Very rarely does meal prep here take more than half an hour a day. That’s for dinner. Otherwise it’s nuke or eat cold leftovers. It would take half an hour to drive to McD’s, sit in line, and another half hour to drive home. Hour minimum. No thanks. That’s double my time.
Cost wise, well, that’s proven above.
Yeah, but a $1.29 microwave meal is 5 minutes, in which time a drink and an extra side and desert (usu. fruit) can be pulled out of the fridge. $2.50 tops, fewer dishes, no pots and pans, ladles, spatulas, etc., to wash, dry, and put away. “Same” either way = the utensils, maybe one side bowl or plate, and a cup or glass (usually just rinsed out and reused during the day unless used for milk.)
I almost NEVER even in the past drove from home to get fast food, but I DID stop by such often if going by anyway. 5 minutes typical, again, might be buying enough for 2 meals or more. BIG difference from your pattern, but typical for many people.
Making interesting side salads from scratch, which I like for both taste and health, takes time too: For example, tear up the lettuce, cut up some onion, chicken (may have done that earlier), apple, tomato, maybe sprinkle in a little cheese...) It all adds up. Fish cleaning, an occasional chicken butchered or gather and clean eggs (never mind taking CARE of the dang birds!) — All I know is that to make healthier food @ home that I LIKE, with cleanup(!), takes on average about an hour a day, sometimes a bit more, although “a bit more” usually results in more leftovers.
Of course that micro meal or Little Caesars’ 2 slices of pizza ($1.25 plus tax) has all sorts of not-so-good goodies in it, starting with maybe 40% of my sodium for the entire day! That’s why I ditched most of that stuff and pay the (time) price.
The sensible thing to do would be mostly ditch FR, I suppose... :-(