[fintstone]

If one wants to understand why people are poor, they can just go to McDonalds or Burger King and watch the folks. Unless travelling, when I go, I often order on my phone app and take it home (saving on drinks), but sometimes I eat there. With the Ap, if you choose carefully, the price is usually about half as much (or less)...and we generally try to eat a moderate sized meal. My wife and I both eat well, typically from $4-6. There is almost always a 2 for 1 and most aps add points that can be saved and redeemed for even more food. I see similar couples spend $20 or more. Many take a bunch of kids who each order some sort of "meal" that is a massive amount of food and expensive...and walk out with a bill of $40 or more. I see the same folks in more expensive local restaurants where they seem to similarly spend massive amounts of money ordering every appetizer and desert on the menu in addition to expensive main course. Their meals are well above $100 while mine is about $25-$30. Sometimes I know the family. They eat out like this several times each week...some almost every day. Often they are one income families where the wage earner happily makes little more than minimum wage (with no interest in working overtime or preparing for a more difficult, higher paying job).

When I was young and poor, my family never ate in a restaurant. As an adult (and with my own kids)...it was a rare treat (as it is pretty inexpensive to cook yourself). A loaf of bread is a couple bucks (maybe $3) at Walmart and a pound of Oscar Meyer bologna is currently $2 and will make at least a dozen sandwiches (just bought some yesterday). I cannot imagine spending 2-3 hours of my work/income for McDonald s burgers for lunch (except on a very rare occasion)...much less 7-8 hrs for a meal at a relatively average chain restaurant. The cost for me is minutes of my day, yet I am still careful/frugal most of the time and prepare my own. The same folks live much the same way with almost every expense. Constant new cars and electronics, etc. It is little wonder they cannot save/invest and have no emergency fund. A little delayed gratification goes a long way.