Use chicken or beef broth and some canned mixed vegetables to make a soup out of one package of Ramen Noodles for lunch. Cost is $.50 for a can of broth, $.10 for a pack of Ramen Noodles, and $.44 for a can of mixed vegetables which should make enough soup for two days lunch. DG sells onion powder and garlic powder and many other spices for $.50 a bottle. Add a pudding cup for dessert. You get four individual pudding cups for a dollar. Drink a large glass of ice water with a teaspoon of lemon juice. Lemon juice is a dollar per bottle and will help your body burn calories. Cost $25. for one month's lunches.

Buy a Banquet Frozen TV Dinner for a dollar and have that for dinner. I recommend buying seven each of the fish sticks, spaghetti, fettucine, and chicken to do for one month, plus three more of your choice. Serve two slices of bread with it, and add an ice cream cup for dessert. Drink ice water with a twist of lemon. Cost $30. for tv dinners, $4.00 for bread, and $7. for ice cream cups for one month's dinners.

Add a bag of Dollar General double butter microwavable popcorn for a snack if you are still hungry for 4 packs for $1.25. Buy Kool-Aid for $2.00 a can to go with it. Dollar General also sells pretzels for a dollar a bag which make a good snack. DG sells dark chocolate, almonds, black olives, and green olives which are MUFAs (mono unsaturated fatty acids) and will help you lose weight around the midsection to give you a flatter belly if you eat a one ounce portion of one of them after every meal.

Dollar General's 1250 sheets of 4 rolls of toilet paper lasts longer than any other brand. Napkins are a dollar a package. Paper towels cost less at DG than other stores usually. They sell mouthwash, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, soap, and deodorant cheaper than any other store. All their household cleaning products are very reasonably priced and usually cheaper than any other store. Try Gain Spring Lavender, DG Lavender/Vanilla fabric softener sheets, and Lavender bleach for laundering your clothes. Make your bed linens smell nice by spraying them with Healing Garden Lavender Spray which costs 6 dollars a bottle. You can use it as a cologne, too. Lavender also repels insects.

Use Q-tips and a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide to swab your nostrils and ear canals every day to keep from contacting cold and flu germs or viruses when around other people. Dollar General sells a bottle for $.50 each. Q-tips are a dollar a package.

You will not starve if you keep oatmeal, pasta, brown rice, Ramen Noodles, canned mixed vegetables, canned tomatoes or sauce, and canned Luck's beans in your food pantry. From those staple items you can fix breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Here in the South, we have to have our cornbread too, so self-rising buttermilk cornmeal is another staple we can't live without. To make a good pone of Southern cornbread, use 2 cups self-rising buttermilk white cornmeal, 1 egg, 2 Tbsp. oil, and a cup of buttermilk. Mix well, and pour into a skillet that has been butter sprayed. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes. Paired with canned Luck's pinto beans, which are the only brand I have ever found that tastes just as good, maybe better, as home cooked beans, and a big Vidalia sweet onion that is sliced and you have a good dinner. You can add stewed potatoes or brown rice for a larger meal.

Try cooking your brown rice in chicken broth for a heartier flavor. Uncle Ben's Ready Rices can be cooked quickly in a microwave in just 90 seconds with no pan to clean up.

A great recipe for Magic Potatoes is to peel several potatoes and dice them. Place them in a pot and just cover them with water. Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Add 1/2 stick butter and 1 cup whole milk or heavy cream, and salt and pepper to suit your tastes, and you have a very nourishing and nutritious potato soup. Even the sickest people can eat this soup usually, and it strengthens them. If you have leftovers, they only get better the next day. Beans are like that too. They only get better as leftovers.

You can take one pouch of boneless, skinless salmon and make eight croquettes out of it by adding 1 cup self-rising cornmeal, 1 egg, 1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning, 2 Tbsp. lemon juice, to the pouch of salmon, and mixing it well, then forming patties and frying them in hot oil on both sides until golden brown. Drain them on paper towels. Serve hot with ketchup.

You can make a delicious salmon stew by using one can to two cups milk and a stick of butter with salt and pepper added. Bring it to a boil over low heat, then serve with saltine crackers.

In a pinch you can make tomato soup out of ketchup and hot water, or from a can of tomato sauce and water. Try adding dried basil to tomato soup, or add some milk instead of water for a Cream of Tomato soup.

Ramen Noodles can be purchased for a dime a package when on sale, and one pack will feed one person for a meal. They are one of the world's cheapest meals. You can add the seasoning packet and water and make a soup. Add some mixed vegetables to it. Or drain off the water after cooking the Ramen and add butter and garlic for Garlic Noodles which are delicious and you can have them in just five minutes. Ramen Noodles can be used as spaghetti as well. Just add some butter and marinara sauce to it. Or make your own with a can of crushed tomatoes, garlic, onions, Italian seasonings, and a little oil.

Leftover cooked rice can be turned into a delicious rice pudding by adding some milk, sugar, vanilla, and a bit of cinnamon to it. It can be eaten warm or cold.

Leftover rice pilaf which is just cooked rice with vegetables added to it can be added to scrambled eggs for a nice quick meal.

Vigo Gnocchi can be boiled in water for a few minutes, then the water drained off, and a can of Cream of Chicken soup added with a stick of butter and you have a wonderful cream sauce with fluffy dumplings in it as a meal. You can use Vigo Gnocchi in any recipe that you need dumplings, and they can be purchased online at the Vigo/Alessi store.

Keep canned soups in your pantry to have for quick lunches or for when you just don't feel well enough to fix a meal. If you can afford it, keep an extra freezer at home to stock up on food when you find it on sale.

Keep peanut butter and jelly on hand, as peanut butter and crackers or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches supply protein. Cheese slices are also good to keep in the refrigerator for protein. When you have beans, peanut butter, eggs, or cheese you don't have to have meat.

Eggs are a good buy because you can eat them fried, scrambled, boiled, poached, or shirred, and in devilled eggs by boiling them, cutting them in half long ways and removing the yolks into a bowl, adding some mayonnaise, mustard, pickle relish, salt, and pepper and putting the mixture into the white part of the boiled eggs with a spoon. Sprinkle some paprika over the top as a garnish. Eggs make good omelettes for a meal, and you can add any leftover vegetables you have to them. Eggs can be used as a binding ingredient to make patties out of leftover beans or crushed nuts. They can be boiled then mashed with a fork with mayonnaise, mustard, and pickle relish to make a delicious egg salad.

You can add a raw beaten egg to boiling chicken broth to which some sesame oil and soy sauce has been added, stirring it quickly with a fork, to make your own Eggdrop Soup. Add some lime juice and hot sauce and you have Hot and Sour Soup. Add some mixed vegetables and you have Asian Vegetables Soup.

Another multi-tasking product you need to keep in your pantry is Bisquick Mix. Pancakes, waffles, muffins, breads, biscuits, scones, and cakes can be made from it by adding an extract, eggs, sugar, and milk to the appropriate recipe. It already has all the leavening ingredients in it as well as the fat. To make biscuits or scones, all you have to add is milk to Bisquick Mix.

Those Vidalia Onions I mentioned previously can be boiled with butter, salt, and pepper for a delicious side dish, or you can dip them in cornmeal and eggwash and fry them in hot oil for Onion Rings. Add them chopped into cornmeal, buttermilk, oil, and egg to fry into hush puppies that go wonderful with fish and a cole slaw. Or try adding Vidalia Onions to soups, sauces, or gravies for wonderful flavor.

Cabbage can be cooked in 30 minutes by quartering the cabbage and cooking it in either water or chicken broth in a large pot over medium heat. Add some lemon juice if you don't want it to stink up your home during the cooking process. Add some butter, salt, and pepper and cook a pone of cornbread for a delicious meal.

Raw cabbage and carrots can be grated and mayonnaise added with salt and pepper for a cole slaw which goes great with barbequed meat. Add some corn on the cob or corn niblets and you have a super meal.

Fish sticks are another cheap meal by adding corn niblets in butter sauce, and English peas.

A poached chicken breast made by cooking one boneless chicken breast in water until done then cutting it up into bite-sized pieces can be used for so many recipes. You can add it to soups, casseroles, fajitas, tacos, burritos, entrees, or salads. It can stretch your meat dollars tremendously. My favorite brand is Schwans, and I keep them in the freezer.

Schwans also sells Chicken Fries that look similar to fish sticks that are very quick and easy to prepare for a meal. Schwans will also deliver twice a month anything you order from them online to your home. You can visit SCHWAN'S FOODS to view everything they sell and place an order. They have a Schwan's Card Plan that can help you if you get into a tight for a week or two to delay payment but still get your home food delivery.

Niblet corn, mac and cheese, carrots, rutabagas, beets, green beans, English peas, broccoli florets, sweet potatoes, spinach, brown rice, and potatoes are good food products to keep in your pantry to serve as sides with any meats, chicken, or seafood served.

Cheap snacks can be popcorn, pretzels, cookies bought from your local Dollar Store. Salsa and Tostitos chips are also good snacks.

Cheap desserts could be pudding cups, diced fruit cups, individual ice cream cups, homemade muffins, or individual applesauce cups. You can make a fantastic Creme Brulee by using a ready-made vanilla pudding put into a ramekin then topped with 2 Tbsp. light brown sugar and placing the ramekin underneath the broiler for 3 or 4 minutes until the sugar melts completely and is bubbly. Just watch it carefully, so it doesn't burn. It can be served warm or cold. I think they taste better served warm. Creme Brulee is listed as the world's most elegant dessert.

Polenta can be served instead of mashed potatoes. Just use 2 cups yellow corn meal to 2 cups chicken broth, heating it and stirring until it is thickened. Add some butter and milk and stir well again. Pour out onto a greased cookie sheet and it will congeal and can be sliced and fried or baked at a later time. Or you can put it in a bowl and serve it just like mashed potatoes. Don't forget sweet potatoes or carrots can be mashed as well for a good side dish. Mashed sweet potatoes, spinach with garlic, or canned asparagus spears makes an excellent meal with salmon filets. If you buy salmon filets when they are on sale, they are not that expensive to keep in your freezer. I buy the ones that are individually wrapped. They cook very fast in a skillet with some butter spray and a bit of liquid added.

To a can of mixed vegetables try adding a teaspoon of liquid hickory smoke seasoning and some butter for a real taste treat as a side dish.

Slices of turkey go well with gravy, English peas, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce.

Slices of chicken breast go well with mashed potatoes or rice, gravy, and green beans.

Slices of roast beef go well with rice or mashed potatoes, gravy, and broccoli florets.

Buy the deli sliced meats such as Sara Lee, Oscar Meyer, or Hillshire Farms and you can use them for entrees or sandwiches.

Meat loaf can be made with any ground meat and oatmeal will expand the size of the meat loaf for a larger family or needs. Meat loaf goes well with mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, corn niblets, green beans, English peas, Broccoli florets, or Brussel Sprouts.

Kroger and Walmart sell Michelina frozen entrees for a dollar each and have many choices. Michelina's Fettuccine Alfredo tastes as good as any I have ever eaten. Also search for frozen Stouffer's Vegetable Lasagna which has an alfredo sauce instead of marinara, which is delicious.

Kroger has its own brand of Cheeseburgers and Spicy Chicken Sandwiches that taste very good, and you can fix them in one minute in your microwave. They also carry sliders in the same as well as regular chicken sandwiches.

Walmart carries El Charrito Queso Enchiladas frozen dinners as well as other entrees. They have two cheese enchiladas, Spanish rice, and pinto beans. Walmart also stocks frozen generic mozzarella cheese sticks for a dollar a package.