Anyone who knows me is familiar with my strange Taco Bell addiction. I could eat Taco Bell every day for months and never get tired of it. Who am I kidding? I HAVE eaten Taco Bell, in the past, for many days straight. Those were the good old days, before they raised their prices this past spring. I remember making late-night Taco Bell runs with my friends in high school and with each of us purchasing an entire meal for under $3. Now you are lucky to pay less than $7 for a decent meal. This popular chain Mexican restaurant raised the prices on virtually all of its items by at least 50 cents a piece in the spring of 2011. This would be expected to happen with inflation in a normal economy -- but today's economy is not normal by any means.

Having to cut costs wherever I can to stay afloat in today's economy, Taco Bell is now an occasional splurge for me, since a meal for my boyfriend and I can cost $15. When you think about it, what are they really charging you for? I, for one, mostly eat their items made with only chicken and beans. It is not that I do not trust their beef, but I just do not like beef in general.  Their current chicken flatbread sandwich special looked amazing on the television ads, so we quickly ran out to try a couple. Those sandwiches were pathetic with a couple of tiny pieces of chicken on each flatbread and a chintzy smear of their precious sauce. Yes, they were only 99 cents, but the commercial showed sandwiches stuffed with what looked like a half a pound of chicken. If that is not false advertising, I don't know what is. It looks like the glory days of getting a great Mexican meal at a great price are over. I am off to the grocery store to purchase the ingredients to put together 20 Nacho Bell Grandes for the price that I would pay for two at Taco Bell now.