West Virginia Sucks

[Al B. Sure!]

I see your chicken recipe and raise you a properly-grilled porterhouse steak, which is like eating an orgasm and which none of your government teat-sucklers will likely ever eat. Not even on special occasions. Forget about going out to a nice place, forget about good booze, forget about all the more exotic foods unless they happen to be very skilled cooks who know all the local specialty stores. Which I doubt, because becoming a good cook takes commitment and dedication and all that stuff they've demonstrated they don't have.

What is the point of this post?

Do you deny that you can make yourself some good eats with a few bucks a day?

Or do you think you're not living unless you're like Oerdin and Marie Antoinette?

[DaShi]

Alpert, you should write a Philly Survival Guide.

[Dinner]

The only person I ever knew on food stamps told me he got $100 per month so I really am not sure someone gets $200 but even so that's still only $2.22 per meal vs $1.11 per meal. A single decent steak costs $6 with a steak I'd want to eat costing more like $10. Hell, the bottle of wine I'm drinking right now costs $20 and you can't buy that with food stamps.

[Al B. Sure!]

The only person I ever knew on food stamps told me he got $100 per month so I really am not sure someone gets $200 but even so that's still only $2.22 per meal vs $1.11 per meal. A single decent steak costs $6 with a steak I'd want to eat costing more like $10. Hell, the bottle of wine I'm drinking right now costs $20 and you can't buy that with food stamps.

I POSTED THE BENEFITS AMOUNTS!!!!

$200 for 1 person with no dependents

http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/hhsa/programs/ssp/food_stamps/benefit_amount.html

And no one gives a **** what you spend on food, Marie Antoinette! You're not helping your case.

[Elok]

Today's dinner:

1lb Ground beef $2.49/lb
1 can diced tomatoes on sale for 50 cents
1 can chili beans 60 cents

So I have a pound of chili for $3.59. This will last me 2-3 meals.

This is the post of a man who does not know good chili. Are you seriously not using any spices beyond what the chili beans contain? Or cheese, or anything like salsa or pico de gallo? Yes, it's economical, but it's not good. A couple of bags of discount dog food, together with some citrus fruit, will sustain you in good health on the ultra-cheap for some time, you know.

[Aeson]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024733/

[The Mad Monk]

The only person I ever knew on food stamps told me he got $100 per month so I really am not sure someone gets $200 but even so that's still only $2.22 per meal vs $1.11 per meal. A single decent steak costs $6 with a steak I'd want to eat costing more like $10. Hell, the bottle of wine I'm drinking right now costs $20 and you can't buy that with food stamps.

"Let them eat steak"

[DaShi]

Ugh.

[The Mad Monk]

This is the post of a man who does not know good chili. Are you seriously not using any spices beyond what the chili beans contain? Or cheese, or anything like salsa or pico de gallo? Yes, it's economical, but it's not good. A couple of bags of discount dog food, together with some citrus fruit, will sustain you in good health on the ultra-cheap for some time, you know.

A large container of chili spice costs under $5, and will last a good long time. You can stretch things out further by serving the chili on a bed of rice, which actually improves things. Onions and cheese are pretty cheap too.

[Al B. Sure!]

Alpert, you should write a Philly Survival Guide.

Frugal living

My mother used to have these guides that were for mothers to squeeze every penny out of their activities. I read them as a younging and learned the value of frugality. Saturday used to be coupon day for my mother. She'd collect as many circulars as she could and go through them, circling the best coupons and I had to go and cut them all out and she would catalog them in her coupon box thing. From kindergarten age, I learned the importance of saving.

[DaShi]

You can make it last even longer by lacing it with paprika.

[The Mad Monk]

Paprika...

[Al B. Sure!]

A large container of chili spice costs under $5, and will last a good long time. You can stretch things out further by serving the chili on a bed of rice, which actually improves things. Onions and cheese are pretty cheap too.

Yeah. I don't eat rice because I'm a low-carb guy.

But yeah starches are cheap and really make meals last.

I'm not living as cheaply as I could because a high-meat, low-carb diet is a lot more expensive than the alternatives but even I spend only a few bucks a day.

[Elok]

What is the point of this post?

Do you deny that you can make yourself some good eats with a few bucks a day?

Or do you think you're not living unless you're like Oerdin and Marie Antoinette?

I'm saying that, if you're constrained by what's on sale at the grocery, you're dealing with a reduced quality of life. I can't speak for your chicken recipe, not having tried it--you didn't mention herbs or spices for either recipe, or vinegar or any other embellishments, and that strikes me as ominous, but whatever--but good food is a real pleasure. For example, consider cassoulet. It's French, but not snooty. A peasant dish. White beans, lamb, bacon, sausage, some duck if you like, stewed together with rosemary before being baked with bread crumbs on top. Done right, it must be tasted to be believed. It's heaven on a cold winter day. And all that meat doesn't come cheap. There are good cheap foods too, especially if you like foreign groceries, but the selection is smaller.

You don't have to eat pricey every day, or to eat out, or to enjoy a nice bottle of scotch or good wine or beer that doesn't look and taste like watered-down pee, but if you never eat anything really good, you've given something up, and you're not factoring that into your equation here. Along with vacations, and living in a nice place, and fresh air, and cozy furniture that a cat hasn't died on at some point, and all the small treats you buy when you've saved up extra cash. So many things are missing from that cramped little life on welfare. In return, you've got idleness and XBox. Blecch.

[The Mad Monk]

Dammit, now I want to go to Grunauer again. Their Hungarian Beef Gulasch is magnificent.