Speak for yourself.
> I couldn't abide eating the same stuff more than a couple of days in a row, let alone every day for weeks at a time.
I've eaten the same lunch every day for well over a year or more at times. Food is fuel; it doesn't have to be a source of entertainment.
It doesn't have to be, but for many it is. I greatly enjoy making and tasting food. The true value of something is a combination of its physical and emotional cost to the purchaser. I think that gets lost in many budgeting articles.
Of course, if you're truly on a tight budget like this article proposes, luxury and entertainment aren't even parts of your budget. But if not, you're going to be miserable unless you can do things you enjoy, and often times those things take a bit of financial support (obviously not everything, again).
I love food. I adore it. It's part of my heritage, my family, part of our lives, our childhoods. Good food is up there with good sex, it's an overwhelming and amazing experience.
I absolutely understand that some people find food an annoying necessity and not something to take pleasure in, but many of us, I'd posit an overwhelming majority in fact, love and enjoy and relish our day to day meals. As such, living on the bread line can be a deeply depressing and dispiriting experience.
When I lived by myself for a little over a year, I was quite happy with this arrangement. As fuel and as entertainment -- I really really love my simple sandwiches.
I wonder which was a better evolutionary adaptation in the past? And which is better in the industrialized world today?