How to Eat Cheap/Free - 5 Ideas to Stretch Your Food Budget

[Math Is Hard]

The last tuition bill just came in. It's going to be a tight month, and I need to stretch the food budget. A few ideas:

1) Make Wolram soup (i.e. make a big pot of soup and just keep adding to it as it gets low)
2) Free samples at Whole Foods market
3) Happy hour buffet at the bar down the street. Gotta get someone to buy me a beverage, though.
4) Avocados from the neighbor's tree that's hanging over the fence. (Might have to fight the squirrels for them).
5) Go to some meet and greet nights for campus clubs. They usually have snacks.

Any other ideas?

 

[Cyrus]

Get a boyfriend. Make him pay till it hurts, then dump him.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Get a boyfriend. Make him pay till it hurts, then dump him.

You really should write an advice column, Cyrus.

 

[Moonbear]

Get a boyfriend. Make him pay till it hurts, then dump him.

:rofl:

You could get those $1 tacos that jimmysnyder was telling us about earlier...the side benefit is you'll never be constipated either. :uhh: Or, you could take tribdog's old advice and pay a little extra for the ones without spit in them. :yuck:

You could volunteer to serve on some committee at work that has lunch meetings. (Everytime I see someone with really good catering getting on the elevator, I ask what meeting they are heading to...just in case it's some committee I should want to join. )

How about chocolate covered ants? Or, um, you could lure in some squirrels. :uhh:

 

[rootX]

The last tuition bill just came in. It's going to be a tight month, and I need to stretch the food budget. A few ideas:

1) Make Wolram soup (i.e. make a big pot of soup and just keep adding to it as it gets low)
2) Free samples at Whole Foods market
3) Happy hour buffet at the bar down the street. Gotta get someone to buy me a beverage, though.
4) Avocados from the neighbor's tree that's hanging over the fence. (Might have to fight the squirrels for them).
5) Go to some meet and greet nights for campus clubs. They usually have snacks.

Any other ideas?

:rofl:

Thanks, I was thinking about starting thread on this subject. But, I want foods that are easier to make (simple) and take less time. I want reduce my daily consumption from 8$/day to 4-6 $/day.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Or, um, you could lure in some squirrels. :uhh:

That raccoon has been asking for it, too.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Maybe I could agree to be friends with some Freshman if they take me to lunch.

 

[Cyrus]

:rofl:

You could get those $1 tacos that jimmysnyder was telling us about earlier...the side benefit is you'll never be constipated either. :uhh: Or, you could take tribdog's old advice and pay a little extra for the ones without spit in them. :yuck:

You could volunteer to serve on some committee at work that has lunch meetings. (Everytime I see someone with really good catering getting on the elevator, I ask what meeting they are heading to...just in case it's some committee I should want to join. )

How about chocolate covered ants? Or, um, you could lure in some squirrels. :uhh:

I was in line for lunch today. There was a guy buying taco bell. They have this new taco called 'the volcano' and he read it out loud and said, 'what does that mean, it shoots out of you after you eat it?' :rofl:

He read my mind at the same time I saw the poster. If you need to stay regular, I recommend taco bell...:yuck:

 

[rootX]

See

https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1831749&postcount=193

I know about it for more than a month but I need to think about how that will provide me food.

 

[lisab]

When I was in college and very poor, I would rely on ramen when I had to. But a better option was to find other struggling students and organize potlucks. Whatever food wasn't eaten at the end of the evening was split up for everyone to take home.

Of course you can't do it every night, but it makes for a pleasant weekend evening.

Just make sure your friends can cook - one guy showed up to one of my potlucks with a bag of Doritos. He wasn't invited back!

 

[Evo]

ramen noodle soup 10 cents a meal, I only need two a day.

Lentils dry, 50 cents a pound, will make enough to feed you for 4 days. You just need salt, water, and hopefully some garlic powder.

 

[lisab]

ramen noodle soup 10 cents a meal, I only need two a day.

Lentils dry, 50 cents a pound, will make enough to feed you for 4 days. You just need salt, water, and hopefully some garlic powder.

But if you can part with $3 for a good meaty ham hock -- heaven!

 

[JasonRox]

:rofl:

Thanks, I was thinking about starting thread on this subject. But, I want foods that are easier to make (simple) and take less time. I want reduce my daily consumption from 8$/day to 4-6 $/day.

What?! That's impossible!

I eat atleast on average $12 a day.

I started making sacrifices. I took my car off the road, so I save on insurance and gas and maintenance. But then, I quit my job. Um... I only drink water and wine, and occasionally milk. I guess taking my car off the road is the only sacrifice I made thus far. There is a organization at school that's $20 for the year and it includes eating out at Boston Pizza 6-8 times for free (I worked for it last year).

I scored some free lunches at school last year and cheap ones too. After eating out everyday at school, the cafetaria ladies got to know me and wouldn't charge me for my drink or give me a sweet deal on a sub (pay for soda only) and that. Very nice.

Or one time I thought the school accepted VISA and I went to pay, and they didn't. The guy behind me paid for my meal, which was an extremely nice thing to do. Obviously I appreciated it and thanked him... but then again according to the other thread (about freshman) I should have stood there and stared at him. Or he should have stood there and stared at me since I was a freshman.

 

[JasonRox]

ramen noodle soup 10 cents a meal, I only need two a day.

Lentils dry, 50 cents a pound, will make enough to feed you for 4 days. You just need salt, water, and hopefully some garlic powder.

Ewwww!

I tried started eating Ramen noodles to save money in Quebec City, but gave up the first time I tried the stuff. I really tried. I managed to eat half of it, but just couldn't finish it

 

[LowlyPion]

Ewwww!

I tried started eating Ramen noodles to save money in Quebec City, but gave up the first time I tried the stuff. I really tried. I managed to eat half of it, but just couldn't finish it

They taste better if you boil them.

 

[~christina~]

All I do is I cook a pot of chicken soup and boil that for 1 day and then...eat that with rice for the whole week. I'm not kidding...it's really good. (I also cook some vegies to eat on the side and also buy some fruit) I also have to mention that I buy, "broken rice." It's actually Jasmine rice that is broken...I'm not sure but it could be leftover from the processing of the whole Jasmine rice. Anyhow, it's WAY better than any long grain rice I have EVER had. I ate it once and never went back. I buy a small bag for about $4.

Ramen noodles aren't healthy (high sodium)

 

[JasonRox]

They taste better if you boil them.

Umm... thanks for pointing out the obvious.

 

[Math Is Hard]

ramen noodle soup 10 cents a meal, I only need two a day.

Am I ever getting ripped off! Ramen noodles are about 45 cents a package out here.

 

[Math Is Hard]

I was in line for lunch today. There was a guy buying taco bell. They have this new taco called 'the volcano' and he read it out loud and said, 'what does that mean, it shoots out of you after you eat it?' :rofl:

He read my mind at the same time I saw the poster. If you need to stay regular, I recommend taco bell...:yuck:

Someone needs to fire the Taco Bell marketing department. What were they thinking?

 

[Math Is Hard]

All I do is I cook a pot of chicken soup and boil that for 1 day and then...eat that with rice for the whole week. I'm not kidding...it's really good. (I also cook some vegies to eat on the side and also buy some fruit) I also have to mention that I buy, "broken rice." It's actually Jasmine rice that is broken...I'm not sure but it could be leftover from the processing of the whole Jasmine rice. Anyhow, it's WAY better than any long grain rice I have EVER had. I ate it once and never went back. I buy a small bag for about $4.

I think I might try that.

 

[Math Is Hard]

When I was in college and very poor, I would rely on ramen when I had to. But a better option was to find other struggling students and organize potlucks. Whatever food wasn't eaten at the end of the evening was split up for everyone to take home.

Of course you can't do it every night, but it makes for a pleasant weekend evening.

Just make sure your friends can cook - one guy showed up to one of my potlucks with a bag of Doritos. He wasn't invited back!

I'd probably do that if I lived closer to campus. I'm a much older student living 30 minutes away, so I'm kind of an outsider. Most of my classmates are getting 3 squares a day at the dorm cafeteria.

 

[NeoDevin]

Our university has a "Campus free food" group on facebook. If your university doesn't have one, I would suggest starting one. Get as many people as you can to join, and whenever anyone knows about an event where snacks/pizza/etc will be available, they post it for everyone to find out.

 

[wolram]

Where do i send the food packages to?

 

[Mk]

Whole Foods market

Well there's your problem.

Whole rotisserie chickens will cost you five dollars and last you several meals. What's left can be thrown in soup.

Better yet, get some dried pasta, and cook that up with some of that chicken. Around here, the pasta, sauce, or cheese is always buy one get one free. So you know what they say, Buy en masse to save cash!

Oatmeal, steel-cut, and rolled can be prepared many different ways. You can also put meat and vegetables into it (many may not be accustomed). It cooks quickly.

The best way to save money is just not to spend it on things you don't need. Don't buy food at the movie theater, don't eat out, unless its from the 99 cent menu at a fast food place, and you don't have to eat and drink just because your friends bought something.

Oh, and bacon is quite tasty.

 

[wildman]

If you are a congressional aid, it is easy to eat for free. You just wander around the capital until you find a spread put out by a lobbyist in some Congressman's office. Then you just invite yourself in (no one will question you) and eat to your heart's content.

 

[jhicks]

I switched up between several different kinds of noodles over about 8 months and added in spaghetti sauce or did it alfredo style. I didn't keep meticulous track of how much money it cost to make stuff but even with buying 7 bucks worth of juice a week I never had to spend over 20 dollars at the grocery store per week. I ate pretty well too since one box of noodles was around 10 bowls and cost like 2 bucks.

 

[wolram]

MIH, buy some cheap off cuts of beef, brown it very well put it in three pints boiling water, simmer some garlic, chilies and onion in a little oil, add to the beef, add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and 2 beef stock cubes season to taste, use some each day and add either carrots,
rice, peas, swede, any thing.

I use 2 red onions
6 cloves garlic
2 hab chilis

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I keep my place stocked with pasta, pasta sauce, rice, ingredients for teriyaki sauce, and ramen noodles. I even have flour and yeast so I can make pizza or calzones (though I don't keep cheese in the house so I haven't tried yet :-/ ).

Teriyaki sauce is relatively cheap, easy to make, and you can teriyaki just about anything. Hot dog slices are very good if you don't mind hot dogs.

Pasta, around here, I can often find for only a dollar or two for a large package and I have a tub I keep it in so no worries about bugs in it.

Rice I can get a ten pund bag of for under ten dollars. If you have a large tub to keep it in this is good and if you have an even larger one you can get a twenty pound bag for about fifteen dollars. Rice steamers are fairly cheap and really easy to use.
I bought a ten pound bag of rice a couple months ago and even though I have made several meals with it I still have about half the bag left.

Ramen is not very good for you since it lacks much of anything aside from sodium. I learned from my step dad though to take the noodles out when mostly cooked and then poach an egg in the 'broth' to put on top of the noodles.

 

[Helios]

I thought this thread was about scams to eat free. I stumbled on funny you-tube vids of people ripping of McD's. You just go through the drive-thru when you've waited for someone to get behind you. The speaker ask you what you want and you say "whoops I forgot my money, I'll just drive through". Kind of stall until the guy's behind you gets his order typed in. Then pull to the pick-up window and get his food.
I remember tricks out of Abbie Hoffman's "Steal this Book". There's the one about eating at the restaurant and putting something on your plate like a bug or broken glass. There's the one about you and your friend go to restaurant. Pretend to be strangers. You order the biggest steak and stuff. Your friend orders coffee. You leave with his check.
He also advises to look up wedding receptions in the newspaper. Pretend to know the family.
There's the Jack Benny one. At the restaurant, befriend a stranger. Both eat. Say you'll pay for his diner, ask him to just wave when you get to the cashier. Go to cashier and say "That man's paying for my diner."

 

[Andre]

To keep it a bit more legal, MIH, you could go to a library and study some survival books learning how nature can provide free food. For example in Europe, the stinging nettle is considered a pest to be found everywhere. Little is it known that the boiled leafs are very healthy (vitamin C) and the taste is very close to spinach. Our grand parents frequently ate nettle soup. A lost dish but wear gloves when handling these.

 

[Chi Meson]

My college diet (at least it's how I remember it)

Monday: Beans and rice
Tuesday: Beans and rice
Wednesday: rice and beans
Thursday: Beans and rice
Friday: refritos (with rice)

 

[Focus]

To keep it a bit more legal, MIH, you could go to a library and study some survival books learning how nature can provide free food. For example in Europe, the stinging nettle is considered a pest to be found everywhere. Little is it known that the boiled leafs are very healthy (vitamin C) and the taste is very close to spinach. Our grand parents frequently ate nettle soup. A lost dish but wear gloves when handling these.

Are you sure about this? I don't want to blame you publicly on TV when I am in hospital dying.

 

[turbo]

Lentils dry, 50 cents a pound, will make enough to feed you for 4 days. You just need salt, water, and hopefully some garlic powder.

I ate a LOT of lentil soup in college. Lentils, salt, onions, crushed garlic, a little piece of salt pork or bacon for fat, and (if I could afford it) celery and maybe even a bit of picnic ham or a hambone with some meat on it. The store I shopped at would leave a little meat on ham-bones and sell them as "soup bones". The first day or two, I ate it as a soup with Saltine crackers or home-made whole wheat bread. Eventually, the soup got really thick, and I stretched it out even more by serving it over a bed of rice.

I got pretty creative with pasta, too. It's cheap and be combined with almost any vegetable, if you can forgo the ($$$) cheese. Another favorite was potato. They were usually inexpensive. Instead of running the oven to bake them, I'd boil the potatoes with an onion and a little garlic, and mash them with a little butter, salt and pepper. Left-overs made really nice pan-fried potato patties for the next morning's breakfast.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I spoke with my chef about this matter. He said you can save a little by using a cheaper wine in the reduction. This will work with steak and chicken, but lamb chops are more delicate and unfortunately will require the more expensive wine. I asked him to prepare a meal with this savings in mind. He also went with asparagus instead of brussels sprouts to save a little more. I found that while the steak was not quite as good as I am used to, it was certainly edible. And the $15 savings really comes in handy in these troubled times.

 

[BobG]

There are some very good http://www.globe-guardian.com/archives/twisted/tl0004.htm available. The skunk recipe has an added benefit - you won't have to lock your doors anymore.