Telos: Vlad_the_Inaner: I'll just leave this here

The Perfect 3.3 Cent Breakfast

Intriguing...

"Empty the sprouted grains into a two cup measure and put four more ounces of wheat in the jar, flood and set aside overnight as before. Now you have a perpetual routine taking up no real time and producing a fantastic amount of food for little cost."

Hmm... little cost, unless you count the time it takes to make? Every 4 hours I need to be home to change the water. I guess I run home during lunch, which still is going to cost at least $1 in gas. Not to mention buying the grinder, the thermos, boiling the water (running a stove costs money too you know!) getting jars, screens, etc.

Or I can buy a box of cereal for $3, and just pour some milk in the morning.

Yeah, I'll stick this on my list of "great, healthy meals I'll eat when I have a butler to do all the preparation for me."

Because sitting in attendance is the only way to keep something moist? Surplus water to account for absorption? Impossible!

If you're not busy, do the 4 hour thing. Its probably an optimal period thing. If busy, I suspect that before bed, and before breakfast is enough. I doubt the wheat is going to get depressed and commit suicide because it's neglected.

Been there. Done that.

When I first applied for disability, I got put on SSI (Social Security Income) meaning they gave me $450 a month. Plus Medicaid. My basic living expenses were around $675.

Pretty well, to keep from loosing everything as I went through the long, drawn out disability process, I maxed out my credit card and had to drain my savings. Luckily, I had a very understanding land lord. (That, plus the fact when I moved in, while working, I foot the bill for around $2000 worth of electrical upgrades, saved him another $1500 by repairing the old monster through the wall a/c by catching the a/c repairman he sent in a lie. He said the A/C was dead. I knew it burned out a buss plate. So my landlord got the plate and I installed it.)

I learned all about rice, bullion cubes, margarine, potatoes and 'day old' bread. I took cheap, krap beef, boiled the shiat out of it, cut off the gristle and tossed the rest back into the pot and tossed in cheap onions, celery and carrots and cheap frozen peas and then rice.

Buy a cheap bag of chicken quarters -- and cut off about a pound and a half of hidden fat -- and you can use them right down to the bones. Leftover bones can be stored in the freezer, then, when you have enough, baked in the oven for a bit and tossed into a pot of water with some meaty thighs and drumsticks, assorted cheap veggies and you have a pot of chicken soup. Remove the bones and it's chicken stock. Cook the krap out of it and remove the soggy vegetables and pulverized meat and it's broth. (The meat gets saved to add to things later.)

There was a time when grocery store butchers would either give you a few pounds of beef bones or sell them at maybe 10 cents a pound. Sometimes, less. They had no use for them. Those bones could produce a great beef stock.

Around the time the oil crisis put thousands out of work, the grocery stores started charging for the bones -- usually about half the price of beef, because the demand went up.

Each time folks turned to cheaper food alternatives, the costs went UP! Folks turned to chicken, which was under $0.50 a pound and now it runs about $2.00. Pork was dirt cheap and suddenly it became almost as costly as beef and the price of basic hams just exploded.

Scrap pork, meaning 'seasoning bits', consisting of fat, hide, gristle and a tiny bits of meat quadrupled in price.

Beef ribs went so high that you nearly needed to take out a loan to buy a pack. Cheap stew meat surpassed the cost of previous London broil. Seafood costs just went absolutely insane.

I discovered sardines. I discovered off brand canned vegetables -- usually with a bit more stems and twigs in them than the premium. I discovered cheap, frozen broccoli chunks -- with stem pieces in them that could NEVER be cooked beyond the fibrous stage.

Tomato prices soared to obscene heights and I found that canned tomato's stayed cheap. Then they came out with canned tomato's from Mexico with a bunch of celery and krap tossed in. (Give it a whole new fancy name but in reality, it was tossing in cheap filler vegetables to get more bang for their buck.)

I discovered bent and dent stores -- which were becoming a thing back then -- church pantries, the Salvation Army and pasta. Lots of pasta.

When I won my disability, my income jumped to $750. Because I made so much money, I lost my Medicaid and had to pay for my meds. I did get a bulk sum of cash from back payments, of which my lawyer took 1/3 off the top. The rest went to paying off my accumulated bills.

I splurged. I bought a big family bucket of KFC with all the trimmings and it lasted me for three days. With what little I had left over, I went to discount stores and stocked up on cheap canned and dry goods.
Shortly after, when I was starting to get a grasp on things, my bank upped it's fees and kept upping them. My truck started falling apart and I did a lot of business with junk yards. Credit card interest rates exploded. The cost of 'cheap' propane gas doubled and doubled again.

Medicare stopped providing dentures and the costs of dentists jumped higher than anything else. I discovered why low cost dentists are not often the best to go to. One tried to pull a tooth without numbing it and another cracked a socket getting one out. Another jabbed me with numbing agent from a needle gun he had just used on another patient -- meaning he didn't change the needle.

One made me a set of economy dentures that I later found out were what they call 'a starter set'. They give them to you as they make your real set. Teeth popped out.

Been there and done that and didn't like it. When I moved home to take care of my elderly Mom -- and because my landlord evicted me because I fell behind in the rent -- things improved.

It took me 5 years of searching to find financial assistance programs for her, which in turn saved her money, which in turn helped us both out. The programs are there, but damn hard to find.

She had been paying $400 for 1 prescription until one of my brothers stumbled across an elder assistance plan which covers everything. However, her health insurance, which helped pay for her meds, still deducts a monthly payment, even though costs to them have dropped down to nearly zero.

Being poor in America is not a pleasant thing. It's much better than over in Africa or several nations, especially India, but it's a struggle. What makes it so bad is that in the US as poor folks go and live in cheap, krappy homes, in bad neighborhoods, scramble for cheap foods or wind up living under bridges, all around them they see major luxuries.

That eats at you after a time. It changes your perspective and though patterns. You grow resentful.

Yeah, I can survive off $1.50 a day -- but I don't like it. Plus, in the long run, it would affect my health. There's a gut feeling you get when, in a food store, you're pricing 'seasoning pork' while, behind you, a couple are squabbling over what cut of steak to buy. You buy a 'log' of ground beef, which is packed with fat, beef seconds and water while a few feet away, someone is ordering hamburger made from prime steak, 84% lean and grass fed.

I didn't mention that today, it's legal to recycle cellulose -- the original clear 'plastic' wrap made from plants, into food products, to cut costs, bulk them up and provide you with absolutely no nutritional values at all. It can be added to any processed food or cheap round beef.

Spiralmonkey: Vlad_the_Inaner: I'll just leave this here

The Perfect 3.3 Cent Breakfast

FTA: "An Economic Note: All the prices quoted on this page are in 1976 U.S. currency" - now we know how, we just have to build a time machine and we're all set for that sweet, sweet wheatsludge breakfast!

At least its not a silver dime.

Funny how google comes up mostly with survivalist sites offering buckets of it.

But just as a benchmark

25# for $27 (free super saver shipping)
Link

(about $0.27 a serving)

Then there is Walmart for $14

/Funny that farm stores don't seem to do a lot of internet purchasing. Maybe if they advertised with a sock monkey or something...

Lipspinach: Vlad_the_Inaner: I doubt the wheat is going to get depressed and commit suicide.

Maybe not, but I might if I had to do all that stuff just so I could
eat some crap that gave me the runs.

He actually covered that.

HIs claim is merely loose stools, and your body adjusts quickly.

/I hear hunger makes the best sauce.

Lipspinach: Vlad_the_Inaner: I doubt the wheat is going to get depressed and commit suicide.

Maybe not, but I might if I had to do all that stuff just so I could
eat some crap that gave me the runs.

Not to mention that, for roughly the same cost in modern money, you could just eat a bowl of old fashioned oatmeal.

BKITU: Lipspinach: Vlad_the_Inaner: I doubt the wheat is going to get depressed and commit suicide.

Maybe not, but I might if I had to do all that stuff just so I could
eat some crap that gave me the runs.

Not to mention that, for roughly the same cost in modern money, you could just eat a bowl of old fashioned oatmeal.

Plain? The wheat thing is self sweetened.

/you can get rolled oats at the feed store too

Jixa: I'm probably a little more critical than I should be, but getting food is easy if you know where to go.

Depends where. In cities, yeah. We have all sorts of free food events in my neighborhood (I'm lucky enough to never have been that broke).

But if you lived in a rural or maybe even some smaller towns... it may be harder.

Again, no experience... maybe others know more than I do.

relcec: wait, wtf are you supposed to do with a 25 pound bag of wheat?

3.3 cent (1975 dollars) breakfast (look back the thread)

NyteStorm: Living in a smaller town, I can attest to the difficulty of getting assistance. Between the scarcity and being looked at like you're the scum of the Earth (it happens, a lot) it can be difficult.

I'd bet. Small tows- where everyone knows everyone and aren't afraid to judge.

NyteStorm: downstairs: Jixa: I'm probably a little more critical than I should be, but getting food is easy if you know where to go.

Depends where. In cities, yeah. We have all sorts of free food events in my neighborhood (I'm lucky enough to never have been that broke).

But if you lived in a rural or maybe even some smaller towns... it may be harder.

Again, no experience... maybe others know more than I do.

Living in a smaller town, I can attest to the difficulty of getting assistance. Between the scarcity and being looked at like you're the scum of the Earth (it happens, a lot) it can be difficult.

So tired of being talked down to, being looked at like I'm trash, and all the other fun stuff that comes with being poor.

The upside is you get to kill most of the small town police force then go on to starring in 3 more movies and be 2nd in badass legends to only Chuck Norris

i don't know how much my food costs. the maid does the shopping, the cook cooks the food, and the servants bring it to me in the dining room.

now get off my lawn or ill sick the dogs with bees in their mouths on you