Current Events > Average American spends $1200 on fast food each year.

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2617493/Average-American-spends-1-200-year-fast-food.html

That is a disgusting amount of fast food. How does anyone even do that and not feel like shit 24/7?

I eat Subway or Chipotle almost everyday.

My meal at either place is always less than 800 calories. Not all fast food is burgers and french fries.
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The hell? What the hell are people doing spending 12 bucks on fast food for one meal for one? Unless you're doing some kind of super high-calorie fitness routine and are loaded with cash, that's insane. Aren't these people mostly lower and middle class? There's still cheeseburgers for a dollar at my McDonalds...
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is that all?
that's like a normal month for me
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the_rowan posted...

The hell? What the hell are people doing spending 12 bucks on fast food for one meal for one? Unless you're doing some kind of super high-calorie fitness routine and are loaded with cash, that's insane. Aren't these people mostly lower and middle class? There's still cheeseburgers for a dollar at my McDonalds...

And you can eat ONE $1 burger and be full? The golden rule of fast food is to eat until you're satisfied.

Regarding OP, it's actually reasonable. That's about 25 dollars a week, a good pizza is about what? $12 bucks or something? Nothing extraordinary if you ask me.
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I maybe spend $100.
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Turtlebread posted...

is that all?
that's like a normal month for me

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Parappa09 posted...

Turtlebread posted...

is that all?
that's like a normal month for me

Fat Europeans!
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I think that's more than I've spent on fast food in my life. Also, $12.50 a meal at a fast food restaurant is fucking crazy. You can get a decent meal at a sit-down restaurant for that price. $1200 is probably more than I spend on groceries in a year and that covers all of my meals!

HagenEx posted...

And you can eat ONE $1 burger and be full? The golden rule of fast food is to eat until you're satisfied.

Considering a McChicken is 410 calories, yes. Hell, make it two McChicken sandwiches for a grand total of $2 plus tax and you have 820 calories right there. No wonder Americans are so damn fat.
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1337toothbrush posted...

I think that's more than I've spent on fast food in my life. Also, $12.50 a meal at a fast food restaurant is fucking crazy. You can get a decent meal at a sit-down restaurant for that price. $1200 is probably more than I spend on groceries in a year and that covers all of my meals!

HagenEx posted...

And you can eat ONE $1 burger and be full? The golden rule of fast food is to eat until you're satisfied.

Considering a McChicken is 410 calories, yes. Hell, make it two McChicken sandwiches for a grand total of $2 plus tax and you have 820 calories right there. No wonder Americans are so damn fat.

That's the issue though, if you're paying $1 for a burger, you're eating shit. There are better fast food meals, you know? People have this misconception that the people who eat fast food does so because it's cheap, they never stop to think that maybe it's also convenient and there are more choices than a burger, fries and coke for $3.
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Spoilers: if you're eating fast food, you're eating shit. In fact the same holds true for most sit-down restaurants too. Price makes little difference in this regard.
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HagenEx posted...

1337toothbrush posted...

I think that's more than I've spent on fast food in my life. Also, $12.50 a meal at a fast food restaurant is fucking crazy. You can get a decent meal at a sit-down restaurant for that price. $1200 is probably more than I spend on groceries in a year and that covers all of my meals!

HagenEx posted...

And you can eat ONE $1 burger and be full? The golden rule of fast food is to eat until you're satisfied.

Considering a McChicken is 410 calories, yes. Hell, make it two McChicken sandwiches for a grand total of $2 plus tax and you have 820 calories right there. No wonder Americans are so damn fat.

That's the issue though, if you're paying $1 for a burger, you're eating shit. There are better fast food meals, you know? People have this misconception that the people who eat fast food does so because it's cheap, they never stop to think that maybe it's also convenient and there are more choices than a burger, fries and coke for $3.

Way to completely miss the point.

If you're paying fucking $12 for a pizza for one meal for one, that means you're eating like 2000-3000 calories for one meal. A McDonalds combo meal is like 7 bucks and 1200 calories or so--if you're spending $12, I'd assume it's the largest size and you're getting a shake or something with it and pushing it over 2000.

Meanwhile, if I want to get McDonalds, I'll get two cheeseburgers, or two bacon McDoubles, or a single premium sandwich if I'm hungrier, and spend like $2-5 plus tax, have a full meal, and just drink water since I bring water everywhere--even if it was soda, which is a super easy thing to cut that absolutely ruins your health, that's $1 for a 2-liter or $2 for 12 cans of name brand stuff. The fries and drinks are disgustingly bad value for your dollar (you can't get any of them for a dollar at any restaurant except maybe a tiny pack of fries that's got like ten fries in it, so I dunno where the burger/fries/drink for $3 thing comes from--that's almost $5 minimum with the absolute cheapest burgers).

Spend $12 at a sandwich place? Either you're eating goddamn lobster for every meal, or you're eating more than a footlong. You could do it at a fancy or faux-fancy place like Panera Bread, but those don't count as fast food last I checked, and neither do real delis.
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guess it is that much but it's lower than 1.2k.
it's closer to 800 at best.
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1337toothbrush posted...

I think that's more than I've spent on fast food in my life. Also, $12.50 a meal at a fast food restaurant is fucking crazy. You can get a decent meal at a sit-down restaurant for that price. $1200 is probably more than I spend on groceries in a year and that covers all of my meals!

Lol what? Maybe at like Dennys if you order water and don't tip like a fuckboy.

I try to eat out as little as possible (maybe 2-3 times a month), so for me, the cost would probably be closer to $300 a year.
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I hardly ever eat fast food (less than once per month), but spend way more on that on food every year. It's literally cheaper to buy a hamburger from McDonnalds than it is to buy lettuce, a tomato, 4oz ground beef, and a potato bun even if you were to purchase the ingredients in bulk and calculate costs per serving.
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We better use taxpayer dollars for healthcare, though. Absolutely no risk of federal bankruptcy if we try to tax our way into access to healthcare.

There's absolutely no reason for these people to have to stop wasting their money on poison when we can just tax Wall Street to pay for healthcare.
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hollow_shrine posted...

I hardly ever eat fast food (less than once per month), but spend way more on that on food every year. It's literally cheaper to buy a hamburger from McDonnalds than it is to buy lettuce, a tomato, 4oz ground beef, and a potato bun even if you were to purchase the ingredients in bulk and calculate costs per serving.

Yeah. Kinda unfortunate tbh
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hollow_shrine posted...

I hardly ever eat fast food (less than once per month), but spend way more on that on food every year. It's literally cheaper to buy a hamburger from McDonnalds than it is to buy lettuce, a tomato, 4oz ground beef, and a potato bun even if you were to purchase the ingredients in bulk and calculate costs per serving.

Uh you get way more food per dollar if you buy things in bulk and make the food yourself. If you're only going to eat one burger, McDonalds is cheaper. But if you're making food for the multiple people / multiple days, you're definitely going to go further without fast food.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

We better use taxpayer dollars for healthcare, though. Absolutely no risk of federal bankruptcy if we try to tax our way into access to healthcare.

There's absolutely no reason for these people to have to stop wasting their money on poison when we can just tax Wall Street to pay for healthcare.

We should absolutely use tax dollars for health care. Health care is way more than just weight management. Really, I don't even know where to start with that oversimplification.

Also we've got to get the price of real food down to levels where lower income families can purchase it more easily than premade and canned stuff. Fresh produce and lean meats need to be the cheapest things in grocery stores. Right now, I'm spending less on dinner buying a whole fried chicken from the deli counter at Walmart and sides than I am buying an uncooked chicken, salad greens, a four servings of tomatoes, a cucumber and a carrot. Not only is it easier for me and my family to make poor food decisions because I don't have to cook them, doing otherwise may literally be beyond my budget. This is a huge problem, and it's going to take a dramatic reorganization of our food culture to fix it.

FLUFFYGERM posted...

Uh you get way more food per dollar if you buy things in bulk and make the food yourself. If you're only going to eat one burger, McDonalds is cheaper. But if you're making food for the multiple people / multiple days, you're definitely going to go further without fast food.

Divide the cost of
...a pound of ground beef by four
...a bag of potato buns by six
...a head of lettuce by ten
...a roma tomato by four

If the sum of those numbers is greater than a dollar (it is, with the ground beef alone hitting $1.00-1.25), then it's effectively always cheaper to just buy the hamburger from McDonnald's. If we got McD's bulk discount in stores, that'd be another deal.
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I probably spend about $2000 on fast food and I feel great, just had a physical with bloodwork and all of my cholesterol/blood pressure/etc came up perfect.

The trick is to only eat burgers and sandwiches and avoid the real garbage like fries, desserts, and soda.

hollow_shrine posted...

Divide the cost of
...a pound of ground beef by four
...a bag of potato buns by six
...a head of lettuce by ten
...a roma tomato by four

If the sum of those numbers is greater than a dollar (it is, with the ground beef alone hitting $1.00-1.25), then it's effectively always cheaper to just buy the hamburger from McDonnald's. If we got McD's bulk discount in stores, that'd be another deal.

A quarter pounder from McDonalds costs like $5.50 or something, though. The dollar cheeseburgers are just like a couple ounces of meat and don't have lettuce or tomato.
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i eat fast food 5 times a week, once each work lunch
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What counts as fast food? 100 a month on going out to eat in general is not unreasonable if we're counting things like Chipotle, etc.
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hollow_shrine posted...

We should absolutely use tax dollars for health care. Health care is way more than just weight management. Really, I don't even know where to start with that oversimplification.

Also we've got to get the price of real food down to levels where lower income families can purchase it more easily than premade and canned stuff. Fresh produce and lean meats need to be the cheapest things in grocery stores. Right now, I'm spending less on dinner buying a whole fried chicken from the deli counter at Walmart and sides than I am buying an uncooked chicken, salad greens, a four servings of tomatoes, a cucumber and a carrot. Not only is it easier for me and my family to make poor food decisions because I don't have to cook them, doing otherwise may literally be beyond my budget. This is a huge problem, and it's going to take a dramatic reorganization of our food culture to fix it.

Obesity related issues are one of the biggest strains on the healthcare system. Look up the numbers, we spend a shit ton of money on it. And the population is getting fatter because of bad habits, not because of poor access to quality food.

Quality food is abundant and affordable for the vast majority of the obese people in this nation.

the_rowan posted...

A quarter pounder from McDonalds costs like $5.50 or something, though. The dollar cheeseburgers are just like a couple ounces of meat and don't have lettuce or tomato.

Exactly. The people who swear fast food is cheaper are just desperate to peddle a bigger government and more taxation.
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Sounds about right for me.
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I still eat fast food, but have scales back a lot over the past year. Used to eat those McGriddles and 20 piece nuggets.

Not anymore. Once I started paying attention to what I ate, I realized my choices were bad and portions too large.
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I spend about $3500 a year just on booze.
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Peter_Giffyndor posted...

1337toothbrush posted...

I think that's more than I've spent on fast food in my life. Also, $12.50 a meal at a fast food restaurant is fucking crazy. You can get a decent meal at a sit-down restaurant for that price. $1200 is probably more than I spend on groceries in a year and that covers all of my meals!

Lol what? Maybe at like Dennys if you order water and don't tip like a fuckboy.

Nah, try any Asian restaurant that isn't too fancy and you could easily make it. Ordering pop like a low-rent fatfuckboy might take you over it by a little.
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Per person? I'm probably closer to $250 a year. 2-3 times a month. Add in my wife and it's probably $550 a year between the two of us. I could see an average of 1200 per household but not per person.
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You know... in a high cost of living area food costs more as well...

When I was living on Long Island a single meal after tax would be close to $10-12 at any fast food place.
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the_rowan posted...

hollow_shrine posted...

Divide the cost of
...a pound of ground beef by four
...a bag of potato buns by six
...a head of lettuce by ten
...a roma tomato by four

If the sum of those numbers is greater than a dollar (it is, with the ground beef alone hitting $1.00-1.25), then it's effectively always cheaper to just buy the hamburger from McDonnald's. If we got McD's bulk discount in stores, that'd be another deal.

A quarter pounder from McDonalds costs like $5.50 or something, though. The dollar cheeseburgers are just like a couple ounces of meat and don't have lettuce or tomato.

Factor in how long the vegetables you buy will last. Even if you could buy enough in bulk to match what McDonald's pays (you can't), 99% of it would rot before you could use it.

1337toothbrush posted...

Peter_Giffyndor posted...

1337toothbrush posted...

I think that's more than I've spent on fast food in my life. Also, $12.50 a meal at a fast food restaurant is fucking crazy. You can get a decent meal at a sit-down restaurant for that price. $1200 is probably more than I spend on groceries in a year and that covers all of my meals!

Lol what? Maybe at like Dennys if you order water and don't tip like a fuckboy.

Nah, try any Asian restaurant that isn't too fancy and you could easily make it. Ordering pop like a low-rent fatfuckboy might take you over it by a little.

"Pop"?

It's called "soda", you pleb.
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I eat Subway or Chipotle almost everyday.

My meal at either place is always less than 800 calories

do you just eat the bread
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1337toothbrush posted...

Peter_Giffyndor posted...

1337toothbrush posted...

I think that's more than I've spent on fast food in my life. Also, $12.50 a meal at a fast food restaurant is fucking crazy. You can get a decent meal at a sit-down restaurant for that price. $1200 is probably more than I spend on groceries in a year and that covers all of my meals!

Lol what? Maybe at like Dennys if you order water and don't tip like a fuckboy.

Nah, try any Asian restaurant that isn't too fancy and you could easily make it. Ordering pop like a low-rent fatfuckboy might take you over it by a little.

You're either lying through your teeth or live in an extremly low CoL area.

Entrees at the cheap Asian restaurants (that is, the places with the cafeteria style serving bins) start at like $8. An actual, sit-down restaurant with service will start at around $10 at absolute minimum for entrees.

_Rinku_ posted...

Entrees at the cheap Asian restaurants (that is, the places with the cafeteria style serving bins) start at like $8. An actual, sit-down restaurant with service will start at around $10 at absolute minimum for entrees.

I can go to a pretty decent Thai place and get a plate of curry for like 9-10 bucks. It's a little over the $12.50 mark after tax and tip, sure, but the point still stands.
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Regular reminder that the US spends around twice as much per capita on health care than single payer countries for equivalent life expectancy :x

the_rowan posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

Entrees at the cheap Asian restaurants (that is, the places with the cafeteria style serving bins) start at like $8. An actual, sit-down restaurant with service will start at around $10 at absolute minimum for entrees.

I can go to a pretty decent Thai place and get a plate of curry for like 9-10 bucks. It's a little over the $12.50 mark after tax and tip, sure, but the point still stands.

Sounds like you live in a dirt cheap CoL area. Not the reality for a lot of folks. Also, it sounds like you're not tipping the minimum, which is pretty sleazy.

_Rinku_ posted...

the_rowan posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

Entrees at the cheap Asian restaurants (that is, the places with the cafeteria style serving bins) start at like $8. An actual, sit-down restaurant with service will start at around $10 at absolute minimum for entrees.

I can go to a pretty decent Thai place and get a plate of curry for like 9-10 bucks. It's a little over the $12.50 mark after tax and tip, sure, but the point still stands.

Sounds like you live in a dirt cheap CoL area. Not the reality for a lot of folks. Also, it sounds like you're not tipping the minimum, which is pretty sleazy.

More like middle-of-the-road CoL area. Not everyone lives in a crazy high CoL area.
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_Rinku_ posted...

Also, it sounds like you're not tipping the minimum, which is pretty sleazy.

$3 on a $9 meal is perfectly sufficient. I don't hog the table; I eat and then I'm out.
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CiIantro posted...

How does anyone even do that and not feel like shit 24/7?

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Is this supposed to be another one of those US-shaming threads?

Newsflash: WHO GIVES A SHIT?

clearaflagrantj posted...

I probably spend about $2000 on fast food and I feel great, just had a physical with bloodwork and all of my cholesterol/blood pressure/etc came up perfect.

The trick is to only eat burgers and sandwiches and avoid the real garbage like fries, desserts, and soda.

This.

the_rowan posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

Also, it sounds like you're not tipping the minimum, which is pretty sleazy.

$3 on a $9 meal is perfectly sufficient. I don't hog the table; I eat and then I'm out.

It's not, really. You're occupying the table, but not spending enough money to make it worth the restaurant's time. Unless you are literally out in ten minutes every single time, you are putting them in the negative for opportunity cost.

Restaurants run on razor-thin margins. I don't like it/the pressure they put on you to order more/the pressure they put on employees, so I just get it to-go if I'm not having a drink, app, and entree.

_Rinku_ posted...

the_rowan posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

Also, it sounds like you're not tipping the minimum, which is pretty sleazy.

$3 on a $9 meal is perfectly sufficient. I don't hog the table; I eat and then I'm out.

It's not, really. You're occupying the table, but not spending enough money to make it worth the restaurant's time. Unless you are literally out in ten minutes every single time, you are putting them in the negative for opportunity cost.

Restaurants run on razor-thin margins. I don't like it/the pressure they put on you to order more/the pressure they put on employees, so I just get it to-go if I'm not having a drink, app, and entree.

Wait, what? 33% tip isn't high enough? Wtf?
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_Rinku_ posted...

It's not, really. You're occupying the table, but not spending enough money to make it worth the restaurant's time. Unless you are literally out in ten minutes every single time, you are putting them in the negative for opportunity cost.

Restaurants run on razor-thin margins. I don't like it/the pressure they put on you to order more/the pressure they put on employees, so I just get it to-go if I'm not having a drink, app, and entree.

First of all, there literally isn't a damn opportunity cost for the table when I'm in there. There's always at least four open tables. The server spends a total of maybe one minute to ninety seconds at my table through the whole meal.

Second, why the hell does the tip have anything to do with any of that? You do realize that doesn't go to the restaurant?
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spanky1 posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

the_rowan posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

Also, it sounds like you're not tipping the minimum, which is pretty sleazy.

$3 on a $9 meal is perfectly sufficient. I don't hog the table; I eat and then I'm out.

It's not, really. You're occupying the table, but not spending enough money to make it worth the restaurant's time. Unless you are literally out in ten minutes every single time, you are putting them in the negative for opportunity cost.

Restaurants run on razor-thin margins. I don't like it/the pressure they put on you to order more/the pressure they put on employees, so I just get it to-go if I'm not having a drink, app, and entree.

Wait, what? 33% tip isn't high enough? Wtf?

The general rule is: 20% or at least $5, whichever is higher. There's an opportunity cost of taking up the table and the restaurant can "lose" money on someone who doesn't spend "enough."

spanky1 posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

the_rowan posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

Also, it sounds like you're not tipping the minimum, which is pretty sleazy.

$3 on a $9 meal is perfectly sufficient. I don't hog the table; I eat and then I'm out.

It's not, really. You're occupying the table, but not spending enough money to make it worth the restaurant's time. Unless you are literally out in ten minutes every single time, you are putting them in the negative for opportunity cost.

Restaurants run on razor-thin margins. I don't like it/the pressure they put on you to order more/the pressure they put on employees, so I just get it to-go if I'm not having a drink, app, and entree.

Wait, what? 33% tip isn't high enough? Wtf?

LOOOOOOOOOL!! No wonder this guy thinks $12.50 is too low for a meal. He must be tipping 200% like a sucker. We could avoid that by doing take-out, which would actually be a more fair comparison to fast food (the original point), but I'm sure this guy tips 100% for take-out because, he, the customer dared to stand there and breathe in the restaurant's precious air for a couple of seconds.
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the_rowan posted...

_Rinku_ posted...

It's not, really. You're occupying the table, but not spending enough money to make it worth the restaurant's time. Unless you are literally out in ten minutes every single time, you are putting them in the negative for opportunity cost.

Restaurants run on razor-thin margins. I don't like it/the pressure they put on you to order more/the pressure they put on employees, so I just get it to-go if I'm not having a drink, app, and entree.

First of all, there literally isn't a damn opportunity cost for the table when I'm in there. There's always at least four open tables. The server spends a total of maybe one minute to ninety seconds at my table through the whole meal.

Second, why the hell does the tip have anything to do with any of that?

Sounds like that restaurant isn't doing too well then. If they are, in spite of having four open tables every time you go, they must be making their money in to-go orders or other tasks. In which case, you're taking up resources that could be more profitably used for food prep, taking phone orders, etc.

It's an opportunity cost because when you sit at the table, a more profitable customer could be sitting at the table. It doesn't have much to do with how long the server is there.

Re: tipping: you should always tip either 20% or $5, whichever is higher, assuming the service is good.