FoodMAR 25, 2024

33 People Share The 'Poverty Food' Of 2024

Mindaugas Balčiauskas and Rokas Laurinavičius

Due to a combination of inflation, supply-chain disruptions, and tariffs on certain foreign imports, food prices have steadily risen since 2020.

In the US, for example, food prices — which includes both food at home (groceries) and restaurant orders — increased 2.2% from February 2023 to February 2024, and the previous one-year period saw a spike of 9.5%.

So when Reddit user WhatIsThisWhereAmI made a post on the platform's forum 'Cooking,' asking people what's their preferred budget meal, they immediately got plenty of answers. Here are some of the most upvoted ones.

Image credits: WhatIsThisWhereAmI

#1

33 People Share The 'Poverty Food' Of 2024

Keep your house stocked with potatoes, onions, rice, beans, and canned tomatoes. Add whatever vegetables and/or meat is on sale to your weekly trip. With those 5 items you can have a variety of meals and they are perfect staples for whatever you are able to add.

Keep your scraps in a plastic bag in the freezer and use it to make stock. Just don’t add scraps from broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, or cruciferous vegetables as it’ll make your stock bitter.

You can seriously save every part of your onion, carrots, celery, etc to use for stock.

DoctorBartleby, Pixabay / Pexels

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68points

#2

People talk about rice and beans a lot , but no one talks about other legumes. Chickpeas and all kinds of lentils are incredibly cheap if bought dry. Buying in bulk from an ethnic store makes them even cheaper.

DACula, Adam Bartoszewicz / Unsplash

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61points

We got in touch with WhatIsThisWhereAmI and the Redditor agreed to tell us more about the viral discussion that they've started.

"As mentioned in my post, I had run across someone else's post asking about people's favorite childhood poverty meals, and I realized a ton of the things mentioned there are no longer cheap," WhatIsThisWhereAmI explained to Bored Panda.

"I myself have been surprised in the last several years by some of these changes, and I was curious how the shopping habits of people with strict budgets may have changed in response."

#3

I've been negative on the bank account for a week and been surviving on a 10 pound bag of potatoes, air fried with some spices, and some onions and garlic I have laying around.

Payday coming soon, though.

CommiePuddin

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53points

#4

I don't intend to speak for others, but Red Lentil curry + home made naan is the most food you can make for the least amount of money. It's like $3 to make a weeks worth of food.

nicholt, "Chef" at Cookipedia.co.uk

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51points

After going through the replies, the Redditor said "there were definitely a few themes [that were mentioned more than others], namely cheap, bulk-packaged, dried foundational items for your pantry."

"Beans & lentils were the most popular suggestion for getting your protein, and rice was by far the top suggestion for getting your carbs, followed by potatoes (which people correctly noted is an almost nutritionally complete item on its own). Buying whole chicken and spreading it across several meals seems to be a popular hack as well."

According to WhatIsThisWhereAmIMany, most people mentioned eating less meat as a matter of budget rather than preference or health. "There was also a lot of talk about how you might as well eat fresh food since packaged foods are so much more expensive these days. And of course, shopping deals and markdowns, but also at foreign grocery stores which are often cheaper."

#5

I love potatoes and eggs. Eggs got stupid expensive for a bit but they’re back down again. You can get a bag of potatoes and a dozen eggs for like 5-6$ or even less if you shop right. Toss some potatoes in a pan and fry them up or even just boil or bake them and then take a couple eggs on the side or on top. You can get fancy and make an omelet or add a little cheese but even just basic eggs n’ taters is yum and very filling.

wanderingstorm, JaBB / Flickr

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46points

#6

The new poverty food is cooking 90%+ of your food. People out there be eating rice and beans during the week and then blowing the budget eating fast casual/fast food on the weekends. Fast food ain't cheap anymore!

Back_on_redd, On Shot / Pexels

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41points

The good thing, according to the author of this post, is that "even someone with little-to-no skill can follow an easy recipe in a slow cooker or instant pot, or throw some red beans and rice together.

"The real problem for most people seems to be time poverty. When you're working long hours and are tired at the end of the day, convenience food, however expensive it might be, is hard for people to avoid," they added.

Also, coming up with the ultimate poverty meal cookbook is quite difficult because grocery prices do not move uniformly. As one rises, the other one can drop, and then vice versa.

#7

If you go to the budget cooking subs, it’s rice and beans. Everyone reply is the same, rice and beans and a food bank.

flythearc, Zi’s Food&NatureArt / Pexels

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40points

#8

Cabbage!

I made a quickle with some last night, it lasts a few days in the fridge and get better and brinier with each day. I also make seared "steaks" of cabbage that get so tasty when you almost burn them, give them a flip and then I pour over a miso/honey/crushed red pepper sauce with a lid, low heat until the reduction basically glazes it.

Idk I guess I really felt for the cabbage man in ATLA.

greatgreen11

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39points

"There are ways to cook cheap healthy meals with minimal prep time, but I think there's also a mental fatigue that prevents people from tackling the learning curve to figure out what those meals are and how to cook them," WhatIsThisWhereAmI said.

"Tired people just keep plugging away doing what they know, even if they can't always afford to, and folks on tight budgets are much more likely to be suffering from this kind of fatigue. I think researching healthy recipes made with cheap ingredients and planning your shopping ahead of time are the best remedies to this. It's just getting past that barrier."

#9

Chicken thighs are still pretty cheap and full of protein. Frozen veggies are almost always on sale somewhere. The beans and rice move is always a classic.

mndsm79, Engin Akyurt / Pexels

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35points

#10

There is a Korean grocer near me with tubs of tofu in the refrigerated section. $1 for a small, $1.50 for a large. The large is enough for me, my wife, and our 2 year-old with some leftovers. I'll bread it for noodles/stir fry, saute it as a tofu scramble, throw it into a chili or other stew...

It's a very versatile protein, and I always wonder what other families do with the blocks.

Altogether, I think "Americana" poverty foods like cereal, Kraft mac and cheese, and baloney have gone up in price because they don't sell as well... it was competitively priced because of profit in volume. Instead, ethnic foods from Latin American and East Asian immigrant populations have become more widely known.

Schnevets, katherine of chicago / Flickr

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31points

#11

I think the key is avoiding processed food in general. It used to be dirt cheap to just eat cereal and kraft mac and cheese, but I am appalled at how expensive that stuff has gotten.

Scratch cooking is the key to food savings.

And my poverty food will always be the good ol' rice and beans. I eat at least 1 meal of day of rice and beans in various permutations: channa masala, red beans and rice, mujadara, gallo pinto, Jamaican rice and peas, collard greens and black eyed peas, even tofu counts in my book. The possibilities are endless.

unicorntrees, IFPR / Flickr

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29points

#12

Rice is cheap, onions are cheap, eggs are reasonable.

=Egg fried rice.

Add garlic or meat/poultry if you can find a deal.

Standard_Important

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29points

#13

Costco/Sams rotisserie chicken! Add it to rice.

Ok_University6476, Nelson Cardoso / Flickr

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23points

#14

I think this is a great question.

I think my personal answer is a vegetarian burrito bowl or tacos. Rice, black beans (from a bag of dried beans), and salsa. Can put in tortillas. Sauteed onions and/or bell pepper, tomatoes, lettuce or cabbage, a little cheese and sour cream are all optional if you've got extra money to burn, lol.

NewBabyWhoDis, Val D'Aquila / Flickr

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23points

#15

I wouldn’t say new, but buttered egg noodles look like they’re becoming a trendy again. the real ones never slept on them tho.

bcoll85

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23points

#16

I've resurrected a long lost staple from my childhood - Pizza Bread. Take a few slices of cheap bread, slather some ragu, top with mozzarella, bake, and viola pizza bread.

ejrhonda79

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23points

#17

Porridge for breakfast, rice and beans for dinner, a third meal would be bourgeois excess.

wojwojwojwojwojwoj, Sabine / Pexels

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22points

#18

Same things that have always been: pasta, rice, potatoes, beans, eggs, vegetables, whole chickens, pork shoulder. Buying the right whole foods and doing some prep work to get the most out of them is still the cheapest way to eat.

badlilbadlandabad, Masahiro Ihara / Flickr

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21points

#19

Mine was a whole uncooked chicken. I’d cook it in a slow cooker and then pull it apart. The liquid is then a broth to make soups. You can buy tortillas from
A Mexican grocer for dirt cheap (like 20 for $1). A few veggies or a whole purple cabbage. You can keep yourself fed real well for roughly $30 a week or less.

Decent_Echidna_246

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20points

#20

In my city you can get 1kg of frozen pierogies for like 3 dollars. Dip them in sweet Thai sauce or Greek yogurt. Easy cheap filling meal.

CatNamedNight, Geoff Peters / Flickr

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19points