When you see specials or items on the dollar menu, you might think that fast food can be pretty cheap, even when compared with purchasing groceries and cooking at home. The next time you go out for fast food, though, take a look at the big picture. You may find that your fast food bill, the total amount, is larger than you thought.
Most of the time when we grab fast food, we look at individual prices on items. A couple of dollars for a snack wrap or a $3.79 kids meal doesn’t seem like much. The problem though is that those items are shrinking in size. Most of us won’t just eat one snack wrap but need at least three to make a dent in a normal appetite. Even the size of the items that are put in a kids meal are shrinking fast. Can anyone eat just one small hamburger for dinner and feel full?
As a family of five, we rarely get away with a fast food bill (being conservative with our choices) that is less than $30. I can prepare a meal at home that will feed us all well (with leftovers) for anywhere from $5-$12.
There is a recent study that supports my view that fast food isn’t as cheap as we might believe. The University of California, Davis Medical School did a study that found that the cost of a fast food diet was out of reach for low income families.
Dollar per dollar, fast food delivers more fat and sodium and less nutrition per cost. So you wind up paying more for less good fuel for your body. It is like paying premium gas prices for below quality gas. Yes, there are some healthy options in fast food, but they will din up costing you even more money than the standard menu items.
I don’t have a problem with eating fast food once in a while. I can be a real treat and a time saver. Just make a conscious decision to indulge in fast food and realize that it might be costing you more than you first thought it would.
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