Have you ever run out of food for yourself or your family?

Yes, I have gone hungry in my lifetime. I had major surgery and lost my job back when I was in my mid-twenties. I was still recovering from the surgery so, getting another job was out of the question. My children were 3 and 5 at the time. We took "clean Mother nature" walks and picked up cans. I sold the cans for money to buy food. It wasn't really enough money to feed them and me too so, I went without food a lot. I asked my children when they grew up how they felt when we were so poor that we had to pick up cans. They both replied that they never remember being poor and that I was such a good Mom for taking them on nature walks and teaching them the importance of cleaning mother earth.

Thankfully, I can answer 'No,' I have not ever run out of food for myself or my family. When I first divorced, there were tight financial times, but being a nurse I was able to work and earn enough money to support my two young sons and myself. I have remarried and we both work and have always been able to afford enough food. Who knows what the future may bring though. I always give to food pantries and help support our local homeless shelter too. My student nurses are forever having food drives and doing various bake sales and whatnot to help supply the pantry and shelter. I'm sorry to hear of your situation and really wish I lived near you! You'd be welcome at my dinner table any day!

Thankfully, I can not say that this has ever happened to us. I have learned, though, how to stretch a dollar really far if we need to eat and I am not beyond going to the dollar store.

we too are experiencing some pretty tough times right now and i know what you mean. i have not been that bad (we get a ton of left overs from my in laws and parents and always have pasta of some sort around the house). i hope things work out for you!! and yes, while i was seperated i did visit a panty, they have great things there... how about going to a soup kitchen for a meal between now and the end of the month?

We have run out of food many times at the end of the month! We do not run out of everything anymore, but find it tough to have tasty meals and to create well-balanced meals that are nutritious too! I have been to pantries, know the best stores with the best prices, and watch freecycle for any food that people are giving away! last year, a woman gave me a whole bag of bagels! I do not mean those six packs of bagels, but a trash bag full! I froze a lot of them and we ate a lot too! In the past, I have made bagels from scratch! I also know where the soup kitchens are located and how to get there. Remembering what time to get the bus and finding the time to go there is another story! I have eaten at the senior centers, where you can get a well-balanced meal for anywhere from a dollar and fifty cents to three dollars and fifty cents! I hope you made it through that last week! You are not alone. Many places have grocery stores that the people cannot afford to buy much, especially in California! We grow the produce here but still can barely afford to buy it!

I havae often had weeks like that especially when its the week that we have to pay our mortgage. Unlike you we dont have food pantries that we can go to for such help. My mom used to be the same, if she knew we were stuck she would arrive on my doorstep with a small box of groceries to see us through till the end of the week. I have learned to make a meal out of practically anything that I have in my cupboards at the time. I always have a good stock of vegetables and pasta and rice to cook with ever I have in my fridge or my freezer. Thankfully we have never gone hungry. :-)

When we were short, we usually made soup from ham bones and soup bones and that kept us fill. Also I used to tend to buy vegetables and salads and the cheaper cuts of meat, because I found making stew and casseroles seemed to fill us up more than buying breads and snacks. Oh if you train your cat to go outside, that will help. Another thing is to use whole grain pasta and rice, that will last longer than the white kind. Oh and rolled oats is good too.

I have never run out of food, no. When I was raising my son alone after my divorce, we had some tight financial times,though. I always managed, even if we ate mac and cheese or cereal alot. My parents lived close enough by that we could go over to their house for dinner. You would be amazed at how much food you can buy with $20 if you are a smart shopepr and use coupons. I used to be able to shop for a week for under 20 bucks!

I have been close to it happening several times in my lifetime. I have always had family around so I have been lucky in that sense. Our neighbourhood in Samoa always looked out for each other and if one was short in food, someone was there to help. All our leftovers most days use to go to our neighbor nextdoor who had 8 kids (two families) living in their home. Everytime we went to buy fresh bread we would buy extras for them. It was just something we all did for each other. If it ever happens to us here, I have my neighbor for support and she has me. I can always sell some of our belongings just to get a bit of extra money too. I have never gone to a food pantry for help but it would be an option I would use if I needed too. Hope you're ok crty!

I know exactually how you are doing as we also live on a fixed income. We are from Louisiana from Hurricane Katrina and down there my hubby could work at the marina and open oysters or pick shrimp and make a few dollars a day to help out. But we are stuck up here in Ohio for now and there isnt' that to do here. He does not read or write and that makes it hard for him to find anything that he can do here. We get $80. a month food stamps now, he got a $16. raise on his check so they cut the stamps from $116. to $80. as for groceries that is $20. a week to buy what it takes to make 3 meals aday. Now try that. We have bread and eggs and milk the first couple weeks of the month and then do without the rest of the month. We eat chicken (dark meat) and pork chops and hamburger all month. There is no money for anything else. we do have a food pantry but most of the stuff is out of date when you get it. And they have a bread cart out in the hall that you can pick from, it is mostly the fancy bread that Kroger sells, and it is so hard you could kill someone with it. I go there for the rice and I guess they can only give out what people donate, where we used to live about 10 miles from here their pantry was full and they just give you a sack and said take what you want. I go to kroger's after 5 pm they mark their meat down, to a small amount and you can get more and different things instead of chicken, althrough my son got food poisoing off of the crab cakes that they sold marked down.It is funny that you get a $16, raise on your check and they drop the food stamps immediately. I was told that a person on a fixed income is not suppose to have the INTERNET, CABLE TV, or anything like that. NO PETS, why dont' they just kill us that are on fixed incomes. I spent my time at General Motors and got sick from the asbestos and all the money I paid in to the union didn't help me when it come time to do something about it, just let them push me out the door. And even though Ihave the credits I need to draw Social Security, it wasn't earned in the time they said it has to be earned so all that I paid in I can't drawoff of. Life is not fair when it comes to the disabled, or the elderly. I guess they expect you to just sit on the couch and wait to die with no life. we are out of oney by the 7th of every month because any extra I have I have to use it to buy additional groceries, and the dont' give anything that you can use to buy washing powder or dish soap, or shampoos or toliet paper, things that are needed. But I can take my food stamps into the store and buy candy, potato chips, coke, ice cream, those are necessaries in life but not toliet paper. Sorry that this was so long but when you get on this subject I get mad. The only ones surviving on a fixed income is the ones that have 5-6 kids and get hundreds of dollars in food stamps and I see them with steaks and cases of coke and potato chips. Seems tht the food stamp amount should go up as the grocery prices go up. Eggs here are $1.99 a dozen and milk, is $4.29 a gallon.

A church I use to go a few years back had a food pantry too. There were quite a few times that I had to use that food pantry. So I know exactly what you are talking about.

There are times that we are broke and can't go buy groceries, but there is always something in the house to eat. Even if it's just noodles with some mushroom soup over them, or canned food, or something to eat. I don't think we have ever had nothing at all to eat. But I do know how you feel, when money is tight and you don't have enough to last till the next payday. We have gone through some tough times. too. When my kids were very young and I was on my own with them, we had some really rough times and thanks to my mom, we had food to eat. She would have us over to eat, or she would buy us some food. I hope things get better for you in the near future.

You know, for $1.99 you can buy like 18 packs of ramen noodles?! That's what I would do when I was broker than broke in undergrad. That and go to friend's houses for dinner. I'd return the favor whenever I had money and food and they were broke. I hope things look up for you soon!

Oh, I run out of money for food all the time. Partly because I manage my money poorly and prioritize the spending of it in interesting (questionable?) ways. Also, I'm often unemployed for extended periods of time, and have even been homeless, living on the street. That said, I've never been to a soup kitchen or "pantry" where they give out food. Maybe it's just pride, but I just tough it out and survive however I can. There are plenty of options when it comes to food to make your money go a lot further, though. Basics like bread and milk usually go for almost nothing in reasonable quantities. Some places sell bread in bulk for even less, which you can store if you have a freezer. Canned soup and tuna can be used in almost anything (I make tuna melts or sandwiches regularly), but the food I find which goes the farthest for your dollar is oriental noodles. I buy a case of 24 packages for around $4 CAD, which can last me almost a month. Any kind of pasta, or rice, similarly, is very inexpensive and goes a long way for your body. Several types of food also last very long (unlike bread) without spoiling, such as pickles. Of course, it's important to keep some fresh produce in there (celery, carrots, broccoli, etc) for your vitamins, which keep you healthy. You can live almost entirely without meat or sweets (both tasty but generally more expensive), and your body has no need of coffee, pop, chips, candy bars, etc. If you keep to healthy basics like sandwiches and soup, you'll find you're spending a lot less on food and staying healthier, so it's really a win/win situation, and you can keep it tasty by making interesting mixes, like pasta sauces or a variety of sandwich combinations.

Tankfully things have been easier for me and I have never had to go without food for lack of money to buy it. Though when once taps had run dry we did went without water for days and were forced to drink muddy water as we were so parched with thirst. That was the most terrible time I remember from my childhood.

I am extremely blessed to have never been in that situation. My husband and I had a large financial challenge to overcome, and when we did it, I became obsessed with getting our savings account back up and running. If not for that account, we woudln't have been able to meet our challenge. I'm sure MyLot is a great help to you, when it comes to getting a few extra dollars. I hope you make a load of money, this month.

Ihav en ever personally ran out of food becuase i matrying to learn how to budget my foo ds tmapsbut it is hard being a family of 3 and living on less then 100.00 a motnh becuase of my income or whatever. There are some food parntireie in he neightborhood that i ma in that iwll help out. They only give food once a month b thtat is better than nothing at all m aMany people are too ashmed of these services, but I am not. The part I have a hard time about is running out of diapers and have you seen the price of baby formula. it is so high. MY mom also helps us ut a lot as we normally always go over there and yeat and she walways makes sure we and the baby has food.

We went to the the food pantry about 2 weeks ago. Our food pantry is awesome. We received hot dogs,polish sausage,a whole chicken,roll of turkey sausage,peanut butter,jelly,oatmeal,rice krispies,corn flakes,granola,beef stew,canned veggies,canned fruit,tuna fish,hamburger helper,tuna helper,mac n cheese,juice,canned soups,pancake syrup,wheat thins chips,and a box of oreo cakesters. I've probably left out a few things. We really were pleasantlty surprised by the amount of food we got. Oh we also got shampoo,toilet paper and paper towels.

I have never run out of food with my current family but we have been scraping pretty close. When my wife was away I convinced the kids that it would be fun to eat pancakes just to save a few dollars. There was little choice but it was just a short shot to pay day to recover. Many years ago I went through a struggling time on my own though. I lived on elbow mac and pancake mix for 3 months. That first pound of hamburger was so GOOD!! I do a food drive for the local needy each year but even have to fall back on my family for help. I would recommend being part of a good church. My church has come to out aid more than once and the people there understand and are very supportive. I will pray for you and your family.

Yes, I have done so most of my married life, my ex never gave me more than 75 dollars to feed 6 of us and that included paper goods and washing liquids. When the kids needed clothes for a new school year, he spent 200.00 for 4 kids, so they each got one outfit with under wear and sox and shoes, that was it. Then I divorced him when they were grown and now I have a fixed income of 600 dollars and am trying to help my daughter next door with her 4 kids, so I have to go to my Church for food and clothes. It hurts but I rather be the hungry one than my grand babies.I trust in the Lord to see me through. Warmly, Shmily9444