Hey Vic. Look pal, I don't think we've ever corresponded, but I'm a copper's wife, and I understand, and I thank you etc. etc., and here are some cheap meal ideas, which I hope help (we have been through periods of staggering brokeness too!)
Flatbread pizza
Make a soft, not too wet dough out of flour (I always use Value), salt, pepper, and a little warm water. Roll into discs. Cook on both sides in the frying pan (dry is fine). Top with whatever you've got - I used Value chopped tomatoes with a pinch of dried herbs as the tomato sauce. Roast veg with a bit of cheese, tinned sardines, and torn up bits of ham are all good. This is MUCH nicer than it sounds.
If you have a breadmaker, get into the habit of using it. Bread is pence, and you can make really good pizza dough.
Bean and veg stews
We eat this about 3 times a week. Buy tinned beans in bulk - butter beans are lush. Courgettes are unbelievably cheap at the moment and I eat them until I'm surprised I'm not green. Use the liquour in the tin of beans as the basis of the soupy bit, and tinker with flavourings: a couple of chopped tomatoes, some stock, a splash of wine if you have it, are all good. It's based on something Nigel Wotsit cooks out of his allotment veg . Top with crumbled feta if you have it. It's worth remembering that Sainsbo's feta is about 80p.
Butternut Squash curry
Squash this time of year is cheap and plentiful, and they keep forever, including even when they've already been cut. When you have money to hand I recommend getting 3 or 4 monsters in and having them as a standby. They look good, too.
I make a basic Indian homestyle curry by sweating onion, garlic and ginger (when I have it), then adding 1tsp each of cumin, coriander and turmeric. Some bashed up peppercorns (according to taste) and a pinch of dried chilli flakes go in, with a tin of tomatoes. Simmer this until it thickens a bit. This is the basis of most curries I make - on high days and holidays and paydays you can add creamed coconut or ground almonds, and meat. On frugal days leave it at this, and tip in your veg. Remember butternut squash takes a bit longer than other curries.
I recommend going to 'ethnic' (hate that word but you know what I mean) shops for big bags of rice on payday, then you know it's hanging about when you need it.
Dhal and hard boiled egg
This isn't as farty as it sounds. I won't patronise you by giving you a recipe as there are loads online, but it's cheap, filling, and staggeringly nutritious.
Don't forget that flapjack and scones are very cheap to make, and great for taking as an addition to packed lunches. You only ever need to buy Value baking ingredients unless you ACTUALLLY have Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry coming to tea. If you have a baking day once a week and pop things in the freezer, when the lean times come you open it up and, by Jove, TREATS, egad!
Also - apples are v. cheap and great baked if you stuff them with a bit of butter and sugar and some dried fruit (again, a big up to Sainsbo's economy dried fruit bag).
And I know it's a tired old MN trope but the wise use of a chicken genuinely does last 3 days. If you want dumplings with chicken soup made at the very end of the poor chicken's lifespan, all you need to do is take about 4oz self raising flour (or plain flour with a good tsp of baking powder), pop a mixture of about 1 part oil to 2 parts milk, season with salt and pepper and dried herbs, and plop into the soup on a low simmer. That gives a meal at about 50p a head an no-one I know ever turned it down.
I'm sure I'll think of more. Iwas brought up eating very frugally and never use anything pre-prepared, so that even when there is money knocking about (rarely) we still eat a bit like there's rationing still on.
Good luck! x