I hear you! Where I live, it's not uncommon to see seniors dumpster-diving! We need LIVABLE retirement incomes!

baked beans, butter and bread is cheaper

no, i might consider cat food but only with tabasco sauce.

Happened here in the 60s

Dried beans are cheaper than canned & go further. Rice is cheaper at the "international" market than a regular market. You'd be amazed at how many edibles can be grown in a flower bed & in garden pots. Foraging is a lost art. Now is a good time for wild berries, broad leaf plantain, & wild garlic/onion. Poke weed & dandelion can be had but you have to get it young & tender. Churches & food pantries can help out & there is many a person w/a garden that is overrun with something & dying to give it away. In my life I have had to be creative to keep body & soul together & make sure my kids were sheltered, safe, & fed. If you keep in mind to be smart & savvy when food is abundant, you tend to get by when money is short & the grocery budget is on the chopping block. Pride is great but it isn't filling.

Call your town clerk and ask for the Senior Lunch Program, also any food distribution program.
Buy day old bread
Buy rice, beans, canned tomatoes.
Call Food Link - they are everywhere.

Do not eat dog food. Seven dollars for a single meal? If you blow it on fast food maybe...

• Buy beans and rice
• Buy macaroni and cheese
• Get a part time job where they serve food
• Live by your wits and raise more money

I live in the UK so that is around £6....with that I could by enough carrots, onions and potatoes along with some canned tomatoes and beans to make a large pot of soup which would have most of the nutrition I need. Our supermarkets here often sell fruit and vegetables at considerably reduced prices in the late evening when the date on them is about to expire, bread too can be purchased at a fraction of the normal price and I would scoop up as much as I could if I found myself in that dire situation. I would not consider eating dog food unless there was absolutely no alternative,

I’d go to a feed store and buy a sack of wheat.

I’d cut costs—move into a tent if necessary.

No I would not purchase dog food and eat it. $7 coin one can still be quite creative and eat for 7 days. At least in the Cleveland area. Being I cook for myself I find I get by on not a whole lot more than that anyhow.

A tin of tomato paste, water, a package of frozen vegetables, a little pasta, some cheap protein, seasoning, & its soup for several days.