Menus for Frugality

[flowerbug]

Since the hurricane I have been trying to cook bean soup with pasta at least once a week. I can’t believe how much canned beans and pasta I now have stock piled. I should probably think of something to do with the peanut butter. I have a feeling I will be eating it past the expiration date. I stopped going to the donation lines because of not having much room for more but it doesn’t matter because it gets delivered anyway . Oh and the oatmeal. I have a feeling I won’t eat it fast enough too. Been making oatmeal cake sometimes.

granola is great cereal if you have free ingredients and can tolerate the carbs.

peanut butter i eat about 2-4lbs a month, it is one of the cheapest meals i can have (with some carrot sticks and a glass of milk).

of course peanut butter and oats are a great combination too. though i usually like the oats well cooked once in a while i like something really chewy and raw oats can provide that.

i'm not sure how much of either of those that a diabetic should limit themselves to, also seeing how much sugars can be added to the peanut butter. don't want to get someone in trouble.

i don't eat sugar free in general but i have cut a lot of sugar out of my diet already but even at halfway i still have a lot of room for avoiding more. we're such carboholics here though that it's a constant temptation.

 

[Britesea]

If you have diabetes and can't get anything other than hi carb foods, you can mitigate it to some point by eating a lot of cinnamon. Cinnamon helps insulin work better. Also, I've found that if you can keep your calories down (which, admittedly, most of us Type 2's haven't done and that's the problem!) your body WILL burn those carbs.

 

[flowerbug]

If you have diabetes and can't get anything other than hi carb foods, you can mitigate it to some point by eating a lot of cinnamon. Cinnamon helps insulin work better. Also, I've found that if you can keep your calories down (which, admittedly, most of us Type 2's haven't done and that's the problem!) your body WILL burn those carbs.

yes, i'm familiar with those aspects of things. so far i am not diabetic or near diabetic but i am a bit too plump and i don't like how i feel (especially when the summer gets hot and i want to be outside getting something done and can't because i can't take the heat). this is also part of the bigger issue of that i can't acclimate to the heat because Mom must have the AC on and there's really no place where i can go outside and lounge at all that's comfortable enough. i need a good hammock and some netting out there.

 

[tortoise]

yes, i'm familiar with those aspects of things. so far i am not diabetic or near diabetic but i am a bit too plump and i don't like how i feel (especially when the summer gets hot and i want to be outside getting something done and can't because i can't take the heat). this is also part of the bigger issue of that i can't acclimate to the heat because Mom must have the AC on and there's really no place where i can go outside and lounge at all that's comfortable enough. i need a good hammock and some netting out there.

similar problem, I do fine in summer until DH turns the AC on. Uggh. Can you block off the AC vent in one room and keep the temperature more moderate in that room?

 

[tortoise]

If you have diabetes and can't get anything other than hi carb foods, you can mitigate it to some point by eating a lot of cinnamon. Cinnamon helps insulin work better. Also, I've found that if you can keep your calories down (which, admittedly, most of us Type 2's haven't done and that's the problem!) your body WILL burn those carbs.

very true! walking after eating (or any cardio exercise you can tolerate) will help. Time-restricted feeding helps reduce insulin sensitivity for those whose pancreas still makes insulin. I think these are very important tips for everyone to know. People who rely on struggle meals or food pantries tend to have an extremely difficult time with managing their weight. Nutrition policy hasn't quite adapted to the circumstances in the USA, our hungry people are not literally starving so the type of food aid needed here is not the same as what is needed when delivering aid to those in a widespread famine/starvation situation. Food aid in the USA will feed you straight into prediabetes, if not worse.

I am just not comfortable with how struggle meals over long term with current USA lifestyle create disease for the people who are least able to cope with it or access health care. It's not right. I am not aware of any solutions. Even educating people is extremely limited because knowing better and doing better are totally different.

Eating is a way to cope with discomfort and pain, and people living in poverty cope with overwhelming discomfort/stress/pain. I remember when I was living in poverty, finding a quarter on the sidewalk was a big deal, because 2 quarters would buy a Wendy's frosty - otherwise known as a 5 minute break from suffering. Any spare change was immediately spent on cheap, immediate comfort (junk food), and windfalls were spent on slightly less cheap comfort (for me it was craft supplies - something I could do to forget about my circumstances for a while). Poverty and food insecurity change people's logic, priorities so dramatically to make what seems "foolish" to me now looking back be the best course of action. I couldn't make better choices because I couldn't tolerate the amount of pain life had served me. The cheap immediate comforts caused more pain - at the time I didn't know that my struggles were due to health problems that were made worse by how I ate, and at the time I experienced too much discomfort to be able to tolerate the discomfort of changing eating habits (assuming I had financial means to change them, which I did not). Instead I ate nothing but ramen and peanut butter for months, using a single candle for light because I couldn't afford to use electricity other than hot water for bathing and washing a dish, and microwaving my ramen. I kept the heat at 40 degrees through winter because I couldn't afford more propane (I ran out in spring anyway and had some cold nights). DS14 (then 2 years old) lived with my parents because the situation wasn't tolerable for a young child. I had gotten some since by then, and had more control of my finances post-divorce, so I was saving every spare penny to buy a bed. I didn't have a bed, couch or fridge. Eventually I was able to buy a little wicker bench with a cushion so DS could sleep over, a little loveseat from a thrift store (that I still have), and a bed - the cheapest mattress set I could find. I was lucky - my parents helped pay for a lawyer, the divorce went smoothly, a temp job led to full-time employment, my state has a program to pay for daycare for low-income working parents, and I found DH on an online dating site so I had the distraction of a new relationship. We lived 45 miles apart - close enough to see each other frequently and far enough I didn't have to share too many details of my life. And when I lost my job and XDH stopped paying child support all in the same week (!!), DH invited me to move in with him and my parents handled renting my house and selling it to get me out of my mortgage without debt.
Struggle meals appeal to me, but I cannot get over that they provide high-calorie malnutrition and cause health problems.

 

[Britesea]

Tortoise, I was unaware of how your life has progressed. You have overcome major difficulties! I grew up upper middle class, including marriage #1. After I had gained a bit of weight (about 20#s that didn't come off after the baby) he told me that if I was fat he wouldn't love me. Silly me, my thought was "How can that be? I'm still the same person!" and I think at least part of my continuing weight gain was an attempt to prove it. Alas, he Meant it, and found someone else (skinny) to replace me. When I married again, DH(current) proved that love doesn't need money (or skinny beauty!) and I've been happier with him these last 37 years than I was for the first half of my life, even though we have lived most of our lives below the so-called poverty line. The overeating did cause diabetes, but I've been controlling it for 15 years with diet (and a half-pill of Metformin which I hope I will be able to wean off)

 

[tortoise]

Tortoise, I was unaware of how your life has progressed. You have overcome major difficulties! I grew up upper middle class, including marriage #1. After I had gained a bit of weight (about 20#s that didn't come off after the baby) he told me that if I was fat he wouldn't love me. Silly me, my thought was "How can that be? I'm still the same person!" and I think at least part of my continuing weight gain was an attempt to prove it. Alas, he Meant it, and found someone else (skinny) to replace me. When I married again, DH(current) proved that love doesn't need money (or skinny beauty!) and I've been happier with him these last 37 years than I was for the first half of my life, even though we have lived most of our lives below the so-called poverty line. The overeating did cause diabetes, but I've been controlling it for 15 years with diet (and a half-pill of Metformin which I hope I will be able to wean off)

it's a bit hard for me to comprehend as well. One of the reasons I'm so attached to this forum, y'all have been with me on that whole wild ride.

Congrats on finding love that loves you back

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You have overcome so much! Despite health challenges you've proven what a strong person you really are.

 

[Cecilia's-life]

Happy to see this thread revived. I get nervous about this economy and how I'm about to be feeding a family of 5. We will be switching to completely cloth diapers soon enough. Too much risk of running out. And I'm not buying any more cans of formula "just in case" I don't want to take from those who need it.

 

[flowerbug]

similar problem, I do fine in summer until DH turns the AC on. Uggh. Can you block off the AC vent in one room and keep the temperature more moderate in that room?

i can and i do at times but it ends up not being very practical. we're talking back and forth throughout the day and i have my computer playing music so she can hear that. i'm going to see if i can get a little bump up in the temperature this summer. even a few degrees would help me a lot. we'll see how it goes.