When I was literal piss-broke, there was a college campus near me with an open food court. Couldn’t afford the actual shops selling food there, but in that food court was a condiments station that randomly had one of those electric hot water dispensers for making tea, and styrofoam cups. It also had ketchup packets, saltine crackers, and pepper.
Turns out you can make a pretty passable tomato soup with ketchup and hot water. Bit of pepper and a handful of saltine cracker packets, and I had myself a hot meal for exactly $0.00
With some money to spend, rice is where it’s at. Hitch a ride to Costco or Sam’s with someone who has a membership, and they have iirc 50 lb bags of that short grain fortified rice for like… $15? That’s well over 100 meals worth of rice.
Cook that up with literally almost anything that has some flavor or nutrients - whatever’s cheap. Or just eat it straight… bland, but it’ll fill you up. Eggs go great with rice.
Fair warning, you’ll get fat. Cheap food is NOT usually healthy.
Things are way better now! I was getting pretty depressed, and struggled with suicidal ideation. Had a plan, and a redundant backup plan in case the first one didn’t turn out to be fatal, but then randomly to try an extreme change in lifestyle so I enlisted into the Air Force on kind of a whim. Was always opposed to military cuz of the whole killing innocent people thing… figured I’d they put me that kind of position I’d just refuse (gave absolutely zero fucks back then) or worse case I’d just go back to plan A and kill myself instead.
Didn’t have to find out though: got lucky and they made me a medic (surgical tech specifically). And hugely: acres to actual healthcare, to include mental!
Got the fuck out as soon as my enlistment was up, and I’ve been working as a civilian surgical tech ever since, which has me up to $24/hr. Actually not broke anymore, which still feels kinda weird. Using my GI Bill to go nursing school right now, so soonish I’ll looking at another income bump, but I’m already making enough to all least eat healthy… you don’t realize how shitty you just always feel at baseline when your diet consists of carbs and whatever you can find on the clearance rack.
I see a lot of my classmates with that with that same kind of “aw fuck” expression on their face when they see the price tag on the hospital cafeteria food at our clinical rotations, so I’ve been pretty quick to buy their meal and tell em to pay it forward when they’re a ‘rich’ nurse lol. 😝
But yeah, it sucks absolute balls to be poor. I will never let myself forget what that’s like.
Beans shouldn’t be much more pricey, give you less worry about arsenic and contain a fair amount more protein than rice.
If affordable, I’d pick beans over rice any day.
Big bags of dried beans it is!
When I was literal piss-broke, there was a college campus near me with an open food court. Couldn’t afford the actual shops selling food there, but in that food court was a condiments station that randomly had one of those electric hot water dispensers for making tea, and styrofoam cups. It also had ketchup packets, saltine crackers, and pepper.
Turns out you can make a pretty passable tomato soup with ketchup and hot water. Bit of pepper and a handful of saltine cracker packets, and I had myself a hot meal for exactly $0.00
With some money to spend, rice is where it’s at. Hitch a ride to Costco or Sam’s with someone who has a membership, and they have iirc 50 lb bags of that short grain fortified rice for like… $15? That’s well over 100 meals worth of rice.
Cook that up with literally almost anything that has some flavor or nutrients - whatever’s cheap. Or just eat it straight… bland, but it’ll fill you up. Eggs go great with rice.
Fair warning, you’ll get fat. Cheap food is NOT usually healthy.
I hope you’re better off now ❤️ !
The rice comment is 100% spot on BTW, you know you’re in dire straits when you can’t afford rice…
Things are way better now! I was getting pretty depressed, and struggled with suicidal ideation. Had a plan, and a redundant backup plan in case the first one didn’t turn out to be fatal, but then randomly to try an extreme change in lifestyle so I enlisted into the Air Force on kind of a whim. Was always opposed to military cuz of the whole killing innocent people thing… figured I’d they put me that kind of position I’d just refuse (gave absolutely zero fucks back then) or worse case I’d just go back to plan A and kill myself instead.
Didn’t have to find out though: got lucky and they made me a medic (surgical tech specifically). And hugely: acres to actual healthcare, to include mental!
Got the fuck out as soon as my enlistment was up, and I’ve been working as a civilian surgical tech ever since, which has me up to $24/hr. Actually not broke anymore, which still feels kinda weird. Using my GI Bill to go nursing school right now, so soonish I’ll looking at another income bump, but I’m already making enough to all least eat healthy… you don’t realize how shitty you just always feel at baseline when your diet consists of carbs and whatever you can find on the clearance rack.
I see a lot of my classmates with that with that same kind of “aw fuck” expression on their face when they see the price tag on the hospital cafeteria food at our clinical rotations, so I’ve been pretty quick to buy their meal and tell em to pay it forward when they’re a ‘rich’ nurse lol. 😝
But yeah, it sucks absolute balls to be poor. I will never let myself forget what that’s like.
Beans shouldn’t be much more pricey, give you less worry about arsenic and contain a fair amount more protein than rice.
If affordable, I’d pick beans over rice any day.
Big bags of dried beans it is!
Also, for variety, there are a lot of kind of beans, plus there’s chickpeas and lentils which can be made in the same way.
For even more variety, one can eat beans with rice 😁
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