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by perl4ever 2478 days ago
I think it's reasonable to spend ~$11/person/day if you're mostly not cooking, and not economizing, based on firsthand experience. I mean, I understand that you can do math like "fast food meal costs $13, multiplied by 3, equals $39/person/day". But it just doesn't seem to work out like that, so something in your estimating logic is way off.

People's memories and estimates are often unreliable, but if you use one credit card for everything and it tallies your spending on restaurants, that's pretty definitive.
1 comments
zaroth 2478 days ago
$11 eating out, in a major US city, for the whole day? Breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Did I read that wrong?

Breakfast at Flour (egg sandwich, and a late) is going to run you $12, assuming you don’t buy that brownie for later. That salad at Sweetgreens is $15. Just the salad. Juice is charging $14 for a 16oz protein shake. We haven’t even made it to dinner yet.

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perl4ever 2477 days ago
Yes, I'm not disputing what a meal is going to cost, "major" city or not. For instance, I had a sandwich, drink, and a cookie at a non-chain casual-not-extremely-fast-food place, and it was about $16 with tip. If I get something cheap, where there's no tipping, it's still probably going to be near $10. On the weekend, sure, dinner for two might cost $100, never mind a large family. Might be leftovers though.

My point is that doesn't mean you average three times a typical meal price per day over a long period of time. And the reason I'm so sure is because I have the records which show I don't.

Maybe it's just laziness/time constraints. I can't possibly get up early enough every day to have a large meal, even if I could stomach it. And I only get half an hour for lunch on workdays.

My point is the relationship of averages to salient data points. Like I mentioned in my other post, it seems like I'm always going 40-60 mph, but my trip computer says my average is a lot less, and the average is very consistent no matter what kind of driving I seem to have been doing. Or, another example is time estimates, where short tasks are consistently underestimated, because it's human nature to ignore short delays/overhead.

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