Spices are pretty cheap in the US if you don’t mind them being not-very-good, most grocery stores will have a small selection. Still, it’s doable and worth it to keep a small collection of spices even if you’re on a beans and rice budget.
If I try to eat exactly the same recipe for an extended period of time, I find I am much more vulnerable to a fast food craving just for a change of pace. So it works out to be cheaper to get the spices if I account for how my animal brain needs variety.
That one container of single flavour spice costs 10x a bag of ramen or kraft dinner as well, it’s just out of reach for a large portion.
Spice is a luxury, people would be giving up a weeks of meals for a variety of ONE, now add in a second flavor, now you’re not eating for another week.
Yeah when I was super broke in my 20s, I made it a point to keep a relatively well stocked pantry of spices, flour, butter. It helps stretch fresh ingredients so far and is the difference between enjoying day-to-day life and being miserable for me.
I guess there are some spices that cost the same as a week of food, but I don’t think there’s anywhere on the globe where that’s true for everything that falls under the “spice” umbrella. A box of craft dinner is about $1.10 where I live, a 1oz. container of dried thyme is about $3.50, which is fairly typical for grocery store spices around me. There are spices that are very expensive and those are out of reach for a lot of people, but I think most almost everyone has access to some cheap spices.
A lot of them are easy to grow / are invasive species that are hard to stop growing: I have mint in my yard and I’m not sure I could kill it if I tried. Every year I cut it back and every year it grows back strong.
You’ll never get rid of mint, it’s tenacious. Cutting it back is probably helping it thrive tbh. Herbs are really easy to grow, and a plant is usually cheaper than a packet of fresh cut herb anyway.
You’re saying a single serving of any spice (because you didn’t give a specific example) costs $3.33. (I picked the price of a 12-pack of Maruchan ramen from Walmart, divided by 12, and multiplied by 10, but you can choose whatever ramen you want here https://www.walmart.com/browse/food/ramen-noodles/976759_976794_8248961_1620731_7864147). I really don’t know what spices you’re looking at, but I’m looking at an entire bottle of onion powder for $1.08 from that same Walmart site, which is a little more than triple the price of a packet of ramen for, I’m going to say, at least 20x (i’m being generous with my spice portions right now) the number of servings. You can even get garlic powder, paprika, italian seasoning, etc from the same place for the same exact price…
https://www.walmart.com/search?q=spices&typeahead=spice
Now you might not like Walmart (and that’s fair) and you’re welcome to go wherever you want, but it seems like you’re being disingenuous here. Unless you’re actually saying you use 3 of those bottles every time you eat one packet of ramen, which just creates more questions…
Even if you don’t think garlic, onion, or paprika are actually spices, unless you’re eating an entire vanilla bean pod with your dinner, you’re going to be hard-pressed to find spices that cost that much per meal. The other person wasn’t saying it has to be an exotic spice, just something to give it a different flavor.
Who’s being Disingenuous by arguing something I never even mentioned? Also, using a not on sale ramen, but spices is just misleading and disingenuous on its own entirely.
The numbers are meant to not be exact, because someone always nitpicks and misses the point entirely. This is you by the way.
Ramen is like $.50 here. A packet of spice, $5.00, this really isn’t that hard to comprehend. Even your spices in your link are around that price. What luxury ramen are you buying lmfao.
What luxury spices are you buying? Spending 10$ on spices will last for months if not year(s), that is worth being able to “Spice up” Ramen or literally any other food.
Foolish to think they can afford the luxury of spices.
Spices are pretty cheap in the US if you don’t mind them being not-very-good, most grocery stores will have a small selection. Still, it’s doable and worth it to keep a small collection of spices even if you’re on a beans and rice budget.
If I try to eat exactly the same recipe for an extended period of time, I find I am much more vulnerable to a fast food craving just for a change of pace. So it works out to be cheaper to get the spices if I account for how my animal brain needs variety.
If you know what to look for you can often find them growing wild as well.
That one container of single flavour spice costs 10x a bag of ramen or kraft dinner as well, it’s just out of reach for a large portion.
Spice is a luxury, people would be giving up a weeks of meals for a variety of ONE, now add in a second flavor, now you’re not eating for another week.
Always check Indian or Mexican grocery stores if you can, the spices and rice and such tend to be much, much cheaper than your typical grocery store.
Bulk stores too, you can even get ramen flavoring by the pound there too.
Yeah when I was super broke in my 20s, I made it a point to keep a relatively well stocked pantry of spices, flour, butter. It helps stretch fresh ingredients so far and is the difference between enjoying day-to-day life and being miserable for me.
I guess there are some spices that cost the same as a week of food, but I don’t think there’s anywhere on the globe where that’s true for everything that falls under the “spice” umbrella. A box of craft dinner is about $1.10 where I live, a 1oz. container of dried thyme is about $3.50, which is fairly typical for grocery store spices around me. There are spices that are very expensive and those are out of reach for a lot of people, but I think most almost everyone has access to some cheap spices.
A lot of them are easy to grow / are invasive species that are hard to stop growing: I have mint in my yard and I’m not sure I could kill it if I tried. Every year I cut it back and every year it grows back strong.
You’ll never get rid of mint, it’s tenacious. Cutting it back is probably helping it thrive tbh. Herbs are really easy to grow, and a plant is usually cheaper than a packet of fresh cut herb anyway.
Found the guy from Arrakis.
Pretty sure medieval peasants would have their own herbs/spices.
You’re saying a single serving of any spice (because you didn’t give a specific example) costs $3.33. (I picked the price of a 12-pack of Maruchan ramen from Walmart, divided by 12, and multiplied by 10, but you can choose whatever ramen you want here https://www.walmart.com/browse/food/ramen-noodles/976759_976794_8248961_1620731_7864147). I really don’t know what spices you’re looking at, but I’m looking at an entire bottle of onion powder for $1.08 from that same Walmart site, which is a little more than triple the price of a packet of ramen for, I’m going to say, at least 20x (i’m being generous with my spice portions right now) the number of servings. You can even get garlic powder, paprika, italian seasoning, etc from the same place for the same exact price… https://www.walmart.com/search?q=spices&typeahead=spice
Now you might not like Walmart (and that’s fair) and you’re welcome to go wherever you want, but it seems like you’re being disingenuous here. Unless you’re actually saying you use 3 of those bottles every time you eat one packet of ramen, which just creates more questions…
Even if you don’t think garlic, onion, or paprika are actually spices, unless you’re eating an entire vanilla bean pod with your dinner, you’re going to be hard-pressed to find spices that cost that much per meal. The other person wasn’t saying it has to be an exotic spice, just something to give it a different flavor.
I never single said serving lmfao.
Who’s being Disingenuous by arguing something I never even mentioned? Also, using a not on sale ramen, but spices is just misleading and disingenuous on its own entirely.
The numbers are meant to not be exact, because someone always nitpicks and misses the point entirely. This is you by the way.
Ramen is like $.50 here. A packet of spice, $5.00, this really isn’t that hard to comprehend. Even your spices in your link are around that price. What luxury ramen are you buying lmfao.
What luxury spices are you buying? Spending 10$ on spices will last for months if not year(s), that is worth being able to “Spice up” Ramen or literally any other food.
Which is why I grow my own herbs. Costs absolutely nothing.