$6 for a salad at Wendy's... wtf! No wonder people don't eat healthy...

Everyone always tells you to get the healthy option at fast food places, but I don't think these people saw the prices! Mind you the $6 is in Canada, but a 1/4lb single burger, fry and pop is cheaper than a salad. Am I the only one confused as to why a burger is cheaper than lettuce? This defeats the whole purpose of making better choices for me... I have a tight budget and spending more on healthier options is sooo depressing and not doable. This is my rant.

If you're on such a tight budget then why are you buying food that someone else prepares? Preparing your own food is always cheaper. End of story.

Original Post by lafoutloud01:

If you're on such a tight budget then why are you buying food that someone else prepares? Preparing your own food is always cheaper. End of story.

 I was in a rush obviously, otherwise I would have gone to the grocery store then made it at home like usual... but people are genuinely going to go to a fast food place every now and then for convenience. I don't expect to live my life and never step foot in another fast food place ever again? That would be unrealistic.

I know exactly what you mean!  We frequent McDonalds (I know, boo, hiss) and the salad costs more than the value meals.  What I have started doing is ordering from the value menu, and getting a side salad, so I can have a small burger (double cheeseburger - 460 calories I beleive) and a salad for 2 bucks.  Not excellent, by any means, but better than having fries.  There might be a better value menu choice - I haven't really looked.   Also, the happy meals there you can substitute apple slices for the fries, and then get milk, and you've actually done pretty well for under 3 bucks.  You just have to know the menu and make some choices.

Another fast food option, depending on where you are, is to go to a grocery store and buy a prepared salad there.  They are usually larger and a couple of dollars cheaper.

for $6 you can buy enough produce to make salads for three days.

a wendy's salad is more expensive than a burger because it can't be made a week in advance (i know wendy's burgers aren't supposed to be frozen, right?  a burger out of the freezer is even cheaper to prepare).

in any restaurant, most of what you're paying for is labour.

Yes, but sometimes best laid plans go awry, and you are away from home at meal-time unprepared, or for some reason unable to carry a lunch with you. 

I agree though, that part of the cost probably is because the salad has to be made fresh every day.  The other part of the cost is that restaurants can charge that because people are willing to pay it!

fast food salads are more expensive because vegetables have a terrible shelf life.  If they don't sell, you have to throw it out.  In my experience, we threw out A LOT of salads and vegetables.  They have to make up that cost somehow.  It's way easier to store bread and frozen foods and use according to need.

It's unavoidable, really.

If the cost is really prohibitive, and you don't eat at fast food places often, perhaps you can resign yourself to eating a burger and count it as a special treat. Maybe ask for no mayo or no cheese to make it less painful.

A very unfortunate dilemma, and one I've encountered often as well. :(

Luckily our Wendy's has salads on the dollar menu. They are actually pretty good - basic iceberg lettuce but they have a little bit of cucumber, cherry tomatoes, a smattering of cheese, etc. I guess for six bucks, one could eat six if they were really hungry. I usually just get one and a small chili...

That said, I do see LOTS of examples while shopping - soda for 99 cents, milk or juice much higher, fresh peaches I got yesterday were two bucks for two - a giant bag of potato chips was also two bucks (didn't get it but saw it in the aisle). Sliced white sandwich bread was 69 cents a loaf, good deli 7 grain bread was 4.39.

Lots of examples out there. It is sometimes not only more expensive but much more time consuming to eat well.

But, so worth it. I joined here in Jan 08, having finally realized that weighing 162 was not a good thing for me. Lost my weight fairly quickly (a few months) due to the fact that I charted here every day - it kept me honest and showed my progress.  I weigh 139 this morning (a pound below my goal weight) and it has been a very rewarding journey.

SR

you can get a rather large garden salad at schlotskys for about $3.

True about the losses fast food places must make up on salads. 

I was told by a guy who worked wendys that if hamburgers didnt sell after a certain point, they would remove them and use them for chili.  Of course Wendys is supposed to make you burger fresh but maybe they assemble it while grilling several burgers at a time, all of them not ordered yet.

Still I agree about the outrageous price.

Ordered salad when my company brought in pizza and it was delivered in a single serve bag you would buy at the grocery store and dressing.  I bet the have less loss that way but it made their profit so much more obvious in doing this.

I went and got one the other day too and it was over $7.  And then when I got back to the office and checked the nutrition value I ended up chucking the dressing and other toppings - and there was also added sodium (probably msg to keep it fresh longer).  Which basically left me with a plate of lettuce and a couple hunks of tomato - a total waste of money.  Next time I'll go to a grocery store and pick up something because its a whole lot cheaper or just grab a bottle of water and wait til I get back home/office.  I always try and carry a baggie with some almonds or other healthy snack in my purse now for situations like this.

> I don't expect to live my life and never step foot in another fast food place ever again? That would be unrealistic.

Why? I'm old enough to remember a time before there was fast food. Nobody starved.

If you absolutely must - you can get a veggie special at Subway for about 3.00 USD.

The $6 salads at Wendy's all involve some kind of meat - usually chicken though the taco salads are also in the $6 range.  Most of them have some nuts in them too along with some sort of "specialty" fruit/veg (mandarin slices, cherry tomatoes or similar).  Neither of those ingredients is supercheap.  If you just want a plain garden salad, that's less than $2.

Honestly, though, just get a burger, chili or baked potato.  Either will have less calories than the specialty $6 salad - and fast food salads tend to be pretty gross anyway.

Side Salad is $1.30 and pretty big at the Wendy's down the street from where I work. Add 1/2 a pack of Balsamic Dressing and its less than 100 cal and less than $2. At that price get 2 if you want. Their full size salads are kinda gross anyway.