Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What do you eat when the budget is tight?

Across the country, in western Oregon, foothills of westslope of the Cascade Mtn, my grandparents spoke of the same. There were times there were NO deer to be had.. Pure dairy farming, growing, preserving...

Things were tight for Mom when I was young, my father had been killed in an accident.
We had a garden, she canned everything we grew,
And anything other people offered.
She made all kind of pickles, sauerkraut, ketchup, spaghetti sauce...
I remember cousins giving her deer, we canned them, my uncle butchered, and gave her
all the bones. She cooked them off, and canned the broth.

We got government cheese and powdered milk.
Lots of Mac and cheese, powdered milk was mixed with a little
real milk if we had extra money. Then she started buying milk from a
cousins farm, I think they were helping her out. I remember her cooking
pudding if we had extra milk, making us egg custard if someone gave her
eggs.
Gravy bites for supper. (Broth made into gravy, over bread)

When I was around 7 my step dad showed up. When he started to eat
with us, he wanted meat. Remember mom griping, "He thinks every meal
has to have meat". Had been so long she forgot that was normal.

He started helping buy groceries.
Pork chops!
Steak!
2 chicken legs!

Us kids couldn't believe it. I was too young to understand it all.
Something made me put it all together a couple years ago,
I mentioned all the work and food to Mom, not the shortages.
She sat and cried, couldn't believe I remembered it.
She was ashamed, i was proud of her.
It took grit and work, she got us through.
Not by begging, and other than the govt surplus stuff,
She never got any welfare type help.

My wife and I haven't always had a lot of money, but she grew up that way,
so it wasn't a problem. Back then, we had a lot of deer, few permits.
But we lived on deer meat. Rarely bought any beef.

scrambled eggs and tuna is good.

I cruise the meat counters for marked down meat, and eat less. Don't eat junk food, drink pop, chips, desserts etc. My only food related weakness is too much beer. If I have to stretch stuff out more, it's stews and homemade soup.

Kroger and other stores have deli counters. They sell fried chicken and other stuff. The trick is to get to know the schedule and get to know the staff. My buddy Bob fed his family for decades off this trick. You show up as they're wrapping up for the night and play Let's Make a Deal.

Your daughter?

Back in the late 70's I was working a second shift in a factory in Clarksville TN. The plant's general foreman's youngest brother was working there, and he was case of someone who had a job solely because of family connections. The boy just didn't act right, and in addition couldn't speak real good. Anyway, he lived just down the road from the plant, and every night at supper break, which was 30 minutes, his wife would pick him up, take him home and feed him. One night he came back after supper and said that when they went home, there wasn't anything in the house to eat, so they just "funked".......his pronunciation of the word.

After that, if the wife ever told me that she didn't know what she was going to fix to eat, I'd always say well, we can just funk. Even worked a few times.

Interesting thread and some great points made here. As noted, stretching a dollar is not the same thing as suffering genuine poverty. Also when one is actually hungry one becomes a lot less picky about what taste good and what doesn’t.

Where I am I too thank the Lord for Tex-Mex restaurants 🙂

Otherwise, in addition to being on a tight budget I don’t have much patience for cooking, the microwave is my friend. A favorite breakfast is a paper plate, a bunch of corn tortilla, shredded mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes and an egg. Lay out the tortillas, lay the cheese and tomatos on top, break the egg on there too, microwave under cover (exploding tomatoes) for six minutes, Fast, minimum clean up.

My other staple is 50-50 raw oatmeal/granola, Kept at school. A simple pint of milk from home, eat the mix uncooked like cereal. A slow-release carb loading that carries me through the rest of the day. Fast, easy, simple clean up. No refrigeration needed.

When I was young, broke, and just starting out in the relationship thing it was pussy, now I am old and well settled in to marriage it is crow.

I was raised in a home that had priorities. First we are going to eat good food that is healthy for us. Second we are going to stay warm in the winter. Third we are going to be clean and have clean clothes that are fit to be seen in public.

All the rest is fluff anyway

I grew up on a farm and we raised a lot of the vegetables we ate. Green beans, butter beans, peas, squash, okra, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, etc. Most of the vegetables were canned and the freezer was for the meat. We raised cattle and hogs so butchering a calf/shoat was no problem, but we also hunted, so we had deer, squirrels, and ducks, to add variety.

My brother married a girl from Malaysia. She would see Mom get something out of the freezer and open something we had canned to cook and wanted to know if we raised everything we ate. She had never seen Mom come in with groceries.

To this day, my kids will tell you that venison and french fries is there favorite meal. .

Poor a church mouse after a divorce and got her business CC bills dumped on me. Child support etc.

Got paid every two weeks and fueled the truck... as money allowed would buy cases of canned spinach ($1 for 4 or 3 can) and cases of canned tuna ($1 for 2) from whoever had on sale. Ate that for a solid year plus... solved the debt and moved on.

Rough time. 48 was as high as I could ever set the heat.

On the bright side, I was fit as a fiddle and had 6 pack abs.

News for you Cash, that was your backbone.

I have never experienced a time when I either didn't know where my next meal was coming from, or things were so tight that we had nothing but the heel of a loaf of bread left in the house. Large household growing up, eight of us, but we lived on a farm, had a huge garden, killed a beef every year, had a flock of chickens, and I remember eating very, very well.

Same thing after I got married. Might not have had a filet mignon every other meal, but my wife has always canned and froze what we grew in the garden, and I've had everything to eat that I've ever wanted.

Something I learned a long time ago, is that the basics of food........beans, potatoes, corn, rice, tomatoes, and the such, are good to the taste, as well as good for you. Simple is sometimes best.

At one point Taco Cabana was a good spot for lunch when times were hard. $2 and change. Order a shredded chicken taco, cup of water, and free chips and salsa. The chips and salsa aren't free anymore and the price of tacos went up. Saved my ass many times back then.

you left out sausage

I could live on rice and beans but the old lady isn't a big fan. She grew up in Ireland eating poor people food so she cooks a lot of cheap dishes consisting of cabbage and potatoes. I'm not picky.

i love gabbage

When we were kids, money was tight.

I had a younger brother and remember having to make cereal for him so my mom could sleep in in the morning on Saturday.

I got up before my younger brother and there was only enough cereal for one bowl. So I ate it...

Of course my brother gets up and asks me to make his cereal. I told him we were out... He started squalling, and I knew mom wouldn't be happy at the intrusion, so I said sit down, you can try the "new" cereal.

A few minutes later mom got up and came into the kitchen where my young brother was eating Friskies cat food with lots of sugar and milk....

She beat my ass,... Then had my dad beat me ass again when he got home from work.

No, I left out chicken....lol.