I’m very likely going to have to cut my food budget down to the bone - I’m talking rice and beans.
What can I eat so that a) I still get the required calories per day (2,000 or so); b) provides vitamins and minerals; and c) can be purchased as cheaply as possible. Obviously rice and beans come to mind, but what else? And what can I do with beans besides just boil them and eat them?
Why do you have to do this? Some financial catastrophe?
Most Americans are so non frugal in their food eating that all they have to do is eliminate eating away from home, prepared foods including junk foods like soda pop to achieve truly massive cuts in their food budget, The solution is to just cook from scratch.
Refried beans, or fried rice. Adds some oil to it, you pick up some fats that way thus bringing up your calorie counts.
Eggs are also pretty cheap protein easily mixed into any of the above. 10lb bags of chicken leg/thigh sections can be had for $5. Boiled and stripped of meat you could have 15-20 meals of 4oz of chicken meat mixed into your rice and beans.
Save that water and bones , bit more salt and cook down for some chicken soup, noodles also pretty cheap.
Soy sauce is cheap, mix in a little sugar you basically have teriyaki sauce.
Been there done that, sometimes I think I could write a book on living on dirt cheap food.
I lost alot of weight but I was far from starving.
Add some greens to your diet.
The OP’s location is listed as Missouri, so this will have to wait until March or April, but grow a few vegetables either in a garden or even in pots. I recommend things like radishes (very quick) and items like bok choy, chard, kale or whatever green leaf/cabbage thing you like. They’re hardy, grow in relatively cold weather, full a good nutrients, and can be put into various dishes.
Learn how to stir-fry. You don’t have to be recipe specific - start with oil and condiments (soy sauce, duck sauce, etc.), cook the meat/protein component, then the vegetables, and serve over rice. You can use any protein (including beans), any vegetables (chop-chop-chop).
Buy raw foods in bulk - beans, rice, etc.
Buy vegetables either in season or frozen, avoid organic where you pay more for a label of little meaning or worth.
Buy cheap and seasonal fruit and have a piece for dessert.
The idea is to fill up on beans/rice or similar protein starch combo, then add bits of vegee or eat a piece of fruit for color/taste/nutrients.
Avoid convenience foods - the sole exception might be rotisserie chicken which can often be obtained cheaply and turned into several meals, including using the bones and scraps for soup/stew.
I see what you did there. 
Hard to improve on Broomstick’s advice, but I’ll just re-emphasize the part about stir-fry. It’s such an easy way to cook very healthy and tasty foods. Stir-fry some vegetables and a little bit of meat, serve over rice and you’ve got a good, cheap meal.
If things get really tough, ask the mods if you can set up a sort of “go fund me” thread. I’d be happy to contribute.
Check out the Budget Bytes website. Really classy recipes using cheap ingredients. And I don’t think they have anything too complicated to make.
Ditto. I use many of her recipes and they are economical, nutritious, and user friendly.
There’s a free, downloadable cookbook designed for the SNAP budget of $4/day. There are some awesome general tips in there for how to eat cheaply and not be miserable.
How many people are in your household?
If you don’t have a Crock Pot, get one. You can get them new for very little money if you don’t want any bells and whistles (under $20) and thrift stores have them galore.
You’ll need something to prevent your system from getting too acidic; can’t have just beans/rice/protein. Some fruit and leafy greens would help alkalize your bloodstream back up a bit.
Acidosis is caused by problems with the lungs or kidneys and is not caused by eating too much bean/rice/protein.
What resources, other than money, do you have available? You probably have a lot more than you realize, and it makes a huge difference.
For instance, suppose that you want to supply part of your food needs with peanut butter sandwiches (grain plus legume is a complete protein, after all). How much do you need to spend on the bread? Well, cheap bread is really cheap, but expensive bread can be even cheaper. Grocery stores will usually keep their expensive bread on the shelf for only a day, and then donate it to charities that distribute it at churches and other locations. And there’s usually little competition for the bread at these locations (everyone wants the sweeter baked goods instead), so you can pretty reliably get a few loaves of good bread for free each week.
Good idea, and freeze the bread you don’t use so it can stay “good” for weeks, if needed.
Whenever I buy a loaf of good bread, I slice it right away, use what I want for the day and freeze the rest. Good bread doesn’t have preservatives and goes bad pretty quickly.
Milk is cheap as hell where I live, around $1 a gallon.
Milk is full of protein, potassium, phosphorus and a variety of other vitamins and minerals.
I find that bread usually keeps well enough in the refrigerator, for the time it takes me to finish the loaf. It might be starting to go a little stale at the end, but it’s very rare for it to mold or anything like that.
Visit your local food bank and grab what non perishables you can.
Is this situation temporary? Do you need some help?
In the interests of fighting ignorance, “Alkaline” based diets are generally assumed to be complete nonsense by the medical community. While the general food recommendations (eat more leafy greens & whole grains, and less refined flours, starches, alcohol, and cheeses) are sound enough, but the purported mechanism by which they work (modifying blood pH by eating certain foods) seems to lack even a basic understanding of biology.
I bake all my own bread, mostly whole wheat. I usually make super-crusty Italian bread resembling fat French baguettes, with plenty of steam and heat. Not only is it more delicious that way, it doesn’t need refrigeration. I just leave it out and pretty much live on that, so it doesn’t have the chance to get very stale. Adding a little oil helps delay staleness. Even after two days it’s good despite staleness. Any bread that becomes too dry and hard is perfect for French toast (speaking of cheap milk & egg protein), cut up and toasted into croutons (good for salads and the ever-economical and nutritious soups like minestrone), or grated into crumbs for further use.
Pancakes are also flour, milk, and eggs, and so easy. Cornmeal is cheap too, so cornbread is another delicious standby.