Do you ever wonder how much more you’re paying for convenience food items? Individually wrapped prewashed potatoes? Microwave popcorn?

How much time do these items actually save?

According to Catheryn over at The Dollar Stretcher, not much.

On prewashed potatoes and prepeeled onions: “In both cases, I’m paying 70 cents to $1 to save myself 30 seconds. Put another way, I’m buying time at the cost of $84 to $120 an hour!”

Microwave popcorn clocks in at a time savings of 10 seconds, and only costs 3.5 times as much. And wait until you hear about the chicken.

“A friend of mine, for example, bought pre-marinated, individually vacuum-packed chicken breasts for $1.67 per four-ounce portion. It never occurred to her this is $6.68 a pound! Boneless chicken breasts were selling for $3.29 a pound. If it takes 5-cents worth of seasoning and one minute to season a pound’s worth (do it in the morning and leave it in the fridge to marinate), you pay $3.34 per minute for this “convenience” or $200 per hour!”

Moral: Lazy people have to work more hours at a job to pay for their laziness. Oh, butter-flavored irony.

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