At the beginning of her theatrical career, Elizabeth Inchbald and her husband had such severe financial problems that they once stole turnips from a field in order to have dinner!
From her Memoirs: ‘at Brighton they several times went without either dinner or tea, and once went into the fields to eat turnips instead of dining, their funds were so very low’.
-Elizabeth Inchbald, Memoirs of Mrs. Inchbald, Including her Familiar Correspondence with the Most Distinguished Persons of her Time, ed. by James Boaden (London: Bentley, 1833), p. 68.
The Women's Playhouse 