"jmcquown" > wrote in message
...
> On 7/16/2014 2:47 AM, Julie Bove wrote:
>>
>> "jmcquown" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>>
>>> My point about Hamburger Helper is, it's not really that much of a
>>> time-saver.
>>
>> My mom loved it because she could make it in her electric skillet.
>
> According to the Mommy forum where the $200 a month thread was posted,
> that's about *all* they have. "We make 98% of our food from scratch (the
> best we can...we don't have an oven or a stove--just the microwave, a
> grill, and an electric skillet"). That might be half the problem right
> there.

Yes! I always keep this in mind when I buy for the food bank. I can
remember a radio announcer making mention of this. They gave a woman in
Seattle a big basket of food. She began to cry and said that not only did
she have no way to prepare the food but no dishes. So the announcer
reminded us that if we were going to donate, to donate things that could be
eaten as is.
>
> IMHO it's pretty darn difficult to cook for one, much less a family,
> without having the proper equipment. Every apartment (or house) I *ever*
> rented came equipped with a stove/oven.
>
I looked at one place near Greenlake that was advertised as an apartment.
The kitchen had some counters and cupboards and a big utility type sink.
There was a really old stove but no fridge. Also no place to put a fridge
as it was a very small place. To make matters worse, the bedroom was so
small that with a full sized bed in it, you had to climb over the bed to get
into the bathroom. I declined.

I had a friend who was renting a room in the Ballard area. It was a nice
slzed furnished room with a full sized fridge but no stove or microwave.
But this was long enough ago that many people still didn't have microwaves.

My mom's current place has a small fridge. Smaller than full sized but
larger than those little hotel types. She has two burners and a small
microwave. No oven. But... Meals are included in her rent so techincally
she doesn't need to cook.

Also keep in mind that a lot of our county's poor are forced to live in
rooms or motels because they can't afford to save up enough to rent an
apartment.

> She also wrote "We do not go to restaurants more than 1-2 times a month
> (and that's usually only a $30-$50 bill...). So stop going out to eat and
> put that $30-50 a month towards a stove/oven. It doesn't have to be
> brand-spanking new. Eating out is a luxury, not a necessity. YMMV.

If they are living in a room or motel, they probably can't put in a stove.