There's nothing in the fridge except for margerine, salad dressing and pickles. No milk

Nothing in the cupboards except for herbs, spices, stock cubes - and an ancient-looking can of kidney beans.

Nothing in the freezer except for frozen peas and ice cubes.

I am starving!!!

I really should budget better, but I'm useless with money.

The best book in the UNIVERSE to read is David Bach's financial books.

He speaks about a 'latte' factor, and we all have one (latte is proxy for anything that we spend money on daily that we could easily cut out). I did the math and realized my latte factor was about $3000 US dollars a year! After reading Bach's book, I halved that down to probably about $1200 to $1500 a year (that's $1500 right back in my pocket ).

If I recall you're always broke. You posted something about this back in 2006-ish. Do you go out alot? Or do you buy things on a daily basis that you could probably cut out? I would suspect, yes?

Changes in habit are painful and hard. We always think we're being deprived of something. I know my 'latte' factor for then ext 2 years is going to have to be 'nil' and it pisses me off. But I just can't live with starving the day before payday.

TheVoid said:

I'm not as bad as I was... My salary increased last year.

I don't go out a lot. Maybe one big night-out once a month, and a visit to the local pub once every Sunday.

I think the problem is my love/hate relationship with food. I stopped buying food in one big monthly shopping expedition, because I was either throwing it away after it passed its expiry date - or I'd find myself eating it all.

So, I started to buy food on a near daily basis instead. This (of course) only works if you also have money on a near daily basis.

I don't have a "latte factor." Cigarettes are an unnecessary expense, but I'm not going to give-up smoking anytime soon.

I don't have any magazine subscriptions any more. No subscriptions to anything other than utilities.

It boggles my mind how people can save money.

I have 15p to my name, until my wage clears at midnight tonight.

Breakfast this morning was five Ritz crackers. I have a headache, I'm so hungry.

You need to buy things that will last you for a few meals..

Take a chicken for instance... You can bake it, or boil it take off all the meat and use the bones for soup( you can also boil it forst for soup then take meat off )... Then you have all that meat for sandwiches or casseroles..

Tuna casserole is cheap and will last all week long...

P-nut butter is nutricious and you can buy a big ass jar of that...

Egga are cheap, you can do so many things with them...

You can buy a big roast and bake it, have a meal and then add bbq sauce to the shredded leftovers to make bbq beef sandwiches..


Its all about meal planning! Im sorry you are hungry that makes me sad

GirlBrother said:

Buy and apple or bannana!!

It'll fill you up surprisingly well until then!

Lawd, Justin!

TheVoid said:

Well, I'm meeting my family for their weekly Sunday booze-a-thon, so I'll fill-up on bar nuts. Free beer courtesy of my parents doesn't sound so appealing when I'm so damned hungry. I think I'll shake my sister for a fiver when I see her.

Anyway, I could stand to lose a few pounds. I've just been faffing about with fake tan and I'm looking extremely podgy in just my tighty-whiteys.

GirlBrother said:

ow lord, i've been there before

not a chance these days tho. i have a big cupboard filled with
cans and cans and cans. they're all good for the next 2 or 3
years and i hardly ever eat anything from that stash. i've got
it in case i'm gonna burn up all my cash on something stupid
again and wake up to an empty fridge.

it's not the nicest way to spend some extra cash, but whenever
you've got some left over, try to get a few groceries that are
gonna keep for at least a year or perhaps 2 and store it. it's
totally gonna come in handy.

tinaz said:

Rice and lentils or beans bought from bulk bins are SUPER cheap, filling and very nutritious and will last practically forever. I'm never without that in my cupboard. If you're stocked with spices you're set. If you've got an onion and some olive oil, you can eat like a queen.

GirlBrother said:

You really could make a decent-tasting dinner out of that. And have some pickles on the side.

CarrieMpls said:

You know what? You're right.

I could drain the kidney beans and whizz them in the processor to make a bean curd paste thing... I do have an onion and some oil; so, I could fry the onion and add it to the bean mush. Then I could just mix in some curry powder, a veggie stock cube and the frozen peas; make into little patties and refry.

Hmmm...

But I don't have time now. Gotta be at my Mum & Dad's club in 59 minutes. It takes me ages to get ready.

The members hate me in that club, I'm sure. I walk in and anybody would think that I'd entered the room with my dick out of my pants.

i cook once a week.

a. cook a large amount of brown rice. when cooled down i bag it into seperate individual size freezer bags. freeze them
2, roast a chicken. when cooled down i cut it up, bag it. it stays good in the fridge for up to four days. left over gets chopped and made into a chicken salad for sandwiches.
3. buy jiffy corn bread mix. make two pans of it. cool down bag seperate pieces and place in fridge. (great mircro-waved for quick snack for breakfast)
4. boil 4-5 eggs for sandwiches or for salads
5. lite sugar canned fruit
6. i keep whole wheat crackers and peanut butter on hand
7. as for the soup, i make a chicken, veggie soup every other week. i make enough for at least 4 servings during the week.

my list could go on, but i think you get my drift on keeping food readily available for yourself

By your use of "mum" I suspect you're in the UK or Australia? Anyway, if you like spaghetti, make a big pot of sauce, divvy it up in freezer bags and freeze them. Then when the hunger pangs hit, take out a bag of sauce, wiz it in the microwave, boil up some noodles and there you go!

GirlBrother said:

I can totally relate to this.

We pretty much live paycheck-to-paycheck also, and I HATE when we're broke til next payday and there's nothing good in the pantry. HATE IT!

GirlBrother said:

i have been in your same situation more times than i like to remember! it's why now i have several cups on noodles in our food pantry, here they cost like 20 cents. that way if we have a month that is super tight on food, we always have the cup of noodles. and i also have several boxes of cereal too. i hope everything gets better for you, i remember one time a few years back it was like 2 days before payday and we had no food in the house, i had to get coins from my sons piggie bank just to buy some bread. now he has an "atm piggie bank with a secret code only he knows".

kimrachell said:

For the same reason, when I'm chopping veggies I keep the scraps in those stay-fresh plastic bags in my crisper. If I'm stuck with no fresh vegetables, I can cut up the leftover bits of veggies and throw them in a stir-fry, soup or salad.

Well, I just had a semi-drunk conversation with my brother-in-law and he told me to stock-up on instant cup noodles in future.

I'm eating now anyway. I loaned a tenner until tomorrow.

tinaz said:

we had tuna pasta bake for dinner last nite...
pay day today cheap, and the bonus is, the rugrat actually eats it all

you arent on your own girlbrother.

GirlBrother said:

If you're the semi-drunk one in that conversation, I can tell you where you can save a few dollars/pounds/euros in your budget for food next time around.


[Edited 3/14/10 13:47pm]

Man, I'm hurtin' like the WEEK before payday, nevermind day before.

FauxReal said:

Um... I didn't spend a penny! My parents command us all to attend their local social club every Sunday afternoon - and they pay!

Cinnie said:

i do a magic act every pay day...in one hand...out the other
plus i do a juggling act every other week
[Edited 3/14/10 14:07pm]

prb said:

tada! cable is cut off

Cinnie said:

Not quite...
thats where the juggling comes in
but then again, i dont have cable/pay tv
[Edited 3/14/10 14:10pm]

three words - peanut butter toast

it kept me from totally starving my senior year of college

GirlBrother said:

peas and bean soup!

prb said:

haha same

ZombieKitten said:

I'm fine now! I loaned a tenner and bought some curry and chocolate on the way home. I'm currently as stuffed as a turkey. I should have just put my lost-puppy face on, and asked my family for money sooner.

The moral of the story is: When God gives you lemons, go squeeze someone else's peaches!

2 words: Emergency Ramen. I always keep a couple packs of it stashed in my kitchen cuz ya never know.


I mean yeah, it's ramen...but ramen is a better meal than just crackers.


.
[Edited 3/14/10 17:35pm]

GirlBrother said:

You could possibly take that stuff you listed and make a soup of some sort...

Better than nothing
[Edited 3/14/10 17:37pm]