struggle meal

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struggle meal
noun
an inexpensive, easy-to-make meal
What does struggle meal mean?
Struggle meal refers to an inexpensive and easy-to-make meal that someone prepares or eats when there isn’t sufficient time or money (or both) to prepare something with more (or more costly) ingredients, steps, etc.

Examples of struggle meal
Two of my good buddies like to eat canned tuna and mayonnaise over rice. This is their struggle meal.
—Jack Miessner, Tucson (Arizona) Weekly, 22 Aug. 2024

[Kendrick Lamar] juxtaposes struggle meals as a child with the type of lifestyle his lyrics have afforded him in present day ...
—Reginald Thomas II, City Paper (Baltimore, Maryland), 19 July 2017

This classic three-ingredient struggle meal is easy on your wallet, but it’s hardly a real struggle for your tastebuds or your kitchen skills, either.
—@Foodie, X (formerly Twitter), 4 Oct. 2025

ERIN PICOU: We’ve been having struggle meals, we call them, you know.
JANET SHAMLIAN: What’s a struggle meal?
ERIN PICOU: You take whatever’s in the fridge and whatever’s in the pantry and throw it in a casserole, and that’s a meal.
—CBS News (transcript), 10 Jan. 2019

With the cost of groceries continuing to creep up, social media posts with the hashtag #strugglemeals are mushrooming.
—Heather Martin, Today.com, 7 Oct. 2025

Where does struggle meal come from?
Struggle meal appears to have started as a hashtag on social media in the mid-2010s and was further popularized by a comedic cooking show, Struggle Meals, that began airing in 2018.

How is struggle meal used?
Like a standard noun, and often with pride for the frugality, ingenuity, and flavors often involved in making the food in tough times.


Last Published: 31 Oct 2025
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Sunday scaries
anxiety felt when the weekend is almost over
What does Sunday scaries mean?
Sunday scaries refers to a feeling of anxiety or sadness one may feel when the weekend is almost over, either because the work/school week is about to begin, there is no more time for fun or relaxing weekend activities, or both.

Examples of Sunday scaries
I don’t work any more (my husband still does) but even so I always get the Sunday scaries and feel that sense of dread. I guess years of school and working got it really set in me. Maybe when my husband retires it’ll ease but who knows.
—@Jeffina78, Reddit, 11 Feb. 2024

I think we should skip the Sunday scaries. I low-key love a good Sunday, whether I allow myself to be super lazy and totally consumed with doom scrolling or I end up checking some boring errands off my list. Either way, Sunday is like my restart button for the week.
—Kasey Caminiti, USA Today, 6 Apr. 2025

While the Sunday scaries are common, people should keep an eye on how they’re coping come the end of the weekend. “Use healthy, adaptive ways to self-soothe when you’re anxious and have the scaries,” Cooperman says.
—Chantelle Lee, Time, 4 Apr. 2025

Where does Sunday scaries come from?
Sunday scaries has been in use with this meaning since at least the late 2000s, but its origins are as yet unknown.

… recently, my girlfriend casually dropped the phrase “Sunday scaries” into a conversation. Not wanting to feel dumb, I backed my way into asking her what it meant. Apparently, the phrase is a reference to that doomed feeling some people get on Sunday nights. The dread of another work week, another commute, another passive-aggressive co-worker …
—Ernest Wilkins, The Chicago Tribune, 30 Aug. 2013

How is Sunday scaries used?
Sunday scaries is usually preceded by the in conversation and in print, and scaries is usually uncapitalized. Exceptions can be found, however.

Feeling those Sunday scaries? How about heading outside and grabbing some fresh air?
—Sam Troester, The State Press (Arizona State University), 11 Apr. 2025

Ward off Sunday scaries with Work Secrets to Cure Your Monday Blahs!
—Cosmopolitan, 1 Feb. 2016

… putting off homework until Friday, then Saturday, then Sunday and never learning from our mistakes; turning every weekend into a whirlwind of assignments and Sunday Scaries.
—Nora May McSorley, The Columbia (University) Spectator, 18 Oct. 2018