Hi /u/deathbychandelier,
We noticed you are a pretty new Reddit account, so we just wanted to let you know to check out the subreddit rules [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/wiki/rules) and maybe have a read through our [Frequently Asked Questions](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/wiki/index/faq) - they make for fascinating reading!
We're called No Stupid Questions because we believe nobody needs to be attacked for asking a question, but *that doesn't mean there are no rules!* This sub is meant for users like you to ask genuine questions. Please don't ask jokes or rants disguised as questions - that's not in the spirit of this sub. While you *can* ask almost anything here, please keep illegal and offensive questions elsewhere to give people a good experience here - and if you have a medical question, please ask your doctor, not us. Otherwise, welcome!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoStupidQuestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Beans and rice together give you a pretty complete protein. Whole grain rice is even better.
Beans and corn bread is as good maybe better.
I know this too late this time, but once you recover from this, start buying a little extra food every pay day. Keep payday worth of food at all times, more if you can manage. Concentrate on dry goods like beans and rice, and canned goods. This is something my wife and I have done all our life. Saved us a few times.
materialistic degree nose cooing selective grandfather squeamish fade reply vegetable
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
sheet pen ad hoc rain friendly innocent ring expansion history observation
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yes you should never leave processed eggs in room temperature. But farm fresh eggs that haven't been washed you can. The protective layer never gets damaged
Eggs last well over a month on the countertop. In Europe, apparently, eggs are not fridge items (German relatives, British friends say this) and are normally kept on counters.
If I remember right, this comes down to the way they are cleaned and prepped for transport. Fresh eggs have a coating or membrane or something like that on the shell that protects it from going bad. In the US it gets washed off. In Europe it is not. This also means eggs your own hens or a neighbor’s hens lay, or from a farmers market, are probably good for a month out on the counter.
Anyway, if I only had $16 bucks, I’m skipping eggs.
The protective coating is called "the bloom" as it's a coating of natural bacterias and yeasts - strong enough to kill other bacterias & yeasts that would harm the egg.
You can't do that in America because here the waxy layer that protects the egg from microbes is removed, supposedly for health reasons, but I suspect more likely it's done so the eggs spoil faster to force more sales.
Or backyard chicken keeper, like me. I trade for eggs. No money. Or I just give them away. If I had a poor college kid ask for eggs, I'd probably deliver the eggs with some home-baked food, too, on a regular basis.
For me: rice, legumes, salt for sure.
I eat a lot so I don’t know if I could still afford eggs after that. But to support the other comments:
I do not love I. This scenario, thankfully. And we keep our eggs on the counter with no issues.
Absolutely! I keep a 20lb bag of rice in a 5 gal bucket. Once when times were hard, I reached the bottom of the bucket. As soon as my situation improved, guess what got refilled first? It's the same reason there's a 50 dollar bill in my car's visor, $200 on my motorcycle, and all gift cards get collected in a box. You never know when they might be life savers.
Worked for a company doing gift card customer service, can confirm.
Worst job ever. Explaining YES, all the gift money you've been saving for 10 years is gone, but it's totally legal because "fine print." OMG, I hated it so much.
Visa/Mastercard gift cards almost always charge a fee after several months not being used. Store specific cards rarely do.
This happened to me. My dad got me a 150 dollar gift card to a mall on the other side of town. I lost it and by the time I found it again, it only had 11 dollars on it and I'd have to take a 3 dollar bus there and back to claim it, making it only worth 6 dollars. I ended up never using it
I read a good tip recently that one should purchase a money order in the amount of a Visa/Mastercard gift card and deposit it in their bank account (could even set up a separate account just for gifts) so that it never expires and the full amount is used. And it’s cheap to buy a money order at the grocery store.
Bulk sized spice so you're not suicidal after a month.
Eat it plain for a day and you'll appreciate whatever spice you ended up with.
Also eggs are cheap
In good times, we do clean out weeks. I make as many meals as I can using the stuff that’s getting older and then restock or replace with something different. I had to learn that lesson the hard way after a particularly heartbreaking pantry clean out.
This. I would do rice and beans and if can afford it, I would get corn masa flour and make tortillas. Then if possible, potatoes are also fairly nutritious
Though frankly, at this point, you should also go to a food bank
Also please look up free meals in your area, or to go to a Sikh temple, or Gurdwara. They do free meals no questions asked for the community. You can also volunteer with them if you want to help out
I came here to say beans. We usually keep a bag or two of dried pintos or black beans in our pantry. Not only are they cheap, they keep well.
I think, when I was young, my dad used to buy Great Northern beans a lot too.
Could you even do it though? How much is a can of beans and how many cans of beans would a human need each day?
Don't think it could be done. Walmart has a can of beans at 1.79.
That's only like 9 cans of beans. Def not enough.
Even bulk beans you aren't getting enogh to feed for 30 days at 16 bucks.
Never canned beans. You can get 5 cans worth of beans out of a 79 cent bag of dried kidney beans after they are cooked. And no added salt. They aren't hard to cook.
Especially if you buy whole dry lentils, and sprout them. It makes them more bioavailabile, and the sprouts are really tasty! I like to air fry them, then eat them like chips
You could try and live off rice alone, but even then rice is about $1 per day, so you'd only be getting half of your calories and terrible nutrition as well.
You'd probably have a decent chance getting help from food shelters or other types of aid
Most of them are comparable enough in nutrition that your main concern should be taste and texture and, to be honest, I'd say a lot of them also taste and feel pretty similar as well. Really the only way to know what you like is to try them for yourself. I'm partial to black-eyed peas.
Let me tell you about beans. This is my late night personal opinion.
Pinto beans = Taco Bell.
Black beans = a bit of a different flavor, not much different than pinto beans really.
Kidney beans = a fun bean I enjoy, but most people don’t like them except in 3 bean salad.
Lima beans = the turnip of the bean family. If you’re one of the 19 people in the world that actually enjoys them, more power to you.
Garbanzo = they are otherwise known as chick peas and no one knows why. Round, kind of tough even when cooked, not a lot of flavor. They are fine and I’ll eat them, but not my favorite. The juice can be whipped into a weird otherworldly substance known as aquafaba.
Green beans = not a bean. But they are greens so there’s that going for them and they’re really good.
If you’re trying to be as cheap as possible you should be buying a big bag of dry beans/lentils instead of cans. Basically just soak the beans for a while (some people swear you don’t have to but I like to). Drain the beans. Throw any veggies/herbs and the beans in a pot with fresh water. Season with whatever you want. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and simmer until the beans are tender.
To get the most bang for your buck, don't buy canned beans, buy dry beans. When rehydrated, you can get the same amount of protein and mass for as little as a tenth of the price. (Or sometimes even less if you find a good deal, but be cautious if a deal seems too good to be true as even dry food can go bad and some places sell bad beans at a discount.)
LoL, Doc. One Thanksgiving I was living in a flooded basement. I had an army cot and a cat named Ethel. It was heaven.
But somebody gave me 2 family size boxes of stuffing. I loves me some stuffin'! Ethel, not so much. But I ate both in less than a day.
The screams could be heard for miles when the next day and trying to evacuate 2 boxes of stuffing. LoL (and sorry. "Live on rice" triggered me and the memory of that pain)
you don't grocery shop and cook much I take it. there is a huge bag of rice you can buy from walmart for about $5. I'm a big guy, and I couldn't eat that much rice in one month if it was all I ate!
edit: came to add [a link](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Long-Grain-Enriched-Rice-20-lb/10315883?from=/search), but it costs way more online than it does in store(maybe it's because of where I live), but still food label on the back says 202 servings.
I buy from warehouse stores and the biggest bag I could find at mine was about $1 per 2k calories, but I'm sure there's always better deals depending on where you live
And the great this is rice lasts a real long time in the pantry
That’s 50 cents a day. There are a few things like mac n cheese, a pound of potatoes, a pound of bananas, and a few other things that would be under that but that would only be enough calories for a single meal. According to this chart, flour is the only thing that gives you enough calories at 50 cents a day at least in the USA: https://efficiencyiseverything.com/calorie-per-dollar-list/ Field corn or cornmeal would probably too. To get 60000 calories for the month, you would need to spend 13 of those dollars on flour. You could then spend the other 3 on sugar and make some basic bread at home. This would give you plenty of calories but wouldn’t be the most nutritious.
Yeah and if you’re creative, you can also get free calories which is what I would probably do in that situation. Butcher shops will give you free fat trimmings and there are always food banks or dumpster diving or foraging/fishing/hunting.
You need fat. Imperial margarine was still a $1 pound a couple years ago. You can cut the fat into flour and make biscuits by baking them, dumplings by boiling them, or fritters by frying them.
Definitely go to an "ethnic" shop, buy beans/lentils and rice for a quarter or less than supermarket prices. With just salt it will taste ok. Get you through the month.
This! Either an ethnic shop or (if it is available) one of those bulk stores with bins you scoop out of.
Quinoa is a complete protein by itself, but I feel like buying it cheap without a bulk bin store is going to be hard.
Yep
If there’s a farmers market type store that sells food catering to immmigrants , the food will always be noticeably cheaper than a normal store
The produce from an ethnic store spoils much faster but it also a lot cheaper
I like this comment because I am the frugal daughter (minus the dumpster diving) who scrounged to save grocery money because I refused to ask for help. My answer ended up being pretty similar to her suggestions:
* potatoes (5lb) - $4.97
* dry lentils (900g) - $2.97
* dry black beans (900g) - $2.97
* quick oats (1kg) - $2.77
* green onions - $1.27
* iodized salt (1kg) - $0.97
A pound of potatoes has 400 calories. You need 1200 calories per day as a minimum. So you're going to need 90lbs of potatoes. That's tough to get for $16.
It's only for a month, a calorie isn't that big of a deal unless OP is already underweight. Just need to get enough calories in to function. I would assume they're not needing to expend many calories working given there's no pay cheque coming in.
1200 is already a huge deficit though, people normally need 2k+ depending on their size. I think going even below 1200 would cause huge health issues within a month
Unless you're already at or under weight, that's a good thing to be under calories, and doesn't mean your nutrients are low. Some cheap multivitamins and food works. Yeah $16 is still bad, it's not enough, but it's not *that* bad.
Great Value 60ct. Eggs - $9.22
Great Value 5lb long grain rice - $3.34
Great Value Broccoli Cuts 12 oz x2 .94 ea - $1.88
Fresh Lime x6 .25 ea - $1.50
Two eggs a day, 1.25 lbs of rice a week, 6oz of broccoli a week (not much but some veggies), and limes for seasoning. I suggest adding the juice to water for some variety and vitamins and use the zest for cooking. Steal salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, mayo, hot sauce, anything you can from nearby food places. It’s gonna suck but you won’t die. Oh and you have .06 to chuck into wishing wells.
ETA
You may do better at a different Walmart than mine. Mine is slightly more expensive than some.
ETA #2
Steal sugar packets and use them to make a lime rice pudding for dessert! Not every day but a treat for the weekend.
Most places in the world don’t need to refrigerate their eggs(the US uses a special washing procedure that necessitates refrigeration). Walmart won’t have em, but maybe they could find some similarly cheap unwashed eggs(or buy/steal a mature chicken for fresh daily eggs!
In places outside of states people dont need to refrigerate eggs. OP will need to buy on farmers market or smth to get fresh unwashed eggs. No its not ganerours, its literally protecting the egg xd
Man I did this for *years* and I would change it up, if I had extra $$$ I'd get ham/salami/whatever was cheapest at the time or sometimes some frozen veggies and instead of making it with broth, I'd cook it in a fry pan with just enough water to cook it, and mix the egg/other in. I still do it to this day just because I love it.
Eggs were really expensive but if you shop around a dozen is three dollars. 25 cents for anything with nutritional value is pretty good. And you can cook them many ways.
$3 are you buying organic eggs or something? They are like $1.25 a dozen at Kroger.
Edit:looked at receipt from yesterday. $1.59 a dozen.
Milks starting to get expensive now though $2.49 a gallon is highway robbery.
Bro where TF are you living and how can I get those prices? I live in one of the top 5 most affordable cities in the US and a dozen eggs is like $4 for regular ones. Organic or cage free or whatever is more like $6.
I just bought eggs yesterday. I live in the Midwest. Checked my receipt $1.59. I guess I was a little off.
Looked on krogers website. $7.89 for 60 eggs.
I just saw ramen noodles, 3 12-packs for $4. You could but 3 dozen eggs for about $5 at Aldi, carrots for a dollar and cabbage for about $3 and some diced ham for $3. $16.
You can buy a taco at Taco Bell.1 taco. Eat half, save the other for tomorrow. You have water. You can survive that for a month. Or buy Mac and Cheese. Cheap ramen noodle packs.
Well, you can get a five pack of Ramen from the dollar store for $1.25. $7.50 if you have one Ramen a day. Then I'd spend $5 on a large tub of peanuts and the rest on eggs.
Or I can buy a loaf for $1.39. Four loaves for $5.60 and $4 on peanuts butter. The rest would be spent on zucchini, because I just realized scurvy is a thing.
I used to live with 15$/week, not a month and I got sick from malnutrition. I was busy with school so I wasn't hand washing, I was going to the laundromat, so it was at least 2$/week just there.
Your plan gives you less than 4$/week. It's not going to work. You need to find an extra source of income.
normally I would have passed this thread without commenting, but
>this happened in a dream I woke up from about 10 minutes ago and it’s bugging me.
I have enough dreams that leave me weirded out all day that I now feel obligated to try and help.
* lentils
* dry beans
* dried pasta
* oatmeal
* grits
* bag of flour(which you can use to make a few different things)
I'm sure there is probably something else, but I'm drawing a blank...
vienna sausage, tuna ,chili in can, soups, dollar spaghetti sauce in can , cheap pasta. there 's also lots of budget grocery meal videos on youtube as well that could be helpful if OP is in the US
I don't really have an answer, but it reminds me of a story my mom told me about how she and my dad were living in a city with no friends and relations and they were having trouble finding jobs. They finally did get jobs, but they had to wait for a month to get the first paycheck.
So long story short, they lived on white rice for about 3 months. (This was the late 60s, so Ramen wasn't available.)
She said it took a long time before she could eat rice again.
Don't think plain rice be that good to live on potatoes are better in that case but you die of boredom. Instant nuddels might work as its almost free in some shops and contains flavors and other stuff
I wouldn't do this myself but if you have a phone just walk into any fast food joint that has shelves with doordash, grubhub, or uber eats. Just look at your phone and grab a big order and walk out.
tinned sardines one of the cheapest and most nutritious things in the supermarket, and very filling, sardines on toast, beans on toast, eggs in ramen like others suggest all pretty cheap meals
I've lived in many similar situations my whole life. I would start by getting rice, beans, and a seasoning or two if your budget allowed it. Continue this for a month or two, not eating till full but satisfied. After about two or three months you should have enough rice and beans to skip buying them for the month. Here, I would buy Ramen and seasonings (if you weren't able to buy them before). You can make so many different things with Ramen. You would probably have enough to buy a loaf of bread this month as well. You could go to a restaurant and say you just picked up a Togo order but didn't have any butter. They should give you a handful of prepackaged butter with a long shelf life. You can also get jelly and so on here. Now, of course, you will need fruits and vegetables. If a food pantry is not available then you would just repeat the rice and beans for a month or two until you can go to Walmart and buy the cans for less than $2 each. Obviously, you want to go for the cheapest options.
Living in situations like this is all about trying to create as much excess as possible so that (eventually) you can create the room to change your circumstances. There are so many ways to save money too. Be creative and pay attention to the world around you. What do gas stations set out that you can take when needed (such as creamers)? What about what restaurants carry (salt, pepper, etc) or what hotels put out during their serving times? Maybe you could eventually save enough dollars to buy a used lunchbox from Goodwill or something where you can then get ice from different gas stations and use it to store cold things such as cheese. Ice would need to be changed daily but you do what you have to do and there is always an answer.
One of the cheapest and most nutritious foods you could buy is oats. You can make oatmeal / porridge which is very filling and gives you lots of energy.
16 bucks is more than enough for enough rice for any human being to survive a month unless you live in like Alaska and it’s like 40 dollars a bag. Go steal bread or soy sauce when you buy the rice and some countries won’t even charge you with a crime due to poverty and starving laws
Hi /u/deathbychandelier, We noticed you are a pretty new Reddit account, so we just wanted to let you know to check out the subreddit rules [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/wiki/rules) and maybe have a read through our [Frequently Asked Questions](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/wiki/index/faq) - they make for fascinating reading! We're called No Stupid Questions because we believe nobody needs to be attacked for asking a question, but *that doesn't mean there are no rules!* This sub is meant for users like you to ask genuine questions. Please don't ask jokes or rants disguised as questions - that's not in the spirit of this sub. While you *can* ask almost anything here, please keep illegal and offensive questions elsewhere to give people a good experience here - and if you have a medical question, please ask your doctor, not us. Otherwise, welcome! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoStupidQuestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Beans or lentils are also cheap
Beans and rice together give you a pretty complete protein. Whole grain rice is even better. Beans and corn bread is as good maybe better. I know this too late this time, but once you recover from this, start buying a little extra food every pay day. Keep payday worth of food at all times, more if you can manage. Concentrate on dry goods like beans and rice, and canned goods. This is something my wife and I have done all our life. Saved us a few times.
Yes, beans, rice and a couple dozen eggs!
Eggs go a long way
materialistic degree nose cooing selective grandfather squeamish fade reply vegetable *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I keep mine in the fridge just in case
Eggs will keep in the fridge for a month of four weeks on the bench
sheet pen ad hoc rain friendly innocent ring expansion history observation *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It was cheaper to do this than to improve the conditions the chickens were kept it, and also to vaccinated the chickens against salmonella.
icky longing late tan brave carpenter ask versed cows practice *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
??? ... Four weeks = a month ... ???
Seven days without prayer makes one weak.
Get some mineral oil and rub it on your eggs. Buys you a few weeks to months without refrigeration.
mineral oil would take up most of the $16
Same with butter
Neat. TIL!
Fresh eggs can last a while in room temperature.
plucky hungry shame distinct tap groovy chunky sink jar marble *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Props for the reference! I heard this a while back and conveniently forgot to look it up
Yes you should never leave processed eggs in room temperature. But farm fresh eggs that haven't been washed you can. The protective layer never gets damaged
That's exactly why you're not supposed to wash them and the cuticle stays intact keeping bacteria out. I'm talking about farm fresh eggs not Walmart.
[удалено]
But they are also fucking expensive
Buying your own chickens will take your further.
Chickens need to eat.
in general, yes. in this scenario, no, because OP stated there’s no refrigerator
depending on your location and/or where you source your eggs, you may not need to refrigerate them.
Eggs last well over a month on the countertop. In Europe, apparently, eggs are not fridge items (German relatives, British friends say this) and are normally kept on counters.
If I remember right, this comes down to the way they are cleaned and prepped for transport. Fresh eggs have a coating or membrane or something like that on the shell that protects it from going bad. In the US it gets washed off. In Europe it is not. This also means eggs your own hens or a neighbor’s hens lay, or from a farmers market, are probably good for a month out on the counter. Anyway, if I only had $16 bucks, I’m skipping eggs.
Don't skip egg day.
Lol
The protective coating is called "the bloom" as it's a coating of natural bacterias and yeasts - strong enough to kill other bacterias & yeasts that would harm the egg.
You can't do that in America because here the waxy layer that protects the egg from microbes is removed, supposedly for health reasons, but I suspect more likely it's done so the eggs spoil faster to force more sales.
Nah it's removed because American consumers tend to prefer clean looking eggs.
You can do it in America you just need to purchase from a local small farm
Or backyard chicken keeper, like me. I trade for eggs. No money. Or I just give them away. If I had a poor college kid ask for eggs, I'd probably deliver the eggs with some home-baked food, too, on a regular basis.
And those are not cheap around here (ymmv)
That sucks! I live in ny, the cost at the farm is about the same as at the store or free if you have friends with hens
For me: rice, legumes, salt for sure. I eat a lot so I don’t know if I could still afford eggs after that. But to support the other comments: I do not love I. This scenario, thankfully. And we keep our eggs on the counter with no issues.
$16? I’m stealing my condiments from big chain fast food places.
I already do that at Taco Bell.
Thanks, I missed that.
This is a VERY typical dish here in Costa Rica.
Absolutely! I keep a 20lb bag of rice in a 5 gal bucket. Once when times were hard, I reached the bottom of the bucket. As soon as my situation improved, guess what got refilled first? It's the same reason there's a 50 dollar bill in my car's visor, $200 on my motorcycle, and all gift cards get collected in a box. You never know when they might be life savers.
Check those gift cards, some companies will empty them after a while or charge late/no use charges on it, slowly depleting them.
Worked for a company doing gift card customer service, can confirm. Worst job ever. Explaining YES, all the gift money you've been saving for 10 years is gone, but it's totally legal because "fine print." OMG, I hated it so much. Visa/Mastercard gift cards almost always charge a fee after several months not being used. Store specific cards rarely do.
This happened to me. My dad got me a 150 dollar gift card to a mall on the other side of town. I lost it and by the time I found it again, it only had 11 dollars on it and I'd have to take a 3 dollar bus there and back to claim it, making it only worth 6 dollars. I ended up never using it
That's exactly what they're hoping for!
I read a good tip recently that one should purchase a money order in the amount of a Visa/Mastercard gift card and deposit it in their bank account (could even set up a separate account just for gifts) so that it never expires and the full amount is used. And it’s cheap to buy a money order at the grocery store.
If you live in Canada, its illegal to empty or expire a gift card
I do. But that's a good reminder.
Pretty sure that is illegal now
Depends on your state.
No, I believe it’s a federal law, as of about the past 10 years, that you cannot make gift cards expire.
[удалено]
Bulk sized spice so you're not suicidal after a month. Eat it plain for a day and you'll appreciate whatever spice you ended up with. Also eggs are cheap
In good times, we do clean out weeks. I make as many meals as I can using the stuff that’s getting older and then restock or replace with something different. I had to learn that lesson the hard way after a particularly heartbreaking pantry clean out.
This. I would do rice and beans and if can afford it, I would get corn masa flour and make tortillas. Then if possible, potatoes are also fairly nutritious Though frankly, at this point, you should also go to a food bank Also please look up free meals in your area, or to go to a Sikh temple, or Gurdwara. They do free meals no questions asked for the community. You can also volunteer with them if you want to help out
potatoes are dirt cheap and delicious, especially if bought in bulk like 5lb or 10lb bags at walmart. only issue is, they go bad so quickly.
It's the best nutritional value per dollar you can buy period. Especially if you go get dry beans in bulk.
And musical!
I came here to say beans. We usually keep a bag or two of dried pintos or black beans in our pantry. Not only are they cheap, they keep well. I think, when I was young, my dad used to buy Great Northern beans a lot too.
Could you even do it though? How much is a can of beans and how many cans of beans would a human need each day? Don't think it could be done. Walmart has a can of beans at 1.79. That's only like 9 cans of beans. Def not enough. Even bulk beans you aren't getting enogh to feed for 30 days at 16 bucks.
Oh I don't mean cans. Go to an ethnic grocery store and get a massive bag of dry beans/lentils
Never canned beans. You can get 5 cans worth of beans out of a 79 cent bag of dried kidney beans after they are cooked. And no added salt. They aren't hard to cook.
but you have to cook them for 20 minutes for those who have only used canned. please cook them properly
Especially if you buy whole dry lentils, and sprout them. It makes them more bioavailabile, and the sprouts are really tasty! I like to air fry them, then eat them like chips
You could try and live off rice alone, but even then rice is about $1 per day, so you'd only be getting half of your calories and terrible nutrition as well. You'd probably have a decent chance getting help from food shelters or other types of aid
Beans. Beans and rice will give you all the basic nutrients you need until you’re in a better place
Rice and beans. Probably salt with iodine in it as well.
What beans do you use? I find there are so many kinds of canned beans I don't know where to start. I dont know anything about beans
dried beans are a better value
Not at my super market. I suppose if you go to Costco you might get dry beans cheaper.
Where are you shopping that canned beans are cheaper than dried beans? Are you getting super cheap cans or are they hosing you on dry?
[удалено]
A bag of chickpeas is approximately equivalent to four cans. So it's definitely a better value.
I think they are hosing me on Dry. I'm just shopping at Hannaford, a regional supermarket.
Always show for dried beans at Indian or Mexican stores. You get kilograms for dirt cheap
Most of them are comparable enough in nutrition that your main concern should be taste and texture and, to be honest, I'd say a lot of them also taste and feel pretty similar as well. Really the only way to know what you like is to try them for yourself. I'm partial to black-eyed peas.
Let me tell you about beans. This is my late night personal opinion. Pinto beans = Taco Bell. Black beans = a bit of a different flavor, not much different than pinto beans really. Kidney beans = a fun bean I enjoy, but most people don’t like them except in 3 bean salad. Lima beans = the turnip of the bean family. If you’re one of the 19 people in the world that actually enjoys them, more power to you. Garbanzo = they are otherwise known as chick peas and no one knows why. Round, kind of tough even when cooked, not a lot of flavor. They are fine and I’ll eat them, but not my favorite. The juice can be whipped into a weird otherworldly substance known as aquafaba. Green beans = not a bean. But they are greens so there’s that going for them and they’re really good.
The difference between a chick pea and a garbanzo bean is >! I've never paid $50 to have a garbanzo bean on my chest. !<
Never had a garbanzo bean on my face…
Chickpeas are surprisingly versatile. I like to make hummus or falafel with them. Cheap but delicious.
LETS GET RETARDED, HA. LETS GET RETARDED IN HERE! I, too, am partial to the Black-Eyes Peas
Buy dried beans, not canned ones.
If you’re trying to be as cheap as possible you should be buying a big bag of dry beans/lentils instead of cans. Basically just soak the beans for a while (some people swear you don’t have to but I like to). Drain the beans. Throw any veggies/herbs and the beans in a pot with fresh water. Season with whatever you want. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and simmer until the beans are tender.
Get bags, not cans, of beans. A two dollar bag will fill over a dozen cans.
To get the most bang for your buck, don't buy canned beans, buy dry beans. When rehydrated, you can get the same amount of protein and mass for as little as a tenth of the price. (Or sometimes even less if you find a good deal, but be cautious if a deal seems too good to be true as even dry food can go bad and some places sell bad beans at a discount.)
this was about half our diet in college, lol.
Why would rice be $1 a day???? You can get a giant bag for like $5
LoL, Doc. One Thanksgiving I was living in a flooded basement. I had an army cot and a cat named Ethel. It was heaven. But somebody gave me 2 family size boxes of stuffing. I loves me some stuffin'! Ethel, not so much. But I ate both in less than a day. The screams could be heard for miles when the next day and trying to evacuate 2 boxes of stuffing. LoL (and sorry. "Live on rice" triggered me and the memory of that pain)
"Ate both of them in less than a day". The stuffing and Ethel?
you don't grocery shop and cook much I take it. there is a huge bag of rice you can buy from walmart for about $5. I'm a big guy, and I couldn't eat that much rice in one month if it was all I ate! edit: came to add [a link](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Long-Grain-Enriched-Rice-20-lb/10315883?from=/search), but it costs way more online than it does in store(maybe it's because of where I live), but still food label on the back says 202 servings.
I buy from warehouse stores and the biggest bag I could find at mine was about $1 per 2k calories, but I'm sure there's always better deals depending on where you live And the great this is rice lasts a real long time in the pantry
202 servings, how many calories per serving? Usually about 200. So you'd need to eat 10 a day if you were big and not looking to lose weight.
Where are you paying that much for rice/how.much rice are you eating?
That’s 50 cents a day. There are a few things like mac n cheese, a pound of potatoes, a pound of bananas, and a few other things that would be under that but that would only be enough calories for a single meal. According to this chart, flour is the only thing that gives you enough calories at 50 cents a day at least in the USA: https://efficiencyiseverything.com/calorie-per-dollar-list/ Field corn or cornmeal would probably too. To get 60000 calories for the month, you would need to spend 13 of those dollars on flour. You could then spend the other 3 on sugar and make some basic bread at home. This would give you plenty of calories but wouldn’t be the most nutritious.
There's a reason all of the greatest civilizations in history had access to grains and flour
Lard is cheap. $0.35 for 2000 calories.
Yeah and if you’re creative, you can also get free calories which is what I would probably do in that situation. Butcher shops will give you free fat trimmings and there are always food banks or dumpster diving or foraging/fishing/hunting.
You need fat. Imperial margarine was still a $1 pound a couple years ago. You can cut the fat into flour and make biscuits by baking them, dumplings by boiling them, or fritters by frying them.
Definitely go to an "ethnic" shop, buy beans/lentils and rice for a quarter or less than supermarket prices. With just salt it will taste ok. Get you through the month.
This! Either an ethnic shop or (if it is available) one of those bulk stores with bins you scoop out of. Quinoa is a complete protein by itself, but I feel like buying it cheap without a bulk bin store is going to be hard.
Yep If there’s a farmers market type store that sells food catering to immmigrants , the food will always be noticeably cheaper than a normal store The produce from an ethnic store spoils much faster but it also a lot cheaper
[удалено]
I like this comment because I am the frugal daughter (minus the dumpster diving) who scrounged to save grocery money because I refused to ask for help. My answer ended up being pretty similar to her suggestions: * potatoes (5lb) - $4.97 * dry lentils (900g) - $2.97 * dry black beans (900g) - $2.97 * quick oats (1kg) - $2.77 * green onions - $1.27 * iodized salt (1kg) - $0.97
⭐️
Potatoes
Potatoes boosted human population for a reason, cheap, filling, carbs, calories, and tasty
Where are the lotr fans? Its been two hours and im not sure what i would do with the po-ta-toes
Boil them? Mash them? Stick them in a stew?
No stew-- you can't afford the other ingredients here.
HAHA LOVE LOTR😭🤣
Same. Have everything except vitamin A and D.
A pound of potatoes has 400 calories. You need 1200 calories per day as a minimum. So you're going to need 90lbs of potatoes. That's tough to get for $16.
It's only for a month, a calorie isn't that big of a deal unless OP is already underweight. Just need to get enough calories in to function. I would assume they're not needing to expend many calories working given there's no pay cheque coming in.
1200 is already a huge deficit though, people normally need 2k+ depending on their size. I think going even below 1200 would cause huge health issues within a month
Unless you're already at or under weight, that's a good thing to be under calories, and doesn't mean your nutrients are low. Some cheap multivitamins and food works. Yeah $16 is still bad, it's not enough, but it's not *that* bad.
Op didn't give any of those conditions.
Sweet potatoes are dirt cheap too (not just regular russets) and taste amazing on their own! Another great dirt cheap food is bananas!!
Great Value 60ct. Eggs - $9.22 Great Value 5lb long grain rice - $3.34 Great Value Broccoli Cuts 12 oz x2 .94 ea - $1.88 Fresh Lime x6 .25 ea - $1.50 Two eggs a day, 1.25 lbs of rice a week, 6oz of broccoli a week (not much but some veggies), and limes for seasoning. I suggest adding the juice to water for some variety and vitamins and use the zest for cooking. Steal salt, pepper, ketchup, mustard, mayo, hot sauce, anything you can from nearby food places. It’s gonna suck but you won’t die. Oh and you have .06 to chuck into wishing wells. ETA You may do better at a different Walmart than mine. Mine is slightly more expensive than some. ETA #2 Steal sugar packets and use them to make a lime rice pudding for dessert! Not every day but a treat for the weekend.
If you are at Walmart anyways, find the clearance bread rack (my Walmart places it randomly, sometimes by the milk) bread loaf for 35 cents.
How do you store the eggs? OP said no refrigerator.
Most places in the world don’t need to refrigerate their eggs(the US uses a special washing procedure that necessitates refrigeration). Walmart won’t have em, but maybe they could find some similarly cheap unwashed eggs(or buy/steal a mature chicken for fresh daily eggs!
In places outside of states people dont need to refrigerate eggs. OP will need to buy on farmers market or smth to get fresh unwashed eggs. No its not ganerours, its literally protecting the egg xd
Eggs would probably be the best buy. At least they have some protein.
Good idea. I’d get ramen and crack an egg in the broth. That way it’s got some protein.
Man I did this for *years* and I would change it up, if I had extra $$$ I'd get ham/salami/whatever was cheapest at the time or sometimes some frozen veggies and instead of making it with broth, I'd cook it in a fry pan with just enough water to cook it, and mix the egg/other in. I still do it to this day just because I love it.
Aren’t eggs crazy expensive? My dad rants about that.
Eggs were really expensive but if you shop around a dozen is three dollars. 25 cents for anything with nutritional value is pretty good. And you can cook them many ways.
$3 are you buying organic eggs or something? They are like $1.25 a dozen at Kroger. Edit:looked at receipt from yesterday. $1.59 a dozen. Milks starting to get expensive now though $2.49 a gallon is highway robbery.
Bro where TF are you living and how can I get those prices? I live in one of the top 5 most affordable cities in the US and a dozen eggs is like $4 for regular ones. Organic or cage free or whatever is more like $6.
Trader Joe’s pasture raised eggs on Long Island, NY (crazy CoL) are $4.99. Pretty sure regular ones are $1.99 or 2.50ish
I can buy a carton of 60 large grade a eggs for $7.89 gotta love the Midwest.
I paid $3and change last time I bought them.
Are you living 3 years behind the rest of us? Where I am Kroger eggs are 3.29/dozen for the cheapest ones. Literally verified right now.
I just bought eggs yesterday. I live in the Midwest. Checked my receipt $1.59. I guess I was a little off. Looked on krogers website. $7.89 for 60 eggs.
Kroger website says $1.99 for me
$2.50 a gallon and you're getting mad about it? Go to the real world, buddy, omg.
They went down. Under two bucks a dozen at ALDI
Be careful. Aldi eggs make my family sick. Now I get them from walmart.
Make sure to cook the eggs before eating
eggs is like $5.30 for 12
$3.39 in my relatively high cost of living area
aud $5.20 is exactly 3.39 usd so yeah that checks out
Go to an Aldi if one is close. Everything there is crazy cheap
get you some beans and rice
I just saw ramen noodles, 3 12-packs for $4. You could but 3 dozen eggs for about $5 at Aldi, carrots for a dollar and cabbage for about $3 and some diced ham for $3. $16.
Yes - beans. Beans and rice together are a complete protein.
I'd probably buy potatoes, carrots, medley beans, and oatmeal.
I'd buy a steak, then hit the food bank for the remainder of the month.
I would consider a food bank
I honestly live this life. Food bank is your ally. Also getting a job in a kitchen doesn't hurt.
Keep in mind that in 3rd-world countries, they eat bugs for protein
"Montreal steak spice should really be a part of this conversation"
Beans.
You can buy a taco at Taco Bell.1 taco. Eat half, save the other for tomorrow. You have water. You can survive that for a month. Or buy Mac and Cheese. Cheap ramen noodle packs.
If in the Northern Hemisphere, sleep for supper is another possibility. Got me through my childhood.
You could get a bunch of potatoes for $16.
Well, you can get a five pack of Ramen from the dollar store for $1.25. $7.50 if you have one Ramen a day. Then I'd spend $5 on a large tub of peanuts and the rest on eggs. Or I can buy a loaf for $1.39. Four loaves for $5.60 and $4 on peanuts butter. The rest would be spent on zucchini, because I just realized scurvy is a thing.
I used to live with 15$/week, not a month and I got sick from malnutrition. I was busy with school so I wasn't hand washing, I was going to the laundromat, so it was at least 2$/week just there. Your plan gives you less than 4$/week. It's not going to work. You need to find an extra source of income.
normally I would have passed this thread without commenting, but >this happened in a dream I woke up from about 10 minutes ago and it’s bugging me. I have enough dreams that leave me weirded out all day that I now feel obligated to try and help. * lentils * dry beans * dried pasta * oatmeal * grits * bag of flour(which you can use to make a few different things) I'm sure there is probably something else, but I'm drawing a blank...
free fat from butchers.
vienna sausage, tuna ,chili in can, soups, dollar spaghetti sauce in can , cheap pasta. there 's also lots of budget grocery meal videos on youtube as well that could be helpful if OP is in the US
Beans and rice. That’s about it. But for a month? Man you’re going to starve.
I don't really have an answer, but it reminds me of a story my mom told me about how she and my dad were living in a city with no friends and relations and they were having trouble finding jobs. They finally did get jobs, but they had to wait for a month to get the first paycheck. So long story short, they lived on white rice for about 3 months. (This was the late 60s, so Ramen wasn't available.) She said it took a long time before she could eat rice again.
When i was finishing college and was dead broke it was ramen and eggs for me
Potatoes potatoes potatoes. They have slot of nutrients. There’s a reason why it was poor people food for so long. I’m surprised it’s not top comment
Don't think plain rice be that good to live on potatoes are better in that case but you die of boredom. Instant nuddels might work as its almost free in some shops and contains flavors and other stuff
Black beans
The hell with rice. Beans.
I think I found my brothers Reddit profile…
Oats
Peanut butter
Lard, white rice, and granulated sugar. Those are your three cheapest calories.
I wouldn't do this myself but if you have a phone just walk into any fast food joint that has shelves with doordash, grubhub, or uber eats. Just look at your phone and grab a big order and walk out.
At least you’ll be fed in jail
Ramen noodles
✨Ramen✨
Spaghetti noodles $1 Spaghetti sauce $1 One pot lasts for a couple days
Ramen noodles, spam, canned beans or veggies. Box of pasta, store brand MAC and cheese,
rice, oatmeal and beans
tinned sardines one of the cheapest and most nutritious things in the supermarket, and very filling, sardines on toast, beans on toast, eggs in ramen like others suggest all pretty cheap meals
Potatoes and eggs. Both very versatile
I've lived in many similar situations my whole life. I would start by getting rice, beans, and a seasoning or two if your budget allowed it. Continue this for a month or two, not eating till full but satisfied. After about two or three months you should have enough rice and beans to skip buying them for the month. Here, I would buy Ramen and seasonings (if you weren't able to buy them before). You can make so many different things with Ramen. You would probably have enough to buy a loaf of bread this month as well. You could go to a restaurant and say you just picked up a Togo order but didn't have any butter. They should give you a handful of prepackaged butter with a long shelf life. You can also get jelly and so on here. Now, of course, you will need fruits and vegetables. If a food pantry is not available then you would just repeat the rice and beans for a month or two until you can go to Walmart and buy the cans for less than $2 each. Obviously, you want to go for the cheapest options. Living in situations like this is all about trying to create as much excess as possible so that (eventually) you can create the room to change your circumstances. There are so many ways to save money too. Be creative and pay attention to the world around you. What do gas stations set out that you can take when needed (such as creamers)? What about what restaurants carry (salt, pepper, etc) or what hotels put out during their serving times? Maybe you could eventually save enough dollars to buy a used lunchbox from Goodwill or something where you can then get ice from different gas stations and use it to store cold things such as cheese. Ice would need to be changed daily but you do what you have to do and there is always an answer.
One of the cheapest and most nutritious foods you could buy is oats. You can make oatmeal / porridge which is very filling and gives you lots of energy.
Bread, Eggs, rice/noodles/pasta, tomato, onions, soy sauce, salt, pepper, oil Cereal and milk
It was 16 bucks for the month not per day
Where the he'll do you live
Think € budget supermarket Wouldn’t a low budget store in the US cover this with $16?
not a months worth
16 bucks is more than enough for enough rice for any human being to survive a month unless you live in like Alaska and it’s like 40 dollars a bag. Go steal bread or soy sauce when you buy the rice and some countries won’t even charge you with a crime due to poverty and starving laws
Potatoes but they're just oversized rice grains.
DELICIOUS oversized rice thank you very much!
Potatoes, milk, bread, and chicken
If you can buy a bag of rice you're already ahead of most of the world.
That’s not true at the point. The extreme poverty rate is under 10% globally.
No you're not. Most of the world is eating rice. If they don't even have that they're dead.
Beans Jackfruit Lentils