Improbable Food Budget/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A family spends an inconceivable amount of money on food purchases.

  • Straight: The Tropersons, a seemingly-middle-class family, dine out more often than not at fancy restaurants.
  • Exaggerated: The Tropersons dine at five-star restaurants for every meal. If they want a snack, they go there as well.
  • Justified: The Tropersons are very concerned with keeping up appearances - dining out frequently is a way to not appear poor.
    • Alternatively, they're very good at working a budget to the point where they can dine like they do.
    • Due to some oddities such as organic matter replicators or high value food stamps everyone can afford to eat lavishly in the setting.
    • One of the Tropersons saved the restaurant owner's life, and eat for free.
  • Inverted: Dog Food Diet
  • Subverted: The family is shown eating as many meals at home as they are shown eating out, if not more.
  • Double Subverted: ...Until Mr. Troperson lands that new promotion, in which case they throw their money around.
  • Parodied: A group of vagrants are shown eating incredibly lavish meals and bemoaning their poverty while talking about the vintage of the 200+ year old wine.
  • Deconstructed: Eating nearly every meal out wreaks havoc on their budget.
  • Reconstructed: ...So they learn to budget responsibly and learn a valuable lesson.
  • Zig Zagged: How often they dine out varies from week to week.
  • Averted: They dine out occasionally, but not frequently.
  • Enforced: "Hell, I dunno how often middle-class families dine out. What am I, a sociologist?"
  • Lampshaded: "I made my favorite thing for dinner...reservations."
  • Invoked: No one knows how to cook, so...
  • Defied: After a few months of luxurious dining, they decide to cut back.
  • Discussed: "Hey Joe?" "Yeah Bob?" "How do they manage to eat out so much?"
  • Conversed: "So Mom, how do we, on one paycheck, manage to eat out every day?"

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