cheaper, please

McDonald's has lost their place. They think that just because they decorate their stores like a Millennial's minimalist dream hellscape that it suddenly makes a McChicken $2.49. No. It's the same god damned sandwich I could buy 15 years ago, 2/$1. A couple friends and I once bought dinner there on couch cushion change and the few bucks we had in our pockets. And it was glorious. And I know the McDonalds' around me are still paying $9-10 an hour. Like they were in '09. I'm not convinced the cost of everything else justifies the annihilation of the Dollar Menu.
It used to be that I went to McDonald's because I was broke, tired, and hungry. I wasn't going there because I wanted to be there. I was going there because I was burning the candle at both ends and was just desperate for anything that wasn't meatless spaghetti I cooked last Wednesday. It was an inexpensive morale boost. I just can't find a reason to go there anymore. For the money, there are WAY better options. We have more local chains that blow McDonalds out of the water.
Taco Bell is going the same route, but at least the food is consistently pretty good. I mean, it's pretty hard to fuck up a bean burrito. But is a bean burrito really $1.79 now? I get they can't be 79¢ forever, but damn, man. I just feel bad for broke college kids these days. You really can't get a cheap meal anymore.
And don't get me wrong - I'd happily pay today's prices if I knew the workers were being paid $20 an hour like they should be, but I know they're not. Not in Oklahoma.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
- I’m not convinced the cost of everything else justifies the annihilation of the Dollar Menu.
  McDonalds adopted the same strategy that bankrupted Sears over a decade ago. Rather than running it as a single business, they've got the corporate offices divided up into "sectors" that are rivalrous to one another. So they have a real estate division that controls the actual property that the restaurants sit on, and then they've got an agricultural department that manages where and how they source raw materials (including farmland which they own and manage and holy shit the labor practices there are a whole different kind of nightmare), and then they've actually got the retail storefronts.
  Each division is expected to turn a profit by charging competitive market rates. So if you have a McDs franchise license as a retail venue, but you don't actually own the building, your rent jumps up at the same rate as all the other units around you. If there's a bad crop of potatoes or a sudden glut of pork, you adjust your menu accordingly.
  In fact, there's a dirty secret in the agricultural industry called the McRib Arbitrage which describes a soft price floor for hog futures based on the assumption that once prices dip below a certain point, McDonalds will start buying pork in bulk and clear the surplus to make their iconic sandwiches.
  All this is to say "The Dollar Menu" has absolutely nothing to do with wage rates and everything to do with real estate and agricultural costs, combined with the clearing price for a hamburger at neighboring fast food restaurants. If nobody else is offering $1 burgers, McDonalds will make it cost-prohibitive for any of their franchises to do it, too.
- Last time I went there because I was with my two kids, we were exhausted, hungry and it was the only place open with seating that was open.
  I paid 18€ for a burger with fries and a drink. 18€ !!!
  The burger was more expensive at McDonald than in most restaurants in the area !
- So I had been going to Del Taco for the $0.60 snack tacos because they were just regular tacos (lettuce, meat, cheese nothing else) for less than a dollar. Could spend $5 and fill my appetite and have left overs.
  This last time I went, they had gone up to $1.20. Doubled in price. Still better than the normal taco price though. But then I got the bag and find that they also made the tacos half as big. You're paying twice as much for half as much as you used to get now.
- McDonals used to have a $0.39 cheeseburger in the late 90s. Maybe it was a promo. $4 could get you 10 cheeseburgers and that's what we used to get when I was lifeguardig.
- McChicken is already at 3,50€ where I live :')

There are meals for under $1?? Where???
- I buy maruchan instant noodles at the store for like 49 cents when they're on sale. off sale usually 79
  
  But how much noodles are there?
  Because if i'm still hungry it's not really a meal... and we college student are hungry af!
  Were i'm at the university's restaurant offers full meal with starters and dessert at 3,5€ (or $3.73) it's enough and the best quality and quantity i've seen for that price.
  
  Those are 50 cents now???? Inflation really is hitting hard.
  
  And tax is like $1

The fact that McDonald's still has their 1,2,3 dollar menu is a joke. The cheapest thing on there is just over $2.
- Found out yesterday that a McDouble is $3.49 here which is crazy to me.
  
  The few times I go to mcD I get two double cheeseburgers because here at least they're on the pick 2 for $3.69, making them almost half price and so the closest thing they still have to a reasonably priced burger.
- Where I am, not 1 single thing on that menu is less than $3.50. Fucker should just be called the $4 menu.

Had a friend in college who would sneak into an All-You-Can-Eat buffet restaurant through the kitchen (former dishwasher who had some friends there) and carry off boxes of food at the end of every night. He claimed that his food costs were under $.15/day, with most of that just going to dishwasher detergent.
Significantly healthier than the All-Ramen diet and cheaper even than the dorm cafeteria which typically clocked in at around $2-3/day.
He saved up about $2000 by the end of the year as a result and - being the savvy investor that he was - bet it all on LUNA coin. I got to hear this as I was in his dorm room to talk him out of killing himself.

"I have a Kraft Single between two white-bread heels."
"SOLD!"

I was a master at getting free food in college. I'd just walk into events, sometimes ones I wasn't invited to, grab food, and leave. Oftentimes my college wouldn't post bouncers at every entrance to the buildings, so getting into private stuff was ridiculously easy.
There was also a time where going to the career fair would get me extra credit for a class. You had to pay to get in, though. I just walked in the side door, got the proof that I was there, took some food they were serving, and left.
You can do so much if you act like you belong.
10/10 would recommend doing this as much as possible.
- I did my work study at the college library and a fun perk was that most of the events were hosted in the library lobby because it was the biggest indoor area on campus. I got lots of free food that way.

you can get 90% of your calories from bananas, like native ultramarathoners in south anerica do.
- I find it fascinating that banana plants are mostly all clones. This puts them in great danger of disease.

When I was in college there was a bowling alley with "$1.50 a scoop Chinese", for 5 dollars you could get a Togo clamshell that would barely close and get 2 or 3 meals out of it.
- In college we had a spot we would go to, sold Chinese and donuts, so that's what we called it. Actually pretty good Chinese and they would Stuff the Togo clamshell absolutely full. I also got at a minimum two meals, usually 3, though the 3rd was just based on the fried rice, just add an egg and whatever other leftovers I could scrounge up.

for me it was powdered mashed potatos and ramen noodles.

Can haz

I wasn't a great cook by any means in college but I grew around a lot of spices. And apparently all the kids loved my cooking. They bought food and washed dishes any time I mentioned I would cook. I felt guilty because all I was doing was adding spices (oh they chopped as well, though I was the only one who could mince garlic and ginger right). But they loved it. I got free food most of college that way.

When I was in college in the mid aughts, there was a Taco Bell across the street from campus. Only place I could get full on $3.

I just ate whatever my mom cooked the day before or went to the Chinese restaurant during lunch. 🧐

My university gradually replaced all the affordable on campus place with over priced prestige brands. The coffee places all got swapped with Starbucks and doubled in price. The on campus taco mayo got replaced with a chipotle.

If you are low on money, make you own meals. Far cheaper and healthier too. So not go out, order or whatever.
- You say this as if the stress of working our collective asses off for far too many hours leaves us with the time or willpower to spend the time to both go shopping and cook whatever it is we just bought.
  
  I am extremely lazy so I go grocery shopping once every few months (canned food and the freezer help stretch this time, but quite a bit lasts a while in a regular fridge, like eggs and cheese) and my meals are incredibly simple (sandwiches, salads, things thrown into a giant pot, rice & toppings, etc).
  
  Well either you spend time doing something yourself, getting a better result for less money... Or you pay for it.
  Buying junk food all the time is not somehow good. Perhaps you are not completely responsible for being in that situation. It is still a bad idea to eat such trash, essentially robbing your future self of a healthy body. If that is not worth 30 minutes per day, then so be it.
- It’s the outfitted kitchen that kills your savings there.
  
  There are very few things I can't make with an air fryer(mini oven) and hot plate.