50 cents for 9 people? I don't see that as a reality. Sure, you can feed them but not to fill anybody up. That is just nuts. Just my opinion.

Duane

I'd make popcorn.

Read the post, Duane. She's not being asked to provide a full meal for 50 cents.

Bizzo - Rice it the obvious one. The only other thing I could come up with is buy some cheap beef bouillon, make a broth, garnish it with a sliced green onion and call it soup.

At my local prices a single scallion would come to ten cents. At about ten cents a cup for broth, everyone would get a shy cup of soup if only five show up. If all nine, well then it'll be pretty small servings!

What about cinnamon raisin oatmeal made from rolled oats and a handful of raisins? If it's too expensive, you can try making spicy (Tex Mex or ground pepper) vinegar rice topped with just a bit of toasted sesame seeds. If you use sticky rice you can make them into balls or rolls like sushi without the nori.

I just bought a bushel of second grade apples for $12. Assuming there were over 40 pounds in the bushel, that was less than 30 cents per pound. 50 cents for 5 is not much except for rice or lentils.

Local, seasonal fruits and veggies are surprisingly inexpensive. If your own garden/orchard is empty, what's available at roadside stands/farmers markets? Based on what I've seen locally available in the last week or so, I could have done squash-something or other, or some kind of baked apple something (maybe even with a crumble topping) for around that much. Do you know anyone with an apple tree? If they let you pick them, would it count as free for the purpose of your project? Is there "scavenge-able" food available locally this time of year?

I agree, Claire, popcorn would be good adn you can make a bunch for 50 cents.

How much would it cost to make a loaf of bread? It's just flour, yeast, salt and water. You can't use that yeast in a packet, but my big two pound package of yeast at Sam's is less than $4. A couple of cups of generic flour, it's on sale here for $1.29 for 5 pounds. I could easily do bread for 50 cents a loaf...

Annie

My first thought was beans and rice with a small chopped onion added. Lentils and rice should fit that budget too.

Annie, that's a thought! I get 10K of whole wheat flour at the Superstore for $6.29! Make two loaves of sourdough bread (no yeast!) will only need 5 cups of flour, water, 1 tsp salt, 2 TBSP sugar, and 2 TBSP oil. Two loaves of bread can feed a lot more than 9 people. If make one loaf you can even add fancy stuff like dried herbs and sesame seeds.

Oh, I have another idea. Have you tried making rice soup, the Chinese call it "Jook". It's pretty much rice cooked in water until it's very smooth. It's usually flavored with chicken, fish, or beef. You can make it using some leftover bones. If not, the soup base itself is pretty tasty. One cup of raw rice can make one big pot of rice soup. To make the soup base all you need are rice, water, a bit of oil, salt & sugar, Knorr bouilon (or MSG that you can get from an Asian store, dirt cheap), soy source, and chopped green onions.

I love how creative you all are!!
Duane, FOAS was right, I'm not feeding all 9 by myself... and your comment was along the lines of my first reaction when I was given my assignment!!

So, b/c I didn't feel like going out in the dreary new england weather tonight, and I'll be headed straight to this meeting from work, I raided my kitchen... and got costs from Peapod... (and from the jar of curry paste I had).

On the stove right now, is:

0.2 oz Patak's Mild Curry Paste (@$2.99 / 10oz) $0.06
0.8 oz chopped Yellow Onions (as sold in 5# bag) (@ $1.99/5#) $0.02
5 oz split peas in water (I called water "free") (@ $0.80 /16 oz) $0.25
4 oz white rice (as if sold in 20# carolina extra long grain @$13.99 for 20#) $0.17

for a grand total of.... $0.50

Good thing other people are bringing things to eat, too...

Oh! While I'm making my 50c meal, I'm well aware that the pound of salmon my husband is preparing with some seared local sea scallops, along with his "famous" salami-pasta salad with black olives, onions, red& yellow peppers in the required creamy italian dressing, our salad and glass of wine is not a 50c meal.

I'm feeling well-fed and blessed tonight.

Oooohhhh (beating my head against the monitor)....I thought you only had 50 cents to spend. I didn't understand you could pro-rate the ingredients.

That said, there are some here with good bunker mentalities. It has been interesting.

seagrass

Well, I may have only had 50 cents to spend... but the rules weren't explicit, so... I extrapolated to make it work :-)

Extrapolation. Creativity. I love this forum.

seagrass

Jeez Stumpy, I guess I didn't grasp the entire concept. My bad! Please forgive me. I now get it. Thanks for setting me straight.

D-

Ramen soup? I still remember being poor...and hungry enough to eat it almost daily.

Please report back what the others bring...very interesting exercise.

Jook was my first thought, but I think you're onto something with the sourdough bread!

A pound of cabbage about 39 cents. Half an onion. A couple drops of liquid smoke. About 4 quarts of that free water. Variation?... quarter onion and a carrot. Trick is to boil it for about 4 hours until it turns darker. I don't know why it turns brown but it is so sweet. Looks like french onion soup without the bread and cheese.... taste is also very close. One of my "diet" soups. High fiber due to the cabbage so it actually is a bit filling.

Wrong time of year but a huge handful of dandelion greens plucked from the side of the house. Bit of olive oil and vinegar... dash of italian seasonings!

Oatmeal cookies! Cinnamon toast? Ginger toast if you want to be different.

Five gals could easy have a hard boiled egg each. Maybe mash the eggs up and serve on saltine crackers.

Mix eggs & flour for homemade noodles... bit of butter for flavor.

Eggs are the cheapest protein I know. If I were poor and starving they would be a first choice item.

Maybe half a pizza salvaged still in the box from dumpster outside a college dorm? Box keeps other garbage off it and people tend to throw it away still in the box. Yeah, I was that poor long ago.

: )
lyra

The bread I make comes to .23 per 1 lb loaf, so yes, you could make two of those :) but I see you got what you are making already...

I was going to suggest baked potatoes. With potatoes being so abundant in the garden or at .99 for 5 pounds that could easily be a whole potato or a half. Let us know how it went. Deanna

Once again I'm amazed at the cost of food in other parts of the country.

23 cents for a loaf of bread? The flour alone would cost me more than double than that, even using the cheapest store brand.

99 cents for 5# potatoes? My cheapest are .50/lb.

The cabbage recipe? Try $1.99, not $.39 for the cabbage.

bizzo,
I'd be interested in hearing what this lesson will teach you, IOW, what will the instructor say is the point of the lesson? Is it just to point out that we can subsist on a very low budget if we do it right? Or is there some other deeper message?

foas,
Just wondering, what part of the country do you live in? I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I can usually catch bargains on lots of different kinds of fresh foods such as produce (just bought a cabbage for 39c/lb for example) and meats, which I regularly fish out of the "whoops we butchered too much" clearance section, but which are also often on sale for low prices.

These sorts of projects are always so interesting, but a bit skewed--in some parts of the world people do live on 50 cents worth of food, because food doesn't cost much.

Did you ever see this study I've linked below?

Here is a link that might be useful: Family Food Expenditures Around the World

FOAS, I just checked the weekly flyer from our local Meijer's, potatoes are $1.69 for 10 pounds, a bit less than 17 cents per pound.

Store brand flour is 2 for $3 at my local independent grocery, or 30 cents per pound. Cabbage is 19 cents per pound.

Eggs are 89 cents a dozen, so I could boil half a dozen, add a tablespoon full of mayo and make a dozen deviled eggs and be somewhere around 50 cents.

I will admit that I could go to the more "upscale" grocery stores and spend a lot more for the same stuff, but I've been poor enough times in my life that it seems like second nature to know where you can buy things the most inexpensively.

Like Michael, I've had dandelion greens and we used to eat venison all the time, I didn't even realize it was illegal. I was in high school before it dawned on me that deer season wasn't year round!

Of course the bullet would probably cost 50 cents now....

So now, bizzo, I'm wondering too, what is the purpose of this particular "challenge"?

Annie

Lowspark - I misspoke. Cabbage is .69/lb. Whole heads were advertised at $1.99 elsewhere.

Annie - Wow! But then again, as ideefix said, everything's relative. We have to spend more for the same things, and therefore we earn more for doing the same things.

Bizzo - Does this have anything to do with the recent readings from Job, on giving up riches, etc.?

It will be interesting to see what "extravagent" items wiil be brought. I would think chocolate would be one; maybe beef for the other?

You could make homemade tortillas for a bean and rice burrito.

Koreans make a seaweed roll without fish called kim-pap - a sheet of nori spread with rice and all kinds of fillings, including strips of fried egg and julienned carrot, then rolled up and cut into slices. If you have an Asian grocery nearby the seaweed sheets (nori) should be cheap. One sheet may make 8-10 slices, which are about 2-4 bites each.

Slightly OT, but a couple of people were expressing surprise at the difference in food prices in different areas. The thing that always amazes me is how different the food prices can be from store to store, neighborhood to neighborhood.

Here in my town, there are 3 major grocery stores and the prices vary wildly among them. There is the Raley's which is sort of the "high tone" store...very clean, attractively maintained, with a foo-foo coffee bar, deli, bakery, hot dish take out counter and even a Japanese lady who comes in and makes fresh sushi. Over priced plants and assorted gifts are available, and there is a satellite bank inside. The meats are sold both in packages and over a butcher/seafood counter. The only time I shop there is if I'm looking for some more exotic ingredient I might not find in the other stores because the prices are outrageous.

Then there is the Save Mart, which also has a deli and bakery. The deli carries a few hot items, but is not nearly as varied as the Raley's. It has also recently added a butcher/seafood counter, again not quite as extensive as the Raley's. It also offers plants and a few gifts, though not quite as overpriced. It is clean, not as high tone in decor, the prices are lower than Raley's for the most part, though they have been creeping up.

Both of these stores are in the heart of town, on the main drag.

Last is a Cost Less Market which is in a run-down looking mini mall that generally has at least 2 storefronts vacant, as you leave town. The store itself is clean enough, it just doesn't look so because everything is old...no remodeling done in quite a few years. The aisles are cramped and crowded, the deli consists of a separate counter that offers a few meats and cheeses other than cheddar, Swiss, American and Jack, and a few breads other than what the bread aisle holds. The cashiers tend to be a bit more "earthy", not as er...urbane...as in the other stores.

However, the prices are amazingly lower than in the other two stores on most items. Eggs tend towards a dollar less a dozen, milk as well. Having gone into the Save Mart the other day, I happened to notice that their red potatoes were almost 3 times the price they are at Cost Less, the apples double, and many of their sale price meats are a fair amount more expensive than the Cost Less non-sale prices.

I know that some people might go to the first two stores because they want deli or bakery items and then just shop for groceries as well, but for a major grocery trip, the Cost Less isn't more than 5 or 7 minutes away from the other two, certainly worth the trip.

Interesting challenge! The first thing I thought of was deviled eggs too. It will be interesting to see what everyone came up with.

Another one here who has been surprised by the food prices in different parts of this country and others.

David