[grania]

You can do it the old fashioned way. Always have a homemade soup going, with cheap cuts of turkey, chicken, or beef. Veggies....carrots, squash, celery, potatoes, herbs, grow a summer garden and prepare extras for non-summer use. Barley or another healthy grain. Whole-grain pure corn chips are cheap. Once you do that, the budget falls in place. To do it, money can only be spent on things with nutritional purpose, and you can't overeat.

A women only needs 1100 calories a day, if she chooses her foods wisely for nutrition.

[wbill]

Roger that. I put a quick budget together in post #47 and had no problems. And, I didn't figure in bulk buying, or high-preparation (canning, freezing, making your own bread) -style meals. Just stuff to whip up fairly quick and easy.

If I went with bulk flour, sugar, beans, rice, etc etc etc....I'd be well under budget.

Heck, I can put together a crock pot of spaghetti sauce for well under $20 that feeds my entire family for 3-4 nights. It's better than anything you'd get in a restaurant. We usually freeze a couple of nights worth, it tastes better left over. :-) And the sauce makes an awesome pizza. :-) :-)

But it takes a little thought and effort. Can't have folks on welfare, who have little to do to begin with, putting forth any of that.

[trisham]

A women only needs 1100 calories a day, if she chooses her foods wisely for nutrition.

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Not so. The caloric requirements of women vary, just as men's do. I know quite a few women who are 5'7" to 5'9". While 1100 calories a day may be doable for a woman of 5'1" to 5'4" or so, taller women need more calories, and the requirements of women with fast metabolisms vary as well, not to mention those who run, lift weights or do other forms of exercise.