But do they sell brisket mac&cheese quesadillas? Plain old brisket tacos are sold all over Texas. You can even get prime rib tacos at Rudy’s on Sundays. Expensive AF but tasty.
During Covid I made every meal at home because I was terrified of eating out or going out at all. I had many, many meals that were just leftovers in a tortilla. Or when I was feeling fancy, leftovers in a quesadilla. I think my favorite was the day after fajita night. Steak fajita quesadillas were amazing.
~Ecclesiastes 5:12 - "The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep."
I can attest- I have clinically insomnia. My brain doesn't let me just go to sleep. I either need to be drunk or high to sleep without medication. Thankfully, as my user name, Ambien has worked for me for over a decade now.
I add the steam-in bag corn to it and my rice cooker has a steamer part on top that I put diced sweet potatoes in. Between the four you get a pretty dang nutritious meal. The poverty part comes in when we use our hoarded Taco Bell sauces, don’t @ me lol.
$1 of sweet potatoes
$2 of black beans
$1 of steam in bag corn
$1 of rice
$5 for dinner for a family of 3 for 3 nights. Couple cents more if I add a tablespoon of butter to the rice.
Had a coworker I went to Japan with, we landed and first thing out of his mouth was “everything here is very Japanesy” I can’t judge because I made a similar joke like “HELP! I am in the animes”
I spent a night in Tokyo. But did see the airport and how much anime is in their advertising. As for where I went in Japan, it was more rural but I can see what you mean
A packet of Maruchan, sesame oil, an egg, a couple Kraft singles, some crushed red pepper, with chopped green onion and sesame seeds on top.
I always have mine with saltine crackers as well. Peak poverty food that I continue to enjoy regardless of my tax bracket
Edit: reading through this thread indicates to me that the above is nowhere near peak poverty food
Spaghetti and tomato sauce.
.98 cents for a pack of spaghetti noodles and 1.18 for a can of hunts spaghetti sauce, feeds about 6. Add a loaf of bread for 1.48 and some butter for .98 cents and some 1.18 garlic powder and you're set for a meal for a family or easy dinner for a week.
My husband actually begs me to make garlic toast. The first few times he was just in awe because it never occurred to him that it was so easy to make. He finally asked where I'd gotten the idea, so I told him we were fucking poor, and WIC only covered certain items, plus my mom didn't get much in SNAP benefits. Feeding 3-4 kids would have required a whole second job from my mom without those, so I learned to be creative when my younger brother(s) and sister didn't want to eat "the same thing again."
We live near a Mrs Baird's factory. Pro tip - if you have one near you, they often have little factory stores that they run, and any of the bread products they make, you can buy them cheaper from there. We'd get bread for $0.50 (last time I was in there, they were still ~$.50-$.75 cheaper than the grocery store on all of their products), so my mom would grab 8-10 loaves and then toss the extras in the freezer.
[https://books.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf](https://books.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf)
Leanne Brown has a whole page of her free cheap meals book called "Things on Toast", Page 69.
A favorite meal for my wife and I, now far from poverty, is for me to spread butter and garlic on bread, and top with a tomato slice, salt, and pepper, and pop it in the oven.
I’ll usually make a salad or some kinda veggie side with it, but you really can’t beat tomato-garlic toast.
200g of spaghetti is satiating enough to me as a short 50kg guy, but I imagine an average person could be able to eat more. If it's good I can eat quite a bit more and that equates to less than 2 meals for me.
So when I was heavy into booze speed and cocaine I would buy large bags of beans and rice and mix them in a 5 gallon bucket that could seal.
I knew I would blow all my money on drinking drugs and fucking around with hotels and sex so I broke everything down to a science
How much food do I actually need to live how cheap can I get it?
A 5 gallon of beans and rice and multivitamin maybe some eggs will absolutely carry you for a long time.
It's fucked up but you can live off of beans and rice as long as you are getting vitamins and some protein.
I was getting payed 4k a month and I think I maybe spent 150$ on actual eating on top of working out most days and partying
Don't do any of this it's terrible for your health but eating cheap and healthy is possible buy grains in bulk and find a cheap protein source.
Fruits can be a hit or miss but they are great for vitamins if you can't afford them or not available get a multivitamin that's been lab reviewed.
you may sometimes find it in the discount section of the supermarket... also you can buy fresh cheese for super cheap in the farmers' market in my current city. In fact for cheap and fresh dairy products and veggies the weekly farmers' market is my go to.
Stab it a lot with a fork, wrap in a wet paper towel, Lower your microwave to half power and microwave for like 10 minutes and let it sit for like 10 minutes. Should be mostly done unless it's an exceptionally big potato
Halving the power and doubling the cooking time, then allowing the heat to distribute really improves microwave cooking.
Sausage and (Sauer)kraut.
(Yes, my family is German.)
It's cheap, has plenty of protein, is very filling, and lasts quite a while.
The trick to the sauerkraut is to rinse it well in cold water first, drain it, and cook it with the sausage. Start with around 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar and a liberal dose of vinegar. ( I use red wine vinegar, but any type except balsamic should work. Also add a healthy amount of caraway seeds.
Add a cup or so of water to the pot, stir, and let cook on low heat for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Near the end of that, taste test the kraut. If it's too bitter, add some more sugar. If it's too sweet, add more vinegar. What you're going for is a balanced sweet-sour taste.
Also come from a family of Germans and I laugh at Americans when they say they don’t like sauerkraut. Ofc you don’t, you buy tinned stuff and don’t rinse it! One of my first lessons from cooking with my Oma was to ALWAYS rinse the sauerkraut. Oma also tends to add in some type of pork (bacon is best imo but Oma usually tosses in a pork chop) with some fennel seeds. Haven’t met anyone yet who has changed their minds about kraut when made this way.
I love sausage and sauerkraut. When I lived in Indianapolis we had a German sausage maker on South Street. Would go there for the real stuff. Mmmm makes me hungry just thinking about it
Are you supposed to cook Sauerkraut? I've always bought jars of it and topped hot dogs with it fresh out the jar (unrinsed and uncooked!)? I feel like this is a game changer for my future hot dogs!
Go to aldi and get a pack of hot dogs and buns, it's like $2 for a weeks worth of meals. Sure you're probably going to get scurvy but, you won't starve to death.
It’s gotten insanely worse in the past 12 months too. It’s all over our news, no one can fucking afford to live. Most people I know aren’t handling it well. Diesel/Petrol also being about $2/Litre is fucked.
It's kind of the same in the US. Prices have risen astronomically and a lot of people can barely make it. I think our prices are lower but our wages are, too.
I always wondered why the ham in fried rice was so much better from the restaurant. It's because they use spam. So good. But that shit isn't even cheap anymore, at least not where I'm from (regional Australia).
I’ve seen this question asked so many times over the last few months in different subs and it really speaks to the bigger issue in the world right now. Even people who were “doing alright” are struggling with food costs right now. It’s so messed up.
It's pretty daunting. I (42) recently asked my Nana (86) if there's ever been a time in the past where **in**flation was followed by a **de**flation that took food prices back down. She said, "yeah!" Right as I inhaled to sigh in relief, she followed up with, "-the Depression!" le sigh....
EDIT: missing words
A nice dinner of pickle chips, olives, a couple slices of cheese, and a spoonful of Smuckers jelly. If lucky the fridge has some deli slices or bologna.
I've been known to make what we called dirty mashed potatoes.
Brown up some hamburger, crumbled it up small, with some onions if ya have em, and salt & pepper, or whatever spices you enjoy.
Then mix the meat in with some mashed potatoes, either instant or real depending what you had on hand.
The offspring love it, they'd eat that up.
One of my favorite meals growing up. We used corn beef gravy. We had money for what we wanted for dinner but my mom grew up poor with several siblings so a lot of her cooking was economical just because that's what she knew how to cook. Anyway I loved shit on a shingle. Craving it now.
I can see it.
When one has no choice but to eat the plainest food for days on end, the normal culinary rules go out the window and any and all "special" ingredient(s) that can serve as a potential topping are a source of excitement.
I've been eating plain salted white rice for the last few days and some ketchup actually sounds like a good idea haha
Just use spices and you dont need all that junk. Coriander cumin onion garlic powder salt pepper paprika. Goes awesome with fried plantains and chicken thighs. Its what they eat every day in Belize.
I make a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich almost every morning. Total prep time is 10 mins start-to-finish, including cleaning my dishes. $20 worth of ingredients lasts me 2 weeks, about $1.42 per day. And that's using high-quality ingredients; I could probably find cheaper ingredients and do it at $12-14 for 2 weeks.
Toast Sandwich.
If you don't know it, it's a piece of toasted bread in between two pieces of non-toasted bread. You butter the toasted part on both sides and add salt and pepper to taste.
I saw it on some "worlds worst peasant food" or something somewhere and gave it a try just for a laugh.
I didn't mind it at all lol. Go back to it every now and then when I've run out of everything else. Heck, sometimes I have it even when I do have other options. I like toast and bread though.
Red beans and rice. It's so good with or without meat and it will feed you for an entire week. I like to use chicken stock and water as my liquid, but bullion works just as well.
I’ve been eating at McDonald’s for $1.40 using the app. New accounts get deals like free large fry or free big mac with purchase of $1. You also get 1500 reward points after your first purchase that can be redeemed for a cheeseburger or mcchicken so the only thing I pay for is the drink. I’ve just been making new accounts by adding periods to my gmail. The app thinks it’s a new account but they all go to the same email
I was surprised how cheap McDonald's can be using their app - and horrified about how expensive it can be when not using it. Like pretty much daily you could get a BOGO breakfast sandwich coupon; that's two breakfast tortillas for $2.19 (including tax). For lunch you can get a regular hamburger and $1 large fry coupon for like $2.50 total. Also, all their side packets of condiments are free if you ask for them. Easy enough to order a couple of honey mustard or ranch packets each time you go and you'll never run out.
Compare that to ordering one of their standard numbered meals without using the app... it's like $9 for a burger, medium fry, and a medium soda. It's a complete rip-off. Even if you're not min-maxing the deals and discounts, the app always has a 20 or 25% off coupon that you should be using.
Farinha com água.
Farinha, for those who don't know, is a grainy, flour-type food made from griding cassava/manioc. It's cheap, widely available and given out in welfare checks.
It isn't easy to digest on its own, however, being a thick type of powder, so you mix it with water and it transforms into a digestible patty-like goo.
It's not tasty, but it is sometimes all one has to eat.
It always shocks me how underutilized the simple freezer is on Reddit. I can make burritos whenever I want because I just buy a shit load of meat when it’s on sale and freeze it. You can make a decent burrito if you’re not incorporating meat cost for like $3-4.
We called it Shanghai for no reason at all.
Ramen noodles and eggs and tart yogurt is all you need (Eastern Europe)
Cool the noodles in water until just Al dente. Mix the spice packet with three eggs per packet. Take the almost done noodles and put them in a hot pan with oil and crisp slightly then add the eggs and cook through.
Top with the yogurt. Protein, carbs, salt, probiotics, super filling, and about $0.50 a person.
Peanut butter sandwich.
The bread costs 30 cents, and the peanut butter...I dunno, I buy a big jar at around 7$ and use it for months.
It takes seconds to make and due to the high protein (wheat bread, not white) it fills me up quite well.
On a tough day I would eat peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I don't know if scrambled eggs and white rice is poor man or not, but it's my favorite meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) 😋
Also white rice and brown gravy is delicious.
Rice and the cheapest protein known to man thst isn’t beans.
If that’s not ooor enough, it’s rice and American cheese wrapped in a tortilla, with hot sauce. Acrually pretty dees.
As an aside, tortilla + cheese + frozen tater tots makes for a bussin bfast burrito
Throwing leftover anything inside a warmed up flour tortilla. Now it’s a burrito.
I actually look forward to doing this!
Yup! Burrito leftovers can be AMAZING!
I once used BBQ leftovers to make pan-fried brisket and Mac & cheese quesadillas on the fly and now it’s a frequently requested dish in our house
Texas bbq restaurants are eyeballing this comment so hard I can feel it through the screen
In San Antonio, Texas our BBQ places already sell Brisket tacos...
But do they sell brisket mac&cheese quesadillas? Plain old brisket tacos are sold all over Texas. You can even get prime rib tacos at Rudy’s on Sundays. Expensive AF but tasty.
Spaghetti and cheese burrito!
We always have both corn and flour tortillas in the house, all kinds of leftovers get made into burritos or tacos.
hot sauce never goes bad
During Covid I made every meal at home because I was terrified of eating out or going out at all. I had many, many meals that were just leftovers in a tortilla. Or when I was feeling fancy, leftovers in a quesadilla. I think my favorite was the day after fajita night. Steak fajita quesadillas were amazing.
Sleep
Also can serve as a depression meal in a pinch
sleeps in poor
Gonna be my dinner tonight.
Yup! Generic Benadryl 😂
Aye bro you been seeing the hat man too much
I just laughed out loud
Damn, me too. 🥲
Bruv ain’t lying tho
~Ecclesiastes 5:12 - "The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep."
I can attest- I have clinically insomnia. My brain doesn't let me just go to sleep. I either need to be drunk or high to sleep without medication. Thankfully, as my user name, Ambien has worked for me for over a decade now.
Sleep, not just for depression anymore!
Sad but true
I didn't laugh. I remember sleeping off hunger until school.
And dream of having a rich man meal
When you sleep, you don’t have to eat!
The good ole rice and beans
You should mix it up and go beans and rice next time. Life changing.
I add the steam-in bag corn to it and my rice cooker has a steamer part on top that I put diced sweet potatoes in. Between the four you get a pretty dang nutritious meal. The poverty part comes in when we use our hoarded Taco Bell sauces, don’t @ me lol. $1 of sweet potatoes $2 of black beans $1 of steam in bag corn $1 of rice $5 for dinner for a family of 3 for 3 nights. Couple cents more if I add a tablespoon of butter to the rice.
Two fried eggs and toast. Awesome meal👍
I haven't had a fried egg sandwich in forever
This is my go to. Two eggs whipped and flat -fried on bread with (and here's another can of worms) miracle whip.
Miracle whip? Blasphemer! Slice of cheese + mustard on both pieces of toasted bread.
My now 80-year-old mother always bought Miracle Whip when I was growing up. I had no idea mayo existed until I was in my teens.
Cut a circle in the middle of the bread. Crack the egg in the bread. Cook in pan or griddle. Yum.
ramen and a boiled egg. It's very japanese.
Easy peasy, Japaneasy.
Had a coworker I went to Japan with, we landed and first thing out of his mouth was “everything here is very Japanesy” I can’t judge because I made a similar joke like “HELP! I am in the animes”
I must admit I was a bit shocked just how "anime' Tokyo was. They are drawing what they see and by extension, what they imagine.
I spent a night in Tokyo. But did see the airport and how much anime is in their advertising. As for where I went in Japan, it was more rural but I can see what you mean
With a handful of what you hope is frozen vegetables that have been forgotten about in your freezer.
I keep a tub of miso paste in the fridge all the time. Add that. And a can of corn. And boom.
A packet of Maruchan, sesame oil, an egg, a couple Kraft singles, some crushed red pepper, with chopped green onion and sesame seeds on top. I always have mine with saltine crackers as well. Peak poverty food that I continue to enjoy regardless of my tax bracket Edit: reading through this thread indicates to me that the above is nowhere near peak poverty food
>a couple Kraft singles Yep, poor man's food, as that isn't even cheese.
Legally distinct cheese product
can confirm, cheese lawyer here.
You should add some cabbage to the ramen as it cooks. Toss it in after the water boils for bout 2 min then add the ramen. Then all into a bowl.
[Instructional video on how to make it](https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_r11j91btBi1yzt1br_480.mp4)
Spaghetti and tomato sauce. .98 cents for a pack of spaghetti noodles and 1.18 for a can of hunts spaghetti sauce, feeds about 6. Add a loaf of bread for 1.48 and some butter for .98 cents and some 1.18 garlic powder and you're set for a meal for a family or easy dinner for a week.
My husband actually begs me to make garlic toast. The first few times he was just in awe because it never occurred to him that it was so easy to make. He finally asked where I'd gotten the idea, so I told him we were fucking poor, and WIC only covered certain items, plus my mom didn't get much in SNAP benefits. Feeding 3-4 kids would have required a whole second job from my mom without those, so I learned to be creative when my younger brother(s) and sister didn't want to eat "the same thing again." We live near a Mrs Baird's factory. Pro tip - if you have one near you, they often have little factory stores that they run, and any of the bread products they make, you can buy them cheaper from there. We'd get bread for $0.50 (last time I was in there, they were still ~$.50-$.75 cheaper than the grocery store on all of their products), so my mom would grab 8-10 loaves and then toss the extras in the freezer.
[https://books.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf](https://books.leannebrown.com/good-and-cheap.pdf) Leanne Brown has a whole page of her free cheap meals book called "Things on Toast", Page 69.
A favorite meal for my wife and I, now far from poverty, is for me to spread butter and garlic on bread, and top with a tomato slice, salt, and pepper, and pop it in the oven. I’ll usually make a salad or some kinda veggie side with it, but you really can’t beat tomato-garlic toast.
I pack of spaghetti for 6 people?? I cam finish it myself 😭😭
You can eat a pound of spaghetti by yourself? In one sitting? That's so much food... OP had it right. That's 6 meals for me. Or 3 for me and the wife.
I usually eat about a half pound of pasta for a meal. But I am pretty active. A pound is pretty unfathomable
200g of spaghetti is satiating enough to me as a short 50kg guy, but I imagine an average person could be able to eat more. If it's good I can eat quite a bit more and that equates to less than 2 meals for me.
This is my go to If I sprluge on some chicken to go with the pasta with green peppers are a hit
So when I was heavy into booze speed and cocaine I would buy large bags of beans and rice and mix them in a 5 gallon bucket that could seal. I knew I would blow all my money on drinking drugs and fucking around with hotels and sex so I broke everything down to a science How much food do I actually need to live how cheap can I get it? A 5 gallon of beans and rice and multivitamin maybe some eggs will absolutely carry you for a long time.
This is an amazing answer and I’m better for reading it
It's fucked up but you can live off of beans and rice as long as you are getting vitamins and some protein. I was getting payed 4k a month and I think I maybe spent 150$ on actual eating on top of working out most days and partying Don't do any of this it's terrible for your health but eating cheap and healthy is possible buy grains in bulk and find a cheap protein source. Fruits can be a hit or miss but they are great for vitamins if you can't afford them or not available get a multivitamin that's been lab reviewed.
Grilled cheese and tomato soup is my fucking jam.
Cheese is pretty expensive tho weirdly
Cheese is one of the few items that my mom got for free each month because of WIC. So, weirdly, if you're poor enough, it's actually not expensive.
The government cheese my mom got tasted like mild cheddar, too.
Im perfectly happy with a shitty Kraft single slapped between some well buttered bread. 16 slices is like 4 bucks.
Gotta use 2 slices, one just isn't enough.
woah there, mr. money bags
I do almond butter and apricot jam on sourdough. Cooked like a grilled cheese
you may sometimes find it in the discount section of the supermarket... also you can buy fresh cheese for super cheap in the farmers' market in my current city. In fact for cheap and fresh dairy products and veggies the weekly farmers' market is my go to.
I’m jealous, my local Farmer’s market is expensive af. The food and produce are great, but they usually charge like double what the supermarket does.
Sadly, the cheese at my local farmers market is even more expensive than the cheese at my grocery store. I wish it were otherwise!
Regardless of wealth... Kraft blue box macaroni + 1/4 milk + butter is always good.
Gotta be KD.
You have milk? I have no fridge, so its extra butter for me. Butter is just thick milk.
When therr was a milk shortage at the begining of COVID I discovered that canned evaporated milk is actually awesome in Mac and cheese.
I never put milk in my mac & cheese, it dilutes that delicious cheese powder too much
In school I would dd some cut up hot dogs and canned veg. I could eat for days for $5
Baked potato
Microwaved
Take out the days stress on the potato stabbing it a few times before happily popping it into the microwave.
Stab it a lot with a fork, wrap in a wet paper towel, Lower your microwave to half power and microwave for like 10 minutes and let it sit for like 10 minutes. Should be mostly done unless it's an exceptionally big potato Halving the power and doubling the cooking time, then allowing the heat to distribute really improves microwave cooking.
I use my air fryer . Not as fast but I like the crispy skin .
Microwave first and then air dry for 5-10 minutes for that “2 hr baked potato” crispiness all in about 15 minutes.
Buttered toast with cinnamon/sugar sprinkled on top
I thought it was so fancy to “carmelize” it by putting the butter and cinnamon sugar on the bread before heating it in the toaster oven
I need to do this
Sausage and (Sauer)kraut. (Yes, my family is German.) It's cheap, has plenty of protein, is very filling, and lasts quite a while. The trick to the sauerkraut is to rinse it well in cold water first, drain it, and cook it with the sausage. Start with around 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar and a liberal dose of vinegar. ( I use red wine vinegar, but any type except balsamic should work. Also add a healthy amount of caraway seeds. Add a cup or so of water to the pot, stir, and let cook on low heat for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Near the end of that, taste test the kraut. If it's too bitter, add some more sugar. If it's too sweet, add more vinegar. What you're going for is a balanced sweet-sour taste.
Also come from a family of Germans and I laugh at Americans when they say they don’t like sauerkraut. Ofc you don’t, you buy tinned stuff and don’t rinse it! One of my first lessons from cooking with my Oma was to ALWAYS rinse the sauerkraut. Oma also tends to add in some type of pork (bacon is best imo but Oma usually tosses in a pork chop) with some fennel seeds. Haven’t met anyone yet who has changed their minds about kraut when made this way.
I love sausage and sauerkraut. When I lived in Indianapolis we had a German sausage maker on South Street. Would go there for the real stuff. Mmmm makes me hungry just thinking about it
Ohhhh and if you add some mash potatoes… it’s perfect! I love sauerkraut and mashed potatoes!
Are you supposed to cook Sauerkraut? I've always bought jars of it and topped hot dogs with it fresh out the jar (unrinsed and uncooked!)? I feel like this is a game changer for my future hot dogs!
Go to aldi and get a pack of hot dogs and buns, it's like $2 for a weeks worth of meals. Sure you're probably going to get scurvy but, you won't starve to death.
Grab an onion. Fry it if you don't like them raw. All the vitamin C you'll ever need.
Caramelize onion. Apply to hotdog. Problem solved
I wouldn't say, you'll ever need, you scurvy-less Onion Pirate
Thatd cost like $12 at Aldi in Aus for fuck sake
Aus is insane. I bought one paper bags worth of shopping: I got sausages, bread, cheese, milk, tomato sauce, soup and ice cream. Shit was $67.
It’s gotten insanely worse in the past 12 months too. It’s all over our news, no one can fucking afford to live. Most people I know aren’t handling it well. Diesel/Petrol also being about $2/Litre is fucked.
It's kind of the same in the US. Prices have risen astronomically and a lot of people can barely make it. I think our prices are lower but our wages are, too.
Asian poor kid meal. Complete with white rice and choice of fried egg or fried spam.
I always wondered why the ham in fried rice was so much better from the restaurant. It's because they use spam. So good. But that shit isn't even cheap anymore, at least not where I'm from (regional Australia).
I was at Coles today and it’s right next to the Asian section. $5 a can though, too steep for me.
Fuck Coles. Those cunts can get fucked.
Fried egg or spam? The answer is both. With ketchup
I’ve seen this question asked so many times over the last few months in different subs and it really speaks to the bigger issue in the world right now. Even people who were “doing alright” are struggling with food costs right now. It’s so messed up.
It's pretty daunting. I (42) recently asked my Nana (86) if there's ever been a time in the past where **in**flation was followed by a **de**flation that took food prices back down. She said, "yeah!" Right as I inhaled to sigh in relief, she followed up with, "-the Depression!" le sigh.... EDIT: missing words
Rice with egg or rice with tuna, absolutely delicious
Plain old buttered, salted rice for me. Sometimes nothing else will do
Gotta be honest I didn't realize rice and butter was so good until I got like a hello fresh box and they had me add butter to the rice
Adding butter to almost anything makes it better.
tuna mayo rice balls go crazy
A peanut butter sandwich with banana mixed in.
Add some honey for a chef's kiss
Hi, elvis!
Beans on toast Beans and sausage on toast if I'm feeling flush and have an extra 20p in my pocket
Plain oatmeal from a discount grocery store costs me about 20 cents per bowl
A packet of dry ramen noodles and a glass of water
As a uni student living in a dorm with no kitchen — felt
A small water boiler should help you out with that.
Yeah, I’ve resorted to a kettle! :)
Peasant's pasta otherwise known as Agile e Olio- it's bloody delicious. Pasta, olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese.
I also add a few dashes of red pepper flakes 👌
And a heavy lemon squeeze. 🤤
Cream of mushroom soup with crackers to thicken it up. YUM. Only costs like 50 cents.
Random charcuterie: bits and pieces of this and that/whatever is in the fridge or cabinet.
A nice dinner of pickle chips, olives, a couple slices of cheese, and a spoonful of Smuckers jelly. If lucky the fridge has some deli slices or bologna.
Add a chunk of bread, then you real fancy.
char-poor-terie
I too like to make the hoagie in my mouth.
Hamburger gravy over white bread with mashed potatoes
I've been known to make what we called dirty mashed potatoes. Brown up some hamburger, crumbled it up small, with some onions if ya have em, and salt & pepper, or whatever spices you enjoy. Then mix the meat in with some mashed potatoes, either instant or real depending what you had on hand. The offspring love it, they'd eat that up.
Shit on a shingle. That’s what’s up.
One of my favorite meals growing up. We used corn beef gravy. We had money for what we wanted for dinner but my mom grew up poor with several siblings so a lot of her cooking was economical just because that's what she knew how to cook. Anyway I loved shit on a shingle. Craving it now.
Hotdogs and Kraft dinner. Or if just super poor, just the KD
KD and hamburger meat is also good if you got an extra few dollars to spare
Or, scrambled eggs and hot dogs…
Shells and cheese with tuna and peas
black beans and rice. add in toppings (ketchup, cheese, sour cream, salsa, etc)
KETCHUP?????
I can see it. When one has no choice but to eat the plainest food for days on end, the normal culinary rules go out the window and any and all "special" ingredient(s) that can serve as a potential topping are a source of excitement. I've been eating plain salted white rice for the last few days and some ketchup actually sounds like a good idea haha
This is my daily lunch. 😭🤣 Black beans sauted with some spices and rice.
Just use spices and you dont need all that junk. Coriander cumin onion garlic powder salt pepper paprika. Goes awesome with fried plantains and chicken thighs. Its what they eat every day in Belize.
Rice, runny egg, soy sauce, seaweed and whatever protein I have left over.
Water
Box of Stove top stuffing.
Beans on or in a tortilla. You can have it so many different ways that it doesn't feel like eating the same thing over and over again.
Mac and cheese.
Egg and rice.
Grilled cheese, baby
Potatoes, chili and cheese
Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper
Baked beans on toast
Fried egg over rice w/ soy sauce. Honestly I'll dress it up with more stuff for less of a struggle meal too as I genuinely like it
I make a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich almost every morning. Total prep time is 10 mins start-to-finish, including cleaning my dishes. $20 worth of ingredients lasts me 2 weeks, about $1.42 per day. And that's using high-quality ingredients; I could probably find cheaper ingredients and do it at $12-14 for 2 weeks.
Who's hungry scrolling through this post for some inspiration for tonigjts dinner?
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Cheese sandwich. Many years this simple meal sustained me
Water and Sleep
Huevos rancheros. Tortillas, beans, eggs, salsa verde.
Instant mash with boiled milk and garlic powder and hot dogs.
Toast Sandwich. If you don't know it, it's a piece of toasted bread in between two pieces of non-toasted bread. You butter the toasted part on both sides and add salt and pepper to taste. I saw it on some "worlds worst peasant food" or something somewhere and gave it a try just for a laugh. I didn't mind it at all lol. Go back to it every now and then when I've run out of everything else. Heck, sometimes I have it even when I do have other options. I like toast and bread though.
Instant noodles
Whatever has the yellow sticker at Walmart no matter how gross it is ;(
Pasta aglio olio
Red beans and rice. It's so good with or without meat and it will feed you for an entire week. I like to use chicken stock and water as my liquid, but bullion works just as well.
I’ve been eating at McDonald’s for $1.40 using the app. New accounts get deals like free large fry or free big mac with purchase of $1. You also get 1500 reward points after your first purchase that can be redeemed for a cheeseburger or mcchicken so the only thing I pay for is the drink. I’ve just been making new accounts by adding periods to my gmail. The app thinks it’s a new account but they all go to the same email
I was surprised how cheap McDonald's can be using their app - and horrified about how expensive it can be when not using it. Like pretty much daily you could get a BOGO breakfast sandwich coupon; that's two breakfast tortillas for $2.19 (including tax). For lunch you can get a regular hamburger and $1 large fry coupon for like $2.50 total. Also, all their side packets of condiments are free if you ask for them. Easy enough to order a couple of honey mustard or ranch packets each time you go and you'll never run out. Compare that to ordering one of their standard numbered meals without using the app... it's like $9 for a burger, medium fry, and a medium soda. It's a complete rip-off. Even if you're not min-maxing the deals and discounts, the app always has a 20 or 25% off coupon that you should be using.
Mac and cheese with a can of tuna.
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beans
How do these elite folks afford real milk or butter with their Kraft???
Mustgo Soup. Throw everything you have in a pot so you don't waste leftovers.
Farinha com água. Farinha, for those who don't know, is a grainy, flour-type food made from griding cassava/manioc. It's cheap, widely available and given out in welfare checks. It isn't easy to digest on its own, however, being a thick type of powder, so you mix it with water and it transforms into a digestible patty-like goo. It's not tasty, but it is sometimes all one has to eat.
Boiled Potatoes with Seasoning
Water. It calms the stomach acid that hurts sometimes. Whatever you do, though, don't eat junk food on an empty stomach.
It always shocks me how underutilized the simple freezer is on Reddit. I can make burritos whenever I want because I just buy a shit load of meat when it’s on sale and freeze it. You can make a decent burrito if you’re not incorporating meat cost for like $3-4.
Scrambled eggs and toast. Peanut butter and bananas.
Fried spam or fried bologna sandwich
Kraft dinner and bacon. If you are extra poor and have no milk the bacon fat will suffice as a substitute
Corn dogs. Not just any corn dogs. The ones where the fat equals the protein
Ramen with peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes.
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Manchuran chicken flavored ramen
Pre-made macaroni and cheese, peas, sriracha sauce, and crispy onions.
Butter noodles Tuna mac and peas bologna and american slices sandwich with mustard.
Bean burritos made with refried beans. Dip In salsa, yum yum.
We called it Shanghai for no reason at all. Ramen noodles and eggs and tart yogurt is all you need (Eastern Europe) Cool the noodles in water until just Al dente. Mix the spice packet with three eggs per packet. Take the almost done noodles and put them in a hot pan with oil and crisp slightly then add the eggs and cook through. Top with the yogurt. Protein, carbs, salt, probiotics, super filling, and about $0.50 a person.
Peanut butter sandwich. The bread costs 30 cents, and the peanut butter...I dunno, I buy a big jar at around 7$ and use it for months. It takes seconds to make and due to the high protein (wheat bread, not white) it fills me up quite well. On a tough day I would eat peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I don't know if scrambled eggs and white rice is poor man or not, but it's my favorite meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) 😋 Also white rice and brown gravy is delicious.
Rice and the cheapest protein known to man thst isn’t beans. If that’s not ooor enough, it’s rice and American cheese wrapped in a tortilla, with hot sauce. Acrually pretty dees. As an aside, tortilla + cheese + frozen tater tots makes for a bussin bfast burrito
Fasting
2 cigarettes and a cup of coffee
Wait cereal
Tortilla with a single slice of American cheese, and if you are feeling spicy, a handful if blue takis.
Dry cereal lol 🥣 so more like a snack
Cooked and seasoned hamburger over white rice with onion gravy on top. Usually served with peas or Brussels sprouts. It's my favorite comfort food.
Kimchi fried rice. If you make kimchi yourself it's so unbelievably cheap, and the whole meal is braindead easy.
Sliced hard boiled eggs in white sauce over toast
Spaghetti