Of course it can. If you buy a whole chicken (which is like $4), you can make it into more than one meal for 4 people. Chop it up and make three different casseroles, using different add-ins to change it up. When it's all gone, you can boil the bones for a chicken broth and add egg noodles a couple of celery stalks, couple of carrots, left-over onion...chicken soup. That's four meals - and five, if you use enough water for the broth and egg noodles, and you can have it twice.

Cheese sandwhiches, peanut butter sandwiches, rice....

Slice up a couple potatoes into very thin pieces, toss them in a large skillet with 3 or 4 eggs, a little cheese, a little onion, and you have a filling breakfast.

It really doesn't cost a lot to do those things.