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You can make a lot of soups with a can of chicken broth - I use swanson's "natural goodness" with no MSG. Soups are filling, preserve all the broth from whatever you're cooking so it doesn't go to waste, and have that comforting "home" feeling that helps make up for the lack of money.
Put in whatever you can get together, potatoes, rice, leftovers, vegetables, stewed tomatoes, spices of course, whatever meat you have - I call it "What-I-Got Soup." It's just about always good. I'm kind of broke right now too, so I bought a package of stew meat at Costco for under $3 a pound, split it up into meal-sized packets and froze it. Then I made fajitas with salad (heavy on the salad and veggies for cost efficiency). The next night when I had some still left over I added carrot, potato, zucchini, etc. and made a soup out of it - the fajita spices made for a rich and flavorful soup. You could also do meatball soup or sausage soup - you can get a really satisfying meal with a small amount of meat this way.
Another soup idea is cream of potato soup - it's cheap, rich and filling. You can use veggie flavoring cubes from the store (try to find something better than generic bullion) to add body to the broth. Simmer potatoes with celery and onions, then mash with milk, salt and pepper to make a thick soup.
Yet another soup idea is Asian-style noodle soups or egg drop soup. Start with the same chicken broth, cook for a while with grated ginger and maybe a touch of garlic (if you want). Stir in an egg or cook some asian-style noodles, top with Chinese cabbage, bok choy, carrots, peas, green onions, bamboo shoots, etc. I cook this stuff seperately in a pan first. Add in some chicken or tofu for protein. The only thing is it's so much better with sesame oil, which costs a bit, but a bottle lasts forever.
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