Stainless costs more on the shelf. Over a few years, it usually costs less. Here’s the honest math.
A plastic container is cheap, but it’s temporary. It stains, warps, absorbs smells, and gets replaced — often within a year or two, sometimes sooner once it’s cracked or gone cloudy. Repeat that cycle across a drawer full of containers and the "cheap" option keeps charging you.
A food-grade steel container costs more once. Then it stays in service for years, often a decade or more. No replacement cycle. The higher price is spread across a much longer life, and the per-year cost drops below plastic.
Think of it the way you’d think about a good pan versus a disposable one. The upfront number is higher; the lifetime number is lower.
There’s also a cost that doesn’t show on a receipt: the small, recurring friction of replacing things that wear out, and the low background doubt about what a degrading plastic container is doing to your food. Steel removes both.
The honest caveat: if you only need a container for a few months, or weight and up-front price matter more than anything, plastic can be the cheaper call for that specific case. For everyday storage you’ll use for years, steel wins on cost precisely because you stop buying it.
Buy once. Stop replacing. That’s the whole argument.
Food should be stored without doubt.