what to eat when your poor?

I buy tons of frozen vegetables when they are on sale. For protein beans are great. The dry ones are cheapest but the canned are not too expensive and save on prep time.

a good blog to check out is budgetbytes - she breaks down the cost of each recipe

also if you can swing it - look to do recipes that you can pre-make and eat for like a week - chili, soups etc - they freeze well, and often times making in bulk isn't too much of an added cost

I would suggest eating as much as possible of the healthiest options you have available for the next week (eggs, chicken legs, potatoes, pasta, rice) and then trying to buy some of the cheap and healthy items that ahamm002 suggested once you're able to shop again. My grocery store keeps a discount/clearance bin in the produce department of things that are a little past their prime - all bags are $1. I can often get 5 or 6 apples, potatoes, peppers, zucchini, etc. They also have a discount area of nonperishable items where you can sometimes find a good bargain. Good luck!

I'd also recommend checking out the post titled "$13.30 for three days of food". It revolves around a student doing a project where she had to eat very cheaply but wanted to eat as healthy as possible. There are tons of ideas from people on that forum. It's under the General Diet and Weight Loss Help section.

Are the chicken legs the whole quarter, including the thighs? If so, you can season them (maybe with some salt, pepper, lemon and garlic) and roast them with the potatoes. Roast extra potatoes so you can have them with future meals or carry them for lunch. I think either steamed or roasted asparagus would be delightful with that dinner.

If you have some white wine or even some vinegar, you can reduce the chicken drippings in the pan (just lightly simmer it and scrape up the browned bits) and make a lovely sauce for the chicken, potatoes and asparagus. Use it sparingly due to the fat content and save the extra for future dinners.

Save the chicken bones in the freezer till you have a small supply, and also save and trimmings from carrots, onions and celery, and you can use it to make a wonderful chicken stock, which can also be frozen. Rather than buying pasta, it is pretty easy to make homemade noodles, which can be dried or frozen and saved. Use the stock to make chicken and noodles, with a side of skin-on roasted or boiled potatoes (actually I really like mashed, but you want to use the skins, which are the nutritional powerhouse), and a side of veg. Lovely.

The more you can learn some simple scratch-cooking techniques, the better you will eat, both palate-wise and health-wise.

Check Goodwill & Salvation Army for slow cookers. You may not find one (popular right now) - but if you do it will be really cheap.

Look for "manager's special" in the meat department. Typically, this is the meat that needs to be used the same day (or frozen). When it's chicken, I will grill it and cut it up for salads, casseroles, etc. A slow cooker is also a great way to cook several servings, salsa and taco seasoning is great for salads, burritos, tacos, etc.

Make taco meat and add a can of low-fat or fat free or refried beans to the meat mixture. Doubles the volume for about $1 then you have lots of leftovers. You can then make tacos, nachos, taco salad, etc... This works for chili too.
Add cooked, ground meat or some sliced sausages to a jar of marinara sauce and serve over veggie noodles (spiralizers are less than $10)
Stews and soups can be made quite cheap as can pot or shepards pie - buy what is on sale and then use Pinterest or other websites to find recipes that fit what you bought.
Eggs are cheap too and you can make a veggie frittata for a quick, easy, cheap and very filling recipe.
Beans are always cheap and have a million ways to cook them.

You have pasta, beans, rice, eggs, and some veg! You're good to go!

With the things on your list, I believe I would make some simple fried rice with egg, peas, and asparagus (if it's fresh, I can't handle the canned stuff).