If youâre just doing one big meal per day there are plenty of options on Uber Eats for 150-200 (and some for less), also. Or for two smaller (but still substantial) meals per day you could go out to your local breakfast stand in the morning and most fast food places for dinner and still come in under 300 for the day. If you bring food stalls and morning and night markets into the equation, the skyâs the limit as long as you have the time to get to them (and possibly to cook a bit).
Damn, just realized that a lot of the homeless population would prefer to get infected to get a bed, three meals a day and other basic necessities for ten days.
Thatâs a depressing thought.
That depends on your location, but generally yes. Tough to find for under 100 where I am, but thatâs still very doable on his budget.
stay away from daan district. Everything is expensive there.
Are you in Taiwan or Thailand? If you have 300 Ntd budget for food in Taiwan, thats more than enough per day for 3 meals.
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I used to work with a guy who lived on 18000 a month. 9000 for rent. 9000 for everything else.
He used to have a cup of tea for breakfast. Lunch was Dan bing from a breakfast shop. Then a ten dollar doughnut from a street vendor at 4 to keep him going between classes. Then he went to a lunch box restaurant for dinner. He always went to one that had a big portion for the money. Still managed to buy two cans of Taiwan beer too.
Did it for a few years. He was paying bills back in SA. Fucking hated Taiwan and as soon as his daughter graduated in SA, he was off.
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Breakfast is the most expensive meal of the day, only one not cost effective to buy outside âŚunless McD or worse. If you can prepare a hearty breakfast within budget, say a loaf of bread, eggs, 120 ND real cheese from PX Mart and a 3 pack of tuna, and can scavenge oil and other condiments from friends and restaurants, you are set there.
Finding 100 NTD lunch or dinner places is quite doable, even in Taipei. Head to college or public institutions mess halls for even cheaper - if they let you in, COVID restrictions are tough.
Edit
10k was my budget when I started working. 
and it still allowed for a splurge in cake on weekends. As a student, I lived on 1000 NTD a week, but that was over 20 years ago, so adjust for inflation. At that time, steak plus all you can eat buffet was 100 NTD.
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1L of beer is about 450kCal, so if you sit on your ass in front of the TV for a month you will reduce your caloric demand to about ~1200kCal/day, thus enabling you to to subsist on four 600ml bottles of Taiwan beer and a packet of Doritos daily, at a cost of roughly NT7000 for the month.
If you prefer to eat food, fat is your friend - you get the most calories for the lowest price. Buy a kilo of pork mince and make sausage patties (Alton Brownâs recipe for this is great). Have eggs and sausage and fried tomatoes (they seem to be quite cheap at the moment) for breakfast every day. Buy a chunk of pork belly and slice it thinly; portion the slices and keep them frozen. Get a selection of fresh veg (from the market, not the supermarket) every few days. Eat huo guo for dinner every day. You should be able to get by on a similar budget to the beer diet. As a bonus, youâll probably be healthier and lose some bodyfat.
I honestly wouldnât bother attempting to go below 7000 for your food budget. Thereâs no point: you might save yourself 1000 or 2000 at best, but youâll be miserable and your hair will probably fall out or something.
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That sounds like the usual student life for me. The sesame noodle places are another great alternative, itâs 50 a bowl, and it comes with carrot and cucumber, so you get some veggies.
Also, if you are in Taipei, the buddhist foodplace near the MRT exit at NTU has rice balls for $20 and noodle-vegetable soup for $40.
Thereâs always the option of fasting some days or eating lots of instant noodles or sugary milk tea boxes. 
(fasting is much better)
If you are a student, you can go to all the seminars that give out free snacks or lunch.
San Antonio? Santa Ana? South America? Saudi Arabia? Salvation Army?
Oh, right, South Africans are everywhere in Taiwan somehow.
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I can still get good ones for 50nt, choice of meat and choice of 4 veggies. 65nt if you want the whole chicken leg or expensive fish.
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If I followed that diet, Iâd hate this place too.
Guy
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Yep, Iâve seen that in some locations. Pretty sure thatâs what I was served at my quarantine hotel, too. It got pretty old about 4 days in. (Also, if weâre nitpicking, I might question your definitions of âgood onesâ and âexpensive fishââŚ)
So I was right that people would know what SA was short for.
Now you have said that though, I havenât met a new South African in a few years. Not as many of the new teachers are South African, I guess.
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Sure, after racking my brain for every possible option and then considering which of those would be most likely to move to Taiwan to live like a bum to save a few bucks. Let me guess: He was making a living as an English teacher though his native language is Afrikaans? Iâve known a few dozen of that guy.
I meet new ones all the time. More women than men lately, thankfully.
He was doing it to send money to his family back home so I wouldnât describe what he was doing that way. I guess the 70000 odd a month he sent home went pretty far.
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Fair enough. I was being facetious in my response to match the tone of your response. Seemed appropriate.
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You can get a jar of tomato and mushroom pasta sauce from Carrefour for like $69, that will last for 2 meals or maybe 3 if youâre stingy with it.
Pasta is cheap af too, like $30, could get 3 meals for $100 that way.
Or get one of those huge sacks of rice and buy the $30 boil in the bag curry from pxmart and live off that everyday.
Or get the bag of frozen xiaolongbao for like $140 and that will do 4 or 5 meals.
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My guess is that your ex-colleague would have hated anywhere he was living while surviving on that sort of âdietâ.
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