

 

[finalm]

And also @aheiekf, @D0ncoming5torm, @Jatopian, @rmremail, @theShear, @Firestorm252, @finalm. My two cents from someone who’s also known a time in my life when I didn’t have any revenue at all.

Leaving aside the case of food deserts, which I know exist but seem completely nuts to me, coming from a civilized country, and the mentions of Third World conditions where even clean water isn’t readily available, since you need clean water to make instant noodles, so the point is moot, I’d still say it’s cheaper to cook basic food yourself.

The absolute cheapest instant noodles I can find at my local store cost 62 cents. That’s for a 85g portion, which means you shouldn’t be too hungry… Most instant noodles are rather around 1,50 € per portion.

As a comparison, the cheapest available potatoes cost 66 cents per kilogram (note that we’re speaking supermarket prices, it’s usually cheaper if you have access to an open air market), aka 13 cents for one meal. Leek costs 1,50 € per kilogram, aka 15 cents per meal. And the cheapest available eggs cost 20 cents apiece (at that price, better not think about the living conditions of the hens, but well, when you’re hungry…). Which makes a decent, balanced meal for 48 cents.

Cooking-wise, you just have to put everything in hot water and wait for it to be edible. Slightly trickier, and it usually requires some kind of fat (oil or butter), but you can also put everything in a frying pan on low temperature with a cover and shuffle from time to time so it doesn’t attach. No need to be Master Chef to do that. (Note: if using the cheapest possible colza oil, we’re talking 2 cents to add to the global price.)

Utensil-wise, if you have access to what’s needed to cook instant noodles, you can make do. At the very worst, the cheapest available pan at my local store is 4,49 €.

And if you have the possibility to trade time for even cheaper food, there’s the option of buying wheat for animal consumption. That one beats absolutely everything: the 10 kilogram bag costs 9,90 €, which means you have a meal for literally one cent. And yes, it’s safe to eat, the “for animal consumption” just means you might still have bits of the twig or so alongside the actual grains, so it doesn’t meet the legal criteria for being fed to humans. The tradeoff is that the wheat is completely unprocessed, so you have to let it cook for 40-45 minutes before it’s edible.

No one really doubts that it's possible to survive for almost nothing. After all, people do that all the time around the most dire parts of the world. The issue is that it's survival, not living. You are trading most of your time, effort and energy in order to make it work, which means you have very little left to throw at actually trying to improve your situation. After all, even if you work several dead-end gigs, that likely won't allow you to save up any reasonable amount of money - what you do manage to save will be wiped out anytime an unexpected, necessary expense comes along and we all know they always do. In order to climb out you need to build up competences, which requires studying and learning skills. That means throwing time and money at it that you're already using to survive.