What is your favorite "I have no money" meal?

[breadisfunny]

I don't really shop at Wal-Mart much anymore

i avoid it like the plague.

[help helper]

Making something myself instead of ordering delivery

[Celista]

That is fucked up.

One thing I like about Belgium, is the social system, I think the minimum a single person will get is 750e per month (after many years of long term unemployment), plus still getting housing benefit and such. You basicaly should have enough money to feed yourself, clothe yourself, rent a small studio/room, and be able to pay your bills, but no real luxuries, which is what Belgium provides socially.

When I read stories like this, I really do wonder where we are going so wrong in the Western World that people are talking about stuff like this, when we have companies literally throwing out tonnes of food daily

Sorry to derail, just saddens me is all. No one, and I mean NO ONE should be hungry :S

Well, there were some specific details affecting my personal situation. These incidents happened during my first two years of college, putting myself through school (I had a private scholarship for the tuition and books but not room and board), I had zero support system (shitty abusive family) and was living in a college town where jobs were scarce. I was working PT in retail and it was enough to cover student housing but not food. I was also stupid(er) at the time and wasn't familiar with food stamp programs or other assistance programs. My parents refused to fill out the FAFSA and I couldn't appeal for federal aid at that school unless I submitted an appeal where I would have had to talk about all of the abuse I went through and it was just far too raw for me to do so. On top of that, the school made it clear that appeals regarding independent status for financial aid were rarely granted.

I transferred schools, got an even better scholarship at a private university, worked full-time or close to full-time for the rest of college waiting tables/bartending in Chicago, made decent money, and had food thrown at me at work. And I finished with honors with my finance degree.

So the story, while shitty, has an OK ending. I agree that most people should not be in that situation but it was temporary for me and it got better. Maybe I got lucky, maybe I am stubbornly tenacious, maybe it was a mix of both.

[MCMLXXXII]

Spaghetti aglio, olio and peperoncino.

[Airlick]

Sandwiches, mostly. I was stuffing myself with them for 3 years when I was studying, though it was not as much out of necessity as that I had very little spare time and couldn't bother myself with cooking, and I could control my calories intake better with them, which allowed me to stay relatively slim. They were still one of the cheapest options possible, though. Doesn't beat getting a can of tomato sauce, some ham, cheese and pasta and cooking enough for 2 days, but it was cheap nonetheless.

[breadisfunny]

Am truly glad to hear that. I just cannot fathom how we, as a society, let people living within said society allow actual, genuine hunger to occur. It is absolutely mind-boggling. I can understand if you don't know, then you don't know regarding aid and such, but it is annoying that sometimes the agencies don't do more in advertising what they can/cannot do, and that provisions sometimes aren't made to assist the weirder occasions.
I am really glad to hear you got everything sorted, and sometimes it does have a beneficial effect of meaning you don't take things for granted. Heck, when I am sat with my wife eating dinner in restaurants and just living a pretty damn good life, I remember as a kid that sometimes I had to go hungry, and it reminds me to not take my current situation for granted at all.


Was a bit off topic I know, but just genuinely upsets me when I hear and read stories about people genuinely struggling and starving.

(Please note, I rarely include the average student in this, as horrid as it sounds, a lot o the *hunger* I have seen from students where I live, i because they frittered all their money and allowance away on beer/good times due to a lack of basic budgeting skills. So I view the "hunger" they experience as more of a learning curve to learn not to piss money away. To me there is a vast difference of that situation, and someone who was in yours where yo never had any finances to rely on in the first place)

one word: apathy.