Things are getting expensive $$$$

Transit · Feb 28, 2011

zzvyb6 said:
Sorry to hear about your surgery and hope that you have a full recovery. I play hockey 3 -4 times a week and have trouble keeping my weight up. I now drink an Ensure a few times a day and that sure helps me get above 165#. I prefer the vanilla because it tastes like a BK shake. Buy it by the case at Costco or Sams.

Try the Costco brand Kirkland Weight Loss Shake, less expensive than Ensure. I mix it with Soy milk as a shake and it makes me go potty too. I'm just a regular guy.

2manyrocks · Feb 28, 2011

I think what we have is the calculated inflation rate is zero because they are offsetting the higher cost of fuel and so forth against declining real estate prices. The economic reality for the average guy would be a double whammy of paying more for everything needed to live, but having less value in your real estate assets, but don't worry because the inflation rate is zero.

The whopper jr. meal is a pretty good value and so is the Wendy's chicken sandwich jr. deluxe meal at $3.99.

Transit · Feb 28, 2011

The government inflation rate of zero is all on paper while the day to day inflation is the effect of what you have to take out of your pocket to get by.
I don't make it a habit of eating at fast food joints. I need the extra calories and the exercise, a 1 mile walk each way, no mater which direction it is all up hill, the bank is a mile and a half each way. By the time I return home I just about make it into the house, than take a nap. However it is more than I was able to walk weeks ago.

2manyrocks · Mar 1, 2011

Yes...

statistics don't lie, but liars can figure.

MossRoad · Mar 1, 2011

2manyrocks said:
I think what we have is the calculated inflation rate is zero because they are offsetting the higher cost of fuel and so forth against declining real estate prices. The economic reality for the average guy would be a double whammy of paying more for everything needed to live, but having less value in your real estate assets, but don't worry because the inflation rate is zero.

The whopper jr. meal is a pretty good value and so is the Wendy's chicken sandwich jr. deluxe meal at $3.99.

If you think about it, a double cheeseburger, a side salad and a stupidly large drink for three bucks plus tax off the McDonalds value menu is pretty darn cheap, too.

jinman · Mar 1, 2011

Transit said:
I am recovering from cancer surgery, I lost weight, 175 down to 145 pounds. I am at 149 & ｾ now. I eat at BK maybe twice a week, my goal is 150-152 pounds, than I can stop.

You're going to the wrong place! My grandkids all say BK is wayyyy over priced. Go to Taco Bell. Good ol' beans, chili, cheese, and sorta-beef will put some meat on your bones.

:laughing:

Transit · Mar 1, 2011

jinman said:
You're going to the wrong place! My grandkids all say BK is wayyyy over priced. Go to Taco Bell. Good ol' beans, chili, cheese, and sorta-beef will put some meat on your bones.:laughing:

Much too far away to walk and I do not like it.

Pete Judd · Mar 1, 2011

With all the travel of late, that french place, Jock in the box, a breakfast jack, 99 cents plus tax and a thermos of coffee at the next truck stop for a buck or two makes a cheap breakfast.

buckle97 · Mar 2, 2011

MossRoad said:
I went to Burger King for lunch Friday. Whopper Junior with cheese for $1.49 and onion rings for $1.00. Free water. :laughing:

I used to be able to do that around here. Burger King put up a sign a few months ago that read "We are now charging for the following items: BBQ Sauce 25 cents; Water $1." Taco Bell has been charging 10 cents for their water for a while and Arbys just started charging 25 cents.
My parents have been taking their own can of soft drinks with them to fast food places for a few years and I thought it was a little strange. I have noticed an increase of this practice locally so it must be catching on. Anyone else see this where they are?

schmism · Mar 2, 2011

buckle97 said:
Anyone else see this where they are?

I dont know about charging for water but we often take our own can drinks to the fast food places. Got tired of paying $1.5 for the same product that cost me about $.35.

Shure $2.5 dont seem like much but when you figure the total cost of what we buy (for the wife and I) its like 30% of the meal price... and that IS significant.

FYI consumer price index (the thing the feds look at for inflation) does not include fuel price or food prices. Go figure

Im still on my rant about fuel prices. Not some much that they jump when the price of oil goes up (despite a 3 month lag between when that crude actually makes it to the store in the form of fuel) but the fact that i can buy mid grade (89) fuel in Viburnum MO (pop 800) for 3.15 and in Potosi MO some 40 miles away (pop 5000+) the SAME fuel is 3.29..... guess what its the SAME product delivered the EXACT same way... so why is one .15 more!

oh thats right because they can make it .15 more just because.

anyone that tells me that retail margin on fuel is mere pennies.... absolutely no way!

when i win the lotto... im going to buy a gas station and a few fast food franchises :thumbsup:

R_Walter · Mar 2, 2011

Food will continue to increase in price for our lifetimes and beyond. Worldwide demand will see to that! That's the bad thing.

The good thing is that the good, ole USA is the largest, most efficient, cost-effective producer of vegetable, fruit, grain, meat and poultry food-stuffs in the world and will likely continue to be for our lifetimes and beyond. AND.... they can't send our farms and ranchlands to China.

Buy stock in companies like Deere, Tysons, SuperValu, ConAgra, General Mills and Nestle and be prepared to hold for a while. You'll be rewarded.

Bird · Mar 2, 2011

This thread has been comical to be since I couldn't remember the last time we went to one of the fast food burger joints. We did go to Fuddruckers once last year. But I went out shopping for a hand held vacuum while my wife was cleaning house this morning and when I got back she said she wanted a hamburger.:laughing: We've got most of the places right together here within 2 miles: McDonald's, Burger King, Jack in the Box but we went to the Whataburger. We've lived here 5 years and had never been to any of them. Anyway, a whataburger meal; burger with everything, french fries, and giant soft drink (free refills) was $4.99 each, but we did a $0.35 upgrade on one to onion rings.:laughing: So with sales tax, it cost $11.18 for the 2 of us. And we got great friendly service, too. This whataburger place is open 24 hours a day; both the dining room and the drive-in window. I noticed a sign in the window "Family Owned and Operated since 1950". I didn't know any of them had been around that long.

jinman · Mar 2, 2011

Bird said:
This whataburger place is open 24 hours a day; both the dining room and the drive-in window. I noticed a sign in the window "Family Owned and Operated since 1950". I didn't know any of them had been around that long.

Bird, the first Whataburger I ever ate at was in Baytown, TX in 1967. That little A-frame building looked like it had been there a long time even then. I do not remember them being this far north back in those days, certainly not a national chain. It seems that Whataburger is a homegrown Texas franchise. Here's a link to their history.

Transit · Mar 2, 2011

R_Walter said:
Food will continue to increase in price for our lifetimes and beyond. Worldwide demand will see to that! That's the bad thing.

The good thing is that the good, ole USA is the largest, most efficient, cost-effective producer of vegetable, fruit, grain, meat and poultry food-stuffs in the world and will likely continue to be for our lifetimes and beyond. AND.... they can't send our farms and ranchlands to China.

Buy stock in companies like Deere, Tysons, SuperValu, ConAgra, General Mills and Nestle and be prepared to hold for a while. You'll be rewarded.

Don't know about that. My aunt in Florida has seen a big change in the produce available in the supermarkets. She can't get a decent orange, melons or tomato, its all crap from Mexico.

zene55 · Mar 2, 2011

jinman said:
Bird, the first Whataburger I ever ate at was in Baytown, TX in 1967. That little A-frame building looked like it had been there a long time even then. I do not remember them being this far north back in those days, certainly not a national chain. It seems that Whataburger is a homegrown Texas franchise. Here's a link to their history.

I grew up in Baytown. Did you ever go to the Bonus Burger on 146?

jinman · Mar 3, 2011

zene55 said:
I grew up in Baytown. Did you ever go to the Bonus Burger on 146?

I don't remember the Bonus Burger, but I was kinda distracted back in '67 and '68 when I was there. That's the hometown of my first wife. She was in school at Texas Woman's University in Denton, TX and we travelled to Baytown to see her parents and relatives. Her uncle was Neal Dickens who owned Neal Dickens Motor Co. out on Alexander, which is 146. We could easily have eaten at the Bonus Burger and I would not remember.

My wedding was at the Missouri St. Church of Christ there in Baytown too. We didn't hang around there long after the wedding. We went to Galveston for a couple of days, and then I had to be back at work at Texas Instruments in Dallas. After I joined the US Navy and we divorced, I used to go to Baytown to pick up my kids for visitation, but normally I picked them up and we hit the road to go visit all my relatives. I was in the US Navy and used my leave to come home to Texas from the east or west coast and go visit my kids. That was the only way my parents got to see their grandchildren.

So Baytown is really a blur to me, but I remember people used to laugh and say that Baytown was a town with only a refinery, fast food joints, and car lots.

I have not been there since the late '70s.

Transit · Mar 3, 2011

Watched a move last night about Adm. Halsey, The Gallant Hours. Were we on the ropes. Halsey pulled the rabbit out of the hat and turned the war around at Guadalcanal.

I noticed that the dialoged was cleaned up to be politically correct when referring to the enemy.

The film's coda is a quote from Admiral Halsey:
"There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet."

Bird · Mar 3, 2011

jinman said:
Bird, the first Whataburger I ever ate at was in Baytown, TX in 1967. That little A-frame building looked like it had been there a long time even then. I do not remember them being this far north back in those days, certainly not a national chain. It seems that Whataburger is a homegrown Texas franchise. Here's a link to their history.

Jim, that sign in the window of the local Whataburger is the first time I've seen such a sign at any Whataburger (haven't been to one in awhile, but always liked them) and my first thought was this particular Whataburger and I just knew that couldn't be, but didn't ask anyone. Obviously, the sign means the whole company, as that history link would indicate.

pennwalk · Mar 3, 2011

I fondly remember going to Wendys for a couple of jr. bacon cheeseburgers frys and a frosty until the doctor put an end to that. He seems intent on sucking all the pleasure from life. If you think food and gas are expensive what about doctors?

Now I get my burger fix by driving past and breathing in that delicious smell. It is probably bad for me put who wants to live forever.

Chris