Fast Food Kills Your Wallet
I’ll admit it - I’m a huge Dollar Menu fan. Wendy’s and McDonald’s get a lot of my business because they have some great offerings on the Dollar Menu. The thing is, those dollar items add up a big hurry, and end up not really being cheap. Let’s take a look at something.
Let’s say I have a death wish for myself and my family, and we eat only off various dollar menus, for 3 meals a day. Three items should feed each of us ( a burger, fries, and a drink, or something similar ). So 3 items, 3 of us, 3 meals per day… works out to a cool $27 per day. Over a thirty day month that’s $810 - just in food. We’d still have to pony up for the rest of the groceries that we need to survive.
$810 is a lot of money
Sure, we’re not going to eat every meal from the fast food dollar menu. My point was to show you how quickly “cheap” food can get out of control. In fact, you can apply that logic to anything in life. The little expenses add up a hurry, and can be overwhelming before you realize it.
Eating at home is still cheaper
No matter how much of a pain it is to buy food and cook it, you will save money doing it. A ton of money, if you’re careful to avoid having steak too often. If saving money isn’t enough for you, your arteries will be quite thankful as well.
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April 9th, 2008 at 8:31 am
nice blog
April 9th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Sure, eating at home is definitely cheaper… but driving home to grab a quick bite when you’re on your way somewhere else probably isn’t.
Fast food fills a nice gap for busy people — as long as you don’t abuse it.
mr. s
April 9th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
True. It probably wouldn’t make much sense to drive home out of your way just to save a few bucks. It is important not to go overboard though - those dollars add up in a big hurry.
April 9th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Before I’ve turned over a new leaf financially I used to eat breakfast and lunch at my company cafeteria everyday. Average amount I’d spend daily? $7. $35 a week, $140 a month, $1680 a year. I did this for 5 years. You’re darn right it adds up
April 9th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
What a useless post that makes no point whatsoever. The dollar menu is still cheaper than eating anywhere else except home; your post says nothing to contradict that. No one is going to eat three dollar meals a day. Of course it would waste money if people ate out every meal, every day.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Chance;
The point of this post was to illustrate how something as small as $1 menu purchases can add up significantly if you’re not careful. I’m not proud of it, but often I’ll eat two meals a day from dollar menus. Working 15+ hours a day often leaves little time for “real” meals.
And not to sound rude, but if you dislike what I have to say, why on earth are you reading it? I’m thankful for my readers, but you don’t sound like you really want to be here.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I think the post was entirely relevant for illustrating the negative compounding effect of justifying the purchase of a “cheap meal”. It’s easy to compare the dollar menu to a more expensive restaurant and make yourself feel better by spending less and still enjoying the same convenience of eating out, but when we look at the total spent on discount convenience food over time, we see that it can and certainly does add up.