By Chuck Carroll Losing weight isn’t just good for your physical health. A slimmer waistline is also good for your bottom line.
When I weighed almost 400 pounds I was spending thousands of dollars on fast food. THOUSANDS.
Six years later and 265 pounds lighter my food bill has been cut almost 40 percent. 40 percent!
That’s despite my shopping almost exclusively at Whole Foods a.k.a. Whole Paycheck. I can pay a premium at the grocery store and my bank account will still be in the black! Crazy, right?!
Until I was fat shamed by a woman who worked there I was a Taco Bell junkie. I’m talking a full-blown addict in need of some help from Dr. Drew type of junkie.
There were times when I was on a diet and tried so hard to resist “running for the border.” But the harder I fought the addiction the stronger the cravings would become. Some nights I would burst into a violent rage until I got my fix.
It’s no surprise that I was so severely addicted given the frequency I ate there. Even though I was managing another burrito restaurant at the time, I would go through the Taco Bell drive-thru every single day — sometimes twice. I’m not exaggerating when I estimate I made about 400 trips each year.
My massive order rarely changed and each visit cost me a whopping $23.53!
Yes, at a restaurant known for cheap eats, I managed to spend nearly $24 each visit. Here are the economics.
Taco Bell Cost
- 7-Layer Burrito: $2.79 x 2 = $5.58
- Grilled Stuft Burrito: $3.99 x 2 = $7.98
- Nachos Bellgrande: $3.29
- Chicken Quesadilla: $3.19
- Cheesy Potato Burrito: $2.49
- Caramel Apple Empanada: $1.00
- Total: $23.53
So what does that add up to? Ridiculous amounts of cash and an ever-expanding waistline! Here are the figures based on 400 annual visits.
Adding It Up
- Weekly: $181
- Monthly: $784.33
- Annually: $9,412.00
And that was just my one-man gargantuan order! I suppose it’s no surprise I was single at the time.
That total easily surpasses the $151 that the average American spends on food each week.
Today, I’m spending about $900 per month for both my wife and I, primarily at Whole Foods. Roughly half of that bill belongs to me which makes my portion about $450. But I’ll round up to $500 to be safe and account for any variables. That’s $6,000 each year to cover the vast majority of my meals and snacks.
So…
Savings
- Taco Bell: $9,412
- Currently: $6,000
- Savings: $3,412
That’s crazy!
If you want to have a little fun with the numbers think about this. Removing inflation and other price fluctuations from the equation, by the time I reach the average retirement age of 65 I will have saved $129,656!
Granted, had I stayed on that path there is no chance I would have lived that long.
Here’s one last thing to keep in mind. After I was fat shamed at Taco Bell I stopped eating there. But that woman’s verbal daggers didn’t curtail my eating habits. In fact, I started eating even more — pretty much double.
However, I’ll save the economics of my daily 10,000-calorie Boston Market, 7-Eleven and Papa Johns menu for another time.
