[UrthWurm]

So I've found myself in a bit of a jam. I have exactly $25, and an empty refrigerator. My paycheck is going to be a bit late, and I need to make that money last for two weeks. I have a few cans of beans, a big bag of oatmeal, and a freezer full of soup. The soup will last us a little while, but I've already been eating it all day, and it has gotten real old real quick. I think I might puke if I have to eat soup for every meal except breakfast (I eat 5 or 6 times a day). I need to strategize before I hit the grocery store, or else I know I'll blow the money quicker than I could wink. I would appreciate any ideas for cheap, bulky meals, ASAP!

Please and thanks,
Kimberley

PS: I'm vegetarian.

[Hyacinth]

Dried beans and lentils sounds like the way to go!

Here's what I'd do:

See if you can get some garden goods from someone's garden.

Ask each of your family members/friends to have you over for dinner one night in the next few weeks, and then reciprocate after you get paid.

Do you have a variety of staples? You could make an oatmeal bread.

If you do have a few staples in your house, go on supercook.com and plug in to get some recipes out of what you have on hand.

[Hyacinth]

Looks like this thread never took off ... if you do a search, you can find many other threads about thrifty healthy shopping tips.

[UrthWurm]

Thank you for the advice. It really helped!

[meelsie]

What a shame- this looked like it would be a great thread! I love the suggestion about having dinner parties and paying back the favour. I was going to suggest buying some frozen spinach and making stews with beans to pad it out and fill you up...
I'm currently in very much the same situation- i'm a poor traveller, having just moved to London from Australia and would love some cheap, filling, healthy recipe ideas.

I believe falafel is pretty inexpensive to make?

[lunameower]

Yeah, I really liked the idea this thread as well, but I can give a suggestion or two. I think that a lot of people out there think that Whole Foods is an expensive grocery store, but I swear by their bulk food bins. I'm on a pretty tight budget myself, so I really search for the deals. I'm not sure that all of the stores have the same inventory, of course, but I assume that they are at least similar. The lentils and quinoa are great price and go a long way. They also have a dried bean mix that I use for soups, it's about $5.99 a pound, when I buy half a pound and mix it with wild rice at about $4.00 a pound it lasts me for quite awhile. I guess that I gave a lot of soup suggestions, but if you don't get sick of soup these are pretty economical choices.
I hope that more people will respond to this, I'm sure that a lot of us are trying to eat well and stick to a budget, it's not always easy, so we need to help each other out in that area as well.