How broke do you have to be to get free $/grants thru FAFSA?

It totally depends on where you live and which school you're applying to.

My coworker's son who is married still had to have his parents fill out a FAFSA. Apparently since he was under 25, it was still required. The regulations assume that if you are under 25, that your parents are contributing to paying for college. (It's very different from when I went to college, was not a dependent, and could declare -- truthfully -- that my parents were giving me nothing and I got more money than when I was their dependent. That system is gone.)

Exactly. And that eligibility includes loans-- be very careful when reading the letters telling you of the potential $ from a school because that amount includes LOANS. As an example, one of my girls was told from the recruiter that she was getting X amount in "aid". I told her not to get excited until she got the letter because recruiters are often misleading. Sure enough, X amount was ALL loans.  And moreover, since we were over the cutoff, those loans were not the standard loans because if you are over the cutoff for grants, the student may also be ineligible for the standard student loans.

Different colleges and different state systems are more or less generous depending on their priorities. Do not assume that an excellent, top of the trees scholastic record = money from your state school. 

According to the charts in the second article linked above, a family earning $240,000 annually would qualify for some need-based aid at elite (read: most expensive) private schools.

So, you don't have to be "broke" to be eligible for some aid. That aid may be loans, though (although it's worth remembering that more of the top tier schools have no-loan policies). 

I qualify for "need based aid" but only in the form of non-subsidized loans. We make far less than $240K per year, and I have never in 5 years qualified for anything else. The subsidized loans and grants are withheld for those who truly have need.  

(I'm not complaining, I appreciate what I get, but I do pay interest throughout from day 1)

My sons have only qualified for subsidized loans until this year when oldest son turns 24 and he qualifies on his own. Since he is unemployed, we are hoping for grants and work study.

Grad students are not eligible for grants at all.  It's only loans for grad school.

In our experience when our daughter applied for grad school, it was optional to add our income, which she did not.  And her expected contribution was $0...so she qualified for more $$$

We're not there yet, so I'm always learning from these threads. Thank you.
Our savings have taken a hit, but (thankfully) we still have retirement funds. ive read different things, are retirement (401k, IRA, etc) included in your financial summary?

I'm not talking about the job, I am talking about the actual dollar amount of the pay.    To be honest, I haven't seen that much of a difference in dh's company between DC and the other locations.  The other locations are cheaper to live.

Not necessarily.  DH is active duty Air Force.  He makes the same whether we live in middle America or DC.  He does get more housing for more expensive areas, but that only covers 80% of the costs.  He is a Colonel and his housing allowance doesn't even get him a house with a garage inside the Beltway.  So he has a huge commute, daily.  Not to mention that in 25 years, we have lived in some of the most expensive cities in the world.  It has definitely impacted how much we could save from assignment to assignment.  Making $60,000 in Minneapolis is much different that making $60,000 in DC.

It will also depend on how many siblings are in the picture.

But individual schools also award need-based grants based on the results of FAFSA and, depending on the school and the family specifics, can be awarded to students with family income well above $75,000. 

That's why it's not that uncommon for highly competitive, highly endowed "elite" schools (many of which have policies against meeting student need with student loans) to actually be less expensive to attend for students with financial need than middle tier or even public universities. 

Federal money isn't the only non-scholarship "free" money out there. 

Right...   but I don't think the OP cares where the "free" money comes from. She just wants to know if there's a chance. And sometimes, families do themselves a disservice by thinking they can only look at the least expensive ("sticker price") schools, because they may actually be able to send their student to a more expensive school but actually have a lower actual cost. There are just so many moving parts and so many things to consider to come to the true cost of attending college. 

Keep in mind that while FAFSA determines federal eligibility, things like cost of living do come into play when it comes to aid from the college.