Living on Toast

What do you do when you are down to your last few dollars and your next paycheck, support check, SSI, Social Security, etc. is not due for at least a week or more? These days this scene plays out in a lot of homes causing much anxiety not to mention hunger. This article is not going to be about budget eating, this is about survival eating. Many people can't imagine being in such a position but the truth is that more people now are not able to make it from paycheck to paycheck. As frugal and price conscious as they may be there just isn't enough money.

Can you live on toast? Definitely. Should your kids live on toast? Preferably not. So what are your options? The time honored staple of poor people everywhere has always been beans. If you've seen the old original movie Cheaper by The Dozen than you probably remember the hilarious musical scene where they are all complaining about beans while stacking up hundreds of empty tins of beans and using the cans in other imaginative ways. That was 12 kids with little money to eat and so they lived on beans.

Nevertheless beans can be made very tasty, and on top of rice they make a standard "extreme frugal meal". They have loads of protein and vitamins and the rice provides much needed carbohydrates. Beans are always on sale in supermarkets, especially the Goya brand, (I think Goya makes the best canned beans). Often there are large cans for extremely cheap. A few large cans can cost less than $5. Next is rice. Supermarkets sell the cheapest rice in giant bags-most often in the "ethnic" or "Spanish " section which usually means Goya. These bags cost a few dollars. In the supermarket head on to the vegetable section. Often a bag of onions is on sale for a little more than a dollar. If you can afford a little fruit then buy bananas if they are on sale.

Don't forget to buy the cheapest large loaf of white bread which probably costs less than a dollar. Find the cheapest butter or butter-like product and you have breakfast for pennies for a week or more depending on family size.

If you have kids, you want to get them fruits and vegetables. In today's supermarkets produce can be ridiculously expensive. You are better off going to a local fruit market and buying the older produce that they sell dirt cheap. There's nothing wrong with that produce, it just doesn't look as pretty as the produce on the shelves. If you are really broke, go to the back of the store after they close and take the discarded fruits and vegetables that are on top of the dumpster. This is branching into dumpster diving, but that's for another article.

All of this food which will last at least a week can cost you a mere $15. With whatever you have left buy a gallon of the cheapest whole milk you can find and the cheapest jug of oil. Buy a 10 lb. bag of potatoes-also cheap and often on sale and you'll have more variety. Potatoes are amazingly versatile. They can be mashed, fried, stewed, cooked as a soup or anything else you can put together.

With the milk, potatoes and oil, in addition to the bread, butter, rice, bean, and onions, you won't spend more than $25. Imagine eating pretty decently for $25 a week. Most of all, it's pretty nutritious so you can feel better about feeding your kids during such a financially strapped time. The more cash you have the more you can add to this basic plan, such as peanut butter which will make lunch a little more attractive to the kids. Watch for sales because they are often practically give aways. Make sure you have discount cards to all the supermarkets in your area and check the circulars.

You should always have large bottle of spices available. Spices make or break frugal meals. Garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, and hot chili pepper powder are the essentials. Beans become chili, rice can be fried with spices, potatoes can be made spicy with cumin, paprika and a little chili powder.

For cheap drinks, keep large boxes of cheap supermarket tea-which tastes as good as fancy brands. Take the bags out and put them in a plastic zip bag and they'll last forever. Sugar is cheap. If you must have coffee buy big cans when they are on sale and after opening keep them in the freezer. Supermarket brand soda is ridiculously cheap on sale so you can get that too and make the kids feel less deprived.

You can make do with whatever money you have, which is hopefully at least $20 and if not then borrow it. Using this sort of meal plan when you finally do get your check can help save a lot of money. But of course you should add to it liberally. Just having rice and beans twice a week will help trim your budget and they're healthy too. Make sure you always buy on sale and don't give into temptations, it's tough but at least you can take comfort in knowing that you can always feed your family decently.