Man says eating at hawkers now ‘ridiculous,’ S$4 fish ball noodles only cost less than S$1 at home

The topic of expensive meals is often discussed on social media, especially lately amid a steady increase in food prices.

A public member then took it upon himself to compare eating out versus cooking at home and listed down the related costs of both options.

“Eat out at hawker now is ridiculous to me,” said a Facebook page Complaint Singapore member on Saturday (Aug 13).

He noted having paid S$4 for a bowl of fish ball noodles, whereas doing it at home only cost him less than a dollar and the preparation time took only 10 minutes.

“Noodle S$0.20. Fishball S$0.30. Minced meat S$0.20. Misc (water, pepper, scallion) S$0.10,” he wrote in the breakdown of costs.

The difference was more significant for Bah Kut Teh, costing him S$50 when eating out.

The cost for cooking the dish at home was S$2.20 for the soup pack, S$9 for pork rib for four and S$0.50 for miscellaneous items (rice, garlic, soy sauce, water), with a total of S$11.70.

“I know hawkers need to earn. But if you want to let them earn, it is your choice,” said the concerned individual, adding that soup-based recipes were easy to make.

‘I only eat out for something difficult to make with home kitchen setup, e.g. fried kuey tiao, fried chicken.”

With over 330 comments to date, netizens debated on the original poster’s justifications, noting that customers often pay for the convenience of having others prepare the food, plus the operating costs involved in running the business.

“I did my own cooking before, and the cost price is damn cheap, but most of the time, I chose to eat out or tabao because of the hassle of cleaning up!” said Facebook user Scott Lee.

“I did it for three months, and initially, I was enthusiastic about it, but gradually it’s damn tiring. So the hawkers deserved every penny of the price listed.”

“I think besides the price of the food item, opportunity cost should be factored in too. The time I take to cook the BCM, I could have done other things or earned many times the price of $4,” explained Facebook user Ray Tan./TISG

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