I don't keep a garden, cook from scratch, can excess produce, etc to save money. I do remind myself that it does save money but I'm well aware there are other activities I could be doing that would net me considerably more money for the same times as whatever I save. It's just self-justification and rationalization, same as my mother quilting or knitting for 'blankets for babies' and so on, its an excuse for a hobby, but spending 20 hours to make a blanket that a machine could spew out for $10 isn't an effective use of time and neither is me breaking out the manual pasta-maker. Its a hobby, like mechanics is a hobby that can be genuinely useful and beneficial, like hunting or fishing, but are motives are typically much the same as someone playing X-box.

I think the concept is that a lot of times even if you earn minimum wage you could eat fast food and go work some more and come up ahead on cash. Particularly since a lot of fast food joint sell the burgers at or even below cost and make their money on fries and soda. It's a crap example though. It still takes time to go to a burger joint and wait in line or drive thru, typically more than assembling a PBJ or cold cut sandwich and tossing it the lunch pail. Unless one is either very half assed or very elaborate at such things, or the food joint travel time and wait is virtually nil, I have difficulty imagining pulling two slices of bread out, slapping on the ingredients, and sticking it in the travel rig up, even including time shopping and doing the dishes, would equal out. On the other hand, I am pretty sure the actual cost of having a kitchen in one's house, keeping it heated, keeping the fridge cold, etc all cost more in total for a single person then eating fast food with an eye for Calories per $$$ does.

Agreed. I don't shoot my own cows or grow and grind my own flour and I could do the latter I'm sure, it holds no interest for me and I really doubt I could do it economically.