Washed dishes in a cafe. I made about $100-120 for 24 hours work a week, of which rent was $60 and bills $10. The last $30-$50 went towards buying rice and potatoes. (I'm not sure where the rest went, I think I had even less in the hand from work than what I said above.) That was all I ate for half a year, and I lost something like 40kg and went down to a slim 70. My clothes were pretty much rags by the time I was done because I was hand-washing them without detergent and could never afford to replace them. Oh yeah, and I couldn't afford soap, toothpaste, a toothbrush, etc. It really takes some serious poverty to look and smell like the homeless without actually being homeless.
Halfway through my employment the folks I was working for figured it all out and started sending me home on work nights with dinner. Prior to that I'd been sneaking scraps off customer's plates (but so did the owner, so I felt ok about that.
Thanks government. 17, living independantly, working nights and in highschool and they tell you they're not obliged to offer you any sort of welfare or independant youth benefit.
In retrospect I should have turned to crime but the first thing I bothered to steal was somebody's internet account details, so I was at least entertained and kept occupied.