Last time I checked, corn flakes weren’t that cheap. My go to is still rice.
Rice + lentils is the ultimate poverty lifehack. A well-stocked spice drawer (expensive, but lasts a long time) plus those two ingredients can provide like 80% of your food indefinitely. Don’t waste your time or money on ramen
Don’t waste time on ramen? Ramen is a good base. Toss in some fresh veg, boiled egg, maybe a bit of meat or tofu.
Pretty quick and easy.
Though, I’m not talking about the maruchan stuff. Even the cheapest Asian ramen gonna be better than that.
You could also put those things in rice instead for much cheaper calorie/dollar. But it can be good to switch it up for sure
Frozen dumplings. Just throw them in at the start, and by the time it reaches a boil, they’re ready to eat
Edit - I’ll use the cheap maruchan stuff as the noodles for a stir fry in a pinch. Definitely takes a bit more cooking effort than boiling a pot of water though
Quality instant ramen is pretty delicious, but it’s not that cheap or healthy
Get an appropriately sized rice cooker, it’s a super easy and cheap staple food that’s endlessly versatile.
Want Mexican food? Fry up some beans, veg, and/or eggs with cumin or taco seasoning and you’ve got a burrito bowl. Want fried rice? Toss it in too and season it. Want a simple breakfast meal? Fry an egg sunny side up and toss it on top. Feeling lazy or putting off a grocery store run? Pack it together and you get onigiri
You can even turn it into porridge (I’ve never tried it, my friend said it’s good)
(Sponsored by The Rice Gang🍚)
If you have an Asian, Mexican, or Indian market where you live, you can usually find spices in bigger packs for lower prices.
Hell, if you live in/near a city that can support at least one east asian/indian/middle eastern store, you often can get a lot of whole spices for cheap. Couple months ago I bought ~5 pounds of various spices for 45 dollars. Then I get the super basics in big containers from big box places. Indian store - 8oz of green cardamom pods is $3.40, black is 4.00, star anise is 4.00, etc. The most expensive one I regularly get is like 1.25 an oz. but, usually, expensive ones are potent and you only need a little at a time. Then I can get, I think its 20oz, containers of things like garlic powder for 8 dollars at walshart.
By ramen do you mean just regular pasta? Cause I’m not familiar with ramen so I had to Google it and you can’t possibly be talking about the ramen I saw there.
Cheap instant ramen, not the nice bowls of ramen.
The stuff that’s $.25 per package.
This is what I was talking about. $0.25 per package but no nutritional value and full of sodium. It can be dressed up pretty easy or be a cheap meal in a pinch, but it shouldn’t be eaten every day like some (college) kids recommend.
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There’s the chubbyemu video on ramen
Oh, ok, that makes sense. Those bowls of ramen sure don’t look cheap.
Most of the nice ramen are just the packaging and maybe some freeze dried veg. Get the cheap stuff. You can cut the seasoning packet down if you want to reduce sodium and add diy ingredients to make a far better bowl. egg for protein- carrots, mushrooms, spinach etc for variety. It’s a good quick source of carbs and can be very diverse as far as a meal goes.
I’ve had several fancy ramen packs that were around $7 vs the usual $0.25. I agree they are not worth the price difference if you’re looking for value.
That said, most of them are much better than the cheap ramen packs. They’re worth trying some other time when calories per dollar is not the priority.
The YouTube channel That Dude Can Cook has videos showing other things you can pre-make to add to cheap ramen if time is not an issue. His noodles look way better than anything that just comes from a ramen pack.
Spices are expensive, but very easy to shoplift because they are so small.
It REALLY depends on where/how you get them. The tiny McCormick bottles are a ridiculous scam, charging like $6 for a thimbleful. Meanwhile, a lot of health food stores, if you just bring a mid-sized jar (just clean out an old pasta jar or something) you can put a bunch of spice in it for maybe $3 or less.
Nah Ramen is awesome when used correctly (as an addition, not as a sole source). Rice is better though, healthier too.
… lentils? 80%? What are you smoking
Lentils are great dude. I meant 80% of your food volume, not 80% of your meals, which I do acknowledge is pretty arbitrary
If we’re talking breakfast: 2 eggs, 1/4 cup egg whites, 2 oz breakfast sausage and a dollop of heavy cream.
Brown sausage over medium heat with a bit of oil or butter. Whip eggs, whites and cream together and add to pan with browned sausage. Finish with shredded mild cheddar cheese (optional). If you get it in a block it’s cheaper and melts better.
This comes out to around $2 a meal and nets 54 grams of protein if consumed with a glass of milk.
If you’re into Kombucha or Kefir, drink a glass 30-45 minutes after a meal like this. No, scratch that. I forgot probiotics feed on carbs, so if you’re a rice eater or cereal for that matter – take your probiotics, preferably from food or beverage, after a carb heavy meal.
Look at fancy ass over here! 2 boiled eggs, 1 banana.
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I wish I liked boiled eggs, they’re a great source of protein. I used to work demolition with a guy that popped them like Pringles.
Did he work demo so no one was sure if it was explosions or his farts?
Not just protein, also tons of vitamins and healthy unsaturated fats. They have to feed a chick for 21 days before it hatches, so it’s only natural that they are rich in nutrients
Salt, my friend.
Just eat cookies. Fat, sugar and flour with an egg or two. Cheap and delicious with a shitload of calories.
And rice is delicious! I like sticky sushi rice myself. Throw some chicken on there and you’ve got a meal!
lol that is some bougie rice… I usually get whatever long grain rice that comes in those 20lb bags for under $7. $1+ per LB is a no go.
Jasmine rice is worth the extra cash, bro
The green Knorr’s flavored rice packs are only $1.25. Makes enough for 2 days.
Rice is also expensive. My go to is bread and butter/margarine.
Dude, a 20lb bag is like $17. I use that shit in so many dinners and I still haven’t opened the 2nd bag. Makes any dinner with veggies and meat feel like a feast.
I live in Europe: rice, beans, lentils, meat and vegetables are way too expensive here. Eggs were okay until the pandemic hit and prices went up. Now they’ve come down a little and I can afford them again. That and cheese is my stock now. Pasta is okay, but I can’t eat much of it every day because it really fattens me up.
I’m in Portugal.
A quick search shows most beans, dry, to be about €2/Kg - $2.17/Kg at todays’s USDEUR cross-currency rate - in 500g bags from the supermarket (which is about the most expensive way to get them if dry as bigger bags and different sources are cheaper). That stuff doubles or triples in size when you cook it, so one such bag is 5 - 10 individual meals if you eat nothing else (which I don’t recommend, though it would still be a lot healthier than just rice or pasta because beans actually have a much wider variety of nutrients that the other ones).
(Granted, searching for the same thing in the site of Albert Hijn in The Netherlands shows them to be twice as expensive and less common there, though checking Morrisons in the UK shows them mainly cheaper than NL but more expensive than PT, though some are cheaper than what I saw in my searches of PT supermarkets)
More in general, for maximum savings and if you’re in Europe (specifically the EU), you can order them via the internet in large quantities from some other country as easilly as from your own, especially since dry beans are absolutelly fine for shipping as they have really good weight to nutrition ratio, won’t spoil and require very little packaging and no special protection for shipping. Whilst Portugal is big on beans and chickpeas, some countries favour other pulses such as lentils.
However you should get a pressure cooker if you’re going to be using dry beans as they take a lot longer to cook otherwise so gas/power costs are about 3x higher if you cook them in a normal pan.
I don’t have to worry about foodprices nowadays but if I was going for maximum savings in it whilst not risking my health too much it would be relying heavilly on pulses in general (so beans, chickpeas, lentils and so on).
Name brand cereal has gotten so expensive. I swapped to store brands and haven’t noticed a huge difference. Probably better to stop eating cereal in general.
It’s all the same dumb shit. There’s like 3 factories that make all the shit.
I can tell the difference in name brand cereal and HEB or malt-o-meals, but its all just carbs and sugar. So i dont need the highest quality frosted flakes or w/e.
Not wrong, way too much sugar in it for it to be good for anyone’s consumption
Price difference has always been huge as far as I remember. I don’t think I even have bought anything from Kellogg’s myself, cost always seemed too high.
If I ever eat this stuff I prefer muesli over regular cereal. For me it tastes better and in general it should be also healthier since it contains real oats, nuts, dried fruit, sugar amount is not as high. That said I often take the one with chocolate pieces :)
I was just at the store today, and overheard some kids asking when cereal got so expensive.
It illustrated just how rapidly they increased the prices.
No fucking way did this dude just say the 21st century verion of “Let them eat cake”
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I’m a Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA) fan, and unfortunately the team is owned by Dan Gilbert who also owns Rocket Mortgage. During every game, they run this Rocket Mortgage commercial that shows this schlub of a man bringing home three bags of groceries while the voiceover says how it used to be six bags of groceries for the same price. Then his house starts talking to him, reminding him that he has equity in the house and thus can take out a second mortgage and use the money to pay for … groceries. Just a horrifying, dystopic nightmare with catchy music and an animated smiley house.
Ah, ol’ Dan “Rant in Comic Sans” Gilbert… he also owns like half of Detroit doesn’t he?
Yeah, which makes the “we’re not Detroit” part of the Cleveland meme-song even more enjoyable.
Let’s eat him, instead.
Like anybody reduced to eating cereal for dinner is buying fucking Kellogg’s when they can get the Aldi version for like a third of the price.
Thats Kelloggs too but without the name. You cant get rid of greedy Corporations because they are their own competitors after buying them.
Yeah but it’s still a third of the price
I don’t think that’s actually true for Kellogg’s, who made a big deal of advertising the fact that they don’t make cereal for other brands.
The Aldi ones are supposedly made by Malt-O-Meal.
I’m hearing an open invitation to guillotines!
Hurry up now, chop chop
Lots of free red meat!
I go out of my way to avoid giving that fascist family any of my money.
Fuck you you fucking fucks.
“My, my, my, someone sounds like they need a yogurt enema.” --John Harvey Kellogg’s ghost, probably
This was the real reason for the gogurt packaging.
15 quarts of water up the pooper will flush that cancer away
I guess we have to reinvent the guillotine, version 2024. History will talk about let them eat cornflakes. It’s so ridiculous because cornflakes here is more expensive than a loaf of bread.
Laser guillotine
This Kellogg’s?
We still don’t buy Kellogg’s over that, and now they’ve only provided more grist for the mill
I see what you did there.
Ayyyy someone hasn’t forgotten! I put in a handful of applications in when they were hiring scabs.
Fuck that. Oatmeal is way cheaper and more nutritious. If we’re going that way I’m not giving Kelloggs money.
You guys remember when a box of cereal cost $3?
Those were good times. You know…2021 or so.
Even at $3 it was a terrible deal for the quantity of food you actually get. Cereal has always been a ripoff, more about the marketing and added sugar than about being actual food
Costco saves you a little but not much. Its still like 8 bucks for two large bags.
Isn’t Costco really only worth it for people who can actually afford to buy in bulk? Most paycheck to paycheck people can’t buy 12 lb of cereal at a time.
and have the capacity. Even with two people in the house, it can be tough to finish off a costco size package of something parishable before it goes bad.
It depends on what you’re buying, and if you can use it before it goes bad. Cereal might be okay. It doesn’t really go bad before even a single person can finish it.
Things like mayo? It usually goes rancid unless you’re just spooning it into your mouth.
Canned goods, frozen goods, are all great buys that won’t go bad before you use them.
The bakery stuff is a great deal if they get used. (Those are for business types that put things out for meetings. Croissants, muffins, dinner rolls; the pies are for parties and stuffs.)
The rotisserie chicken is a loss leader, and the meat is great if you can freeze it.
The fresh produce is great if you’ll use it- which is why they usually put it behind the office furniture and stuff. It’s more for restaurants and kitchens; and “large” families.
You’ll notice that all the staples that are a good deal are generally in the back so you have to walk by all the stuff that isn’t. The furniture, the giant trampolines, the seasonal shit. The clothing.
Not everyone has that as an option, unfortunately.
2000ish you could put 10ish bucks in your car to nearly fill it, buy a meal from fast food for 5 more, and rent a movie with the change.
20 bucks.
Now? 30-40 for 10 gallons. 10-15 for the same fast food meal. (Which got smaller btw) 2-5 still for the movie at Redbox (I think?)
40 - 60 bucks or 100-200% inflation over ~20 years. Neat.
I have an addiction to chai lattes. The cheapest place (which also, thankfully, has the best chai lattes) still costs over $5.
Remember, cereal was first proposed as a cure for masturbation, so rub one out for freedom.
I’ve done it for far less noble causes. It’s just nice to be the good guy for once, you know?
3 freedoms so far today!
I love how Robert Evans stated that he wished John Kellogg could see how the future turned up with Redtube available to everyone.
Welcome to the Monkey House.
As were Graham’s Crackers, my dear boy
If I had to eat corn flakes for every meal, it would work the way John Kellogg intended. I wouldn’t have the strength to jerk off. I would be too damn depressed.
This is why we proles need to stick together
What a piece of shit CEO. I wish they people would feel unsafe saying this type of stuff to struggling people.
That’s where we come in. We can start with harsh words, but there’s a damn good reason so many are making allegories to the French Revolution. Times like this are to put the wealthy on notice, that they too may fear finding themselves staring up from the bottom of baskets to a crowd cheering the waterfalls of blood coming from their neck stumps.
