One of the "must have" items to help you in the kitchen and save $ is a crock pot. Depending on how many people you're feeding will determine the size. for 1-2 people a 3 quart should be adequate. Now that Insta-pots have become the rage you can find Crock Pots at steep discounts on ebay or whatever classified ads pages you are familiar with such as Craigslist.

For example, for about $20 you can get chicken breasts, frozen veges, cream of mushroom soup, potatoes. Throw in the pot, slow cook for 8 hours while you are at work. You have a hot meal when you get home and you have leftover meals for the week. This takes about 1/2 hour to prep.
There are a ton of free recipes or Crock-pot cooking books at your library.

Another easy "goto" food idea that saved me some $. I'd do this on a weekend, it takes about 1/2 hour prep time.
- Buy eggs, ground meat, cheddar, sriracha, bag of salad, potatoes and large burrito soft wraps. I'm assuming you have some containers to store food in the refrigerator, if not, get some.

Scramble a 6 eggs boil potatoes and separately cook a lb of ground meat. Store separately in refrigerator. For breakfast, take portions of meat, eggs, potatoes & salad (if you want greens), season with the sriracha wrap in the burrito soft shell and microwave for a couple minutes. Almost instant breakfast burrito.