A Bag of Rice and a Can of Soup

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Most of us fall on hard times at least occasionally. I know I have. Times when I had to decide between paying the water bill or having something to eat, and payday being a week away. Of course, the choice wasn't that hard. Food had to be eaten, we couldn't go an entire week without food. I filled plastic jugs with water for drinking, water for washing, and water for flushing. The fridge was full of water jugs. One of the bathtubs was full of cleaning and flushing water. The next morning, the water was turned off before the kids went to school. The water bill is the least expensive in the household budget. Usually around $60 a month. Granted, $60 doesn't buy a lot of groceries these days, especially if your tastes are somewhat picky, like children can sometimes be. I have found out though, that food you don't care for tastes a lot better when there's nothing else to eat. With that money, I bought a big bag of rice, 2 gallons of milk, a large jar of peanut butter, some store brand cream of (insert flavor here) soups, two loaves of bread, a bag of breakfast cereal, some cheap paper plates and other disposable flatware and silverware. (No water. Couldn't wash dishes.) I also bought a bag of bacon bits and 2 dozen eggs. I had a little left over for later if needed. Gas for the car, or whatever. The bacon and eggs were gone first, then the bread and milk, and on down the line until we were left with the dry rice and cans of soup. I cooked the rice and let the kids pick a can of soup. Their favorite was cream of chicken. When the rice was done, I mixed the can of soup in with it. We ate. We liked it. We got our bellies full. Tonight, I didn't want to go to the grocery store. Not because I didn't have the money to, I was just feeling lazy. My son said "Hey Mom, remember that week we were poor and you made that rice stuff?" "Yeah." I answered He replied, "Let's have that again." So I looked in the cabinet. There were a few small bags of rice in there. We also had a large can of Campbell's cream of chicken soup. I made the meal. We ate, we liked it, and our bellies got full.