History Main / ImprobableFoodBudget

* ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'': In "House of Scrooge", one of Scrooge [=McDuck=]'s [[CuttingCorners cost-cutitng measures]] for the club is a lighter menu. [[Disney/FunAndFancyFree Willie the Giant]] takes umbrage that he is only served a single olive; [[Disney/{{Dumbo}} Timothy the mouse]] is fine with it, but Scrooge reminds him that he has to share "the family plate" with other mice.

* As noted by [[Blog/DasSporking Mervin]] in her sporking, ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' has Bella living with her father, who is implied to not make a lot of money. She's somehow able to always cook foods like steak and potatoes, with enough money for her dad to order pizza when he wants her to have a night off from cooking.

* In ''Manga/ShinryakuIkaMusume'', when trying to cure Ika Musume of the hiccups, the girls prepare her a huge fancy meal that includes ''lobster''. This from a seaside shack that can't afford to fix a hole in the wall (though that's deliberate to keep Ika busy with working rather than invading).

* Jughead's burgers in Franchise/ArchieComics. Every once in a while there's a comic about Jughead struggling to pay his tab, but it doesn't explain it.

* Inverted in ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' where the crew never have money for food even though they take bounties for millions of woolong. In one episode a bounty they catch is several million woolong and presumably they spend it all on repairs ... were repairs exactly 2.999 million woolong? It's extremely improbable when dealing with millions in cash that they couldn't keep even 500 for food. This inversion could be subverted in that the series doesn't exactly follow a linear storyline, and it could be months later when they run out of cash.

With this trope, the characters have absolutely no right affording the quality and amount of food they eat based on their visible income. It's like FriendsRentControl, only for food rather than living space. It's sometimes for the sake of RuleOfCool and/or FoodPorn.

Contrast with DogFoodDiet. See also FriendsRentControl. In historical fiction this can overlap with YeGoodeOldeDays as characters are frequently seen eating much better than the average person would have in that period.

* Subverted in ''{{Series/Frasier}}'' when Niles has to economize due to Meris' divorce lawyers bleeding him dry and with Roz and Bulldog when the whole KACL staff is temporarily fired, but it's hard to imagine how everyone in Seattle can afford to get coffee at the Cafe Nervosa on a daily basis or how Martin can afford overpriced imported dog food on a retired cop's pension. Daphne hangs a lampshade on this when Martin gets some premium jerky made from fillet mignon for her wedding.

** ''Seriously'' lampshaded in "22 Short Films About Springfield", where Moe sends away to NASA in order to calculate Barney's tab, and it turns out to be $14 billion dollars. (Which in all logic, would be impossible.) To make it even weirder, Barney is able to pay $2,000 of it (in cash) and gives no explanation of how he got it (although some episodes imply that he can make decent money letting himself be used for dubious medical experiments).

With this trope, the characters have absolutely no right affording the quality and amount of food they eat based on their visible income. It's like FriendsRentControl, only for food rather than living space.

* ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfScrooge'': In "House of Scrooge", one of Scrooge [=McDuck=]'s [[CuttingCorners cost-cutitng measures]] for the club is a lighter menu. [[Disney/FunAndFancyFree Willie the Giant]] takes umbrage that he is only served a single olive; [[Disney/{{Dumbo}} Timothy the mouse]] is fine with it, but Scrooge reminds him that he has to share "the family plate" with other mice.

* In ''Literature/TheBible'': In all [[Literature/TheFourGospels four Gospels]], Jesus is able to feed a few thousand people just out of a few loaves and fishes, and even have leftovers filling several baskets. One of His disciples even said it would take 200 denarii (or 200 full days' wages) in order to give that many people just a little something to eat.

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* Averted in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', where the crew's state of PerpetualPoverty has them mostly relying on processed protein in various, equally inedible flavors.

* Averted appropriately on ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' in the episode "Home Ec," where she's a guest speaker at Darlene's class (to the latter's unending embarrassment) on how to feed a family of five on a limited budget. She takes the class on a field trip to the supermarket and we're shown how to make such fine cuisine like cornflake meatloaf (of course getting the store-brand cornflakes and ground beef that's like 50% fat). Another episode shows the family getting ready to go out to dinner and divvying up a set amount for each person. Though even then, they didn't seen to worry much about frequently ordering pizza whenever the two adults were too overworked to cook.

* Averted in ''Series/DeadLikeMe''. Despite Der Waffle House being the common meeting place, the characters all have some sort of day job (except Daisy and Mason, unless sponging off of sugar-daddies and running second-rate scams count), exhibit the expected issues with money, and often just sit drinking bottomless cups of coffee for extended periods of time.

* In ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'', Scooby and Shaggy eat copious amounts of food; it's practically their defining trait. Yet the gang doesn't appear to actually have any flow of income at all. It doesn't appear that they're paid for solving the mysteries, and none of them actually have a job. Most continuities make Daphne explicitly wealthy, however, so perhaps she's treating them.
** A number of versions of Scooby Doo actually depict the characters holding a job, though it is mostly plot relevant. In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGhoulSchool'' (1988), Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy are hired as gym teachers at a girl's school. They discover too late that all their students are [[CuteMonsterGirl Cute Monster Girls]], but decide to stay on and earn their salary. Their main problem is preventing the villain of the film from kidnapping the girls.

* In ''ScoobyDoo'', Scooby and Shaggy eat copious amounts of food; it's practically their defining trait. Yet the gang doesn't appear to actually have any flow of income at all. It doesn't appear that they're paid for solving the mysteries, and none of them actually have a job. Most continuities make Daphne explicitly wealthy, however, so perhaps she's treating them.

* There is the lasagna that ''{{Garfield}}'' seems to consume by the metric ton. Obviously, Garfield's not paying for the stuff, but it is odd that Jon apparently spends that much money making/buying huge amounts of a dish he doesn't even appear to ''eat''. Some comics show Garfield just stealing whatever Jon was making for himself, sometimes [[RefugeInAudacity as Jon's eating it]]. It still raises the question of how Jon's able to pay for so much food, but it does explain ''why'' he'd bother making it.

* This is an extremely common trope in anime in general, what with BigEater characters often being pictured with massive towers of empty ramen bowls. Granted, ramen isn't particularly expensive, but when characters are eating 30-40 bowls at every meal, it adds up.

* Numerous ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' characters possess inexplicable sources of food. Reimu consistently complains about a lack of donations to the shrine, yet never lacks for food (despite what's commonly depicted in fan portrayals), and even throws a party at the end of almost every game. Koumakan and Eientei are both gargantuan mansions with equally gargantuan staffs to support without any source of income (though a resident of the latter has recently opened a clinic). Even [[KleptomaniacHero Marisa]] falls into this, as not even ''she'' cares about her pathetic attempt at a business and she doesn't steal perishables. This being [[FantasyKitchenSink Gensoukyou]] however, AWizardDidIt is a perfectly valid explanation.

* Toyed with in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' franchise. The Weasley family is constantly said to be poor, often unable to afford luxuries and making do with second hand items, yet they are shown eating huge meals and can afford to allow an unexpected guest to gorge himself several times a day with no complaint.

* Toyed with in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' franchise. The Weasley family is constantly said to be poor, often unable to afford luxuries and making do with second hand items, yet they are shown eating huge meals and can afford to allow an unexpected guest to gorge himself several times a day with no complaint. In one of the later books, it is revealed that, while magic cannot create food from scratch, it can create copies of already existing food, so all Molly would need to do is make, say, a single sandwich, cast the spell, and suddenly she would have a platter full of sandwiches.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' crew seem to have expensive take-out meals practically every night and also manage to subsidise Penny's food budget. The guys are established as being quite well paid and high in their fields, Particularly Sheldon who specifies he saves about a third of his pay.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' crew seem to have expensive take-out meals practically every night and also manage to subsidise Penny's food budget. Three junior academics/senior postgrads and a permananent postgrad student who isn't yet a doctor. Does academia in the USA pay so lavishly?