It’s the end of the month and here is what could be an uncomfortable conversation with your family: Zero money in the food budget-what to do next?
Here’s what happens: creativity, improvisation and community. This post focuses on what happens if you run out of money in the food budget and creative ways to make do. Please add your ideas to the stew in the comments.
Did your family do any of these things?
- Buy groceries on a credit card
- Scrounge around in the freezer, fridge and cupboards to see if you can make a casserole with what is on hand-even if it is with something unfamiliar
- Make “stone” soup
- Throw a potluck with your neighbors
- Get invited over to someone else’s house
- Eat instant noodles or peanut butter sandwiches until payday
- Create one meatless dinner night (or more?)
- Have “breakfast for dinner”
- Search for all of your restaurant coupons, eat out, then box up half of dinner for lunch the next day?
- Skip meals
- Skip the coffee shop and buy Folgers instead (number one coffee brand in America)
- Cruise the local big box grocery at free sample time
- Join the local grocery online club to get preferred pricing or free items
- Use a federal or state government program such as SNAP
- Transfer funds from another account to cover food until payday
Do you have any childhood memories like these? Did your family make it more of a game? If there was scarcity of some kind, how was it handled by your family?
Please leave your stories in the Comments.
English: A brick of Instant noodles as they are commonly available in Europe. Deutsch: Ein Block Fertignudeln (Photo credit: Wikipedi
No Dollar Left Behind 