Eat Less, Pay More

I’m trying to figure out the math here and it’s eluding me.

On Saturdays, my family usually goes out for eggs at one of the cheap, local coffee shops that are walking distance from our home.  A pleasant walk on a sunny morning, a trip through the farmers market to browse local fruits and vegetables and pick up some fresh baked bread, and then eggs with a great cup of coffee and conversation between me and my two guys.  All in all, it’s a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

I used to always order two eggs (over easy), a bagel with butter and some home fries plus cream and sugar filled coffee.  Financially it’s a cheap breakfast, about five dollars or so.  That breakfast, however, clocks in at more than half the calories I should consume in a single day so I’ve had to make some changes.

Nowadays I order either an omelet or scrambled eggs laden with spinach, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, broccoli etc., with some fresh fruit on the side.  Sometimes the omelet is so huge that I can lop it in half and have a whole other serving for later, and that works fine too.  Generally these breakfasts are listed on menus at around seven dollars and come with a side of bread and home fries that I always tell them to hold.

The price of seven dollars does not come down at all when I tell them I don’t want any bread or home fries, and restaurants charge me MORE for fruit cup, generally another two bucks.  So I’m now paying nine to ten dollars for a breakfast that’s less than half the calories, carbs and fat as what I was eating before.

It’s starting to make sense to me why so many poor people are overweight: it’s annoyingly expensive to try to eat healthy.