Eating cheaply and somewhat healthy

While in training, I have managed to eat 3 full meals for the last 24 hours at a cost of about $7. A $3.98 rotiserrie chicken on sale at wal-mart, tuna envelopes (more convenient than cans, cereal, 2 bananas, and lots of triscuits for a carb/side dish, bread & lunch meat slices.

During lunch today, there were 4 of us sitting at the table with pre-packed lunches while most went out. All of us were former flight instructors.
 
I really don't like Walmart much, but you can't beat those rotisserie chickens for like 3 bucks. You and another instructor can go half on that, a few fresh rolls, and a side for like $2.70 a piece......add a third instructor and add another side. I usually couldn't finish my part of the meal because it was so much.

I also challenged my students to landing competitions where the loser buys lunch. All you have to do is not lose. If you do lose, go 2 out of 3 and not lose.

Now I'm grateful enough to have a student that pretty much buys me lunch everyday for the heck of it.:nana2:
 
I use the 3 dollar rule

When I go to the store, nothing over 3 bucks goes into the cart. Unless it's milk or a big bag of chicken
 
While at skyway, I lived off of canned pinto beans, spinach, green beans and would hit the free buffet pretty hard.

Sometimes I'd big layovers in GRR because the hotel had a free continental breakfast and I could load up pretty good.
 
lots of bush's baked beans. Frozen chicken on the Gforeman (sp). macncheese. MOOCH.

See point number 4.

also, search, wheelsup had an in depth thread about this a while back. (someone may have mentioned it earlier, but I have not read anything besides the first post)
 
I'm pretty small and don't require much food. I could pack enough food in my little 6-pack size cooler and along with a couple cans of spaghetti-Os or cans of soup in my rollerbag to last me an entire 4-day trip.

I would pack peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, salad, lunchmeat, bagels with cream cheese, carrot sticks and some cheese. Because I was able to eat little bits often, I was never 'starving', and I always had something to eat when we got to our overnight at 1am and everything was closed!

I saved a BOAT load of $, and I lost 15 pounds in 3 months!
 
Just to put a different and more positive spin on this thread, here is what I ate last night and the cost.

1. Mongolian beef entree cooked with onions and green peppers
2. Fried rice with vegetables
3. Spinach (with garlic)
4. Thinly sliced potatoes
5. Fried (batter coated) mushrooms
5. Coke
6. Hot tea

Dinner for 3. Left half the meal on the table - none of us have a microwave to reheat it.

TOTAL cost = 40 RMB ($5 USD)

Location = China

Pat Murphy
 
Heh, we had a high speed into BGM not too long ago, and the hotel made the mistake of saying "We've got sodas and cookies in the sales office. Help yourselves." I think that last part was taken a little too literally since we all had lunch coolers.....
 
intern_mike said:
This thread is depressing.
Click to expand...

LOL!!!

Thanks for the replies...though I agree that it is depressing it is that we are probably mostly college graduates/professionals talking about clever ways of eating while being broke.


I'm trying to save as much money as I can right now and pay cash up front for my commercial (I don't want to be strapped to a huge loan and limited to a diet of Ramen forever), so every little bit helps. I did a search before I posted and didn't see anything on this topic.

And just for the record, I actually go to Starbucks to study a lot because I know some of the employees....so that $2 coffee magically becomes "free" coffee.

Thanks again!!
 
Don't let anyone sway you from coffee...it is life blood...and if you hadn't already I would add smoking to your daily activities as well...nicotine is good at keeping you awake late at night and warm on cold, empty ramps...:insane::bandit:
 
I dig on what PWMURPHY said, I have vacationed in Thailand the past couple of years, some bomb @$$ food for like 50 baht ($1.25)

Me and this guy took a couple girls from a nightclub late one night, went to this cool little restaurant, had bbq chicken and pork, fried rice, beef and noodles, beers, and I had a 1000 year old egg, almost puked on the table. but it was 650 baht I think (about $15.00) for 4 people. I love asia.
 
There's plenty of fresh food on sale at any supermarket on any given day. Buy that. Cook it at home.

For example, if you bought say, some chicken from Costco, bought some rice there as well, and fresh veggies from Safeway that are on sale and some fresh fruit for desert, guess what you've got?

A nice, healthy meal without spending too much money.
 
wheelsup said:
http://jetcareers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27512&highlight=how+to+eat+regional
my cholesterol was just tested at 157, blood pressure 118/60. I'm 25.


Go ahead and laugh (ha ha) but it's cheap and somewhat healthy. Of course, it's sad we have to do this (use per diem to pay bills).
Click to expand...

That doesnt mean anything, Since the age of 16 (I'm 27 now), I can sadly say I have ate a fast food combo meal at least once a day on avg. And when i got my physical earlier this year, my Cholesterol was 166, and BP was almost right at 120/80.

Morgan Spurlock has nothing on me!


brettinLJ, Are you working for Pinnacle?
 
MQAAord said:
I'm pretty small and don't require much food. I could pack enough food in my little 6-pack size cooler and along with a couple cans of spaghetti-Os or cans of soup in my rollerbag to last me an entire 4-day trip.
Click to expand...


OMG Spagetti-O's. Man I used to love 'em as a kid. I tried a can last year and I thought I must have been out of my mind when I was little. Sooo disgusting.....I couldn't believe I used to eat that crap. Not trying to bust your chops or anything Amber....just found it funny. If I'm going to eat canned pasta-type foods, it's gonna be the "chef" or something like that.....no more spagetti-o's for this guy!
 
blee256 said:
That doesnt mean anything, Since the age of 16 (I'm 27 now), I can sadly say I have ate a fast food combo meal at least once a day on avg. And when i got my physical earlier this year, my Cholesterol was 166, and BP was almost right at 120/80.

Morgan Spurlock has nothing on me!


brettinLJ, Are you working for Pinnacle?
Click to expand...

...and then you hit 30... :)
 
Cruise said:
OMG Spagetti-O's. Man I used to love 'em as a kid. I tried a can last year and I thought I must have been out of my mind when I was little. Sooo disgusting.....I couldn't believe I used to eat that crap. Not trying to bust your chops or anything Amber....just found it funny. If I'm going to eat canned pasta-type foods, it's gonna be the "chef" or something like that.....no more spagetti-o's for this guy!
Click to expand...

The price was right! Plus, they tasted the same hot or cold :)
 
I don't have to worry about eating (too) cheaply. But then again I pansied out of the airline/corporate pilot fast track and stopped at CFI...between my day job and teaching there's plenty of coinage to buy food.

But I do have to worry about time some nights. And it just so happens a lot of my quick meals are very cheap.

Quick tuna casserole (I make a not-so-quick one that is a longtime family recipe - but here you go): make mac-n-cheese and stir in canned tuna. It's really good! For one person will last a couple of meals for under $2. Throw in fruit or veggie for a side.

Quick bean burrito. Heat up refried beans, put in tortilla with cheese, sour cream, a bit of salsa or green enchilada sauce...not bad. You can put some ground turkey in there too.

Semi-healthy chili dogs. Use turkey chili and turkey dogs. Makes in 5 minutes. And hot dog buns. $3-4 will get you 8 chili dogs.

Chicken caesar salad. Chop up and cook some of that cheap chicken, put it over some lettuce (romaine preferred), add some lowfat Caesar dressing (ken's steakhouse is my fave - doesn't taste lowfat), and if you want to go uptown add some croutons, and shredded or ground parmesan.

Sarah's crockpot nachos. Cube 1/2 a box of Velveeta (I use light) and mix in a crockpot with one can of Rotel and one can of cream of mushroom soup (98% fatfree). Brown some ground turkey/beef and add. Pour over a pile of tortilla chips and add a dollop of light sour cream. You can refrigerate & reheat the dip 'til it's gone. In fact you can put in tupperware and take a ziplock of chips and heat it up for the road. A football day favorite in our house.

Walmart sells tilapia, salmon, etc that is individually portioned. $3-something for 4 pieces. Not fancy wild fish but good enough. Thaw it, marinate it, cook it and add some veggies for a really healthy, cheap dinner. Heck, canned veggies are a lot of times 3/$1 on sale around here.

Those are semi-healthy versions of some damn fatty food. Not organic whole food eating exactly, but better than McD's. And pretty cheap. Be creative!

Sarah
 
I forgot protien powder.

I always have some in my flight bag along with a couple of those little things of honey from starbucks. Make your own meal in a water bottle.
It doesn't taste great but its better than not eating and it has some pretty good stuff in it.
 
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