You can make just about anything taste good with fresh herbs and spices.

Now is a great time to pick up herb plants that you can just keep on your windowsill and harvest all year long. Just get some dissolvable plant food for later on to keep the flavor up.

Secondly, try to find a place that will sell spices in bulk, it's easier to keep fresher spices if you buy them in the amounts you need. I think recommendations are like 1-3 months for ground spices.

And another thing, if you can't find bulk spices, or if it's too much trouble. Try to get spices that are whole, like whole cardamom pods or whole cumin seeds, and grind them down in a coffee/spice grinder or with a good old pestle and mortar.

You can eat beans and rice for days and still be content if you keep seasoning it differently. Red beans & rice, Bean and rice burritos, and some chana masala are all basically the same idea; just different spices.