Food is not that expensive!

Courtesy of Ahab's blog commentary on fat folks, I linked over to this wonderful post by Zuska on the trials of being a person of larger than socially acceptable size.

Other than to say that Ahab and I are pretty much in agreement, I won't say much about the fattism (is that really a word? I weep for the English language) debate in and of itself. However, one of Zuska's comments really rankled me because I've heard the argument before and it's demonstrably untrue.

Here's the quote from Zuska's post that really knotted my knickers (bolding added by me for emphasis)
"I do not, however, hold any bitterness toward the person who is working from 8-5 and rushing to pick up her kids from day care and who potentially can't afford to shop at Whole Foods, and who does stop at the drive through window at McDonald's because a Happy Meal costs $1.99 (or whatever they cost these days) while cooking a decent meal costs at least $30 ..."

$30 for a "decent" meal? If that was the case, my family would starve, since we're blessed if we can spend $50 a week on groceries. Seriously here, a "decent" meal for a family of 4 (what we have) can be easily done on $10 or less, and still leave leftovers for lunches the next day. For example, here's a common dinner at the Caster residence: Spaghetti ($.99 for a box), spaghetti sauce ($3.50 for a jar), 1/2 a bag of frozen veggies ($1.99), and juice (from concentrate, $1.25 for a can).

I get seriously irritated when I hear the argument about how much home meals cost. A loaf of wheat bread is 99 cents. A jar of natural peanut butter that'll make 20+ sandwiches is 4 bucks. Apples range from $.99 to $1.5 per pound. A big sack of flour, from which you can base tons of meals, costs $5.

Do you know what's expensive at the supermarket? Twinkies. Ding dongs. Ice cream. Convenience foods like Pop-Tarts, Hot Pockets, and frozen pizzas. Basic staple foods are not expensive, and the people who claim that they are obviously haven't spent any time in the grocery store buying them.