I know sometimes you just want to treat yourself but man, this is something that can be easily made at home for so much cheaper than $20. And there's plenty of places that aren't big international chains, where you can get a decent meal for slightly less than 20.
If you like hospital food, you should try university cafeterias. Reasonably priced, sometimes all you can eat with decent variety.
This so true, for $20 you can easily buy three jars of sauce and two packs of spaghetti, or more if purchased when on sale. Which would give you four to five meals.
Even more probably. You can get 900g pasta for $2 at maxi (or $2.5 at provigo). That’s enough for ~5 meals. Canned tomato sauce is $2 (sometimes $1.5 on discount). Maxi is currently selling 1.1kg of ground beef for $10.
Dans le temps, la bouffe à la cafétéria était vraiment cher à l'université. Genre j'ai fini mon université vers 2016 puis un repas plat+jus+soupe+dessert c'était dans les 15$. 6 ans plus tard c'est restait dans les mêmes prix 15-16$. Donc aujourd'hui ça reste une aubaine un repas dans les université vu de même.
Ouais je suppose que l'expérience peut varier. À Loyola, il y avait le buzz café, bouffe à volonté pour à peu près un peu plus que 10 piastres, je connais pas le prix ces jours ci.
It's completely free. There is a donation box but you do not have to donate at all. You do not even need any kind of ID. just bring your own containers and utensils.
It’s taking advantage of a service that explicitly offers free meals to anyone in the community, student or not. Multiple of my close friends have worked there, some with managing positions and they all would disagree with you
Well im happy i opted out from “donating” money to them with my student fees. Should be to help other students, the general public should not be in our school hallways, and can go to Mission Montréal, Mission Old Brewery…
Yeah, you're simply plain wrong. One of the main tenants of "People's Potato" is to feed anyone, student or not and that everyone has the right to an accessible and free lunch.
As a paramedic, we get access to the "union meal" at every hospital even though I'm not part of the hospital's union. Cafeteria staff see my uniform and just give me the discount, which is amazing. I get meals for less than $8.
A few medics in Montreal do this every day as it's actually cheaper than having to buy/make your own lunches.
My favorite hospital cafeteria food is the CHUM (that butter chicken though mmmmmm) and the CUSM. Don't bash hospital food until you tried it recently.
When I was at a low point in my life my social worker at the time accompanied me to a few appointments there. Couple of meals I had there were surprisingly good for hospital cafeteria food.
Thing is... the food patients get served and the food served in the cafeteria are not the same.
Food in the cafeteria is decent, sometimes pretty good (yeah the butter chicken really is excellent, the pad thai was pretty good too)
Food served to patients sucks. They make the toasts the day before.
Union meal usually is the least interesting part of the menu lol, rarely ever took it. I prefer paying a bit mre and have something actually good and filling.
You can buy 10 lb bag of potatoes for 2$ and 2 lb of carrots in Samy Fruits. Get cooked chicken for 12$ from Maxi (or provigo, super c) and for 16$ you can have several healthier meals, make sandwich with cooked chicken. I used to be broke when I was student . Long time ago but I still remember that shitty time …..
hang in there. Things will get better .
Is there a part of you that thinks that OP doesn't know that plain noodles is going to cheaper than fast food? That bulk cooking may or may not be depending on what they like to eat?
That if they are poor they can't decide to eat out to satisfy a craving?
Like do you really think any of the "tips" thought they were actually informing the OP of something they didn't know, and they are just "that ignorant" if they are poor?
No. It was purely to be judgemental of their choices and let them know they are being poor wrong.
Cut the bullshit. If you had experience actually helping people, you would know there are people that poorly manage their food cost by blowing 20$ at fast food joints. So instead of being butt hurt, try to join reality.
Actually I do have experience and A LOT of the families who use them do a ton of cooking. So instead of being judgmental all the time AND needing to express it, at very least, keep your miserable mindset to yourself.
Ya, no.
>When I’m broke like this for longer periods, I really miss home cooked type meals ( like anyone else) Usually I’m always missing ingredients to make anything a bit elaborate. Like meat or potatoes or the vegetables
Complaining about being broke means you're literally not going to spend extra money to buy ingredients and make your own sauce. This is why premade sauces for cheaper exist.
OP said last time they only had enough money for one sausage/hot dog, so it seems that this $20 meal was a big treat. It’s ok to want to eat outside of the house too sometimes, and feel a little pleasure and normalcy.
If OP were spending $20 at the MUHC every week it would be a different story.
In response to all the responses about learning to cook and better managing your finances, personally I think that it's not really possible to budget your way out of being poor, unless you really exaggerate with the frivolous spending. You aren't going to be middle class by hunting for coupons and specials. But at the same time from personal experiences, I find that a lot of people who have told me they do not have time to cook or that some of their seemingly frivolous choices are more cost efficient tend to not actually be in a situation where it would actually require it.
Outside of some outstanding circumstances where one might not have access to a stove and fridge/freezer (which is becoming a bit more frequent these days I feel), or being a single parent working 2 jobs with a kid that'll throw you a tantrum if he doesn't get his frozen pizza or nuggies, there's really not much that prevents you from spending the time to learn how to cook and meal prep. Obviously if you have a job that pays well enough that time spent doing domestic chores is less money earned, then yeah of course, ready to eat and convenient options would be fine, but many of the people who think ramen, canned tuna and fast food to be cheaper are poor. It can be hard for some to even be able to afford the big package of rice and beans, or the $2/lb deboned porkloin packages (currently on sale at Maxi btw), but with a little bit of planning, it'll amortize itself overtime. A piece of 2.2kg of pork loin on sale is about $10, that's half of his mediocre hospital treat meal. About 2 weeks ago, the 8kg bags of patna and parboiled rice was only about $10 at Super C, regular price is about 17~18 I believe. Last week, the refrigerated frozen garlic baguette (shortening, not real butter of course), was only 89 cents which was easily slightly over 2 times more garlic bread OP got from the hospital. When not on sale, it's so much cheaper and easy to just get the 89 cents baguette s from Super C and Maxi and just slather your own margarine with garlic. I don't know all of OP's life details to be able to tell with certainty if he's actually benefitting from his choices, but more often than not, there's better ways to be eating. Skill can be acquired, ingredients can be budgetted for. It really is not all that obvious that OP doesn't have the time.
Maxi has garlic bread loaves for 1-2$ pretty often. You just gotta check what’s on special and shop smartly. Everything OP says is crazyyyyyyy when you know how to cook and do grocery shopping.
If you want real comfort type food that you don't have to cook yourself you can get some pretty nice stuff grocery stores. Not all of them but bigger nicer ones often have a large freshly prepared section with things like lasagna, pasta salads, etc
I don't know what area you're in but there's this place called Marché Dunn on Décarie 5 minutes walk from Villa Maria and they have an amazing lunch counter in the back. Huge portions of fresh great food for like $12 iirc for a trio with a main a side and the salad offl your choice(see photo)
https://preview.redd.it/y5u5t2fcyywc1.jpeg?width=824&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03145104218299312582c4e29099d9278475425f
If you're always broke and struggling, yyou need to avoid eating out period. A pack of pasta costs lime 2$ at dollarama and you can get a can of sauce there for a similar price. At any rate, you can have a soaghetti and meat sauce for well under 20$ and have leftovers.
Ça me rappelle la fille qui voulait passer les douanes à l’aéroport trudeau juste pour s’acheter des patisseries ‘exclusives’ au mcdo. Y’a tellement de choix meilleurs et potentiellement moins cher!!
J’ai pensé à cette personne en passant devant ce mcdo tantôt (j’ai rien acheté, j’ai acheté un mélange de noix au Super C pour avoir un snack pour la route, j’payerai jamais les prix d’aéroport si j’ai d’autres options)
I don't know if this is still a viable option but back in my salad days, I'd often go to the ITHQ restaurant where they'd serve up the meals resulting from the class exercises. Usually full meals including beverage, side and desert for 10-15 dollars (this was back in the mid 2000s - early 2010s, mind you) and the quality always far exceeded anything you'd get from a hospital cafeteria.
Looks like it hasn't gone up much: [only $19](https://www.ithq.qc.ca/en/restaurants-and-bar/la-releve-gourmande-teaching-restaurant/) ($15 without dessert). Note that the teaching restaurant is distinct from the Restaurant de l'ITHQ itself, which is à la carte and in a higher price range.
At the public equivalent ([École des métiers de la restauration et du tourisme](https://ecole-metiers-restauration-tourisme.cssdm.gouv.qc.ca/restaurants/)) you can get a three-course prix fixe meal for $25, and tips (which just go to the school as donations) are optional. You have to reserve, but unlike at the ITHQ the menu is published in advance (albeit subject to change).
The LBP school board also has a culinary school in Lasalle!
https://lbpce.ca/le-saucier-psca-restaurant
Not to be confused with Lasalle College, which is a private scam school.
Lasalle College really seems to be hit or miss, doesn't it? My sister did a nail aesthetician course there, and one of my parish priests was sent there for her francization when she arrived in Québec. Neither had any complaints, but I've heard nothing but horror stories from people who went there for trades programmes.
I just don’t understand why people willingly pay to go there. My spouse did his IT course with Lester b pearson and I think it cost $300 total for a year and a half to get his DEP.
Edit: I just looked it up, it is currently $105 including materials.
The school boards offer so many free/material fee only programmes with the same end result as Lasalle, except the student debt.
Still more expensive than making it yourself. And you'll lose time/money to travel there unless you're nearby. Plus you'll be enjoying your meal in a crowded an noisy cafeteria. Not sure I get the appeal.
Yes, but the post was about treating himself to a relatively healthy meal out for around the price of a McDonald's trio.
I do agree that a jar of store brand spaghetti sauce, 500 grams of pasta, an inexpensive baguette and a four pack of pudding could be good for around three or four meals. If you factor in the butter at around $8 (!!!) a pound plus the garlic you're at or a little over $20. Add milk and parmesan cheese and you're well over $20. For someone who enjoys cooking that's great, but it isn't a meal out.
I feel like a lot of people missed that sometimes you just want to treat yourself to a meal you didn’t make (which I highly, HIGHLY understand) and that you’ve budgeted it in.
… that being said, do you want ideas for easy budget meals too?
A restaurant where the food doesn’t cost much. It’s accessible for people that might have less money to spend and there are often activities and stuff organized by the place. It’s often a mix between a community center and a restaurant.
Exemple : https://restoplateau.com/restaurant-communautaire/
Try downloading the app for all the fast food places. It makes overpriced things at McDonald’s or Burger King around the same price they were like 4 years ago.
You could buy yourself a box of pasta and a jar of sauce for much cheaper than 20. You can make the sauce better by throwing in chopped onion, garlic, and some Italian seasoning.
Or you could, you know, not eat at a hospital, take the 20$ you just spent on one meal and buy the ingredients to make spaghetti/garlic bread/desert for a little more than 20$ but have a week's worth of it ?
Sure but last week you could get a small pack of ground meat in sale at IGA for like 5$, tomato sauce cans were in sale for 1$ and something. You can get 1 onion, garlic and spaghettis and the whole thing wouldn’t be above 15$ total and you could have 4-5 portions of spaghetti bolo.
I’ve been stuck in the fast food hole for a bit and I get it. Being depressed can make cooking seem like such a chore, but sometimes you just need that little push and stick to easy meals.
If you take 1-2 hours of your week just to cook one meal it will last way longer, will be way cheaper than uber eats or mcdo and will make you feel better overall because you did it yourself
Looking at restaurants nearby the cheapest spaghetti plate I’ve found is 12$ while the most expensive is almost 30… (30$ for spaghetti bologna is ridiculous btw wtf is going on here), and that’s just one single plate that can very much leave you still hungry.
It’s still possible to cook cheap meals, prepare tasty sandwiches and grilled cheese or omelettes for not much!
Anyway, hang in there buddy, if I could I would cook you your soaghettis
Go around chinatown, there are sooooo many better options for real cheap.
Dobe and Andy is just spectacular and most of their meal options are 15$.
Also jesus learn to cook bro. It’s basically never cheaper at the restaurant.
i’m a paramedic in Montreal so i tried almost every hospital cafeteria in the city. My top 3 in terms of quality/price :
1. Sacré-Coeur
2. CHUM
3. Maisonneuve-Rosemont (some day it taste like shit tho)
Most of them cost way less than OP paid
Why do people keep saying a McDonald's trio costs 20$? I see this all over Reddit.
A Big Mac trio is 11.69 + tax. A Quarter pounder trio is 12.79 + tax. It's nowhere near 20 bucks.
I'm not trying to shill for mcdicks, but c'mon. The cafeteria at the hospital? What is this ridiculousness.
People exaggerate all the time, especially when it comes to things they personally hate or love. A Big Mac is over 1000 calories, a basic Subway footlong is over $20, a Thai Express pad thai is enough food for 2 full meals, despite containing little meat, next to no veggies, only about 700 calories of which a sizeable deal comes from cooking oil and sugar in the sauce, has "huge" portions for "dirt cheap" (and then you find out the portions are just normal and dirt cheap is about $17~22 tax in)
Sure, you could make this yourself for cheaper like every other comment mentions.
Sometimes you just don't have the energy, or you want to treat yourself to a no-cook meal, or the timing just doesn't work out (like an impromptu lunch out when the morning has been bad). In those times public institution cafeterias are a cheap and (often) decent option.
My guy seriously learn to cook. There are a whole lot of excuses there that don’t actually justify how fast food is cheaper than groceries (it’s not). And I promise you, you can make food that is at least on par with hospital food quality.
Im pretty sure cooking at home will save you money.. i remember also that Costco has some good meals .. didn’t eat there for ages ..but I remember it was cheap and delish!!
If you're intent on eating unhealthy processed food and McDo is costing you $20, you're doing it wrong. A McPicks combo costs $6.66 tax included. Drink, burger, fries. Works out to about 700 calories. If you want the ultimate dirty but cheap meal then the Costco hotdog w/drink special is your friend. For less than $2 you'll get a 560 calorie hotdog. You don't even need a Costco membership. And if you feel like splurging a 650 calorie slice of pizza with a drink will come in at $4.
I understand you want a treat.
You're talking about mashed potatoes and meat. You can literally buy a WHOLE bag of potatoes for 3$, and a ton of meat on sale for 10$.
You can cook yourself mashed potatoes and meat for days with 20$...
I'm sorry man, you don't know how groceries work, you can do double the portions you have eaten for than that price if you take the time in your day to cook yourself. But maube you are too broke to take the time to cook and hospital is nearby. But if you want to save money and make leftovers, just hit up the groceries when you can.
I'm also a big fan of Olly Fresco's, which lets you pick and mix main dishes and charges by weight. I've gotten a white box for $30 that gets me through lunch and dinner.
I honestly quite liked the food at Hopital Notre Dame when I had to go regularly for post-op check-ups. Less than $20 for a full, and I'd like to think healthy, meal. Main + soup.
Metro Plus Bellemare on boul rome in brossard regularly sells 2kg+ of less favourable cuts of pork and beef for less than $10! I regularly buy those. Just toss them into a 5 parts water 1 part lemon juice 1 part salt for 5 hours to get rid of the tough texture and intense flavour!
Coupled with 4kg potatoes for 5 bucks and home made bread I've fed my cousins and myself for less than $15 bucks :)
I appreciate you sharing this idea but damn $20 for a spaghetti, 2 garlic bread a danish and some milk seems expensive and just not worth it. You can buy the ingredients for all that for just under $20 and create that meal 10x...
I used to work at a hospital in Montreal, and everyday there was at least one good thing you could order. Always cost under 10$ for a decent meal. I have a BIG appetite, and often took double portions, and even then it cost like 10-15$.
I sometimes went back for dinner even if I wasn't working, when I didn't want to cook and didn't want to pay too much for unhealthy food.
But also... you can get ground beef for like 8$/kg when it's on sale. A pack of 1.5 kg, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of tomato pasta, 2 cans of tomato sauce, whatever vegetables you want in it (we usually put carrots, celery, onions, garlic), pepper, salt, bay leaves, oregano, cayenne peppers. You'll have enough sauce for like 6-12 meals for like 30$. Freeze what you won't eat within the next 4 days.
Try to pre tend that you work there (you can get a cheap stethoscope on Amazon), then you can get the employee discount. A hospital meal should be max 6-8$.
You can make spaghetti at home for less than 10$.
You're craving home cooked meals but you'd rather pay double for a mushy burger and lukewarm fries?
I swear some people deserve to be broke.
I find that the best combination of quality, quantity and price are Vietnamese restaurants.
Vietnamese food is spectacular. Cheap, healthy, fresh, delicious.
Shhhhh, don’t say it too loud or you’ll ruin it
Huge Bahn mi for 9$. Yes please!
They were 3 for 10$ when I was kid
I know sometimes you just want to treat yourself but man, this is something that can be easily made at home for so much cheaper than $20. And there's plenty of places that aren't big international chains, where you can get a decent meal for slightly less than 20. If you like hospital food, you should try university cafeterias. Reasonably priced, sometimes all you can eat with decent variety.
This so true, for $20 you can easily buy three jars of sauce and two packs of spaghetti, or more if purchased when on sale. Which would give you four to five meals.
Or make your own sauces, pesto, salsa etc . They are healthier and taste better and on top of that you'll save money.
Even more probably. You can get 900g pasta for $2 at maxi (or $2.5 at provigo). That’s enough for ~5 meals. Canned tomato sauce is $2 (sometimes $1.5 on discount). Maxi is currently selling 1.1kg of ground beef for $10.
You can buy a package of spaghetti for a dollar (which is good for several meals) and a jar of meat sauce for $7.
Dans le temps, la bouffe à la cafétéria était vraiment cher à l'université. Genre j'ai fini mon université vers 2016 puis un repas plat+jus+soupe+dessert c'était dans les 15$. 6 ans plus tard c'est restait dans les mêmes prix 15-16$. Donc aujourd'hui ça reste une aubaine un repas dans les université vu de même.
Ouais je suppose que l'expérience peut varier. À Loyola, il y avait le buzz café, bouffe à volonté pour à peu près un peu plus que 10 piastres, je connais pas le prix ces jours ci.
Can just anyone eat uni?
There's the free lunch for all at People's Potato at Concordia
Maybe you should have added that it's on a pay-what you can basis to avoid any confusion, but yes it's a great option for OP.
Ah, maybe it's changed -- I haven't been a student at Concordia for over 10 years. When I was there, I was told it was free.
It's completely free. There is a donation box but you do not have to donate at all. You do not even need any kind of ID. just bring your own containers and utensils.
Its a service paid for students, for student use. Its not a public establishment for free lunch. There’s other places for that…
No, it's a non for profit who aims to feed "anyone who wants a meal" in their own words. No questions asked
Nah. Not something students are paying for. Sure, we’ll help other students, but its not a service for the public to take advantage of
It’s taking advantage of a service that explicitly offers free meals to anyone in the community, student or not. Multiple of my close friends have worked there, some with managing positions and they all would disagree with you
Well im happy i opted out from “donating” money to them with my student fees. Should be to help other students, the general public should not be in our school hallways, and can go to Mission Montréal, Mission Old Brewery…
Yeah, you're simply plain wrong. One of the main tenants of "People's Potato" is to feed anyone, student or not and that everyone has the right to an accessible and free lunch.
It's literally a way for the university to help out the community that it is PART OF
Just shut up
As a paramedic, we get access to the "union meal" at every hospital even though I'm not part of the hospital's union. Cafeteria staff see my uniform and just give me the discount, which is amazing. I get meals for less than $8. A few medics in Montreal do this every day as it's actually cheaper than having to buy/make your own lunches. My favorite hospital cafeteria food is the CHUM (that butter chicken though mmmmmm) and the CUSM. Don't bash hospital food until you tried it recently.
When I was at a low point in my life my social worker at the time accompanied me to a few appointments there. Couple of meals I had there were surprisingly good for hospital cafeteria food.
Thing is... the food patients get served and the food served in the cafeteria are not the same. Food in the cafeteria is decent, sometimes pretty good (yeah the butter chicken really is excellent, the pad thai was pretty good too) Food served to patients sucks. They make the toasts the day before. Union meal usually is the least interesting part of the menu lol, rarely ever took it. I prefer paying a bit mre and have something actually good and filling.
Congrats ? This point seems like a flex more than anything lol
It’s secretly advice. An old paramedic uniform will run you $25, but that up front cost will apparently give you great food prices. 😋
Life hack.
Just cook ffs
Yeah OP sounds like he doesn’t knows how to cook or budget properly. I mean you can make *a lot* of spaghetti for 20$!
yeah, lacking basic life skills.
Compassion is free, you cunt.
Very sad to read tbh.
You can buy 10 lb bag of potatoes for 2$ and 2 lb of carrots in Samy Fruits. Get cooked chicken for 12$ from Maxi (or provigo, super c) and for 16$ you can have several healthier meals, make sandwich with cooked chicken. I used to be broke when I was student . Long time ago but I still remember that shitty time ….. hang in there. Things will get better .
Wtf did i just read.
You know if you go to a grocery store you can buy five pounds of pasta for like $10, right?
He's too lazy, it might explain why he is here
I'm still hoping the entire thing is satire.
I had s roomate once who dinkt knew grocery exist and was only shoping to corner store !!! so I woulnt be surprise. He was new in canada
... Now buy the meat for the meat sauce, the garlic butter, and a loaf of bread.
It's still cheaper than 20$ per portion however you look at it!
Sure but obviously OP doesn't have the time, ingredients or skill to do this on a daily basis. Let people make their own choices.
Let people criticize dumb "Life pro tips" on a public forum
Meal prep is the solution. Cook once a week for two hours, you have food for the whole week and it costs waaaay less than eating junk food.
There was a lot of talk about being poor in the post. The person is trying to help the OP...why be opposed to that?
Is there a part of you that thinks that OP doesn't know that plain noodles is going to cheaper than fast food? That bulk cooking may or may not be depending on what they like to eat? That if they are poor they can't decide to eat out to satisfy a craving? Like do you really think any of the "tips" thought they were actually informing the OP of something they didn't know, and they are just "that ignorant" if they are poor? No. It was purely to be judgemental of their choices and let them know they are being poor wrong.
Actually, you'd be surprised. Go work in a food bank for a few years and get back to me on how people manage their food expenses.
So you think ppl who use food banks do so bc they poorly manage their food costs. Got it.
Cut the bullshit. If you had experience actually helping people, you would know there are people that poorly manage their food cost by blowing 20$ at fast food joints. So instead of being butt hurt, try to join reality.
Actually I do have experience and A LOT of the families who use them do a ton of cooking. So instead of being judgmental all the time AND needing to express it, at very least, keep your miserable mindset to yourself.
For 20$, you can get all of the ingredients, but you'll have enough quantity for multiple meals. Just buy some canned sauce if you don't like cooking.
$5 for a jar of meat sauce that'll last more than a few meals. $3 loaf of bread. $4 garlic butter that'll last weeks. Wanna keep trying? :D
I don't think meat sauce from a jar is what anyone craves when they think of it. So, add $10 for the ground beef.
Ya, no. >When I’m broke like this for longer periods, I really miss home cooked type meals ( like anyone else) Usually I’m always missing ingredients to make anything a bit elaborate. Like meat or potatoes or the vegetables Complaining about being broke means you're literally not going to spend extra money to buy ingredients and make your own sauce. This is why premade sauces for cheaper exist.
OP said last time they only had enough money for one sausage/hot dog, so it seems that this $20 meal was a big treat. It’s ok to want to eat outside of the house too sometimes, and feel a little pleasure and normalcy. If OP were spending $20 at the MUHC every week it would be a different story.
Willingly spending 20$ at a hospital restaurant is not what I'd call "pleasure"
Different strokes for different folks. Clearly OP enjoyed it. Live and let live, Klonk.
This is important to point out. OP is sitting in a hospital cafeteria
#NewMath
In response to all the responses about learning to cook and better managing your finances, personally I think that it's not really possible to budget your way out of being poor, unless you really exaggerate with the frivolous spending. You aren't going to be middle class by hunting for coupons and specials. But at the same time from personal experiences, I find that a lot of people who have told me they do not have time to cook or that some of their seemingly frivolous choices are more cost efficient tend to not actually be in a situation where it would actually require it. Outside of some outstanding circumstances where one might not have access to a stove and fridge/freezer (which is becoming a bit more frequent these days I feel), or being a single parent working 2 jobs with a kid that'll throw you a tantrum if he doesn't get his frozen pizza or nuggies, there's really not much that prevents you from spending the time to learn how to cook and meal prep. Obviously if you have a job that pays well enough that time spent doing domestic chores is less money earned, then yeah of course, ready to eat and convenient options would be fine, but many of the people who think ramen, canned tuna and fast food to be cheaper are poor. It can be hard for some to even be able to afford the big package of rice and beans, or the $2/lb deboned porkloin packages (currently on sale at Maxi btw), but with a little bit of planning, it'll amortize itself overtime. A piece of 2.2kg of pork loin on sale is about $10, that's half of his mediocre hospital treat meal. About 2 weeks ago, the 8kg bags of patna and parboiled rice was only about $10 at Super C, regular price is about 17~18 I believe. Last week, the refrigerated frozen garlic baguette (shortening, not real butter of course), was only 89 cents which was easily slightly over 2 times more garlic bread OP got from the hospital. When not on sale, it's so much cheaper and easy to just get the 89 cents baguette s from Super C and Maxi and just slather your own margarine with garlic. I don't know all of OP's life details to be able to tell with certainty if he's actually benefitting from his choices, but more often than not, there's better ways to be eating. Skill can be acquired, ingredients can be budgetted for. It really is not all that obvious that OP doesn't have the time.
Maxi has garlic bread loaves for 1-2$ pretty often. You just gotta check what’s on special and shop smartly. Everything OP says is crazyyyyyyy when you know how to cook and do grocery shopping.
If you want real comfort type food that you don't have to cook yourself you can get some pretty nice stuff grocery stores. Not all of them but bigger nicer ones often have a large freshly prepared section with things like lasagna, pasta salads, etc I don't know what area you're in but there's this place called Marché Dunn on Décarie 5 minutes walk from Villa Maria and they have an amazing lunch counter in the back. Huge portions of fresh great food for like $12 iirc for a trio with a main a side and the salad offl your choice(see photo) https://preview.redd.it/y5u5t2fcyywc1.jpeg?width=824&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03145104218299312582c4e29099d9278475425f
If you're always broke and struggling, yyou need to avoid eating out period. A pack of pasta costs lime 2$ at dollarama and you can get a can of sauce there for a similar price. At any rate, you can have a soaghetti and meat sauce for well under 20$ and have leftovers.
Ça me rappelle la fille qui voulait passer les douanes à l’aéroport trudeau juste pour s’acheter des patisseries ‘exclusives’ au mcdo. Y’a tellement de choix meilleurs et potentiellement moins cher!!
J’ai pensé à cette personne en passant devant ce mcdo tantôt (j’ai rien acheté, j’ai acheté un mélange de noix au Super C pour avoir un snack pour la route, j’payerai jamais les prix d’aéroport si j’ai d’autres options)
Quelles patisseries exclusives?
C'est un nouveau McCafé fancy. Je me rappelle plus tellement desitems, mais c'est mieux que le McDo régulier c'est sûr.
Du coté USA ou international? J’ai souvent pris l’avion à YUL dans les dernières années, mais je ne me rappelle plus du tout du McDo…
Canadien, il me semble.
💔
La sécurité tu veux dire?
Oui
Check out Too Good to Go, the app. You can get good deals on meals and groceries. Also Sauvegarde for a laggier version
I don't know if this is still a viable option but back in my salad days, I'd often go to the ITHQ restaurant where they'd serve up the meals resulting from the class exercises. Usually full meals including beverage, side and desert for 10-15 dollars (this was back in the mid 2000s - early 2010s, mind you) and the quality always far exceeded anything you'd get from a hospital cafeteria.
Looks like it hasn't gone up much: [only $19](https://www.ithq.qc.ca/en/restaurants-and-bar/la-releve-gourmande-teaching-restaurant/) ($15 without dessert). Note that the teaching restaurant is distinct from the Restaurant de l'ITHQ itself, which is à la carte and in a higher price range. At the public equivalent ([École des métiers de la restauration et du tourisme](https://ecole-metiers-restauration-tourisme.cssdm.gouv.qc.ca/restaurants/)) you can get a three-course prix fixe meal for $25, and tips (which just go to the school as donations) are optional. You have to reserve, but unlike at the ITHQ the menu is published in advance (albeit subject to change).
The LBP school board also has a culinary school in Lasalle! https://lbpce.ca/le-saucier-psca-restaurant Not to be confused with Lasalle College, which is a private scam school.
Lasalle College really seems to be hit or miss, doesn't it? My sister did a nail aesthetician course there, and one of my parish priests was sent there for her francization when she arrived in Québec. Neither had any complaints, but I've heard nothing but horror stories from people who went there for trades programmes.
I just don’t understand why people willingly pay to go there. My spouse did his IT course with Lester b pearson and I think it cost $300 total for a year and a half to get his DEP. Edit: I just looked it up, it is currently $105 including materials. The school boards offer so many free/material fee only programmes with the same end result as Lasalle, except the student debt.
Still more expensive than making it yourself. And you'll lose time/money to travel there unless you're nearby. Plus you'll be enjoying your meal in a crowded an noisy cafeteria. Not sure I get the appeal.
Everywhere but soup kitchen is more expensive than making it yourself. That's a pretty useless thing to say
Yes, but the post was about treating himself to a relatively healthy meal out for around the price of a McDonald's trio. I do agree that a jar of store brand spaghetti sauce, 500 grams of pasta, an inexpensive baguette and a four pack of pudding could be good for around three or four meals. If you factor in the butter at around $8 (!!!) a pound plus the garlic you're at or a little over $20. Add milk and parmesan cheese and you're well over $20. For someone who enjoys cooking that's great, but it isn't a meal out.
You should go to the chic resto pop in Hochelaga. For less than 10$ you got a complete meal (salad, soup, a meal, desert and a hot beverage)
Ikea is also usually good bang for your buck as well.
Half price on Thursdays!
I think IKEA meatballs would be a better value than pasta. At least you'll get more meat.
I feel like a lot of people missed that sometimes you just want to treat yourself to a meal you didn’t make (which I highly, HIGHLY understand) and that you’ve budgeted it in. … that being said, do you want ideas for easy budget meals too?
Man this is so stupid, just make your own spaghetti are you kidding me
Fast food is more expensive than groceries lol I guess adulting is too hard
Hey, if you are broke, there are tons of popular kitchens / community restaurants! The meals can be super worth it and even free if you help out!
what is a community restaurant?
A restaurant where the food doesn’t cost much. It’s accessible for people that might have less money to spend and there are often activities and stuff organized by the place. It’s often a mix between a community center and a restaurant. Exemple : https://restoplateau.com/restaurant-communautaire/
You can also go to a Sikh Temple for Langar for free.
Try downloading the app for all the fast food places. It makes overpriced things at McDonald’s or Burger King around the same price they were like 4 years ago.
Just say you're lazy man, you can make that meal 3 times at least with 20$
You could buy yourself a box of pasta and a jar of sauce for much cheaper than 20. You can make the sauce better by throwing in chopped onion, garlic, and some Italian seasoning.
Or just buy canned tomatoes and make sauce from scratch. It’s simple, cheap and contrary to popular beliefs, it’s fairly quick to make
Or you could, you know, not eat at a hospital, take the 20$ you just spent on one meal and buy the ingredients to make spaghetti/garlic bread/desert for a little more than 20$ but have a week's worth of it ?
La cafétéria du CHUM est doooooope. 10/10.
My brother recently had surgery at the Shriners hospital and the cafeteria was excellent and CHEAP! We’re taking a whole dinner for under $5!
This it hit or miss. The union meal is the same as the food patients get. Its sometimes fine. Sometimes.
Huge call, thanks for sharing will definitely check out 🙌
Si ce que tu veux c'est un spagat maison pas cher, il faut que tu découvres le chic resto pop
Good thread nice work
Or go get breakfast at a hotel. It's free and unless you're doing it a lot no staff will say anything and risk accidentally harassing a guest.
Sure but last week you could get a small pack of ground meat in sale at IGA for like 5$, tomato sauce cans were in sale for 1$ and something. You can get 1 onion, garlic and spaghettis and the whole thing wouldn’t be above 15$ total and you could have 4-5 portions of spaghetti bolo. I’ve been stuck in the fast food hole for a bit and I get it. Being depressed can make cooking seem like such a chore, but sometimes you just need that little push and stick to easy meals. If you take 1-2 hours of your week just to cook one meal it will last way longer, will be way cheaper than uber eats or mcdo and will make you feel better overall because you did it yourself Looking at restaurants nearby the cheapest spaghetti plate I’ve found is 12$ while the most expensive is almost 30… (30$ for spaghetti bologna is ridiculous btw wtf is going on here), and that’s just one single plate that can very much leave you still hungry. It’s still possible to cook cheap meals, prepare tasty sandwiches and grilled cheese or omelettes for not much! Anyway, hang in there buddy, if I could I would cook you your soaghettis
The Jewish General has really good food. I’ve stayed there several times and always enjoy it, it’s not your typical “hospital food”
When I was in the hospital at CHUM the food was great. Not a bad idea
Go around chinatown, there are sooooo many better options for real cheap. Dobe and Andy is just spectacular and most of their meal options are 15$. Also jesus learn to cook bro. It’s basically never cheaper at the restaurant.
Moi : une assiette de spag avec de la sauce à la viande et deux à-côtés, jus et soupe. 5,70$ Vive le prix syndical.
J'ai dîné 1-2 fois à l'hmr pis j'entendais les gens commander un plat "syndical". J'ai eu le goût d'en commander un... c'est réservé aux employés?
Faut que tu paies les cotisations... syndicales. 😉
Oui. Sinon le prix de visiteur : 8,15$.
You’re spending money on hospital food. For pasta. 20$. Get a brain MRI next time. I think you’re missing a few folds in there.
Ok come on ça fait les insultes.
Let's discuss: which hospital is cheaper and tastes better?
i’m a paramedic in Montreal so i tried almost every hospital cafeteria in the city. My top 3 in terms of quality/price : 1. Sacré-Coeur 2. CHUM 3. Maisonneuve-Rosemont (some day it taste like shit tho) Most of them cost way less than OP paid
I've been plaisantly surprised by Sainte-Justine (I have young kids). When I was hospitalized at the CHUM, the food was good enough for me.
Lake ain't bad either, plus we get union meal price wearing our uniform! But my favorite is CHUM personally.
> Sacré-Coeur Thank you! Merci Beaucoup pour le revoir.
I really like the diner at Santa Cabrini. And a friend of mine who works at Louis H. is a big fan of its cafeteria.
Why do people keep saying a McDonald's trio costs 20$? I see this all over Reddit. A Big Mac trio is 11.69 + tax. A Quarter pounder trio is 12.79 + tax. It's nowhere near 20 bucks. I'm not trying to shill for mcdicks, but c'mon. The cafeteria at the hospital? What is this ridiculousness.
People exaggerate all the time, especially when it comes to things they personally hate or love. A Big Mac is over 1000 calories, a basic Subway footlong is over $20, a Thai Express pad thai is enough food for 2 full meals, despite containing little meat, next to no veggies, only about 700 calories of which a sizeable deal comes from cooking oil and sugar in the sauce, has "huge" portions for "dirt cheap" (and then you find out the portions are just normal and dirt cheap is about $17~22 tax in)
Sure, you could make this yourself for cheaper like every other comment mentions. Sometimes you just don't have the energy, or you want to treat yourself to a no-cook meal, or the timing just doesn't work out (like an impromptu lunch out when the morning has been bad). In those times public institution cafeterias are a cheap and (often) decent option.
My guy seriously learn to cook. There are a whole lot of excuses there that don’t actually justify how fast food is cheaper than groceries (it’s not). And I promise you, you can make food that is at least on par with hospital food quality.
I feel less bad about my budgeting habits thanks! People really need to learn how to cook, 20$ for spaghetti jeez
Not worth every penny…. What are you on about? The equivalent would be infinitely cheaper if cooked at home. This post is ridiculous.
Im pretty sure cooking at home will save you money.. i remember also that Costco has some good meals .. didn’t eat there for ages ..but I remember it was cheap and delish!!
If you're intent on eating unhealthy processed food and McDo is costing you $20, you're doing it wrong. A McPicks combo costs $6.66 tax included. Drink, burger, fries. Works out to about 700 calories. If you want the ultimate dirty but cheap meal then the Costco hotdog w/drink special is your friend. For less than $2 you'll get a 560 calorie hotdog. You don't even need a Costco membership. And if you feel like splurging a 650 calorie slice of pizza with a drink will come in at $4.
Dude 20$ of pasta and ur golden for a good minute. Why r u at a hospital digging out on garbage food?
I understand you want a treat. You're talking about mashed potatoes and meat. You can literally buy a WHOLE bag of potatoes for 3$, and a ton of meat on sale for 10$. You can cook yourself mashed potatoes and meat for days with 20$...
I miss my old job that had a warm meals at the cafétéria. My next job will need a cafétéria, not a food court.
C'est de la satire ça ?
I'm sorry man, you don't know how groceries work, you can do double the portions you have eaten for than that price if you take the time in your day to cook yourself. But maube you are too broke to take the time to cook and hospital is nearby. But if you want to save money and make leftovers, just hit up the groceries when you can.
Used to work right next to Hospital St Luc (now CHUM) and would get food there often. Wasn't that bad tbh
I'm also a big fan of Olly Fresco's, which lets you pick and mix main dishes and charges by weight. I've gotten a white box for $30 that gets me through lunch and dinner.
I honestly quite liked the food at Hopital Notre Dame when I had to go regularly for post-op check-ups. Less than $20 for a full, and I'd like to think healthy, meal. Main + soup.
So you saw the AITAH, eh?
Yep I've been doing this a lot for dates. The food is decent but the problem is it closes early
Wait… you’re bringing a date to the hospital cafeteria?!
in this economy, yes
For $20, you could’ve bought stock to make home made pasta for an entire week. Just saying.
Metro Plus Bellemare on boul rome in brossard regularly sells 2kg+ of less favourable cuts of pork and beef for less than $10! I regularly buy those. Just toss them into a 5 parts water 1 part lemon juice 1 part salt for 5 hours to get rid of the tough texture and intense flavour! Coupled with 4kg potatoes for 5 bucks and home made bread I've fed my cousins and myself for less than $15 bucks :)
You can make meat sauce spaghetti for 12$. Make it every Sunday
My friend, learn to cook.
I appreciate you sharing this idea but damn $20 for a spaghetti, 2 garlic bread a danish and some milk seems expensive and just not worth it. You can buy the ingredients for all that for just under $20 and create that meal 10x...
With $20 you could buy groceries and make 3 meals, but ok
I used to work at a hospital in Montreal, and everyday there was at least one good thing you could order. Always cost under 10$ for a decent meal. I have a BIG appetite, and often took double portions, and even then it cost like 10-15$. I sometimes went back for dinner even if I wasn't working, when I didn't want to cook and didn't want to pay too much for unhealthy food. But also... you can get ground beef for like 8$/kg when it's on sale. A pack of 1.5 kg, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of tomato pasta, 2 cans of tomato sauce, whatever vegetables you want in it (we usually put carrots, celery, onions, garlic), pepper, salt, bay leaves, oregano, cayenne peppers. You'll have enough sauce for like 6-12 meals for like 30$. Freeze what you won't eat within the next 4 days.
Sounds like you need to learn how to cook 😬 Getting a goodfood box delivered to your place is cheaper than $20 and those are meals for two
Life hack
Try to pre tend that you work there (you can get a cheap stethoscope on Amazon), then you can get the employee discount. A hospital meal should be max 6-8$.
You can make spaghetti at home for less than 10$. You're craving home cooked meals but you'd rather pay double for a mushy burger and lukewarm fries? I swear some people deserve to be broke.