What is the worst thing you have done to eat when you were poor?

[Michie]

I had lost both parents by the time I was out of high school, say when I say I was out on my own and poor, I am not joking.


I did the date for a meal One guy I dated , real jerk,but he ate out every night at the same place and always asked me to go with him. Actually he had a thing for a waitress there and was trying to get her jealous, but hey, the food was good One time, one of many he dumped me, had not ate in maybe 3 days, called and asked if I wanted to go to a Christmas party Duh, yes, there would be food there. Stood me up

Worked at TG&Y, and some of the vendors would give me the expired snacks, nothing wrong with it.Or so they said The bread man would give me bread and the Fritolay guy would give me beandip, so would make a sandwich out of it. Still one of my favorite foods. If you worked Sundays, the TG&Y manager would bring in doughnuts, so always worked Sunday's and was the first one there after him Sometimes I would be waiting for him in the parking lot to arrive

 

[minkydog]

I survived on vanilla wafers smeared with peanut butter in nursing school. I ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I guess teh worst thing I ever did was sneak some of the snacks that dietary would send up for the patients consumption--milk, ice cream, popsicles. I had a lot of headaches that year, I'm sure from benig hungry all the time.

 

[minkydog]

My mom often tells us kids, there were 3 of us, that when they were having a hard time we would have beanie weanies for supper one night. Then franks and beans the next. Then hot dogs and pork n beans the next. She said us kids never complained after all it wasn't the same meal every night.

This reminded me of what my dad used to call TUBE STEAKS! We learned very quickly to scope out the lunch menu when Dad was cooking.

 

[minniecarousel]

As a child and one of 8 children, my Dad bought a huge box of day-old bread every week from the bakery store. I didn't know what fresh white bread was like 'til I met DH!
We ate a lot of Spam too - yuk!

 

[swea_pea1]

When DH and I were first married, we were very poor. A guy I worked with came to me with a proposition (not THAT kind of proposition!). His wife worked at a radio station and they were running a promotion where they would randomly call people out of the phone book and if you answered the phone "I listen to WXXX", you won $500. Since his wife was in charge of picking the phone numbers, he asked if we would split with him if she "randomly" choose our number. I knew it was cheating, but I was poor and hungry, and knew he'd find somebody else to say yes, so I did it. Still feel a little guilty about it but that $250 bought groceries for close to a month.

 

[Steamboat Marti]

The nice thing about this thread- - it reminds me how far all of us have come. I just enjoyed a nice Easter dinner with family and friends. There were many times that we couldn't even have that. Just made me grateful for where I stand today.

 

[delilah]

When we were in graduate school, some of the other grad students I knew would buy things at Lazarus (now Macy's) on credit, then return them for cash to get money for food. When I was growing up, my mom would regularly make "nothing" soup, which was awful, but, at least you weren't hungry after you ate it. She had this soy protein product, plus bullion, some onions. My parents always would go to this store that sold salvage from the railroad. (Food that might have fallen off the train, for example). There were times that we were sifting the flour because it was infested with bugs from that place. Yuck. But we had nothing else to eat. One of our family friends owned a grocery store, and would give us slightly outdated dairy products. We got yogurt and chip dip that way. My mom would make noodles with chip dip on it. Probably not all that nutritious, but, once again, at least we had something to eat.

I was never quite so poor in graduate school as I was growing up, so, we usually had pretty healthy food to eat once I was on my own.

 

[momof2inPA]

I ate generic food for a long time after I graduated from college. In college we survived on ramen noodles, kraft mac & cheese, and beer and nachos at happy hour. There were two days out of the week you could get 29 cent hamburgers at McDonalds. That was like heaven.

In my case, the lean times made me a stronger person, but some of you should never have gone through what you have. You must be really strong people.

 

[mickeyfan2]

My uncle told of a guy he worked with - He would take hot water, add ketchup packets from the cafeteria and then pepper. He called it poor man's tomato soup. Needless to say he was not poor and eventually he was told if he did it again he would be arrested for stealing. The supplies were for paying customer and he was not a paying customer!!!

ETA: I forgot he also took cracker packets.

 

[mickeyfan2]

DH remembers growing up and having a meal of corn on the cob and that is it for dinner.

My aunt told me this was common for them too during the summer.

 

[NMAmy]

When my ex and I first married, he was in the military and we were stationed in Germany and living on the economy. The mark rate was definitely NOT in our favor, I couldn't get a job on post, and I literally was starving away. I remember at one point, eating air popped popcorn with no butter or margerine for every meal for a week. My ex was able to eat in the mess hall but I didn't have that option. Looking back, I'm sure I could have gotten some assistance from the military but I was young and didn't really know what to do for help.

I didn't do anything bad for food but I was skinny to start out with and went down to just skin and bones by the time we got out of there. It's made me very appreciative of food and I keep a huge stockpile at the house.

It wasn't quite that bad when I first got divorced but it was still pretty bad. DD and I lived on mac-n-cheese and top ramen. I lost a lot of weight because I'd give her more food. The funny thing is--she thought it was great and never realized we were poor.

 

[MeanLaureen]

Okay, this is embarrassing. I've never been so poor to the point where I couldn't afford decent food - maybe not steaks but still could get decent food - but apparently I eat like I'm poor.

Before I met DH Obi-Wan, dinner was not typical. An ear of corn one night, a cup of instant mashed potatoes another night, a bowl of plain spagetti noodles or rice with tomato sauce the next. I basically only ate dinner to keep from getting hungry. I could live a week off of a box of Rice Krispies.

Then I met Matthew and he's all about the 4 course meals. Of course right in time for them to shut down my metabolism and put me on steriods..lol

 

[MdmMim]

DH and I got married during the early 70's--with the recession, gas crisis, etc. Not good times.

DH would trap muskrats and then barbeque them on a hibatchi. Some days, this was all we had. At times, we supplemented our "menu" with grilled cheese sandwiches and soup.

We refer to these as our "muskrat times."

 

[MAKmom]

I stole food from the restaurant I worked at. I also would steal crackers from my roommate. I remember one week I had no other food but rice for days straight and those crackers tasted sooo good.
Hell, I was happy to go on food stamps when I got pregnant at 17 (I was on my own very young), at least I knew I would eat. They made me feel rich!
Now and then, my husband complains about our money situation because we can't afford some silly thing. I just think to myself "honey, don't complain to me about poor!" Then I look at the full cupboards and fridge and smile to myself.

You have gratitude & that can lead to a happy life if you hold on to it...at least some very happy moments.

 

[Shugardrawers]

When I was little I lived with a rare (for that time) single mother who also had a raging drinking problem. Since child support was only a suggestion at that time of course there was no money. There was no electricity, heat or water much of the time either. Keep in mind my age at the time here.

We'd go to a neighbor's house (single little old ladies were best) and ask to use the bathroom because there was no water at our house. That usually led to us getting to bathe and was always followed up by a big meal with leftovers to go. They'd bring us snacks frequently.

School lunches used to come in 2 prepackaged containers. One for hot food, one for cold. I'm not sure exactly how but the lunch lady learned of our circumstances. Rather than throw them out she'd box up the cold part and drop it off on our porch.

One neighbor kept a very well stocked pantry in her unlocked garage. More than 1 can of peaches or soup found it's way back to our house via my brother. No judgements please, we were kids and we were hungry.

Much of my mother's jewelery and anything else they'd take wound up at the pawn shop. We'd sneak in while she was passed out and take something then hock it. Then we'd head to the grocery for crackers and vienna sausage. Again, don't bother with the judgements.

I really think that the combination of being a child of bitterly divorced alcoholic parents and never knowing where my next meal would come from is what caused me to have a compulsive eating disorder. Eat what you can when you can and you'll feel better kind of thing. I still waaaaay overbuy for just Dh and I but he rarely complains because he understands. And he's never eaten so good in his life

 

[Keli]

One time when our dd was six my dh got layed off from his job. After a couple of months (took him six loooonnnnggg months to find a decent job, he was working a little here and there but our income was MUCH reduced during that time) we were so afraid to spend what little money we had and food was one of the easiest ways to skimp, lol. My FIL was the ***. manager of a grocery store and he'd give us those cans of bread (think canned biscuits except it made small loaves) that were going out of date. It was always this dark bread with honey in it. I fixed it every night with dinner to make the meal go further, lol. I still can't stand the taste of honey in bread to this day!

 

[MUFFYCAT]

I grew up with families that had 7-12 kids. The family across the street has 7 kids. They would eat sugar or syrup sandwiches.
They joke that it's surprising they still have teeth left.

 

[winniedapooh]

Now and then, my husband complains about our money situation because we can't afford some silly thing. I just think to myself "honey, don't complain to me about poor!" Then I look at the full cupboards and fridge and smile to myself.

 

[mickeysgal]

I was a waitress during one high school summer. Due to a rotten situation at home, eating there wasn't always an option. I absolutely cringe now, but if a customer's fries on their dinner plates looked untouched, I would sneak a few off of them as I was scraping their plates into the garbage can. I was so very hungry.

 

[va32h]

When I was in college, I was trying to support myself on minimum wage (back then, 3.35 an hour).

I had two jobs in addition to going to school full time. My second job was at a movie theater, and employees could have unlimited free popcorn and sodas while on the job. And at the end of the night, we could have any unsold hotdogs or nachos. I ate theater food for dinner every night for a year and a half!