"It's Cheaper to Eat Out" NOT!

All last summer I listened to an advertisement for a chain steak house saying it was cheaper to eat out than to eat at home.  I thought "Well, they are trying to sell their store, but how stupid do they think we are?"

Then, I got a quarterly little magazine from the real estate agent who sold us our house.  In it, they had an article on how it was cheaper to eat out than in.
I snorted.  Evidently, many people think American's are stupid as well as gullible.

In the article, they said that to have a steak dinner with salad, bread and asparagus, and a baked potato cost $13.99 at a restaurant, they then pointed out that cost $3.99 for a pound of asparagus, a bag of potatoes was $2.99, a bag of salad was $2.99 and steak was $8.99 a pound, and a loaf of bread was $2.99.  Therefore, they asserted that it was cheaper to go out and buy the steak dinner.

Well..hmmm.  They forgot something....it is quantity that they were measuring and blythely forgetting that the bag of salad served a minimum of four people, a pound of asparagus serves 2 - 4 people, a bag of potatoes serves at least 6 people if not more....and frankly, a pound of meat is more than one person should eat at a sitting.  Not to mention that not a lot of places have that sort of a meal for $13.99 anymore.

Yes, I get a little bit irritated because I often have to throw out food here...someone I live with doesn't look in the fridge to eat leftovers...and I often cook too much when I am cooking for two.  I forget that I should freeze some of the left overs before I get too tired of eating them....like the beef/barley/mushroom stew I made a while ago.  I made a big batch because my daughter was home and she usually eats a fair amount (she runs long distance).

It got me into trouble yesterday.  I took out the leftover stew, and there was about one bowl left that had to be thrown out.  Since it was very low in fat, I ran the water in the disposal and slowly fed the leftovers to it as it had been 2 weeks since I made it and it and I were beginning to spout baby mushrooms.  I was running the water with the disposal going...and I noticed that water was beginning to come up on the opposite sink.

We plunged it.  Nothing.  We treated it with Liquid Plumber.  Nothing.  We let it sit overnight.  Nothing.  My husband took apart the sink trap...nothing.  He snaked it.  Nothing.  Then he and I went downstairs.

The couple we bought the house from had sort of finished the basement.  The man of the house was described as "a brilliant engineer" by my one neighbor, while my other neighbor said "really? I thought he was in sales. "  I think my second neighbor had it dead on as I noticed annoying things about the "finish" job.  First, the hung ceiling wasn't level.  Then, I discovered he didn't insulate the wall before he put up the drywall.  The trim looked like it had been cut with a hack saw.  When we started to wire a new ceiling fixture and outlet for my quilting machine we discovered irregularities (junction boxes in the wrong spot).

But...the piece de resistance came today.  We went down to try to figure out what was going on....My husband looked as he knew there had to be a clean out....and discovered yes...at the very bottom, behind a drywall enclosure where you couldn't reach it without putting a hole in the wall was.. the cleanout.

Since we have no sink, and you can't run the dishwasher because it goes into the same drain which is plugged....we went out to dinner.  And yes, it cost more and wasn't the quality that I would have made...but someone else did the dishes.