<prompt> Human: Hi all! Im eighteen so I really know nothing about how money works, but a friend of mine is in a bit of a predicament and Id like to know if theres a way to help him out. Basically, the situation is this:My friend is 25, and he never finished college he went for two years and then left. Since then hes been working various shit jobs, but a few months ago he decided to go to massage therapy school so that he could actually support himself. Nobody in his family can really support him, but fortunately his dad was a veteran so technically hes supposed to get money while hes at school. That said, its been several months and the VA hasnt sent him anything, so effectively hes been living entirely on rice and beans, which is problematic because massage therapy school is very physically intensive. We try to give him protein when we can, but its gotten to the point where he feels physically sick when he eats something like a PBJ sandwich. Hes been considering dropping out of the school, but that would be disastrous as hed be stuck back in the situation of having to barely support himself on shit jobs. Is there any way that he can get support while hes going to school so that he can actually feed himself properly? Hes currently living with another friend, so he has a stable place to stay, but they cant really afford to buy him food all the time either, thus his current predicament. We live in Massachusetts specifically Boston.Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!Assistant: The massage therapy school is probably not accredited or otherwise an institution that qualifies for student aid . If he goes back to real college hell get aid unless he flunked out, then he needs to file an appealHuman: I know for a fact that the VA is supposed to send him money, they just take a long time to actually send it apparently.  <response>: Make sure he bothers the VA regularly. What if the reason it takes so long is because his papers have been lost? Also check out rfrugal ,rCheap_Meals , reatcheapandhealthy and the assistance subreddits - rassitance, rfood_bank , rrandomactsofkindness etc. If you can afford to help him out, look into getting him additional cheap foods on top of rice and beans. 20 USD a month from your friends can go a long way to keep you healthy. A bag of potatoes and some carrots pluss eggs are inexpensive and will give a much more varied diet than just plain rice. For drinks, consider giving him multivitamin fizzies, those tablets that you can dissolve in water to make soda. Dont know how much those are where you live, but where I am these are dirt cheap. 