actually - nope. granted there aren't too many options for a vegetarian at fast food places (now that's an idea that someone should come up with - a veggie fast food place)...but even if there were options for me, i think that it wouldn't make too much of a difference. we cook at home a lot more, and that has proven to be money saving for us.

Ummm, no...I never understood this, fast food is EXPENSIVE!(not to mention gross) A combo meal can run $8, but people can't buy veggies? Weird.

Ilanac, there is a place in NYC (not too far from Grand Central) called Zen Burger. Its vegan/vegetarian fast food. Not too shabby (I've been there twice back in my vegetarian days).

I don't really like how I feel after eating fast food so I don't eat that often. Its funny, sometimes I'll be craving fast food. I'll eat it and right after be like "Ugh, why did i do that?" So I've learned my lesson.

No.

In fact, if anything it's made me eat it less (not that I ate it a lot ever before). When I consider that I could make a healthy homemade dinner or bring a frozen entree for lunch, it just seems smarter and more economical than McDonalds.

Yes, it has. I find myself eating the 99 cent bean burritos from taco bell often.

Nope, didn't eat much to begin with, but now, we just cook at home more. It is funny though that a bag of cherries costs what, 6-7 dollars, but for that money I can buy 8 bags of jelly beans, or 3 frozen dinners or two containers of ice cream. No wonder people eat more crap, it's cheaper. And with "dollar menus" getting longer, more people are stuffing down burgers, fries and sugar filled sodas on the regular. Not good.

I don't eat meat so that helps a lot to keep me out of those places. I pack a lunch most days and a snack everyday to keep me on track.

We didn't eat a lot of fast food before, we don't eat a lot of fast food now. My husband eats more of it when he travels, but that's because he hates cooking and I'm not there to cook him some healthy meals.

I would bring my lunch to work if I can't get a heathly lunch.

Heck no...especially not McDonalds...yuck

Nope. I go more now but not because of the economy. It's more that I just don't want to cook.

No, if anything it's making me buy fresh stuff and prepare my own meals way more often.

No it's just as easy to have stuff in the fridge and cabinet to pull together a meal for dinner. I know what goes into my food and how clean the whole process was.

I love how analysts constantly believe that everyone is trading down because of the economy. Would a Mercedes owner trade down to a Hyundai?

And how fast food is worse than sit-down food. Grab the nutritional guide from Cheesecake Factory and see how many calories are in...anything there. A $0.99 McChicken has 360 calories. The small Caesar Salad from Cheesecake has 860 calories, the small Chicken Caesar Salas has 976. An office worker really doesn't need more than 1300 calories a day. And a Six-Dollar Burger meal from Carl's Jr/Hardee's can climb into the double-digits. I would rather sit down and have an Everything Pizza from Cheesecake than drop that dime at Hardee's. I'm either going to pinch and get the McChickens, Beefy Cheesy Burritos at Taco Bell, Two-Tacos from Jack; or drop a little bit more dime and go to the sit-down restaurants. What's a really good deal are the promos that Denny's has been putting out lately.

I haven't traded down to buying more fast food, because I wasn't "up" there to begin with. If anything I'm trading up more frequently, but that's because I'm getting older and meeting 20 of my friends at TGI Fridays is lame.

It's caused me to eat more at home actually. There should have been a choice for that