So for the next 2 weeks my money is very limited. After a month of this new job, I finally got paid. Talk about forced fasting haha. Either way it was worth it. But this check went straight to rent, with little left over. Im just trying to devise an eating plan for 2 weeks, doesnt have to be strictly raw, but does need to be as cheap as possible. Id love to veer away from the huge Raemen packs too haha. Im thinking lots of water with lemon and msm powder in it. And some nuts and fruits here and there. But is 2 weeks too long to eat that little?

Thanks in advance for any help!!!
Jay

Eat leafy greens.

Buy beans and sprout them at home.

Raw yam is good grated or chunky, mixed with vegs and whatever raw flavours you like, herbs, etc. (carbs)


Cheap.

hmm, are you expecting to have a return to normal finances after the 2 weeks?

eating lighter for that period might be OK. Make sure you arn't uncomfortable/spacey starting your new job!

otherwise I would do something like this for a longer-term-healthy/practical-low cost-mostly-raw diet.

..phew

:

- fruits: cantaloupe, bananas, apples and anything local and in season
- veggies: figure on getting the equivalent of 2 heads of lettuce and 1 head spinach (or other dark palatable green) per every 2-3 days or so. This should do it for veggies unless there are others you like. most of the stuff that is good for steaming..ain't all that filling but does complement cooked starches. On a very tight budget i would just stick to the 'salad' varieties

- tubers: lots to choose from, stake out the surrounding markets, see what you can get cheap, ethnic markets have good varieties/prices...or just get bags of yams/sweet potato. These should be your main stable for calories, after the fresh fruit.

- grains: stick with millet, quinoa, maybe brown rice...get the good stuff..even if its a bit more per box, grains shouldn't be a staple IMO. Some legumes might be ok, but don't mix and match.



Dinners would consist of some fruit while you prepare a simple cooked starch (simple as washing and putting in steamer/pot/ or oven and waiting) followed by the making of a simple vegetable salad. Make enough of both salad and simple cooked foods to be taken for following days lunch to be eaten after some fruit. Start the day with some lemon water followed by a cantaloupe or OJ. ...Every few days, if you get tired of leftovers or whatever..that is a good time to do an avocado salad or some sesame or sunflower seeds etc or any fresh/viable nut/seed...

following this approach, and leaving out all the processed stuff (sugars/starches/soy) and dairy, will go a LONG way to building the foundations of a very healthy all-raw diet. Doing all raw/less-complex DAYS will speed this process along.

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See if you can buy the overripe bananas at the grocery store. These freckled bananas are in fact not overripe, but are perfectly ripe and ready to eat right now. These bananas often sell for 25 cents a pound or less, and sometime you can even get them for free.

If you are really poor and have zero money, you might consider dumpster diving at the grocery store. Just go through the fresh produce in the dumpster, take it home and wash it. It the produce hasn't been puncture or broken, it will be fine to eat after cleaning.

Sprouting is a cheap way to get greens. I recommend sprouting clover or alfalfa over beans (mung beans are OK), but these are my personal preferences.

Then there is foraging for weeds. Weeds like dandelion, purslane, lambsquarter are edible and easy to find. You might walk around your neighborhood and see if your neighbors have fruit trees that they aren't harvesting. A lot of people never eat the fruit off their trees, and the fruit just goes to waste. These people are often happy to have someone take their fruit and eat it. But ask first, because if they are going to eat their own fruit, your taking it won't be appreciated.

Here's another tip. See if there's a Food Not Bombs group in your area. These folks have access to free food, and they are vegan. If you participate in their feeding of the poor, you can probably negotiate some free produce for yourself.

barley, canned beans, bags of apples, cucumbers, watermelon... those things tend to be pretty cheap I think.

Btw, where do you live?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2007 07:09PM by sunshine79.

Simply walk around the produce section of your supermarket, and look at what is cheapest and at least semi-appealing to you. Buy what you can. Things like potatoes (while not usually eaten raw) are cheap, and can be used to help "fill you up", alongside the greens. If you are getting enough variety of nutrient-dense raw vegetable foods, you probably won't be as hungry as you think/expect. Most hunger and cravings come from nutrient deficiencies. Drink lots of water, too.

If necessary, pad your diet in the meantime with filling but cheap foods, even cooked stuff like oatmeal. Much better than Ramen noodles (which are almost toxic --well, are mildly toxic!-- and devoid of nutritional value).

If that doesn't do it, be creative. Offer to prepare a meal for a friend or neighbor later (after you have been paid) if they will treat you this week, first. See if you can trade something like cleaning windows or whatever for a nice salad at a restaurant. If necessary, as suggested already, you could even try dumpster-diving. All these things mean swallowing some pride, but anyone truly mature (anyone whose opinion is worth caring about) will not look down on you for it.

Keep your eye on the end goal - two weeks is hardly a lifetime -- and reward yourself at the end of it, when you can afford more food again, with a beautiful feast of carefully-prepared, all raw foods. Include some of your favorite "treat" foods, perhaps pineapple or kiwi fruit or whatever you like most, to celebrate the improvement that is taking place in your life.

sprouts are pretty cheap to make but you still have to buy the seeds and take the time to sprout them. if you're willing to eat some cooked because you haven't got much choice maybe some millet would be ok. it's fairly inexpensive, filling, easy to prepare and not too acidifying. other than that buy filling fruits and veg, carrots, avo, bananas. are you near any farmer's markets? a lot of farmer's throw out their "seconds". around here you can just go into the field and pick what's left after the harvest. it's all fine, just too small or with slight blemishes. someone at a farmers market might know where you can get seconds or might be willing to do a work trade with you for produce.

good luck.

you can sprout millet - its good!

raw nuts in bulk may look expensive at 8-15 dollars a pound, but if you compare calories per dollar on nuts vs. other produce--they're fairly cheap.

measure twice, cut once.

"In Watermelon Sugar the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar." ~r.brautigan

I make paintings

Dumpster diving?? This is supposed to be a HELPFUL suggestion?

Bryan & Arkay, just because you guys have dumpster dived, doesnt necessarily make it an ok suggestion for someone else to do. Some people trade sexual favors for money... some people panhandle... others set the bar of dignity for themselves a little higher. Why don't we just tell Rawjay to go blow someone for money??? That would certainly solve his broke problem, and then he'd even have money leftover to party with!!

Bryan & Arkay, no offense, it's cool with me if you guys are dumpster divers and all - I don't judge. Just me personally, it's not MY thing.

sunshine79,

Kudos to you for not judging people who might have to dumpster dive to live.

I guess I could have suggested to rawjay to get a job at McDonalds and eat all the extra food at night that they are going to throw away. Is that bar high enough for you? Does having a bar indicate that some judgment might be going on? Does one who doesn't judge even think about dignity? Isn't undignified a judgment?

I don't know who to begin this to/ but/

Bryan, I'm surprised at your terse sarcasm toward Sunshine. maybe there's something going on there that I'm not privy to.

Sunshine79,
I have friends who dumpster dive out of principle (not cash flow). I learned from a former employee of Wild Oats, that they do not even let their workers take home the dented cans and overripe produce. There is worthwhile food being put into landfills. wouldn't you say this was pretty outragous?
Also, as a judgement, I'd have to say that dumpster diving is a far better option than stealing. no?

measure twice, cut once.

"In Watermelon Sugar the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar." ~r.brautigan

I make paintings

take it outside children.

in another forum someone is asking questions about how to get healthier and someone else is suggesting raw food, or veganism, or even a vegetarian diet, and someone else is saying "and this is a viable alternative? how dare you even suggest they give up cheese? and coffee?! outrageous! get real!" don't try to mess with people's starbucks, it gets ugly.

so, you know, different folks, different levels. lots of peeps forage for sustenance and other needs. in the country that might mean picking over an already harvested feild. in the city it could be checking out the back of the grocery stores and restaurants. no biggie. if you don't like it, don't do it but they are all viable suggestions yo.

i wanted to also suggest miso. you can get it in bulk so could buy just a bit to tide you over and then have warm soup. raw grated carrot and/or other root veg, some finely diced green onion and mushrooms if you eat them, shredded nori or other seaveg. that seems filling, lots of minerals too. you could easily make one carrot, a few mushrooms or even some broccoli, and a bundle of green onion last for a few meals. add some cooked or sprouted millet topped with shredded or chopped raw veg (celery, tomato, cabbage, sprouts, etc) and there's lunch or dinner.

wrap salady stuff in flat bread. it's lots of salad and the bread is filling.

these aren't ideal raw meals of course but they stay mostly raw with the addition of something inexpensive and heavier.

One of the wealthiest women I know who owns a family run French Patisserie dumpster dives on a regular basis for over-ripe fruit - she then transforms this into jams, jellies and preserves which she sales in her shop as gourmet food at a high profit.

One mans dumpster is another mans goldmine.


khale

Sunshine79, just to clarify, I have never dumpster-dived for food, and never intend to! But I'm assuming he has to make it to the end of the month without money for food... and that is too long to fast, when on a new job, so creative solutions must be considered. If someone were unable to find food from another source, had no money to buy any and couldn't take advantage of any other alternatives (please read my post carefully; I see it as a near-last resort) and were in an area where supermarkets were throwing out food that had reached its "sell by" date, but was not yet too old, then I would never condemn them for getting food that way. It is one alternative, whether you (or I) would choose it or not... and who knows what we would choose if we were hungry enough? First choice? NO. Probably last choice, short of stealing, but better than debilitating hunger that might affect his job performance and cost him his new job, which he obviusly needs. The dumpster-diving was just one of many creative alternatives that he could CONSIDER as a partial solution to a short-term situation, a situation that no one would want, but once in it would have to be dealt with. I wouldn't normally recommend it as a lifestyle choice, NO! -both for reasons of hygeine and for the social stigma attached to it, and other reasons. But sometimes extreme situations call for extreme measures, and if he had to do it for a few days to make it to that next paycheck without starving, it would be better than passing out or collapsing from lack of food while on the job. It was in that context that I agreed that it might be an option for him to consider.

Otherwise, I agree with you: it isn't something one wants to recommend under any normal circumstances!

First of all I want to thank everyone for the awesome replies. I think ive mapped out exactly what im going to do as far as buying the food.

Thanks Anaken for the great response, it helped alot. And yes, my finances should return to normal after this bout. Altho im needing to save some money for a trip to LA the beginning of Oct. By the way, is anyone around that area who can show me some cool places?!?!

To answer Sunshine79: I live about 30mins north of Boston, almost on the NH border.

Thanks Bryan, i noticed that the Cambodian markets around here have those nice ripe bananas, i totally forgot about them!

Theres a Trader Joes up the street from me. I know most of the people who work there. They lock their dumpster at all times which i find weird. But i call my friends sometimes, on my way up there, and tell them that they need to do a random trash run haha. It works nicely. I dont take any offense to the recommendation of dumpster diving. My friend is in a very successful touring band, and they dumpster dive around the country! They could be eating anything they wanted with the money they make.

The farms around here are too "americanized" i guess you could say. Theres a small farm across from where im staying, and i walked over there one day all excited, but just to find a line of yuppies buying nutritionless corn. Oh well. I look at these 2 weeks as a perfect opportunity to change myself, get back being closer to all raw, and of course learning about myself.

PS. Has anyone been to Thailand or wanting to go over there? Im really thinking about it lately. For the first time in my life, i have nothing really holding me back here, and i REALLY want to take advantage of that!

Thanks again everyone!
Jay

I met a dumpster diver once. He was miserably pretentious and brought me rotting tomatoes, slimy bananas, and slimy mushrooms. Yuck.

Bryan's suggestion about asking people for the fruit from the fruit trees in thier yards reminds me of the time that my family did just that. We had just moved across country, and were living in an RV in a friend's yard, and Dad didn't have a job yet, so we asked people if we could pick up apples and other fruit from thier trees. We didn't live on the fruit exclusively, but it did supplement our diet nicely!

ah, dumpsters, big green boxes of champions

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i got this fancy computer out of a uc berkeley
rich kids dorm dumpster

post on craigslist and freecycle that you would like to forage peoples plants, gardens, fruit trees , nut trees and such im having good success with this

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

get super cheap/free bananas....supplement this with celery if you can. you could do this for at least a week and feel fine, in my opinion...