Dinner was almost always ramen (bought for 10 or 12 for a buck), cooked with some frozen veggies (bought on sale for very cheap), half the seasoning packet (so I wouldn't die from the sodium) and one or two eggs (begged off of my parents from their hens or bought cheap) scrambled into the soupy mess when it was almost finished. Took less than five minutes to cook, and had protein, carbs, fat, and veggies. God I got sick of that. And I was perpetually anemic, so I'd save up enough money to buy a hamburger at the college cafeteria once a week, or if I was too broke for that, beg some meat from my parents' freezer. Going out for dinner (not often) consisted of going to a local buffet and ordering only soup, which they'd let you get seconds of, I think it was maybe about two bucks including drinks. I suspect they were only supposed to let you get it as an add-on to a real order, not by itself, but they never said a word about it. During the school year, I worked part time and brought home about 400/month, from which I had to buy gas (commuted), phone, electricity (kept the heat set at about 55F), textbooks, food, car payment (about $125/month) and all the other stuff you need to live (shampoo, soap, etc.) I had to drop out of school for one term, when I had less than one full term's worth of classes left to graduate, in order to earn enough money to pay for the last term's tuition. That sucked.