Due to some bad luck my bank account has gone from well over $5k to $80 in the past three days...

Due to some bad luck my bank account has gone from well over $5k to $80 in the past three days. I have other expenses so tl;dr I need to survive on $40 for the next two weeks until my paycheck. I currently have:

- frozen swai filet (4)
- jar of peanut butter (1)
- roll of crackers (3)
- can of chicken noodle soup (1)
- can of manwich sauce (1)
- can of corn (1)
- can of peas (1)
- olive oil (1 qt)
- seasoning (1)
- teaspoon of yeast (1)
- cup of flour (2)

I have access to a stove and oven, and I have one pot and one pan.
I made a loaf of bread last night and ate the entire thing, so I'm confident I can cook.

What should I buy with my $40, and what are some good things I can cook with what I have?

Chicken breast
Corn tortillas
Rice
Eggs
Ramen noodles

All of these things are low cost and high in caloric content.

40 lbs of rice

just buy one really nice 500-1000mg edible

if you already have yeast, buy more flour to make some bread.

you could go for beans and rice but i like pasta, and eggs, hotdogs, cheap pork, tuna and other cheap protein are not unreasonable.

a couple onions and a few potatoes make for good filler

cans of tuna and mayo/mustard are good on bread for a quick sandwich.

tomato paste and ground meat and some peppers could make a batch of chili/soup for a whole week if you were confident in your abilities.

I make tuna-pasta egg-salad for when I want to eat for a while and not want to spend any money, which is a pound of pasta, 2 cans of tuna, 6 hardboiled eggs, some mayo, some pickle juice, some onion/garlic, some taragon or other herb: it's about 5 dollars and lasts for a half a week if I'm eating it regularly

So my shopping list looks like:
Carbs
---------
- rice
- pasta
- beans
- potatoes
- Maybe some ramen

Protein
-----------
- eggs
- tuna
- chicken breast
- hotdogs

Can I get details on that tuna pasta egg salad?

Eggs are cheap; dried beans are cheaper. I'd buy a bunch of beans and rice and just eat that for two weeks.

Also, throw out the canned peas and buy some frozen ones. They're pretty good just heated up in a pan.

Green cabbage is also very cheap and filling.
So are frozen mixed vegetables (not the steamable kind that come with sauces).
Make sure you re getting dried beans, not canned, as after you soaking them overnight they plump up so much that they become vastly cheaper per ounce.


I'd avoid eggs and dairy as they are pretty expensive $/Kcal

ramen isn't bad only because its so damn cheap and tastes ok, but not a great choice imo. also frrozen veggies are usually a dollar a bag, you could go canned, i like frozen.

Tuna egg pasta salad:
-hard boil six eggs.
-i like to put them in the pot gently, then cover with about a half inch or water, and put them on a burner. as soon as the water start to clearly boil, give them ten minutes, then shock them in a ink with cold tap water
-dice each of the them up into about 12 pieces,
-boil up some rottini, or shells or macaoni pasta
-when the pasta is done, you can wash it. this cools it down, and it's a cold pasta salad so you don't need all the starch
-add two cans of tuna, your eggs, and about a 1/2 cup of mayonnaise.
-You can adjust the salad with more or less mayo, just not too much. if you have pickle juice, add about a 1/4th a cup of it. if not, a few tablespoons of mustard. adjust the flavor as you see fit.
-diced onions are a good addition, so is celery, peas, carrots, etc. parsley, garlic, taragon especially are all good additions
-if you don't like tuna you wont like this salad.

goodluck poorbro

thanks user

You're going to make your money stretch a lot further if you single it down to one staple food. In your list, you've got those listed as "carbs".

The variety is nice, no doubt, but do you REALLY need rice, pasta, potatoes, AND noodles?

Not against having more than one. I've got all of those in my house right now, ***but I'm not on a $40 budget.***

Yeah I was gonna narrow it down to fit in $40, those are just options

Bananas. They are 19 cents a pound at trader joes.

So nobody's gonna ask what the fuck happened?
I'm barely scraping by myself but don't have nearly 5K, what kind of "bad luck" can wipe that out entirely? I just want to know what I should look out for!
Medical shit?

I imagine it's probably medical, funerary, or car stuff. [spoiler]Or maybe OP lost it gambling [/spoiler]

Combination of getting arrested ($2000 for bail and legal fees) and my car taking a shit on me, requiring a new transmission. Add monthly rent and a couple miscellaneous bills and here we are.

Pic related, it's the can of cream corn I'm eating for dinner.

Do math.

40/14 = 2.85 money/day
assume 2800 calories = 28.5 money/2800 calories = 1 money/1000 calories
So you cannot spend more than 1 money on 1000 calories on average. You also want to get some vegetables/fruits, which do not supply a lot of energy.

Adequate food choices would be potatoes, rice, flour, pasta, cornmeal, lentils, bananas, oranges and cheap nutritious vegetables like cabbage, onions, broccoli, green beans, etc. These foods are extremely filling when combined and supply plenty of nutrients. Depending on local prices, rice, wheat and corn tend to cost much less than 1 money/1000 calories which opens up the opportunity to buy less energy dense foods like fruits and vegetables. A potato is a vegetable that also supplies starch, it is a good combination food choice and tends to be rather cheap and versatile.

Animal foods tend to be overly expensive. It isn't necessary to have a separate category of "protein". Protein is expensive to produce and buy, and a basic diet focused around carb-heavy staples provides plenty of protein (potatoes, soy and many other staples are complete proteins, whereas legumes + grain are almost always complete protein)

beans and rice .

A 12 pack of ramen is like 3 bux.
you can add veggies and shit but still you don't need to starve.
I can even go to the local grocery and get a dozen eggs for a dollar.

Beans, rice, eggs, bread. Tuna and chicken can be found pretty cheap. Also ramen of course.

Maybe treat yourself to a mcdouble once in a while to remind yourself why you has fast food.

Go to your parent's .

Your mother will feed you and give you some money, she doesn't want you to be hungry. Have you talked to your mother recently user? She's probably lonely.

>the torn open and precariously balanced package of yeast

can you throw that away please?

don't tell me what to do in my kitchen

Invest in fiber-heavy products. They fill you up, not fill you out.

Invest in potatoes as well. Matt Damon had to survive a year on Mars on potatoes. You can do it too.

That was not a true story user. I'm sorry.

google "food bank in ", where is wherever you live

There you go. And home cooked pinto beans taste so good if you know how to cook them from scratch.

I would say invest in some frozen spinach. Switching to eating all cheap crap can screw your poop schedule up.

Oats
Beans
Rice
Chili powder

Much of Latin America survives on beans+rice most days of the week. Look up some recipes.

Go for the cheapest non-processed meat (in my area I aim for $3-4/lb). Certain places will sell offal (i.e. liver and hearts) or things like fish heads for even cheaper if you ask for them. Always cut the meat with other things to stretch it out, such as breadcrumbs in meatloaf or pasta dishes. And always season well — it will make you forget how cheap you're eating.