Going for broke: top end-of-month budget meals

Ah, yes. The end of the month. That period of time when the money in your bank account seems to be vanishing faster than a pile of half-price jeans at a Country Road sale. But, we still have to eat. With necessity being the mother of invention and all, fortunately some crafty folk have come up with some truly ingenious culinary classics that lend themselves to the skint, such as poor man’s caviar (made with brinjal), poor man’s Parmesan or pangritata (made with seasoned breadcrumbs) and spaghetti puttanesca (said to have been created when Italian restaurant owner Sandro Petti had some last-minute customers and had nothing left but tomatoes, olives and capers).

Sometimes, however, epicurean ingenuity can take a turn for the slightly more absurd – a fact that almost anyone that’s ever been a broke student can attest to. During a recent interview with TASTE, author Lauren Beukes confessed to once having eaten spaghetti with tomato sauce as a student. And, yes, we’re talking All Gold, here.

Another interesting student creation came via TASTE copy editor Lynda Ingham-Brown: Hawaii toast. Simply put, a slice of white toast is topped with mayo, cheese, ham and a canned pineapple ring before being grilled in the oven. The high point of my inventiveness when I once had about R20 left in my bank account as a 20-year-old? Two-minute noodles with canned tuna, grated cheese and salad dressing. It tasted about as good as it sounds.

Of course, having a flat wallet isn’t only a condition relegated to youth. Even as grown-ups we sometimes have to resort to some creative cooking when faced with a cupboard content similar to Mother Hubbard’s.

Sending a group email to my colleagues proved a fruitful exercise, prompting me to make a few mental notes in the process. Managing editor Liesl Nicholson goes with that old classic, beans on toast. “I know it's boring, but it works for me,” she adds. Fellow toast fiend, content creator Ashraf Booley, makes a deliciously fragrant dhal with inexpensive red lentils and then uses it as the filling for a snackwich. “It’s really good, and very cheap,” he affirms. Art director Lené Roux says, “I have peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and vegetarian dinners when I’m broke.”

Food assistant Clement Pedro also has a few gems: “Cornflakes are always awesome!” he jokes, before adding, “Canned tuna is something I always have in the kitchen, so tuna melts frequently make an appearance closer to the end of the month. Also, two-minutes noodles become something otherworldly when you add spring onions, a chilli sauce like sriracha, lots of cheese and then top it with crushed, spicy Doritos.”

Another firm fan of two-minute noodles is none other than food editor Abigail Donnelly, but she prefers having hers mid-month so she can rather treat herself to something nice at the end of the month. “My son Matthew’s leftover fish fingers also are quite a find in the freezer at certain times and quite posh with a squeeze of sriracha,” she says, before adding, “Once, at the height of being broke, I actually ate sprouted potatoes. Mind you, eating potato sprouts is probably quite trendy now!”

Do you have any interesting weird but strangely satisfying eats you’ve turned to when out of cash? Perhaps you’re a genius at turning a couple of thrifty ingredients into a veritable feast? We’d love to hear from you! Post your comments here. They might feature on our Twitter account!