I think most people just haven’t considered it as a tradeoff. Then again, maybe there are some people for whom the effort/unpleasantness of buying ingredients, looking up a recipe, and cooking from scratch is less than the unpleasantness of working X extra hours (or losing the ability to buy Y other things) in order to pay for more expensive prepared foods. I also think that a lot of people do like prepared foods better-I cook everything I eat from scratch, and there’s always plenty in the fridge, but my roommate still buys frozen pizzas and TV dinners and eats out frequently, even though she’s financially worse off than me and could eat my food for free without even having to make the effort to cook it.
I think most people just haven’t considered it as a tradeoff. Then again, maybe there are some people for whom the effort/unpleasantness of buying ingredients, looking up a recipe, and cooking from scratch is less than the unpleasantness of working X extra hours (or losing the ability to buy Y other things) in order to pay for more expensive prepared foods. I also think that a lot of people do like prepared foods better-I cook everything I eat from scratch, and there’s always plenty in the fridge, but my roommate still buys frozen pizzas and TV dinners and eats out frequently, even though she’s financially worse off than me and could eat my food for free without even having to make the effort to cook it.