Hello there kabayan (fellow countryman). It's so nice to see other fellow Filipino here in this forum. Hope you will like it here. The tuyo (salted dried fish) is one of my favorite together with talbos ng kamote (sweet potato tops). Actually I'm attracted to the smell, it makes my mouth watery plus I really love the crunchiness of the scales when cooked properly.
My favorite low-cost meal is mashed potatoes with butter. It is really cheap and is really tasty as well. There are other cheap meals like pizza only with cheese, olive, and mushrooms, or fried potatoes.