Any idea on how I can survive on the food for $50 / mo?!

Angel Food Ministries has these "grocery" packages for cheap. See if you can find them or something like it in your community. I believe they sell an entire months food for about $30

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

Rice, pasta and beans are good. Add eggs, bread, canned tuna and ground beef. You can do a lot with that. You will need some milk and tomato sauce also.
Beans and rice.
Spaghetti and meatballs.
French toast.
Chili
Tuna casserole
Scrambled eggs and toast.
Swedish meatballs and rice.
Tuna salad sandwiches.
Meat loaf...baked beans
Deviled eggs

SLOW COOKER CHILI
8 oz. ground chuck
1 small chopped onion
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 (11oz.) can tomato juice
1 cup water with beef flavored bouillon
1 can pinto beans, drained
1/2 tsp. pepper
3 tsp. chili powder
hot pepper, to taste, cayenne
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef. Drain well. Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker; cover and cook for 7 to 8 hours on LOW, or until done.

MEATLOAF for one
1/4 lb. ground chuck
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp mayonnaise
1 Tbs. bread crumbs
1/2 tsp. A-1 steak sauce
2 T. ketchup
Mix gently with hands so as not to mush the ground beef.
Put in baking pan and bake for 30 min.

TUNA CASSEROLE (1)
1/2 cup elbow macaroni (or any pasta)...cook

1 T. butter
1 T. flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. instant chicken boullion, dissolved (optional)
1 slice cheddar cheese cut up in small pieces.
1 small pkt. tuna (3 oz.)
Heat above until cheese is melted. Add to the cooked macaroni. Pour in casserole dish
and crush 1 saltine cracker, crumbled, over the top. Dot with butter and put in 400 degree
oven for about 20 min.

Buy dry beans, soak and cook them. You can freeze them for later use. $1.00 will give you 6 HUGE servings.

A dozen eggs costs about $3.00

Pasta is fairly cheap. Make your own sauce, tastes better and is way cheaper. Freeze whatever you don't eat for another meal.

Buy whatever fresh veggies are on sale. Cook and freeze.
Buy canned fruit.

Stay away from prepared or processed foods.

Make breakfast for dinner - french toast, omelet, pancakes

Eat oatmeal rolled oats, not instant. Toast the oats before cooking to change the flavor. Add ground cinnamon, a pinch of cayenne or honey.

You can do this if you plan what you will buy before you shop, use the market fliers so you know what is on sale, make a list and stick to it!

Well, I wouldn't recomend anything that only comes in small portions. Don't buy everything at once either. At IHOP they serve free water. But at almost all restraunts water is free, so you can get some there.
But, buy things in large packs. Don't get fast food unless it's super cheap. You'll have about ten dollars a week. Check for coupons in the newspaper, or online and go to store where the food is super cheap, like Walmart or Target

Go to a food bank. There is no shame in it. That's what they are there for. Many people have to rely on them from time to time. If it feels like you are taking charity then work it off in the food bank. They are always looking for help

Get the staples and use your $50 for extras like meat and milk products

Plant a garden and cook lentils or mung beans with garlic and add tomato paste when beans are tender- long grain brown rice is also an option

We eat on a budget as well

Stop eating. If that doesn't work...I dunno.

try some of these....

http://easypeasymamameals.blogspot.com/

Do you only have to survive on the $50 for April or is this an ongoing amount you have to live on? When my son was first on his own, he lived on Macaroni and Cheese with Tuna fish mixed in. Now that's not healthy but neither is a diet of rice, pasta and beans. The beans do add protein (as does his tuna) but the rice and pasta are just starches.

You could have oatmeal for breakfast (not the instant or microwaveable kind because it costs more). That will fill you up for breakfast. You can zap the regular oatmeal if you are in a hurry but this is how I do it. I fill a custard cup 1/2 full of water, put it in the microwave until it starts to boil. Remove it and add a small handful (I generally use about 6-7 raisins). Put it back in and bring it back to the boil - the raisins will float. Then add your oatmeal, and keep adding until all the moisture is gone. Then put it back in the microwave and zap it just until the center starts to rise. Turn it off, cover it with a paper towel and let it sit for 5 minutes. DONE!! You don't need milk with it. It tastes great just like that. The raisins sweeten it so you don't need any kind of sugar either.

You can make a lot of meals out of eggs. From fried to scrambled to poached to hard boiled to an omelet with cheese. For the hard boiled you can make egg salad sandwiches with a little mustard, mayonnaise, and bread.

You can beat an egg, mix with some of the tuna fish, mix in some diced onions (or onion powder), and some crushed crackers (about 5 squares of crackers), shape them into rounds like a hamburger and brown them in a skillet with a little olive oil or even just spray the pan. Or using the whole can of tuna fish, the onions, the egg and crackers you can make a tuna loaf by baking it in a loaf pan in the oven.

You can buy a small package of lettuce (cheaper if you just buy the head of lettuce) and have that with some kidney beans, and a roma tomato cut into small chunks.

When times were tough for my grandmother, she would take 1 cup of cornmeal and add 1 cup of boiling water, mix well and add a little salt and mix again. Cover with saran and let it sit for 15 minutes to absorb all the water. Then she would shape the mixture with her hands into a pod shape and brown them in a skillet with a little butter. She would serve that in a bowl with some consomme (like chicken broth or vegetable broth). She saved the water off all the vegetables she cooked and would use that for the base of that dish. It's called Corn Pone and Pot Likker (the Pot Likker is the consomme). You take a spoonful of the cornmeal cake with some of the liquid and eat it that way. I've had that as a meal a number of times in the past. My grandmother lived to 101 yrs old.

You can even take the cornmeal and mix with the same amount of water and bring it to a boil. When it starts to thicken, remove from the stove and pour it into a sprayed cake pan. Refrigerate it until it's firm and cold. Then cut it into squares and fry in a little butter until golden brown. My mother would make that and serve it with a little home-made syrup. My mother is 87 and still going strong.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

Buy a ham steak on sale and a bag of pinto or navy beans. Cut the ham in half and have that as your meat for one meal. Take the remaining ham and bone and cut it up and put it into a crock pot with the bag of beans. Fill the crock pot up with water and let it cook all day. You can have ham and bean soup for a few meals.

Purchase a whole chicken. Boil the chicken in a big pan of water until done. Remove the chicken and save most of the breast meat for sandwiches or as your meat for another meal. Take the chicken broth, and add vegetables (mixed frozen vegetables work nice), cubed potatoes, onions, a bay leaf, a little garlic, salt and pepper and some egg noodles and or some rice and pick the meat off of the chicken bones and make a nice chicken vegetable soup. What you don't want to eat right away can be stored in the freezer in Tupperware type single serving containers. You can get several meals off of one chicken.

Purchase a beef roast on sale at the store. Any type will do. My recipe is below. You can get a couple of nice dinners out of the pot roast, and then use the meat for sandwiches or to make BBQ beef.
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POT ROAST

I cook mine in either a heavy baking pot like a Dutch oven or the crock pot.

Place the roast into the pot.
Mix 1/2 package of Lawry's Tenderizing Beef Marinade and pour over meat. (or McCormick is 2nd choice)
http://www.amazon.com/Lawrys-Tenderizing…
Sprinkle with Meat Tenderizer
Add one dry packet of mushroom onion soup mix, or regular onion soup mix if I don't have mushroom.
Cut up 1 onion and put into pan (optional)
Add 1 small can/jar of mushrooms.
For a crock pot add about 1" of water in the bottom of the pan and cook on high for 4 hours, then on low until ready to eat.
For the Dutch Oven, fill pot with 4-5 inches of water, cover and bake in oven on 375 for 5-6 hours. Check occasionally to make sure it does not bake dry. Add water as needed as this will be your gravy. Add carrots and potatoes about 1 hour before serving.

To make the gravy (Dutch oven), add a mixture of corn starch and water to the drippings and boil until thick.

For the crock pot you can add the corn starch mixture about 1 hour before the roast will be served. You can also add potatoes and carrots at this time and finish cooking about an hour. (If you prefer, you can add the vegetables at the same time you start the roast, just don't stir as the vegetables will fall apart. I prefer to add mine about an hour before serving.

This is really good, has a nice thick gravy, and is so simple. Once it is in the oven/crockpot you are done for the day. I like to serve my roast with mushroom rice (http://www.amazon.com/Knorr-Lipton-Mushr… green bean casserole, and hot crescent rolls.
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Spaghetti is cheap and good. Freeze what is left over into individual servings and take it out for a quick meal later. Just add a salad (make your own--not the bagged salad) and some garlic toast for a nice dinner.
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The trick is to buy your meat on sale and use coupons. If you have an Aldi (no frills) type food store in your area, go there for better deals on your food.

Think about how to stretch everything you have, cook from scratch (no pre-make dinners, etc) and freeze in individual containers so you don't have to eat the same thing for a week.
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Meat Loaf

1 lb of ground beef
1 package onion soup mix
1 package Stove Top Stuffing
1 egg
3/4 c water

Mix all ingredients together and press into loaf pan.
To with ketchup and bake.
Nice dinner and left overs for sandwiches.
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Eggs are inexpensive and a good source of protein. Cook them for breakfast or boil them to put on top of salads or in tuna salad. Make omelets for dinner. Use some of that ham from the bean soup and mix into an omelet.
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