Which "cheap" Foods Do You Turn To When Low On Cash?

I love cheese sandwiches. I love even more grilled cheese sandwiches. I found the cheaper cheese slices for 2.19 for 30 slices. I couldn't stand all the calories with grilled cheese sandwiches, so I put couple of slices on one side of the bread, put a pair of these bread slices on my toaster oven and have some chips with them and that's dinner sometimes. I like Armour Vienna sausage too, on toasted bread add a little mustard and some chips with pickles so fast and cheap to eat. Walgreens had them this past 2 weeks for .69. We freeze fresh bread so bread lasts to pop it in a toaster or our toaster oven and we got a meal ready to go with either Armour Vienna sausage or cheese. To spread the sausage we cut it in half so we can eat more sandwiches.

 

I will go for a sandwich when I am broke especially during the last few days of the months before I get my salary. I will just stick to sandwich and coffee for breakfast, lunch, and dinner I would get it from my office canteen. My favorite is Paneer sandwich.

 

I guess sandwiches are everybody's favorite when it comes to saving money. I know they are for me. I love grilled cheese, baked beans or tuna sandwiches. Either one of those I could eat every day and not get tired of them. As for the others members of my family though, they are very picky about what they eat and would complain if you served the same thing twice in a row.

 

In my home country corn is the cheapest cereal and cabbage is the cheapest vegetable. Therefore, when I run out of money and have to look for cheapest food, I will resort to eating corn and cabbage. You can make variety of dishes with corn, the easiest is the pop corn. You can use corn flour to make corn bread, you can even make broth with corn. You can make a good salad with cabbage.

 

If you mean shortage in food budget, we resort to vegetable meals. My favorite is the dish called sauteed mongo (mung beans) which needs a small piece of pork for flavoring and the rest is the beans with garnishing of Moringa leaves. Aside from the cheap cost, it is also nutritious. Another dish is fried fish with boiled sweet potato tops. Just like the first dish, this one is also cheap and nutritious.

 

I usually save a good money when I decide to buy frozen burgers. Usually they are cheap and I don't have to wait for some promotion to be made for me to buy them (besides, I love burgers.. a lot ).

It works 100% for me.

 

I buy cream dory fish, That fish is sold deboned and filleted and it is very cheap. It is so cheap it makes tilapia looks expensive.

I am a homesteader so I have and endless supply of vegetables as well. I also breed rabbit for food. They are cheap to keep because all they eat is garden weed.

 

When I am low on cash I usually buy a dozen of eggs, a 900g bag of rice and beans, and a couple of vegetables. The dozen of eggs is $1, the rice and beans 75 cents each bag, and the vegetables are quite cheap usually a $1 a pound or less. With that I can make different kinds of dishes by making a mix of each item. One day I can make eggs with beans. Sometimes I buy potatoes and fry some small peices with eggs and so on. This can all last me almost a week or an entire week.

 

Usually pizza, pasta and hot dogs sometimes eggs and various vegetable dishes. These are some of the things I like to eat when I am trying to save money. These are some of the least expensive things, also soups, peanut butter and jelly and grilled cheese. I will eat pancakes often if I am low on funds.

 

Well I have thankfully moved away from the really cheap stuff like ramen noodles, although every once in while maybe, but things like grilled cheese sandwiches are always on top of the list for me.

 

I usually come to this situation of being low on cash when I am about to reach my payday. When I start to run low on cash, I instantaneously turn into a Vegetarian. I usually start having salads made of carrots, cucumber, green peas, tomatoes and other cheap veggies. I skip the dressing to save some more of my reserve money and just manage it with some salt, pepper and some vinegar This way I cut down on my weight by not turning to cheap chunk 1 dollar burger and keep my self healthy.

 

I guess this happens to even the best of us. I sometimes find myself very low on cash toward the end of the month, but lucky for me, I'm very skilled in the kitchen (so I say...) and I'm able to make my own filling meals even with meagre ingredients. I never run out to the point that I can't even have a proper meal.

 

I can relate. Whenever I am broke I turn to mostly vegetables. In my area, I readily have access to them and with 0.1 dollars I normally have a satisfying meal. What I do is to cook mainly a slightly high amount of supper that sees me through to the next day. This technic helps me a lot. There are various veggies like kales, fondly referred to as 'sukuma wiki' in swahili(week pusher). They are pretty cheap and I mix with spinach. I eat them with corn cake( ugali ). I normally get dried maize up country and take it to the posho mill so I am never short on flour.

 

When it comes to 'cheap' food, I'll go for eggs with lots of rice. Actually, I can even eat rice by rolling it and dipping it on fish sauce or shrimp paste. For really quick food that's also cheap, I've discovered a burger store that sells buy one take one cheese burger with shredded cabbage, cucumber and tomato for a little more than half dollar. It tastes good unlike those sold in regular burger store chains where you can taste the TVP and other extenders. Another cheap alternative is boiled eggplant dipped on shrimp paste or fish sauce.

 

It is good that you can find those food at so low price in your area. I don't think we have them here. For us, the cheaper food is we cook it ourselves at home. I agree with @Jamille, eggs and rice might be a better choice for us. That's what I eat sometimes too, as it's easy to prepare and eggs can stock up for a longer period. Besides eggs, we buy local vegetables too, which are much cheaper as compared to broccoli and other imported vegetables.

 

Like many here, egg will be the cheapest selection which would be wholesome too. There's one more thing which I make at home and a cheap option as well is Khichadi ( a mix of rice, lentils, veggies and spices). These are cheap meals but pretty nutritious.
Non-veg stuffs are comparatively higher in price, so, going veg is the cheaper alternative for sure.

 

I would not buy any if I really go low on cash LOL. I have never faced that situation (not so far) but if I ever faced such a situation I will boil potatoes, add salt and pepper and mesh them well. I will use this meshed potato as filling in wheat dough and prepare stuffed "Aaloo Parntha" (stuffed Bread Punjabi style) and eat it with pickles and curd. It can keep me alive for a week or so

 

When I am low on cash for food that;s when I would buy more of carbohydrates, beans better referred to as cow peas and the different varieties of vegetables. These food items are usually cheap especially when they are in season or harvest periods. Buying raw food is more economical way to manage the small available money. Processed or outdoor foods are more expensive and aren't stuffs I'd like turn to when low on cash.

 

I more or less buy what I want but luckily I like vegetables (especially jacket potatoes), rice and pasta so I can usually rustle up something if I haven't had a chance to go shopping. I run out of things but I can't remember a time when I've been so short of money that I have to make huge cutbacks since I was a teenager. I used to live on fresh air then!