I’m poor. And even better, I’m a poor college student pursuing journalism. Obviously I’m not going to have a lifestyle where I’m going to make the big bucks.

Instead of living at home in Neosho with my parents and working at the local movie theater, I’m spending this summer in Springfield interning at the Springfield Business Journal and working for The Standard. I’m making the equivalent of my former two week paycheck about once a month…if that. A sobering thought for someone who didn’t have a lot of money to begin with.

However, that doesn’t bother me as I’m a pretty frugal person who has an accountant for a mother and who has always been encouraged to make smart financial decisions (not that I’ve always followed that advice).

One thing that does bother me though, is the fact that food is expensive.

My first trip to the grocery store to buy the essentials - milk, bread, eggs and beer - along with some produce, about made me cry when the cashier gave me my total of the sum of my first paycheck. And what made it even worse, I hadn’t even bought meat besides some frozen chicken breasts and fish filets.

Above: Bean enchiladas with strawberries.

Which is when I came to my realization that becoming a vegetarian for the summer and giving up the cost of meat to make ends meet, no pun intended, was a great idea. Sure, I love steak as much as the next person and bacon is the most amazing food on the planet, but when it comes down to it, I’d rather have some produce in my fridge than red meat.

So the next time I went to the store, out went the chicken and fish and into my basket went tomatoes on sale, navel oranges, basil, yellow squash, zucchini, baby carrots, green beans and onion. All for the price of $15.05. Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself.

Then came the hard part: what to do with produce, carbohydrates, dairy but no meat? The answer: whatever your heart desires. I made Caprese salad; sauteed vegetables with olive oil alongside pasta salad made with tomatoes and black olives; vegetarian jambalaya; fettuccine Alfredo; cinnamon rolls; bean burritos; enchiladas; french toast; pancakes with peanut butter for protein and the stand-by, eggs. Lots and lots of eggs.

Above: Bow-tie pasta in butter with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella covered in olive oil.

Do I miss meat? You have no idea how much. But I’ve found that if I only eat meat if I go out for dinner - once, max twice a week - it saves me money and makes me savor the experience even more. Plus I’ve gotten in pretty good shape this summer from eating healthier and walking to work.

So who knows, maybe I’ll stick with the no meat plan until fall and save up for spring break. Unless steaks go on sale of course.