Feed Your Family Cheap and Healthy!

Better yet--- without cooking! That's right kids. All it takes is a local buffet that has a nice kids policy. My favorites: Pizza Ranch and Old Country Buffet. This really works neat if you have kids under 2 and for lunch time. Even the traditional chinese buffet can be great, just be a bit more careful here, salt can really stack up.

So, your lunch: 8 bucks. Dinner: 9 bucks.
Each kid: 50-75 cents per year, with under a certain age free.

Let's say you have two kids, one 5 and one a year old. Your cost for eating out with them?
10.50 - 11.75 plus tax, depending on how their yearly charge works. Dinner, add about a dollar.

Now, think about this... the kids get salad/fruit/veggies. Order them milk to drink instead of soda, and be smart in your choices with them especially at dessert time. All is included, and it teaches your children to take what they want but eat what they take. If you have adventurous eaters, your kids could snag the entire rainbow of fruits and veggies. Five a day, anyone?

And of course, you make your own choices carefully too. Start with a salad/soup and use moderation with the big piles of carbs that buffets are so fond of. Behave at the dessert pizza or dessert counter. Water or unsweetened drinks, a lot of places are offering more than just diet cola now, and you're cutting a nice pile out of your calorie count.

Now, let's compare that 11.75 with the average cost of eating at a fast food chain.
Your meal: at least 5 bucks.
Two kids (age doesn't matter here): 4 bucks each.
So, we're looking at a whopping 13 dollars... and what are you all getting? Burger or chicken, fries, apples at the one that starts with M and the one that starts with B. Your sides vary at the one that starts with W, but you're still left with a limited menu.

I love fast food too, but I'd rather toss veggies and fruits at the kids than french fries. Admittedly, there is the time factor; it takes longer to do a buffet than the drivethru or even eat in in your fast food place.

Also, you SHOULD tip at the buffets, especially if you trashed your table. I throw a buck per kid if it's really bad, or at least a dollar for the toddler since half of her food doesn't make her mouth. I know, you get your own food, why should you tip? Because the corporate management takes advantage of a loophole in the food service laws that say they can pay their people 3 bucks an hour if they're 'service' personel since they can receive tips. Blargh, but that's for another post.

So, you're about even by the time you compensate for crummy workplace logic, financially, but I still think the fact that the kids get a varied, healthier diet counts for a lot.

And, if we all start making ourselves heard, that we would rather have more choices than less, healthier than apples and fries... carrots would rule, btw, we can change the world. And according to both parties of my policital system, we all want change. Heh.

Change the world, one buffet at a time!