How To Be Prepared When You’re Dead Broke
November 26, 2011, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
If you’re broke but breathing, you’re still eating, because you’re not dead. The best first thing that you can do in the predicament of being ‘dead broke’ while wanting to ‘be prepared’, is to adjust your eating / food-purchase habits so that you can acquire a stash of extra cash and/or food. It’ easier than you may think, but it will require some changes to your current diet and behavior.
Like I said, even though you may be broke, the fact is that since you still have a pulse, you are getting your food from somewhere. Be it from assistance or from your own meager earnings, the fact is that you are making choices about what you eat or what foods you purchase. Chances are that you could significantly increase your food-cash-savings or the quantity of food that you’re bringing home by being smart and practical about what you buy or what you choose to bring home.
You may not like it, but you can learn to like it, that is to eat ‘cheap’ foods. For example, back during 2010 I wrote an article titled ‘Cheap Breakfast for Surviving Hard Times‘ in which I described how you could eat a breakfast serving for just 10 cents! If you were to adopt this breakfast for say, 3 months, and if your ‘typical’ breakfast had been costing you $3.00, you would save $260. You can buy a heck of a lot of food preps or supplies for that money, and that’s just using a breakfast substitute!
A few other food-$-saving ideas:
You could switch to a powdered milk alternative and potentially cut your milk costs in half. Lauren wrote an article on this very subject titled ‘The Benefits Of Powdered Milk’. Or how about this, ‘Rice and Beans, A Survival Combination’, another alternative to save money while eating cheap. You should also purchase some of your consumables in bulk quantities to save money, as written about in this article, ‘Costco Survival Food Items’.
DO NOT BUY NAME BRANDS. Buy store brands for often half the price. Pasta is cheap. Peanut Butter is a great value for the calories. Yes, mac-n-cheese. Can you say, Ramen? Look for Sales and buy those products if it’s truly a deal. Just be smart about what you buy. There’s lots of money to be saved.
OK, you get the idea how to find extra $ while eating cheap, so, use the same philosophy to find additional $ in everything that you do. Become frugal and smart with the little bit of money that you do have (we’re assuming in this article that you’re ‘broke’, but we’re also assuming that you’re not homeless and have enough money to function in society). Fin a ‘dollar store’ near you, or a ‘thrift town’ type of store. Buy clothes at the Good Will center instead of Target.
Apart from methods to save and acquire more money (in order to purchase more supplies to ‘be prepared’), even more important is to become mentally prepared. This involves 3 areas of preparedness. Research, Adaptability, and Skills.
Research
Learn. Look, see, hear and think. Look beyond the main stream to develop a better sense of what you are preparing for. Know what you are preparing for. Having knowledge of the risks that face you, puts you a step ahead of the rest and will steer you in the right direction to mitigate those risks.
Adaptability
Having the mind-set to adapt and change to the surrounding conditions is extremely important to beat the pack to a solution. Doing your research will lead towards your adaptability, so long as you take action rather than becoming ‘frozen’ like a deer-in-the-headlights. Think outside of your normal box. Force yourself to do things that are out of your comfort zone or normal routine. Become comfortable with change.
Skills
You don’t necessarily need to buy ‘things’ in order to learn skills which support the notion of being prepared. If you know what you are preparing for, you will know which skills that will help you in the event of disaster, especially after having done your research. For example, if you are concerned about your long term ability to obtain food, then learn to garden and preserve your own foods. If you are concerned about the possibility of a larger financial collapse than occurred during 2008/2009-to-present, then closely examine your current ‘job’ to discover if you should learn a new skill or skills in the event that you lose your job. With regards to being prepared and survival preparedness, it’s always a very good thing to know many practical skills or hands-on skills so that you can ‘do it yourself’ when it comes to your home environment.
In summary, if you don’t have much money, you are concerned about the state of the world that you live in, and you want to ‘be prepared’, you can still accomplish many things to put you well ahead of the rest by being frugal and creative about your existing funds and the way that you spend your time each day. After all, you’ve probably heard before that time is money…
Be Prepared. If you enjoyed this, or topics of current events risk awareness and survival preparedness, click here to check out our current homepage articles…
I sometimes buy a precooked chicken at Costco for $5. It makes two meals for the two of us (I get a breast and my wife likes the leg and thigh) and can even have a small amount of meat left over for a soup. After taking all the meat off the chicken I put the bones and skin, etc. in a stew pot with two quarts of water. Simmer for 3 hours and strain out the solids and you have a perfect broth to make soup. Use the extra meat, a carrot or two a stick of celery and a couple handfuls of noodles or 3/4 cup rice and cook. Three meals from one $5 chicken.
That’s a great way to be frugal – and I’m sure it tastes good too! It really is amazing how inexpensive it can be if you’re smart about it. So, $1.67 a meal in your example… can’t beat that…
$5 for a cooked chicken… Man its gotto be cheap there at Costco – we pay $15 for a cooked chook at Coles & Woolies which resembles more of a basted pigeon…
Great advice.
One thing that my wife and I did that saved a TON of money was we sold a car, and bought a scooter. The scooter was only $1400 BRAND NEW, and insurance is very low every month. Gas is super cheap–60 mph+ and then when you go fill up, it’s only like $5. Because it can be an inconvenience to go long distances, you usually end up driving fewer places, and/or get rides from friends. I did a short video on it a while ago…http://www.the-urban-survivalist.com/daily-prep-episode-2/
Thanks for the good thoughts!
What an excellent idea regarding the scooter! If you can get by without a car, you’ll save lots of money…
I have a chicken adobo dish, (Philippino) that costs about $1.25 per serving if you’re interested. I lived on it for lunch and supper for 7 months and never got tired of it, really good! Consists of chicken thighs, rice and steamed vegies.
Many stores do not want to throw away outdated products and will sell them at reduced prices before they expire. Meats will often at Safeway that I go to will sell for 30-50% of the regular prices and when cooked they taste the same. Vegetable and fruits are the same, as many times the produce section will put good food on sale that will last maybe 2 days later and will cook up the same. Breads that I feed to the birds will often go on sale for more than 50% off the original price and as long as not moldy is quite useable. You can freeze breads that are ready to go stale and use the individual pieces as you need them, frozen bread will last a long time.
Many times if a banana, apple, onion, whatever looks like it is not freash you can convince the store employee to mark it down for you, ASKING never hurts. If you are really broke there are all sorts of meats that the butcher will give as dog bones to the customer, don’t laugh, these make wonderful boath for soups and you can get these for free. If you don’t have a lot of money, there are still some compassionate employees at stores that will much discount food or even mark FREE on the bag. Store believe it or not rather make 10 or 20 cents on some celery or some tomatoes or something that would otherwise be dumped for the cockroaches to feast on later in the day.
Another bit of advice is that other than in an emergency DON’T BUY EL CHEAPO FOOD THAT IS NOT FIT FOR THE RATS. People will purchase BAD food that is very inexpensive that is filled full of MSG (monosodium glutamate) and suffer big time health wise later. These food that are filled full of chemicals that are so bad for the body, that you will pay for it later. I have seen people that live on pure CRAP and they end up making up the cheap costs at the medical center because their insides have been damaged by this filth. Most of this pure toxic garbage comes from China and is PURE POISON. You are better off catching a nice big fat pigeon than eating this noxious slime. Or eating safe backyard weeds, or tree bark than consuming this pure manure.
I personally would not even put these EL CHEAPO foods into any survival kit because they are processed and manufactured in China, or some other country in which toxins are not regulated at all. In fact, I personally could not even use these so called foods as barter items because they are so bad for the person. I would rather barter alcohol or cigarettes to someone because quite frankly, smokes and booze are less harmful than these el cheapo pieces of toxic waste. You can get good nutritious food at reduced prices that match or are better deals than this POISON they disguise as food.
Just to further emphasize this I rememeber a little study on just how toxic this so called really cheap food is by how they tried to feed this to a bunch of hungry mice and mice turned up their noses to it, they KNEW. Some of this food is so saturated with nitrates and other poisons that even flies would not land on it. When vermin won’t eat it, why would anyone eat this and do more harm to their bodies then finding something else. “PLEASE PEOPLE”, do consider what goes into your body, you would not put something other than the right fuel for you car. Put bad fuel into your car and your car stops running, put bad food into your body and you stop running.
it’s basic financial physics. you have to spend less than you make. you have to set aside for a rainy day.
once you get a small cash fund set aside to cover one month’s expenses, buy one month’s worth of food. than make a bug out bag. if you have children, get one month of stuff for them and buy a few extra of much larger sizes (coats especially). then buy a hi-point in whatever caliber you prefer and a ruger 10/22 and a single-shot 12 gauge; get a couple extra mags and ammo for each. all items listed would be less than $1000 (plus that one month’s cash).
food foraging is also a great way of cuting down on the costs. I have been researching into native plants in my area that you can eat. I figure that if things get really bad and the obvious foods such as fruits and berries have gone then there will still be other edible plants available because people will not recognise them as food.
It is urban myth that MSG is bad for you. You can buy it in the spice section of your supermarket and use it much like salt when preparing a meal and it tends to enhance flavors. That’s all it does.
As for the claim that somehow cheap equates to toxic is ridiculous. 100% of the food available to the public in the U.S. is tested and approved. While it is true that fresh produce can become contaminated in the growing/harvest phase that does not seem to be the point “BI” was making. I doubt you can point to any food in the supermarket that is “toxic”.
@ Sweetpea. First of all I don’t know where to start, so lets start with the pure garbage that goes into food. Nitrates cause cancer, period. The chemicals that are ALLOWED to get into food from other countries that don’t have any type of regulations will destroy your insides over time. The USDA protects grown in the USA food, thankfully, but other foods that come from other countries have toxins in them that cause internal problems, period. Dr. Oz did a study on arsenic that was found in apple juice from other countries, some of it had level 5 times what was acceptable.
Next, MSG. Monosodium glutamate is a neurotoxin that overly stimulates the nervous system and causes long term damage to your cells. Let’s forget about that for a minute and ask why do companies put this poison into foods. Answer, because they are trying to fool your senses into THINKING that what you are getting is nutritious, in reality you are eating foods not fit for rats. Ever wonder why someone just keeps eating and eating this crap? Part of it is because your senses are stimulated by it like cocaine, you CRAVE IT, you must have it. Next because your body is not getting enough minerals and vitamins from the crap food and your body is looking for more to satisfy you daily recommended allowence. Comaonies know this and will do this on purpose so you will purchase more of it.
Sweetpea, listen here, I personally got off the MSG addiction and lost 65 pounds because I concentrated on only food that had actually nutrition. Urban myth my foot. I have known DOZENS of people that have have had Asthma attacks, heart problems, stomach problems, big time allergic reactions from MSG. It is called the CHINESE RESTURANT SYNDROME. There is tremendous money in the food industry to allow this poison to continue to be used. When you can use substandard food and hide it to taste okay, you make huge profits and can influence the laws about MSG. Urban myth, hey right. Sure you can buy this poison in the spice section, you could also buy coca cola about a hundred years ago and it contained cocaine in it.
Read “In Bad Taste, the MSG Symptom Complex”, by George R. Schwartz, M.D. to further explain this. I can go on and on for pages and take up this site which is not right, so read the book, or check it out at the library and find out the truth.
Now for nutrition. Look at some of these EL CHEAPO foods and see that these foods, crap, have practically no nutrition to them and are loaded with sodium, nitrates, and MSG and the hidden names of MSG like caseinate, autolyzed yeast. It is all about taste. You can get the same food that goes into this processed filth for just about the same price in a raw unprocessed form, like a bag of noodles that you can boil and add various flavours to yourself.
What I am trying to do is educate people about what harm BAD FOOD will do to them so they do not have to suffer from what I have seen countless people and friends and family to that I have known throughout my life that have damaged their bodies through consuming crap. I have seen along with myself people that have rid MSG out of their diet and lost tremendous amounts of weight and felt better and do not have headaches anymore. ANYONE that doubts this read this book. Anyone that further doubts this might do something really stupid and go consume a bottle of MSG and see the symptoms that develop, and see if they don’t end up going to the hospital. This I don’t recommend anyone do, it is dangerous to ever consume a lot of MSG, for anyone, even those that have developed some resistence to it.
I can only suggest what I know to be FACT, from personal experience and observation that is hardly slanted. I doubted what someone told me a long time ago about how bad MSG was for anyone with asthma, it was before MSG was in the public eye. IF I had listened I would have not had to go through much problems with my health, that was almost all MSG. I found out the hard way one night when my throat closed shut because of eating MSG ridden chips. MSG an urban myth, my a$$.
Oh Sweetpea, how about all the melomine that poisoned pet food products that came from China and was approved for pets to eat? Ridiculous, WRONG! You have to be careful what you eat, or you will pay later in medical costs. I have seen too many examples of what bad food will do to a person. Most cheap food is that way for a reason, and I am talking about processed foods, not sacks of grains, pasta, uncooked beans, etc. Buying this cheap food that is raw is always a good idea.
My 750cc motorcycle gets 55 mpg, is quite fast and insurance as cheap as a scooter. Anything over 750cc’s and the mileage goes down fast. I thought about a scooter but you can get run over because they are very slow and are not allowed on most highways. It’s a 95, was $2,000 used and runs great.
Everything causes cancer according to the tabloids. But most of those studies are so flawed as to be laughable. You would have to consume a mountain of nitrates to cause cancer. The studies search for the slightest deviation in statistical data and then draw conclusions from it, usually the very conclusion they believed before the study. Our scientific community has become whores who will say and do anything for grants and acclaim. It is simply false that any food we now consume has been proven to cause cancer.
If MSG were a harmful neurotoxin as you claim then it would be banned. Simple as that. Millions, perhaps billions consume MSG and zero evidence of any harm. As for it being used to trick your taste buds, duh! Sugar is used in candy and vanilla is used in baking and salt is used in almost everything for that reason. That’s what cooking is; combining ingredients to create tasty dishes. I hope you aren’t thinking of investing your life saving in a restaurant because customers want tasty food.
I’m familiar with the Chinese restaurant syndrome are you familiar with the term “collective obsessional behavior”? There is zero evidence that MSG causes asthma or anything else in normal people. Are people allergic to certain foods? Sure. Does that mean we should all stop eating peanut butter because .01% are allergic to it? I don’t think so.
Please do a google search on “George R. Schwartz” and “quack”. Be careful who you cite.
Prove that “EL CHEAPO” foods are crap. Popular urban myth but simply not true. If you don’t want to eat something you don’t understand then don’t do it but please refrain from making up claims about it. We consume these very foods you claim are toxic and yet our life expectancy increases every year and our health improves every year. Where’s your proof? Not wild claims, proof.
There is no bad food. Some foods are nutrition dense, that is they contain lots of vitamins or protein or other necessary nutrients and some foods contain less. But food is just food. An apple is just and apple it isn’t magic or poison. Your digestion system breaks everything down to basic molecular nutrients and it either burns it as energy, uses it to build/replace your cells, stores it for lean times or excretes it. Simple as that. Your body does not know or care if those nutrients come from a organic potato or McDonalds French fries.
Do you eat pet food? As I have said our food is the safest food in the world. It is inspected and there are regulations to protect it. To cite pet food and an example when law and regulations were intentionally broken as an example of our food being bad. That’s a stretch.
I love using basic foods and making home made meals. I have no disagreement with you if your position is that using basic foods and learning to make healthful meals is a good thing then we agree. I agree it is cheaper and smarter to buy beans, rice, flour, fresh vegetables and fruits and make your meals the old fashioned way. I simply prefer to dig past the massive misinformation about food that is proffered by quacks, vegans, health food and supplement companies and others with an agenda. There is no “bad” food. I challenge you to give me a single example. The secret to eating healthy is do not self limit your diet, eat a diverse diet and avoid fad diets.
@ Sweetpea. Years and decades ago material such as asbestos was considered safe. Guess what? Little regard was given to cigarette smoking. Guess what? Certain pesticides were banned becuase someone finally proved it was toxic. I can tell you from personally experience MSG is pure toxic crap. It was used to disguise slime so Japanese soldiers could eat food that was unfit for anyone to eat, but it would barely keep them going. The food before MSG was introduced was nutritious and you did not have the weight problem that is now.
You challenge me to show you food that is crap, my God, just look at the JUNK FOOD items. These foods contain nothing in them. People that eat this are pasty and white and look like the Pillsbury doughboy. They are unhealthy because they put garbage into their bodies. There is a reason why they call it junk food. Of course there is bad food. Just look at someone’s colon after eating this Playdough. My God, how can you say there is not bad food? Basic nutrition is suppose to be taught in school.
I could go into the market and find hundreds of items that have no nutrition and are empty calories that have adverse reactions to eating them. YOU WANT PROOF HUH? Okah then, do what that character that did that consumed only food from the golden arches, Mcdonald’s for 30 days, and see what it does to your health. Consume junk foods as a life style and see how your body deteriorates and all sorts of health problems develops.
Life expectancy increases each year, you bet it does and so does the dependency on medical needs to keep older people barely hanging on. The quality of their life though stinks at best. These are skewed slanted averages that do not look at the whole picture. Health is hardly improving. Want proof? Look at the increased use of medicine, and medicine to counteract the side effects of all this medicine that people are popping like candy. Want proof? Look at the exponential increase of medicine. IF people were so healthy why is there such a dramatic increase in health needs??????????????????/
You say that these are quacks that are trying to open people’s eyes to harmful food. Has it ever occurred to you that the studies done are completely slanted to benefit those that make money, big money from bad food. To scientifically prove something, it takes a lot of money and a lot of people that come forward that have been sickening from bad food. To proof this people have to be linked to the specific food and this is very difficult to do. Food is very broad and has to be narrowed down to just food that has MSG in, nitrates in it, etc. Someday maybe.
I have personal proof what MSG did to me, not scientific, but personal proof. I have personally seen how much better people do when they rid MSG out of their diet, no more headaches for example. Instead of calling Schwartz a quack, why don’t you look at the book? For me, I do not really care to change your mind, what I care about is that people are not duped into thinking that all foods is okay to eat, this is just plain wrong.
I do not want to see anyone go through health problems to proof me right, but if you insist that all food is okay to eat, try it and see. Consume only foods these so called quacks say are bad and see for yourself. Even the government recognizes that JUNK FOOD is exactly that, JUNK FOOD. Define JUNK; sewage, litter, offal, rubbish, trash, waste, effluent, garbage, detritus, refuse. The term JUNK FOOD is a term used by the medical association of this country. If the above terms to define junk don’t mean bad food, then I do not know what JUNK means.
To say that all food is okay, even foods that have dangerous toxins such as arsenic in them is ridiculous. Heavy metals and poisons that they use to kill pests are in many foods that have no regulations. My point with pet food is that pet food is also “suppose to” be regulated, which it was not. Thousands of animals died from this. To say that food is safe from countries like China that have various levels of cyanide and other poisons in them is just 100% wrong. Eat these foods and see the consequences of it. Food grown in the USA I trust. Food grown in other countries without the strict guide lines of here, NO WAY.
Want proof of a single example. What type of example? You will call all these studies done all over the country as done to prove lots of bad food done ONLY by quacks. So what is the point of me going through mounds of information done by qualified people, if you are just going to call them quacks? In the book I sited there is an appendix of almost 200 references. There are all quacks in your opinion, so what is the point? This is why I suggest you personally try out your believe that there is no bad food for a few months. I suggest anyone try this out and see the medical bills pile up after this little experiment. There is bad food, it is defined by the United States government as being JUNK, and has been for decades.
I feel the need to interject here… @Be informed, although you are obviously passionate about this subject, and many other subjects, I ask that you refrain from attacking while debating your point of view. I have a comment policy (review the link that is within the comment box) that covers this area. Good passionate debate is a good thing, but we don’t need shouting. I am trying to encourage fun and helpful debate on this site – not shouting matches…
My interpretation of SweatPea’s initial challenge was simply your notion that all cheap foods are junk. I personally do not believe that all cheap foods are junk and have even suggested within this article that purchasing cheap foods is a means to become prepared while saving the extra money towards other preparedness supplies (or more food supplies). Some foods can simply be placed and sold of grocery store shelves for cheap. Doesn’t mean they will all harm you. Certainly, there are many foods that are junk. I doubt that most thinking folks would challenge that.
Thanks for your understanding.
@ Ken. I completely respect your comment policy and I feel that I was stating what I know will hurt people. Perhaps it was too intense. What Sweetpea said was that there is “no” bad food, which I know is simply not true. There are people that visit this site that unaware of just how damaging bad food is and I just do not want to see them suffer as I did. As you know I am usually quite civil, as I always try to obey by the rules, it is your house and I respect this fully. I have read the comment policy many times. I just don’t want people to store up bad food and then end up in a survival situation and have all sorts of grave deficiencies that result in horrible health problems, because they feel that they have survival food ready to go. There is much study that goes into this.
As for Sweetpea’s challenge I will give one link that describes the dangers of MSG. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excitotoxicity
Here is also a link to an excellent book written “Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills” by RL Blaylock.
All cheap food is not bad, you can of course get good deals on nutritious food and I encourage this so much so. Sweetpea’s notion was that there is no bad food which I wholely completely disagree with absolutely. I truly do not want to see anyone get sick or have any ill health affects from bad food. I will keep it calmer in the future. I though will continue to attempt to inform people of what I know to help them survive the nightmare coming. I got carried away with this subject. This will be my final comment to this specific article. I hope I helped someone out there see what I have personally seen firsthand.
I enjoy this blog, a lot of good ideas and some great things to think about. It is not my intent to abuse the comments. I also enjoy “be informed” and generally agree with his view and I especially like that he offers considerable detail in his comments. I mean it! I always read the articles and the comments and without “be informed” I think we would all lose a valuable perspective. I have probably said all I need to about food (one of my hobbies/passions) and may indeed have said more then I nneded to. I apologize to any other readers who were bored or turned off by what became a difference of opinion between two commentors.
I’m happy for your comments, and others. No worries… I’m also happy to see a trickle of more folks commenting. I know that on average, only a very tiny fraction of Readers of any given site will actually take the time to comment. I’m hoping that even more of our apprx. 3 to 5 thousand daily readers will also begin to input their opinions!
@ Ken, Thank you, You are a champion of the clan… You have a site that folks talk back and forth but, It SHOULD be about Survivalism ( This to All… ) with it’s many levels. I am telling you ( The proverbial You. ) that the waste of time that these debates consume could be time invested in a new “BEE” ( Love “O”… ) “Guest Post” for instance… That jumps to the next octave of “Survivalism” which is the real point. Take it to the limit, advance the knowledge, all should be learning to live with no back-up systems. The Earth has it all. You need to learn the next level because no matter how many stashes you have, the day will come when they are gone and “MSG” & LMNOP are NOT going to matter… So anyway Love and some Positivity to All… Survive-All… P.S. This is supposed to be a positive note. The paradox may be to faint to come through. My intent is investment in good energy not attacks… So, Please read this with an unbiased eye… We teach & learn from life experience. Live happy and healthy. Prepare/ Be Aware/& Positive…
Sorry to pick at the scab, but I just have to say that I’m on Be Informed’s side, particularly regarding the dangers of MSG, unfortunately it is hard to avoid as it is not always labelled as such. There may be no ‘toxic’ food in the grocery store, but for many people it might as well be. My mom always said to shop around the perimeter of the store: meat dept, dairy, fruit and vegetables. The expensive boxed air was sold in the aisles. Store-bought peanut butter has long been suspect. Now we find out that honey is not all that we thought it was. There is a lot of ‘food’ that will keep you alive, initially, but over time your health will deteriorate for lack of quality nutrition, not mention all the added sugars, colorings, texturizers, flavor enhancers, preservatives, etc. Many low-end stores import their products from foreign countries that have different standards, and yet still end up on the shelves here. Choose your food wisely.
Regarding the superstition and hysteria about MSG, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate
Notice: “MSG, is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the most abundant naturally occurring non-essential amino acids”
And: “toxicologists have concluded that MSG is a harmless ingredient for most people, even in large amounts.”
While it may be true that some people are allergic to MSG just as some are allergic to dairy products, peanut butter, wheat or any number of things that are generally not a problem to most people that does not mean these products are bad or “toxic”. Feel free to avoid foods you don’t like or cause some symptoms either psychosomatic or real. But what is the benefit in exaggerating or making up rumors about foods. I am aware that it is common that authors and even a few MD quacks have written books and/or made public statements about virtually every food or supplement, but you need to understand that our 1st amendment allows nutcases and quacks to make any statements they wish without requiring any proof or reason. Please use common sense and understand that not everything written is true and not everyone with letters following their name are infallible.
@CountryGirl, I agree with your logic. Apart from consuming any obvious toxins, and apart from allergic reactions that some people have to various things, in general I would say that if you consume most anything in moderation (in other words, don’t overdo it), then most folks will be alright with almost anything. The human body is an amazing thing. One could argue one way or the other about general behavioral consumption habits (for example, vegetarian vs. some meat in your diet, daily sodium intake, etc.), but again, so long as you don’t always have too much of this or that, you’re probably going to be just fine.
The article itself has suggested eating ‘less expensive’ or cheap foods as a means to gain some control of money efficiency if you’re ‘dead broke’. The suggestion of eating cheap foods for 3 months is not meant as a long term diet change of eating only mac-n-cheese or tablespoons of MSG ;
I shop @ dent and scratch store most of the time. These stores buy “soon to be expired” products, dented canned food, extra inventory from major stores like walmart. Now I never buy dented canned food, but I can always find brand name products for 25 to 90 % off from grocery stores. I heard about these stores from friends, so ask your family and friends.
Other way for me to save and get extra money is by trading my time. I watch my friend’s kids while she is at work. My daughter and I eat breakfast and lunch at their house and she pays me $50 a week. I also take a friend of mine who is an elderly and can’t drive to doctor’s appointments and grocery shopping a few times a month and she buys me $100 worth of grocery a month. If you have extra time to spare, you can use it to make extra money!