Eating for Cheap: How to Get Lunch for a Buck or Less
Free Lunch:
Grazing lunch by taking advantage of free samples/tasting portions of a variety of foods can be done at many super and farmer's markets. COSTCO is now quite famous as a place where a person can go and eat a meal by simply partaking of all of the samples offered on most days. Of course, to enjoy the free food at COSTCO you have to be a member to get in OR learn how to walk in looking like you are WITH a member who flashes his/here card at the door. I have seen it done often.
Free lunches are also often provided at dining rooms, organizations and various houses of worship that cater to the homeless in many communities.
There is also the likelihood that if you show up at a friend's house at lunchtime, you just might be invited in for something to eat! This strategy worked particularly well for me when I was a poor college student!
Not Free but for around a Dollar:
Fresh Fruit:
At sixty-nine cents a pound, you can still get two good size bananas for under a dollar. Lots of potassium as a bonus, no animal fats and available in most supermarkets. Many other types of fresh fruit can be had at a low price and while you won't feel stuffed afterwards, you will have taken the edge off of your appetite with something light, healthy and inexpensive.
A Bagel:
A bagel can be had for a dollar or less at any bakery. A bagel has lots of carbohydrates and calories but not much useful nourishment. None-the-less, many people find them a comforting thing to eat that will make the hunger go away until the next eating opportunity.
McDonald's Dollar Menu:
Just as the name says, this sub-menu available at most McDonalds restaurants can be adequately filling in a clutch situation. These nutritionally devastating, calorically overloaded but filling foods include, in my area, such trans-fat filled treats as the Double Cheeseburger, small fries or McChicken Sandwich.
A Can Of Soup:
For a person who has a place to heat something up, a can of soup (or many other canned items) can be found at any food store. Some soups offer a great deal of value - nutritionally and in taste - for a dollar or less. The cheaper (store) brands may not be quite as good as the 'name' brands, but they are adequate and you generally do get more of whatever it is for your money with them.
No doubt there are other options. Some of them may be acceptable to you and others not. Also, being truly impoverished and having to 'scrounge' for food on a daily basis is clearly not the same thing as discovering that you left your wallet or purse at home and only have a dollar available at lunchtime.
There is an old short story, by Thomas Mann, I think, called "The Hunger Artist." The gist of the tale is that a painter who is an epicure falls on hard times and cannot find food he can afford that he will eat - so, to make a short story even shorter, he elects to starve to death. I do not regard this as being a particularly good choice!
Sometimes preferences have to be over ruled by the necessities of survival.
Either way, though, in most communities, there are ways of eating something for either free or for very little. You might want to research your own area so you know what emergency options are available to you should the need arise. An emergency eating plan, as it were.
Published by David A. Reinstein, LCSW - Featured Contributor in Health & Wellness and Technology
Clinical Social Worker, psychotherapist, born in Boston and a relatively unscathed survivor of the 60's. Fan of technology, guitars, creating music and poetry. Mental wellness coach, staff trainer and parent... View profile
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16 Comments
Post a CommentWhen I worked in a restaurant when we had kids in college, a guy used to come in and spend most of the day in there, often asking for a cup of hot water. He made lemonade with the lemon juice and sugar on the table, and may have made the tomato soup you mentioned as well. One night he was in the restroom when the owner locked the door, and he wound up sleeping in there all night, which I'm sure was a better place than he usually slept. He was a local who had fried his brain on drugs and chose to live on the street.
The title caught my attention. This is a creative piece, David!
Sophie
Mmm...bagels, McDonald's, soup, and bananas...you're talking my language--and I love the prices, too! Theoretically, a person could eat three of these meals a day for a whole week and spend only $21 on this budget!
My family still loves the ramen noodles.
I can get a meal at any food stall in Bangkok for 60 cents, and bananas are 30 cents a kilo here :-) Oh and yeah, Ramen type noodles originated in Asia, all the Thais eat them - about 10 cents each! Another option to get a meal under a buck is to move to Thailand, LOL. Good article - great ideas for eating cheap.
Did someone say free food.....I love those samples at Sam's.
Hey! I enjoyed this particular piece more than any you've done in while (and you've done many darned good ones!). You already know I'm frugal. Additionally, during the past month I've avoided ALL unhealthy foods and (without exercising) have lost 23 pounds (i.e., was about 195 the morning after Thanksgiving; but now am 172). Unlimited cooked greens & other veggies; huge tossed salads; coleslaw; my "spicy Cajun chili" (various cooked beans) and/or a soy burger/sausage; plenty of fruits; and very limited (1 ounce daily) walnuts and almonds. Not TOO expensive per meal, eh? :-)
Great ideas! Here in western PA it is easy to find food for a buck or less as well as free samples in the grocery stores. We have our famous pepperoni rolls @2/1.00, big soft pretzels for .89 cents, and foot long hot dogs for .99 cents. Back when I worked as a waitress in the 80's at the enlisted club I used to virtually live off of the soup of the day, and whatever the cook threw our way. The deals are there, you just gotta know where to find them.
Sounds like my daughter at school.
When I was in college, I stocked up on those Ramen noodle packets. 13 cents for a meal was right in my price range about then :D