Let's see.... poverty cooking/eating.... I'd say the first year we were married (1988) would definitely qualify as a crash course for the 18 year old I was then about poverty and making do with nothing at all. A double box set of 6lb. Bisquik boxes cellophaned together, a 5lb. box of dried milk, a large bag of rice and two cheap stewing chickens could quite literally feed us for two weeks. (Add in stick margarine which is usually STILL found for 48 cents a lb or less.) We usually got these items from Sam's. We would make Chicken and dumplings. Pancakes or biscuits for breakfast. Biscuits with creamed chicken over them. Many nights we had pancakes (butter with no/little syrup) for dinner. Trust me - a thick, heavy Bisquik pancake for dinner can fill up even a hungry man very nicely. There was also a recipe on the back of the Bisquik box about making a breakfast casserole with Bisquik, eggs, milk and cheese. I don't remember what it was. But if I could afford or had the eggs and cheese I would make that and we would eat on it for two days or more. We also used to make a Bisquik-like shortcake (almost like a drop biscuit, really) and add a can of cheap pie filling as topping for a treat. For some reason I could almost always find a dented can of pie filling for next to nothing in the sale bins. Creamed chicken (if any was left) went well over the rice, or sometimes we saved some of the chicken after boiling for dumpling broth and made a rice and chicken baked casserole. Sometimes I had some sugar or brown sugar to make one of the other coffee-cake-like items listed on the back. They were always plain, but very filling. Let me stress that I made different Bisquik recipes according to whatever else I might have on hand or could afford - cinnamon, etc. In today's prices according to my pricebook: Costco - ONE 6lb. box of Bisquik - $4.35 (x2 = 8.70) Aldi's - ONE 5lb. box of dry milk - $7.95 Chicken - varies by store, but ranges from .49 -.99 a lb for various cheap chicken parts- I'll go overkill/protein-heavy and say spend 10.00 on chicken. Rice - medium bag for $2.50 Margarine - $1.00 for 2 lbs. Total - $30.15 There wasn't much variety, that is true, but we sure didn't starve. I STILL keep Bisquik on hand - I know I can make the same thing from bulk ingredients, but it's great in a pinch to have on hand. Sorry for the long, wordy post!