the cost of your meals will vary drastically according to where you shop
I usually try to go to the chinese food store, if you have one in your town, it's a great place to visit.
I find I can cook a lot of gourmet meals without spending a great deal of money.
vegetables are really really cheap there.. so are things like lo mein noodles.
rice, snap peas, and fresh squid stirfry (although you do have to clean the squid yourself, they do remove the beak) was definitely under the 4 dollar mark
the frugal gourmet has a samosa recipe which I found to be under 4 bucks.
basically, the main part of reducing your food cost is removing processed foods, and reducing the amount (or quality, if you want to go that way) of meat
also, if you're going to cook it that day, or freeze it that day, those reduced meats at the grocery store are sometimes a good deal. I wouldn't reccomend non-fresh fish or sausages, though.