I was walking through the grocery store with my husband the other day. We were walking down the aisle with all the pretty drinks, and I said, “I can’t believe people buy those big jugs of iced tea. How hard is it to make a jug of tea?!” Then I started thinking about how much people pay for something they could make at home with a minimum amount of effort and no special equipment.
Let’s just use, for example, a jug of Arizona Iced Tea with Lemon. Peapod sells them for $3.79 per gallon.
If you splurge and buy “expensive” Lipton Cold-Brew tea bags, you will use 4 bags to make a gallon of tea. The cost? $.20. That’s right: Twenty Cents.
Let’s say a family of four drinks 2 gallons of iced tea every week. That would be almost $400 for the year if they bought the prepared tea in a jug. If they slave over a pot of boiling water, they will spend just under $19 for the year.
The hard-working family who boils water gets to keep $381 more than the family who drives to the store to get their tea. That’s about $30/month. Cut out your ready-made tea consumption, and you can afford that data plan you wish you had on your phone.
This same principle applies to a multitude of other convenience items. When I’m in a hurry, I am just as guilty of grabbing things on a whim without giving it much thought. The Number One convenience item I’m most likely to buy? Bagged salads. I’m not especially proud of this, and I don’t buy them as much as I used to. When I’m feeling rushed, though, I don’t even hesitate. I wonder what I’ve sacrificed for what seemed like a big convenience at the time (prices are again from Peapod) …
Dole Hearts of Romaine All Natural (10-oz bag) = $3.79
A Head of Romaine Lettuce = $1.99
The bag of lettuce says it contains 3.5 2-cup servings. For every full head of romaine that you buy, you get almost twice that at 6.5 2-cup servings! So, a family of four who is willing to buckle down and chop some lettuce will save a whopping $562.35 per year if they eat salad three times every week.
Seriously?! That’s a car payment!
Think about it: Spending 15 minutes per week cutting up lettuce instead of buying the processed equivalent is kind of like making $43/hour. I bet you feel pretty important now, don’t you?!
I don’t mean to sound all self-righteous about this. I buy convenience foods, too, but when I look at it like this, it really makes me take pause. Everybody has those days when it’s almost impossible to find the time to put together a meal, and certainly, convenience foods are going to be cheaper than eating take-out. I just wonder if it’s really worth it. Generally, convenience foods are going to involve a lot more packaging, and usually there will be more preservatives involved. If you want to think globally, you have to consider the additional energy costs, too. Somewhere there’s a machine that chops up the lettuce and washes it.
On top of all that, if we’re not preparing our meals together, then we’re missing another valuable opportunity: Time with our families. I love it when my kids come and help me in the kitchen. We always end up having fun, and they feel pretty good about contributing even if they do start out complaining.
Most importantly, let’s not forget about the benefit this will have in the long run. If you teach your kids how to handle themselves in the kitchen, they won’t be as likely to perpetuate the purchase of convenience foods when they’re off on their own. Chopping lettuce or making a tasty sauce to go on the chicken won’t seem like such a big deal. They’ll be eating healthier foods, and they won’t be wasting their hard-earned money!
What sorts of convenience foods do you indulge in? Have you ever taken the time to figure out whether or not it’s really worth it? What would you rather spend that money on? What do you do to avoid buying convenience foods?
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to my daily “regimen.” I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how quickly things have begun to change. I really like feeling like my muscles are being revived.
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