College Student, 24, Pays Off Grandparents' Mortgage by Saving Money Eating Microwave Pizza and.....

[xmas74]

35. The town I grew up in has a Banquet plant.

I have classmates that work there. They had a company store for years. (I don't know, they might still have it.) Anyway, when I was young I'd give an employee a ten and a list. They'd pick up lots of Banquet dinners, pot pies, boil bags (the meat and gravy bags-I'd pour them over rice or mashed potatoes), etc. They also would get a few Healthy Choice meals for a great price, frozen burritos and sometimes they would have the Healthy Choice soups on sale for a dime each.

I lived off the stuff for quite some time when I was young, before I had my child. I worked for the state of Missouri at the time and was only paid once a month. If an employee said there was an especially good sale I'd give them $20 or $30 to stock up for me. Sometimes they even had orange juice concentrate and powdered milk. Most of my shopping for the month could be covered at that one little place and I'd supplement fresh or frozen veggies, rice, pasta and a few other things. With the soup I'd make a green salad and maybe half a grilled cheese sandwich, burritos usually included frozen corn that I doctored into a Mexi-corn blend and a side salad, etc. I knew someone else who worked at a Quaker plant and I'd get oatmeal for my breakfast for free. Another friend had a family member who worked for Johnsonville and I'd occasionally go in on deals for brats and sausage. Yet another friend worked for Anheuser Busch and received free beer every Friday but we drank that away on the weekend. (I don't know if they still do it.) And the friend who had a route with Pepsi would bring us the dented cans. And for big cookouts we had friends who worked at the Tyson pork plant. They could get really good deals on mislabeled products.

We learned how to live really cheap. It can still be done but you need a few connections. And even if you eat lots of frozen meals you have to supplement them with something fresh or else it's just too much of everything.

(Oh, and the only meal I didn't eat from Banquet was the fried chicken. We were a chicken plant and that side of town reeked of Banquet fried chicken.)