Food is also a lot more expensive. You can mitigate this a lot by cooking all your own food and not eating out. Shopping from low cost markets like The Milk Pail http://www.milkpail.com/ will help a lot.
My recommendation for eating cheaply is to make sure to have good collection of spices. It costs a lot upfront (~$40-60) but it will allow you to subsist on really cheap food without going crazy. Living off rice and beans is a lot more fun and tasty when you can make masala rice.
If you have the space for it, grow an herb garden. Seriously. :) I never thought I would enjoy taking care of plants, but it's actually quite interesting. My latest addition is arugula, which so far seems super easy to grow and can provide an infinite amount of salads with little upkeep.
The Milk Pail is fantastic. Their produce is very inexpensive and because of the rapid turnover, the quality tends to be really good too. You can usually get great deals on cheese as well if you look for the sale items.
Also, there is Ditmars Gourmet Meats and Wurst-Haus around the corner and up San Antonio. While prices on their other items can be high, their sausages are cheap, made in house, and excellent.
The farmers markets are good too, and you can often find excellent deals on produce if you know where to look. I always liked the Menlo Park one (near the Trader Joe's) for a good balance of selection and affordability.
My recommendation for eating cheaply is to make sure to have good collection of spices. It costs a lot upfront (~$40-60) but it will allow you to subsist on really cheap food without going crazy. Living off rice and beans is a lot more fun and tasty when you can make masala rice.