Budget is $20 for a week

Beans and rice

What would I need to spend to have a 100% balanced diet

This. Hopefully you have some seasonings and oil and shit. It's probably not going to be that way forever, OP

rice and beans will give you everything you need to survive but you will want to die after a week

Screw the rice, it's nutritionally deficient.
Quinoa would be a better choice.

frozen vegetables
brown rice
chicken
some type of cheap fish, could be canned like tuna or sardines

>bulk dry rice
>bulk dry beans
>$1 frozen veggies bag, once a day

You are eating, at a maximum, $2 a day assuming you aren't a lard ass. Eat only this for a few weeks.

As your savings build up every week, $6 or so, invest in flavor enhancers,

>stock, bouillon powder/cubes/pastes, spices herbs, sauces, oils
>buy in bulk of course

Now you are still eating rice and beans, but at least you have the means to change up the flavor a bit as you wish. Make one batch spicy, one herby, whatever floats your boat.

Once you have all the flavor enhancers you have deemed necessary for yourself, now its time to choose convenience or variety first.

At this point its been a few months, and your routine is the same. Rice and beans. You have gotten comfortable with cooking even though its only two things. And you have amassed a good amount of savings you can invest.

(1) For convenience, I would recommend buying the Instant pot from Amazon. Will save you a tremendous amount of time with your bean preparation, and its easy to operate. I'm sure you can find a useful way to invest the time you've freed up, according to your personal circumstances. Maybe an odd job here and there for extra money.

(2) If variety is your priority over convenience at this point, now is the time to invest your money in freezer bags, small kitchen tools like vegetable peelers, measuring cups and spoons and so on.

Things that will allow you to prepare and cook different things, and also store anything that you need to, like meat in the fridge.

You can now buy vegetables and meat on sale. Don't get crazy and fuck yourself over.

>cabbage, onions, potatoes, pasta, carrots, broccoli, etc cheap shit
>the only meat i really mean is chicken, chicken thighs on sale 99c a pound, or offal like chicken hearts

Doesn't matter which of those steps you do first, because you'll do both eventually. Personally I went with the Instant Pot step first.

Eggs nigga
Eggs and bread

Just buy some udon

Start at costco, start buying 50lbs bags of flour for $15, learn to bake

I'm not starting at $0. I have enough money for whatever startup costs are needed (pots, pans, spices, whatever). I just want to get to the point where I'm only spending $20 a week on food

Could start a garden.

This, teebeequeaytch. Buy your staples like rice, potatoes, beans, and flour, and grow peppers, peas, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, etc., as well as herbs like basil, thyme, rosemary, and more. If you get started at the right time, you can buy seeds, but otherwise you'll have to spend extra to get sprouting plants. However, if you have friends who have an herb garden, you may be able to get them to break off part of their plant for you.
...you do have friends, right user?

I don't have a yard

>...you do have friends, right user?
I don't

Different user, I don't have a yard but have a garden set up on the railings of the landing in front of my door. A few long planters secured with brackets and a couple of Topsy turvy's in a 5'-3' perimeter allows me to grow tomatoes (heirloom and cherry) cucumbers, peppers, celery, strawberries, 12 kinds of herbs and lettuce. That's only half the space. If I had more time to put up the other planters and known what plants to get, I would've grown more this year. You can get everything at the orange hardware store except the upside down planters. I could only find those online. You could probably set one up outside a window sill if you really wanted. It's not feasible for everybody, just sharing so you know there's options.

oh its this thread again

Pork loin and "steamable" veggie packs and rice.

google Stiegler Diet. You could go even lower then 20

I wonder how many have died trying to follow advice from Veeky Forums

even if he does eat a lot, 500g bag of oatmeal costs 50c
that already covers most of the caloric needs

also I'd just get whole chickens, easily best bang for buck

the irony of this all is also that OP is probably a NEET loser of some sort, yet wants a diet to the HIGHEST of standards

if you earned another $50 a week (which in most countries is very easy) you could have some nice food

kekd

Also 5x as expensive, because hipsters.

Farmers markets. Asian/Mexican markets. Food stands. Food pantries.

Avoid grocery stores for most things, unless you have a nonprofit one nearby. I'm lucky enough to, most people aren't. The prices in normal grocery stores aren't economical. That said, for some canned and bulk items they are the only option in many places. Or if you're not in a city or rural enough to be near actual farms.

Use very little meat, it's prohibitively expensive on your budget. But you need some if you're not supplementing B12. Which might be a good idea to do, the animals are fed supplements for it to get it in the meat anyway. I buy at a hipster butcher since I'm not exactly struggling, but I find farmers market meat to beat out grocery stores for price and quality.

Focus largely on rice, beans, grains, and potatoes, they're cheap as fuck, filling, and nutrient packed. Fill in some other assorted veggies, I especially like the flat dark green kale, it's got fucking tons of shit you need and I fucking love it even raw. But mix it up here, get a bunch of different colors.

Learn to bake. Can have great bread instead of cheap shit and flour is dirt cheap.

If you're poor and not just cheap, get on food stamps. I don't care what your political views are, you're stupid to not take advantage of everything available to you.

Look for religious food offerings in your area. Some are open to the public in exchange for helping out. Sikh are especially well known for these and won't try to push any religious stuff on you either.

>HIGHEST of standards
>$20 a week

I just want to not die and not have to go to the hospital years from now for eating like shit

According to Dilbert Man's book you literally can't. The science of nutrition is in it's infancy supposedly and they change their minds on foods every week. Beans, rice, maybe some chicken if you can find it at $1 a pound range. Some citrus every now and then you don't want scurvy. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Ramen. $20 should buy about 80 ramens. Food pantry will indeed help get some WIC if you can. Garden maybe. Kill local game and eat it or fish up some fish depending on your area.

Why not use multi-vitamins/minerals? A 3 month supply for a fiver could help you in the long run.

Anyway, it is possible to survive and get all your nutrients with just milk and potatoes, but you will likely feel like shit eating the same thing over and over. Use the rest of your money for seasoning, condiments, fruit and vegetables to give your diet a bit of variety. Shop around, in season fruit and veg are usually cheaper than out of season.

Plus ammonia, it'll be faster this way

>wic
Literally stands for Women Infants and Children. It doesnt sound like OP is an unemployed single mom.

Dirty Potatoes
Rice
Dry beans
Frozen /dried mixed vegetables
Cheapest meat for 1 meal/week, mix up the animal every week

That plus something different every now and then and you'll have pretty much everything.

Try buy frozen, dried and canned foods when they're discounted in bulk and store them forever

Eating lead is a lot less painful in the long run though

Not if your like potatoes.