Poverty food tips I have lived by:
- You can stretch a box of Hamburger Helper (brand or generic) by adding whatever other dry pasta you have; you can double the serving count that way and the sauce will generally be fine.
- Get a rice cooker (you can probably find a used one easily) and the biggest bulk bag of white rice you can; you can make a meal out of rice plus whatever else you have laying around, for next to nothing (you can get white rice for a dollar a pound or less, dry).
- Stores often put expiring items on deep discount; a lot of these may be freezer-friendly. Stock up!
- If you've never been to an Aldi and there's one near you... you will be surprised just how much cheaper it is on staple goods than your neighborhood grocery store.
- Block cheese is cheaper than pre-shredded. You can also slice it yourself, with a cheap cheese slicer or even just a potato peeler.
- You can make a stew out of almost anything, including the cheapest vegetables (and maybe meat) you can get at the store. Enough salt and paper and it won't really matter what's actually in it.
- Canned biscuits make great pizza crusts and you can make pizza for fraction of the cost of buying one.
- If you ever cook meat and have grease left over, remember you can use this for a soup base. Is it healthy? No! Will it keep you alive? Yes!
- If you drink coffee but you never make it at home, you would be surprised just how cheaply you can make it at home. Instant coffee and an electric kettle can do a lot, cheap. (This is what I do.)
- If there's a farmer's market near you, they may often have better deals than your local grocery store.
- There are sites like this which show you how to make good meals off of very cheap ingredients: https://www.budgetbytes.com/
the horrors persist, but so do we
(aka large mozz)
(aka large mozz)