EXTREME BUDGET MEALS IN THE MICROWAVE // EAT FOR $15 A WEEK

When we were young married, we were saving aggressively for our first house. My husband traveled a lot for work and received a per diem for meals. He drove to most jobs and packed a cooler with food and ate what he could cook in the microwave in his room and saved most of the per diem for our savings.

In college, I lived in my vehicle and worked the night shift at a convenience store. I was allowed to take the leftover hotdogs, popcorn and breakfast biscuits for free. Needless to say, life was hard, freezing and sweltering for 3 years, but absolutely worth it in order to graduate with a degree in chemistry.....DEBT FREE. Where there's a WILL, there's a WAY. Good luck on your journeys❤

woman. i need you to know. i am praising God u made this vid. im 4k in debt and no money for food, out of my parents house forever now. this literally every facet of it is pure wisdom. ive watched ur videos for a while now but this especially is saving me rn

A couple of the things I love about your videos is your empathy towards the situations others may find themselves in..and your advocacy towards food-security for everyone.

Thank you for this!! I live in a super tiny student apartment with a mini fridge, a microwave and a hot plate and I always struggle with finding recipes I can make in my little "kitchen." This is so helpful!

I love this idea! So clever! My husband and I went on a family vacation recently. We needed to feed 9 people lunch and dinner for 5 days. Our hotel offered continental breakfast and we had a microwaves in our rooms. I spent a little over a hundred dollars and cooked a weeks worth of meals for everyone. I froze the main courses and chilled everything in coolers so they would slowly thaw over a period of a few days. It was so nice to have homemade meals and not need to eat out every night. I made beef tacos, chicken tortilla soup, mostaccioli, chicken, broccoli, and rice, and burgers. We also had lunch meat sandwiches, nuts, dried fruit, peanut butter and jelly, lots of cut fruits and veggies, chips, and drink pouches for lunches. It saved us so much money to pack and warm our own food in the hotel. Microwaves can be so handy if you get creative!

If any college students are watching this to get meal ideas, please please please make sure you are eating enough. There is no shame in going to food pantries if you have to, some schools even have on-campus food pantries just for students. For someone with a full course load and a job/extracurriculars/etc., you’re going to burn through a 450 calorie breakfast like it’s nothing (that’s roughly how much the oatmeal dish is in this video). Do not feel like you’re doing something wrong if you need to eat more than this.

Also if you don't have enough storage jars or cups/bowls, etc you can save the glass containers from items you've purchased. Wash them out well and use them as you would purchased storage containers, or even to eat your food out of. Not a new idea, but a reminder for us all.

I actually love it when you take something like a mac and cheese box and revamp it to do other things. My mind is blown when you do that, I'm thinking wait that's against the rules, and then im like why cant you do that. I lived off the single microwave easy macs in school but they were super expensive, I never would have thought to make regular box in the microwave.

The reason why oats arent considered gluten free, because all oats are naturally gluten free, is because they are commonly processed in same plants as gluten or grown in the same fields as gluten products and are harvested using the same equipment! That is actually the best price I've seen for gluten free oats! Generally they range from ~$2-$3 a pound! Gonna go check my wal mart to see if they have them!

Great video. At my daughter’s college that have a food pantry to shop at for free and it is pretty impressive. She usually finds a few vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions; milk, cheese and butter; canned goods like peanut butter, canned fruit and vegetables and beans; plus pantry items like boxed cereal, oatmeal, pasta, rice, dried beans. So usually they stop there first before going to the grocery store. It is a great way to stretch the budget.

I've been so excited about this video since you mentioned it! I live in a studio apartment while I pay debt and save for a house and work 12 hour shifts so microwave meals are my JAM!

I have not yet watched but one of my early rentals did not have a stove or a real fridge. I was super broke and rented it dirt cheap. I managed to get a mini fridge for free on the side of the road. I hit yard sales until I found a crock pot and an electric skillet. I think I paid $5 for the both of them. For over a year that was the only method of cooking we had. Not even a microwave.

Time stamp 4:15, bananas. When i first started shoppimg for myself, i was complaining to my mother that i could never go through an entire bunch of bananas before they statred to go bad. My mother sighed, ansd said "sweetie, you know they sell them by the pound. You don`t have to buy the whole bunch just because they are attached." Apparently "sweetie" issmomspeak for " moron."

I love this! We lived in a camper for s time that only had a microwave and a stove top. Ohmygosh. I've never used a microwave so much. A note about oats. You can also grind them to make flour and use as a partial replacement for regular flour and you can eat the raw with fruit, milk and cinnamon. Which is actually summery and delightful.

While we don’t eat a lot of these types of foods, I always feel inspired by your creativity in these challenges! Most recently I’ve started stocking my pantry with some food items for emergency cooking. We have a wood stove that I can cook on if I need to, so I’m keeping that in mind as I purchase packaged foods.

I couldn't keep fresh potatoes on hand as our over heated apartment would cause the potatoes to sprout. I discovered there are shelf stable dried potatoes in a box (no added seasonings or preservatives), labelled to make hash browns. (Betty Crocker, Idahoan brand, Hungry Jack or Hamburger Helper makes a line with cheese packets). I would use them to fill out a soup, stew, or prepare a small amount to add to a wrap with beans. Great to have on hand in emergencies.

I have been "cooking" from my microwave quite a bit lately because my kitchen is under construction, you gave me a couple of good ideas that I had not thought about. I make a mac n cheese with fire roasted tomatoes and whatever cheese I have on hand and it is super yummy, also I was thinking that the potato soup would be good with corn and the sausage and both could then be added to other meals and you would probably come in under $20. Your fruit and snack choices were great. You had some great ideas, thanks for sharing, I appreciate the time you take to do this.

This is also great bc right now my parents home is pretty much gutted bc of IDA flooding and their gas is off - so no cooktop. They have counters. A microwave and fridge that work only. Great ideas!

I could have used this video a month ago when I was staying at an Airbnb that had only a microwave and fridge. I would never have thought to make the pasta in the microwave. Genius!