In Austin at least, eating well on $10/day with a full kitchen is pretty easy, but $20/day without the ability to cook or store bulk items is hard.
How would you do it? Let's assume the $20/day must include transportation to/from wherever you're getting the food and any other expenses or taxes related to acquiring, preparing, or storing food.
Lots of eggs, and there's money left to stack
Someone in my Wolf pack did this in the dorms, bought a little egg cooker... the dorms had a chaotic shared kitchen with college students so many such cases of living off of the mini fridge and microwave in-room.
As for me, an aristocrat:
A few lbs of sliced roast beef from a nearby deli lasted a few days, combined with cheese, primal kitchen mayo, and loaf of butterbread. Canned fruit cocktail.
If I had it to do over again I'd have gotten a foreman style grill as soon as I landed for beef hotdogs and burgers.
I hadn't considered an egg cooker. Cleaning an electric grill or griddle is probably too cumbersome for the scenario I'm thinking about.
The foreman style ones have a drip catch, probably bad form to put it down the sink drain but toilet is probably fine. Wipe down with a damp paper towel I think would cover the rest.
I would eat pop tarts for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I love pop tarts.
Pop tarts are awesome yet terrible. What’s your preferred flavors?
Smores and Cookies and cream are my favourites but I like all the "fruit" ones too. Strawberry, Blueberry, Raspberry. They are so bad for you. I was reading the label and I said to my wife "it's probably better to just eat ice cream".
When I visited Austin the Smores poptarts were the first thing I tried, they are amazing omg.
lol I didn’t try them because I was scared that I’ll get addicted or something haha
ice cream is always better.
Nice. My favorites are brown sugar cinnamon and cherry. But yea, I don’t eat them with regularity - they’re terrible for you
I'm surprised by your answer but pop tarts do taste good.
I was joking but I do really like pop tarts. Smores ones are amazing but pretty much all flavours are good. I don't think it is very easy to eat healthy 3 meals a day for $20 without refrigeration. Depends how much you need to eat I guess.
Presuming I have a grocery store in walking distance I could use them as my refrigerator. They usually have some precut fruit bowls that aren't too expensive, maybe 5 bucks. That could be breakfast. While I am there I can pick up some kind of trail mix- nice assortment of nuts with dried fruit and raisins. That could be lunch if needed or replace lunch by snacking on it every couple hours. That's not very expensive. And for dinner I could wait until the stores hot prepared meals are put on discount for the day. The stores near us sell them 50% off when they are closing up the ready to serve section for the evening (around 8pm) so you could get some chicken and rice or potatoes or some nice mac and cheese etc for pretty cheap.
I'd can all manner of things with my pressure canner which also works as a water bath canner.
Things like:
Chili
Soup
Salsa
Pickles/veggies
And I'd make jerky (I do make it and sell it for bitcoin)
For $14.99 I get 3 lb bags of 93% lean ground beef at a butcher literally down the street from me and make jerky out of it and that makes twelve 2.5 oz packs of jerky.
PS - $20 a day is a FUCK TON since I spend about $40/week on food. I can walk to my grocery stores (just under 3 mi) if I have to, so that zeroes out gas/transport... but if the buses are running, that's an added $2, a ticket which works on round trips and transfers, and lasts 2.5 hrs.
Canned food (ready prepared meals) and canned fruits is the best way and the cheapest.
Also you could find dried vegetables soups + some pasta. Excellent source of vitamins and easy to cook.
Also you can find dried rissotto (rice) with mushrooms or cheese. Just add water and in 10min cooking you have wonderful meals.
I use it like that on my contruction site where I cannot store too much fresh food (only for 1-2 days). With a small gas camping stove you can warm the cans of "ready to eat" good and you do not have to bother with anything else.
Another way is to add some self-made granola bars:
These granola bars could last years and years and are a wonderful source of energy. These will also ocuppy less space too.
Small portions of vegetables soups + small pasta, ready to be cooked.
Self made granola bars
Added some dried fruits
If you can stomach it, pemmican. It's got an insane shelf life (reports of it being good after 50 years buried in the ground).
You can get 2 lbs of it for $47.12: https://grasslandbeef.com/products/salt-free-pemmican-pail
At least according to explorer logs, 3/4 lb is enough for a man for 1 day, so that's about 2.75 day's worth.
Probably trail mix. Good nutrient variety and caloric density.
Backpacking foods in general are a good move. Pemmican would also be a smart move, but purchasing it is expensive.
Not enough bang for the buck.
I've been making discount Hodl butter with ingredients from Costco: almond butter, maple syrup, honey, sea salt, and cinnamon. It's really good and pretty cheap.
There was a time when I survived on canned refried beans and tortilla chips. Salt and some spicy peppers help it go a long way.
Just having a tiny little hot plate or a burner of some sort dramatically expands your range.
€20/day would get me and my gf two Margherita pizzas for lunch and two Angus burgers for dinner from the food truck.
This reminded me of the times in which we used to live off €15/week, but that required cooking and the ability to not get disgusted by tomato sauce pasta (€1,20) and cutlets (€1) everyday. I actually banned that pasta now.
Pizzas are cheap in Italy!
I think the avg price is 7 euros but they used to be €3.50 in 2018 lol
Wow! Now that's affordable!
If we are entirely dependent on takeout, the best single OMAD meal I've found downtown on $20/day is from P Terry's:
That comes out to $19.86.
According to their nutrition tables that roughly achieves the BMR needs of the average male. IME it's also very satiating because it's high protein.
I do OMAD. Here's what I do when traveling, for example in Spain.
Bought bread, jamón serrano, cheese, a few cherry tomatoes, plain yoghurt, nectarines and dry nuts at the supermarket.
Ate a gourmet meal that would cost $100+ in a restaurant for about $30 in the park and I had so much jamón I wanted to throw up.
Recently back from Spain and can confirm, endless Iberian jamón at almost every meal
I too have indulged in too much jamon in Spain
Being in Texas is a cheat code though, a half pound of brisket and some fruit should do it.
Even half pound of moist (fatty) brisket is probably too light on calories (even if it were pure fat it'd only have 2k calories) and smoked brisket most places is >$30/lb now.
If you could get very fatty brisket + a couple bananas, that could work.
Half pound of brisket is ~1lb of meat pre-cook afaik so that's about equal to the 5 burger patties (assuming they're QPs... but I also just realized you said 8 patties not 5 so yea the ground beef wins).
I usually get the wet end myself and couldn't even think about food ~24 hours last few times I was in Dallas after housing about 3/4lb... on budget would have to round down to .6lb I reckon to leave budget for fruit.
You'd be in great shape after a few months of this at the very least...
I mentioned the foreman elsewhere because I actually had a buddy do that with Bubba burgers back in the day in a tiny apartment.
this level of hacking for so simple a decision, that will wane from day to day - never behaving the same way because it is your appetite, it's unnerving. I'm about to come undone.
stay together if you can.
In the past, when the refrigerator had not yet become widespread, there were "wire cabinets". You can use these cabinets.
However, eating without cooking is both unhealthy and tasteless. I don't have anything to recommend for this.
I live walking distance from a Trader Joes which sells sandwiches and salads that don't need to be cooked, for about $5 a pop, so it wouldn't be hard at all.
How long could you sustain eating four $5 sandwiches/day?
The nice thing is there's a number of restaurants in walking distance too, so if I get bored of salads and sandwiches I can always go to one of those. You can get a good meal for $10 or less.
Easy. Beef jerky
Chipotle, Bannanas, Black Coffee, Ramen Noodles
I wasn't even counting coffee lol. Chipotle is pretty pricey unless you're loading up on rice and beans.
One chipotle bowl for about 15, 7/11 bananas two for 1 dollar, ramen noodle bowl for 79 cents, 2 dollars for coffee, and some free water. Coffee and water and a banana for breakfast, ramen noodles and a banana for lunch and a chipotle bowl for dinner. Lets Go!
If you have electricity and water, then you have the ability to cook. I wrote this post on cooking in a hotel with a tiny cooker:
DIY hotel cooking kit - how to eat healthier when traveling
Having a hotel fridge is nice, but lots of things stay good without a fridge. Or if there's no fridge, get a cooler and just refill the ice.
Scrambled eggs (with cheese, with sour cream, etc) are great. Eggs (contrary to common knowledge) do NOT need to be refrigerated if you're not keeping them for a long time. In European groceries, they're just on the shelf.
I've also made ground beef, with various spices, in this little cooker. It turns out delicious.
Even with electricity and water you might not want to cook for other reasons, but mine is mostly a manufactured scenario that I haven't found great non-cooking answers to.
I guess it depends on what you like to eat. It's tougher when you eat carnivore, that's why I put together my little cooking kit.
Feel like 23-24 was just a bunch 7/11 hotdogs, right @supertestnet! That and pleb tacos outside.
How much is a 7/11 hotdog?
Ah me and super use to get them really cheap for like 3-5 bucks with chips and a drink.
Okay, so 4 hotdogs, 4 chips, 4 sodas for $20. I probably couldn't live off of that for very long, but it'd work.
Potatoes are complete food. They have all the nutrients except a few vitamins. You can buy a lot of French fries, hash browns or mash potatoes in $20. You can also buy chips from Trader Joes which have only three ingredients.
beans and rice + spices
hunt a deer and smoke it
Smoking is cooking, ain't it?
Become a bitcoin influencer and post lunch invoices on nostr for simps to pay your lunch
I think I would just drive to the little supermarket 15 mins away and buy a cooked chicken every day (they're like 6 bucks), I'd also buy some bread and a dozen eggs.
I'd then save the spare 5 dollars a day and after 5 days buy a 1kg bag of protein powder.
At which point I'd be on a protein shake for breakfast, a whole chicken and an egg sandwich or something. In Europe and the UK, you don't have to refrigerate your eggs (apparently, in the US, eggs are washed and sanitized, which removes the coating, so they must be refrigerated to prevent bacterial growth, like salmonella. In the EU they are not washed and still have a protective coating.
After a while, I'd probably have more of a surplus because i wouldn't need to buy 12 eggs every day, and I might not always eat the whole chicken. I could mix it up with some other stuff
hmmm a cooked chicken here is <$20, but not $6 except at Costco. That's not a bad option though if there's enough left over for a couple hundred more calories.
I could probably feed myself at kwick trip for that amount. It's definitely possible to live on $20.
Rotisserie chickens ($6-$8) from the local grocery store + fruit.
Also Drink raw eggs for extra protein
Then major water intake
Rotisserie chicken is a solid move.
Potatoes
Raw potatoes?
Maybe? Ireland found a way
$20 a day isn't much for food per day without cooking. Yesterday I paid like 6,5$ for a McChicken, small fries and 0,5l soda water. That goes too high for the quality they offer in my opinion.
The nature of work and being returning late to home the only thing you could cook is spagetti with sometimes grilled chicken on weekend.
I will get me some
Noddles
Bread
Eggs
Sardine
If I don't have oil, onions and pepper at home I will get it.
Shoplifting
Free meals in community
Get invited to potlucks and bbqs
Free fridge
Donations
Foodbank
Etc
I'd use the internet like I just did and look up discount food in Austin and then found this.
Randal’s has deals for buy one get two free on meat! As well as pre portioned ready meals you just heat up. Buy two get one free! I’ll get 5-10lbs of chicken for like 8$
I'll live a place where eating enough without worrying about money is still possible.
Suggestion:
If you have a Gurudwara in Austin, just go there and eat, no charges at all.
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How long could you go eating that way? A month? More?
Hi Koob! Peanuts and raisins are a snack to go that works as a meal filler. For breakfast, hit the shop for a bit of milk and some corn flakes, can even buy a small yogurt so you have a cup! For dinner get a prepackaged rice pilaf and cook it, I know you said no cooking but this is just boiling some dang water and putting ingredients in....And honestly eating one hot meal a day is FAR more satisfying. Also just microwave a bean burrito from the store, I know I know cooking, but there's microwaves everywhere and so you can just ask a place, "hey can you microwave this for me?"
How long can you eat like this? Hmmm. well...it's not fun that's for sure...but simple meals and simple ingredients can be very appealing to me. So I can eat like this for months really, but only as part of my diet, otherwise it would be incredibly boring. I would at least like to go out to eat every once in a while, a slice of pizza, a nice meal at a mexican restaurant.
But peanuts and raisins can get you reallllly far and that is no cooking at all. Forget regular trail mix, too much sugar to be any good.