Eating for Cheap: How to Get Lunch for a Buck or Less

As a kid in Boston, I can recall sitting in a Waldorf Cafeteria watching a man pour some ketchup into a (free) cup of hot water and, along with the crackers that were on the table, eat a free version of tomato soup. For something more than free, you can do a bit better. For free, you can even do better of you know where to look. For some change, there are a good many more choices.

Free Lunch:
Grazing lunch by taking advantage of free samples/tasting portions of a variety of foods can be done at many super and farmer's markets. COSTCO is now quite famous as a place where a person can go and eat a meal by simply partaking of all of the samples offered on most days. Of course, to enjoy the free food at COSTCO you have to be a member to get in OR learn how to walk in looking like you are WITH a member who flashes his/here card at the door. I have seen it done often.

Free lunches are also often provided at dining rooms, organizations and various houses of worship that cater to the homeless in many communities.

There is also the likelihood that if you show up at a friend's house at lunchtime, you just might be invited in for something to eat! This strategy worked particularly well for me when I was a poor college student!

Not Free but for around a Dollar:

Fresh Fruit:
At sixty-nine cents a pound, you can still get two good size bananas for under a dollar. Lots of potassium as a bonus, no animal fats and available in most supermarkets. Many other types of fresh fruit can be had at a low price and while you won't feel stuffed afterwards, you will have taken the edge off of your appetite with something light, healthy and inexpensive.

A Bagel:
A bagel can be had for a dollar or less at any bakery. A bagel has lots of carbohydrates and calories but not much useful nourishment. None-the-less, many people find them a comforting thing to eat that will make the hunger go away until the next eating opportunity.