It's Time to Start Practicing Eating on the Cheap The Late Prepper with JD Rucker

When I was in college, then later as a struggling new father and husband, we learned to eat very inexpensively. There were weeks when I could get by on under $10 with Ramen noodles (the Dollar Store often had them at $0.10 a package), cheap fresh veggies (a cucumber was practically a full meal for less than a quarter), and generic packages of processed meat.
It’s a lot harder to do that today with inflation and growing food scarcity, but here’s the thing. If the crap hits the fan in any of an assortment of highly possible ways, many of us will be stuck trying to feed our families without the resources to do so very well.
Eating insufficient amounts of food can harm us physically. But even those who have stored away emergency food or are living lifestyles that allows them to produce their own may find themselves with a different challenge. There can be psychological repercussions from major dietary changes. You or members of your family may find eating beans and rice every day drives you a little bonkers.
I am hopeful that the current trajectory of the nation and the world can be reversed, but I’m not going to sit around and assume it will all end well. Knowing this, we are currently practicing “lean weeks” in which we live off the survival food we have rather than ordering out or getting fresh food from the grocery store.
I discussed this a bit on today’s podcast. I referenced this article by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper:
Rock-Bottom Meal Plan for Those Weeks When Money Is Tight
Things are tough in America and they’re likely to get tougher. Many of us are forced to reallocate our money from one necessity to another and often, the thing that suffers first is our diets. If times are tight, you might find this article helpful.
It’s a meal plan created from recipes and strategies in my new paperback, What to Eat When You’re Broke. We released this in PDF format recently and readers loved it. We got so many requests to put it in hard copy format that we couldn’t say no! So, it’s available on Amazon now as a paperback.
The recipes in this article are all included in the book, which I’m selling just above cost. I hope you enjoy it, and please, give us a review on Amazon to help more people to see it when they’re searching for a way to feed their family during difficult times.
Flat Broke Meal Plan
This meal plan is per person per week. Multiply it by the number of people in your family. I’ve tried to make it as varied as possible, and there are a few things included that are not the cheapest on the market. They’ve been added for nutrient value.
Obviously, if there are allergies or foods that your family won’t eat, feel free to substitute.
I shouldn’t need to say this, but it’s impossible to write one meal plan that will work for every single reader. If you are vegan, gluten-free, diabetic, suffer from food allergies, eat keto, or strictly follow a particular nutritional lifestyle, this may not work for you.
With that being said, let’s look at our menu! Stars * indicate that the full recipe is available in the book and you might also have your own recipes for these items.
Breakfast
Day 1: Oatmeal with brown sugar and banana
Day 2: Cornbread* with butter and jam
Day 3: Leftover cornbread, sliced and heated with a butter and brown sugar drizzle
Day 4: Peanut butter and crackers, apple
Day 5: Rice cooked with milk, brown sugar, and cinnamon
Day 6: Biscuits and gravy*
Day 7: Scrambled eggs and toast OR homemade pancakes with fruit
Lunch
Day 1: PB&J, apple
Day 2: Pasta salad with tuna* (or canned chicken)
Day 3: Bean burrito
Day 4: Tomato soup* and crackers
Day 5: Cold peanut butter noodles with shredded cabbage*
Day 6: Tortilla pizzas*
Day 7: Leftovers
Dinner
Day 1: Beef and vegetable soup* with frybread*
Day 2: Baked beans with mac and cheese (canned and boxed easy meal for busy days)
Day 3: Fried Gnocchi* with canned marinara sauce
Day 4: Crockpot white chicken chili*
Day 5: Pasta with mari