Eating 1x day to stay under calories

Ya that's a bad idea.

Rather than one large meal, eat several small meals. Snack every few hours. It'll keep you full.

Also...no diet pills.

It is much easier to stay on budget if you cook.

I used to buy lean cuisine for lunch, normally only a 1-2 a piece so if you buy 5 for a work week only $10-12. The greatest part, they taste great and are only between 200-400 calories

If you eat one meal, you will be starving and over eat. Ramen isn't great for you but you could make your own version on the cheap with past noodles, frozen vegetables, left over chicken etc. $50 a week for one person can be done.....you probably need to look for less convenience foods that you pay more for. An entire box of pasta is probably about a dollar that could be split into many meals. Not to mention sales

If you like pasta, just try cooking your own....whatever type you like and maybe throw in a can of stewed tomatoes. That should help you keep more full and won't have all the sodium, etc. Try baking a couple of potatoes and nuking them up when you're hungry....they are better and you can usually get a bag of potatoes pretty cheap. But definitely cooking your own stuff is cheaper. GOOD LUCK!

As devilwhiterose said, you can definitely snack throughout the day and stay full. I have also found that there are a lot of veggies that you can buy frozen that are super cheap and you can heat them up in the microwave. I know some people who just eat a bunch of veggies for lunch. That keeps me full for a while, even though I dislike eating them. I also love the lean cuisines. They're not bad for you except the salt. I got some on sale this week for $1.88 at the Kroger grocery store down the street, though prices vary based on where you are.

Hmmm I know all about eating cheap. 50 bucks a week is actually pretty good that is about what I spend! So Tuna is really cheap and you could probably get some at the dollar store if you have one that has food. Our Dollar Trees in certain places have some but even if not Walmart or any other big chain has it pretty cheap. Lettuce or Spinach isn't too bad either. You can normally get some veggies/fruits pretty cheap as well. There is yogurts to purchase for a dollar. If you want to get a some kind of meat a chicken usually is good for lasting for a bit or you can do what I do which is buy thighs or chicken legs for like 4 bucks at Walmart which usually gives me a pretty good amount and I make it last for a week in the freezer. You can also buy eggs pretty cheap and eat 2 a day that will last you a couple days There is plenty of things us poor people can buy and still try to be healthy you just got to spend the time looking and thinking. Get creative! If I can do it you can do it and I am trying to feed two kids on a 50 dollar a week budget as well so we manage!

There's nothing wrong with it, but it sounds pretty awful to me.

This will only work if you genuinely aren't hungry throughout the day. Like people who skip breakfast because they're not hungry in the morning - to each their own, nothing wrong with it. However, if you stay hungry all day and only eat once, you're setting yourself up for failure. This is when overeating comes into play. I know the longer I go without eating, the more ravenous I get, the more I want to eat in a sitting. I could easily eat over 1400 calories in one meal.

I would never be full on 1400 calories/day, which is why I typically don't go lower than 1850 when I'm losing. However, I've done the low calorie thing in the past and it's certainly possible without being really miserable (for the average person, anyway...not a hungry girl like me). High volume foods is where it's at. Find a few staple meals that 1) you enjoy, 2) fit your budget, and 3) are filling, and eat variations of those things daily.

I'm currently bulking and eating 2650 calories/day, so I can't exactly relate at the moment, but my favorite high volume meal is egg white protein oatmeal, which is great because oatmeal is so versatile depending on what you put in it. I've also been known to bulk up meals with things like cauliflower, zucchini, and pumpkin, depending on the dish.

Google the warrior diet and intermittent fasting. On the Ramen noodle note if you've got left over chicken or something toss that in with some veggies and it'll last longer.

Ramen has a ridiculous amount of sodium. Not good for retaining water.

One of the absolute BIGGEST things that has helped me stay full throughout the day is just drinking a lot of water. So many of us have heard how important it is to drink plenty of fluids, but sometimes I think we mistake thirst for hunger. For my average day, I typically have a protein drink for breakfast and don't eat anything else until lunch. In between, I have a 25oz bottle of water that I fill up and finish. I can honestly say I don't get hungry until that next meal. After lunch, I fill it up again, get another 25oz (2/3 of the water my body needs for the day, at this point) before I leave the office. If I can get more (maybe part of another fill up), I'm usually in good shape to not overeat at dinner! The only negative (since water is SUPER cheap) is that you may find yourself going to the restroom more often, so time yourself and pace! I've also found it helpful to get different water flavor enhancers, in case things get a little boring. Hope this helps!

My usual lunch at the moment is 2 whole wheat wraps, one with peanut butter + apple slices (I like granny smith because they're slightly sour), one with chicken/turkey (those sandwich/deli slices) + bell pepper. You will use about half a small apple or half a bell pepper per wrap. The cost of peanut butter is rather negligible, and you can buy a whole bunch of whole wheat wraps once they're on sale. For those two wraps, I come in at about 400-500 calories, depending on how much butter and peanut butter you use.

Quick totals and cost estimates:
Let's say you're eating this every day - I would not recommend eating the same thing every day, but just for cost analysis - that's 7x2 = 14 wraps. So 3.5 bell peppers and 3.5 apples. Make that 7 apples so you can eat the other half of the apple together with your lunch, which will make you feel more filled without adding a whole lot of calories. One jar of peanut butter will last you a couple of weeks, and one package of sandwich/deli sliced chicken/turkey should probably last you a week as well.

14 wraps = 3 dollars
4 bell peppers = 2 dollar
7 apples = 2 dollars
chicken/turkey = 1 dollar
1 jar of peanut butter = 2 dollars
Total = 10 dollars, 8 if you already have the peanut butter.

So depending on your local prices (and whether you can stock up on things like wraps and peanut butter during a sale), you would come in around the same price as your current ramen, a bit lower on calories, and on average just a whole lot healthier than plain ramen.