I must know! What's your "poverty dish" you ate when broke?

[Tyler Durden]

Right after I scammed the job replacing toilets in a trashed apartment complex to stop being homeless (5 bucks a toidy and I got to stay in empty trashed apartments), I still had mostly zero bucks, but needed to eat.

I went to the local "BASICS" food store and picked up two cases of off brand condensed tomato soup (10 cents a can, 8 cents by the 24 can case) and two cases of off brand macaroni and cheese (12 cents each, 10 cents by the 24 box case). $4.80 + $3.84 = $8.64 (no tax). I boiled the pasta and used the undiluted soup instead of milk and margerine. 48 meals for $8.64 allowed me to buy cheap towels, soaps, and some secondhand clothing. Two meals a day for 20 days (I ate a couple of extras here and there).

[Shell Beau]

1. Ramen noodles are only like $.13 per package.

[Tyler Durden]

12. This was 1974. Pre-ramen.

Back then, Ramen in a cup was 75 cents a whack. Not filling enough. FATS help you stay warm: ask anyone who's been homeless.

Or an Inuit.

[Shell Beau]

14. Well then get some vienna sausages and potted meat!

Fatty enough!

[Syrinx]

112. Vienna Sausages

Not exactly great eats, but they will fill the belly.

When I was a little boy I loved to go with my dad to the river. We'd have these little picnics. I'd have chocolate milk and he had beer. And we would have potted meat on crackers. I liked that until I got big enough to read, and I found out that potted meat was made from cow hearts. Fun while it lasted. :)

[Raiden]

114. Mmmmm! I like Vienna Sausages

:9

[TankLV]

82. Umm - nope - can get a whole crate/box for less than 5 cents TODAY!

Go to any Smiths, Longs, or other similar store. And this is here in Vegas!

Had the same deals in Honolulu.

Ramen noodles with an egg or two thrown in - "egg drop soup".

[OzarkDem]

142. One of my favorites, too

Ramen or Liptons noodle soup mix with egg for protein. Good stuff.
In college, mac & cheese mix with tuna was also a good cheap dinner that would feed several young ladies.

I remember on of my roomies who came from a fairly well-to-do large Catholic family. She had never cooked before, though it was her senior year and she was already engaged. We had to teach her how to cook macaroni.

[Jamastiene]

107. Absolutely true.

And food tastes much better when seasoned with some fat...

[wryter2000]

2. Beans and rice

Refried beans on crisp-fried tortillas with rice on the side. I usually managed to have cheese on the beans.

[GumboYaYa]

51. ROFLMAO, same here, but it was red beans for me.....

There is a great tune by Mem Shahnnon entitled "We're Gonna Make It."

One of the lines is something like this...."we may eat beans all week, but we're gonna make it..yes we will..."

[Floogeldy]

65. Heck, I eat that when my bank account is hefty!

Yummy. :)

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

3. ketchup packet soup

cost for ketchup packets: free!

Not so good though.

[Rick Myers]

4. Mac and cheese (off brand)

Somethime with water instead of actual milk.

[Dudley_DUright]

8. Same here

During my poor starving college days, I seem to recall you could get them for 3 for a dollar.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

39. For "Sunday Dinner"

We're throw in some store brand Cream of Mushroom soup and a can of tuna. But the tuna was only if we were expecting company.

[lazarus]

5. Ramen and MREs

Seriously, we were going through some rough times, and one of my roommates at the time managed to scam a couple of cases of MREs.

Ugh. I feel for the troops.

[SammyWinstonJack]

127. My son and his family ate MREs while they were stationed at

Ft. Polk. They were living in a run down trailer off base and eating MREs.

[demnan]

6. Ramen

and I like liver so at one time it was my "steak".

[skypilot]

7. Ramen noodles.

I cut up some broccoli and added that so there would be something of nutritional value in there. I also ate lots of eggs and potatoes.

[Talismom]

22. The students in the group house I lived in used RNEs --

Ramen Noodle equivalents to describe how expensive things were. Like:

"Can't we get a better stereo in this place?"

"No man! Do you know how many RNEs that would cost us!"

[skypilot]

26. You know what's really screwy.

I actually kinda like Ramen noodles, even now. They should remind me of bad times---and they do---but I still like to eat them from time to time even though I don't have to anymore. Knock on wood.

[Talismom]

36. You can always dress 'em up with tastey things and make

a pretty nice meal. The only thing is, they are drenched in nasty types of oils, so I'm glad my bod was young and healthy and capable of repair when I ate them. Nowadays, I don't.

[Patiod]

57. Same here

They remind me of my first apartment/first job -- I was broke but happy to be out on my own.

Canned mushrooms used to be pretty reasonable, and so ramen and mushrooms were dinner a lot of nights. Or rice and mushrooms.

Or canned tuna right from the can, and new research has shown that the cheap tuna (chunk light) is much better for you then white or albacore.

[sendero]

147. LOL..

.... funny stuff :)

[CottonBear]

9. Lentils & Rice

w/ free salt & pepper from packets. I added onion and carrot if I had extra money.

[pitohui]

122. another beans and rice fan here

lentils and also split pea

more expensive beans when i had a few pennies more

i'm addicted to beans now and still eat them if only as a side dish for my steak

[bertha katzenengel]

10. Tyler.

I would be interested in hearing more about your life. Sigh.

When I was a kid: we had no cereal or milk, and for reasons unknown to me, our mother made us eat bowls full of bread torn into pieces with water and sugar poured on. :shrug:

[Tyler Durden]

30. Tell you this: PRIDE is definitely the deadliest sin.

PRIDE kept me from going to relatives and getting off the street. Thank DOG it was only for 6 months, and I got to couch surf until I "found" some camping gear.

Did you know if you're very careful, you can set up a winter camp in a large graveyard and not get caught? Did that for a while.

College towns in the 70's were the best place to be homeless. Lots of restaurants for dumpster diving, and some would take pity and give you REAL FOOD. Plus, the locals felt guilty for not being "hippies" anymore. Disco=Guilt.

Drugs, booze and smokes are CURRENCY. You can save your life by haveing a flask of cheap booze or a spare pack of smokes. A dime bag to share can get you an indoor crash and rain/40 degrees can kill you.

The toilet scam was PURE GENIUS. They "rented" me tools until I bought my own at St. Vincent's. By then I could mount 3 an hour (that was the lordly sum of 15 bucks) but they seldom got me into more that 5 apartments a day. In a month I was flush, clean, and had a place to stay. In two months they hired me, and I did maintenance there for a year.

GOTS to think on your feet if you ain't got a roof or food.

[bertha katzenengel]

60. Thank you.

I'm fascinated, I don't know why. Maybe it's because I know I'm just 3-4 paychecks away from losing everything.

But then, aren't 95% of us in the same place?

[Bouncy Ball]

75. Last summer, for 16 days. Intentionally.

Granted, that's not very long in the big scheme of things but the biggest thing I learned was how very little I need to survive. I was...well, kind of amazed. It was a trip with an incredibly tiny budget, so we had to scrimp on everything we could. Ketchup packets, YUM!

:D

I also ran into a few people who were living like that for a lot longer. One guy who looked to be about college age slept in the back of his little pickup that had a camper top. He had a dog and some basic foodstuffs. I don't know how he earned the money for gas, but apparently he didn't move around too much. We met him in Utah, near Bryce Canyon.

It just sort of amazed me. There were people all over sort of....living like that. No permanent address or anything.

[elshiva]

11. free honey and ketchup packets, like 20 or more at time.

[neweurope]

13. I ate what I head... Knäckebread with tomato Ketchup, and

rice with peas, rice with peas, rice with peas, rice with peas...


----------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Aristus]

15. Rice, fried together with sliced-up Brown 'N' Serve sausages

and whatever spices I had on hand. One time this was all I had, together with a bottle of tonic water to drink, leftover from a party months before.

At the time, I worked for a bookstore on a wage that would starve a flea.

[jus_the_facts]

16. hot dogs.....chicken quarters.....

....and sammiches. :nopity:

[johnnie]

17. I don't know how much now but

I used to buy those biscuits that come in a can. Pop n Fresh or whatever they are. They were four cans for 99cents. I think it is 12 biscuits per can.

[enigmatic]

18. potaoes

Bought 'em it 20 pound bags; w/ butter, salt, and pepper it kept me alive when I was on the road..

[XemaSab]

19. Currently

it's noodles with soyrizo, cheese, and salsa. It's about 1.50 a serving, and YUMMAH.

Not poverty, just pretty darn cheap.

[redqueen]

20. Ranch Style beans and rice

:9

[Floogeldy]

67. Ranch Style beans rawk!

:)

[Bouncy Ball]

77. And you can get them for so cheap.

I've lived on those since I could eat solid foods, they were a staple in my family forever. Hell, they still are. They are SOOOO good!!!

[Floogeldy]

87. Defnilly!

I think I get them for $0.50 a can (two for a dollar).

They taste S0 GOOD. And good for you, to an extent.

I say that because Ranch Style black beans are seasoned but don't have any animal fat, I think. They are really, really good too.

:)

[Lady Effingbroke]

21. Tuna glop.

Tuna (cheapest off brand tuna I can find)
Mac-n-cheez (cheap, off brand)
Peas (again, cheapest brand I can find)


Directions:

1. Transform mac-n-cheez from rock-like, powdery consistency to gooey, gloppy consistency.

2. Mix in tuna n' peas.

3. Drown in cheap, vinegary, off brand hot sauce to disguise taste.

4. Enjoy!!!

Estimated cost: $1 per "meal".

[LisaM]

23. I used to make this mixture

of rice, chicken broth, onions, and sliced hot dogs. It was actually kind of tasty and I would sometimes eat it even when I wasn't broke.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Oatmeal

or other hot cereal. That and mac and cheese.

That's what I lived on at the end of the month as an impoverished graduate student.

[ronnykmarshall]

25. Mac & Cheese & Hamberger

I used buy all the generic brands (plain label stuff).

My asshole boyfriend at the time threw a fit at store when I bought them. I told him when he got off his fat ass, got a job and paid my bills he could have a say so in what I bought.

[khashka]

27. Bread and mustard

Cheap, filling, and pathetic.

Khash.

[Lerkfish]

28. potatoes

I would make a whole meal of one potato.

slightly more expensive: macaroni and cheese with a can of peas.

peanut butter is relative cheap, and off brand saltine crackers.

believe it or not, if you like 'em, sardines pack a lot of protein in a small, nonrefrigerated package.

[UncleSepp]

29. Potatoes, cabbage, onion, and a bit of sausage

Sack of potatoes, sack of onions, head of cabbage, and a package of sausages was my biweekly grocery purchase. Sometimes I'd get ramen noodles, a half dozen eggs, and a bundle of green onions for a change of pace. The best was getting together with a whole bunch of students and making whatchagot - usually noodles with broth, and then bits and pieces of whatever vegetables were left over. We could make a whole kettle of noodles with all sorts of tasty stuff in them out of pretty much nothing.

[EC]

50. Yep, me too...

I even gleaned fields for free cabbages, and once lucked out and found a couple heads on the road outside my house that had fallen off a truck...


Also, ate many dandelion salads..

[Ariana Celeste]

31. Ramen w/ egg.

Cheap "chicken fried" rice.

Last time we were really poor, one week we couldn't even afford Ramen. Our roommate would leave us his roaches on the table when he went to bed. So we were smoking roaches, and eating expired food in our cupboards. Some of which was around when my SO's mom still lived here (2 years or so previous to this point of time.)
:scared: My SO ate cereal bars, the kind with fruit in them, that his mom left behind. Ugh. I'm surprised he didn't get sick. We had a can of lentil soup from his mom's days there. We were starving, but we didn't touch that.
Ended up pawning a gold ring for $20. Bought a ton of ramen. And of course, Mountain Dew.

[izzie]

32. Pancakes and the kids thought it was special

--

[gardenista]

33. Ramen noodles with an egg dropped in and scrambled just before serving.

Spaghetti noodles with garlic salt and a little butter.

Cottage cheese with canned pinapple for a treat.

[AngryAmish]

34. Ketchup sandwiches

BBQ sauce sandwiches.
Pasta, olice oil and garlic (girlfriend did not like that so much)
2 Big Macs for $2 (eat once a day about 3pm - my favorite of all)

[Reverend_Smitty]

35. Ramen, Mac and Cheese, Rice-r-roni

Spaghetti-o's...talk about your carbo loading

[Jamastiene]

108. Spaghettios. Yeah!!!

I eat those to this day... Love the ones with franks in them. And rice-r-roni too.

[On the Road]

37. This One Time, I Was Completely Broke

and only had one dollar for three days until starting a restaurant job. I bought a huge loaf of white bread and a stick of butter. That was pretty close to hitting bottom.

[youspeakmylanguage]

38. Scrambled egg burritos...

Cheap, hearty meal. Great if you can melt a little cheese on top. I had two for dinner last night and I'm financially comfortable at the moment.

[Finder]

40. This brought back memories.lol

Raman noodles of course as well as the boil in bag chicken ala king--3 for a buck, eggs, english muffins plus veggies and fruits(broccoli, cauliflower, canteloupe, etc). I remember my food budget being less than 15 bucks a week back then.

[Taverner]

41. Bean Burritos

1 large can of refries
1 large package of tortillas

a couple of stolen taco bell sauce packets

You can live on these for weeks!

[jrthin]

42. Mom would make

cornmeal porridge or fried dumplings (flour, water, scallion and black pepper).

[Sugar Smack]

43. I remember making bean sandwiches.

I'd heat up a can of pork n' beans in tomato sauce and drain all the liquid. Then take 2 slices of white bread and spread mayo very thinly on each. I'd add a layer or so of the beans and sprinkle it liberally with pepper. It was tasty, and it was a good source of protein. Very filling.

:hi:

[catmandu57]

44. Spaghetti sans meat

potato, peanut butter, lots and lots o govmint cheese that i got from my granny, beans were cheap, govmint cornmeal from granny.
Since I was a student no food stamps, but every now and then I would go to one of the food banks.
when I was on the road, peanut butter and open door kitchens, plus I could spare change pretty well, I guess it worked I'm still here.

Oh yeah the peanut butter, govmint from granny.

[MountainLaurel]

45. Hot dogs

* mac & cheese
* the ubiquitous ramen noodle
* Mama Rose's pepperoni pizzas: 3 for $5
* Hamburger Helper
* Taco Bell

[tedoll78]

46. God, this is so unhealthy..

When I was a student at Ole Miss, I lived on the 49-cent pot pies (chicken, potatoes, carrots, etc), PB&J, & those personal 99-cent pizzas that were small enough to fit into a toaster oven. I also tended to buy plenty of ground beef when it was on sale so that I could put it in with some pasta (i.e., Generic Hamburger Helper).

Good times, eh?

[Cathyclysmic]

47. spaghetti

with no meatballs, no garlic bread, no parm cheese...just spaghetti

[Eurobabe]

48. scrambled eggs and toast

[hunter]

49. Rice with whatever, whenever I happened to have a place to live.

I'd live off the kindness of strangers when I didn't have a place to live, or worse, my parents or my siblings would take me in off the streets.

I always like to have a 25 pound bag of rice in my house, because then I know I won't be hungry.

Rice with beans, rice with cheese, rice with eggs, rice with those little tubs of taco sauce they used to have at Taco Bell back before they switched over to "catsup" packaging.

I used to make buttermilk out of instant milk too. I hated instant milk, but the buttermilk was okay. You could get government subsidized instant milk then. Now I notice the stuff is expensive.

Throughout the years, before I figured out how to be a normal human being, and before I met my wife, I had a lot of roomates. I suspect some of them post here. I was the strange quiet guy who occasionally worked fixing up student housing, occasionally went to school, who would disappear without explanation for random stretches of time (sometimes without keeping up with the rent...sorry.) I was the guy who usually got up to run before dawn, and spent huge amounts of time in University libraries and computer labs.

It's my opinion that cheap Mac & Cheese or Ramen will kill you, especially if you drink alcohol. I never drank when I was poor.

[SmokingJacket]

117. i remember you

you owe me $45.

;-)

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

52. Condor egg omelets. But then, I've always had expensive tastes.

[BiggJawn]

53. Fried baloney and wild mulberries.

No shit, I was once reduced to doing that "hunter-gatherer" thing. Fried baloney sandwiches on bread from the day-old store and mulberries for fruit and everything else. mooched quite a few meals fromm friends and family, too.

Only had to do that for a coupla weeks. When the court orders you to give your grocery money to soon-to-be ex-wife for "temporary spousal support", what you gonna do?

[GOPisEvil]

58. It took THIS LONG to get to fried baloney!!

Cut a few slits into the baloney so it doesn't curl up as much!!

:9

[BiggJawn]

93. Well, it was a LOT cheaper 25 years ago....

I used to catch it on sale for 79 cents a pound if you bought a 3-pound chunk...

For Sunday dinner, I used to slow-roast it with BBQ sauce from packets left in the lunch room at work...

I honestly think I'd go up to people with "W" stinkers on their Escapades and rob them before I'd do that shit again....

[Bouncy Ball]

101. Scrounging the nasty sauce packet drawer in the break room kitchen.

Yep, good memories. Not.

[BiggJawn]

121. Tomato "Soup" made from hot water and ketchup....

Yummy!......NOT!!!!!

salt and pepper packets, soy sauce, mustard, ketchup....65-cent a bar "Zote" soap (which is actually not bad soap for GP washing up. A beauty bar, it aint, though)

Ah.....Take a walk down the Ray-Gun Era Memory Lane with me!
Shall we discuss recipes for Gubbmint Cheez next?

"I aim to PLEASE! I gave you CHEEZ!"-MC Rapmaster Ronnie

[Dave Reynolds]

54. The low point was when

I had no money at all, but there was some spaghetti and a partial jar of peanut butter.

Together, they are not as bad as they sound.

Then I had nothing for three days until payday.

[Bouncy Ball]

80. Wow.

Never went three days as an adult, did as a kid. The stomach pains go away after a while, don't they? I remember that.

[Dave Reynolds]

123. Yeah, hunger can be ignored.

Even now, 20 years later and 90 pounds heavier, I still have a hard time recognizing when I am hungry, I usually notice when my hands start shaking that it is time to eat.

[youthere]

55. "The White Diet"..

One of the following:
Potatoes
Rice
Noodles

topped with margarine.

For breakfast there was oatmeal with powdered milk.

[Saphire]

56. beans and home made tortillias...

[China_cat]

59. We had a place in San Francisco

called the 'Dented Can'. Sold canned goods dirt cheap (sometimes as low as .03/can). We did get a few that ended up being unusable but not as many as I would have expected. We also would hit the farmer's market at closing time. We could get lots of fruit and veggies really cheap or even free when the farmers couldn't sell it and didn't want to haul it home.

So, in my broke days, we ate better (as in more healthy) than I do today.

[BikeWriter]

61. Red beans and rice and/or potato soup and corn bread.

[Left_Winger]

62. Pinto beans with a slice of onion

cornbread (if I had the cash) and iced tea.

[KG]

63. spaghetti

ate so much of it, that one day i looked down at another bowl and thought i would retch. 'bout that time though, things were starting to look up again so i moved up to a better, more varied diet.

[silverpatronus]

64. i invented the spam tortilla

i had in my possession a bag of 8 flour tortillas, half a bag of shredded cheese and a can of spam. fried the spam, warmed the tortillas, melted the cheese, wrapped it all up together. i made that last 4 days until my folks got paid and could send me grocery money.

[Democracy White]

66. PB&J and cheap cereal

My sister is the goddess of eating stuff when she is broke.

She eats ramen noodles and whatever the hell she can find in her house.

Dee

[yellowdogintexas]

68. as God is my witness, I will never eat another tuna casserole

again. Amen.

tuna casserole...ugh
however I am NOT tired of Ramen Noodles, pinto beans/white beans/red beans & rice (take your pick) with cornbread and a good glass of iced tea. I still love that stuff.

Also curried lentils and rice, my 59cent meal that serves 4.

PBJ

eggs

oatmeal

mac/cheese

I also picked up chicken,or ground beef on sale and did lots of things with it. A pound of hamburger, some cut up potatoes, a can of tomatoes, and assorted whatever you have in the refrigerator vegetables makes a damn fine soup and can feed you for several days.

There are times when I consider I should eat like I am poor again and I would have more money in the bank. LOL.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

71. Interesting. When my dad was a college student, he ate a lot of a

cheap vegetable, a type of green, sort of spinachy with hollow crispy shoots. Don't know the name in English, but it's good steamed or stir fried, in soup or whatever. He ate a ton of this and has a hard time eating it sometimes now. I love it and think it's great, lol, because I have no such association.

My sophomore roomie and I bought a whole big carton of ramen-type noodles. Every night around 10ish we'd make some with our little water hot pots. Did this for like a solid semester. I have a hard time looking at ramen noodles sometimes now, even though they're pretty good.

Adding a poached egg to it, slices of pork, hot sauce etc. are all good things to spice up the ramen...

[Bouncy Ball]

78. I had a roommate who I swear lived on those little

packets of crackers and cheese for a year. The kind that comes with a little red stick to spread the fake cheese with? Yeah. She ate three or four of those a day, alternated with ramen. She bought the cracker and cheese thingies in bulk and they worked out to pennies each.

She would splurge every now and then and have cinnamon toast (bumming the cinnamon off another roommmate).

[grannylib]

69. eggs and toast; big blocks of cheese when they distributed surplus

food and then i'd make mac and cheese but most often cheap no-name canned veggies and eggs adn toast...and sometimes I could get cheap lunch meat like bologna but it was pretty nasty
and in those days, when smokes were really cheap, then I'd mostly just smoke (outside) and make sure the kids had the food

[Ladyhawk]

70. Cream of Wheat for ten days. :D n/t

[Bouncy Ball]

79. Ug.

I once bought a bag of potatoes when I was in college and VERY broke. It was on sale really cheap and I thought "hey, I've got margarine! I can live on these!"

Well, by the time I was nearly done with the bag, I was scraping the eyes off of them every day and to this day I can hardly stomach a baked potato.

[DawgHouse]

72. Kraft mac and cheese

made with water because I didn't have milk.

[Bouncy Ball]

73. Sounds like you really DO live like Tyler Durden!

Mine is Ranch Style beans (yum!!!), mac and cheese, ramen, pb&js (that's a bit expensive, though, for the peanut butter). Frozen burritos maybe.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

74. Once on the day before we got a check (centuries ago)

the only thing in the house was an onion, a loaf of bread, a little flour and a small piece of margarine. I fried the onion, made some gravy with the flower and margarine and water and mixed it with the fried onion. Served it over the bread like a hot roast beef sandwich only without the beef. My family said it tasted pretty good but they didn't want to make a habit out of it. Thank God that was our last skimpy meal. Now we all fight to lose weight.

[u4ic]

76. Toasted cheese sandwiches

Day old bread & Kraft singles...:puke:

[On the Road]

81. My Girlfriend Li-Ping Grew Up in China

and lived through some serious food shortages.

She remembers when she was three being served a cup of hot water with a few grains of millet at the bottom. Families ate other things that were normally used as animal feed. People in the countryside ate cornstalks, bark, and grass.

This is really an amazing discussion. I had a few periods in my life when I was very poor, but it seems like a lot of other DUers have, too.

[Bouncy Ball]

103. I remember seeing a special on PBS a few years back in

which a reporter from the UK went to live with this tribe somewhere, I swear I am racking my brain and cannot remember where it was. Anyway, food shortages and famine was so bad there, they ate these weeds that grew here and there. They would boil the weeds, but fuel for fire was hard to come by at times, so then they would just eat the weeds raw, but the problem was it gave people digestive problems, especially the little kids. The younger you were the harder it was on your system to eat those weeds, apparently.

So the poor little kids were dehydrated, etc. It was awful. The reporter was about 10 pounds overweight when he went on assignment and was 20 pounds UNDERweight when he returned.

He said his eating habits were forever altered. He just couldn't eat a huge gluttonous meal after that, thinking of those people scratching around for weeds.

[Akoto]

83. Technically not a "poverty dish", but ...

I've made a lot of very cheap dishes by shopping at farmer's markets instead of grocery stores. If you're lucky enough to live near a market, you can find some great deals on produce.

[AzDar]

84. My single-parent Mom used to make me macaroni shells with tomato

juice in a bowl. Even now, when I'm flu-ish or hungover, it's what I crave. I mentioned this to my Mom a few years back,and she started laughing....she said that we always had it on Thursdays, because Friday was payday, and she was usually broke by then. She was shocked that I was STILL eating it! I had NO idea!!LOL

[achtung_circus]

85. On the bare ass prairies, working for nearly nothing in the 80's.

Rice, generic Kraft Dinner, Beans, dandelions salads, pancakes, Hungarian Partidge recovered from the grille of my car and occasionally my neighbour's chickens.

He had thousands which spent the day outside, sometimes fewer went in at night than had came out that morning.

I still maintain a kit, holdover from earthquake kit when I lived on the coast, which holds rice, peanut butter, tea, tuna enough to feed me for a month in case of need. Probably paranoid, but a comfort, nonetheless.

[ofrfxsk]

86. Ramen and Hunter hot dogs

Other things at Aldi's. They had some good pizzas @ 3 for $2.00.

[politicat]

88. The year my grad student stipend was 3 months late.....

My grandmother had sent me $60 for books (which didn't come close to covering them, but she wanted to help) but I could use the TA copies for my classes....

I knew going in that the Uni was going to bend me over a barrel for 3 months for my stipend, and I knew I didn't even have time to babysit. I did have my housing (riiiight..... a 1 room apartment with a 2 burner stove and no oven and no bathtub) paid for and my bus pass, though....

Mom was kind and bought me 6 dozen eggs; she'd found them on sale somewhere. That was my protein. Yes, eggs will last 3 months if kept refrigerated....

Month one: I spent $2 on a big clearanced bag of nori, $3 on a 7 pound bag of brown rice, $4 on a big ol bottle of soy sauce (the closest market to me was the asian market, okay?) and $2 on a pound of butter and $1 on sugar. Breakfast was brown rice with butter and sugar, lunch was brown rice with soy and nori, supper was fried rice with an egg. I scammed calcium supplements from the Student Health office and vitamins from a friend who was selling some diet/pep herbal formula (herbalife, I think. The frat rats chowed the stuff.) I bought little bits of veggies every day at the market - whatever was on their last chance rack for $.25. I have no idea what I ate a few times, save that it was good stirfried.

Month two: I was so sick of soy sauce that I thought I was gonna start peeing brown. Fortunately, Dad had given me a bread maker for christmas the year before. 1 bottle of oil at the co-op ($3 on clearance) 10 lb flour ($2) 1 packet of yeast (and from there I made sour dough starter), dry milk ($1) and a couple ounces of dried onions (this being a LOT of dried onion for $3), clearanced jam (I think it was pineapple apricot or some such - $.50) and butter again (2). I made two loaves a week, one with onions, one without. Breakfast was toast and jam, lunch was bread and butter and some green thing from the last chance rack, supper was egg on toast or french toast (mmm sour dough french toast with brown sugar-orange syrup and fresh nutmeg.... nutmeg being REALLY cheap if you buy one at a time...). Citrus was just starting to be ripe, so I managed to get a couple of my profs to let me pick their trees (most were very sympathetic, but one, the drinky one, thought poor kids had no business in graduate classes.....) so I had free oranges, lemons and grapefruit. (If you gotta be screwed over, be screwed over in Arizona....)

Month three.... I still had some rice and some flour and I managed to get the time to go to the scratch and dent grocery store (where everything was slightly scary, but also very, very cheap....) Pasta.... I got about 10 pounds for $2, butter again, some cheese (oh, man I missed cheese by then), a jar of bouillon, 15 cans of veggies (for a buck), tea, sweetened condensed milk.... I remember I walked out with a $10 in my pocket, and I had vegetables and fruit. I went down to a loaf of bread a week, and had brown rice for breakfast, bread and fruit and Thai iced tea for lunch, and supper was usually pasta with butter and grated cheese and half a can of veggies on the side. (I still hate canned veggies.) I found a hunk of mizithra cheese (this is a greek, sheep's milk cheese that is stellar on plain pasta) in the last chance bin at the co-op for $2, and I remember buying a lot of onions and sauteeing them that month.

When the check finally came in, I almost didn't know what to do with myself. I seem to recall that I actually bought meat and fresh vegetables and ate pretty much nothing but vegetables for the next three months.

[Bouncy Ball]

100. I had a friend who found dented cans of creamed corn on sale

for 20 for a dollar. He ate those cold for breakfast for 20 days. He had no microwave and his electricity had been cut off, so no heating up on the oven. He just opened the can and got a spoon. This was about 17 years ago, I'm still in touch with him and he told me about a year ago that he can't even look at creamed corn anymore.

You sound very resourceful, I bet it's served you well even to this day.

[politicat]

151. Resourceful.... ?

I guess you could call it that. More like picky, with weird food sensitivities (i.e. too much soy gives me the human equivalent of hairballs) and demanding when it comes to additives.

The whole foods movement suits me just fine and always has.

Looking at the situation now, we do spend a lot on food, but that has more to do with insisting on fresh, locally grown vegetables and local foods than anything else. Packaged food is cheaper, but the boutique pasta that was made with local, organic wheat by a local collective is better for me and better for the planet in the long run. Same with the local grass fed beef and organic eggs.

If I cared less about where my food came from, I'd spend less now.

[put out]

89. Cream of Wheat. Three tablespoons makes a serving.

It's nice if you have cheese or margarine. An egg in it would be good, too. Pasta is cheap, but you have to have a working stove.

Peanut butter, I don't like it, but would eat it when I had it. I just needed to feed the machine. Crackers are pretty inexpensive. I once had to feed my cat canned chicken and cooked eggs, because I didn't have the money to buy her proper food. I was really romantic about having a cat. That situation sort of grew me up a little, when I knew I had to give up my own food to feed the cat.

Goodness, I hope we all have some food tonight. This is sort of funny, and a lot sad.

[UrbScotty]

90. Ramen (nt)

[hickman1937]

91. In 1972 Kraft Mac and cheese was 5 for a $

half gallon of milk 35 cents. Pound of butter a buck. Margrine on the other hand was more expensive. $15 bought about a months worth of food, if you froze the milk, which believe me, changed the taste of the food.

[hickman1937]

92. On the other hand, I met men at my workplace in the 70's and 80's

from Italy who lived by eating soap in WW2, so I guess it's all relative.

[Merrick]

110. Hey, I thought you were going to bed

something about nobody paying attention to you.
(see? we were paying attention, just not acknowledging)

kidding.

[LeftyMom]

94. Curried lentils and rice,

miscelaneous pasta dishes, whatever baked goods I have the ingredients laying around for (which was wierd, people would think it decadent to be eating a peice of scratch crumbcake for lunch, not knowing it was all I had until payday,) potato soup, potato burritos (mash potatoes with salsa or hot sauce, add onions or peppers if you've got them,) baked potatoes, fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, black bean soup, black bean burritos, chili and rice, peanut butter sandwiches on homemade bread...

I can cook from scratch, so we usually eat pretty well even on our brokest days. I keep the pantry pretty well stocked with basics like rice, beans and flour because I know that if I need to I can make that and a few bucks worth of farmer's market goodies feed us well for a week.

[lizzieforkerry]

95. Spaghetti with Taco Seasoning

Really not too bad and very cheap. Hard boiled eggs dipped in salsa was pretty good. Ramen noodles of course. We would volunteer to help clean up after our Univ had lunches or dinners and take home the extra catered stuff. Spaghetti-Os were pretty big when we got our paychecks. We tried to only eat once a day and then get someone to buy us drinks at night- heavy beer or fruity drinks to fill us up! Ha- I forgot about that.

[swag]

96. Steamed rice with soy sauce, and/or butter, hot sauce of some kind.

Generic grocery store Mac & Cheese boxed dinner.

[Bzzzz]

134. Steamed rice...

and hot sauce...mmmm mmmmm. Still one of my favorites.

[Wapsie B]

97. Beans 'n weenies,

Boxed Mac'n Cheese, PBJ, Pasta with a little melted butter and garlic powder

[bufffbison]

98. ramen noodles, rice, and a hotdog . cheap recipe here!!!

one package of ramen noodles
one serving of rice
one hotdog

cook all three per its instructions. once the ramen is done, pour most of its broth in with the rice (rice soup). slice hotdog then add it to raomen noodles. this is very filling and good.

[fortyfeetunder]

99. Popcorn

When I was single, I bought a hot air popcorn popper. And at work there was always a supply of leftover butter patties from a function, so I'd take them home. I lived off of buttered popcorn some fruit and veggies. Meat..what was that?

[Left Is Write]

102. Macaroni with butter and Parmesan-in-a-can. Cup-O-Noodles.

Peanut butter toast. Eggs.

[AmandaRuth]

104. split pea soup

a bag of split peas, a can of chicken broth, water, chopped onion and carrot.

Feeds a family of 3 for 2 days, cheap and good!

[Jamastiene]

105. Rice with pinto beans

Treet (like Spam but cheaper) with pinto beans
potatoes with string beans
Pinto or Northern beans with bread for dipping the broth
bullion cube soup
2 slices of bacon cooked in beans
egg sandwiches
milk and tomatoes with crackers from the fast food joints' condiment section (this one is something you can do in a pinch. Wait until they are busy and grab a handful of ketchup, mustard, crackers, etc. and use them in place of buying them when funds are way too tight.)
spaghetti with ketchup instead of tomato sauce
self caught fish outta the mercury laden Pee Dee River
Also, let's not forget the old standby, Oodles of Noodles.
Mayonnaise sandwiches
cheese sandwiches
Beenie Weenies and bread
2 hot dogs for a dollar at one of the local convenience stores.

As you can see, with the beans in so many of the recipes, it saved a little on heating costs with all the hot air <tongue in cheek>

[Skittles]

106. Ramen noodles with saltine crackers

to this day I still like them. My mum was an English schoolgirl during WWII and SPAM was a delicious treat for her - it still is; go figure

[Merrick]

109. Popsicles - they worked for shit. Then it was time for bed

When you're asleep all the hunger pains go away.
Ahh, them college days.

[xultar]

113. Tuna and rice or just rice

[solinvictus]

111. Condiment packets scammed from the breakroom..

Back in 2002, I received a promotion and my wife changed jobs. Well, the company took over a month to change my paygrade and my wife went the requisite two weeks without pay, so there was little or no money for groceries. I couldn't take lunch because if I did so, there'd be no food at home for her and our daughter. At work, late in the evening when the hunger caused me to have a splitting headache, I'd scavenge for condiment packets in the breakroom. Those little packs of honey mustard, Arby's sauce, and Heinz ketchup will alleviate the headache for a bit.

[hyphenate]

115. When we were kids, we used to eat

lettuce and mayonnaise sandwiches. We also used to eat the welfare cheese and spam, as well as the peanut butter. I still like to make lettuce and mayo sandwiches, but add tomatoes and no bacon and I'm happy.

My grandmother used to make a huge pot of American chop suey (i.e., spaghetti chopped small with lots of meat sauce) for us. I think we ate more spaghetti in our lives than we care to remember--the funny thing is, I still enjoy it.

On my own, I like to eat macaroni and cheese when I haven't got much food. When I'm eating meat at all, I eat turkey or chicken 98% of the time, and I will fry up some hot dog pieces or ground turkey and add it to the macaroni and cheese. I don't care for the store brands of m&c--it might be a little snobby, but I only like the taste of the Kraft brand. Ramen noodles are still a staple, but I alter them by cooking them with water and the broth mix, and then drain them afterward. It cuts down the sodium content by a WHOLE lot!

[TK421]

116. Spaghetti for several reasons....

The pasta itself is dirt-cheap ( roughly 75 cents for a box of rotini ) and I get my store brand spaghetti sauce ( 2 jars for 3 bucks ) Assuming I buy another box of rotini, I can eat spaghetti for and entire week, because I don't eat much to begin with. The best part is that it fills you up fast.

[SmokingJacket]

118. "reduced for quick sale" -- my favorite words back then

I vividly recall the thrill of discovering a package of half-priced chicken legs at the store...

One dish I was really proud of: cherry tomatoes from my roommates garden fried in a pan with leftover pasta and margarine. It was actually good...

There was a year when I only ate food sneaked from my restaurant job: salads sent back by picky eaters, yesterday's soup of the day, etc. It worked out perfectly because I lived in an apartment with no kitchen.

[supernova]

119. Lentils and rice

I ate this a lot when I didn't have much money. They are both less than $1/1b bag. I could splurge when I could add some butter or hot sauce to it.

It allowed me to pay the rent, get my car fixed.

[Liberal Veteran]

120. Egg noodles smothered in cream of chicken condensed soup.

It's not bad really.

[flamingyouth]

124. Rice with beans

I would also make kidney beans with some ketchup, honey and cayenne pepper. I still eat that. :9

[dr.zoidberg]

125. Pop Tarts.

That and Raman noodles.

[agates]

126. Potato Soup / Sardines

Cubed potatoes, 1/8 pound of cheap bacon, half an onion, a little milk. I still like Potato Soup but I make it a little differently now.

When my (now) husband was trying to save up money to move to another state, he ate canned sardines and saltine crackers for a month. He still gags if he sees a can of sardines. He isn't too fond of generic brand saltines, either!

[stlsaxman]

128. Pan Baked Tomato Bread- Bisquick and Ketchup.

made is a rot-iron skillet... a big box of Bisquick would last almost a week. But this was only doable if I paid the gas bill that month.

[NNadir]

129. Spinach and lentils.

It was delicious actually.

[ScreamingMeemie]

130. Noodles and milk and hotdog casserole.

:hi:

[Nikia]

131. My sister ate lunch meat sandwiches

The cheapest ham and turkey that she could find and the cheapest bread. She had one sandwich with one slice of meat per day. Of course, she got severely underweight. Her story was that her diet was all that she could afford. She had only a low paying part time job and was locked into a $550/month lease. She was not in contact with any family members while she starved until she showed up at my dad's house.
Seeing everyone else's low cost options though, it does make me wonder if she really did have to starve from an economic sense.

[Mutley]

132. Ramen noodles.

Oh God Ramen Noodles! :scared: I can never eat them again. Never. I ate nothing but ramen noodles for three weeks, once, when I was completely broke. UGH!

[lpbk2713]

133. For me the old standby was the Banquet Boil-in-Bags

This was before microwaves came along. They were plastic envelopes with sliced turkey, beef and chicken in gravy that you boiled in a pan on the stove and then put on sliced bread. I could usually spread it out enough to make a double-decker.

Sometimes I might have a store brand or generic frozen pot pie. About 25 cents each if I recall correctly.

Thanks for letting me commiserate.

[grannylib]

138. OMG i remeber living on thoser things foabout 3 weeks once when I

was broke before I had kids. man...way cheap and pretty nasty but there were a couple that were ok. if on sale I remember you could get 6/$1 sometimes. that and a couple loaves of dayold bread...

[RebelOne]

135. Fried cheap lunch meat. n/t

[libnnc]

136. Fried Spam and potatoes

Very old family dish. Served with pinto beans and corn bread. I still love it.

[tenshi816]

137. My list is similar to yours, except I have to add one thing:

Venison. I swear!

My dad has always been an enthusiastic deer hunter and he lives in Georgia, which has a massive deer population. Every year for decades he bags the limit early in the season and then he and my stepmother have venison in every form you can think of (roasts, chops, sausages, burgers, etc.). They always have tons of the stuff in their huge freezer.

I hate venison, can't even stand the smell of it, let alone the taste. However, when I was in my late teens I was a single mother and also a full-time college student and couldn't afford to be choosy when they gave me pack after pack of various cuts of venison, which I would stick in the back of my freezer and try to forget it was there. I always knew when I was at the end of my food budget when all that remained in the freezer was those damned bundles wrapped in white butcher's paper, taunting me.

Venison, I still hate the stuff. I'd take mac and cheese over it any day.

[xmas74]

139. Ketchup soup.

(water, salt, pepper and a tiny squirt of ketchup for a "red" look). Bean soup (beans, water, salt and pepper).
Ketchup, salt and pepper came from packs that I walked into McDonalds and took(no meal, I couldn't afford it). Dried beans from the grocery store for 50 cents a bag.

[SOteric]

140. Potatoes, Eggs, Rice, Beans and Lentils, Homemade pasta,

A little onion, now and again and some basic staples. (Flour, sugar, salt, etc)

I grow my own herbs and often tomatoes, garlic, peppers and onion as well, so that's pretty much free.

And I can cook. So whipping up potato pancakes, sage sented ravioli stuffed with herbed lentils, frittata... Skilz are everything.

[chaska]

141. Pinto beans (dried) and homemade flour tortillas....

beans and flour, you can't get much cheaper than that.

[fudge stripe cookays]

143. Meatloaf

I have this amazing recipe for Market Street Meatloaf from the "New Basics Cookbook" I have. It's WONDERFUL. Everytime I make it people beg me for the recipe.

It has lots of crunchy vegetables, so I had extra veggies after I made it too (celery, carrots, etc), for enough vitamins.

A huge loaf of the stuff would see me through lunches at work AND dinners for almost a week, for the price of a pound or 2 of hamburgers and a couple bags of produce. I'd buy little 6 packs of applesauce and fat-free chocolate pudding for dessert.

Plus, the old standbys of Hamburger Helper and ramen. I'd splurge on Friday nights and get Chinese takeout and a video.

FSC

[KatyaR]

144. God, I hate remembering those days . . . .

off-brand peanut butter, 79-cent bread, and old jelly sandwiches, ramen noodles, and cheap hot dogs. Sometimes I'd cut the hot dogs up in the soup, but most times it was hot dog sandwiches with mayo. On payday everyone went out to lunch together, so that was my time to splurge for a real meal.

I lived like that for over a year--I'm lucky it didn't kill me.

I now get paid once a month (work for the state) and I ALWAYS make sure the first thing I do is get most of the groceries I'll need for the month. I have a cabinet and freezer full of stuff, and when I open something, it immediately gets replaced. I refuse to be without again.

[In_The_Wind]

145. mayonnaise sandwich

[sendero]

148. I had a few of those..

... growing up, but never once I moved out on my own.

Those cheap Kraft spaghetti dinners were my staple, I don't remember what they cost in 1974, but I remember my weekly food budget was $7 :)

[In_The_Wind]

149. kraft macaroni & cheese were always high on my list

the taste was better if I made it with evaporated milk instead of whole milk

[qnr]

146. When I was a child, I ate catsup sandwiches. With tabasco sauce to make

them last longer.

[dannofoot]

150. Campbell's Bean and Bacon soup

It was $.39 a can, and has lots of protein. I went through at least 6 cans a week from 1981-1985.

[steely]

152. navy beans

and I didn't have time to soak'em long enough.
I vowed that'd never happen again.

[WindRavenX]

153. rice and beans

rice and beans
rice and beans
rice and beans
rice and beans
rice and beans
.
.
.
.
.
This is all I've been eating for 4 months now x(


ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I WANT PROTEIN

[shugah]

154. red beans and rice

cheap, nutritious, tasty!

[tibbir]

155. Red beans and rice

If you've got somw $$ you can add sausage or ham.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

156. fish head soup

I was able to get the fish heads for a quarter apiece. I'd make a broth from them, and pull the bones and the eyeballs out. Then I added whatever vegetables happened to be on sale, and cooked white rice, which I always have on-hand. It wasn't bad...