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…
People in comments saying to cook for yourself. I do cook for myself but geez grocery prices aren’t making it easy.
“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.
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.
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?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.
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.
I started getting gyros instead. It’s fast, as cheap as fast food used to be a couple years ago, and tastes better. Plus, it’s a local restaurant and not a national chain.
Sad to say gyros in my area are $16 to $20 bucks. Still since McDonalds is the same price I do eat the overpriced wraps on occasion.
My condolences
That sounds like a great choice. A fresh Gyro certainly could be better for you, too.
Frozen pizzas are better then fast food. Even the lowest tier.
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…
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
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.
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
“than”.
This is a baffling opinion. Frozen pizzas are almost always fucking dogshit.
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.
If you know what meat your kebab is made from, it’s not a real kebab shop.
Where I go they have multiple cones or whatever they’re called
Oooh fancy lads! Kebab shops near me have exactly one stick and I couldn’t for the life of me tell you what meat it was. The only thing I know it definitely isn’t, is pork.
Is prob delicious though. Especially when drunk
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.
Use. Your. Ovens.
But I’m allergic to mittens.
Don’t have one, don’t have space to have one, don’t have money to get one, don’t have any hope to ever get a place with one. Just like evergrowing amount of people.
Get a cook top. Even nice ones are like 100 bucks. Even induction ones and compatible pans are cheap. Five or six fast food visits and you could’ve bought enough to cook a massive variety of cheap meals.
Thankfully, I’m in pretty good position, I don’t live in US, so my diet consists of food, not of sugar and sawdust. I do have an induction cooktop, and can confirm it’s indeed amazing. My enormous privilege aside, I would like to some day get into the oven territory.
Five or six fast food visits and you could’ve bought enough
But this is the main problem. It’s boots theory all over. For people living paycheck to paycheck the calculation of “if I don’t eat for a week I can invest into myself” doesn’t sound as appealing as for people who can afford to do a little bit of savings.
A toaster oven can do most things that a full-sized oven can do.
That really blows. Are you living in one of those chinese/japanese domiciles that are essentially just cages for people?
Sardine-culture aside, perhaps you can try an air fryer. I honestly have never used one, but it seems like something people would recommend as a replacement and they take up a fraction of the space.
Not really, at least couple of steps above, it’s 30 square meters overall. It’s nice for me, but the kitchen is too small to have such luxuries as an oven.
Can’t I grill food? Or cook it on the range? Why do I have to use my oven to make meals?
You can if you want to.
Using an oven is just easier and should appeal more to the kind of person that is used to eating out all the time because of how low-effort it is.
It’s broken.
What’s wrong with it?
I don’t know, I just sublet.
We use a toaster oven and a hot plate instead.
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?
I mean… at least it’s still fast, right?
Seriously though, I don’t remember the last time I ate fast food. If we don’t count pizza delivery that is.
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!
Learning to cook at home is a great skill and talent.
During these trying times I just get 2 hot dogs from Sam’s. Can’t beat $3 lunch.
I’ve been eating a metric fuckton of hot dogs lately. I get a pack of 8 for $3.99 and a pack of cheap but not too cheap buns for like $3. Roughly $7 for four “meals” isn’t bad (except for my health maybe).
Plus I cut lines in them and air fry them and toast the buns, so, you know, fancytrash
Onion and bell pepper chopped and sautéed for a topping brings a whole lever of flavor without costing much. So fancy you need to eat with your pinky extended.
I like making Chicago dogs. Tomatoes, onions, a pickle slice, and mustard. I’ll skip the sport peppers unless I can find some good ones.
But my kids get a “free” toy. 🤷
Yup, cuz corporate greed. Shareholders keep pressuring companies to increase profits EVERY QUARTER.
