The day breaks and your stomach wakes you up with a growl. When you open your fridge, you are greeted to empty shelves. Opening your wallet, a cloud of dust puffs out, followed by your last twenty-dollar bill. All your dining dollars have been spent on impulsive Dominoes orders (were the extra pineapples really worth it? Of course) and you have to survive 'til next Friday.

What is one to do?

Lucky for you, I am an expert on this. This scenario has not only happened to me yesterday, but pretty much every other week! Today, I am here to tell you how you can feed yourself for a week with $20.

Focusing on the essentials is what’s going to make these twenty dollars last, however, your local convenience store is having a sweet hula-hoop sale and you need to cash in. This opportunity doesn’t come around often. So now you only have $15; Fifteen dollars is plenty if you believe in yourself. That’s why the first step in this process is belief. If you believe in yourself, anything is possible.

At this point in the process, you’re probably very hungry and questioning why you bought that hula hoop. Hula hoops aren’t necessarily edible, and the cheap plastic isn’t digesting well. That means it’s time to finally head out to the grocery store. Choosing the right grocery store is essential to this process, always bear in mind that Publix sells Parmesan cheese for seven dollars. Seven dollars? Do you know what else I could buy with $7? A DVD copy of "Thundercats: Season 2," volume 1. Do you think your cheese is worth more than that?

SEE ALSO: 12 Thoughts College Students Have Grocery Shopping WITHOUT Mom

When you are finally in the grocery store you must avert your eyes immediately. Grocery stores are laid out to display the most appealing snacks first. This is a true test of willpower, but the rush you will get after avoiding the insidious allure from the snack aisle is always worth it. Shield your eyes if you must, make a beeline for the produce section. The snacks will try to make you come back with their siren song, but don’t let them. You will bump into several people along the way, but it’s okay they understand, it’s grocery store custom.

While buying produce, you should make sure you scale it first. A full bunch of bananas could easily weigh three pounds, which will add unexpected costs to your total. Blind banana buying is not only a fun alliteration but a serious buying tendency that should be avoided. I would like to add that I strongly recommend avoiding the use of a shopping cart. If you carry all your groceries in one bag than your arms will give out and you’ll be too tired to overspend. That is unless you are swoll. In that case, I don’t know how to help you, I’ve never been in your shoes. Maybe carry all the groceries individually? If nothing else everyone would be impressed.

I recommend buying tomatoes, onions, a head of lettuce, apples and potatoes. Potatoes will last for months and are a great surprise when you forgot you bought them a couple of months ago. If you feel like you’ve earned it, maybe pick up some strawberries. And then subsequently place them down as you remember the full cartons of molded strawberries that you’ve thrown out every week prior.

If you don’t have condiments here are the four things you will always need: Peanut butter, jelly, salad dressing, and mayonnaise. Do NOT put ALL these ingredients in a meal together, please. Mayonnaise seems to be a debated condiment amongst the condiment community, so if you feel that you don’t want mayonnaise than I’m not going to pressure you to buy mayonnaise. This isn’t my pro-mayonnaise propaganda piece, that comes for another day.

Moving on, carbs are an essential part of this shopping endeavor. The carbs are going to be the base of your meals, you need that piece of toast to cradle your tomato egg combination thing. I recommend buying whole grain bread if it’s less than $2, if it’s any more than just go with that 68-cent bread, it’ll work. A box of pasta can make enough noodles to feed you for three nights, and you can use brown rice for stir-fries. Many will lead you to believe that cooking rice is easy, they are lying to you. Cooking rice is a challenge that will lead to some interesting experiments.

All of this, plus your produce, will put you close to your spending limit. Top it off with eggs and milk and you’re good to go! As you are walking to the checkout, you will inevitably drop your eggs because you’re carrying all your groceries in one bag. This will probably lead to mass panic as you stare at the broken egg shells scattered across the now yellow floor. Eh, pick up what you can and proceed to check out, maybe you still have some eggs in there. If that is not the case, you have pre-scrambled eggs!

When you get home, you can set the bag on the counter, resupply your refrigerator and scratch your head in wonder as you contemplate what to make. I can’t claim that I know how to cook well, so this is where the creativity comes in. Ever heard of a fried onion, lettuce, hummus sandwich? Neither did I until those were the only things left in my fridge the other day. Certainly a lot of mushrooms in the fridge, guess I’m having mushroom and ramen egg soup? What I like to do is just throw things together and then see what comes out of it. This is where the belief comes in — if you believe the food will be good, then it will be good!