I've posted this somewhere else, but here is a snapshot from our spreadsheet-- what we actually bought for a random (recent) three months, and how much we actually paid. It's no meal plan, but it might help you get a better idea what us low-budget people are spending on. Stores shopped from include Costco, national chain groceries (Kroger/Safeway/etc), the local farm/produce store, and Azure Standard (for bulk oatmeal/rice/spices mainly). In July, we were at $210.30, August was $151.17. April is high, but note that we bought a ton of ground beef, and a ginormous jar of coconut oil. Notice all the extravagant spending: turkey lunch meat and chocolate in April ($19); a ton of ice cream and more sliced turkey in May ($41); cashews in June ($15). This is not a spartan diet.
This spending level feels careless and not tight at all. We don't coupon, but we buy in bulk (oatmeal, flour, rice, beans, lentils, etc.), we shop the sales (and only the sales, unless it's absolutely necessary), and when it's a super good price on a non-perishable we buy a ton (dry pasta, ice cream, tuna, cheese, etc.). And we almost always only buy ingredients, rather than foods-- flour, yeast, salt, and oil rather than bread, for example. And we never eat out (last time we did, it was in the Costco food court to the tune of about $4.50).
My wife stays home, so we make our meals from scratch (no box mixes, etc.).
We eat oatmeal for breakfast every morning. We buy a 50lb bag of quick oats for $25, and it lasts us about 2 months. We don't use milk.
Lunches are usually leftovers or, if there aren't leftovers, fruit, veggies, popcorn, oven fried potatoes, or eggs.
Dinners:
pizza (from scratch)
rice-based dishes-- stir-fry, taco rice,
sandwiches (homemade bread)
scrambled eggs/sausage/potatoes
pasta w/veggies & meat
burritos
lentil soup
pea soup
chili
pancakes (w/nuts, fruit sauce, sometimes gravy)
My wife doesn't like to follow recipes, so most of the time she just "wings it" and things turn out pretty well. We try to make sure we eat some sort of green(ish) vegetable and a whole fruit per person every day. Bananas are a great & healthy inexpensive fruit (we get them at Costco for under $0.50/lb).
We have a big chest freezer, so when there is a good sale on meat or cheese or butter (or ice cream, as you can see in May...), we stock up.
Price-points I look for when grocery shopping (or rather, when looking through the flyers making a list):
Beef: under $3-4/lb (usually ground, or sometimes weekly specials)
Chicken: $0.88-2/lb (whole chickens will go on special for under $1/lb, boneless skinless pieces I'll find occasionally for $1.99/lb)
Pork: under $1.50/lb
Eggs: $1/doz
Fruits & veggies: under $1/lb (I can get frozen mixed veggies for under $1.50/lb at Costco; I keep those in the freezer for weeks when there isn't a good veggie sale)