Baked potatoes, seriously as long as you eat the skins that is everything you need in a diet right there. PBJ makes a good lunch, lots of protein and calories to keep you going. Cut out the cheesy poofs and snackey cakes and $30 can go a long way. Especially if you have a little vegetable garden to make things a little more interesting. I have peppers, beans, tomatoes and lettuce out of mine. And it is just a tiny little hobby garden. My onions didn’t do well this year, but those are cheap to pick up and keep well.
Kale for vitamins, milk for high-quality protein, spaghetti/ramen/rice for calories, potatos and eggs for more high-quality protein.
And in Ohio it’s $200/month/person. Take the example of a 20-something woman, with 18-month child and boyfriend, getting $600/month in food stamps. They have more food than they can store in the cupboards, and could also get monthly food at the food pantry. Both adults work, but bring home only enough for rent and utilities.
Oh: there’s another baby on the way. Maybe that’s why food prices are so high.
LOL
I have actually had to do just that. There have been various times when money was short and I had to live off the oddest things. I have lived off potatoes for a week. Baked, fried, mashed. I lost 5 pounds that week, which surprised me. Then there was the week I lived on popcorn and another week it was crackers. Another time it was pea soup. If you rotate things around you can still have a decent diet. :)
Dry corn meal. Cook it...let it set and then take it out of the pan and slice it like meatloaf. Place it in a fry pan with some PAM or whatever you like and fry it until it has a nice golden color with a little crisp to it. You can serve it with an egg, you can put ketchup on it if you like, you can even make a sandwich if you wanted.
Serve it placed on top of some rice. Serve it with a salad. lettuce, tomatoes, onion, garlic and olive oil and vinegar. That’s just one suggestion for Corn Meal.
I get chicken breasts on sale for $1.99/lbs, ground beef on sale for $1.99, and rice in large bags is under 50 cents/lbs.
With a couple of 50 cent cans of tomato paste, I can make a good, filling meal for four for under five bucks.