Fast food and major chains have gotten absurd. I used a gift card at Red Robin a couple months back. It was $19 before tip for a dry burger and bland fries. Two bucks more could’ve gotten me a seat and meal at a five-star local place just down the street. The value just isn’t there anymore. Eating local almost always tastes better, feels better, and costs the same or less. Why settle for mediocrity when better is right around the corner?
Stop eating that shit and its not a problem
Obligatory: $25
That feeling of regret when eating some mid fast food is the worst lol.
I fel sorry for people whondont have an Aldi or a local equivalent
I have an Aldi but my wife and I have five jobs between us, a 20 year old still living at home and two teenagers who aren’t driving yet. Sometimes we don’t have time to cook. I still shop at Aldi tho!
Cook at Home - Ideal with friends - share costs - socialize have a great time - eat well. Period
Thing is, I make more than ever, but yet due to increased (mostly) energy costs, I can afford nothing.
Few years ago I was able to eat a few times a week out, but nowadays I eat at most a few times a month. Base price for döner was 6-7 euros, now they are starting off 12 euros. However my salary has not doubled. Lately, I usually just pick up take away food for the kids, not for us parents.
I was able to upgrade my phone once a year or two, now I’ve been using the same phone (even with screen cracked) for 3,5 years.
Best thing last, I’m a co-founder for a fabrication company. We aren’t turning profit because everything is expensive. Our costs have doubled, and salary costs gone up 75%. It would be easier to just run the business down nowadays than struggle.
Only fast food that is worth the money is Döner Kebab. But man they went up more than 100% in price in the last 15 years.
I used to buy one each Friday on my way home from school for 3€, now they are 6.50€ at the same place. Still a lot cheaper and way more tasty than most other fast food, so I still consider it king.Yeah… I stopped eating out at places that were “just okay”.
Like I’m willing to pay 4-5 euros for a “just okay” hamburger. But for 9 -15 I expect it to be top notch. If it isn’t top notch I’ll fire up the old frying pan myself and make a burger/fast food for like €. 3?
Street food/food trucks are the real fast food now. Chains are just shitty restaurants
Beef, veal, lamb or chicken? I don’t like chicken döner but veal/lamb are amazinnnnggg.
And you have to consider EVERYTHING has gotten expensive, so its a blessing döner is still affordable.
Fast food chains can die in a fire though. Their price hikes are in no way fair or justifiable.
Frozen pizzas are better then fast food. Even the lowest tier.
Sometimes I grab a pizza from the refrigerator isle at my local Lidl. They’re definitely not fresh or gourmet quality, but for 2.90€ and 15 minutes in the oven, you really can’t complain
This is a baffling opinion. Frozen pizzas are almost always fucking dogshit.
“than”.
Eeeew what? I mean fast food is trash, but i’d rather eat the cardboard box than a cheap frozen pizza. And if you buy an expensive frozen pizza you might as well make one yourself that is cheaper and better
And the higher end ones are just GOOD.
Its a similar price to fast food, I can just keep a few in the freezer and I can add some little extras to make them more to my taste or chuck some leftover stuff on them to use it up.
Little bit of garlic powder, some cracked pepper and some chilli flakes…
Hard agree. You can also break them in half or into quarters and cook them in smaller portions. This is how my partner and I save money on eating out. We usually eat out due to some combination of being tired or lazy, or craving salty, greasy food. This hits all the major potential bases but keeps us from gorging on pizza or wasting what we can’t eat.
People in comments saying to cook for yourself. I do cook for myself but geez grocery prices aren’t making it easy.
I’m not sure what your reasoning is here.
Grocery prices aren’t making it easy, so buy from restaurants that are even more expensive?“Prices aren’t making it easy”, covers at least a decade I am not looking forward to. I wager that a $65 Xbox controller will become a $200 item in a couple of years.
I cook for myself and it’s still not good
Our produce and ingredients suck here in the US. It’s all devoid of nutrition and usually gamed to look better than it actually is. Lots of things taste funny to me, and if it’s not flavorless, it tastes like chemicals or metal. There’s simply no regulation or oversight. Our soil practices also are only viable for approximately 60 more harvests.
When I have food that is grown or produced locally (and ethically) or food that is imported from Europe or even Canada, the difference is stark — I feel like I can actually digest and the flavor is night and day.
Three cans of hoppin johns beans, one can of chilli beans, 1 oz can of tomato sauce, 1/2 lb ground beef several onions sliced, garlic. About $20-25 for this and if makes 5-6 meals.
But my kids get a “free” toy. 🤷
A lot of people are saying to learn to cook, but things aren’t that simple. Many people know how to cook perfectly well but order out anyway, either because they’re busy or because they have mental health conditions that make cooking incredibly stressful.
We need to change our economic system so that CEO bonuses aren’t inflating the prices of people’s food. This would make it easier for people to eat out more often if they feel they need to. It shouldn’t break the bank to get simple meals at a restaurant.
I have a small, poorly designed and lit kitchen. Next place I buy will have a much better kitchen.
I agree with the people saying that being able to cook for yourself should be considered a key skill. My birthday meal when I was a kid was called a jigs dinner and if my grandma hadn’t taught me how to make it her way then it would have been lost. Having that said. We are talking about eating out, which is a thing that humans have been doing for awhile. I can get a feature meal at McDonald’s for just over $15. Across the street I can get a half pound jalapeno burger with onion rings and a beer for about $20. We need to start giving value to small businesses. Because they do produce quality and value.
Boggles my mind to hear about getting McDonald’s for $15 like it’s a good idea.
And then imagine paying another $10 for Uber Eats to deliver it to you cold.
Yup i got my grandma to teach me her secret recipes, got to spend time with my grandma and I know her amazing food isnt going to be lost
Jigs dinner
The fuck
Are you Newfie too?
Hello fellow Newfoundlander! I was just about to comment the same thing when I saw jigs dinner!
Hell yeah. I love not being alone.
Don’t love it snowing like today…
Yup, cuz corporate greed. Shareholders keep pressuring companies to increase profits EVERY QUARTER.
Yeah I go to the food court inside my local Asian grocery store instead. $12 gets you 2-3 proteins and 1 side. And they put so much food they have a hard time closing the bento takeout containers and you can technically split it into 2 meals. More filling and healthier than a burger and fries at the same price.
you can technically split it into 2 meals.
The Chinese take-out by me goes for $14-18 dollars but you can easily split it into 3 meals. The only problem is I can’t order my favorite dish because it’s so good I end up eating all those 3 meals at once.
My local one will hook you up too. They throw in extra sides for waiting an insignificant time or give you the last few of something if it’s getting close to closing.
I discovered one of these food courts inside what I thought was a medical building. Everyone there was Asian so you know the food is legit. Im in Canada and $15 gets me a packed container of food overflowing. It costs almost $20 with tax to go grab a whopper meal. There’s also an Afghan place near me that will give you a big container filled with rice and salad, a soup container filled with Rajma masala and a side of naan for $8
There’s a burger commercial in my country where a guy is pleasantly shocked to learn his burger is. ONLY $5. $5 for one a la carte burger is somehow supposed to make me say “oh that’s cheap!” All it does is remind me that they used to cost $2 five years ago.
I have a local burger joint at which I can still get a $2 cheeseburger. It’s plain and everything is an up charge but that’s fine. A whopper or Big Mac clone is some $4.50, so like, it’s still pretty cheap.
However, they have no seating, and it’s an old ice cream shop so just a big kitchen and a tiny indoor order/pickup window and 2 benches. And there’s always a massively long line. Takes easily an hour to get fast food there during peak, cuz nobody goes to the local depressed millennial McDonald’s (one of those sad gray ones)
All it does is remind me that they used to cost $2 five years ago
Hey, but at least your pay also went up 150%!
There’s one of the problems. I don’t need enough food for a family of four. I need you to give me an appropriate amount of food for one human being for $6.
Asian food is the type of cuisine that somehow tastes just as good when reheated the next day. I don’t force myself to finish everything in one sitting and always take home leftovers. Obviously if you don’t have the means to store and reheat food, this won’t work.
Congrats. You just explained the problem of the West using a food analogy.
