I bought over a pound of steak the other day for $5. (Yes, it was on sale. But it is frequently on sale.) Along with a potato for 50 cents, that's cheaper than a bag of Doritos.

Oh, and I bought a banana for $.22.

Cooking a steak takes about 10 minutes.

Microwaving a TV dinner ($7.50) takes more time.

This canard again [0]? You're comparing one piece of beef with a massive bag of Doritos. The banana's irrelevant, but last time you compared it to an enormous block of chocolate [1].

From experience a microwave meal should take about 3 minutes to cook so I don't know how you're taking more than 10 minutes unless, like your food item comparisons, you're cooking enough of them to feed an entire town.

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49312807

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49314864

Microwaving takes less attention and less skill, though. And less cleanup. And you don’t need to own a pan. And you don’t need to own spices (steak is a bad example ofc). And you don’t need to think about the side dishes. And you don’t need to agree on what’s for dinner. And I think it’s worth repeating, you don’t need any skill and can’t really screw it up. And you don’t need to worry about it going bad because you were too lazy to cook it. Etc.

Processed food may not be cheaper, but the flavor:effort ratio is waaaaaay higher.

Wait til you find out what's in a $5 steak!

Our cheapest grass-fed tenderloin is $10 for a half pound cut. One. In a poor northern state.

We had that cow two years and didn't supplement grain. Cheap as you can grow them.

With a $5 steak, it might as well be corn chips.

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