Maybe the burger is just ~2 ounces of beef or so, like a typical fast food burger? That would account for about half the per-meal cost, and both bread and potatoes are cheap enough that the rest could easily fit inside the limit.

Or he's just counting wrong.

[–] TommyBeans@hexbear.net 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Probably bought the cheapiest bulkiest frozen patties dude could find at Cosco. I imagine those come down to a pretty small unit cost

[–] KobaCumTribute@hexbear.net 11 points 2 days ago

Sometimes grocers have pre-formed fresh hamburger patties that they're selling as a loss leader for ~$2-3 a piece or so. Splitting one of those in half and reforming it into two patties would yield two pretty large burgers while leaving another $1 per burger for bread, cheese, and potatoes. In fact, I've literally done exactly that before with excellent results. It is extremely easy to make a burger that's better than you'd get from a fast food place, because those go for volume and consistency over quality, and even at a restaurant I've only ever found one place that made burgers comparable to what I can make at home although it was too expensive even a decade ago to go there more than occasionally.