Fast food prices

There are a multitude of $5 meals try DQ, Kentucky Fried, Taco Bell 5 layer burrito, chips & drink $3.50? Burger King 3.79 deal, McDonalds 2 for $5.
Guess I define expensive different.

In n Out Burger offers some of the best value for the money! The burgers are made fresh, fries made on-site and we've found their employees to be personable at all their locations. Interestingly, they've also been paying higher than average wages for many, many years.

Speaking of prices - Cable prices keep going up too and don't get me goin' about over-priced housing!

Down in town (~12 mi from us) the DW and myself eat a fast food lunch for around $8 total ($4 each).

That's right here in California's Silicon Valley!

Wendy's here locally has a 4 for 4 menu....your choice of a small sandwich, a 4 piece nugget, a small fries, and a small drink for 4 dollars.

The $4 lunch is gone. I have eaten out for lunch every work day for many years. I am surrounded by all the fast-food chains, restaurants and then some. Over the past year my lunch budget average has increased 36 percent from $5.50/day to $7.50/day. Yes, I track it on a spreadsheet.

Prior to this jump, I increased my budget from $5 to $5.50 in 2013. Lunch prices were stable from ~2007 to 2013, then again from 2013 to 2017. I blew my budget in 2017 so I had to adjust my spreadsheet.

I also adjusted where I ate and how often.
One thing I miss is the Miller's bacon, grilled onion cheeseburger. 2 years ago it was $7, now it's $10 something. Sorry Miller, I took you off my lunch rotation.
Luby's Luan went from &6.60 to $9 something. Don't do that as often either.
Schlotzsky's has gotten ridicules, over $8 now.
I do more Arbey's, Wendy's and Whataburger now to keep the budget in check.

As others have stated most fast food offers a value price menu. I had a Wendy's Single and two 99 cent burgers for the Collies last weekend $6.34 It's not much cheaper to cook at home. I just prepare healthier meals.

We don't eat out very often, but we have made some minor adjustments as prices have gone up. For instance, when we're in the northeast there's a regional restaurant chain we like that offers half-price breakfasts Mon-Fri, so we move our usual Sunday morning breakfast out to Monday when we're in that area. Another favorite restaurant has a punch card for regulars that gives us a free entree for every 9 we buy. Then there's "Ship2Shore", a seafood restaurant with locations in St Mary's GA and the greater Jacksonville, FL area where you pay the normal price for your meal, and then if you bring your receipt back within two weeks, your entree is half price. And they have really good food as well. All of these restaurants are ones we found while trying different places, not because of their deals or specials. Those are just a bonus that saves us a few dollars...

I've also noticed that portions are getting smaller (which is probably a good thing for our waists....LOL!) Regarding Fast Food - I try to order from the "small-print" menu board, where they offer the cheap eats - the stuff prominently-displayed tends to be high-priced and high-caloried :-(

Buy a hamburger in Washington $15.00 plus 3.50 for a cup of coffee.

Lets not forget the economy is doing really well. When things tanked 10 years ago, they lowered prices to get people to come in. So maybe that has something to do with it as well.

Dan