33 People Share The 'Poverty Food' Of 2024

We got in touch with WhatIsThisWhereAmI and the Redditor agreed to tell us more about the viral discussion that they've started.

"As mentioned in my post, I had run across someone else's post asking about people's favorite childhood poverty meals, and I realized a ton of the things mentioned there are no longer cheap," WhatIsThisWhereAmI explained to Bored Panda.

"I myself have been surprised in the last several years by some of these changes, and I was curious how the shopping habits of people with strict budgets may have changed in response."

After going through the replies, the Redditor said "there were definitely a few themes [that were mentioned more than others], namely cheap, bulk-packaged, dried foundational items for your pantry."

"Beans & lentils were the most popular suggestion for getting your protein, and rice was by far the top suggestion for getting your carbs, followed by potatoes (which people correctly noted is an almost nutritionally complete item on its own). Buying whole chicken and spreading it across several meals seems to be a popular hack as well."

According to WhatIsThisWhereAmIMany, most people mentioned eating less meat as a matter of budget rather than preference or health. "There was also a lot of talk about how you might as well eat fresh food since packaged foods are so much more expensive these days. And of course, shopping deals and markdowns, but also at foreign grocery stores which are often cheaper."

The good thing, according to the author of this post, is that "even someone with little-to-no skill can follow an easy recipe in a slow cooker or instant pot, or throw some red beans and rice together.

"The real problem for most people seems to be time poverty. When you're working long hours and are tired at the end of the day, convenience food, however expensive it might be, is hard for people to avoid," they added.

Also, coming up with the ultimate poverty meal cookbook is quite difficult because grocery prices do not move uniformly. As one rises, the other one can drop, and then vice versa.

"There are ways to cook cheap healthy meals with minimal prep time, but I think there's also a mental fatigue that prevents people from tackling the learning curve to figure out what those meals are and how to cook them," WhatIsThisWhereAmI said.

"Tired people just keep plugging away doing what they know, even if they can't always afford to, and folks on tight budgets are much more likely to be suffering from this kind of fatigue. I think researching healthy recipes made with cheap ingredients and planning your shopping ahead of time are the best remedies to this. It's just getting past that barrier."