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Comment by MontyCarloHall | Hacker News Reader

Buy ground beef, beans, rice, and tortillas in bulk (or even cheaper, make them yourself—it’s not hard!) and be smart about planning to use vegetables and other perishables efficiently across multiple dishes, and you’re going to be making Taco Bell menu items at home that are far superior to Taco Bell for much less than $5.

Buying hotdogs, buns, and soda in bulk will probably cost ~$1.25 per meal, if not less. You can freeze the dogs and buns; the latter will still taste great after a light toasting.

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There's the opportunity and comfort cost as well though. I can definitely see how one could see spending $5 on a box they can grab from the drive thru and immediately throw away is a better choice than going to the store, meal planning, ensuring there's proper refrigerator and freezer space, making sure the perishables are used, and then also taking the time to clean the dishes used afterwards.

$5 for a few minutes of effort vs spending slightly less for usually at least half an hour to an hour when off hours during the work week are at a premium can make that extra spend very attractive, especially if they're single

I can really see that, $5 gets you a LOT at Taco Bell (funnily enough, they refused to load any images till I switched my IP to a USA one O.o). I’m actually shocked how much you get. Here in Germany, McDonalds / Burger King (not sure what other fast food places we have) are disgusting AND expensive :D

Cheap (and even not so cheap) "Mexican" food in particular is a great opportunity for the restaurant to bulk up a little protein with lots of cheap filler like rice and beans. With a burger, you have a floor set by a certain weight of ground beef. And, yes, while I very rarely go into a McDonald's or Burger King, my sense is that they're not a particularly cheap meal. And the better "fast casual" burger chains certainly are not.

> bulk up a little protein with lots of cheap filler like rice and beans

Rice and beans make a complete protein. You're writing as if people are getting less protein than they expected, but the inclusion of beans means they're probably not.

You're right of course. I'm just using protein in the sense that restaurants often do to mean x grams/ounces of meat, chicken, pork, or fish. But there are obviously other sources of protein.

We do cook at home a lot, but genuinely, if I have a lot of work of just have activities with kids outside of home, it adds overhead I don't want to deal with. I am not even sure it is more of mental overhead or time overhead, but the more I am stressed at given period the less I want to deal with counting and "being smart" about buying perishables.

This is roughly what I do (in the sense that I buy in bulk and freeze stuff), but note that it essentially requires you to not only purchase an extra freezer, but also run it and have the extra space for it. So this strategy does require some capital investment. It's not much, but I have friends that just couldn't do this. (Not necessarily because of the capital required, but because there is just no space for a freezer.)

You really don't need an extra freezer to buy 3/5/10 pounds of chicken instead of 1/2 pound.

The savings really add up at that 10 pound level. Chicken quarters are still under a dollar a pound at Walmarts in that quantity.

No doubt. But in the context of this discussion, it sounds like, for even that size package, the target audience could make room in the freezer they already have by consuming and not replacing their existing stock of frozen tacos, waffles and corn dogs.

Oh okay, you surely know what's in my freezer. I guess my stuffed freezer wasn't actually stuffed and I didn't need to buy the extra freezer.

Maybe, you know, chicken isn't the only thing in my freezer.

So you extrapolate, to the general population, your need for an extra freezer as an obstacle to reducing the cost of buying in bulk but your objection to my comment is that it is not relevant to you in particular?

I didn't extrapolate anywhere. You're making shit up and reading things that aren't there.

And my objection to your comment is I think pretty universally applicable.

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