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Not a huge fan of infographics? Why? Did one beat you up and steal your lunch money?
And for those who missed it, there was this back in March:
http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/03/19/radiatio…
Also, it must be said that it does not take two hours to shop and prepare for pinto beans and rice.
@3
Exactly. Who buys and prepares one dinner’s worth at a time?
My own nitpick: when the hell was the last time a paperback only cost $5.80?? Don’t get me wrong, it’s still fascinating. That just jumped out at me.
I totally get factoring in the hidden expenses of meal prep (and often due to justify my burrito addiction), but saying it costs $30 to get rice and beans from store to table is akin to telling me it costs $4 to wipe my ass with toilet paper. Possibly true, but a little misleading.
@5: Perhaps mass market paperback, as opposed to trade paperback.
#5
You can get eBooks at Amazon for $2 – $3 – they have a special cutout bin web page with hundreds of cheap paper backs.
#n:
It gets better with a single person who cooks if you can develop the habit of saving and using left overs.
For example, I bought a whole chicken on sale at Top Food for $4.50. I ate lunch and dinner from it and didn’t finish the breasts! That means I didn’t have to spend anytime going to the store or preparing it when eating the leftovers.
I save my “going out” money for all you can eat places like India Combo buffet up on Kent East Hill….
I love XKCD, but this graphic is quite confusing by the time we get to the billions section. He has so much information he doesn’t know how to organize it properly.
For instance, in the Profit/Worth section of the Fortune 500 companies, he has shades but doesn’t explain what each one is. I’m guessing that darkened boxes are profit, yellow is worth, and shaded is loss. But, that means that Fannie Mae lost $14b instead of profitting as the text above it reads.
And, let’s not get into the confusing US Household Income graphic. That one just breaks all the rules of KISS. I know there is a lot of information to be conveyed, but this one just about breaks the brain, and the explanations are dense and confusing.
@9, thank you. It’s a lovely thing, but could have used a stern editor.
You guys need to hit the McDonald’s dollar menu more in these studies. 4 people x 3 McDoubles or McChickens and drink water.
Let’s say one is very efficient and spends 2 hours per week traveling and shopping, and include planning time (you can’t shop efficiently without planning – you will just end up going back, spending even more time). Then let’s say rice and beans made 2 out of 21 meals. 1/14th of 2 hours is devoted to rice and beans – say 8 minutes.
5 minutes to put the beans on to soak over night
20 minutes to saute the onions and garlic, chop cilantro (because you are not a barbarian)
2 hours to cook beans, during which you can do other things – like make the rice. In any case, you need to be there. You can’t just leave.
Things forgotten in the infographic – washing the dishes and putting away the leftovers. That’s 30 minutes – if done right. I think 2 hours is a generous underestimation of the time needed.
As it happens, this being Monday, and me having been to New Orleans once or twice, where it’s a tradition, we had home-made rice and beans for dinner tonight. I’m pretty sure, that including the 1/4 lb. of fresh kielbasa from the Polish deli, and the ground turkey added for texture, the ingredients were less than $3. No special shopping was done for this. Everything was already on hand. Billing yourself for shopping and prep seems a little misplaced. Some maxim about knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing comes to mind.
@3 Have you ever done a quick soak of dried beans? It takes 2 minutes to boil the beans in water and then 1 hour before it’s even close to being ready to cook. This is not unreasonable.
It costs at least $10 to get out of bed.