You did make a valiant effort. I am no expert at the health situation but I think that drinking more wine would be just as effective and less expensive than all the luxury/rare items that you consumed. My approach was to stick with the staples (MEAT, VEG, WINE), then save the luxury consumption for the last few items of your quota if you still need a boost. 52 FOIE is quite decadent, hats off to you. 
I consume many of the luxury items mid-way as I was getting scared. Note that I still didn't make it, even though I (now wasted) a big amout of money. Did you have a brutal challenge too?
Does anyone know in which way the previously mentioned bugs affected the health challenge? Just wondering whether this is intentional that we need to spend 50$ on every health challenge.