Counting the Cost of Convenience

The Dollar Stretcher put out a really good article last year on the cost and absurdities of convenience. The original story link here: http://www.stretcher.com/stories/05/05oct24b.cfm

In it, the author mentions pre-washed and pre-peeled onions, individually wrapped potatoes for sale one at a time, pre-marinated chicken breasts, single-serving frozen dinners, and microwave popcorn. She also mentions how much we pay in convenience for these items relative to their normal cost when prepared in manual mode—usually about three times as much.

I’d like to add to her list of food lunacy, and some for different reasons:

• “French” carrots—you know, those stubby little finger-sized carrot pieces all in a bag, ready for snacking? They’re not really French at all—just picked early. I’ve seen French carrots, and they don’t differ from our carrots.

• Bagged salads—c’mon, when did cutting up lettuces get to be so daunting a task?

• Pre-cut fruits in plastic trays—again, when did cutting up your own fruit become such a chore?

• Individual packets of oatmeal—what, a scoop out of the big round Quaker box isn’t good enough for ya?

• Containerized ramen in all forms—this stuff is suicide for sodium content anyway, so why not make REAL soup?

• Hamburger Helper—you can buy a pound of ground beef, a can of tomato sauce, and a cup of pasta and STILL come out with more food than these boxes make, and be a lot healthier to boot!

• Chicken wings, legs, and necks—unless you purposely buy these cuts for soup-making, they are not the best bargain per serving when it comes to meat cost.

• Boxed cake mixes and frostings—you can’t bring yourself to measure out some flour, sugar, and a few wet ingredients? As for the frosting, it couldn’t be easier—powdered sugar, water, and some vanilla flavoring.

• The worst offender—Campbell’s Soup to Go. Apparently opening a can and heating it up are now beyond the skill level of modern humans.

The list goes on, but I’m making myself nauseous just looking at it. If you have THAT kind of time crunch, then maybe you need to go on a doctor-supervised all-liquid diet (a feeding tube). Those cans of Boost and Ensure are even quicker yet to peel open and drink. If you insist on wasting your money in the name of convenience, I’d rather you did it in a semi-healthful and less lunatic way.

Don’t forget that this all creates that wonderful “cha-ching” sound at the cash registers, too. How much money are YOU trading for time?