Was the money cut in half once or twice?

According to Wikipedia, the prize money was cut in half twice and then the rest of it just decreased through time:

The entire show was filmed in only 5 days, as the total amount of money was cut in half twice and then decreased at such a rate as to make it impossible for the contestants to be stuck in the bunker "forever." The whole premise had a definite time limit of less than 8 full days.

But Tarah left with nearly $400,000 therefore the money could not have been cut in half twice. It was cut at the very start to around $700,000 and then the rest just decreased. So am I missing something here?

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