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@lemonfair, you should try adding a cracked egg to your ramen. Leave the heat on after the noodles are done, season your broth and let noodles soak a bit, drain, then back in the pan. Crack an egg over the noodles and fry, stirring occaisionally(its best if the egg doesn't get too broken up), until egg is done. Hit it with a bit of soy sauce and some garlic chili paste. Its a really yummy and different way to enjoy ramen!

I learned this from a friend of a friend who lived in japan for a while and had issues getting to like the food(which i could not fathom!). He got acclimated by mixing things he ate at home with some asian flare.

Aside from 60,000 ways to dr up Ramen I would get things on sale and dr them up, you would be surprised what stocks, wine, or sherry can do to certain foods.

When I was young and broke, it was eggs or pasta, mostly. Mushrooms were my splurge item, and I'd buy fresh ones if I could afford it. If not, I'd buy the canned ones when they were on sale, which happened pretty often. I'd buy onions and green peppers because usually they were cheap enough. I'd also buy canned tomato sauce and tomato paste on sale, and the cheapest spaghetti I could find.

So, dinner would be scrambled eggs with mushrooms and onions, or it would be spaghetti with a tomato sauce, with mushrooms, onions and green peppers, and dried oregano. A dozen eggs was good for six meals, at least, and a pound of pasta probably lasted that long as well. I perfected the art of eating just enough not to be hungry any more.

If I had extra money, I'd buy bread, which meant I could have scrambled egg sandwiches, or eggs and toast, or bread with the pasta. Or I might really splurge and buy lettuce. I've always loved lettuce, but I knew that calorie-wise I wasn't getting much bang for my buck, so that was pretty extravagent. But lettuce on an egg sandwich made it seem much more substantial.

I seem to remember owning a jar of mayo, too. And I probably had oil and vinegar... and hmmmm...I'd buy butter for cooking the eggs, and I'd pick up a jar of pickles now and then. And if someone offered me garden-grown veggies, I never refused. Other than that, if something was really cheap, I might buy it. Like cheap lunchmeat. Or a bit of ground beef to go into the spaghetti sauce. But that was pretty much it.

But if someone else was buying me a meal, all bets were off. If my boss was going out and offered to buy lunch, I'd be living the good life. If it was something like a cold sub sandwich, I'd eat half and take the other half home for dinner that night.

If I had a date for dinner, guys would be amazed at how much food I could put away, unlike the girls who were dieting. Heh. They didn't know that this might be the only hearty meal I'd have all week, so calories didn't matter. My drink of choice, if I was going to a bar, was Kahlua and cream, particularly if there was a chance of someone else buying. Because the cream was almost like food.

I remember one weeknight when I had just finished a new pot of sauce and noodles, and my guy called me up and invited me out. Instead, I invited him over for pasta. I thought it was great that he liked it, but when he was on his third helping and I was thinking that the three strands of pasta that were left in the bowl was all I had budgeted for the rest of the week's dinners, I was a little concerned.

Last year, while I was in graduate school, I saved and saved to buy really good mozzarella and parmigiano-reggiano to make Marcella Hazan's eggplant parmesan.

I went vegetarian for most of the year because it was so much cheaper, but one month I bought a whole chicken. I deboned it to make chicken-and-garlic stew with the dark meat, and the breasts became chicken marsala with my very first successful pan sauce (with lots of sliced mushrooms). Finally, I used the meaty carcass and leg/thigh bones to make epic stock for egg-noodle soup with lots of carrots and celery and lemon.

@dbcurrie- This sounds all too familiar! =) I used to have friends over that knew how much I loved to cook and wanted me to make them dinner quite often...which was stressful because it meant using up what would have been many meals worth of food for myself.

I would take bnls sknls chicken breasts and slice them in half, to make them thinner and sautee them in italian salad dressing and serve them sliced up on top of spaghetti and marinara sauce from the jar. They loved it for some reason. I just asked that they bring the bread. I would slather slices of the bread with butter and garlic powder and bake them until crisp, throw a bit of parmesan over everything if i was lucky enough to have it. My friends would act like i made them the most lavish dinner! I turned them on to putting garlic chili paste in the tomato sauce for a kick and they loved it even more. It was crazy to me, i would think to myself, "wait til i can afford to cook you real food!"

My friends enjoyment made it easier to deal with an empty pantry, just ate a ton of dinner rolls at work those weeks. But it was like being told i had just won the lottery when my mom would announce she wanted me to join her for a dinner out...it was so nice to fill up, and even nicer if there were leftovers!

@girlfromjetcity- My Mark bittman cookbook has been a huge help lately! I kind of forgot about it for a while, but dusted it off last week. He really seems to hear that little voice in your head that says, "aw crap! I don't wanna buy that for one dish!" and offers up realistic and inventive variations, I love it!

I'd make chilli con carne. Massive massive pots of the stuff which could feed me for a week. I'd usually serve it up on anything I had around the house - potatoes, rice, and on one notable occasion, crumpets.

One Summer, I was living off £1 a day, and survived by eating bagels which were bought from the East London bakery around the corner from my house (I'd usually buy a load at 11pm so I could get them mega cheap before they threw them out). Those would usually be accompanied by 40p a pack ramen Noodles. To this day, I can't look at ramen noodles without feeling slightly nauseous.

inkandsausages: I never understand why people on a tight budget would buy hot dogs or spam (I love hot dogs, but they're not cheap meat). There is so often a good deal on pork or chicken, even beef sometimes.

I think that I lost count of how many peanut butter (couldn't even afford the jam/jelly or honey) sandwiches that I have eaten...or the number of eggs that I have made (poached, scrambled, omelette-style...), oatmeal, popcorn, and canned (because even frozen veggies were too expensive for me) veggies...animal crackers, Kraft dinner....ah, the memories. :)

in college I lived with (and cooked for, most nights) two guys who ate like it was going out of style. We stretched everything, and I mean everything, with rice, from the rice cooker which I'm suprised we didn't wear out with use. I mean, hamburger helper stretched with rice. It was actually quite yummy, if absurdly starchy.
But my favorite "we're broke" dinner (or easy lunch to take to school) was some white rice, scrambled egg with cheese (usually a slice of kraft american), and some form of veg, usually canned or frozen green beans. I don't know why... one of my roomies turned us on to it... but man, it is much tastier than it sounds! I haven't had it in years, now that I think about it, and I am craving it now :-)

after college when i was dating the brokeass-iest of all the brokeasses i've been lucky enough to date, we lived for many many days on homemade pizza... which actually sounds pretty good right now after being in a hotel for a week!

endless bowls of cereal, boxes of mac'n'cheese, and apples (with peanut butter if i had it). i can just picture how empty and sad my fridge/pantry used to look back then.