My friend Bill, a writer, tutor and Crown Heights resident, loves going out to bars, events and movies. But like all of us Brokesters, he’s on a bit of a tight budget. So, to help balance his all-important drinking/music/movie habit with the need for food, Bill’s devised a strategy to eat on $15 a week or less.
Bill moved to New York in 2007, after finishing grad school in Philadelphia. He subsisted on frozen Trader Joe’s burritos and boxed mac and cheese until a friend suggested he get a crockpot. Even though his first experiments were a series of cream-sauced, Velveeta-slicked disasters, he discovered the appeal of slow cooking. Read the rest of this entry »
We’re in the thick of barbecue season, which means if you’ve got a patch of earth, deck or roofing tar big enough to hold a grill, a cooler and a few chairs, it’s your civic duty to throw one. Or several. You think we’re going to leave this simple summer pleasure to suburbanites?
If your mind works like mine, right about now you’re considering how much it’s going to run you. And it’s true, entertaining can be a costly proposition. As the gods of thrift would have it, though, many of the staples of backyard barbecuing—beans, coleslaw, iced tea—are built from peasant-level ingredients that can be had for spare change. Read the rest of this entry »
Ana's afternoon haul. Photos by Vanessa Velez.
With salsa long the number one condiment in the U.S., the border between Mexican and American grocery stores is not as clear as it used to be. By now most people think of canned Goya frijoles as vritually interchangeable with Progresso’s. But do you know your poblanos from your jalapeños, or bananas from batatas (sweet potatoes)? If you’ve found yourself at your local supermarket or specialty store eyeing all of those colorful jars and odd-shaped cheeses, this guide is for you. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo by Stefan Tonio
I never really decided to spend only $8,000 in one year—it just sort of happened. I didn’t even realize the extent of my thrift until tallying up my income on the eve of March 15. When you take the amount of money I brought home (roughly $13,000) and subtract the amount I had thrown to the black void that is private student loans (roughly $5,000), combined with the fact that both my checking and my savings accounts were more or less empty on January 1, it was pretty simple math. Read the rest of this entry »
The author's roommate isn't pleased. Photos by Vanessa Velez.
I have the utmost respect for my predominantly Chinese neighbors in the minimally gentrified nook of Sunset Park that I call home, but those feelings are not what drew me into the world of traditional meat drying. I was driven to investigate this little-understood foodway solely by pangs of curiosity and the stench of unemployment—not necessarily in that order.
Last winter, when I was gainfully employed, my roommate Peter and I moved into a brand new nondo. During the tour, Peter was spooked to discover that from the balcony above us hung damp slabs of meat offset by a faint glimpse of the Manhattan skyline. Read the rest of this entry »
My friend Bill, a writer, tutor and Crown Heights resident, loves going out to bars, events and movies. But like all of us Brokesters, he’s on a bit of a tight budget. So, to help balance his all-important drinking/music/movie habit with the need for food, Bill’s devised a strategy to eat on $15 a week or less.
Bill moved to New York in 2007, after finishing grad school in Philadelphia. He subsisted on frozen Trader Joe’s burritos and boxed mac and cheese until a friend suggested he get a crockpot. Even though his first experiments were a series of cream-sauced, Velveeta-slicked disasters, he discovered the appeal of slow cooking. Read the rest of this entry »
We’re in the thick of barbecue season, which means if you’ve got a patch of earth, deck or roofing tar big enough to hold a grill, a cooler and a few chairs, it’s your civic duty to throw one. Or several. You think we’re going to leave this simple summer pleasure to suburbanites?
If your mind works like mine, right about now you’re considering how much it’s going to run you. And it’s true, entertaining can be a costly proposition. As the gods of thrift would have it, though, many of the staples of backyard barbecuing—beans, coleslaw, iced tea—are built from peasant-level ingredients that can be had for spare change. Read the rest of this entry »
Ana's afternoon haul. Photos by Vanessa Velez.
With salsa long the number one condiment in the U.S., the border between Mexican and American grocery stores is not as clear as it used to be. By now most people think of canned Goya frijoles as vritually interchangeable with Progresso’s. But do you know your poblanos from your jalapeños, or bananas from batatas (sweet potatoes)? If you’ve found yourself at your local supermarket or specialty store eyeing all of those colorful jars and odd-shaped cheeses, this guide is for you. Read the rest of this entry »
Photo by Stefan Tonio
I never really decided to spend only $8,000 in one year—it just sort of happened. I didn’t even realize the extent of my thrift until tallying up my income on the eve of March 15. When you take the amount of money I brought home (roughly $13,000) and subtract the amount I had thrown to the black void that is private student loans (roughly $5,000), combined with the fact that both my checking and my savings accounts were more or less empty on January 1, it was pretty simple math. Read the rest of this entry »
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