Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week • Hacker News Board

Re: Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

#41

Post by sidsavara » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 5:04 PM UTC

khangtoh wrote: post #36

I think the best part of the this experiment is you get to be surprised every week. Being someone who cooks and prepares meals for myself, I constantly struggle with coming up with something new. I find myself repeating the menu over and over again. So having the joy of sitting back and not knowing what's next is absolutely wonderful.

Yes, that's one of the unintended consequences of this experiment =). Originally, my plan was to tell them what to make - but she took the initiative in suggesting meal plans to lay out her skillset, and wanted to save time by cooking the same food for her family. I definitely look forward to my drop off days for just that reason!

Re: Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

#42

Post by LogicHoleFlaw » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 5:35 PM UTC

staunch wrote: post #6

> 1. Cooking Cooking dinner takes me about 20 minutes every day and I eat pretty healthy. > 2. Washing dishes - especially pots, pans and knives that can’t go in the dishwasher I must be doing it wrong because I put absolutely everything in the dishwasher. Seems to work well enough for me. > 3. Shopping - especially for food! I go shopping about every 5 days and that's about 1 hour round trip. > 4. Driving out to get…

As a kid, my dad always said "What? We've already got three dishwashers! Their names are James, Ashley, and Daniel!"

That was mostly in jest though. The other saying was "what use is a dishwasher if you have to wash the dishes before you wash the dishes?" when asked why we didn't scrub down plates before putting them in said machine...

Re: Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

#43

Post by LogicHoleFlaw » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 5:39 PM UTC

biohacker42 wrote: post #40

What's so interesting about this is that for $60 a week you can get a LOT of calories from fast food. But then you could be dead soon. In Europe you could east pretty healthy delicious food for about $60 a week easily. But America seems to lack a cheap + good + won't kill you food option. Like a whole market segment is not served. And Americans in general don't go out to eat like Europeans do. Either it's (to go) fas…

When I was a starving student, I was flummoxed by the market. Meat? Expensive. Vegetables? Expensive. Fruit? Expensive, and doesn't keep. Fast food? Expensive. What could I afford? Complex carbs and terrible mega-preserved food. Ramen, cup-o-noodles, and mac'n'cheese were my staples.

Re: Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

#44

Post by icey » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 5:39 PM UTC

Psyonic wrote: post #18

Does anyone else find this whole "outsource your life" movement a little disturbing?

How is this any different than hiring a personal chef? Or a housekeeper? I mean; people have been doing this for centuries, it's just becoming more accessible now.

Re: Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

#45

Post by jcl » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 5:51 PM UTC

byrneseyeview wrote: post #38

litewulf wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to point out that not all hours of the day are spent "generating value".

If your time is worth $30 per hour, but you enjoy cleaning enough that you aren't willing to pay $10 per hour for it, you're implying that you would sacrifice $20 per hour to clean. So when you retire, will you pay people that much for the chance to clean their house?

There is some inefficiency, for example, in paying someone to mow your lawn while you go to the gym, paying to walk on a treadmill. :)

Re: Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

#46

Post by khafra » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 6:16 PM UTC

biohacker42 wrote: post #40

What's so interesting about this is that for $60 a week you can get a LOT of calories from fast food. But then you could be dead soon. In Europe you could east pretty healthy delicious food for about $60 a week easily. But America seems to lack a cheap + good + won't kill you food option. Like a whole market segment is not served. And Americans in general don't go out to eat like Europeans do. Either it's (to go) fas…

I didn't know it was different in Europe. Here in America, you can have tasty food, cheap food, or healthy food--pick up to two options. There's a few hole-in-the-wall places with good food and single-digit entrees, but the 2/3 rule works in general.

Re: Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

#47

Post by menloparkbum » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 6:22 PM UTC

khafra wrote: post #46

biohacker42 wrote: post #40

What's so interesting about this is that for $60 a week you can get a LOT of calories from fast food. But then you could be dead soon. In Europe you could east pretty healthy delicious food for about $60 a week easily. But America seems to lack a cheap + good + won't kill you food option. Like a whole market segment is not served. And Americans in general don't go out to eat like Europeans do. Either it's (to go) fas…

I didn't know it was different in Europe. Here in America, you can have tasty food, cheap food, or healthy food--pick up to two options. There's a few hole-in-the-wall places with good food and single-digit entrees, but the 2/3 rule works in general.

I've only spent about 3 months total in Europe, but I thought food was much more expensive. Also, the less-expensive prepared food didn't seem very healthy - kebabs, frites, crepes, etc. If I wanted to save money I'd just get some bread and cheese from a market. Good fruits and vegetables seemed to be conspicuously absent, at least when compared to California.

The conclusion I came to was that people in Europe tend to be thinner than Americans because they can't afford to eat very often...

Re: Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

#48

Post by biohacker42 » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 6:45 PM UTC

menloparkbum wrote: post #47

khafra wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't know it was different in Europe. Here in America, you can have tasty food, cheap food, or healthy food--pick up to two options. There's a few hole-in-the-wall places with good food and single-digit entrees, but the 2/3 rule works in general.

I've only spent about 3 months total in Europe, but I thought food was much more expensive. Also, the less-expensive prepared food didn't seem very healthy - kebabs, frites, crepes, etc. If I wanted to save money I'd just get some bread and cheese from a market. Good fruits and vegetables seemed to be conspicuously absent, at least when compared to California. The conclusion I came to was that people in Europe tend t…

I have to admit there's healthy and European healthy. Fruits and veggies are healthy, crepes are European healthy, fast food is not anyone's healthy.

Good fruits and vegetables are only seasonally present in the central and norther European countries, where the local climate is too cold to grow a decent tomato.

Southern Europe on the other hand has you covered, the climate is a lot like California.

Re: Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

#49

Post by biohacker42 » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 6:47 PM UTC

khafra wrote: post #46

biohacker42 wrote: post #40

What's so interesting about this is that for $60 a week you can get a LOT of calories from fast food. But then you could be dead soon. In Europe you could east pretty healthy delicious food for about $60 a week easily. But America seems to lack a cheap + good + won't kill you food option. Like a whole market segment is not served. And Americans in general don't go out to eat like Europeans do. Either it's (to go) fas…

I didn't know it was different in Europe. Here in America, you can have tasty food, cheap food, or healthy food--pick up to two options. There's a few hole-in-the-wall places with good food and single-digit entrees, but the 2/3 rule works in general.

I think the difference is in exactly those hole-in-the-wall places which give you the 3 out of 3.

Europe, partly due to population density, partly due to a different farm lobby, and partly due to I-don't-know-what just seems to have a lot more of them per kilometer.

Re: Outsourcing Cooking with Craigslist for $60/week

#50

Post by delano » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 7:06 PM UTC

mynameishere wrote: post #10

menloparkbum wrote: post #3

About half the time I wish I could outsource my job to someone on Craig's list for $15/hr so that I could spend more time cooking.

There was an hilarious dilbert strip which I can not find which had Dilbert washing his cubicle with a spray bottle and rag, dancing about having a great time, and then Alice shows up and says, "Okay, you've had the bottle long enough. It's my turn to pretend to be a janitor." It's not funny till you've been there: Mundane labor in the office [1] is strangely delightful compared to typing. [1] Not just janitorial wor…

I hear that. I spent two weekends back in the day helping another department get through a backlog of envelope stuffing. That and the phone book ripping competition were two of the highlights in that office.