pasta or carrots? please help
AmNestor
Posts: 41 Member
Not sure if I1m posting in the right thread but here goes!
I have a problem, I am so gosh darn broke right now I only have about £2- £3 or less to spend on food a week, and I am so clueless about this stuff so i don’t know whats best: (BOTH ARE OBVIOUSLY HORRIBLE AND BAD FOR MY BODY)
Should i get a bunch of pasta (20p per pack) and be able to actually reach my calorie goal?
Or should I get a bunch of carrots (47p per kilo) and end up only eating like 300 calories a day but at least get some nutrition?
I realize this might be the stupidest question anyone has ever seen on here but i feel so helpless and I cant find any good answers online.
I’m also obviously hoping this is super temporary and I’ll be back to eating loads of fruits and veg and MEATS pretty soon! and cakes. sometimes.
And yes, I am very very aware that eating only pasta, or only 300 calories is super unhealthy, I just have no other choice right now
I have a problem, I am so gosh darn broke right now I only have about £2- £3 or less to spend on food a week, and I am so clueless about this stuff so i don’t know whats best: (BOTH ARE OBVIOUSLY HORRIBLE AND BAD FOR MY BODY)
Should i get a bunch of pasta (20p per pack) and be able to actually reach my calorie goal?
Or should I get a bunch of carrots (47p per kilo) and end up only eating like 300 calories a day but at least get some nutrition?
I realize this might be the stupidest question anyone has ever seen on here but i feel so helpless and I cant find any good answers online.
I’m also obviously hoping this is super temporary and I’ll be back to eating loads of fruits and veg and MEATS pretty soon! and cakes. sometimes.
And yes, I am very very aware that eating only pasta, or only 300 calories is super unhealthy, I just have no other choice right now
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Replies
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I am so sorry you are going through this. I would get the pasta, personally - the immediate thing is having enough calories to get through the day. Any chance there's a food bank in your area that you can pick up some canned veg from?14
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pasta and beans, you can get enough to last a week with £3.
also, look into food banks in your area.11 -
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tesco value beans - 25p a can
tesco value rice - 45p a kg
tesco value rice pudding 30p a can
500g spaghetti 50p
Look in to the value ranges, you do get some decent calories for a decent price ... and I am sure you can do cheaper7 -
Hon, I second pasta w beans or legumes and you can do this w or without tomato sauce. I make pasta almost everyday for a family of men, so you can change it up continually. Pasta w tunafish, pasta with zucchini, pasta w onion sauce, pasta w lentils, pasta w chickpeas, pasta w butter and parmigiano cheese (my husband's all time favorite), and the list goes on... You can stretch out your veggies, and fish or meat. With rice, you can do the same. I do so hope this is temporary for you, but learning to cook on a low budget is a usefull life skill. It will see you well in the future. We aren't hard up but I watch my food budget closely because that is where you can waste alot of money.3
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How long will you be in this situation? Don't you have any foods stashed away? Can you get money somewhere, sell something, or get free foods or meals?
Do NOT buy just one thing. Buy some different things that can make up a subsistence diet for a short while. Alternate what you buy from week to week. Over time, you need a well rounded diet, and calories trumps vitamins. You can go without food for a few days, so don't panic, but don't view that as an alternative.
This is not a time to try new things (speaking from experience). Buy foods you know you like, and plan to eat up everything. Accept unusual meals, don't expect great taste. Pick the absolutely cheapest edible item available in every category.7 -
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Surely the person who bought you the lacey pants would be able to help you out with food?12
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Canned veg will be cheaper than fresh, so you could get some pasta and some canned carrots, or peas, or whatever you like. They also won't go off so you won't waste anything. If you haven't got any salt or pepper, you can nab some for free from fast food places like KFC. It's a bit cheeky, but needs must!3
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Why are both bad for you? Why do you think that?5
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Thanks for all the tips u guys! I didn't even think about a food bank, so I'm lookin into that right now!livingleanlivingclean wrote: »Surely the person who bought you the lacey pants would be able to help you out with food?kommodevaran wrote: »How long will you be in this situation? Don't you have any foods stashed away? Can you get money somewhere, sell something, or get free foods or meals?Why are both bad for you? Why do you think that?
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Do you have anyone who can help you out? Family, friends, neighbours? Search for your local food-bank or sikh temple as they will often have something for you (I live in an area with a large sikh population and the local temple are simply wonderful, they will feed anyone who needs it you just have to turn up!). If these are not options for you then go with the pasta and some tinned veg to get some nutrients in (as others have said already).1
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Thanks for all the tips u guys! I didn't even think about a food bank, so I'm lookin into that right now!livingleanlivingclean wrote: »Surely the person who bought you the lacey pants would be able to help you out with food?kommodevaran wrote: »How long will you be in this situation? Don't you have any foods stashed away? Can you get money somewhere, sell something, or get free foods or meals?Why are both bad for you? Why do you think that?
pasta doesn't have bad macros actually, not sure where you're getting that from?3 -
TavistockToad wrote: »pasta doesn't have bad macros actually, not sure where you're getting that from?
all my food knowledge is from google and common sense / guessing, so i must be totally off on the pasta. Which is great news! More pasta yay!1 -
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Eating enough to me would be more important than perfect nutrition.
Here I can get things like store brand pasta, rice, a bag of frozen vegetables, whole carrots, cabbage, dry beans or lentils, oatmeal for super cheap. I would buy a bag of dry beans or lentils and maybe some rice or pasta
https://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/eat4cheap/Pages/cheap-food-shopping.aspx
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/5-best-budget-food-bloggers-58969670 -
You can get a bag of brown rice, and a bag of beans for like $2-3 USD, and a can or two of veggies or tomatoes if you find them on sale for 1-2USD each. You can get boxed mac n cheese for around .50 a box, and a package of hot dogs for about 1.50. Pasta is also super cheap. I'm not sure of the conversion rate, but these are my go to items if money is tight. You can make several meals out of a bag of rice and beans, or macaroni and hot dogs to get you through the week. Is it the "healthiest" thing on the planet? Not really. But with the rice and beans you are at least getting carbs, protein, and fiber from your meal. With the mac n cheese with hot dogs, or a can of chili it's a tasty and filling meal. Do you have flour and salt on hand? If you do, you have the means to make home made pasta and can put your money to other things. Or if you're just plain out of money, home made pasta, some oil and seasonings is better than going hungry. You can really stretch out our meals by making soups and stew. Mulligan Stew was a favorite growing up, and it's basically throw whatever beans, rice, veggies, and protein you have on hand into a big pot with water and cook it up. I'm not even sure there's a proper recipe as it's one of those scrounge up whatever is in the pantry and call it soup kind of meals. Hope this doesn't last too long! Best of luck!1
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Beans, rice, lentils, frozen and canned vegetables, some basic seasoning for broth (you'd be surprised about how many ways cheap ingredients can be combined in a soup!). If you cannot afford an animal protein, the eggs, beans and lentils should really help bulk your diet out.
Basically look for things that last a lost time. Many of time will be a little time intensive (like soaking beans) but well worth the effort.
Frozen veg is cheaper than fresh, lasts a long time, and doesn't sacrifice on nutrition.
LARGE cans of tomatoes are cheap and can be simmered with rice, quinoa, other veg, beans, meats, tofu, etc. to make REALLY hearty stews, or combined with cheap pasta to make.... pasta!
I think that seasonings will be your friend. It might seem excessive to spend money on soy sauce, etc. but it can really give new life to the same old, boring ingredients.
TL;DR:
- rice
- beans
- polenta
- pasta
- frozen veg
- canned tomatoes
- beans
- lentils
- small selection of spices (highly recommend garlic powder, cayenne, Italian seasoning, lemon pepper seasoning)
- oil (biggest bang for your buck in terms of dollars per calories)
- transformable ingredients (like flour to bake, make bread, thicken stews, make pasta)
Bulk buy whenever possible. It might take you a couple of weeks to be able to gather ALL of the above BUT Costco/sam's sized bags of the above will set you up for months. (this can be accomplished by selling something on Craigslist or picking up a quick hustle job like spinning a sign for a couple of hours and using that extra money toward a bulk size of flour for bread or a large bag of frozen veg)
This also really depends on where you live. Food is relatively cheap in Texas. I have been eating a LOT of eggs mixed with zucchinis/mushrooms and rice noodles.
ETA: to make bread, you need flour, salt, water, and yeast. Yeast is VERY cheap, so is flour. Home made bread and some cheap butter/margarine can REALLY hit the spot.
ETA2: this is a bigger budget than yours but there was a lot of good discussion on this thread (my answer is copied from my answer there): http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10635985/25-weekly-food-budget/p1
ETA3: please look into a food bank2 -
If TO has so little money then I also suggest also not talking about recipes that require a lot of electricity to cook. Baking bread costs a lot of electricity, and if you've never done it and don't know how well your oven works for it it might as well spoil the ingredients.2
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Good luck with the job search and getting back on your feet financially.
I second the suggestions here that eating enough calories should be the priority - and there are certainly economical ways to do that without resorting in only pasta, or only carrots. Many suggestions have been given above.
Are there no soup kitchens, food banks, or food stamp programs you can rely on?
Once you get over this rough patch though - you really need to re-educate yourself on your overall understanding of foods/nutriton. Neither pasta nor carrots are "OBVIOUSLY HORRIBLE AND BAD FOR MY BODY". Why would they be? Google and common sense really aren't helping you out here if that's the conclusion they've lead you to.
There is no "BAD" food, anything can be part of a balanced, nutrient dense, calorie appropriate diet.
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Also, OP don't think that the food bank is going to provide you nothing but junk food, because that is simply not true. You can even get fresh fruits and veggies from some programs. Even if you do get some junk food, it's still better then going hungry. You can still track your calories here and stay at goal if you're worried about it.6
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I'd personally spend the money on dried beans and rice. Soak your beans overnight before cooking to shorten the cooking time, and let them simmer on a weekend or in the evening when you're home. If you happen to have a slow cooker, it will be even easier to cook the beans. Make a big batch that you can keep in the fridge or freezer and munch on all week.
If I had money left over after buying the beans and rice, I would spend it on either canned or frozen veggies, which are often cheaper than fresh and won't spoil, or the cheapest fresh veggies you can get.
This isn't a perfectly well-balanced diet by any means, but it's more nutritionally balanced than surviving on just pasta, carrots, or apples.5 -
I'd personally spend the money on dried beans and rice. Soak your beans overnight before cooking to shorten the cooking time, and let them simmer on a weekend or in the evening when you're home. If you happen to have a slow cooker, it will be even easier to cook the beans. Make a big batch that you can keep in the fridge or freezer and munch on all week.
If I had money left over after buying the beans and rice, I would spend it on either frozen veggies, which are often cheaper than fresh and won't spoil, or the cheapest fresh veggies you can get.
This isn't a perfectly well-balanced diet by any means, but it's more nutritionally balanced than surviving on just pasta, carrots, or apples.
This is exactly what I would do. Dried beans, rice, and a bag of frozen vegetables. OP, if you have Family Tree/Family Dollar in your area that has groceries, this is where I have seen the cheapest prices for these items (not sure where you live).4 -
I haven’t seen potatoes mentioned. Potatoes have a surprising amount of vitamins. How expensive are they where you are?6
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There’s no shame in going to a food bank! Abot 5 years ago when I was first starting out on my own I had to stop in at the food bank a few times. They provided a good bit of nutritional food, meat, canned vegetables, rice and beans. They threw in some different breads and snacks too but it wasn’t all bad food. I’m a huge budgeter now and shop at stores like Aldi and Lidl for most of my groceries. There’s a bunch of youtubers that make videos on how to eat off of $5 or $10 a week, I definitely recommend you check some out. Good luck!2
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TavistockToad wrote: »pasta and beans, you can get enough to last a week with £3.
also, look into food banks in your area.
This! If you can only get one, get beans. Unless you just really can not stand the taste of beans or you have some type of allergy/intolerance to then dried beans are like going to be the most nutritious bang for your buck.2 -
Oh! I forgot to mention that oatmeal would be a good food to buy. You can get a huge container with 30 servings for about $2. And a big container of dry roasted unsalted peanuts for around $1.50 with around 16, 1 oz servings. Or you could get a cheap loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter for about $3 together. Just some other options for you. Like everyone’s said already though, dry beans are your ultimate bet. You’re going to need some protein and you can get it from the beans or lentils. I’ve seen the Jenny Os turkey hotdogs at bilo for $0.99 too. Even eggs would be good, I get the 18 count of eggs for about $1.30 or so.1
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I know this sounds horrible, but when I couldn't afford to eat, I used to go with a friend to happy hours that offered free food (i.e., chicken wings, nacho bar, bread, vegetables, etc).
They would buy themselves a drink (and sometimes me), I would get a water and use the snack bar as dinner. Not suggesting this as a solution for life as the other posters have offered some great advice (lentils, beans, food bank, etc.) just an idea to help through difficult times. A lot of us have been there.9 -
OP, I have been where you are. It is difficult when you are worried about keeping up on everything. Others have made some great suggestions, with the food bank, and finding some inexpensive items that can be versatile and providing both calories and nutrition. I'm not sure if you do much cooking, but I have several go to meals when I have few supplies in the house. Of course, some of this will depend on what you have, and what you can get at the food bank.
Pasta with homemade sauce: add can of crushed tomatoes, variety of spices, beans, and frozen vegetables. This can make 5-8 meals, depending on how big you set the meals.
Rice with beans or lentils: add some frozen vegetables, variety of spices, and if you have some - salsa. Again this can make 5-8 meals.
For breakfast, I found a large container of steel cut oats that will last for several weeks.
Most importantly, remember that this is temporary, and you can do it.
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Unless lentils and rice make me sick.... And not being in that situation today, but having been in the neighborhood growing up. IF you gotta eat you gotta eat. Ramen, hot dogs, and canned green beans/frozen broccoli isn't fancy, but it's relatively filling and close enough to complete macros. High sodium, but water is free. When you gotta eat you gotta eat if that means being honest enough to ask/beg for help.... do what you need, and hold your head high.
[edited by mods]2
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