Struggle meals

1. Ramen. My time in prison gave me a real appreciation for that stuff and I now can make it in numerous forms. How you beef this one up is totally your call. Obviously you can cook it in way better manners than a plastic trash bag when not incarcerated but I’d be lying if I said a an empty bag of chips isn’t a great source of a mixing bowl. Always drain the water out- you can make sauces using mayonnaise, queso cheese, any sauce or condiment on hand. Meat options again you can go for tuna, but the classic is a diced summer sausage. You can sub with pepperoni/beef, add veggies- whatever you want. I’m a weirdo and always include crushed chips of some sort.
2. Speaking of prison meals- potato balls are one that doesn’t get enough love. Take any bag of chips and smash the ever loving shit out of it. Chop up any cheese and meats- plop it in the smashed up bag of chips. Add a small amount of hot water and mix from outside the bag. Rip the bag open- make little balls of the mixture. Microwave the balls for like 45ish seconds. The flavor potato chip changes the outcome so you can try different combos and use ranch for a dip if you want to be extra.
3. And a treat for the kids- easy peanut butter cookies. One egg. One cup of sugar and one cup of peanut butter. Bake for 10 mins around 350°F (I’m pulling this one out of my ass via memory so double check cook temp/time but it’s the most basic recipe that doesn’t require much but can make kids happy!)

Budgeting Tips

1. Never participate in big retail stores Black Friday/cyber Monday sales. They are infamous for manipulating pricing and in the end you usually pay more during those sales than you would shopping off season.
2. Shop for holidays and birthdays off season. If it’s easier to buy one item a week- do that and that way you’re not doing last minute excess spending.
3. Start utilizing thrift stores, there’s an insane amount of money to be saved and clothes that we can keep out of landfills by thrifting.