Potatoes have a long shelf life and even then it’s not a clear win.

A medium potato is around 110 calories. 15 * 150 calories servings = 5$ that’s 20.45 medium potatoes for 5$ or 24.4c per medium potato. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Doritos-Nacho-Cheese-Tortilla-Sna...

The potato requires prep, 10 minutes in the microwave ~= 1/4 kWh, and presumably a little salt and butter. A microwave meal is a more complete nutrition source and takes less time, making them more complex point of comparison.

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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