Category: General

Cheap Eating?

picture of a fast food restaurant

Many people have the opinion that making healthier food choices is too expensive and too inconvenient for the disposition of Americans.

Below is an interesting quote from a Wall Street Journal article about Burger King losing business due to sleazy marketing and ignoring a trend among fast food consumers for picking perceived healthier food choices.

Former super fan Noah Rubin says he has. The 28-year-old Seattle man used to wolf down bacon cheeseburgers three or four nights a week at Burger King, Jack in the Box and local bars. But he and his fianceé started cutting back last year after both were laid off, then found jobs at lower pay.

Now they cook at home using organic vegetables and dine out only on weekends. Mr. Rubin figures he is saving more than $100 a week by eating fewer burgers. “I don’t think we’ll go back to eating out as often as we used to,” he says. “We always used to talk about eating at home more, and now that it’s happened, we’ve found that we really enjoy it.”

Hmmm. Saving $100 a week from NOT buying fast food, the epitome of cheap and convenient food? Enjoying cooking at home with organic vegetables?

Times change…

9 biggest rip-offs in the U.S.

Looking to save money? According to CNN Money these are the top 9 worst deals for your money in the U.S.:

.) Text messages: They’re basically free to send and receive. Meaning it doesn’t cost the phone company anything to handle them. But on pay-per-text plans, phone companies will charge as much as 20 cents apiece. That’s a 6,500% markup.

.) Hotel mini-bars: At an average hotel, mini-bar items typically cost three to four times the retail price. And at “fancy” hotels, it’s not uncommon to markup mini-bar items by as much as 1,300%.

.) Movie theater popcorn: A medium bag of popcorn costs about 60 cents to make, and it sells for about $6. That’s a 900% markup.

.) Wine at restaurants: Most restaurants double the price of their more expensive bottles, and triple the price of their cheaper ones. And if you just buy a glass instead of a bottle, you’re going to pay a 500% markup.

.) Hotel in-room movies: A movie rental at Blockbuster will run you about $5. But in a hotel, you’ll pay anywhere from $10 to $15. That’s a 200% markup.

.) Name-brand painkillers: A bottle of Advil costs $8.49, while a bottle of the generic stuff goes for $5.29. That’s a 60% markup, even though the no-name stuff works just as well.

.) Super gasoline: Typically, you’re going to pay about 20 cents to 40 cents more for premium gas than the regular stuff. At $2.72 a gallon for regular gas, that translates to a markup of 15%.

.) College textbooks: Since 1986, the cost of textbooks has increased at double the rate of inflation. Now, an average college student will shell out around $900 a year for textbooks.

.) “Free” credit reports: We’ve all seen those god-awful ads from FreeCreditReport.com. The only problem is their service isn’t actually free. It costs $14.99 a month, or $179 a year. (CNN Money)

Clueless: Smart Phones & Movie Theaters

This post is to deliver a message to the clueless:

Yes, it does annoy people when you turn on a device with a bright screen in a dark movie theater.

Yes, it is rude.

A small bright screen firing up in a pitch black room is distracting. Having to get up and ask you to shut it off spoils part of the movie. Getting into that spoiled movie often costs over $10 per person.

If you can’t go for 90 minutes without checking your email you should not go to movie theaters or you should make the radical move of going out into the hallway.

Other people paid to get into the movie besides you.

Enough said.