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).

[–] paholg@lemm.ee 9 points 7 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] DessertStorms@kbin.social 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] paholg@lemm.ee 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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.

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