What's for din? (With frugal cost analysis) August 18, 2025

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Tonight’s dinner was brought to you by: poor planning and fridge roulette. I completely forgot to take any meat out, so I went full Iron Chef: Desperation Edition. Here’s what ended up on the table: Blueberry pancakes (made with Martha White muffin mix, eggs, and milk — basically dessert disguised as a meal). Half a bag of hashbrowns that had been loitering in the fridge since our last “breakfast-for-dinner” adventure. Scrambled eggs with cheese (because plain eggs are just sadness with seasoning). And the last scraps of Conecuh sausage hiding in the fridge like they were in witness protection. Total damage? $11.75 for six people. Or, in restaurant math, “the price of one appetizer for one person.” Here’s the breakdown (because I know @porwest likes the mathy part and honestly so do I — it makes me feel like a thrifty Gordon Ramsay): Pancakes: $4.82 (milk + eggs included) Sausage: $3.50 (RIP, you delicious smoky legend) Hashbrowns: $1.43 (worth every crispy penny) Eggs + cheese + milk: $2.00 (a.k.a. the glue that holds this chaos together) Which brings us to a grand total of $1.95 per person. That’s cheaper than a gas station hot dog, and significantly less likely to cause regret. Everyone was full, the fridge is cleaner, and somehow the meal was actually pretty darn good. So that’s our dinner saga. Now your turn — what did you eat tonight, and can you beat $1.95 per head?