What's your go to meal when there's too much month left at the end of your paycheck

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When I got my first apartment and had to kick a roommate out for various
reasons, I was on my own for the rent for a month. I had little money for
food. I made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce from scratch. No cheese or
meat. I bought a huge package of spaghetti noodles, some cheap brand.
Cooked it all up and put it in the many Tupperware containers that various
roommates had left behind. I took these to work for lunch and heated them
there in the microwave. I didn't have a microwave at home.

Breakfast was either a Carnation Breakfast Bar (forerunner to the granola
bar) or hard boiled eggs. I didn't have the egg allergy back then.

Dinner was a peanut butter sandwich on store brand white bread and canned
peas for more protein. I bought apples and carrots when I could afford them
for extra nutrition. Snacks were air popped popcorn served plain. No salt
or butter or anything.

I did have a small garden of vegetables to supplement this and I picked wild
berries. I also got raspberries from my dad's garden.

I just heard on the news that we may not be getting our next paycheck. My
husband is in the military. I do not know what is going on there! Too much
conflicting information on the Internet and nobody seems to know for sure.

Thankfully I have stocked up on cheese at Costco. We have a bag of red
potatoes. Plenty of rice, rice pasta and pasta sauce. Canned chicken, beef
turkey and tuna. Extra bread for daughter and a package of frozen rolls in
the freezer if I need bread for myself. Plenty of canned veg and a little
fruit. Popcorn. Also an extra jar of peanut butter, some nuts and some
stuff in the freezer, but little in the way of fresh meat. I think there is
a chicken breast and a pound of ground beef. And I went to the store today
and got enough food for the week. I bought things I wouldn't normally buy
because husband is coming home. Like eggs and some meats we don't normally
eat. Also ice cream and chips.

So nobody would starve here. But... That isn't going to pay the rest of
our bills!
 
before the fire, and what i will go back to is cooking in bulk and freezing
in individual portions, soup/beans/lasagna/dressing/ and other things then
we use these things when we are to tired to deal with cooking or when there
isn't much money we pull something out and "eat for free" not really but in
the winter sometimes if we had extra bills the heating had to come first
after the house loan... after those two we had to have gas for work... so
when we did have extra or there was a killer sale i stocked up, froze
carefully and rotated the food, and we were never without, Lee
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On Fri, 08 Apr 2011 21:53:49 -0500, Andy wrote:

Think about running out of money by the 20th.

--

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
 
sf wrote:



sf,

OK, wait a second...

I never got paid once a month.

If you replace month with money it makes half-better sense. ;)

Best,

Andy
 
On Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:08:36 -0700, [email protected] wrote:


Pasta and peanutbutter [not eaten together] used to be my grocery
stretchers. Buy from the day-old stores- go to the store early just
after the meat and produce get marked down.

But I always think of Alva and Vera when I think of running out of
paycheck. We were young Marines making $98 a month. Alva & Vera
were from Idaho. We would sometimes join them for mashed potato
sandwiches just before payday. 25cent a loaf white bread- mashed
potatoes and catsup. If one of us had a couple bucks, we'd have
milk with that.

Jim
 
On 4/8/2011 8:08 PM, [email protected] wrote:

Thanks! I especially liked reading the commentary, and the memories of
some of the posters. We do what we have to do to get by. I grew up that
way, too. Though I never knew it. My parents were paying off student
loans and my mom stayed home with us kids until we were in Jr high, and
I realize now it was tight.
 
On Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:49:54 -0400, Cheryl wrote:


Mine as well, thank god she could sew and kept the money coming in. Once we
were in Jr. high, she went back to teaching high school Home Economics.
 
On Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:49:54 -0400, Cheryl
wrote:


I enjoyed the commentary also, some made me really sad. What really
hit me was that some came out of the worst conditions and thrived. Not
only thrived but held on to some fond memories despite it all.

koko
--
Food is our common ground, a universal experience
James Beard

www.kokoscornerblog.com

Natural Watkins Spices
www.apinchofspices.com
 
On 4/8/2011 9:27 PM, Julie Bove wrote:


Luckily you don't have to worry about that at this time. I heard that
not being able to pay the military was a big turning point in passing
the budget. So is husband not coming home now?
 
On 4/8/2011 11:15 PM, Andy wrote:

No, because then it would say "what's your go to meal when there's too
much money left at the end of your paycheck" and that's the opposite of
what this thread means.
 
In the days when I was stretching a buck, I'd make something involving
hamburg, rice and a can of mushroom soup. It wasn't half bad. I'd add
extra mushrooms and feel flush. I think I put green beans in too.
 
Cheryl wrote:



That's what *koko* meant. What Andy meant was that he's off his meds again.

I'm surprised that Christine hasn't chimed in here; she had that whole
"forty dollars a week" menu planning thread not all that long ago. Maybe
Orlando's outrage at an Anglo person's trying to economize has discouraged
Christine from pursuing the notion further.

This thread makes me once again wish I had a greater talent for gardening. I
like the lentil-and-cauliflower curry recipe I've posted here before, but
cauliflower is getting a bit pricy around here. (Not to the point where I
couldn't buy it if I wanted to, but the price sure made me sit up and take
notice on more than one occasion. IIRC it was upwards of $4.00 for one
cauliflower.)

Bob
 
In article
,
Kalmia wrote:


Hmmm. Brown some hamburger, add onion, then rice, then can of mushroom
soup. Lots of dried rosemary and a couple of sliced zucchini. Cover
and cook until rice is done. Haven't made that for years.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA
[email protected]
 
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