"Adopt a Frugal Mindset and Cook Smarter"

Poll of the Day

Poll of the Day » "Adopt a Frugal Mindset and Cook Smarter"
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Post #2 was unavailable or deleted.
That's probably not bad advice regardless of tariffs. Just like green energy and conservation is a good idea regardless of your beliefs on climate change.
There are four lights.
All of our food is trash anyway. You need 7-10 times the amount of produce from stores just to get a single serving of vegetables because microfarming and mass-producing them strips them of nutrients. We have so much high fructose corn syrup in everything, not to mention the dyes and pesticides that are downright illegal in most other places. Did you know that corn from the US isn't even classified as corn by other countries because of how genetically modified it is? Even our "healthy" food is crap, as well as expensive. The only option is to grow your own produce and make your own bread. Otherwise you'll be eating like crap for the rest of your lives unless you can manage to get out of this backwards ass country and go somewhere better.

PSA for Europeans, Americans do try to eat healthy, but our healthy food is expensive and not even that good for us. Then we get stressed/depressed from our work-culture and medical bills and go eat at Burger King to take the hurt away. That's why we're fat.
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
Just don't eat American junk food and you'll be fine for the most part

No Pringles, no Oreos, no Twinkies, etc.
I really mean that much to you?
Girl, You Know It's True
https://theonion.com/trump-informs-nation-they-better-start-liking-those-little-canned-wieners/

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/67f46916.jpg
WASHINGTONSaying that Americans should anticipate certain lifestyle changes as a result of his newly announced tariffs, President Donald Trump informed the nation Thursday that they better start liking those little canned wieners. Hope you arent too attached to whatever fancy crap you eat now, because those little wiener dogs in the cans are coming back on the menu in a big way, said Trump, adding that if Americans didnt already have a good, long fork for fishing wieners out of the can, they were sure as hell going to need one soon. Youre gonna eat em cold, and youre gonna like em cold. Every meal. Dont even think about trying to gussy them up with pickle relish. The only way you make it through these next few years is filling every shelf in your pantry with little canned wieners and knocking back the leftover hot dog water with a smile on your face. Buckle up, America. You live in the wiener times now. At press time, millions of Americans reportedly realized they could no longer afford the canned wieners.
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum,
Minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
Damn_Underscore posted...
Just don't eat American junk food and you'll be fine for the most part

No Pringles, no Oreos, no Twinkies, etc.
Except that buying organic food is expensive and not everyone has enough space to grow vegetables.
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captpackrat posted...
https://theonion.com/trump-informs-nation-they-better-start-liking-those-little-canned-wieners/

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/67f46916.jpg
WASHINGTONSaying that Americans should anticipate certain lifestyle changes as a result of his newly announced tariffs, President Donald Trump informed the nation Thursday that they better start liking those little canned wieners. Hope you arent too attached to whatever fancy crap you eat now, because those little wiener dogs in the cans are coming back on the menu in a big way, said Trump, adding that if Americans didnt already have a good, long fork for fishing wieners out of the can, they were sure as hell going to need one soon. Youre gonna eat em cold, and youre gonna like em cold. Every meal. Dont even think about trying to gussy them up with pickle relish. The only way you make it through these next few years is filling every shelf in your pantry with little canned wieners and knocking back the leftover hot dog water with a smile on your face. Buckle up, America. You live in the wiener times now. At press time, millions of Americans reportedly realized they could no longer afford the canned wieners.
Fortunately for me, my diet consists almost entirely on the algae scraped from inside my aquarium.
There are four lights.
Damn_Underscore posted...
Just don't eat American junk food and you'll be fine for the most part

No Pringles, no Oreos, no Twinkies, etc.
My brother in Christ, even our peanut butter and bread has added sugars and high fructose corn syrup. It goes beyond just not eating "junk food". All of our food is junk food!
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
Humble_Novice posted...
Except that buying organic food is expensive and not everyone has enough space to grow vegetables.
Unfortunately you are doomed to just not eat vegetables then.
We work so hard and can't even get decent food in exchange. It's a thankless country with or without Trump.
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
This is the peanut butter I eat, it's not organic but there's noting wrong with the ingredients

https://www.amazon.com/Smuckers-Natural-Chunky-Peanut-Butter/dp/B0004MWXG8/
I really mean that much to you?
Girl, You Know It's True
it really bugs me that you have to own a home to grow your own food .
it also bugs me that the average American doesn't grow any of their own food or that having chickens in your yard is considered uncivilized.
*flops*
Flappers posted...
All of our food is trash anyway. You need 7-10 times the amount of produce from stores just to get a single serving of vegetables because microfarming and mass-producing them strips them of nutrients. We have so much high fructose corn syrup in everything, not to mention the dyes and pesticides that are downright illegal in most other places. Did you know that corn from the US isn't even classified as corn by other countries because of how genetically modified it is? Even our "healthy" food is crap, as well as expensive. The only option is to grow your own produce and make your own bread. Otherwise you'll be eating like crap for the rest of your lives unless you can manage to get out of this backwards ass country and go somewhere better.

PSA for Europeans, Americans do try to eat healthy, but our healthy food is expensive and not even that good for us. Then we get stressed/depressed from our work-culture and medical bills and go eat at Burger King to take the hurt away. That's why we're fat.


There's nothing wrong with GMOs.

Humble_Novice posted...

Except that buying organic food is expensive and not everyone has enough space to grow vegetables.


I didn't know you could grow Oreos.
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Revelation34 posted...
I didn't know you could grow Oreos.

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-oreos/

Among others. Granted, you probably aren't actually going to be able to grow your own cocoa, sugar cane/beets, and vanilla, even if you can manage the wheat, dairy cows, and chickens, but home-grown Oreos aren't entirely out of the realm of possibility if your climate supports all of those things.
This is my signature. It exists to keep people from skipping the last line of my posts.
adjl posted...


https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-oreos/

Among others. Granted, you probably aren't actually going to be able to grow your own cocoa, sugar cane/beets, and vanilla, even if you can manage the wheat, dairy cows, and chickens, but home-grown Oreos aren't entirely out of the realm of possibility if your climate supports all of those things.


No I meant literally growing them.
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why are you the way that you are
see my gundams here
https://imgur.com/a/F7xKM5r
updated 04/09/25; hg black knight squad cal -re. a
I've been learning about foraging in an attempt to supplement my food supply. Just plants- they tend to be easier than mushrooms. And there are fewer (but certainly not zero) lethal mistakes to be made.

Like, I've eaten two things I was a little nervous about, but my ID/cooking tech respectively was on-point.
"Show me your skin, I want to look within
Perform the alchemy that keeps you with me" -"xo skeleton", La Force
Kallainanna posted...
I've been learning about foraging in an attempt to supplement my food supply. Just plants- they tend to be easier than mushrooms. And there are fewer (but certainly not zero) lethal mistakes to be made.

Like, I've eaten two things I was a little nervous about, but my ID/cooking tech respectively was on-point.
The most important thing to remember is that if it looks like onion or garlic, but doesn't smell like onion or garlic, it's probably poisonous.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8aa2b4d1.jpg
(This is autumn crocus, a deadly poison)

Also teach yourself what poison hemlock looks and smells like. The leaves, especially in a young plant, are easily mistaken for wild parsley, and the root can be mistaken for carrot or parsnip. It has a peculiar smell, however, often described as being like mouse urine.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7c8b830e.jpg
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum,
Minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
captpackrat posted...
The most important thing to remember is that if it looks like onion or garlic, but doesn't smell like onion or garlic, it's probably poisonous.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8aa2b4d1.jpg
(This is autumn crocus, a deadly poison)

Also teach yourself what poison hemlock looks and smells like. The leaves, especially in a young plant, are easily mistaken for wild parsley, and the root can be mistaken for carrot or parsnip. It has a peculiar smell, however, often described as being like mouse urine.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7c8b830e.jpg
Well, I know the first one. Foraging some ramps was an incredibly exciting moment and breaking a leaf and taking a whiff was how I was dead certain of my ID.

I didn't know hemlock smelled like that, but I did successfully identify Queen Anne's lace- the stems are hairy, hemlock's are smooth. It also importantly smells distinctly like, well, carrots because that is what it is, for those of you wondering if you crush it. Luckily hemlock is rarer too.

The other dicey edible I partook in was pokeweed. Short, specific usable harvest window green, unbranched, unflowering, cut well above any tinge of magenta , rigid requirements around boiling it to break down the nasty toxins.
Probably one of the most delicious things I've ever foraged, to be honest.

Probably the most striking thing I saw was a lonely roadside cow parsnip in a stand of Japanese knotweed I counted the flowers carefully even though giant hogweed doesn't typically grow around here . Something about a plant that was taller than me made me happy. Sadly someone took a weed-whacker to the whole lot. The knotweed came back with a quickness, of course, but my big friend did not.
"Show me your skin, I want to look within
Perform the alchemy that keeps you with me" -"xo skeleton", La Force
Kallainanna posted...
Luckily hemlock is rarer too.
Not around here. It grows just about everywhere. I've even seen it in the city, growing next to a school bus stop. Children are the most common victims of hemlock poisoning, because the stems are hollow and can be used as pea shooters or whistles.

I've had to fight it for several years as it keeps trying to invade my property. While I'm sure my animals won't eat it because of the bad taste and foul odor, I'd rather not take the chance. It appears to be somewhat resistant to 2,4-D and dicamba, so I end up having to go nuclear with glyphosate outside the fence. Inside, I end up digging the stuff up. Carefully, with gloves, because the toxin coniine can be absorbed through the skin. Gotta dig down deep, too, because the root can get very long, like a carrot. I stuff the plants into plastic bags and dispose of them in the trash. Last year I filled an entire 33 gallon bag.
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum,
Minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
Revelation34 posted...
There's nothing wrong with GMOs.
Not unless it gets to a point that the food item is so modified that it's lost most of it's nutritional value. Vegetables across the world (but especially in America) are like this thanks to GMOs and monoculture farming (I erroneously used the term microfarming before, sorry).

It's really a bummer that in order to eat proper food in this country the options are becoming just to make or grow your own food at home, because they add so much unnecessary salt and sugars and dyes to our foods, and because even our healthy foods/produce aren't that healthy.
...Too bad most of us can't afford to do that!
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
fyi bread and butter is considered junk food under current usda guidelines
see my gundams here
https://imgur.com/a/F7xKM5r
updated 04/09/25; hg black knight squad cal -re. a
Flappers posted...
All of our food is trash anyway. You need 7-10 times the amount of produce from stores just to get a single serving of vegetables because microfarming and mass-producing them strips them of nutrients. We have so much high fructose corn syrup in everything, not to mention the dyes and pesticides that are downright illegal in most other places. Did you know that corn from the US isn't even classified as corn by other countries because of how genetically modified it is? Even our "healthy" food is crap, as well as expensive. The only option is to grow your own produce and make your own bread. Otherwise you'll be eating like crap for the rest of your lives unless you can manage to get out of this backwards ass country and go somewhere better.

PSA for Europeans, Americans do try to eat healthy, but our healthy food is expensive and not even that good for us. Then we get stressed/depressed from our work-culture and medical bills and go eat at Burger King to take the hurt away. That's why we're fat.

I basically agree with all youre saying and yet I still encounter plenty of Americans on this site who are convinced that the US is the best country in the world for food. Its crazy.
Glob posted...
I basically agree with all youre saying and yet I still encounter plenty of Americans on this site who are convinced that the US is the best country in the world for food. Its crazy.
Not just food. Uncle Sam brainwashes everyone with the illusion of democracy and the notion of liberty and justice for all. Compare us to any one of the other "developed" nations and you'll realize we're lacking in basically every way. The only constistently good thing is that Americans make a lot more money than people in other places, but we also spend a greater percentage of that money on healthcare (our healthcare system sucks), education (our education system also sucks), rent (landlords suck and mortgages suck because of what they're allowed to get away with), and necessities (like food, which sucks here) - meaning that our income in relation to what we must pay is disproportionately inbalanced compared to other places.

To visualize it, go to ifitweremyhome.com, select any developed democratic nation as your current location then click "United States". It'll show you what will be better or worse in your life if you were to live there. For example, I want to live in New Zealand some day. Here is what it would be like if I were to go from living there, to living here.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/70b9d873.jpg

Yet when I complain about something as simple as food here or as complex as labor laws, wealth inequality, women's rights, etc., people I talk to get all 'MURICA about it and pass my thoughts off as pure nonsense. These are the same people who think that America is the oldest nation in the world, accusing me of falling to "anti-american propaganda" when they themselves have fallen for a fool's game in this dystopian hypercapitalist landscape and may or may not be in a cult (MAGA).

Sometimes I feel like I'm downright going insane. That's about the time I go and eat my feelings away at a fast food joint. But it doesn't really make me happy.
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
ConfusedTorchic posted...
why are you the way that you are


Read the full quote chain.
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Flappers posted...
Not just food. Uncle Sam brainwashes everyone with the illusion of democracy and the notion of liberty and justice for all. Compare us to any one of the other "developed" nations and you'll realize we're lacking in basically every way. The only constistently good thing is that Americans make a lot more money than people in other places, but we also spend a greater percentage of that money on healthcare (our healthcare system sucks), education (our education system also sucks), rent (landlords suck and mortgages suck because of what they're allowed to get away with), and necessities (like food, which sucks here) - meaning that our income in relation to what we must pay is disproportionately inbalanced compared to other places.

To visualize it, go to ifitweremyhome.com, select any developed democratic nation as your current location then click "United States". It'll show you what will be better or worse in your life if you were to live there. For example, I want to live in New Zealand some day. Here is what it would be like if I were to go from living there, to living here.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/70b9d873.jpg

Yet when I complain about something as simple as food here or as complex as labor laws, wealth inequality, women's rights, etc., people I talk to get all 'MURICA about it and pass my thoughts off as pure nonsense. These are the same people who think that America is the oldest nation in the world, accusing me of falling to "anti-american propaganda" when they themselves have fallen for a fool's game in this dystopian hypercapitalist landscape and may or may not be in a cult (MAGA).

Sometimes I feel like I'm downright going insane. That's about the time I go and eat my feelings away at a fast food joint. But it doesn't really make me happy.

You can also often have a much higher quality of living in developing countries than youd get in the US. Thats not to say that everybody in those developing countries has that privilege, but as a foreigner going in

I moved to a developing country and would never consider living back in my country of birth.
Flappers posted...
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/220e7887.png

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4330c2ab.jpg
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum,
Minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
It's pretty easy to cook on a low budget while still being healthy and tasty. You just need to be willing to eat the same thing for multiple meals in a row. Cook a big ol pot of soup/stew/chili/whatever and eat it for 3-4 days straight, then do it again. If you get bored of eating the same thing over and over, it requires more money for variety.
koopabrosblack posted...
It's pretty easy to cook on a low budget while still being healthy and tasty. You just need to be willing to eat the same thing for multiple meals in a row. Cook a big ol pot of soup/stew/chili/whatever and eat it for 3-4 days straight, then do it again. If you get bored of eating the same thing over and over, it requires more money for variety.


Sounds expensive to me.
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koopabrosblack posted...
It's pretty easy to cook on a low budget while still being healthy and tasty. You just need to be willing to eat the same thing for multiple meals in a row.
You also need to be willing to have a deficiency because human beings need variety in their diet to be healthy. I have eaten chicken and rice pilaf for the sake of saving money so much that I can hear my organs begging for vitamins.
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
I remember my brother getting very irritated with me because I said my solution to the "Big Mac Index" was just to not eat McDonalds anymore.
yeah, I'm thinking I'm back
Flappers posted...

You also need to be willing to have a deficiency because human beings need variety in their diet to be healthy. I have eaten chicken and rice pilaf for the sake of saving money so much that I can hear my organs begging for vitamins.

Most people can't do this due to the price but if possible you could just buy a multivitamin and get most of the vitamin needs back. It depends on your budget and how much you have saved. I haven't been able to buy any in a long time. I get my vitamins through other means.
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Revelation34 posted...
Most people can't do this due to the price but if possible you could just buy a multivitamin and get most of the vitamin needs back. It depends on your budget and how much you have saved. I haven't been able to buy any in a long time. I get my vitamins through other means.
So we live in a society where what we can afford to eat is just the same thing constantly and pills. Great.
Wealthiest country on earth but most of us have to live paycheck to paycheck while a few fat zealots sit on top. This place fucking sucks.
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
Flappers posted...

So we live in a society where what we can afford to eat is just the same thing constantly and pills. Great.
Wealthiest country on earth but most of us have to live paycheck to paycheck while a few fat zealots sit on top. This place fucking sucks.


Only thing I'm good on is protein really.
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Flappers posted...
You also need to be willing to have a deficiency because human beings need variety in their diet to be healthy. I have eaten chicken and rice pilaf for the sake of saving money so much that I can hear my organs begging for vitamins.

You'd apparently be surprised by how much you can cover your bases by changing up what vegetables you toss in every time you make a new pot. If it wasn't clear, I did not imply you make the same exact thing every time, I meant you make a different thing that can be made in a large batch and last a few days.
Revelation34 posted...
Only thing I'm good on is protein really.
Damn :(

Only thing I'm good on is antidepressants and anxiety medication. I have more pharmaceuticals than actual vitamins in my body. 300 milligrams daily of my anxiety medication alone yet I can't even remember the last time I had a decent cantaloupe.

This is no kind of life, my friends.
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
Flappers posted...

Damn :(

Only thing I'm good on is antidepressants and anxiety medication. I have more pharmaceuticals than actual vitamins in my body. 300 milligrams daily of my anxiety medication alone yet I can't even remember the last time I had a decent cantaloupe.

This is no kind of life, my friends.


My new doctor wouldn't give me klonopin which would have stopped my insomnia too. Only medicine I took that actually worked for everything I needed.
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Revelation34 posted...
My new doctor wouldn't give me klonopin which would have stopped my insomnia too. Only medicine I took that actually worked for everything I needed.
That sucks, man. Insomnia is horrible. Wish I could help you out. We all need to have each-other's backs and whatever.
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
Flappers posted...

That sucks, man. Insomnia is horrible. Wish I could help you out. We all need to have each-other's backs and whatever.


A little of it is my fault. I don't try to sleep early enough most days. Most of the time because I want to watch Youtube. I seem to not be able to fall asleep If I try early a lot of the time though.
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Flappers posted...
I can't even remember the last time I had a decent cantaloupe.
Cantaloupe is just a giant egg. They're both about $5.

Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum,
Minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
captpackrat posted...
Cantaloupe is just a giant egg. They're both about $5.
But the ones from stores all taste like shit.
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
Almost every post I've seen from you is about how miserable you are/how horrible America is. I live in America and do think it sucks and is probably the worst developed nation in the world to live in, but at some point you gotta live with what you have. All that thinking about what's wrong with life is counterproductive, and you gotta just do what you can to make it more livable.

I hope that didn't come off in a "if you're depressed just stop being sad" way. I'm just trying to say don't give up on trying to find some enjoyment out of life, because if you give up you already lost. It is a struggle every day for sure

Edit: Just for clarity I don't mean "give up" in a morbid way but like, never leaving the house, shrinking into bad habits, etc.
AltOmega2 posted...
I remember my brother getting very irritated with me because I said my solution to the "Big Mac Index" was just to not eat McDonalds anymore.

That's a good point. The "big mac index" should really be the homemade hamburger index
I really mean that much to you?
Girl, You Know It's True
bachewychomp posted...
Almost every post I've seen from you is about how miserable you are/how horrible America is. I live in America and do think it sucks and is probably the worst developed nation in the world to live in, but at some point you gotta live with what you have. All that thinking about what's wrong with life is counterproductive, and you gotta just do what you can to make it more livable.

I hope that didn't come off in a "if you're depressed just stop being sad" way. I'm just trying to say don't give up on trying to find some enjoyment out of life, because if you give up you already lost. It is a struggle every day for sure

Edit: Just for clarity I don't mean "give up" in a morbid way but like, never leaving the house, shrinking into bad habits, etc.
If you're talking to me then that's solid advice but I've already heard it. I've been dealing with MDD again. Not to say my dislike for America stems from my depression, but my depression certainly makes it harder to deal with. I also recently lost my job and I'm going a bit stir-crazy. I think I need to get off of the internet for a while.
I call Cthulhu "daddy"
multivitamins can be harsh on your stomach.
*flops*
Poll of the Day » "Adopt a Frugal Mindset and Cook Smarter"