I can understand your hesitancy even on this forum where people are very nice for the most part. However, maybe they are nice because they are bound by similar thinking, and, of course, the majority pulled high income which can be intimidating to people who never crossed the six-figure line in their household.
I also liked your post and I hope you can delurk a little bit and tell more about yourself and your budget. A $700/mo.budget for 2 people is honestly unbelievable and your signature says that you live in the Seattle area?! WOW!! When I read your post I thought that maybe you reside somewhere in the mid-west. This is below our food budget though for a family of four. There is another member who also lives in the expensive area on the West coast (SF area maybe?) and enjoys his life on a small budget. I like his posts too whenever he writes them.
Intimidating is right! I forgot to update my location--when we were in the Seattle area was when we were living in an RV. That changed when we got this house 2 months ago, which is in a largish city in eastern WA. So everything is still settling out.
Our food budget when living in the Seattle area was a strict $200/month. We literally kept two lists on the fridge of "cheap" and "cheapest" ingredients and made as much as we could from that. Dry rice and dry beans purchased in bulk are super cheap, chicken quarters, bulk oatmeal, bulk eggs, bananas and bulk potatoes from Costco, tomato paste from the bulk food store and frozen into smaller portions, which was even cheaper than the 38 cents/6oz can I could get from the discount/overstock grocery store. Bulk gluten free flour so I could make rolls instead of buying expensive gluten free bread (our RV oven was too small to bake a proper loaf, it hit the top of the oven!)
Most of the grocery budget was spent on the high price items like ground beef, fresh veggies, fake cheese (I'm severely allergic to dairy) and spices. Appetite fatigue has been a significant battle for us and has led to underweight issues, so putting in the effort to be creative in the kitchen and buy a high priced ingredient or two to transform the flavor of the dish has been crucial. I'm also pregnant, so maintaining a well rounded diet has been more important than ever.
Since we moved two months ago, we are currently receiving SNAP (food stamps) and WIC. That was never the plan, but my husband broke a rib during the move, we had 4K in unexpected medical expenses, additional moving expenses because I couldn't do it all on my own, and by the time he no longer needed my help for basic functions around the house I was too pregnant to get hired at all. So that simultaneously wiped out our cushion AND our backup plan of one of us getting a j*b if necessary. I have to admit our current budget does not include the cost of groceries. However, I've obtained a lot of free seeds (yay seed libraries and swaps!) and will be growing much of our own produce on a $0 gardening budget this summer, with plans to sell it as well and get off assistance ASAP.
This won't be a complete rundown, but our averaged out major recurring bills are:
Property taxes: $140/month
Self employment taxes: $150/month (varies as income varies)
Insurance: $111/month
Vehicle tabs: $16/month
Phones: $30/month, soon to be $25/month
Water/electric/trash/gas/sewer: approximately $170/month for winter, will be less in warmer months but $105 of that is mandatory fees, not related to amount used at all.
Yes, that leaves us approximately $85/month for everything else--clothing, gas, vehicle maintenance, medical, household items, etc.
I am not counting dividends because I'm not sure how much they will be after withdrawing a large amount to get the house. In the past we've always re-invested but given the current situation we'll probably take it for a few rounds. I'm also not counting cash back credit cards; we don't keep any revolving debt but do funnel any purchases and bill pays through the cards, and the cash back does help.
Our stimulus checks will be spent removing a large tree that is damaging the house foundation, mitigating our home for dangerously high levels of radon gas (over 8 times the levels considered hazardous), and if there's anything leftover, it'll go towards our property taxes category in the budget, as for my peace of mind I want that fully funded ASAP.
We aren't as bad off as it sounds. We could withdraw from our investments as a last resort. We still need to sell the RV we were living in previously, just haven't managed to get it ready yet. There's even a car accident settlement from many years ago that will supposedly someday still make its way to us. We simply feel LBYM is essential to preserving our financial future, so we continue to do so by any means necessary. Which is why I found it fitting to post in this thread, since while some is circumstances beyond our control, many of these things are conscious sacrifices for us with our financial future in mind.
Okay, I'm running away again now!
I started reading the Motley Fool FIRE board that year, so everything that has happened with my finances just feels like growth rather than change or sacrifice.
Then again I bragg about being a 'cheap SOB' in days leading up to ER. 
