College survival

[jjjjjjjjjj]

This thread probably exists but what is some cheap food or ingredients to make a tastey meal! Obviously ramen is like the college food with like 6 packets costing 2 bucks. What can i do to make stuff like ramen better or even mac and cheese

[tmk]

the answers to be provided in this thread are pertinent to my interests as well

I like to mix tuna and hot sauce into my mac and cheese

[DrRumack]

i dunno if this is cheaper but im always advocating using sour cream instead of milk in mac n cheese

so good

[shura]

dont buy fresh fruits and vegetables. its a lot cheaper to buy them either frozen or canned and they last a lot longer. canned foods like soup or chef boyardee are cheaper in general. buy powdered milk, or the milk that comes in boxes. they are cheaper and dont need to be refrigerated until they are opened.

also keep your food really simple. just a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter gives you lunch for like a week.
Dont buy bottled water, its too expensive. buy a water pitcher/brita water filter thing and fill up your pitcher from the faucet. NY tap water is fine to drink

and make sure you clean up after yourself really well. you live in NY and if your home is messy you WILL get cockroaches as big as rats 100% guaranteed

[MarcK]

I try to make all of the things I get with my included meal plan as healthy as possible, because whenever I'm hungry without the option of my meal plan, the choice is always between small unhealthy snacks, mcdonalds or pizza. The walk to mcdonalds is around a mile so I guess that helps a bit. For snacks I usually just get some random cost-effective thing at wal-mart or cvs like pringles or something

[dilly]

microwavable meals such as michelina's are generally cost effective. around here it cost about $1 for one meal. They also have a variety of meals you can choose from, so you're never eating the same thing over and over again.

when you go to the grocery store, the store brand items seem to be the most cheapest items there, such as cereal, peanut butter, etc.

this may be a little disgusting, but i've come to find that banana flavored baby food makes a nice snack, which a jar of it runs around under a dollar depending on which jar you buy. those also come in a variety of flavors, but personally banana tastes the best.

also, i'm not sure about NY, but around here, if you become card members (for free) at the grocery stores, you can get special prices for items such as soda and food items.

[Casey Pixmintro]

my stomach has ached for the last few days no matter what i eat :/ all the food here seems to be sitting in my stomach like a brick

[billy]

keep it simple:
ramen noodles every day. on days when you feel like something a little special, put some fruit juice in there

delicious tropical ramen

i also like to throw away the dried vegetables and replace them with fresh pineapple, grapes, melon, etc

[shura]

http://www.thebackalleys.com/forum/index.p...c=9412&st=0

[Jeinu]

buy food staples in bulk

food staples are like
rice
potatoes
pastas
cans of soup
lemon juice

example: buy a twelve pack of clam chowder for about ten dollars, if you mix that with rice you have enough food for at least 24 meals

DO NOT buy fruits and veggies in bulk, probably they will go bad before you can finish them. happened to me a lot. not pleasant.

look around in your neighborhood for a bread discount store. bread/cracker/snack products that are nearing their expiration date or have gotten damaged get sent here, you can find a lot of good deals. if you can't find one, when you go to your ordinary grocery store, there might be a bread rack with day old bread for like half off. i know most walmarts have them. same thing with meats too. just make sure you don't buy meat past the expiration date.

stay away from organic snacks/juices/fruit/veggies-- they are not any better for you or the environment, they're just more expensive. conventionally produced foods are just as good and half or a quarter the price.

if you have roomates you could probably convince them to get a membership to like costco or sam's club. and then you could buy a ton of stuff in bulk like paper towels, cleaning supplies, toilet paper and save even more money!!! just don't buy vegetables/fruits.

[DrRumack]

im gonna go ahead and bookmark this thread

[Taokaka]

buy real staples in bulk and eat them

[MarcK]

buy real staples in bulk and eat them

when i was a kid and had sudden spiking aches in my sphincter (dont remember the origin) I thought I had accidentally eaten a stapler and it was ripping through my butthole.

[Ashington]

buy real staples in bulk and eat them

when i was a kid and had sudden spiking aches in my sphincter (dont remember the origin) I thought I had accidentally eaten a stapler and it was ripping through my butthole.

hot

[DrRumack]

just remember what marck just said and you'll lose your appetite and there goes a week's meal costs

[billy]

stock up on honey because it doesn't go bad and goes with everything

[spite]

Find a bagel shop
find the dumpster they use
Bam, free garbage bags full of day old bagels

[Casey Pixmintro]

CVS dumpster, not a dumpster, more of an unsold goods receptacle. Found like $50 worth of Twix and Hershey's Cookies and Creme one time and 2 $20 easter bunnies. If their ears break or anything even if its not visible they throw them out. As for real food, I dunno, meal plan?

[jjjjjjjjjj]

The meal plan here isnt that good it seems like id be better off eating cheap food all the time

[Casey Pixmintro]

do you get different options like 14-meals a week or like 210 meals for the semester or something like that? or does the place just have shitty dining halls? here we have some pretty decent dining, but once they announced they were upping the maximum credit for block meals to $5.50, all the dining halls jacked up their prices to exploit it.