I knew as I was writing that I would get lit up for this, obviously I am not referring to someone who is truly impoverished. But believe it or not, the OP nor almost everyone else here is in dire poverty. I know this by looking at the budget that OP proposed. In it he includes, dry cleaning and rent (implying that they have their own place and are not living with parents/family). Furthermore, the OP is choosing to go to kollel, while this is a wonderful thing to do, he has the option of getting a paying job if her were truly impoverished.
Everyone has different priorities and I understand that, but to me to budget food to such an extent is distasteful. I'm all for having some idea of how much you spend - even on food - but to nitpick whether it's $35 or $40 for a shabbos meal and whether you can get 1 danish or 2 desserts just seems silly when there are things that can make a much greater impact (budget-wise) with less detriment to one's sanity while shopping.
You're way off base. What do you mean 'budget to such an extent'? Budgeting means apportioning the funds you have among your various expenditures. Often the smartest way to do that is to start with your necessities, and the closer you get to projecting actual spending on these categories the better off you'll be in the rest of your budget. It's easy to fill in the line for rent because you know what that's going to be for the foreseeable future, but something like food is a little harder. People are posting their experiences on that subject because the OP is newly married and has no such experience.
You've made a very poor assumption, that people in this thread are walking around with a calculator or spreadsheet tracking, every dollar spent on food and making sure not to spend a penny over some pre-determined amount. Even people who actually budget aren't doing that unless absolutely necessary.
