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We live in expensive times, and they only seem to be getting worse. The prices of essential things like food keep rising, and people are looking for ways to save their money and survive. There are ways to save, especially with clever lunch ideas that are both economical and delicious.
However, some are more ready for this than others, as those who have endured some kind of poverty before already know some great 'poverty meals' that are very tasty despite being pretty economical, and that is what people online shared on this online thread. Scroll down if you want to learn about some of these delicious money-saving recipes!
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Does cinnamon sugar toast count? Because it slaps.
Elladine DesIsles 1 year ago
Oh, I grew up on this, haven't eaten it in years! There was always a shaker of mixed cinnamon sugar in our cabinet. My mom was quite fixated on feeding my sister and I nutritious foods, with strict limits on treats (non-sugary cereal only, one glass of soda on Saturdays and Sundays only, etc), but this was one of her few exceptions. Probably because she was also a bit of a cinnamon addict, always carrying a small container in her purse to be added to coffees on the go. I don't eat much bread anymore, but I'm going to have to give this a nostalgic try!
K Miller 1 year ago
Yes, or brown sugar on melted butter toast. Had to be enough butter to soak up the sugar though
Glen Ellyn 1 year ago
My oldest brother loved a thick layer of brown sugar on toast. I don't recall the butter situation, though.
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Regina Holt 1 year ago
When I was in high school, living in a foster home, my lunch was often buttered bread with cinnamon sugar. Not even toasted. Yum.
Laura Gillette 1 year ago
LOL toast with butter and cinnamon sugar was my go-to snack as a kid and I still can't believe my mom let me eat that much sugar. Especially right before bed.
Shelby Moonheart 1 year ago
And when sick my mom would cut it up and serve it in a bowl of warm milk. Always made my stomach feel better.
KillerKiwi 1 year ago
I recently started making this for my sisters and I. Why I didn’t know about it earlier is beyond me
RELATED:
#2
Bread pizza.
Bread (toasted if feeling fancy) with cheap tomato/pasta sauce, bulk cheese (I dunno if dad went to Costco or not) and a few slices of pepperoni (dad always had that too for some reason)
Broil til cheese melted
If we were out of pepperoni...just cheese and sauce lol
Now that he's gone...that's dinner on his birthday.
"Disembodied voice" 1 year ago (edited)
Used to make English muffin pizza all the time. They taste like happiness
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
We used to do this with subs/hotdog buns. Especially popular when I was babysitting.
Karen Southern 1 year ago
If you are out of pepperoni sliced up hotdogs on english muffins are yummy
#3
I used to cook and eat a can of ravioli and then cook ramen in the leftover liquid. I used to buy the ravioli when it was 10/$10 so I would be pretty full for only like $1.15 which was pretty good back in 2012/2013, but I told my ex this at one point and they never let me live it down. People gotta stop that struggle meal hate. Sometimes you do what you gotta do and it honestly was pretty tasty.
Norah Reilly 1 year ago
Anyone who disses poverty meals hasn't found themselves needing to create one.
C Hendrix 1 year ago
As someone who at one time in the 1990's had a budget of $5 for a week's worth of groceries, I feel you! My meals were boxed mac and cheese, turkey hot dogs, super-cheap refrigerated biscuits, and lots and lots of popcorn. Not at all healthy but it did keep body and soul together.
Display_Name 1 year ago
I would buy bologna, white bread, tortino pizzas, spaghetti and meatballs, and a gallon of Hawaiian Punch. I would pour half into another Hawaiian punch jug and add water. Thats was about $20 for food to last two weeks.
New Everywhere 1 year ago
Heyyy Hawaiian Punch is juice concentrate when you're broke
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Apachebathmat 1 year ago
Back when I was a single mom, had a mortgage, bills and a rubbish job, money was tight but my two were always fed, two tins of ravioli that I had ‘made especially’ for them, they loved it! Egg and chips, soup and toasties all went down well, to this day when they come home they will ask for food they had as children as it’s comforting. Never shame anyone who struggles, cheap meals to kids can be the most exciting.
A 'poverty meal' is the kind of food that is made from ingredients that are as cheap as possible yet still provides all the needed nourishment that a person needs. It is usually something eaten in the more economically challenging times that some people have to endure.
Nostalgia could be another strong reason for people sometimes indulging in these foods, as they might have eaten stuff like this when they were younger if their situation wasn’t as fortunate back then as it is now.
#4
Tomato sandwiches: tomato, mayo and white bread.
Glen Ellyn 1 year ago
I'm not sure this is a poverty meal. Tomatoes are expensive. At least, where I live they are. Now, if you grow your own it's probably a different story.
Susan 1 year ago
If you have fresh tomatoes from the garden this is the best! The ones from the grocery store won't cut it.
Load More Replies... Regina Holt 1 year ago
This only works with decent tomatoes, in-seaon, if you can, get locally grown. A lot of the tomatoes at the grocery stores here would not make a good sandwich.
Jeremy James 1 year ago
We still look forward to these every Summer when the Cherokee Purple tomatoes are ready.
valyn 1 year ago
Just planted 3 in my garden, along with some fresh basil to use with them.
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Flora Porter 1 year ago
Very nice. Could replace the mayo with a little olive oil, ripped basil and salt for sheer perfection.
Jeanette Thompson 1 year ago
I JUST made this two days ago. I'd been craving it. I also like to make it with tuna fish salad and tomatoes.
#5
I’m British and was brought up in the 1970s. I no longer eat meat, but I was brought up by a Welsh mother who wasted nothing.
We had a meat grinder and anything not eaten in out Sunday roast was ground up and added to our slow cooker with barley, lentils and any leftover veg. Shortly before it was served my mum would drop in dumplings. It was amazing.
Flora Porter 1 year ago
Everyone had a mincer in the 70s. Anything left from Sunday lunch went in to make shepherd's or cottage pie, mashed potatoes on top. Sometimes bubble and squeak with a fried.egg.on top.
Daddy’s Girl 1 year ago
Italian here and my mother grew up during a great depression. She never threw anything away. She used to make a sort of soup that she would call “refrigerator soup“ using pretty much everything left over in the fridge and it was always delicious.
#6
My favourite was a Bulgarian "poverty meal" staple in my house growing up - cooked macaroni in warm milk sweetened with sugar (and vanilla if you have it), then some crumbled brined cheese like feta to top it off. The sweet and salty just really works together. If you have any remaining macaroni, you can throw it in a baking dish with milk, sugar, and an egg and bake it into a custard-like macaroni dessert. Sounds strange to non-Balkan people but we all have our cultural poverty meals!
EmbersAreOut 1 year ago
PASTA AND WARM SWEETENED MILK WAS MY CHILDHOOD OMG. All my friends think it’s awful, but i really love it.
Ivona 1 year ago
This pasta bake is popular to this day ("oven-baked macaroni"). I've never heard of pasta cooked in milk with feta cheese added in. The meal I know of is bite-sized pieces of bread topped with milk or hot water, a little butter, small pieces of feta cheese, and a little bit of sugar.
Peter Trudell Jr 1 year ago
no such thing as leftover macaroni. It's a pound of ground beef and a can of pinto beans from being 6-8 servings of chili-mac
Littlemiss 1 year ago
Macaroni pudding, yep had this along with bread and butter pudding, golden sago pudding. Yum!
Terri Martin 10 months ago
I’m somewhat repulsed on one level but on another, I’m weirdly intrigued🤔
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
We used to have rice with milk (often evaporated) and sugar as sweets a lot. One or two times we also did pasta, but not with feta.
However, just because it’s called a poverty meal doesn’t mean that it can’t have an amazing taste. According to The Foodbank, quite a few of today’s delicacies first started out as the food of the poor.
One such example is lobster. Nowadays, it’s often considered one of the most desirable and fancy dishes, at least in America, but back in the day, it was something that capturers would feed to prisoners and what Native Americans used as bait for fishing.
We could also add the now-all-so-popular barbeque, which used to be what enslaved African-Americans made before the Civil War, or the Chinese-American and Mexican-American cuisines that were created by immigrants, displaced people, and working-class representatives.
#7
Bread and butter simply slaps. We used to do sandwiches with just butter and radishes as well.
Natasha Arruda 1 year ago
I've never done radishes as sandwiches but I absolutely get a bag of radishes now and then just to crunch on with some salt on them. Got it from my mother.
Gabby M 1 year ago
Mine is olive oil salt & pepper, and sliced radish...yum
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Upstaged75 1 year ago
As a kid in the 80's we used to eat cheese sandwiches. Which were a slice of (plastic wrapped ick!) cheese on roman-meal whole grain bread, with miracle whip and yellow mustard. I craved those things like crazy!
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
Now that I have found a decent gluten free bread, I enjoy doing this again, though at the price mark ups for gluten free food, it's not really a poverty meal.
Shaunn Munn 1 year ago
Bread. butter & thin slivered onion. Common Great Depression meal. If no butter, use bacon dripping or lard.
#8
Beans and cornbread! Still a fave.
Jeanette Thompson 1 year ago
My mom would cook a crockpot full of beans and it would feed us for a couple of days. And, yes, there was always cornbread.
Spittnimage 1 year ago
Been eating that all my life, except now it's just when I get hungry for it.
#9
I would say "anything with ground beef," but it now costs about as much as cheaper cuts of beef (USD $4/lb).
When I as growing up ground beef meant chili, or spaghetti, or shepherds pie, or hamburger helper, or sloppy joes, or meatloaf, or just plain burgers. The only kind of beef not pre-ground was chuck roast for stew.
Jennik 1 year ago
Similar experience - lots of mince-based meals interspersed with various casseroles and stews. We did have a roast on Sundays. Chicken was expensive back then and for special occasions. Wiener Schnitzel was a very special treat for birthdays. Everything made from scratch and home-grown vegetables.
Pamelot 1 year ago
Pure heaven to me. Oooh - I can smell the aromas from your kitchen. Divine. 💗
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Max Fox 1 year ago
You can always mix ground beef with other things that bulk it up without reducing the flavr, like bread crumbs, ground dried mushrooms, eggplant, etc. You can then use that to stuff vegetables. So a pound of ground beef gos a lot further than a pound of a cheap cut of meat. I absolutely love any stuffed vegetable.
Jennik 1 year ago
I recently ended up with one eggplant that needed using soon. It wasn't enough for one of my eggplant-hero dishes, but I chopped it up and cooked it with beef mince as the base for a pasta sauce (I adde the usuals, of course - tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs etc). My Partner like the flavour so much he's keen to have it again soon.
Load More Replies... Terri Martin 10 months ago
Shiiiiii. Ground beef is too d**n expensive for me anymore. We only eat chicken and fish now. Maybe once a week, we treat ourselves to some ground beef recipes lol.
Even the superfood quinoa, which you can find on the shelves of almost every supermarket today, comes from Peruvian farms that were much poorer not very long ago. In fact, according to statistics from Peru’s Ministry of Agriculture shared by Grace Livingstone of BBC, the price of this crop in the country rose by over 500% when compared from 2005 to 2014.
With the country-wide production grew from roughly 32,500 to nearly 115,000 tonnes a year, the once-poor Peruvian farmers who ate quinoa through generations turned their fortunes around when they started selling it. Now, thanks to the sky-rocketed popularity of this magnificent grain, these people are able to enjoy electricity and send their children to good universities, all while continuing to manage their now-successful businesses.
#10
I can relate. I made Haluski - cabbage and egg noodles. I added Italian sausage that I found on sale. My partner was horrified. She likes the hamburger soup though. I ate a lot of Haluski last week!
TheGoodBoi 1 year ago (edited)
Doesn't sound so bad. Then again, I was a garbage can in the previous life...
Another Panda 1 year ago (edited)
Hahaha! You made me smile. R2D2 is that you?
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Jennik 1 year ago
My partner and daughter love cabbage, which is great as it's one of the cheapest vegetables we can buy. We've been eating a lot of haluski lately - it's delicious. We use a few slices of bacon in it. Cabbage is such a versatile vegetable - there are tasty meals from so many cultures where cabbage is the main ingredient.
Debby Keir 1 year ago
When I was a student, my flatmate's mother came over from Germany to visit, and gifted us a huuuuuge Salami. It was the only meat we had for about a year, and I can't even look at it now.
Peter Trudell Jr 1 year ago
oh god, haluski is wonderful... fried up in butter and/or bacon grease. Grandparents kept a can of bacon grease on the stove and I grew up with this. I still make it as a comfort food.
retro_junkie 1 year ago
I had Haluski for the first time when I moved up to Pennsylvania from the south. I absolutely fell in love with it. Comfort food! Perfect for those snow days.
Calvin Smelliott 1 year ago
This sounds good. I would happily eat it. A little bit of black pepper and a couple of drops of spicy vinegar would set it off. I don't know if it has a name, but I've made cabbage, onion, potato, and sausage. It's super tasty.
Jennik 1 year ago
My Dutch father used to make something like that for us, and I have continued the tradition with my family. A splash of spicy vinegar is good in this dish as well.
Load More Replies... Regina Holt 1 year ago
This sounds like a "non-american" dish that comes from your homeland. I don't like any spicy sausage, but this sounds good.
Paulina 1 year ago
It's Polish/Ukrainian :) Also called "łazanki". You can make it with any type of sausage. And my mom used to mix fresh cabbage with sauerkraut 😋
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Corinna Weisz 1 year ago
Like Kraufleckerl in Austria 😍 A white cabbage and a package of fleckerl is all you need (Some oil, sugar and seasonings not included, assuming you have that already at home)
mae reeves 1 year ago
I didn't know that's the name of this dish. I love it,,,, add a little kielbasa, yum yum
#11
My mother used to make something called rice and eggs when I was very young. I asked her recently for the recipe and she laughed and asked why I would want to make it, she only did because times were tough. I remember a frying pan, cooked rice, and her tossing it with beaten eggs. It came out like creamy rice, something like a risotto but firmer. It might have been the last time she made it when the oil in the pan splashed onto the back of her hand causing a gnarly burn.
I still would like to have it again, poor people food or not. It's one of those memories that is burned into my brain and after 40+ years I can still taste it.
Kylie 1 year ago
As a starving college student (back before ramen was a thing) we would make a HUGE skillet of "swill". rice a riso (roni if you're American) made in the skillet then when most of the liquid was gone throw in some chopped up fried sausage, make holes in the rice mix and crack in an egg. cook until the whites were firm and serve making sure each person got an egg.
#12
Canned tuna is a pretty divisive place to start. As for poverty meals, I eat lots of beans and lentils, partially because of cost, partially because it's shelf stable and easy to stock up on without having to worry about spoilage.
LizzieBoredom 1 year ago (edited)
Tuna Casserole. Tuna, Egg Noodles, and a can of debiously named 'Cream of' something soup.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
My sister's favourite meal, and one she still asks mum to make for her to put in the freezer now she has moved out, is tuna casserole. Mum made it a bit different though. Tin of tuna, rice, frozen veg and white sauce.
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kybourbonpearls 1 year ago
1 can of tuna in a box of mac and cheese with a sleeve of Ritz crackers!! DELISH!
tee-lena 1 year ago
Add peas and change the crackers for crushed lays potato chips. Yummy!
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Sami-Jo Ross 1 year ago
Tuna, mayo, salt, pepper, and boiled shell pasta. Simple, keeps you full, and good on days when you don't really want to cook.
Anna Drever 1 year ago
Beans and lentils fill you up and if you have a good supply of dried herbs and spices you can change the flavour so it’s not too repetitive. I often make a lentil bolognese and use leftovers padded out with extra veg for a sort of shepherds pie.
Susan 1 year ago
My go to way to fancy up canned tuna was throwing making tuna melts. Mix up tuna with some mayo and whatever you like in your tuna salad. Spoon that onto a slice of toast and sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top and toast it in the oven. You could do the same with canned chicken, also.
OneHappyPuppy 1 year ago
I looved to make pasta with sour cream and canned tuna, if I was lucky to have capers in brine I'd add some of those in too
In the end, this goes to show that just because some food is cheap, it doesn’t mean that it won’t be tasty or nutritious, just like expensive meals aren’t necessarily of high quality.
So, if these expensive times have struck you, just know that eating healthily and deliciously is definitely not out of the question. And if you need inspiration, threads like this one are there for you.
What is your favorite poverty meal? Do you know of any other foods that have had their popularity turned around and become delicacies? Share all of them in the comments below!
#13
My kids called this "Mexican goo". It's similar to a 7 layer dip , but made into a casserole.
Bottom layer is refried beans that you heat up and season. Second layer is rice, I generally used leftover Spanish rice. Or leftover rice that I seasoned. 3rd layer is whatever meat that you have, already cooked. Ground beef, ground turkey or chicken, leftover rotisserie chicken, leftover pot roast, pork that you chop up, whatever it is.and season that with either cumin and chili powder, salt and pepper , enchilada sauce, taco seasoning, whatever you have on hand or can afford. Next layer is vegetables. Generally Rotel, pico de Gallo, or canned diced tomatoes and jalapenos if you have them. Next layer is cheese, whatever you've got. Bake it at 350-400 until the cheese on top is starting to brown and bubble.
Eaten over tortilla chips (in a bowl) or made into tacos with any combination of hot sauce, salsa, sour cream, pickled jalapenos, more pico de Gallo, cilantro, chopped onions with a squeeze of lime, chopped up tomatoes that have seen better days, or whatever you have.
If you use corn tortillas, and don't use packaged seasoning, it's also gluten free. If you skip the meat, it's vegetarian.
If you want the crispy burned rice, then oil your pan and put your rice as the bottom layer.
Edit: if you skip the rice and top it with cornbread batter and bake it, you have a tamale pie.
Edit: season every layer. Otherwise it's just an awful bland mess, and hot sauce wasn't invented to be a main flavor.
Upstaged75 1 year ago
I used to heat up a can of refried beans and then top it with sour cream and shredded cheese. If I was feeling fancy I'd get out some tortilla chips. But mostly I just ate it with a spoon. :)
Wang Zhuang 1 year ago
This sounds easy and awesome. I can't believe I never thought to try this
#14
Mac n cheese with hotdogs. Or,
Elbow noodles, Hunts tomato sauce, butter, and salt.
Eris Kallisti 1 year ago
I always sliced the hot dogs up and stirred them into the mac & cheese, no bread required
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Mark Buxbaum 1 year ago
Mac n cheese, cheapest box in the store. Add sliced hot dog (pre-seared), frozen veggies. Add an extra slice of cheese if you can afford it. LOTS of seasonings: salt, pepper, onion, garlic, plus your favorite. Delicious and fairly cheap.
Yettichild 1 year ago
Mac&cheese with leftover lunch meat. Whichever kind was getting close to going off.
Regina Holt 1 year ago
not sure why you were down voted. This whole list is what an individual ate. Yours may not appeal to others, but it is what you ate, whether I like it or not
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Pheebs 1 year ago
Spaghetti and red sauce. Pick up a demi loaf of Italian or French bread from the discounted pile (expiring, but no mold, and like $0.50). Use the end of the loaf to make a spaghetti pocket. Extra good if the bread was buttered first. All told, the ingredients probably cost like $6 (years back, about $10-15 now) and I’d get at least 2-3 meals out of it.
#15
Baked beans on toast with grated mature Cheddar.
Kylie 1 year ago
British style baked beans in tomato sauce with grated cheese mixed in until it melts, serve over buttered toast.
Littlemiss 1 year ago
Oh yum! You were really flash if you had cheese on top. That was a treat growing up.
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Charlie the Cat 1 year ago
Brit here grumbling. What the heck is a leaf doing on beans on toast.
Sweet Fanny Adams 1 year ago
Needs more beans and more cheese. None of that green stuff. Thankyou.
#16
I’m old so this is probably very 1950’s, but we would have fried bologna sandwiches. On white bread. I wonder if they would still taste good to me?! Sure not very healthy!
Tabitha 1 year ago
Oh, it has been absolute ages since I have had a good fried bologna sandwich! I ate loads of them as a child in both Pennsylvania and Maryland. At least I can get scrapple, and have it periodically—-I even turned my British husband on to it. He was skeptical, and a little appalled, at first (I kept reminding him he grew up eating blood pudding to counteract that). But he tried scrapple, liked it, ate some more of it, and now he loves it.
Meagan Glaser 1 year ago
I was eating this in the 90s, the key to frying bologna is to cut it or it will puff up into a bologna cup lol
Sven Petersson 1 year ago
Where I grew up in Sweden we have something similar called "Patentare". Fried white bread, either bacon or Falukorv (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falukorv) and a fried egg on top. Yum!
Calvin Smelliott 1 year ago
We have white bread, bacon, and eggs. That's what's for dinner tonight!
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Jeanette Thompson 1 year ago
I still make these from time to time. Fried bologna with melted cheese on top and it absolutely has to have mustard.
sweetrottenpeaches 1 year ago
One of my most favorite sandwiches on Earth!! I tried it for the first time last year (i am not an alien just European). We call this product parisienne but it is the same. I love it with condiments like mustard and mayo :3 so good ❤️
Alyssa Phillips 1 year ago
We called them Hillbilly Steak sandwiches. Got the "log bologna" and cut it into half inch slices. Fried up and put on a sandwich with fried egg, fried onions from garden, lettuce and tomato from garden, mayo on white. 🤤
#17
Once in a blue moon, I’ll get a craving for S**t on a Shingle (aka, chipped beef gravy on toast). I have the gravy over popovers instead of toast, but the spirit is the same 😉.
ginshun 1 year ago
biscuits and gravy is made with pork sausage. S**t on a shingle is made with ground beef.
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Gustav Gallifrey 1 year ago
There is no way, not by any definition or understanding known to a logical human mind with any grasp of the concepts of cuisine and aesthetics, that that stuff is 'gravy'.
Regina Holt 1 year ago
We were always glad to have this. The only time we were allowed to say the word Sh!t.
Sami-Jo Ross 1 year ago
Be nice if they used a photo of actual chipped beef instead of what looks to be ground sausage. But I digress--my family still makes SOS on a regular, served over buttery biscuits.
#18
Papas con chorizo, cubed boiled potatoes scrambled with egg and chorizo.
nancy 1 year ago
This looks too expensive for my poor-student days. A baked potato with butter, salt, and some sour cream (if I could afford it) was my cheap meal. And usually had a case of those dollar store ramen noodles, and a bag of apples. Meat was never an option.
Andres Tejeda 1 year ago
Wrap in a flour tortilla and put some cheese and you got a great breakfast burrito.
#19
Soup. Just soup. My most consistent one is onion, celery, carrots, cabbage/kale, whatever herbs I find and a small pasta. Can cook up a protein separately to add in or add white beans/whatever you have.
Jennik 1 year ago
Did something like that last night - I had just 2 chicken thighs but with the addition of carrots, celery, onion, frozen spinach, stock, milk, and tiny pasta I made a delicious soup. It provided dinner for 3 slightly greedy adults plus several servings I could freeze for my very elderly mother.
Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago
...and lunch at work. Turkey carcass barley , ham bones navy bean/split pea, etc..
Load More Replies... Regina Holt 1 year ago
Soup is so versatile. You can literally throw whatever you like together, and wind up with some good soup!
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
I make a lot of soup and freeze many serves at a time. I has gotten to the stage at the moment, that I haven't cooked anything much recently (work has been insane) and all that is left in the freezer is soup. Luckily (in this context at least) soup weather has well and truly started again! My favourite is Thai pumpkin soup.
Anna Drever 1 year ago
A minestrone or similar is comfort food and fills you up nicely. I add red lentils to my own version to bulk it out more.
#20
Red beans and rice. Ham hock, some andouille sausage, some beans, some rice, spices, you've got a big pot of a good meal that can feed you for a few days. Ditto for chili.
Edit: Don't forget an onion, green pepper, and celery stalk or two.
ninjaTrashPandaBoom 1 year ago
A big pot of red beans and rice has gotten me through some tough times.
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Jayeff Vee 1 year ago
Ham hocks were once inexpensive, but no longer. Andouille sausage is a luxury. Try it with just beans rice onions peppers and celery. Still delicious. And cornbread is easy to make from scratch.
#21
My mom finds it disgusting that to this day, my brother and I, in our 50s, love the occasional bowl of plain macaroni and canned stewed tomatoes. We ate that a _lot_ lol.
Natasha Arruda 1 year ago
Never added the tomatoes but we often, and still do, eat things like rice, or spaghetti plain with butter and garlic salt.
Anywhere but Here 1 year ago
Spaghetti with cheez whiz lol. We whined when my mom made healthy food, little did we know the spaghetti with cheez whiz was not a treat but a way to bulk up meals. Guess who ate a lot of spaghetti and cheez whiz when my son and I had to leave his dad.
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The Starsong Princess 1 year ago
We had macaroni with ground beef, can of tomatoes and an onion about once a week for years. I haven’t had it in years.
Pamelot 1 year ago (edited)
Change macaroni to Sea Shells, add can of tomatoes, and Albacore TUNA -- really! I've eaten this for 20+ years. It is honestly very good. Sea Shell macaroni is a must for this dish. Also good as a cold leftover. Your dish sounds yummy! Both dishes are easy staples to keep on hand. 😁
Daddy’s Girl 1 year ago
“White spaghetti“ was often our Friday meal in place of fish. No sauce, just oil, pesto plus salt, pepper and Parmesan. I still love it.
#22
Instant ramen is one of the worlds great food inventions. I have recently rediscovered Maruchan Cup O Noodles shrimp flavor.
ElfVibratorGlitter 1 year ago
I like to crush the ramen up in the bag and then pour on some of the seasoning and shake and then eat it dry like crisps.
Caleb Steel 1 year ago
Used to just crush it up on bag then add flavor packet, shake then eat. Was my school lunch for years
jonesnori 1 year ago (edited)
I prefer the 3-minute type in the packet. My favorite is Sapporo Ichiban Original Flavor (the seasoning packet is not vegetarian, but their Miso Flavor is). I usually substitute dashi powder for the seasoning packet to cut the sodium a little, and mix in a beaten egg near the end of cooking. Top with seaweed flakes and sesame seeds.
Ronna Black 1 year ago
Instant ramen, a scrambled egg mixed in with a little soy sauce and if you have it, sesame oil. Worcestershire sauce works too.
Susan Reid Smith 1 year ago
I add just a bit of crunch by sprinkling sesame seeds over them. That may not sound budget but the local store has sesame seeds in packets instead of jars and it is 1/6 the price.
#23
My husband who came from the middle class was also disgusted by the food I grew up with. Hamburger helper, tuna casserole, etc.
Apparently frozen burger patties cooked in a frying pan and eaten on white bread is a sin.
Most meals growing up would consist if a carb and a sauce and if you were lucky meat.
But it was ALL one pot meals. We didn't have sides, snacks, or salads. We had rules about how much food everyone got too. Like with stoufers lasagna it was deliberately portioned into 12 pieces and everyone was entitled to only 2 pieces so we all had equal. We never opened a high value food and we NEVER were allowed to finish it, the last of anything good was reserved for mom.
It was really weird going to college and learning what it was to not be food insecure. Like most people just eat when they are hungry. They don't have to worry about being yelled at for having the last mac N cheese box.
Tabitha 1 year ago
Hamburger on bread? Tell your snooty husband that dish is known as a Patty Melt, and is way better than a regular burger, because the bread is bigger, thicker, can sop up more of the juices, and doesn’t fall apart and become a mushy mess as easily as a hamburger bun.
Kelly Scott 1 year ago
I remember having just enough money to buy 5lbs of potatoes and a container of Crisco (this was before it cost an arm and a leg). Then I'd have fried potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a couple days. Not very healthy, but certainly filling.
Wang Zhuang 1 year ago
Hahaha this post took me back to my childhood! I ate all of the above as a kid in the US. The quintessential American struggle meals. Love it! What a snob the husband is :P
#24
Ghetto chicken parm. It's just frozen chicken nuggets on spaghetti with prego sauce and the green bottle parmesean.
Leah Brown 1 year ago
Prego = Name brand of a jarred pasta sauce common in the US
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#25
My mom used to make a tomato base stew with oxtails...can't even afford poverty meals anymore.
Jennik 1 year ago
My daughter keeps begging me to make oxtail or lamb shank stew. We can't afford it these days. When I was a kid butchers would chuck oxtails into people's orders for free if they knew the customer had a dog.
sweetrottenpeaches 1 year ago
Here where I live (central europe hungary) I can't even buy oxtail nowadays. The restaurant industry buys up all of it to make rich clear soup which is kind of a national dish for us :( I can pre order it for a fortune though. I grew up on chicken wings because they were cheap and my mom was a single mom so she could not afford too much to spend on food. Today even those are expensive as heck :(
Load More Replies... Regina Holt 1 year ago
It's funny how stuff that used to be "just for the poor people" has now been priced out of our range! Stuff like lobster, that is no longer for poor people.
Auntriarch 1 year ago
I blame TV chefs. Used to be that steak people wouldn't touch brisket or oxtail. Now they know how to cook it and how delicious it is, the price has gone through the roof. Dammit.
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Scott Rackley 1 year ago
I was wanting to braise some oxtail then put them in a big pot of pintos. $14/lb for oxtails? Who is buying them at that price?
Load More Replies... Max Fox 1 year ago
Oxtails used to be poor person's food so they were super cheap. What with wealthy hipsters being obsessed with poverty food, oxtails are now crazy expensive.
ENSJ 1 year ago
Lobster used to be poor man's food as well. Unfortunately all the poor foods end up being fads and are then out of normal and poor people's price range. Pretty sure that any animal protein (fish, meat, eggs) will become too expensive for most on the regular.
Load More Replies... The Starsong Princess 1 year ago
I make mock turtle soup with oxtails and it’s delicious. But oxtails have gotten so expensive, I might as well serve steak.
#26
Salmon Patties. My wife hates them.
Sunny Day 1 year ago
I hated them, too, because my mom would leave the bones in. "Just eat them!"
Calvin Smelliott 1 year ago
I made salmon patties a few months ago. They definitely remind me of childhood.
Terri Martin 10 months ago
Ugh. I grew up on this and haven’t eaten it since I left home 30 years ago🤣🤣🤣Hated salmon Pattie’s even back then but mama always said “beggars can’t be choosers” . Well I’m grown and stopped begging so these are a hard pass for me😂😂😂😂
Lila Allen 1 year ago
I made these last week. My kids love them and it's a good way to get fish and veggies into them
Verbalocity 1 year ago
My mom called them Salmon Croquettes. Dunno where she got that, but it sounded classy.
Sami-Jo Ross 1 year ago
Pop used to make them all the time. Stunk up the whole house! But he loved em.
#27
Hot dogs and baked beans.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 1 year ago
Both ingredients are actually there. They're just cosplaying.
Load More Replies... Terri Martin 10 months ago
Where’s the hot dog…..and baked beans? This looks like a taco to me.
Wang Zhuang 1 year ago
We used to eat pork and bean casserole, which primarily consisted of hot dogs and baked beans, among other ingredients. Still love it to this day
Vampiresscrow 1 year ago
Weiners and beans! Aka: Weenies and beanies. Yum! Discovered in adult life, add a can of Stagg Chili Dynamite. For me, over the top greatness.
Daddy’s Girl 1 year ago
Hotdogs, baked beans, and brown bread. A New England Saturday night staple.
Sven Petersson 1 year ago
Started eating this as a poor 20-year-old student. Almost 28 years later, I now eat this because it's delicious. I do tend to season the baked beans with curry powder & garlic powder. Baked beans is also great with all types of fried meats.
Nicole Weymann 1 year ago
"Wieners", I guess. Named after Vienna (German/Austrian: Wien)
Load More Replies... #28
Growing up we had a lot of Campbell's soup casseroles, tuna casserole, chicken casserole etc. Creamed tuna on toast ( béchamel and tuna), sloppy joes, anything hamburger helper like etc. Butter tortillas were also a favorite snack. It was kinda like noodle, meat, soup can, cheese, topping and go.
We make american goulash now pretty regularly. I can't get my kids to like tuna so I rarely make tuna casserole now, but maybe I will make myself some tuna on toast! I love it.
I used to make tuna mac as one of my standard backpacking meals because of how easy it it to pack in ingredients. Nom.
Elladine DesIsles 1 year ago
My mom's version of tuna on toast she called a "tuna bunwich." Creamed tuna on half hamburger buns for an open-faced sandwich, topped with a slice of American "cheese" (Kraft singles or generic equivalent), and toasted in the oven until the buns are just crisp at the edges and the cheese melty. I've been a vegetarian for 30 years now and can no longer stomach even small amounts of accidental seafood ingestion, but this is one of the few non-veg foods I still occasionally crave.
La Lucy 1 year ago
I have been making this A LOT lately! Comfort food for me. I use English muffins instead of a bun. My cat loves it too...he gets tuna juice.
Load More Replies... Maggie Fulton 1 year ago
If you don’t use Campbell’s cream of soups, what holds your casserole together? Ingredients?!! Gasp!
#29
Open face hot turkey. Slice of toast, shmear of leftover mashed potatoes, sliced turkey lunch meat, spoon of simple gravy (chicken bouillon, water and corn starch). Serve hot. Side of canned green beans.
Regina Holt 1 year ago (edited)
Those were our "days after Thanksgiving (in america) sandwiches". Sometimes some cranberry sauce was added to sandwich. Best school lunch ever. Not open faced and heated.
Auntriarch 1 year ago
Like the UK Boxing Day turkey sandwich with dripping and stuffing. Chutney if you run out of dripping. Food of the gods
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Cindy Brick 1 year ago
Had this at the Ben Franklin lunch counter...and felt like a bigshot, as a kid.
Debby Keir 1 year ago
All meals used to be served on (stale) bread (a trencher) at one time - not everyone had plates
#30
As a kid, my brother and I would make bologna roll ups (fried bologna and scrambled eggs rolling the bolonga around the eggs) a lot.
Bigger family meals from childhood:
- Chop salad (lunch meats, hard bolied eggs, a head of iceberg, and your dressing of choice)
- Spanish spaghetti (fry spaghetti noodles like Spanish rice, add liquid, tomato paste, and spices good until spaghetti is soft. If you're feeling extra, add cut-up hot dogs)
- Bum food (potatoes cubed and fried with bacon and eggs)
- Summer dinner for those hot days (kielbasa, cheese, we like pepper jack, and triscuts)
- Peanut butter and banana toast
- Cinnamon sugar toast
- Tips and noodles (cheap meat normally beef chuck in small cubes fried, then add cream of mushroom soup a can of water or beef broth and egg noodles)
Something else we have been doing more (only 2 or 3 of us at my house often). Make a cheap roast (slow cook or instant pot), and the next day, make shredded meat tacos or burritos.
The other day, we did a ham (bone in), next day ham sandwiches, and then 3rd day pork and beans using the bone with the beans and leftover ham and some kielbasa.
Regina Holt 1 year ago
mmm, peanut butter and bananas. Sometimes I would put those little marshmallows if we had any in the house. Also good with generic rice krispies.
Pheebs 1 year ago
Lol. PB and bananas have become dessert for me, but it’s one of the few ways I like bananas now. Used to pb, banana, and salty chip sandwiches.
Load More Replies... Anywhere but Here 1 year ago
I crave kielbasa and cheese frequently. It is no longer in the budget.
#31
Rice and chicken porridge.
Take extra s****y quality rice, cook it with cheap chicken parts, boil it all till it turns into porridge. Add salt and pepper, remove chicken bones, stir it so rice and chicken mix well together and you're done. It looks terrible but sooo comforting to eat during winter, I'd like to eat it more often but I don't find rice that is as low quality as it was in my childhood though.
Regina Holt 1 year ago
This sounds pretty good! I'd probably add frozen spinach or something nowadays,
#32
My mother was a horrible cook. I've greatly improved her Halushki, Pasta sauce, Goulash and breaded chicken. My husband hated his mother's Goulash so much I wasn't allowed to even make it. So I made "Ground beef stew with spices" and he loved it.
Jeanette Thompson 1 year ago
Sometimes feeding them is like feeding toddlers. Change the name of something and we're good to go.
#33
One of regular "pantry meals" is chicken noodle casserole. We always have Kirkland canned chicken in the pantry, some cream of whateverthehellyouwant, egg noodles, cheese, and a bag of frozen mixed veggies. Also... Mac n cheese with chopped up ham was a weekend lunch regularly had in my house. To make it more of a meal, add in a bag of California mix veggies while the noodles are boiling.
#34
SPAM onigiri punches way above its weight.
Regina Holt 1 year ago
Lot's of folks eat spam, I ate it as a child, I will never eat it again.
Anywhere but Here 1 year ago
Plain old slices of spam with mustard. Luckiest kid gets to keep the “key!”
#35
I love the bottom-shelf store-brand instant mashed potatoes. Mix them with water, crack in an egg, add little pepper and salt and a scoop of flour, then spoon it onto a griddle! Excellent lunch.
Flora Porter 1 year ago
In the early 80s a mug of instant mash with ketchup was the perfect post-pub absorbent snack before falling into bed. Bacon and chive flavours were my favourites.
Debby Keir 1 year ago
Cheap mashed potato goes well with grated cheese and fried onions. Used to have it as a 'camping' meal.
Norm Gilmore 1 year ago
I've read of people hating the taste of instant potato but I've always loved it! Instant gravy mix to pour over a bowl of it. Yum.
#36
How did you jazz it up? My MiL loves with us and observes Lent, so as a non “fish” lover, I’m struggling to move beyond salmon lol. (I do, oddly enough like tuna… I know it’s weird) And Potato soup is my favorite struggle meal. My mom’s was just butter, water, onion and potatoes. I add some cream, celery and carrots if I have them. And if I don’t, it’s still super tasty. And one of my favorite meals period.
Lem Johnson 1 year ago
Wait since when is it weird to like Tuna, it's like the second most consumed fish on Earth after Salmon???
Auntriarch 1 year ago (edited)
I think OP might mean that they are weird not to like fish. Its open to interpretation though
Load More Replies... What do you think ?
Thee8thsense 1 year ago
Many years ago, following the violent end to a seven year relationship, I found myself penniless because the ex stole everything from me. I would have been completely homeless but a friend allowed me to stay in a tiny trailer he was keeping in a storage yard. I was so hungry, and my friend had left town for two weeks. I was so weak with hunger and heartache, I could only lay in the trailer, pretty much resigned to starving to death until I remembered a box of cake mix in the trailer. For one week I ate a little dry cake mix every day. The greatest part of this experience? The cake mix was Angel Food. I kid you not. I had the strength to approach another homeless person, living in a storage unit across the street from my locale, to ask him if he could spare a bagel. I had heard an early morning delivery driver at a market next to the storage give him day old bagels, so decided to ask for one.He pulled a bag out that was stuffed w/ bagels and almost as tall as I am! He shared. A kind man
talliloo 1 year ago
mom had to raise 3 kids on two job b/c dad didn't pay support in cash but would drop off a case of this and that from time to time. once it was a case of tuna. tuna for dinner; tuna sandwiches for lunch. once had a field trip & told mom to skip my lunch b/c i didn't want to eat a stinky tuna sandwich on the bus. woke up to a chicken salad sandwich in my sack. turns out mom drained & rinsed the tuna, added chicken bouillon, celery & spices. tasted delish! mom was great and i miss her so much but love sharing her stories.
Candice Dewar 1 year ago
This literally came from Buzzfeed, do you guys just trade your articles back and forth?
Jeremy James 1 year ago
My poor food when I was 18 was a pack of tortillas and a can of refried beans from the Dollar Store with Tapatío. If I was really struggling, ketchup packets in hot water for "poor man's tomato soup." Once a month, I would treat myself to a Subway sandwich.
Dawn Bodtke 1 year ago
Scalloped potatoes and ham on a good week, with hot dogs on a medium week, and no meat on a low budget week.
Kat Waterflame 1 year ago
My "poverty meal" from childhood: Spaghetti-Os, cold, right out of the can.
B.Nelson 1 year ago
When my dad was unemployed and my mom was working, he would make us toasted tuna fish sandwiches. He would mix the tuna with mayo, spread it thinly on bread, and add thin pickle slices. Then, he would toast it in the oven. I still remember that strangely delicious smell. Also, I agree with the mac' n cheese with hot dogs. Another one is Polish sausage that is diced and sauteed with egg noodles and tomato sauce.
Sweet Fanny Adams 1 year ago
My favourite cheap meal is beans on toast with baked beans on top.
Thee8thsense 1 year ago
Many years ago, following the violent end to a seven year relationship, I found myself penniless because the ex stole everything from me. I would have been completely homeless but a friend allowed me to stay in a tiny trailer he was keeping in a storage yard. I was so hungry, and my friend had left town for two weeks. I was so weak with hunger and heartache, I could only lay in the trailer, pretty much resigned to starving to death until I remembered a box of cake mix in the trailer. For one week I ate a little dry cake mix every day. The greatest part of this experience? The cake mix was Angel Food. I kid you not. I had the strength to approach another homeless person, living in a storage unit across the street from my locale, to ask him if he could spare a bagel. I had heard an early morning delivery driver at a market next to the storage give him day old bagels, so decided to ask for one.He pulled a bag out that was stuffed w/ bagels and almost as tall as I am! He shared. A kind man
talliloo 1 year ago
mom had to raise 3 kids on two job b/c dad didn't pay support in cash but would drop off a case of this and that from time to time. once it was a case of tuna. tuna for dinner; tuna sandwiches for lunch. once had a field trip & told mom to skip my lunch b/c i didn't want to eat a stinky tuna sandwich on the bus. woke up to a chicken salad sandwich in my sack. turns out mom drained & rinsed the tuna, added chicken bouillon, celery & spices. tasted delish! mom was great and i miss her so much but love sharing her stories.
Candice Dewar 1 year ago
This literally came from Buzzfeed, do you guys just trade your articles back and forth?
Jeremy James 1 year ago
My poor food when I was 18 was a pack of tortillas and a can of refried beans from the Dollar Store with Tapatío. If I was really struggling, ketchup packets in hot water for "poor man's tomato soup." Once a month, I would treat myself to a Subway sandwich.
Dawn Bodtke 1 year ago
Scalloped potatoes and ham on a good week, with hot dogs on a medium week, and no meat on a low budget week.
Kat Waterflame 1 year ago
My "poverty meal" from childhood: Spaghetti-Os, cold, right out of the can.
B.Nelson 1 year ago
When my dad was unemployed and my mom was working, he would make us toasted tuna fish sandwiches. He would mix the tuna with mayo, spread it thinly on bread, and add thin pickle slices. Then, he would toast it in the oven. I still remember that strangely delicious smell. Also, I agree with the mac' n cheese with hot dogs. Another one is Polish sausage that is diced and sauteed with egg noodles and tomato sauce.
Sweet Fanny Adams 1 year ago
My favourite cheap meal is beans on toast with baked beans on top.
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