Turning forty bucks and a half-empty fridge into a week of decent dinners counts as creative work. Scrappy is a style.

Constraint is the condition most creative work happens under, and the version people romanticize is just constraint with better lighting. Making something decent out of too little requires planning, substitution and nerve, which are the same faculties a designer or a composer uses. Nobody calls it that because the output gets eaten.

Give your resourcefulness the credit it is due rather than treating it as something you merely have to do. Notice the choices you made and what you learned about combinations. Skill built under a tight budget transfers, and it holds up long after the budget changes.