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Comment by cbhl | Hacker News Reader

The article also excludes the cost of electricity/gas to power the stove/microwave, the cost of water to cook e.g. pasta and clean the pans after, the cost of the pans amortized over your meals, the cost of plates and utensils...

If someone else is paying utilities (say, your local university, or your landlord), and you already own kitchen equipment (say, hand-me-downs from your mum) perhaps this is a reasonable assumption. But for those who are actually in poverty, the upfront capital cost of cooking tools and the hidden costs of energy in cooking might be prohibitively expensive.

That said, cooking in bulk is indeed cheaper. So if you're trying to conserve, it might help to find two or three good friends and cook your meals together.

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true, I also don't like these articles when the guy magically has a rice cooker, strainer, pots/pans and all cooking utensils ready to go.

these articles should be done starting in a single room occupancy hotel with a hot plate and nothing else, because that's what you get when you are poor: nothing.

That's if you're lucky enough to be in a hotel, and not out on the street, where you'd be lucky to have access to even a hot plate.

The guys who sell flatbread on the street here cook it on reused refrigerator condensers on top of a bed of charcoal, which can be on the ground between rocks, or more commonly, in a metal pan atop a (presumably stolen) shopping cart. This is better than a hot plate if you can reliably find nontoxic wood.

I use a Lodge double dutch oven that is cast iron. It is a combination where the lid is a skillet and the bottom is a 5-quart pot. You can cook everything imaginable in this combination. It is far superior than the nonstick pans that are toxic at high temperature.

Cast-iron cookware is very expensive here, and therefore scarce. If you're cooking in a shopping cart it's unusual for cast iron to be a viable alternative.

Actually, in first world, not even an homeless gain less than 2$ per day. So we can safely leave all the expenses for fuel and cookware out of the math.

If you think there aren't homeless people (and others) who don't gain any money at all, you are living in a fantasy world.

Some don't get $2, not even $1. Some are lucky to get $0 instead of losing money every day.

Sure, some homeless people get assistance from public or private sources, but many others are too mentally ill, depressed, or self-destructive to seek, find, or even accept aid (when aid is available, which it not always is).

And yes, these people do die of starvation, exposure, malnutition, illness, suicide, drug overdose, etc..

I'm talking about a mentally sane person. You can find 2$ (actually a LOT more) simply opening the trash bin near you.

Sure, if you're depressed or otherwise crippled, you can earn nothing. But I assume $2 is still about 200 beer cans at Reynolds Aluminum Recycling in the US, right?

The extreme poor area I lived in was also full of drug addicts who spent all night going through trash bins and cleaning out anything of value to support their habit, so if your plan is to mine for recycled bottles and cans to return then you're in for a surprise when you find out that hustle has already been cornered by violent drug addicts and alcoholics who won't let you near their garbage 'turf'.

They also rob each other when they walk out of the recycling depot with cash in their pocket. Since you live in an alley you don't have security

So, why you don't move to another (better) area? It's not like you have an house or anything else that bind you there.

To be clear, I'm not saying that is an easy life, I'm only saying that is difficult die of starving in a modern first world nation

The better areas are taken by those with money. You can move to a better area, but the police will turn up before long to move you on.

Obviously is not a simple life. Dangers are everywhere from drug dealers to policeman. But to keep this short the fact is the same: For a mentally sane man (or woman) in USA is very difficult die of starvation.

At some point the assumption of sanity breaks down, in this lifestyle.

They do move around, and are typically arrested and ticketed by police for doing so. If you were to move to a suburban area a resident would complain about the hobo pushing a shopping cart and squatting in the woods so you would find yourself being given a "starlight tour" which is when the police drive you to the middle of nowhere and kick you out of the vehicle at 2:00am.

You have friends there. You can live without a house, but you can't live without friends.

The cost of electricity is quite low. If you are actually so broke you can't afford it, there's probably places you can leech. It depends on where you are, but 10c / kwh won't be a huge cost. Say 5c to cook a bowl of soup.

Then there's the rice cooker - good for a year, and costs $20. That's another 5c.

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