Do you happen to have a friend in the area who can help out with rides to and from your program and offering you a room? I know it sucks not to have your own place but once when I was really, really broke, I slept on my friend's floor. It wasn't ideal but it kept me out from under a bridge.

If you don't have any friends nearby, have you talked to the program coordinators/administrators? I would imagine that these sort of issues are common and they may have resources or assistance available.

Regarding your food stamps, my guess is that you don't know how to shop on a budget. Don't worry, it really is a skill. I used to spend $40 a week on groceries for myself and now I spend $50 a week on groceries and my SO and I. I can offer some tips to help that $190 in food stamps stretch for the whole month.

My suggestions are: - For produce, make sure to buy in season, on sale items. My local Walmart recently had personal watermelons for $1 and the big ones for $3. Romaine lettuce can often be had for $1. - Avoid microwaved meals. They're so expensive for what they are. To give you an idea, if you ate three meals a day that cost $1.50 to make and snacks that totaled $1 a day, your monthly total would be $165. Some simple meal ideas include: 1) pasta and sauce. Pasta is $1 and sauce is $1. You can add some veggies in there or some turkey or beef. Even if you add beef, the whole pot if $5 and can provide 5 -6 meals. 2) get some canned soup when the good stuff is on sale for $1 - $1.50. Have it with some toast or a salad if you want some bulk. 3) Sandwiches are always easy. I particularly like turkey sandwiches but you can have whatever you want. When you get the $1 loaf of bread and get cheapish ingredients for it, it's easy to keep the sandwich pretty cheap. Add a salad if you want some bulk. 4) Ask the stockers at your grocery store when they mark clearance. Getting clearance is a great way to get items that wouldn't normally fit in your budget.

Good luck and hang in there!