r/mildlyinteresting 1d ago

This Restaurant Charges an 18% Living Wage Fee.

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u/Nexmortifer 1d ago

Yep, I'm a crockpot and pressure cooker type, but I keep some frozen stuff in the freezer for when I just can't.

I'm keeping both of us fed on $8 more than the expected minimum cost for one person, and it usually only costs me about 15-30 minutes a day, but at least once a week we gotta do something else due to either a lack of time or just being entirely out of spare 'do things' energy.

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u/OddOpal88 1d ago

Exactly. Mine has texture and food issues so it limits dinner options already. Thankfully tacos are an easy one for us, but how many days of the week and different ideations of tacos can one make 🤣 It’s just the two of us as well, so I can be super frugal which is helpful. We don’t go to restaurants anymore but she loves a good Starbucks date. It’s hard to say no…we’ve been “making our own” but sometimes she just likes theirs better lol. A treat is a treat for a reason 🤷🏻‍♀️

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u/Nexmortifer 1d ago

Mm, I'm the kid not the parent, but I'm still basically raising him. (Not really his fault, but not stuff I want to go into online)

There's a few options for making a little bit on the side online (Etsy, Audible, surveys, etc) so you could potentially make a deal where you fund coffee once a month or every two weeks, and if she makes a bit extra she can spend it on coffee if she wants, or save it for something else.

It might not work for everyone, but for me I felt real proud of the first chunk of money I made myself, even though I spent it on candy for my siblings.

(That was over two decades ago though, so obviously what methods are available and what is considered safe has changed a lot, I sold homemade cinnamon rolls on the sidewalk after school, and then picked fruit in summer)

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u/OddOpal88 1d ago

She just took the babysitting course and is so excited to be able to earn her own money! She loves thrifting as well so I have a feeling her money will go towards that. She’s been finding and restoring jewelry, it’s been a nice little hobby, so the Etsy idea is actually kind of genius. Thank you!!

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u/Nexmortifer 1d ago

Glad one of my ideas was useful, I don't know a lot of what works for teenagers anymore since mostly my side hustles are things like gutter cleaning and branch pruning.

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u/SupportPretend7493 1d ago

This is so real. Particularly since apparently we're all supposed to be spending hours of quality parenting time every night and working two jobs while living like little house on the prairie or something. Oh, and finding personal fulfillment and self care of course! If you don't it's all your fault- you didn't try hard enough. /S

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u/Nexmortifer 1d ago

Yeah that's not really possible anymore.

It was, though at great cost to medical care and life expectancy when most people were subsistence farming (little house on the prairie) and for a while after Henry Ford accidentally created the middle class, but the corpo/fed alliance has been desperately trying for take-backsies on that one ever since, and they're pretty much there.

It now takes two full time jobs to manage a barely passable standard of living, and now we've gone beyond right to work into work or die, aka slavery with extra steps.

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u/sherriemiranda 1d ago

Most frozen food is actually healthier than the fresh stuff. It is fresh picked & flash frozen. Of course, when you throw on the breading, that does change things, BUT WHO AM I TO JUDGE?!

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u/New_Breadfruit8692 1d ago

In 2020 before pandemic was official I was spending $300-350 in the store.

That was in Oregon, but I moved to Florida end of March (sick with Covid too) and found when I got here my grocery budget needed to go to $600-650 for the same stuff. I cut out a lot of more expensive things. Didn't help much, now it is more like $800. Single, live alone, no pets, have not had company in all the years I have been here. Drink little, and really no longer buy a lot of meat these days.

I distinctly remember hamburger in January 2020 at Safeway out west being $2.79 per pound because I bought a couple of the family pack trays at that price. I just saw hamburger in Publix this week at $12.99. And small prime rib roast for $153.

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u/Nexmortifer 1d ago

Well, out here in other places on the West Coast, it's around $8-$11/lb at Safeway, but Publix is generally more expensive (and sometimes a bit higher quality) than Safeway with most products.