Good day sister saints!
We had some rainy weather to drive through this morning...
Praise the Lord, we're thankful for every safe trip, especially when we're on highways that have a lot of accidents (and we see why because of the crazy drivers like I used to be before I was transformed in Christ.)
For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. (Titus 3:3)
So, while we were at our parking spot last night, brother Jim went for a walk while I freshened up and stopped into a Waffle House restaurant to see what their prices were as he was curious. He brought back a menu and showed it to me. I said 'Oh I could buy a lot of groceries for that' and we both agreed. He then said I should do a post to share how a person can be frugal with their resources and why we rarely eat out unless I have a coupon OR if we are paying rent for parking which we only do occasionally. (You can see a post HERE how we get a $3.50 meal that feeds us both plus ice, plus a parking spot.)
So here's the menu:
These prices seem to be on the low end of restaurants.
Let's start with the waffle for $3.40 and if that's all you had (no drink) and left a tip of $1.60 it could cost $5.00. For ONE person.
Let's see what we could buy in the store for that...
Pancake and waffle mix $1.53
Syrup $1.33
Total $2.86 and you get MANY meals out of it AND you still have $2.14 left over in your pocket to buy more groceries!
Okay so now let's look at the meal in the upper left corner for $7.70 It includes 1 waffle, 2 eggs, toast or biscuit, a choice of meat (bacon, sausage or ham) and choice of (hashbrowns or grits) If you were to add on a $2 tip you are at $9.70 of which most people would round up to $10.00
Let's look at what we can get for $10 in the store:
1 doz eggs $1.45
Sausage links for $2.50
Prepared biscuits .47 (You would make even more doing them from scratch, or buy a loaf of bread instead which is what I would do.)
Hashbrowns $2.08 (You would save a lot more if you bought a bag of potatoes and did it yourself. Grits are even cheaper.)
Pancake and waffle mix $1.53
All this would cost less than $10.00 (of course prices are different wherever you go but so would the restaurant pricing as well.)
As for how many meals a person could get from all this? Well, if it were brother Jim and I, I wouldn't buy the hash browns and would instead buy the potatoes and shred them myself, at least doubling the meals from it and buying the loaf of bread instead of biscuits. (I added them to show that you can also have some convenient foods for a good price too.) So if we follow the quantities of the restaurant we would get 3 meals (2 eggs per person) and then the eggs would run out but there would be left over sausage, pancake mix / syrup and bread for many more meals. Now in saying this, brother Jim and I don't eat big meals like this so it all would last much longer. (And that doesn't take in to account that if a person watches sales, you can save even more money.)
Keep this in mind, that $10 was if ONE person went in and ate a meal and I just (figuratively) bought enough meals to feed 2 people the equivalent meal, 3 times....with extra ingredients left over for more meals.
Now let's role play a scenario of a husband, wife and 2 children. If they each bought the meal for $7.70 and then bought a waffle for each of the children (not including any drinks) it would cost $22.50 plus a tip of say $4, we're now at $26.50. You could buy all the foods above twice and still have money in your pocket and you can do the math on how many meals could be had from that instead of one meal. (Yes, you would save the tip money if you carried it out but still, look at the pricing and what you can buy....)
As we travel, we see the restaurants packed full of people (all the time) and most don't think twice about doing it on a regular basis. I'm not saying it's a sin to eat out BUT we do have to use the Lord's money wisely so keep that in mind if you choose to do so and how often. There's a reason many people are in debt and they overlook the obvious ways to cut back on spending (such as unwise food choices). I've done many posts on how to save money, you can see them HERE.
I'll look to do more of these to help sisters get a perspective on things just in case they have never been taught to look at it this way. And let's think about this....can you imagine how much it would have cost Jesus, the disciples and all the women with them to eat out as they traveled?
More important to keep in mind is this:
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. (1 Corinthians 6:12-13)
I hope this has helped encourage you and I praise you sister saints who take care of your homes and are frugal with your finances.
Brother Jim is helping some brothers learn how to save money and they are thinking about living in their vehicles...you can see his post HERE.
Love in Christ,
Sister Deb
Food means nothing unless you are born from above, see the biblical gospel HERE.
