Over 3 days what food would you buy for 50 dollars?

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My CSA farm share brings in fresh produce from the south during the winter, then they transition to their own veggies during the summer/fall. Highly recommended!

At walmart if you work there you get a card that will give 10% off of most items. The only things that I noticed it not working for were healthy foods such as produce, fruits, and milk.

And it might not have worked on some electronics.

If I had to get by on little money, I'd buy a pack of wholemeal toast (20 slices for 1.20 Euro) and two packs with 10 slices of cheese for 99 cents each. That's already enough to live on for 3-4 days, since 5 slices of toast with cheese each day should be enough for an adult person. As for drinks, there is tap water, which your brother didn't have to pay for. Throw in two cans of sardines for more variety, and he could easily have lived on the equivalent of $5.

Of course that's not a very healthy diet (although better than junk food). But with the remaining $45 he could have bought enough food for an entire family. Some chicken legs, a few fish filets, some apples or bananas, a head of lettuce, a cucumber, a large cup of yogurt, salt with dried herbs, oil, vinegar, and a few green peppers.... that's what I would have bought for $50. It's plenty for 3 days, imho. Unless you have two cats to feed

I was veggie for years and found that I could manage really cheaply without sacrificing taste or fullness. Especially if I already had a decent store of herbs and spices. Just last week I had Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy (from Vegan w/ a Vengeance) and Colcannon every day for lunch and that's basically just a can of chickpeas and some mashed potatoes w/ cabbage (+ nutritional yeast and a bunch of herbs and spices and whatnot)
Also it tasted really good. So that was a bonus.
So basically you can eat really cheaply if you buy ingredients and cook.

However. When I was first out in the world I lived on junk food because it was something that wasn't allowed when I was growing up. It took me years to get past that and start to actually make myself meals. Not something you learn in a weekend.

I live super cheap. My friends, family and acquaintances spend almost triple what I do 'cause they can't cook. I do a huge cook off every six weeks and freeze everything in individual portions. I also make a large pot of fresh soup every week and have that for lunch every day. I try and load everything I eat with as much veg and pulses as I can.

It also took me a while to learn how to cook. For almost a decade, my breakfast consisted of nothing but coffee and cigarettes. In the lunch break, I'd buy a bun with raw minced pork at a nearby bakery. And in the evening, I used to drink a few beers and order some unhealthy take-out, either Greek or Italian. I only started to cook healthy food and properly take care of myself after I stopped working.

Produce and fruits are the bulk of my diet- plus the prices are 150% to 3x as expensive as Kroger, I've noticed, on just about everything.

$50 over three days?

I'd probably take care of my first day with a Papa Murphy's pizza ($10).

For the next two days I'd just go to Market of Choice (an alternative to Whole Foods in Oregon) for some organic maple bacon, their deli's chicken strips (best I've ever had), Annie's Mac and Cheese, and, for at least some health, a couple of jugs of Odwalla.

Wow, check out these prices.

Vitamin/Mineral/Antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables. They come cheap enough.
Some meat, whatever you prefer, just with a good amount of calories, many of those being fat calories.
Some Rice
Broths for soups
Perhaps pasta ingredients for a more tasty zingy meal for the tastebuds...

I'd go for the healthy route, but not forget about some tasty foods which don't have a ton of nutrition, but some.

$50 for only 3 days? Assuming that all food and drink were gone from my house and I had to start from scratch I'd buy 3 gallons of water, a container of kool-aid. a quart of milk, a box of cereal, 3 or more souper meals, and go to this place near me every day for supper where you can get a big fish sandwich with fries or onion rings and a soda (which I don't drink) for $5. I'd also buy a jar of miracle whip to put on my fish sandwich since they don't put enough stuff on it and I like it better than mayonnaise. I'd have money left over.

You can save a lot of money (and cut down on salt) by making your own broth, it's really easy. What I do is keep a container in my freezer for parsley stems, carrot peels, onion butts, mushroom stems, etc. and when it fills up, I put everything in the slow cooker with some water and cook for several hours. (You can use a stock pot on the stove on low heat if you don't have a slow cooker.) If you are a carnivore then you can make broth from your scraps, bones & carcasses.