vespergirl
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2007
- Messages
- 5,497
I have been hearing a lot lately about people who are having financial troubles saying that they are having a hard time feeding their families. However, upon further questioning, many of these people are buying lunches and dinners at restaurants and fast food joints, instead of preparing meals at home.
For example, one family that was featured on Dr. Phil said that the mother was thankful for Subway restaurants, because they could but each family member a $5 sandwich for dinner, which is what they did most nights. The family had 6 people. That means that they were spending $30 a night on dinner, but complaining about not being able to pay their mortgage! After hearing how much money these people were wasting on fast food restaurants, I had little sympathy for them. If they had prepared their own meals, they could have saved enougheach month to make their mortgage payments.
I''m sorry, but to me, that is an incredible waste of money. You can EASILY feed a family of 4 on $5 per meal. For example, a box of pasta and a jar of marinara sauce, serving 4, can be purchased for $3 for the whole dinner. How about toast for breakfast? Salad for lunch? A head of lettuce costs $1.50. You can make a vat of soup for next to nothing! You can buy rice & beans in bulk and the whole family can eat for a week for $20. And for a nice sunday dinner, you can get a roasting chicken, some potatoes, carrots and onions for $10 and have a beautiful family meal. The way that I was raised, everything was made from scratch, and we didn''t have to have meat with every meal. My parents are from a Mediterranean country where vegetables, grains and fish that they caught was the bulk of the diet, and meat and eggs were had maybe two or three times a week. Our family doesn''t have obesity issues, nor do we struggle to afford food.
It just amazes me that some people feel entitled to luxury items every day, and then complain that they can''t make their mortgage payments. I also wonder how many of these people have cable TV and cell phones. I saw another family that was featured on Oprah that was living in a homeless shelter due to the parents'' admittedly poor budgeting and spending practices. The little girl (around 7) who was interviewed was complaining that she only owned 2 pairs of shoes. Hello, when I was a kid, I would frequently only have two pairs of shoes - everyday sneakers, and a dressy pair for church. I just don''t see having "only" 2 pairs of shoes as abject poverty.
Sorry if this comes out harsh, but it amazes me how some people are completely incabale of living within their means. I grew up in an upper-middle class household, but my parents were extremely poor immigrants, and I saw how my grandparents, and many other people of their generation lived, who lived through the Depression and WWII. It''s just kind of disgusting to me to think that we are in this financial crisis because people of modest means try to live more extravagantly than they can afford to.
OK, I''ve done my venting, I''m going to get off my soapbox now ...
For example, one family that was featured on Dr. Phil said that the mother was thankful for Subway restaurants, because they could but each family member a $5 sandwich for dinner, which is what they did most nights. The family had 6 people. That means that they were spending $30 a night on dinner, but complaining about not being able to pay their mortgage! After hearing how much money these people were wasting on fast food restaurants, I had little sympathy for them. If they had prepared their own meals, they could have saved enougheach month to make their mortgage payments.
I''m sorry, but to me, that is an incredible waste of money. You can EASILY feed a family of 4 on $5 per meal. For example, a box of pasta and a jar of marinara sauce, serving 4, can be purchased for $3 for the whole dinner. How about toast for breakfast? Salad for lunch? A head of lettuce costs $1.50. You can make a vat of soup for next to nothing! You can buy rice & beans in bulk and the whole family can eat for a week for $20. And for a nice sunday dinner, you can get a roasting chicken, some potatoes, carrots and onions for $10 and have a beautiful family meal. The way that I was raised, everything was made from scratch, and we didn''t have to have meat with every meal. My parents are from a Mediterranean country where vegetables, grains and fish that they caught was the bulk of the diet, and meat and eggs were had maybe two or three times a week. Our family doesn''t have obesity issues, nor do we struggle to afford food.
It just amazes me that some people feel entitled to luxury items every day, and then complain that they can''t make their mortgage payments. I also wonder how many of these people have cable TV and cell phones. I saw another family that was featured on Oprah that was living in a homeless shelter due to the parents'' admittedly poor budgeting and spending practices. The little girl (around 7) who was interviewed was complaining that she only owned 2 pairs of shoes. Hello, when I was a kid, I would frequently only have two pairs of shoes - everyday sneakers, and a dressy pair for church. I just don''t see having "only" 2 pairs of shoes as abject poverty.
Sorry if this comes out harsh, but it amazes me how some people are completely incabale of living within their means. I grew up in an upper-middle class household, but my parents were extremely poor immigrants, and I saw how my grandparents, and many other people of their generation lived, who lived through the Depression and WWII. It''s just kind of disgusting to me to think that we are in this financial crisis because people of modest means try to live more extravagantly than they can afford to.
OK, I''ve done my venting, I''m going to get off my soapbox now ...