HOW TO EAT WHEN YOU'RE BROKE How to Eat for Nothing Look for free samples. Membership food clubs and grocery stores offer free food samples in their aisles. One or two sweeps through the store might supply you with a wellbalanced meal, including a beverage.Weekends are the prime time for grocery store samples due to the high volume of shoppers. Travel the aisles with a partially filled cart for greater acceptance. Ice cream parlors usually allow you to sample a flavor or two. Share your friends' bounty. Monitor the campus mailroom for friends who receive care packages and ask them to share. Ask acquaintances on the college meal plan to bring you fruit and containers full of cereal. Follow pizza delivery people and ask the recipients for a slice after they've all taken their first piece. Promise to pay them back later. Offer to deliver food (without a tip). Many pizza restaurants offer a free pizza after every five (or some other number of ) pizzas ordered. Collect the required number of orders from friends or dormmates, go to the pizza place, and pick up the pizzas- plus the free pizza. Be sure to collect payment for the pizzas in advance. Stake out hotel hallways. Snack on uneaten or partially eaten rolls, sandwiches, and garnishes from leftover room service trays. Make sure the meal has already been served and eaten, or you will risk a confrontation with a hungry hotel guest. Dumpster dive. The Dumpsters behind supermarkets and restaurants are almost always filled with untouched, uneaten food that was thrown away simply because it passed its expiration date. Take bread, canned goods, and other wrapped items. Do not break into a locked Dumpster. How to Eat for Under a Dollar Eat fast food. Most fast-food restaurants have items on the menu that cost less than a dollar. Bulk up your sandwich with loads of condiments for extra calories; you will stay full longer. Look for specials and sales. Restaurants, convenience stores, and grocery stores all run sales and specials. Look for two-for-one deals on soda, candy, cookies, noodles, and soup, and for markdowns on perishables like meat, fruit, bread, and vegetables. Buy generic. Generic or store labels are always cheaper than name brand items. Make friends at restaurants and bars. Making friends with cooks, waitstaff, or bartenders can result in free food, albeit leftovers at the end of a shift. Alternatively, offer to clear trays at a drive-in or restaurant. Consume leftover burgers, fries, and milkshakes between the table/car and kitchen. Participate in on-campus extracurricular activities. Join one or several university clubs that feature snacks at meetings and gatherings. Dorms offer special study nights during midterms and finals and frequently open their cafeterias for a study area. Snacks will be plentiful. Attend happy hour. Many bars and restaurants near campus serve complimentary hors d'oeuvres between 5 and 7 P.M. Sample the condiment bar. Some fast-food outlets have condiment bars with vegetables, sauces, salsa, and pickles. Help yourself to a few samples, but do not eat on the premises. Bring along a plastic bag to stow your snacks. Crash parties. Loiter at a local hotel and follow well-dressed people to trade shows, weddings, and bar mitzvahs. Visit the buffet table. Use caution when speaking to guests.
Eat beans. Beans are a very cheap source of protein and fiber, and contain other essential nutrients. Eat pasta. Eat a baked potato. A single potato usually costs less than a dollar and can be baked or heated in a microwave: Poke several fork holes in the potato to allow steam to escape and reduce the chance of explosion. Eat canned goods. Canned food is nearly always cheaper than its fresh alternative. Go for quantity, not quality. Buy foods that last for several meals so the average cost per meal is low. A loaf of bread will go a lot further than one piece of fruit. A jar of peanut butter might cost several dollars but will provide many meals for under a dollar when you pair it with two slices of bread and jelly packets from the cafeteria or a diner. Boxes of pasta, a package of bagels, generic cereal, a carton of eggs, oatmeal, a package of hot dogs, and cans of soup are cheap to begin with, and you will get more than one meal out of them. HOW TO GET A FREE DRINK WHEN YOU'RE BROKE Plan an accident. Ask for a glass of water with a twist of lime. Pick a mark-choose someone with sweeping arm movements- and accidentally bump him with your elbow and spill your drink on yourself.When he offers to get you a new drink, ask for a gin and tonic. You can also set your glass of water near someone's elbow. When she knocks it over, allow her to replace it. Scavenge leftover drinks. Drink the half-empty beers or mixed drinks left behind by bargoers. Carry a small spray bottle of disinfectant or soapy water. Spray a napkin and wipe the glass with it. Beware of smokers who leave behind drinks-they often drop butts in their drinks or bottles. Gamble. Make bets that you know you will win, or perform a surefire bar trick for drinks. Select a mark, preferably someone who has been drinking heavily. You will need a small brandy snifter, an empty glass, and a stemless maraschino cherry. . Place the snifter upside down over the cherry. . Wager a free drink that you can get the cherry into the empty glass without touching the cherry or empty glass. The cherry can touch only the snifter, which must remain upside down. Squashing the cherry onto the rim is prohibited. . When he bets, show him the power of centrifugal force. Hold the base of the snifter and rotate it quickly on the bar top.When the cherry starts HOW TO GET A FREE DRINK WHEN YOU'RE BROKE Appeal to your friends' soft side. Tell your friends that you are having your annual "drink-free" night.When they look confused, express mild discomfort and then sheepishly admit you are broke. Your reluctance to take advantage of the situation may result in your friends plying you with free drinks. Goad strangers into making you drink. Sidle up next to someone, preferably from a boisterous state like Texas. Order water.When he ridicules you, tell him you have never had a drink before. Allow him to goad you into drinking for as long as he is willing to buy. This strategy will also work on someone who is alone and is not particularly attractive. Tell a sob story. Create a plausible tale of woe. Sit next to a woman with a sympathetic face. Say that you had to put your dog to sleep that day. Reveal that you caught your girlfriend in bed with your roommate. Pepper your story with as many details as possible. Cover your face with your hands. Apologize for being so upset and thank her for being such a good listener. Gratefully accept a drink. spinning inside the glass, lift the snifter off the table. Keep rotating the snifter and hold it over the glass.When you slow your rotation, the cherry will drop into the glass. Collect your free drink. Be Aware . Frequent the same bar. Bartenders and waitstaff will get to know you and may occasionally send free drinks your way or let you drink on credit. . Skip dinner. The drinks you do get will have more effect on an empty stomach. . Frequent happy hours that have two-for-one specials. Other patrons may be willing to give you their "free" drink. Rotate snifter. Lift snifter off the table as the cherry spins. Drop the cherry into the target glass. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Access the Recipes And More list archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/recipesandmore%40googlegroups.com/ Visit the group home page at: http://groups.google.com/group/RecipesAndMore -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
