SOS. I just moved and I’m so tired. Can anyone give me a cheap meal plan for two adults and a toddler? No pork.
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Tuna sandwiches, eggs on toast, cereal? Rotate through until energy returns.
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Budget bytes has meal plans now that you can buy for like $10 and iirc there is one that is 30 minute meals. Just dinners, but we tend to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. You would have to skip the days with pork but I don’t think there are many. I wish you could customize them for things like that.
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Thank you. Breakfasts are egg on toast and lunch is tuna melts.
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I’m big on sheet pan meals and pre made simmer sauce meals. Rice in the instant pot is a corner stone to my life. Not sure if you have one, but rice simply appearing and then topping it with Stuff is my go to.
Alternatively-
Cook pasta. Jarred pesto. Canned or rotisserie chicken.
Canned chicken or rotisserie chicken for chicken salad.
Rice or pasta into chicken broth. Optional: add and boil some veggies. Whisk eggs and dribble in. Tada, sorta egg drop soup.
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Thank you! I do have rice and instapot. Also beans and sauces and frozen veg. Presto dinner.
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Oh on the pesto and pasta, adding canned artichoke hearts and canned black olives are great too. This meal is good hot or cold.
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Maybe I’m dirty and foul, so anyone excessively squeamish scroll by, but when I’m doing back to back rice for various meals in my instant pot I don’t even clean it. I let it dry, flake out the old stuff, then add new stuff in and cook again. 
alternately you can get two liners and swap them through the dishwasher. Struggle meals ahoy.
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We went out last night and were going to Lyft both ways. When we were leaving, the app said “very few drivers available” and the price was high and I realized I wasn’t dressed in a way that would invite harassment on public transport (I will not get on public transport, say, corseted!). So we took the el instead and it was fine.
Leaving, we were going to Lyft again but it was before midnight and Boyfriend said, “eh, let’s see how long before a bus.” It was a short wait, so we took the bus instead.
I need to work on recalibrating my sense for when to rideshare vs when to take public transport, now that the pandemic is, hahahaha, OVER. It used to be I’d only Lyft when one of the following were true: very late at night, in unsafe neighborhood, REALLY bad weather, dressed for clubbing and thus susceptible to harassment, I need to transport cats. Since we got vaxxed and are going out more, I feel like we’re Lyfting more than we did pre-pandemic. This is something that we can work on.
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If you fill it with water and let it sit 8-24 hours, rice comes out super easy and you need 1 swipe of a sponge to get the remaining goo off. I find it easier than flaking off super sticky rice!
@Meowkins, my zero spoons/no takeout dinner is pasta with sauce. Ground meat can be added if desired/energy available. Or just mountains of parm.
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I am all about rotisserie chicken when I can’t deal with dinner. Bag of salad, box of rice mix.
Next day - chicken soup. Or stir fry with a bag of slaw mix.
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I wanted to buy Luigi some doggie ice cream because it was on sale at the store. Then I realized I could make my own doggie ice cream with bananas and peanut butter.
Then I realized I was considering spending money to buy ice cream for my dog*. And that none of this was necessary at all.
*Nothing wrong with buying ice cream for your dog if that’s your jam. I’m currently trying to reduce my grocery spending and this definitely falls under unnecessary.
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Oooh, do you have a recipe you’ve used that you like?
Some easy meals I did when raising my kids was grilled cheese sandwiches and soup, pancakes and bacon, wrapped beef hotdogs with box Mac and cheese.
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Ooooo we need a meal prep/recipe share thread!
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We’re doing okay-to-good at using up pantry items before the move! I’m proud of us.
Moving is definitely a powerful anti-buying-things motive for me. I do NOT want to move more shit than we already have to move.
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I didn’t do this before my move because I was too tired, so pls know I am also proud of you
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I will eat canned beans in your name.
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I just redeemed credit card points for a $177 gift card that I can use for all sorts of household things! Also our credit card balances are so much more reasonable. I feel like I’m going to see real savings add up in a couple of months. Fingers crossed!
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