I can get about 8000 calories of rice for $5 retail at a grocery store. Granted it costs money to cook it, and you'd want to mix in other ingredients for taste and nutrition. But 800 calories for 3 euros should be doable.

For fast food, the Cheesy Bean and Rice burrito is still on the dollar menu at Taco Bell. 420 calories for $1, and a fairly complete lacto-vegetarian protein source. Buy one of those and a Fiesta Veggie Burrito ($2 for 570 calories) and you've got some vegetables too at almost $1000 calories. Make either of them Fresco and you replace the dairy with diced tomatoes, losing about 110 calories for the CBRB, and 145 calories for the FVB. Fresco only one and you still have greater than 800 calories. Maybe this isn't possible in Europe?

> I can get about 8000 calories of rice for $5 retail at a grocery store

Meal replacement shakes like Jimmy Joy / Huel / Soylent do have a lot more nutrition than just plain rice + some veggies / condiments

I'm no nutrition scientist but those Taco Bell items you pointed out don't seem like nutritionally complete meals you could eat all day. I did eat Jimmy Joy all day for a month or so and I did feel healthy but to each his own. Also didn't require me to drive 3 times a day to a Taco bell wasting time in the process, waiting in line etc.

A man has to take 2500 calories per day, that's 9.35€ per day, 280€ per month. That's much more than most people spend on food at least in the south of Europe

I live in Romania, I spend about that much on food since prices have gone up and I eat probably less than 2500 avg. I might buy more expensive ingredients though and if I bought shittier food I might go to around 200 euros but that's a stretch given how much inflation has risen produce prices.

The point isn't that you should replace all food with meal replacement shakes. You could use them while traveling to not eat out as much. You could use some for emergencies when you didn't have time to cook or ran out of groceries. You could use it at work if you have a hellish work env and an abusive boss that doesn't even grant you 30 minutes for a lunch break. Last one is a true story a bank teller told me. Granted you should quit a job like that but if for whatever reason you need to stay a while longer it's better to have a shake ready than not eat at all.

> You could use them while traveling to not eat out as much

This is about the only reason I put up with travelling, eating food in different places

> You could use some for emergencies when you didn't have time to cook or ran out of groceries.

You need to plan better.

> You could use it at work if you have a hellish work env and an abusive boss that doesn't even grant you 30 minutes for a lunch break.

Fuck 'em. Take a lunch break. Your health is more important than their clock. What are they going to do, get their own hands dirty doing your job?

> This is about the only reason I put up with travelling, eating food in different places

I would have never stayed for a month in Amsterdam if it cost me more than it did which was about 1000$. Some people have a tight budget

> You need to plan better.

Some people are young and don't have that ability yet. Or are like me, I don't care that much about food, I'd rather do something more interesting than spend 1h cooking something. I just don't care that much about how food tastes if it costs me time or money.

> Fuck 'em. Take a lunch break. Your health is more important than their clock. What are they going to do, get their own hands dirty doing your job?

Check your privilege lol. Some people live paycheck to paycheck, judging them for not having the strength to stand up to their boss isn't right imo.