Post: #1

There's probably two ways most of us get by for food:

1. Eating out most of the time - expensive, and not always healthy
2. Cooking - cheaper, healthier, but time consuming and labor intensive

I read an article about a guy posting on Craigslist to hire someone to make homecooked meals for 9$ an hour + the cost of ingredients. His offer got swamped with tons of interested responses.

From some ballpark math I did:

1 pound of meat (chicken/beef/pork) is approximately 3.5$
1 pound of most vegetables is about 1.5$ a pound (though there is greater variation with this, this is a good average)

So if it takes an hour to cook, on average every day it should cost:

9$ + 3.5$ + 1.5$ = 14$ / day

But if you're less picky about eating leftovers and reheating old food, it would be possible for the hired cook to make 2 days worth of food in 1 go, which would cut down the labor cost by half, which would make it:

9$ + 7$ + 3$ = 19$ / 2 days = 9.5$ / day

At least here in NYC, where a single meal + tip already runs over 10$, this is a bargain for not having to shop, cook, clean, and have the option of choosing what you want to eat, with pretty generous portions.

Has anyone had experience with this?

Post: #2

You're not thinking scale.

He wont cook 1 meal at a time.

He will cook $9 per hour, per person. If he cooks for 10 people he starts to rake in some serious money. Cooking times per person would be parallel.

it's a great idea actually... put up a weekly set menu rake in the $$, and to deliver throws in some exercise.

Post: #3

Just make big meals and freeze the portions.

If you scale up a recipe the cooking time is essentially unchanged for most things. Make 10 portions at a time, you're already set up for it so the prep time is only slightly longer.

You can cook a month's worth of meals in a day if you set aside the time, A Beginner’s Guide to Once-a-Month Cooking

In economic speak, future you is outsourcing cooking to current you.

"I'd hate myself if I had that kind of attitude, if I were that weak." - Arnold

Post: #4

(02-17-2014 06:30 AM)Benoit Wrote:  Just make big meals and freeze the portions.

If you scale up a recipe the cooking time is essentially unchanged for most things. Make 10 portions at a time, you're already set up for it so the prep time is only slightly longer.

You can cook a month's worth of meals in a day if you set aside the time, A Beginner’s Guide to Once-a-Month Cooking

In economic speak, future you is outsourcing cooking to current you.

/thread-23067.html Check out the slow cooker thread. This gets you into the large portion cooking. When I was single I would get the slow cooker going along with meal prep on a sunday afternoon and be set for 5 days of meals plus a surplus one that would go into the freezer.