Posted on 02/28/2011 2:11:14 PM PST by wbill
When it comes to cutting back, the rich are learning a little secret the rest of us have always known: fast-food is cheap and good (if not good for you).
Quick service restaurants, such as McDonald's and Subway, saw a bigger rise in spending by ultra-affluent consumers than any other restaurant type last year, according to the most recent data by American Express Business Insights.
Lori and Santiago Riviere are among those that have recently been turned on to fast-food dining.
They call themselves "dinks" -- as in dual income no kids. She's an attorney, he works in finance and together they make "well over six figures." Still, she says the recession has changed her mindset about spending.
(snip)
"I think it's a sacrifice, but when you have to choose between that and a pair of Jimmy Choos, I'm going to choose the Jimmy Choos." (snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I want to see his meal plan.
I’m going to try it this week. I think I can come close, but I don’t think I can do it for 8 bucks.
It would certainly be worth $800 to see Sarah Palin in a red pair of those. :-)
LOL. So now the rich can load up on fast food and be lard-asses like the rest of us.
Some people can’t live without protein in the morning, so let’scome back to the McMuffin.
At my local Aldi’s I can get
$0.99 - 6 english muffins
$1.19 - 1 dozen eggs
$0.99 - 12 slices american cheese
That works out to a unit price of about 30 cents per “Egg McMuffin” and about three minutes of my time. For $3.99 I can buy 18 precooked sausage patties (no filler!), bringing myself up to 56 cents for a Sausage and Egg McMuffin that retails for about two bucks. Aldi’s Hashbrown patties cost about ten cents, and the very nice coffee I brew for my husband costs 44 cents for 16 ounces.
In short, the homemade version tots up to about $1 for everything. That’s what I call an extra value meal.
I can get my grocery bill to $20/ week if I must. PB & J, chicken thighs and drumsticks, carrots, apples potatos, etc... Nothing fancy, just portion control and cheap food.
My wife and I were dinks for several years. I had no idea we were RICH!!
If that bill just for you or you and others?
It'd cost extra to get a dye job.
We’re empty nesters now and if my husband goes out early on Sat AM to the hardware store, he may stop at McDonald’s and bring home pancakes with sausage. It’s an occasional treat.
We eat it maybe once a month.
Same with Chick Fil A, we go there very rarely, usually when I have a dr appt. Her office is across the street, I go fastings so we have lunch there after my appt.
Subway once in a great while, same with Arby’s.
LOL My daughter in law’s family own KFC and Arby’s restaurants.
If we have Arby’s it’s when we visit them.
Hamburgers at McD;s, Wendy’s or the others never. I prefer hamburgers at home! I don’t even like Five Guys.
KFC never for me, but my husband goes there once in a while if he wants fried chicken. I do NOT fry it.
All in all I would say we have fast food once or twice a month and we are selective.
I like reading the responses to columns like this because I can learn so much from the FReepers how to save dollars on buying foods and eating healthy! Thanks y’all for the comments.
Whole chickens were on sale a couple of weeks ago. I bought tons of them and cooked them. So much chicken in the freezer. I could probably make dumplings every night for the next two weeks. LOL!
We had homemade chicken satay with lots of stir fried veggies over jasmine rice.
Leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
You are using common sense and hard work.
These are sadly often lacking in the “poor” population.
Everyone receiving food stamps / EBT should be required to pass a simple test on home economics, or take a class in it.
Chick peas! They are cheap and filling and good for you. You can use them in salads too.
The headline strikes me as something you’d see when playing SimCity . . . when you’ve really screwed up and your city is going down the tubes . . .
I’d be happy if those on food stamps had to pass a drug test. Skip the basic economics.
I’ve had this thought before. I see the junk that is purchased with food stamps and no I could do so much better with less. I wonder if they’d hire me to start teaching frugal homemade cooking classes?
Ooh! That sounds good!
My actual food expenditures this week.
Pretty close to the cost of a single fast food meal.
3.5 lbs chicken legs $1.90... 10 lbs./$5.50
1/2 lb ital sausage $1.00... $1.99/lb (sale)
1 lb bacon (ends) $1.00
14 eggs $1.16 .99/doz (sale)
54 oz baked beans $1.19 (salvage)
28 oz mustard greens .89 ‘’
4 lbs potatoes .80... 20 lbs/$5.00 (sale)
2 lbs onions .85... 3 lbs/$1.29
15 oz green beans .35 (salvage)
breakfast grits all week .25
7 oranges .70... 15/$1.50 (salvage)
Left out coffee and condiments, and would have bought some fresh greens if there were any good ones at a decent price. Also energy costs are not included.
When I’m working I spend at least three times as much!
(And these bacon ends are terrific, very good quality. Don’t know how they do it when packaged bacon costs 4 times as much.)
Fast food used to be cheap and it used to taste better a long time ago. Now it’s way over-priced and tastes nasty. We ate at one once in the past year and got physically ill, don’t wanna go into detail. Lesson learned!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.