The Social Eating Phenomenon

This post has been a few days coming, but it was coming eventually and here is it.

Social eating. Some of you might not think you are familiar with social eating, but it is likely that you have participated in it before. Social eating is a term coined by Kyle "Chowder" Baynes. Social eating is when you go out (usually) to eat with someone or a group of people to eat. The problem with social eating is, primarily, monetary cost.

You might be thinking, and correctly so, that you are paying for the experience and the company. The problem is when social eating becomes a habit. Perhaps is it because I no longer have a meal plan, but I seem to have been spending a lot of money on food of late. A lunch here, a dinner there, a few meals later and you realize that instead of eating a dollar's worth of pasta or a $5 pizza, you have spent $12 on a meal and you don't even have leftovers to pay for it.

A $10 to $12 meal might not seem expensive to you. You may or may not be employed. However, when you consider that the alternatives, such a meal is quite expensive. A Chipotle burrito is $6, a good amount of chinese from Sezchuan (not good spelling, but fuck you) is $5 to $6, a double cheeseburger and fries from Five Guys is $6 or $7; half price is a whole other level. $3.50 (w/o tip) for a big burger and fries from Fuel and Fuddle, or two meals (dinner and lunch) worth of food at India Garden for about $12, as well as deals I have less experience with at Joe Mama's and Mad Mex.

Nick Kaz says, before some expensive meals with the team oftentimes, "fuck money." For the most part I agree with his point. When I am out somewhere, like in Texas or California, fuck money. Enjoy yourself and your teammates, live it up, it much easier to live tighter at home. But this attitude doesn't apply as nicely to time here in Oakland, even weekends. It is not that I mind eating with people and spending money, the company or the food or both are almost always worth the price.

This is simply a warning. Be smart. Enjoy yourself, but be aware of your consumption. Be conscious of the number of times you participate in social eating, and it won't become a problem.