Inflation Watch -- June 29, 2024

Locator: 48024COBB.

One of our favorite spots for lunch is the "deli" -- full-menu restaurant -- inside a foodie grocery store in Southlake, TX: Central Market, part of the famed HEB chain. 

One of my favorite meals: the Cobb salad, the least expensive of the several salad selections, at $11.00 and a craft beer, $5 / bottle. 

So, about $16 for lunch.

But that Cobb salad is more than I really need, so I can make my own Cobb salad at the salad bar, adding only the vegetables, protein, etc., that I want --- and a really, really nice Cobb salad costs me $3.00.

Then I add a 96-cent can of flavored sparkling water.

Right at $4.00 for lunch. And that included a hard-boiled egg on the salad. A dollar less than the $5 value meal at McDonald's.

This is a made-to-order Cobb salad prepared by my nephew out at Flathead Lake, Montana -- at an upscale restaurant this would easily be priced at $20. My hunch: my nephew's cost was a whole lot less and a whole lot more fun to prepare and serve.