I went with my wife to eat today and it was $50. Not even worth it, especially considering we both had to walk around with our toddler half the time, so we might as well have been eating on the couch at home.
Tell HN: Food is too expensive now
41–50 of 56 posts
Re: Tell HN: Food is too expensive now
#42Learn to cook. Seriously though. With only a bit of practice you can cook restaurant-quality food at home. And you can buy high-quality ingredients, but they are actually cheap because you’re buying them unprepared and in bulk. There are many high quality recipes and tutorials online. Look up Ethan Chlebowski, Adam Ragusea, and Joshua Weissman. These are videos for basic recipes with grocery-store ingredients, not fa…
I chuckled at the stereotypically american answer "dont rely on society, just do it yourself". Even if you know how to cook, life is significantly better in a society with quality inexpensive restaurants. Most cities around the world have this. I usually eat out socially, im not going to invite people to cook for them because its weird, and very inconvenient. When im on a vacation or visiting a friend in another city…
It's still a first world problem being "annoyed" that eating out or getting take out is more expensive than it once was.
Re: Tell HN: Food is too expensive now
#43This problem will only grow with increasing capitalism and climate change. The only way to turn it around is to come together and push for policys and technology that lowers the costs for food and housing. The rich can get their profits elsewhere than on our basic human needs.
Re: Tell HN: Food is too expensive now
#44Too much of what you pay goes to the rentier that owns the premises. Inflation of ingredients, inflation of wages, inflation of utilities. It all adds up. Something gets squeezed, either the experience or your wallet. As other posters have said, climate change, war adds to it too. And the world has just about reached peak-population outside of Africa. The developed world including all the industralial powerhouses of…
Sorry, but that's a tons of horse**. You can rent a villa with a pool today in Ubud, Bali for as little as $30 per night. You can get reasonable food at a restaurant for as little as $3. I also booked a flight from Istanbul to Ankara (one-way/mid-August) for $28. This is a US problem. Yes, the world is going through serious inflation right now but nothing comes close to the US.
> I also booked a flight from Istanbul to Ankara (one-way/mid-August) for $28.
> Yes, the world is going through serious inflation right now but nothing comes close to the US.
Turkey is actually at 60% inflation right now.
Re: Tell HN: Food is too expensive now
#45I think this is mostly a US problem. While food prices have risen everywhere, restaurant prices haven't risen as dramatically as they did in the US (I haven't been to Europe lately, so maybe it's the same). Also, Uber Eat is worse than crap. It has menu prices higher than seat-in prices, cost around $10 for delivery and want me to tip on the whole order + it has its own fee. If I were to get a regular meal, it'd cost…
> I think this is mostly a US problem. While food prices have risen everywhere, restaurant prices haven't risen as dramatically as they did in the US (I haven't been to Europe lately, so maybe it's the same).
Restaurant prices in Poland had gone up dramatically, sometimes by 50% (depending by the place). First, the restaurants hiked prices after they were allowed to open again after lockdowns, and then they were hit by a combo of rising energy costs, rising wages and general inflation, and increased prices again.
Re: Tell HN: Food is too expensive now
#46Too much of what you pay goes to the rentier that owns the premises. Inflation of ingredients, inflation of wages, inflation of utilities. It all adds up. Something gets squeezed, either the experience or your wallet. As other posters have said, climate change, war adds to it too. And the world has just about reached peak-population outside of Africa. The developed world including all the industralial powerhouses of…
> goes to the rentier that owns the premises
Was looking at some premium clothing with my partner at the primest spot in town, discounted from 300 euros to 100 when I realised all the margins go to the property owner…
Most of peoples wages go to pay rents too…
Re: Tell HN: Food is too expensive now
#47Learn to cook. Seriously though. With only a bit of practice you can cook restaurant-quality food at home. And you can buy high-quality ingredients, but they are actually cheap because you’re buying them unprepared and in bulk. There are many high quality recipes and tutorials online. Look up Ethan Chlebowski, Adam Ragusea, and Joshua Weissman. These are videos for basic recipes with grocery-store ingredients, not fa…
Cooking can easily take up 2-4 hours a day. 1 hour for prep, 1 hour for cooking, 1 hour for cleaning up afterwards (stove, utensils, dishes, table, kitchen floor, sink, etc)
Suggestion: Learn to make use of a slow cooker and pressure cooker and/or instant pot. You can cut a lot of hands-on time using these tools.
FWIW: I cook multiple meals (often borderline gourmet / better than any local restaurant) for my family of 5 and it doesn't take this many hours. The more experience you gain, the faster your prep. Combining ready ingredients (I'll use that boxed pho broth rather than making from scratch / I'll start with a canned marinara rather than scratch) and being able to reconstitute leftovers can go a long way toward only having to do a major cooking event every-other or every-three days.
Re: Tell HN: Food is too expensive now
#48I don't have any numbers to back this up, but historically going out to a restaurant or eating outside the home was a big deal. As a child I can recall we only went out to eat if it was a very special occasion. For (both sets of) my depression-era grandparents it was a darn big deal to get to go even to the local greasy spoon - it just wasn't done as it was considered an enormous expense. Even when we travelled in the summer, we always carried a picnic rather than stopping for fast food etc. The trend of the past decade+ toward people ordering takeout nightly is not normal in the majority of places. Perhaps in metro areas where there is a high density of restaurants competing for your dollar, but not elsewhere.
Re: Tell HN: Food is too expensive now
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cooking can easily take up 2-4 hours a day. 1 hour for prep, 1 hour for cooking, 1 hour for cleaning up afterwards (stove, utensils, dishes, table, kitchen floor, sink, etc)
Nonsense, my wife whips up a delicious meal in under 30 minutes with everything included. Most days we use disposable sal leaf plates so she just tosses the pans in the dishwasher and we’re done.
Sal Leaf Plates, I didn't know that existed, this might make a hUGE difference.
Re: Tell HN: Food is too expensive now
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I chuckled at the stereotypically american answer "dont rely on society, just do it yourself". Even if you know how to cook, life is significantly better in a society with quality inexpensive restaurants. Most cities around the world have this. I usually eat out socially, im not going to invite people to cook for them because its weird, and very inconvenient. When im on a vacation or visiting a friend in another city…
It's still a first world problem being "annoyed" that eating out or getting take out is more expensive than it once was.
No, it's not, I lived in a "3rd" world country and in some ways quality of life was better because some things were just so much cheaper. I was with people who weren't rich by any measure, living paycheck to paycheck and both parents working to get by. But despite that, it was STILL affordable to go out as a family every week and have great dinner or ice cream. Also here it's unheard of to get "custom-made" stuff, there it was not too expensive to get anything custom made, need a bigger bed, call the carpenter. Need some shelfs, call the carpenter, Need a door that fits you odd sized hole in the wall, call metal worker. Need pillows of certain size, go to a factory area not too far away and give them sizes, they are making 1000s a day, they can make you one too. There is STILL milk delivery at your door step, an old tradition around the world, but now it's UBER-approach. Quality of life is better because even with low salary you can get lot of stuff... which is a side effect of production being close to you, no sales taxes, and also lack of 1000 rules making 1 man operation feasible. People eat out there like it's free food.