The week I tried to stretch $40 into 7 days of dinner

Last month my paycheck was short so I gave myself a hard limit of $40 for groceries for the whole week. I live in Portland so that's basically nothing. I bought a giant bag of pinto beans for $4, a 5 pound sack of potatoes for $3, some onions and a big bag of frozen spinach. I made bean soup on Monday, potato and spinach hash on Tuesday, and some sort of bean and potato mash thing Wednesday. By Thursday I was staring at a bowl of plain beans with salt and honestly wanted to cry. The whole week cost me $38.50 but I learned that beans are cheap and filling but also soul crushing without some flavor. Has anyone else found a way to make beans not taste like punishment?

2 comments

2 Comments

adams.harper9d ago

Oh come on, calling beans "soul crushing" is a little dramatic don't you think? A bag of chili powder and some garlic would have cost you maybe a dollar extra and completely changed those meals. You made it work on $38.50 which is impressive, but acting like you survived a war crime over plain beans is a stretch.

hugobarnes8d ago

@adams.harper is right, you'd think he ate a bag of rocks instead of beans (which are fine, honestly).