Improbable Food Budget

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 Friends Rent Control, only for food rather than living space.

Now, as any professional chef will tell you, it is absolutely possible to eat gourmet meals using simple and inexpensive ingredients, so this trope is often subverted in real life. But for the most part, the characters who fall into this trope don't cook... rather, the most frequent thing they make for dinner is reservations, usually at a restaurant two or three steps up from the Burger King's price range. Even worse, they usually spend the whole time having plot-relevant conversations and don't even eat the food in front of them!

Contrast with Dog Food Diet. See also Friends Rent Control.

Anime and Manga

 * This is an extremely common trope in anime in general, what with Big Eater 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.
 * Gintama's freelancing team Gintoki, Kagura and Shinpachi almost never get paid for their jobs, either because they get scammed or because of their good-hearted intentions, but strangely they seem to have money to spend on the vast amounts of food that Kagura and Sadaharu tend to consume, sometimes from not-so-cheap places like Otose's snack bar.
 * It's sometimes inverted where the lack of food and lack of funds for food is the gimmick of that week's chapter. They also mooch food off of other people constantly, and Gin will sometimes complain about how much Kagura and Sadaharu eat. They also get paid (or roped into that week's zany scheme) with food.
 * In Ika Musume 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 .....
 * Inverted in Cowboy Bebop 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.

Comic Books

 * Jughead's burgers in Archie comics. Every once in a while there's a comic about Jughead struggling to pay his tab, but it doesn't explain it.
 * Oddly subverted in X-Men.
 * They live in a mansion and even though the pass-for-human ones can afford to go out and eat, they almost never go into town to eat. But that could be because the world hates and fears them, particularly recently, since the school's true nature was revealed.
 * They got Genre Savvy, too. Every time one of them goes out to eat, a giant robot or alien or evil mutant or what have you attacks the place. Every time.

Film

 * How a door-to-door watch salesman (and a lousy one, at that) manages to feed and clothe Ella Enchanted's entire household is not explained well. It's explained better in the book, where Ella's mother was a noblelady and her father traded in much more expensive goods (including some that didn't belong to him). When he did lose their money, it's stated that most of the furniture and servants were gotten rid of. Of course, in both the movie and the book,, which might explain why there's enough food to go around, at least.

Literature

 * In Doctor Dolittle (both the book and the original film with Rex Harrison), we're explicitly told that he gets minimal salary, either in money or favors, yet he manages to feed hundreds of animals. It's explicitly stated in the books that he does indeed teeter on the brink of bankruptcy in the best of times, and that with considerable donations from people like the scraps man. Pretty sure he actually runs out of money at least once and is saved only by a few rich people gifting him with money. They had assumed that as a doctor, he simply had enough money to spare (which is Truth in Television for people like doctors, lawyers, actors, and professional athletes).
 * In the book, he also eventually solves his money problems when he acquires a Pushme-Pullyu, which agrees to go on display for him so he can earn money through the admissions fees.
 * The Mad Hatter and the March Hare's teaparty in Alice in Wonderland. They go around the table to reach fresh cups and, despite Alice's wonderings, when they get back to the start not only do they have more tea and dessert, but also more clean plates and cups. Of course, magic (via Time, who stopped at 6:00 p.m. because the Hatter offended him) is implied to create the new stuff and enable the guests to eat and drink perpetually. This makes this trope Older Than Radio. It's also All Just a Dream, so...
 * A stop-motion version dealt with the issue of clean plates and cups, at least. The doormouse slithered out of the teapot and licked them clean.
 * The Winnie the Pooh gang. For most intents and purposes honey, bread and condensed milk seem to constitute their entire diets, but none of them earns any money whatsoever. Does Christopher Robin buy their food for them? Rabbit seems to grow and produce everything, and everyone else mooches off of him. At least in the Disney Animated Canon.
 * Pooh just steals the honey straight out the hive.
 * Similarly: Piglet likes acorns (presumably not too hard to find in the Hundred Acre Wood) and Eeyore grazes on thistles. As herbivores Kanga and Roo shouldn't have too much trouble. Tiggers do not like X, where X is anything except Roo's medicine, so that could be a problem. Owl, as a carnivore in a world where all animals are apparently sentient, can't be having an easy time of it either.
 * Rabbit, Owl and Gopher are real animals. Being stuffed animals, none of the rest are going to get hungry unless Christopher Robin decides they should.
 * In the YA book Dicey's Song, from the Tillerman Family Series by Cynthia Voigt, the title character falls victim to this trope. She's in a home economics class in her new school, having spent the last summer leading her younger siblings to find their grandmother from several states away, on foot, after they were abandoned in a parking lot by their mentally ill mother. The assignment is to draw pictures of groceries you could buy to feed a family on a limited budget. She draws things they ate on their journey, like bananas with peanut butter and stale doughnuts you'd get for little or no money from a bakery the day after they were made. The teacher, who knows she doesn't like the class, thinks she's being sarcastic and gives her an F, writing that no one could live on meals like that for long.

Live Action TV

 * Buffy Season 7. How did they pay for food for all the Potentials?
 * This becomes even more confusing when considering Season 6, in which Buffy almost went into bankruptcy supporting just herself and Dawn, Giles giving her some unspecified amount of money and Buffy getting a terrible job to support themselves. Granted, approximately halfway through Season 7 the entire town finally breaks their impervious Weirdness Censor and flees en masse, leaving a lot of food behind for them to acquire.
 * The gang of Friends is the living embodiment of this trope.
 * Joey and Chandler especially, as they seem to eat takeout every night, and they all drink at least five bucks worth of coffee a day at Central Perk.
 * Joey and Chandler may be justified, Chandler's job is very well-paying, and he's shown to loan Joey money on numerous occasions.
 * This was Lampshaded in an episode, with a rift appearing between the more and less successful people in the group over money, in particular the cost of eating out.
 * Of course, this only lasted one episode and is never mentioned again.
 * As for the coffee, when Rachel quits her job at Central Perk, Chandler's line to Joey before the scene ends is, "So no more free coffee?" That doesn't quite explain... uhh... every single episode after that, though.
 * A variation on the theme comes from Reaper. Sam's gang, who work at a Captain Ersatz for The Home Depot, can afford multiple beers and shots at their neighbourhood bar, Booze. Somewhat justified in that Sam and Sock both live with their parents, though Andi complains that she couldn't possibly buy a house with what she makes at The Work Bench.
 * In Seinfeld, the gang is seen eating at the local diner almost every day, despite the fact that George is often out of work and Kramer seems to have no job whatsoever.
 * Justified as both of them often free-loads most of the time and only tend to pay for their food once they have money. Later in the series people note that Kramer is Born Lucky, and like Uncle Scrooge's Gladstone Gander, has money almost literally fall into his lap with no effort.
 * And in fairness, the diner is something of a Greasy Spoon, so between that and the freeloading it isn't inconceivable that Jerry and Elaine would be willing to do this (despite being such gigantic jerks).
 * In The Big Bang Theory the group is shown to either eat out at or order in from the same restaurant each day of the week. This is noted several times throughout the series as being attributed to Sheldon's obsessive behavior ("I think this could be my new Tuesday restaurant!"). This example stands out as particularly odd, as Sheldon has a phobia of other people touching his food yet never seems to cook anything for himself.
 * The 4 men all have decent paying jobs at Caltech, although they seem to never teach even a token class. Penny, though, has her budget be a continuous issue due to how volatile being a waitress is, and her being generally bad with money.
 * The Beverly Hills, 90210 kids were almost always at The Peach Pit. But they live in Beverly Hills, and with their parents, so presumably they had either good allowances or good-paying jobs.
 * The Scrubs cast's ability to regularly visit bars may not seem so unlikely, till JD claims they're so far they have to sneak one another into movie theaters in backpacks.
 * Maybe it's because they spend all that money going to the bar.
 * In Malcolm in the Middle, Hal and Lois are able to make and ruin three lavish evenings (including a limo ride, a roast dinner, and dinner at a fancy restaunt) in three nights in a row. Yet another episode clearly shows Hal resorting to blackmailing his in-laws to afford a new refrigerator, and Hal and Lois' cars were (oddly for television) both over ten years old throughout the series.
 * Answered in one episode where - due to a urinary tract infection, Hal and Lois were unable to have sex for a month. Literally every aspect of the families lives vastly improve...until they start having sex again. All of the problems they face are because they spend nearly all of their time and energy on their sex life.
 * Averted in Firefly, where the crew's state of Perpetual Poverty has them mostly relying on processed protein in various, equally inedible flavors.
 * And in Farscape as well, where almost a third of the series dealt with their perpetual lack of food. The other 2/3s? John going crazy, and Wormholes.
 * Averted appropriately on 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.
 * And they were only able to do that because a family member died and left them several hundred dollars. So it was explained and only happened once. Though there were several times where they spent money they really shouldn't have. (Like ordering pizza when they can't pay their electric bill.)
 * The Gilmore Girls never seem to cook, and eat out constantly and in large amounts, even though Lorelei probably isn't making tons of money running the inn. What's more, they aren't carrying any extra weight. Lorelei probably weighs 120 soaking wet.
 * This (the cost, not the weight) is somewhat addressed in season four. Rory comes home from Yale to find the kitchen actually stocked with food that must be assembled to be eaten and a lack of takeout/leftovers in the fridge. She (correctly) interprets this and the lack of some cable channels as signs that Lorelei is having money trouble and trying to cut back.
 * Averted in Dead Like Me. 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.
 * 7th Heaven is guilty of this by depicting a huge family that apparently has never heard of "economy-size." The Camdens, despite consisting of two parents, 5 - 7 kids, a dog, and any number of friends and grandparents and needy waifs drifting in and out, are often seen bringing home a "load" of groceries consisting of like two bags (implying that they're not really that low on food and this was just a quick errand... which Annie must run about half a dozen times a week) and getting pints or quarts of milk out of the fridge (instead of pouring a glass from a gallon). There's also always fruit and cookies and snack foods lying around for the snagging, and at least once Annie cooked a full family-sized meal that ended up getting thrown out because no one felt like eating it. Whatever, WB.
 * Up until the final season, Angel and his employees are poor, yet it's very rare for them to actually cook something instead of getting take-out or going to a diner.
 * Maybe that's one of the reasons they are so poor?
 * It's often speculated that Angel is simply unaware that he's rich, due to his erratic grasp of modern currency (He thought a normal allowance for a teenager was 50 cents a week). He lived in a mansion in Sunnydale and bought and to a degree renovated an entire hotel at the start of the second season. It's quite likely that when they're eating together he pays for it.
 * iCarly uses an odd variation on this trope: they don't seem to eat beyond their means (indeed, "spaghetti tacos" are something of a Trademark Favorite Food, and they've made a Running Gag of the kids turning down the extras proffered on a stick at The Groovy Smoothie), but they waste copious amounts of food in the webshow.
 * The main characters of How I Met Your Mother spend almost every night at the bar. Food aside, their alcohol budget must be astronomical. Barney might be able to afford this, but a kindergarten teacher with a shopping addiction? IIRC, this is lampshaded occasionally.
 * Joe, Owen, and Terry from Men of a Certain Age eat at their fave diner at least three times a week (which is 3x an episode). Owen owns a struggling car dealership and has a wife/3 children and a mortgage. Joe is divorced (likely paying alimony and child support), has a mortgage, and has a, and in the beginning Terry was an unemployed actor. This troper works and is only responsible for herself and cringes at what she's spent on lunch by Wednesday of any given week. Don't think I've ever seen a brown bag lunch on this show.
 * Typically inverted with Charlie in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, as he's shown to have a desperately small food budget that includes purchases not fit for human consumption. Played straight in "Mac and Dennis: Manhunters", when Charlie and Dee buy what must be hundreds of dollars worth of exotic meats from specialty grocery stores to convince themselves they aren't cannibals.
 * Three's Company is a confusing example of playing it straight and justifying it. Part of the premise was that the three roommates had to live together as the only way to afford to pay the rent on their apartment. However, they did have a rather large food budget, because Jack was studying to become a chef and needed to practice (and Janet and Chrissy decided to let him stay with them because he always cooked them amazing food.) This might explain why those "we need to pay the rent" stories kept popping up later after their financial situation improved (Jack graduated and found semi-steady work, Janet became manager of the flower shop she worked in, and Chrissy was replaced with Terri, who hopefully was paid better as a nurse than Chrissy was as a typist.)

Newspaper Comics

 * There is the lasagna that Garfield seems to consume by the metric ton.
 * Possibly explained by the fact that Garfield is not above stealing food from his family, friends, and complete strangers.

Video Games

 * Averted (or is it maybe a Take That at this very concept?) in Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army. Narumi loves to eat out at the fancy restaurant Ryugu, but it's made very clear he owes the owner quite a bit of money... He owes his landlady a little more than a half-year's rent, too, only getting out of paying it by being very helpful to her (his alternate universe self however seemed to have been evicted). In the second game, it makes it very clear he's living beyond his means, Ryugu was NOT the only place he had large running tabs.
 * The manga tie-in implies that the Yatagarasu provides some money in return for watching Raidou, but he still lives beyond his means, and tends to only take "Interesting" cases, so his income is sporadic.
 * Played with in the Ace Attorney series. Gumshoe's salary is so low that he can only afford the cheapest of instant noodles despite being a police detective. Justified as he's often incompetent, though one suspects Edgeworth would never actually let him get too poor, and that his moments of competence are generously rewarded.
 * Phoenix and Maya are often noted to be poor, but Maya loves to eat and often insists that Phoenix takes her out for burgers to satiate her hunger. On several occasions Phoenix is made to host large, end of game feasts for the protagonists as well.
 * Edgeworth and Franziska have pretty much always lived in wealth, but note that the courtroom vending machines seriously over charge.
 * Ron DeLite notes his wife loves the finest things in life, including food,
 * Numerous Touhou characters possess inexplicable sources of food. Reimu consistently receives no donations to the shrine, yet never lacks for food (despite what nearly every fan portrayal depicts) 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 Marisa falls into this, as not even she cares about her pathetic attempt at a business and she doesn't steal perishables. This being Gensoukyou however, A Wizard Did It is a perfectly valid explanation.
 * With Marisa, she lives in a forest filled with mushrooms, even though they have hallucinogenic properties some may be safe for eating. The SDM has beings that mostly subsist on magic; fairy maids, and patchouli are a large majority of the residents. Remilia, Flandre, and Sakuya are the only ones who actually eat. Eientei's staff can make medicine from herbs, so they could possibly grow their own food as well, or get food as a form of payment for their medicines and clinic services.
 * Fanon makes Hakugyokurou this with Yuyuko's large appetite.
 * The Sakura Taisen game Kouya no Samurai Musume (roughly, "The Samurai Girl of the Prairie") takes this trope to extremes. Gemini and Juanita win $100,000 in Las Vegas (this is set in 1928, so this would be equal to more than a million in 2010 dollars). A few scenes later, after an in-story elapsed time of only a few weeks, it is implied that they have spent the entire amount on food for themselves. How they can afford to eat in times when they don't have such sums of money flowing in is not clear.

Web Comics
"" 'Us?' No no no, I'm a small business owner. You're the underachieving peon.""
 * In Craving Control, the gluttonous protagonist Lalia frequently consumes enough food to feed her entire university, despite not having a job of any kind.
 * In Questionable Content, Marten works at a college library and Faye and Dora work at a coffeeshop, yet they go out to eat (and to the bar) all the time. Plus, Marten and Faye's apartment is really nice.
 * Dora owns the coffee shop, though. And to that end, she might be able to write some of the eating out as a business expense (checking out the competition?)
 * "Writing it off" doesn't mean as much as people often seem to think it does. If you spend $50 on an eligible expense, you can take $50 off of your taxable income ... which really does not save you very much money.
 * Plus it's a college town, so many of the businesses probably cater to people on low income.


 * This is somewhat addressed in one strip where Marten is talking to Jim the fantasy author/former construction worker at the bar he frequents. Jim asks him why Marten always comes to a dive bar, and Marten tells him that he's broke, so that's all he can afford. Jim made more money as a construction worker than Marten was making as an "office bitch" (his official title).

Western Animation

 * Lampshaded on The Simpsons, where Frank Grimes points out that someone of Homer's status shouldn't be able to afford to eat lobster. Something of a subversion, since the lobster is specifically meant to impress Grimes, and the family normally eats TV dinners and meatloaf.
 * In another episode, after Bart explains that he only eats the eyes on lobster, he points to a large pile of eyeless cooked lobsters in the garbage can.
 * According to Marge, she feeds the family on only twelve dollars a week, using sawdust to pad Homer's food.
 * In Tom and Jerry, there always seems to be an abundance of delicious food in the fridge.
 * How do we know Tom's owner isn't rich? At least in some episodes they have a maid...
 * Until not very long ago, most people had.
 * Coop from Megas XLR pushes this one to ridiculous heights, constantly eating as much junk food as he can while being a bona fide Slacker.
 * Actually, he only lived with his mom. His dad was never so much as mentioned on the show. Eek.
 * Coop lives in his parents's basement and apparently sponges off them.
 * The sewer-dwelling Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sure can buy a lot of pizza....
 * Well, it's not like they have rent to pay.
 * It's also not like they have any form of income. The most recent movie answers this question with two of them getting jobs, which just raises a few more questions in the process.
 * They're ninja's. They dine & dash, or otherwise steal it.
 * Whenever the pizza guy shows up in their alley they scare him away with a glance and take what he drops.
 * Also, April O' Neil probably foots the bill in some cases. But one wonders how they ate before that.
 * In Scooby Doo, 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.
 * At least one continuity shows that one of the characters (Daphne, most probably) has an absurdly rich family member providing the funds.
 * It's could be one of Shaggy's uncles Uncle Shagworthy or Uncle Shaggleford, who are both enormously rich.
 * Shagworthy? Seriously?
 * One instance has a rich guy agree to foot the bill for them. Velma comments that he'll regret that offer.
 * SpongeBob SquarePants is paid less than a dime a year, and he can still afford to pay for his food and Gary's. And Patrick's essentially, because he's always over.