Had plenty great, cheap stays in India at a low price point - a fairly recent stay in (the utterly beguiling) Hampi saw me staying in a nice, clean A/C room in a guesthouse, with breakfast, for Rs1600 ($26). With some negotiation, you could easily get down to half that for a non-A/C.

Food, well, you can get a decent veg thali for a couple of dollars. I didn't have a bad meal in that town.

Getting around is cheap, too. Hampi (well, Hospet) to Goa, for example, is as little as Rs235 ($3.90) in non-AC sleeper class (it's not overnight, but still).