Now there's a great irony.
My lunch today was $3.82 total at Wendy. I went inside because the drive through line was ten cars long, only to find to my dismay that a small cluster of folks from the retirement home were also inside, and I was still ten people back in line.
No matter. It gave me time to study the menu.
Fast food is not inherently unhealthy. It comes down to making informed choices and knowing you can go outside the standard 1-10 combo list.
The local Wendys has not yet put up calorie information, but I knew from previous research that the lowest calorie "entree" on the list was the Chicken Go Wrap, at $1.69 on their menu. Basically, a chicken tender wrapped in lettuce inside a flour tortilla.
I wanted something a bit more substantial than a 260 calorie snack, however, so I opted for their Crispy Chicken Sandwich. 99 cents and 380 calories.
I paired this with a Garden Side Salad - 1.69 - no dressing. 100 calories but two servings of veggies. And some apple slices for 89 cents, with an estimate of 40 calories for the bag. And a cup of water for free.
That $3.82 and 520 calories total knocked out 3 of the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables, a protein, probably two servings of carbs (two pieces of the bun), and cost half of what a meal with three times the calories would have set me back.
I've done similar voodoo at McDonalds.
Their chicken sandwiches are nothing to write home about (basically it's a giant chicken nugget in a bun with lettuce and mayo) but it's a heck of a lot healthier than Son of Baconator.
Don't order the sandwich of the month. Study the menu - there are healthy choices there if you look hard enough.
And save yourself a couple bucks in the process.