Looking at you five guys.
Story time. We t to five guys, go up to the country asked for a burger combo. Person behind counter says they don’t have combos so I have to say out loud: lemme get a burger fries and a coke.
Like I get it but a combo is a burger fries and a coke.
Not cheap, not convenient, not fast, and, let’s be real: It’s barely food.
Sonic Boom predicted it with Meh Burger
When I was in high school, we’d split a gram of weed four ways and go to Wendy’s for the $4.20 meal. For less than ten bucks, you got stoned, a junior bacon cheese, four nuggets, small fry, and a small chocolate frosty. This was in the mid oughts so not that long ago!
The mid oughts was a different world, hundreds of years ago.
Y’all oughtta know the mid oughts were a lit time to behold.
If you have a Braum’s nearby you can get a bomb-ass burger with two quarter pound patties, crinkle cut fries, and drink or shake for about $9.
But you probably don’t have a Braum’s around unless you are in the US and in one of like two shithole states.
In my days, you got a week’s worth of calories for $3.50
In my days you could buy 420 chickens for $0.69.
I mean…
Chick Fil A is still good(Edit: Well I guess not anymore… 😓)Panda Express is still good
Its mostly just Mcdonalds being garbage
As long as Chic Fil A is at the throats of LGBT people, no the fuck it aint.
True. Even ignoring that though, chic fil a is fine at best but overrated if you ask me. Their best menu item is the shakes, everything else is mid. Not bad just mid.
It’s definitely overrated. Where I live a solid meal will set you back $12-$14, and it’s always super crowded and hence slow. Instead, I can just walk a few minutes, and get better chicken for cheaper ($10-$12) and faster at the local place.
HOLY SHIT wtf did I miss?
Is every company going nazi?
This is sadly not news, the feud between the LGBT and Chic-Fil-A is pretty long
It goes like this
-2011-
Chic-Fil-A: Our money goes to Christian charities
LGBT: Well that’s fine, you are the Jesus Chicken place, pass me some waffle fries my man
Chic-Fil-A: Sure, that’ll be a dollar, a dollar that prevents gays from getting married
LGBT: Wait, I thought you said charities
Chic-Fil-A: We lied
-2015-
Chic-Fil-A: Okay Gay Marriage is legal and Caitlyn Jenner + Lavrene Cox seem to be getting the ball rolling on trans rights. I guess we have no choice but to abandon “Traditional Marriage” and other such causes and just stick to charity work…
Caitlyn Jenner: I’m the worst human being alive, I hate all other transpeople, the only moral transition is my transition, and I am literally guilty of vehicular homicide but am too rich to be charged with it!
Chic-Fil-A: Okay just Lavrene Cox then… So you hungry my rainbow friend?
LGBT: Oh thank God, I can finally have a decent chicken sandwich, God what is your secret?
Chic-Fil-A: Why the lies we tell about what we fund go into every mouth-watering bite of our Homophobic Chicken!
LGBT: What?
Chic-Fil-A: Shit, did I say that out loud? Fuck, okay you got us, we’re still funding Anti-LGBT causes we’re just trying to be quieter about it, also we don’t think abortion should be legal and are lobbying to have that banned to.
LGBT: WHAT!?! I’M PROTESTING YOU SO HARD!
Left-Leaning Americans: And we’ll help!
Fox News: Chic-Fil-A, which is not homophobic at all, is being protested because Democrats are mad that a store is closed on Sundays because they hate the bible! No really, this is a spin we actually went with to demonize our political enemies!
Right-Leaning Americans: I believe that whole-heartedly because I have no ability to question any information that sounds like it’s even remotely true unless it comes from a Democrat. I always knew that gays hated Jesus and will now give all my money to Chic-Fil-A.
-2025-
Chic-Fil-A: So uhh now that we’re all being mask off, can I interest in you a lemonade, you must be very thirsty after playing in girl’s sports you filthy degenerate.
LGBT: Oh fuck off, you know damn well we don’t and that you don’t care about women’s sports anyway, how are you still in business?
Chic-Fil-A: Actually we’re making record profits because of those guys
LGBT: What guys?
Left-Leaning Americans: We know it’s homophobic, but we’re addicted to fast food and it tastes just so fucking good. Your suffering is no reason for me to be slightly inconveinced, even though everyone from McDonalds to KFC has a chicken sandwich just like theirs…
Right-Leaning Americans: MAGA! MAGA! MAGA! GOTTA PWN THE LIBS! WHITE LIVES MATTER! I’M ORDERING EXTRA SANDWICHES JUST TO SPITE THE DISGUSTING FREAKS… cut off by the munching of fries WHO… slurping coke ARE COMING FOR OUR KIDS!
LGBT: Okay yeah that sadly tracks…
And that’s basically the whole story
They’ve been Bigot Chicken for decades now. Sorry.
Me when I go to my local hangry chicken and order the chicken + fries nachos only for them to give me dark meat.
Dark meat at least tastes better and is more desirable where I’m at. Now you just get less meat in general for however much you’re spending.
Give it five years and the taco bell quesadilla is probably gonna cost $10 and use the small tortilla instead of the big one. They may have won the franchise wars in fiction but reality is stranger.
It’s been a long time since fast food was any good. It’s addictive, maybe comfortable, but definitely not good. Break your addiction, especially now that you could save so much money
It’s comfortable, but also the salt they sprinkle on there must be a narcotic substance of some kind.
That said, McDonald’s vs an OK sit-down restaurant are roughly the same price here. The latter is going to have better food - generally - but Mickey D will be more consistent, have the ability to order without talking to anyone, has a drive-thru, can order home (SOME restaurants don’t do it here for some reason, most do luckily)… Basically, the fast food will win in all factors of convenience, but you won’t feel as satisfied after eating it.
Buy frozen chicken nuggies/pizza and bake it in the oven
In my industry, there’s a saying along the lines of “Good, fast, cheap. Pick two.”
I think the fast food industry version is “Good, fast, cheap? No, no. And believe it or not, also no.”
I don’t eat fast food very often, so this is entirely anecdotal. Of the fast food chains I’ve eaten at in recent history, Taco Bell is by far the worst. Against my better judgment, I even broke down and gave them a second chance at a different location thinking maybe my first terrible experience was a fluke. Didn’t work out. Makes me think it’s bad everywhere. Wendy’s has held up the best of the places I’ve eaten. It’s definitely not cheap anymore, fast depends on the location as well as other factors, and good is relative, but overall it hasn’t gone down hill as bad as the others.
Wendy’s is pretty decent, expensive but better if you use their app. I usually still see a code in there somewhere for $2 off or something, and their small frosty’s aren’t quite at fuck off levels of pricing yet.
Taco bell I feel like every restaurant is different. One near my house used to be bomb AF, then they had a changeover of all their staff and now it’s terrible. Even the drive thru is different now they now have an AI taking your order lmao. Another location down the road is better at the food quality, but they fuck up what is supposed to go with your order half the time so at that one I always have to check the bag in the parking lot before I leave.
The older I get the most I just feel like it isn’t worth it as much anymore. If I’m going to have to wait a half hour plus in the drive thru line, pay $15 for a meal now or $20+ if I wanted to get dessert or another side item too, and deal with people and the headaches of it, I’d rather just keep driving home and cook something there in about the same time. Plus I can usually get 3 or 4 meals out of that $20 worth if I make it at home so each leftover is faster to make.
Fast food industry is doing a great job making sure that I stay away as best I can and be inconvenient. The sole exception so far has been Little Ceasars, still $6 for a lunch combo and if you order in the app it’s great, get notified when it’s ready and I literally just park out front walk in grab my order out of the ready bin and off I go. I don’t understand why others haven’t pivoted that way as well.
What is your industry? That saying is awesome.
I’ve heard it in engineering and software both
Software development. I certainly didn’t coin the phrase, but it’s well-known and I agree, pretty fitting even outside of the IT industry.
Pretty common saying in the business world.
taco bell definitely has one of the widest ranges in quality. one near my house is fucking awful and never gets the substitutions right, but the one 20 minutes away is great
To me it’s McDonalds, how something using the exact same ingredients and prep can taste so different and have vastly different delivery times in everyone you go to boggles the mind
Honestly I don’t think I’ve ate at Mcdonald’s in the last six months now that I think about it. The enshittification of their app deals, price hikes, quality going down, the whole disease outbreak thing, just really turned me off of them. I know they had a bad quarter recently I hope they have another bad one 🤣
This sums up my experience as well. It’s never been healthy, but at least it used to be cheap and tasty. But nowadays mcdonalds is so expensive I almost consider it a luxury, and the plastic-looking sauces and mystery meat are in no way appetizing (tho that might just be me getting older and changing preferences as opposed to the actual food getting worse)
$18 of that $25 was delivery fees and tip
So true lol
Yeah… I only do fast food using apps and only go if there’s a good enough “discount”(quotes because it’s really what the prices should be anyway, obvs.).
The Jimmy Johns app is atrocious in this regard.
“Buy 16 sandwiches this month for free cookie!”
Fucken nerds.
Screw that. Last month I got free burgers with minimum $1 purchase at burger king. Two cookies =$1 exactly.
Pack soda can and go, lol. I thinkI added cheese for 30¢
Lmao wtf is a brk bcntr
You don’t know what a brk bcntr is?! What is this world coming to when people can’t figure out the POS POS’ extremely shortened words?!
Breakfast Baconator. 670 calories of greasy bacon sausage and cheese on a bun.
Not even even an egg on it? I kinda want an egg on my breakfast sandwich
Whoops. Yeah it has egg too: from their website: “Grilled sausage, American cheese, Applewood smoked bacon, a fresh-cracked free range egg, (deep breath) more cheese and more bacon all covered in our signature cheese sauce”
I switched to mostly cooking for myself sometime last year, really just trying to save money, but I feel significantly less fatigued day to day and more focused and don’t wake up with random stomach pain anymore.
I’ve done that most of my adult life and yeah even just pasta with jarred sauce is so much cheaper, better, and healthier than fast food.
Your next big level up may be realizing that exercise doesn’t suck nearly as much as the feeling of being out of shape
Honestly, it’s been a great help reducing take out. It’s such a gamble, I’d rather spent nothing on a sure thing (even if it’s boring) than nearly $40 for a meal I may not even finish.
I’m a spreadsheet nerd. Not a guru by any stretch, but I love to make spreadsheets. They help me plan and organize things in a way nothing else does. Despite all the websites and apps out there that make budgeting simple, I do ALL of my budgeting and spend tracking in an odt file. It’s been a rolling development for the last five years and I think I’ve got it to its ultimate stage. I’m really proud of my work.
I think what’s really helping me stay on top of it this year is the fact that in December, I spent about a week planning the year in painstaking detail. I built a whole paycheck estimation tool that automatically calculates tax withholding. I cross-referenced employee handbooks to determine pre-tax withholdings like retirement and insurance. I found the 2025 tax brackets and standard deduction. I understand now how our taxes are withheld for the state side. I actually determined my wife is taking out way too little for tax. January is an awesome time to make that catch. By the time I was done, I determined four paycheck numbers we might experience in the year based on various circumstances. I planned out how much I think each of our 26 paychecks will be, when they will occur, and how we will spend them with a high degree of confidence. I gave us a set amount of fun money each time. Most importantly, I found a way for us to make regular deposits into our savings account. I have a plan in place to save $2,000 and pay off a couple of credit cards this year. It ain’t much, but it’ll be a start. And if something goes wrong, having some money stashed away will be a huge help.
So far, I’ve squirrelled away 300 bucks. I feel really good about that.
I also track all of our spending in that file. I spend 5 minutes each night before bed reconciling it to the bank. That’s been a major step forward, too.
More to your point, eating out is hella expensive. I opened a second checking account to give us that kind of money. We buy books and music and games and makeup and food from out on that. If that card runs out of money, it ends. Full stop. At least, it should. I got lazy the last few months of last year and we spent way too much on takeout. But I’m motivated to be better this year. I make myself go grocery shopping. And then I make myself cook even when I don’t wanna. And I put the dishes away and clean the laundry, even when I don’t wanna.
I know that’s just regular adult shit, but I’ve been a hot mess for a while lol
I’m trying to get myself together too (though not nearly as impressive as your method). I’m writing down everything I spend, from a soda, or groceries, to rent. I quickly saw I was spending, like, to the penny of my check, and saw I wasted a good $200 on just bullshit. I’m trying to put on my big girl panties and get it together. Whenever I saw no to something, I’ve been putting it in a savings account. Like, “eh, I can make dinner at home.” Okay, then that $15 for the cheeseburger that you were okay with is now going into savings.
My goal is to end this year without debt. School, credit card, all of it. Tired of it lol
That’s an impressive level of financial responsibility, nice job
- Bump up your employer’s withholding by 5%
- Get that overpayment back from the IRS
- Immediately dump that into a retirement thing that reduces taxable income; like, same-day
- Next year you have another 5% windfall and a little more back from the retirement contribution. Put both back into same deal
- Repeat forever
- Slow win
Why would I give the IRS an interest free loan? Taking that same 5% from your paycheck directly and setting up an automatic transfer to a high-yield savings account or an IRA each month would give you better dividends over the same period of time.
When I can buy like a large 5 top pizza for as much as a single fast food combo, i know which I’ll choose.
Pizza is also ridiculously expensive where I live. For something that is comprised of almost entirely dough, cheese, and tomato sauce, it’s kind of criminal that some places are charging $20 or more for a large pie. It probably cost them $1.50 worth of ingredients to make when you factor in bulk pricing.
Where I’m at it’s definitely very restaurant dependent. Papa Racist’s (Papa John’s) and Pizza Butt (Pizza Hut) I avoid like the plague because their decisions have been jack up the price and nosedive the quality. Meanwhile Little Ceasar’s is doing a $6 lunch combo and most pies I get there are usually $6-10.
I get it it’s Little Ceasar’s, but I got one thing to say to the LC haters
lmao true, I think Little Ceasars is actually good for the value. The $5 hot and ready box was an almost unbeatable deal.
I really prefer Domino’s, but their prices are outrageous so I don’t go there anymore. If I’m going to pay a shitload of money for pizza, I get a whole New York Style pizza so I can really enjoy it. Might start making my own now though, tbh. How hard could it be?
Hey now, those poor businesses need to make up for their profit situation! Even though they have all made record profits year after year… After year…
We will be in a recession once they decide it’s time for one.deleted by creator