Original Commentary
Terrence wrote this joke- I absolutely love it. So what did they cut from their food budget? Probably eggs... or Snickerdoodles.

Modern Commentary
Add an egg, green onion, and sesame oil and you've got a decent meal.
Instant ramen is an archetypical cheap food. If you ask 100 people to name a food that broke college students eat, at least half of them will say instant ramen. Or at least they would back in 2004. It's more fashionable now and there's higher-quality ramen available in the US now; it's not just a byword for cheap food any more. But if I say "eating ramen for a week" hopefully you understand that I mean they've only got a couple bucks left, rather than going out to moderately fancy Japanese restaurants.

It's not the cheapest food option. You could get several pounds of potatoes for the price of a dozen packets of ramen. But potatoes aren't funny.- Terrence