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.