Samantha Chaffin

Editor-in-Chief

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been so overwhelmed with school and work that a lot of other things in my life have been neglected.

Hypothetically, let’s just say that one of the neglected parties that I speak of is housework.

Let’s say, still hypothetically, that my laundry covers the entirety of my bedroom floor.

Let’s also say I’m completely out of forks and bowls because they now reside in my kitchen sink.

In this purely hypothetical scenario, let’s also surmise that my dog’s toys are all over my living room floor and my cat has unraveled my toilet paper roll more times than I can count in recent weeks.

In addition, let’s also hypothetically say that the milk in my refrigerator has gone bad and the only edible food left in my house is a bag of hot Cheetos and several packages of ramen.

All of this is purely hypothetical, of course.

There is no truth to these statements.

This is not real life.

In the hypothetical world I’ve described, I haven’t had time or energy to go grocery shopping in quite some time.

Because of this, I’ve spent a lot of money on fast food, which is both bad for my health and my wallet.

On the bright side, since I had to balance “The Bengal’s” various budget scenarios last week, I won’t need to spend money on a new hairbrush any time soon since I already ripped all of my hair out. I’m just kidding, kind of.

In any case, after I finished the budgets last week, I finally had a chance to take a breather and go on a small-scale grocery trip to WinCo where I bought sandwich stuff, bottled water, and ice cream.

This is still all hypothetical, because I’m sure I’m much healthier than that in real life and I’m sure every single one of my coworkers will vouch for me on that.

Or not, because it’s a lie.

In any case, as cheap as a $1 cheeseburger from McDonald’s is, it’s truly amazing how quickly it all adds up.

I think that a lot of times college students feel like they can’t afford to cook meals either due to a lack of money or a lack of time.

I can’t really speak for the lack of time, because ain’t nobody got time for that.

However, I can attest to the fact that in the long run it is much cheaper to spend $50 or $100 at the grocery store than it is to buy cheap fast food every day.

It’s also most likely much healthier, depending on what you’re buying.

After spending a few hours on budgets, I think I have a somewhat better appreciation for the value of a dollar, and, after looking through my bank statements, I plan to spend more time at the grocery store and less time at the fast food restaurants that surround campus.

Now it’s time for me to go to Taco Bell for a quesadilla.

After all, I said I was going to spend less time at fast food restaurants, not that I was giving them up completely.