wow - you are all a fount of information! Thanks for all the great suggestions. I think I'll try to get my son more involved in choosing his lunch and check with the school about a microwave.

changing grocery stores - no options in this town except HEB or Walmart, and HEB is generally cheaper, despite Walmart's commercials that say otherwise. Besides - Walmart is dangerous - there's a lot more than food there that I would like to buy and before I know it my "grocery" bill included a tank top, a pair of shorts and a video game.

Food stamps is also not an option. We make too much money - we're through the cracks people - too much money to get any kind of assistance, but not enough money to make ends meet. It's my part time teaching job - I bring home $2000 a month when I'm teaching, but over Christmas and summer, I bring home $0. Sooo, when I'm working we are playing catch up for the bills that all piled up while I wasn't working. Oh - and just try to get a service industry job when you have a master's degree and 10 years of teaching experience. They laugh at me. Why should they hire me, when they can hire a teenager to do the same thing? I've pointed out that I'm more responsible and less likely to call in sick to go to the beach, but that doesn't seem to help. ah...okay I could rant for a while about this, but I won't.