People often "can't figure out" how we have a home and car and do many other things "on what you make." My husband has a good regular job, and I work part-time, and occassionally get paid for writing or my art work. They just can't figure it out. I sat down with one of the young twenty something fellows that are my husnad's younger work buddies to "solve the mystery." When I looked just generally at how they spent their money, they wasted an incredible amount on eating out. It was amazing! Many spent more on their food budget than we do to feed three people (two adults and an one teenaged fast metabolism bottomless food pit(and no he's skinny!!!!)

Example:
One of these young single guys had a food budget that looked something like this.

Breakfast: Cereal and juice (OK ...not bad)
Lunch: McD's Value meal Usually around $6
Dinner: Pizza $10 Soda: $2

Weekedns Add An extra $20-30 dollars per day for treats or drinks.

There was some variety around this general theme by Mexican or Chinese take out, but not much. of one. This was how how they ate.

So lets see how this adds up...

Week Day food budget: $20 a day $100 a week on week days. Add and extra $100 dollars for "treats and drinks" on the weekend.

Total Weekly Food Budget:
$200 a Week

This is $800 a month for a very temperate spending on fast food. This is a diet except for chinese take out with very little vegetables, or any fresh fruit. So on top of being expensive --its unhealthy!!! After the initial talley the person admitted to buying several dollars a day of snacks out a the company vending machine. So adding "Daily Snacks" the monthly bill goes up to $900 a month.

An alternative menu made at home cost less than half as much. There has been a small attempt to make it healthier, but that is not the focus of this article. later...

Example of Home Made Daily fare:

Breakfast: Cereal and Orange juice
Lunch: Brown Bag sandwiches on whole wheat bread, Jello with fruit in a cup, Yogurt or cheese Cheese wedge, chips from a big discount bag in a smaller container, apple or an orange for a snack.
Dinner: Chicken breast grilled with some veggies in the toaster oven, Potato Wedges, Fruit Juice, homemade cookies

Daily Cost: $10 or less a day. With no snack fees. With a cut in half of Weekend Treats.

This makes the Monthly food budget not $900 a Month but:

$460 a Month on Food Expenses including A lesser level of Weekend treats. Now a great deal could be done to make this much less. But you can plainly see eating out on a daily basis is a financial disaster for everyone but the restaurant owners.

Here are Some links for Simple Quick Meals for Non-Cooks or cooks in a hurry too!!

Make Your Own Fun Foods:
http://www.justpeace.org/funfoods.htm

Quick Fix Meals
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/lf_qe_quick_fix_meals/

Simple Meals
http://simplemeals.cdkitchen.com/

Our The Many Ethnic Cooking Sites here at Bella!
http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/1020.asp