My parents didn’t have much money growing up, but they would always do what you described - get the raw ingredients and make it to their own health/taste preferences. They are immigrants from India, where this is the norm for all levels of income.
Many of my friends growing up had parents working multiple jobs or long hours, who wouldn’t have the time or energy to do this. I had one friend whose single mother wouldn’t come home until 10 PM, so he prepared pre-packaged meals for dinner every night.
If you compare the costs, it’s ~$2-4 per meal in a box, compared to $20-30 to get all the ingredients for meal preparation. Many Americans simply don’t have this amount of cash, and food stamp programs are insufficient in allowing for healthy eating habits.
With the rise of Walmart and Dollar General across America, prepackaged meals seem to be a dominant meal option (I don’t have any data on this, this is just from comparing shopping carts at Walmart vs Whole Foods).
Walmart has cheap potatoes, carrots, onion, rice, pasta. My mom mad macaroni and cheese with regular elbow noodles and a couple slices of American cheese. We added ketchup.
Many of my friends growing up had parents working multiple jobs or long hours, who wouldn’t have the time or energy to do this. I had one friend whose single mother wouldn’t come home until 10 PM, so he prepared pre-packaged meals for dinner every night.
If you compare the costs, it’s ~$2-4 per meal in a box, compared to $20-30 to get all the ingredients for meal preparation. Many Americans simply don’t have this amount of cash, and food stamp programs are insufficient in allowing for healthy eating habits.
With the rise of Walmart and Dollar General across America, prepackaged meals seem to be a dominant meal option (I don’t have any data on this, this is just from comparing shopping carts at Walmart vs Whole Foods).