>>1537
Update: no, I didn't die (yet).
Things I did find:
>Breadcrumbs
>Pasta
>Bags of beans
>Egg noodles
>Refried beans
>Rice
>Cooking and Olive Oil (though in very tiny bottles)
>Flour
>Sugar
>Non dairy milks
>(Cheap quality) Bagged & instant coffee
>Basic spices & spice mixes
So if you're looking for staples on a budget the average American dollar store is actually a decent place to go, though while they did have a lot of stuff to offer there wasn't really enough to build a lot of full meals out of. Mainly because the only things worth getting at a cheaper price were dry foodstuffs, and the few vegetables they had were almost all random canned items (mixed veggies, creamed corn, okra, plain crushed tomatoes) and I wouldn't really trust any frozen foods that aren't aren't already extremely processed. Also, a lot of the other grocery items offered were either smaller in size or comparable in price to what you can find at the average grocer (like tortillas, canned vegetables, soup) and so not worth buying. It's worth mentioning though that depending on your luck you can still find some name brand items too, mainly pasta and soup, so if quality is your biggest concern there are still a
few things you can save on.