“Operation: Spend Exactly ZERO DOLLARS Until First Paycheck Arrives” has become a lot easier to manage when you take various spare food in your fridge and make something delicious.

I now present: pork chops (cookied the 3 frozen spares from last week) with diced apple (1 left, about to go bad) and garlic, served over sautéed arugula (the entire bag, since it was about to go bad), and goat cheese yellow grits (1 1/2 leftover goat cheese medallions and the cornmeal was buried in the back of my pantry).

I had enough to make 3 lunches— 2 for me, 1 to send home with the dude.

Being poor never tasted so good.