Many a time I have watched my friend sit on the couch for hours playing Halo only to discover at 8 p.m. that he is famished. In fact, he is undoubtedly “sooooo hungry” that instead of quickly making a sandwich, boiling some pasta or throwing a burger on the grill he needs to go to Taco Bell, Burger King or McDonalds right now. This is annoying and unintelligent for a series of reasons:

By the time he gets in his car, drives to his fast food venue of choice and arrives back at his apartment, he could have already made any of the meals mentioned above. If he is truly as starving as he claims then it would actually make much more sense to quickly make himself something at home instead of wasting time driving elsewhere. Ordering Domino’s is even worse, as pizza takes at least 45 minutes to arrive.

I assume he gets fast food because it is fast and cheap. However, if he hits the drive through once or twice a day every day of the week, that adds up to at least $50, not including the cost of gas used to get there and back. If he went to the grocery store once a week, that would be a much better use of his funds. He could eat steak every night if he chose to put a tiny bit of effort into the preparation and planning of his meals and when hunger strikes used his energy to throw something on the grill instead of getting in the car to drive to Burger King.

Making quesadillas at home is not only less expensive than buying them at Taco Bell, but also much tastier. Even if he buys the cheapest ingredients at Kroger, they are still of far higher quality then anything he would get out of a drive through window. Not to mention that when we prepare our own food, we are able to make it exactly how we like it, more cheese, less crunch, triangle slices, rectangle slices, whatever.

I will not even go into the nutritional value of eating at home instead of habitually inhaling fast food.

If he insists on eating out every night he should at least spend his money towards better meals at real, sit down restaurants. This way he not only gets a good meal, but also an experience which hopefully expands his culinary knowledge and cultural perceptions.