You have $10 and you have to survive an entire week. What food do you buy for that $10?
Or your countries equivalent of $10 USD.
8 years ago by funhonestdude
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36 comments
Or your countries equivalent of $10 USD.
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An easy one for the Southern folk on the site. Beans and Rice are good, filling, and provide a complete protein, providing all the amino acids the body cannot make for itself.
Best of all? They're cheap. Like, seriously cheap. Get a bag of each. If you have any cash left over, pick up some hot sauce since it's pretty plain.
edit: while i'm not exactly a survivalist, I do have 50 pound bags of beans, rice, and salt along with several gallons of water stored in the garage. If something did happen, I'd be self-sufficient for a month. Two, if I didn't like my wife that much.
There is no better answer. Great carbs, great protein source. You can't get better than that. I'd also suggest lentils as they also are incredibly nutritious, incredibly cheap, and mix well with beans and rice.
I went through a rough financial time in my life where this was my regular meal. Once in a while if I was feeling "spendy" I would throw an egg in there too. My favorite trick to combat the plainness of the rice was to mix a bit of dry soup mix in to the water when you cook it - you can get it at bulk food stores for next to nothing. Add a dash of salt and you're good to go!
Good call. lentils are a superb food as well. You can even mash them up, fry them into fritters, and do all sorts of other stuff with them. Beans, rice, lentils, and some hot sauce and you'll be set for a solid week of good food choices.
Rice and beans was my first thought as well. If there was still some money leftover I would get pork skin so I can cut it into tiny squares and fry them up until golden brown, crunchy and full of flavour. Hot sauce and some other spices (salt,pepper,paprika) would be good, but those can be purchased from the bulk bins for almost nothing. I would also think about throwing in some corn and other veggies if the budget permits, there are many places that sell ugly/ripe veggies for pennies on the dollar. Final goal for me would be to make a large pot of this which should last me a week.
Re: Pork Skin. We got an asian market (T&T) a stone's throw away here. There is always plenty of cheap organ meat and other things that can be used for cooking soups, and other things that most people just don't know about or are disgusted by. If I can say anything about real Asian cuisine is that they really get the most bang for their buck.
I bet they do. Being a southerner I grew up on pork skins (rinds).
That sounds good any day of the week.
Beans and Quinoa, I already practically live on this stuff anyway.
Your comment made me imagine a post-apocalyptic movie starring Rodney Dangerfield, and for that, I thank you.
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Whatever a trip to the candy store will get me. I'll make it through the entire week on a sugar high.
Lentils, potatoes, and rice
I'm really good at this one– bananas, beans, broccoli, 1 stick of butter, rice/lentils and some kind of stock/broth.
cool link
Hmmm I'd limit myself to the dollar store I guess
Pick up 2 small bags of rice - $2 a pack of salt and pepper $1 Three cans of tomato paste $1 lemon juice - $1 1 bag of pasta - $1 1 container of oil - $1 3 spices - Oregano. paprika and chili powder $2 bag of dehydrated vegitables (technically for soup) $1
Sounds pretty meager but you can live off it. Gotta stick to what feeds you.
for something more interesting this is where my skillset would come in handy ;)
Then i'd walk to the woods
Gather morels and other delicious fungi
Find a field
gather clover, wild mint, dandelion, nettle, sumac (not poison sumac the edible kind), wild blue berries or other wild fruits.
Goto the traintracks and gather raspberries. They grow along them here.
Find a pond
grab a few lilly tubers and cattails
Goto the river and fish.
Now I have the ingredients to eat like a king ;)
I don't need to buy food, I'll just filter feed.
I've done this one. You have several options:
1) Ziploc bags (you're going to need the large ones) 2) Most people have a knapsack, but if you don't, there are places where you can get a cheap one or a tote bag for a few dollars. 3) one coat hanger
Okay, with whatever money you have left hit the happy hour at the most high end bar you know, one that serves food with happy hour. Buy the cheapest drink and then help yourself to plates and plates of free food. When you get back to the table, dump the food in the Ziploc bags until you have enough for the week. It's going to be mostly the same stuff, but some bars really put out a spread. Put it in your knapsack or totebag and slip out during the drunken revelry. Make sure you're full when you leave.
The coat hanger is the back up plan. In case you run out of food or don't have enough, find an unguarded vending machine. No cameras. Hotels usually have these. Anyhow, unspool the coat hanger, feed it up through the drop slot, rake it across the snacks to knock them down, grab the booty and take off for the next vending machine.
And that should easily get you through the week, assuming you have access to a fridge. This is what I'd advised a friend to do at college when he stayed for a week during a break and only had $5.
Peanut Butter,bread and butter.
One bottle of cheap wine. Water is free, and it is only a week.
I love peanut butter and bread, if not that than the obvious choice though not very nutritional is Ramen......
I actually still love it.
Spaghetti, tomato sauce, and some romano cheese
I used to have a grocery budget of $10/week. It was a while ago, though, and I could get ground beef for $.99/lb. My go-to was potato buns, ground beef, barbecue sauce, and white rice.
Nowadays, I'd probably try to get some chicken breasts instead of the burgers.
$0.99/lb? When/where was this?
At the Sappington Farmers' Market in Missouri
Vegetables, and either a can or fish or a chicken.
off the value menu at mcdonalds
Chicken, noodles, and some powdered spices. I can make a soup that will last the whole week. The water will be great at filling up, the chicken will protein you, and the noodles have the carbs.
Huge bag o rice and whatever is in the sale shelf last thing at night for ridiculously cheaptastic
Bulk buy Haddock or Mackerel and Potatoes
2kg Haddock and 5kg Potatoes for under £10
Sweet potatoes, the perfect food! http://www.prevention.com/health/diabetes/dr-weil-why-sweet-potato-king
This was on Voat.co like a week ago. Answer is beans and rice.
However, if you are clever, you can also make a large batch of broth/soup on the cheap, buying cheap meat (it will all fall apart in the broth/soup, so bones and fat aren't an issue) and stock flavour is fairly cheap. Chicken wings are a good idea, as they have plenty of flavour and meat for the cheap price. Any fat will settle on the top and is easily scooped off. Bones are easily picked out when serving. Any meat with bones still in them are cheaper than the cuts, so this can be done with beef, pork, lamb etc. Vegetables added would be potato, carrot, celery, etc.
Cooked right, this can be enough for 2 weeks. However, this recipe does take a day to make, mainly to allow it to settle and for the meat to become soft enough to fall off the bones. If anyone is curious, I can type it up, as this is a good alternative to the usual rice answer.
If it's only one week that you have to do this, you technically don't even need food. Especially if you are me and have a garden full of food as well as a pantry full of food.
I would probably buy $10 worth of sausage to add to meals.