cheap date: $1 menus

By no means do I endorse fast food restaurants as places to woo women. Nor do I think proposals or paternity test results should sit against a backdrop of deep-fried onion rings.

But damn...have you SEEN the fast food deals available lately?

Today I went to Burger King for lunch and had a Whopper Jr., a small serving of onion rings, a Spicy Chick'n Crisp Sandwich and a frozen Coke.

Let's not focus on my voracious appetite and stunted digestive system, but instead turn our attention to the fact that all those items are on the $1 BK Value Menu, thereby costing a total of $4.24.

My taste in cheap fast food doesn't discriminate. I've long been a fan of the $1 menu at McDonald's, where you've traditionally been able to get entrees like the Double Cheeseburger and the McChicken sandwich.

But articles like this one say the Double Cheeseburger is on its way out of the $1 menu -- going for an exorbitant $1.19 -- so (cheaply) buy your way to a fast food lover's heart before it's too late.

And if you're really lucky, you might find a date sweet enough to buy you a sausage breakfast burrito from McDonald's the next morning.

It goes for $1.