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. 



justin_shocknet

AskSN

How would you feed yourself on $20/day without cooking or refrigeration?

k00b

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.