[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by GGG

I think you can meat your caloric needs at $100 per month.

The secret is Potatoes. At 50 cents per pound and 77 calories per 100 grams gives you 7 calories per penny. So at 2000 Calories per day it's $2.85 worth of Potatoes. That leaves you with about $14 per month to spend on things other that Potatoes. Now if you can find Potatoes at 30 cents a pound which you can occasionally do and things start look okay because then you are only spending $50 per month on Potatoes and have $50 for other things.

I ate like this for a month to see if I could do it and I was full. I got Carrots Apples and a jar of peanut butter and some bread in addition to the potatoes to spice it up a bit. I also spent on butter

I did something similar. $4/day or $2 per meal seems more realistic looking back. I'm quite sure I wasn't actually at $3 a day or around $100 per month because I'd splurge on something random. I didn't do this for an entire month though and often did this due to laziness. I'd cook in volume cheaply and just spoon leftovers for the week.

Spoiler!

Essentially I bought:

Sacks of potatoes $6
Stick of butter $3
Mayonaise $4
Eggs $2 x 2
Hot dogs $8
Big bag of regular Ruffles chips $6

= $31

IIRC, this lasted a little over a week.

Foods made:
Potato and Egg salad
Mashed potatoes
Mashed potato chip dip

Hotdogs and chips generally consumed on their own. I don't think I consumed potato and egg on their own.

Another variation of this was feeding 3 guys 1 meal a day 5 days a week while we were doing study break. I did this 2 times.

Spoiler!

Bought
"Cheese" slices $6 for 24 slices or something?
Bread $2 x 2
Ham $5
Garlic salt $3
Hot dogs $1.5 x 2
Condiments $3
Butter $3
Drink crystals $3

= $30

This produced 1 meal for 3 guys a day for 5 days = 15 meals or about 2 meals a day for a week for an individual. We repeated meals. We'd have multiple grilled cheese or hot dog each day. Not bare bones eating. We were full.

Made:

Hot dog wrapped in bread.
Grilled cheese w/ ham + ketchup

The week after we just went full on grilled cheese. I believe that week it was down to $24 bucks for the 5 days.

Other recipes I think can sit around the $2 per meal range if done in volume:

Perogie sauce on rice:

Spoiler!

(Caramelized onions, milk and can of mushroom soup) Should last 3-4 meals, perhaps more if the sauce is stretched. Rice is rice.
Large Onion $1.5
Milk $1.5
Soup can $1.5
Rice $1.5?
= $12 or $3 per meal, but you'd probably have onion and milk left over for another 3-4 meal batch. To splurge, you can chop up some meat finely and add to sauce.

Chili on rice - 10 servings?

Spoiler!

Ground beef: $10
Large Onion: $1.5 /leftover from above
Canned assorted beans $3
Spices... you have? or just salt and pepper from McDs
Rice $1.5 x 3

= $19 or probably $2 a meal? Splurge add canned mushrooms $1 a can of no named. Pour it over mashed potatoes perhaps...

Corn sauce on rice - w/ or w/o meat

Spoiler!

Corn soup $1.5
Rice $1.5
Ground pork $4

Cook pork, add water and corn soup. Allow to boil, turn off, pour on cooked rice.

$10. Probably serve 3-4 meals.

Spicy cream ramen rice

Spoiler!

Shin Ramyun ramen $1
Milk $1.5 (whatever is leftover from other meals) or little wedge of butter
Rice $1.5

=$5 for all the items... but the milk/rice part can be form other meals = fixed cost. Theoretically you could lower the number to $2 for the meal. Above makes 1 meal.

Make ramen, add milk/butter at the end to make a creamy spicy ramen. When noodles consumed, add rice and spoon it into soup. Consume soup I personally think it's somewhat similar

KD on occasion can be acquired for a buck a box. If a box or two can fill you up, it's a nice change on occasion. $1-2 per meal

A huge problem with the cost per meal part is that it doesn't take into account how much a person actually eats. You could eat two meals in one go on occasion. Above also doesn't take into account "vitamins and nutrition needs" but at that price point... it's hard.