Heck I do that now! Like a scrambled egg omelet... eggs + cheese + leftover meats + some veggie if anything appropriate is available.

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I remember when Taco Bell first came out with combo meals, we were in our first apartment... I lived on the $1.99 meal - (2) Bean Burritos and a Medium Drink. I was so mad when they got rid of it!

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In college, I lived on mac n cheese - I would eat half a box for lunch and heat up the other half for dinner at least 4 times a week. I was lucky, though, and I lived in the same town as my dad, so I sponged dinner off of him a few times a week. My dh ate pizza every day for almost 3 months. He worked at a pizzeria and they always got stiffed a few times a week with people not picking them up, so the employees could take them home. Looking back at our early married years I thought we were broke, but he had it way worse before we met.

Dh just told me that when he was in college, when they got hungry and had no money for food, they would go to the grochery stores around them for the free samples

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stay at home mom to my crazy toddler with sensory issues

LOL Well, we are certainly not this poor.. but my kids love to go to the grocery store and go around to all the sample spots and try everything.. And my boyfriend likes to go around to the cheese stores in amish country and try all the samples. He always jokes that that is our lunch for the day and it actually does fill us up! LOL

I have taken ketchup, mustard, taco sauce, sweeteners, napkins from restaurants before. Not so much because I was too poor, but because that is always what my dad has done growing up.. just if there was one or two packets left, he would pick them up and take them. I've used paper towels and cotton for pads before. Tape and cotton for band-aids. I've eaten popcorn for supper. Put $1 in change for gas in my car (heck, I still do this once in a while).

I remember my ex-boyfriend and I went someplace one time, and I picked up the rest of my sweeteners I had laying by my tea to take home with me... I thought he was going to leave me there! haha He couldn't believe that I was going to do that.. so after that, I stopped taking sweeteners and I don't go to fast food restaurants any longer.

A few years ago my dh and i went to Pheonix on vacation which we can now laugh at luckily.. we actually went to a Circle K gas station for "dinner" of 2/1.00 hot dogs!!! We also used the public transportation bus to get around since our card was declined to rent a car! Our whole vacation was spent up and down one stretch of road!

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Timberly73

In college - going back 13+ years or so now, we'd do Taco Bell runs. We'd pile as many people as possible in my Dodge Spirit. We'd order the cheapest taco/burrioto possible and a small drink. We were able to refill the drinks as long as we were in Taco Bell. We'd top off a few times and once more before going back to the dorm.

Now with my kids - we have 3 - we'll do a Costco run at lunch time and feed them & us the samples. They love the snacks and my DH and I get to try stuff we ordinarilly wouldn't buy.

I've gone shopping in my mom's closest for canned goods. My DH and the boys have eaten Raman Noodles for lunch & dinner for weeks. And I've taken home our office lunch leftovers (pizza, subs, bread). I've taken the bread from work and made bread pudding - its something to eat and an "arts & crafts" for my boys to do.

And the normal taking napkins, ketchup, straws, etc from fast food places. And asking for Extras at the drive through. Also the roll of TP from work and other supplies (pens, paper, tape). I work from home 1 day a week so I use some of it

My sister liked it. I was like 22 at the time and she was twelve. It is like a scrambled omelet

This is a great topic. Although some of the posts pull at your heart-strings, I love fact at how resourceful we all are.

The cheapest and most humbling thing I've done is go through my cupboards and look for any unopened food that I could return to the grocery store. Also cleaning supplies. I'd use that store credit to buy milk for my toddlers. It got real bad when the manager recognized me since I had to go in once a month for about 4 months.

Also, buying produce that had been marked down. That's something I still do to this day.

Using a swim diaper in place of a pull up at night. And then rinsing it out, hanging it to dry and using it again, and again!

When my husband was in graduate school in Austin, the better grocery stores had a night every week where you could try free samples. We knew what nights the HEBs had samples, but our favorite was the sample night at Central Market.

We'd also go to the local Mexican restaurants for happy hour where they'd serve free buffets with drinks. We'd buy one drink each and eat a great dinner.

Mainly though, when we were broke, we'd go to my place and love each other up. Free, fun, and good exercise.