(04-15-2025, 11:59 AM)gorzek Wrote: Hey, that's not bad.Regarding the soup mix. You can't understate the convenience of those Aldi soup mixes, you're absolutely right. There are other options too. Bouillon cubes are so cheap, especially in the international aisle, they're definitely a poverty pantry staple. You can also get big containers of powdered soup mix, but you have to be careful of unit price, especially with online sales. And, the reason I came here to make this comment, you can also make soup mix powder from dollar store salt, sugar, and spices. The salt is the key, a small amount of sugar keeps it from just being a brine. Obviously if you put in things like onion powder, Italian seasoning, garlic, pepper, ginger, etc, you will get a better soup base.
Here's a simple one I discovered recently. Aldi sells these dry soup mixes. They're about $2.59 each. In most cases you just add water, maybe a couple other simple things (butter, tomato paste.) You throw it in a pot and cook it. 8 servings. Assuming a worst case of like $3 for the meal, that's about 38 cents a serving. Hard to beat that, and they're pretty darn good.
For cheap bulk coffee, you can't miss with Cafe Bustelo. Probably the best cheap brick-pack coffee there is.
On a side note, Italian seasoning is mostly an American thing, where we sell 4 or 5 herb flakes mixed together. I thought that was funny when I learned that.
And don't forget, when you are making food from dry goods and powders, you have to add a fat to get the proper flavor, consistency, and caloric count. Olive oil if you can afford it, even just 1 tablespoon. Otherwise, any cooking oil is OK. They even say on camping / trekking sites to bring a small plastic water bottle full of cheap olive oil just for the calories and add it to everything.
Another funny thing: online prepper content, camping tips, and poverty finance become a perfect circle instead of a Venn diagram pretty quickly.
Here's an easy 7 ingredient bulk soup base recipe centered around dried milk (as per another thread on this forum):
https://theranchershomestead.com/cream-o...-soup-mix/
- 1 cup dry milk powder
- ¾ cup corn starch
- 3 TBSP dried minced onion flakes, you can also use 2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- ½ tsp dried parsley
https://smartinthekitchen.com/2017/10/ho...seasoning/
- 3 tablespoons dried minced onion
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon salt
Just a follow-up, 3 packs of onion soup mix at the Dollar Tree for $1.25. Still probably something you can DIY, but for convenience it's not a bad option: https://www.dollartree.com/continental-c...acks/13592
I'd certainly stock a dorm kitchen with it, at any rate.
I probably don't need to tell anyone that the next aisle over is chock full of ramen packets as well, if you're hard against it (or looking for a cheap ingredient for a larger meal). Watch your sodium and don't cook in the packaging :-)