first off ((missy)) this has got to be hard.....
Now, I'm going to give you a lot of advice here, so if any of it doesn't apply or offends, please realize that I'm just throwing a lot of ...noodles at the wall to see what sticks yk?
So I'm not trying to be mean at all.
First off, I second the cheaper stores/cupons thing, but you probably knew that one.
Then, I'd look around in my cupboards and see what we had, like us, we have tons of rice. So we don't need to buy any for one, and for another, it's cheaper to get stuff to go with the rice than to make a whole other meal.
Then I looked around to see what I could cut out, and what I had to have for sanity. I know coffee's spendy, but I have to have it. Meat (which we do eat here) can go, or we get the most meat for the least amount of money. Plus I realized that I had a lot of stuff in there that I didn't realize would go together to 'make' anything yk? I've made bread and pretzles etc because I had a lot of yeast and flour.
Then I recalled as much as I could from my nutriton class and knowledge my mom had from raising me very poor.....like, you can live w/o meat, but you do need a protein, so beans+ rice = protein kinda stuff helps. You're not going to be able to eat fresh produce probably, so get frozen. It's second best, usually has all it's nurtients and there's not usually all that salt (like canned).
We get the cheapest stuff, like giant peanut butter, which can last more than a week and is cheaper per pound even though it's more spendy at first.
Stuff that's filling and cheap, potatoes etc. You can also cook some things a lot of ways to break up the boredom (like rice and potatoes etc) Do you have any really old cookbooks? They'll have tons of recipies for potatoes and rice and such.
I'm sure you're thinking about wic, foodstamps and the like, Humiliating I know but you gotta eat. I have to apply for a special thing for our foodstamps because I can't get there, some states have the app online (washington does!)
I really hope everything works out mama!
jessica