When I was a kid and my family was poor, my parents would buy a ham and we'd chow on that for like a week. Ham w/ pasta, ham sangwiches, ham w/ gravy and mashed and eventually ham soup/stew.
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned mine yet - cereal! It's good for breakfast, good for lunch, good for dinner, and good for a midnight snack!
cereal is expensive! i can finish half box of korn flake and still feel hungry. Box of cereal is like 3.50, milk is 2.99 per gallon.
I make what we call "slop" It involves hot dogs or any kind of meat we might happen to have that goes good with eggs, fried potatoes with scrambled eggs poured over the top of them. It's a regular hit around here...melt some cheese and get out the hot sauce, yummy or if you don't like hot sauce, a nice side of jelly toast goes really good too.
when Im short on cash its either ramen noodle or corn dogs, I actually prefer the generic brand ramen cause its actually cheaper and you get more seasoning.luckily my dorm forces me to buy a meal plan otherwise Id probally die from either atherosclerosis or salt poisoning.