Wow, eating at the fast food joint while working outside the home can really kill a budget. This used to be one of my biggest stupid tax moments. Let's just look at how ridiculous it can get. Will use Wendy's Hamburgers for an example (no particular reason I'm singling them out, I just used to go there a lot). If you order a 1/4 lb. Single Combo meal in our area, you'll pay about $5.17. If you really decide to splurge and get the 1/2 lb. Double Combo meal you'll pay about $6.60.
Ok, Lets break it down. If there are 20 working days a month and you do this every day, you would spend between $103.40 and $132.00 per month! Think about how many groceries you could buy for this amount!
What would the same meal cost if you cooked it at home? Well if you do it smart it would look something like this: 1/4 lb beef patty .67 cents, bun .04 cents, cheese .13 cents, ketchup and mustard almost free, pickles again almost free, 1/2 a pound of potatoes for fries .07 cents and a 16 oz soda (mostly ice at the fast food joint) .24 cents for a whopping total of $1.15. This is all assuming of course you buy your items on sale. If you really want to have some fun, grow your own potatoes, bake your own buns and drink some free water.
Let's face it we are paying almost a 500% markup on food merely for the convenience of it.
The solution:
1. A little common sense planning
2. Buying stuff on sale
3. An attitude that being frugal isn't a drudgery, it's a fantastic challenging game. A game of "how can I provide a better, richer life for my family and retain as many coins as I can instead of letting them fall through my and my family's fingers.
Here are 5 terrifically easy sandwich ideas that I have been using recently. On Sunday make a meatloaf. Our family loves it. You might have to make a couple depending on the size of your family.
On Monday, make meatloaf sandwiches (so good with mustard and horseradish, but for the kids stick with ketchup). Our grand kids love these.
On Tuesday it's Egg Salad Sandwiches. It's like deviled eggs on bread! Yummy
On Wednesday it's PBJ or PBH
On Thursday it's a good old tuna fish sandwich or sometimes I use canned salmon (not store bought, salmon we catch and can ourselves)
On Friday it's chicken salad sandwiches. Again, not store bought. I wait until chicken breasts are on sale for $1.39 to 1.49 per pound and can them in pint jars. Makes great chicken tacos, enchiladas, chow mein etc. in a new york second because it's already cooked, all you have to do is just have to heat it up.
You can do this with left over roast from Sunday as well.
My challenge to you is to fire up your frugal brain cells! Get creative! Our brains are an amazing gift from God and he has given us the ability to create and come up with fantastic ideas. Have fun with it and see just how much coin you can put in a jar instead of in the fast food industry. It's your money, how much of it are you going to keep?
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