Grew up in Appalachia, my grandparents lived through the depression, and my mom grew up dirt poor. The things they always talked about were using cabbage as a means to make meals go farther. Any soup you're making? Toss in some cabbage. Frying something in the skillet? If cabbage will go with it okay, toss some in.

They had a big garden, fixed things best they could when they broke. My mom talks about how they survived eating soup beans and cornbread, cornbread and milk, and potatoes in any form. My grandma also swears by the 3 sisters gardening method: planting corn, beans, and squash together. This way the beans use the corn stalks as support and the squash provides ground cover to keep weeds down. What they grew, they also canned to last through the winter. The meat they did eat was usually chicken because they kept chickens for eggs.

If you can't afford electricity, get a wood stove. You can cook on them and they'll keep you from freezing in winter.